Daytripper

So, Hannah and I went to London yesterday. Much fun. Well, that was the idea; it didn't seem all that likely when I dragged myself out of bed and attempted walking. It's amazing how difficult a process walking is, if you think about it. You have to put your entire body weight onto a surface area less than half a metre squared, you have to lift the other foot, bend it, move it forwards, hold your balance throughout the entire procedure, place your entire body weight onto the opposing limb and start again. All in less than a second. No wonder I was falling all over the place. My mother said nothing until she saw me go down stairs, at which point she decided this whole trip was a very bad idea. I managed to persuade her otherwise, carefully sitting down while I did so, and I eventually got going.

Hannah was there at Lime Street, so we equipped ourselves with sandwiches and newspapers and off we went. The trip was just supposed to be a day trip, something fun post-exams, and while we were on the train, I dozed off to try and kill a headache (one seething mass of ailments, me) while Hannah made a list of Things To Do. I had a couple of errands to run, which went on the list, and the first of them was in Covent Garden, so that's where we went. The Piccadilly Line reopened yesterday, and I was amused to note the defiant announcements every few minutes that service is good, thank you very much. My fascination with the Underground continues unabated, but it probably wasn't the best place in the world for an Asian person carrying a big bag, at least not yesterday. We saw several people being questioned and searched by police, and I was paranoid people were looking at me askance, but perhaps that's just my paranoia. I suppose suicide bombers have tended to be male, I don't know.

Covent Garden was very nice indeed, because the weather was lovely and there were lots of people about. I took my watch to the Fossil shop, as it's never worked, and they repaired it in front of my eyes, which I found very impressive. I had one more errand to run in Regent Street, and then we went to Camden as planned. And that is always nice; but I was really suffering by then, so I sat down on a wall by the lock and sort of took in the ambience. Hannah had by that point persuaded me to buy shoes. They're red leather with black cats on the toes, and it probably made no sense at all to buy shoes with one foot heavily bandaged in crepe, but I'm still pleased. Hannah then proceeded to take a picture of me on the bridge, which is marked by the fact you can actually see I'm tilted on one foot.

In short, it was something of a strange day because all the places I like walking through were a problem. I was also aware I was garnering polite stares, but Hannah did help me with stairs and trains and all the other things that would otherwise have involved me making an idiot of myself. But that said, it was a beautiful day, very sunny, spent doing lots of fun things and finished off lying in Leicester Square, staring at the sky. Amazingly enough, the public transport we were relying on was fine all day; there were no alerts, no delays, and even the main line trains were on time.

Hannah spent much of the way back playing with her digital camera settings, and taking pictures of me. For some reason, she always takes pictures of me when I'm tired and/or brooding, which makes for some rather spooky pictures. One of them in particular came out well; it's got me, face mostly hidden, my reflection, the darkness of the glass and the lights rushing past behind me. An interesting note to end on, I think.

Today, I am exhausted from yesterday's limping, and not allowed to walk anywhere. This is probably an excuse to stay in all day and not do anything.