During winter months, frankly speaking, it's tough to get out and about and want to enjoy blustery UK weather. The cold here just doesn't feel the same as in other places where we have lived--it chills you to the bone, especially if the weather is cloudy and windy.
One of such Saturdays at the end of February we got to spend in London. The weather forecast was promising, but when we arrived at 10 am to King's Cross, we were blown away by how cold it was...brrr... The reason why we came to London to begin with was for Katya to meet with all her "sisters" from the movie she was involved in back in December. The girls have become good friends, but because most of them live in different parts of the country, it's logistically difficult for them to meet up. London is probably the easiest place. But we didn't have to meet at the restaurant till noon, so for a couple of hours we decided to explore Chinatown as it was the weekend of the Chinese New Year.
Chinatown is within walking distance of Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden area. It was all decorated for celebrations, but unfortunately, nothing really was open at 10:30 am.
You can see a number of trucks on the street unloading their goodies. I am sure it would be a hopping place at night.
We found a quick bite to eat at one of the cafes. It was yummy sweet buns. But the boys were not satisfied. They were convinced that there has to be a place that sells balls made of octopus--TAKOYAKI. It was their favorite treat to get at many Japanese festivals back in the day. We searched and searched all the open shops and vendors and finally found a stand where a girl made them for us as we waited. Yum! (but not as fantastic as in Japan). Katya just had seaweed.
It was almost noon, so Katya and I walked over to Jamie Oliver's restaurant where we were meeting the girls. Robert and the boys headed over to Kensington area to explore the Science Museum which is free.
Fast forward three hours (nothing special happened:)).
Katya and I headed to King's Cross planning to meet the rest of the family to take the 16:40 train back home as we had a friends' dinner to attend. We got to the train station shortly before 16:30, found the train, found seats for us, happy to know that we'd be sitting down this time all the way home (sometimes the trains are too crowded and we have to stand on the way back from London). Well...we had three minutes before the train was supposed to depart and still no boys in sight. I had been texting Robert to tell him where the train was, where we were sitting, etc....but got no response. When the train was about to leave, Katya and I decided to hop off the train rather than go home on our own (with no car keys..and actually no train tickets). It was not until 16:45 that Robert and the boys came running into the station huffing and puffing. Apparently, some regular tube entrances at Kensington were closed because of overcrowding, so they had to walk extra distance to find one that was open. PLUS waiting for the train and 20 minute ride...basically they didn't expect getting to King's Cross to last that long. And of course, the whole time they couldn't receive my texts as they were underground. So yeah..we had to wait an extra 40 minutes for our next rain at17:30, but at least we were together.
Here you go! Post about semi-regular life (minus the fact that we got to go to London).
Lyana.
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