Plans

[raven]

It was dark. It was chilly. The air was humid and the ground was hard. We had climbed twenty-six kilometres in a little over twelve hours, and the world was pitching and I couldn't see from tiredness, and Mani had survived all of the above on three days without food. I said, "If you could have anything in the world right now, what would you have?"

"Pizza," she said instantly. "With goat's cheese and spinach with caramelised onion."

"Where does that?"

Dreamily: "Pizza Express."

I took a deep breath and tried not to fall over. "If," I said, "if we get out of this, I'll take you to lunch in Liverpool, and we'll have it. If we ever make it out of here alive."

We got out alive. Today I went into the city to meet a hungover Mani (she's a brand-new Liverpool medic and consequently somewhat pickled) at Central for said pizza with spinach, goat's cheese and caramelised onions. Well, it wasn't quite that simple. It had to be a Pizza Express and no other restaurant, of course - we swore on it that night, and like everything else that happened that night it acquired a semi-mythical status - and I was pretty sure that there was one in Liverpool, but had no idea exactly where. So we wandered around looking for it for an hour and a half, occasionally asking people -

"We should ask the locals!" Mani said cheerfully.

"I AM A LOCAL!" I yelled back -

and I kicked myself for not looking it up before we left the house, and after a bit it became a brand new quest. In the end I rang up jacinthsong and somehwat shamefacedly admitted that I'm hopelessly lost in my home city, please send help. She did, bless her, and I survived to get lost another day.

We found the place off by the pier head somewhere, and as Mani said, it's possible to blow a thing out of proportion when you've made odysseys through Kashmir and Merseyside to find it, but it actually is that good. Mmmm, cheese. Mmm, onions. Mmm, being the only people in the place so the service is impeccable. Mmm.

After that we went to Primark and bought jumpers and multi-coloured tights. It was great fun, and also great fun to see Mani again. She told me she'd stolen my toothpaste while I was in Berlin, which took away some lingering doubts about my own sanity. (The thing is, you just can't admit to the fact you think someone's stolen your toothpaste. You can't. It's in the same league as the aliens are sucking my brainwaves or I'm secretly the last of the Romanovs.)

Happily for me, my delusions have a grounding in fact. And I now own a brand new squishy jumper and a pair of pink tights, so basically I win.

Despite this rather lengthy preamble, this is a housekeeping post of sorts, as life's doing that thing where it changes and I'm about to get very busy.

First of all: that is it with me and ficathons, I'm afraid. I no longer have the time and energy to chase people, so while I will continue to keep an eye on hawkfromhandsaw, there's a point where I can't be on people's backs, you know?

Second of all, this is my last week up north, and I'm pretty busy for most of it. I really wanted to go to St Andrews to see hathy_col, but I can't and am in a stomping huff about it, as I could've, maybe, just about managed it in the time I have left - but trains are £80 and coaches utterly useless. I'd have also liked to go to Nottingham to see amchau, but I don't think I can do that either. I'm more or less stuck here.

My cousin Munna is back in the country, this time for a year, so I'm going to London on Thursday to see her and help her unpack her flat, and on Saturday, I have to sit the LSAT. Oh my god. Yeah. Resolutely not thinking about that. I'm back in the dreaming spires on Sunday of noughth week, all ready to face the last Michaelmas of my life. That's the plan, anyway. Oh dear.

About that: I'm not living in the same place as last year. I now live at the top of tower 6, in a pretty room with large windows that looks out over the Master's Field, so I'm quite pleased about that. My address is still my Balliol one, though.

And that's that. It's been a good summer, I think.

Comments

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

That is my best pizza ever. No joke. Jealous now.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* It is the best £6.85 I have ever spent.

[zeta-of-s.livejournal.com]

Err, I don't know if this makes a difference, but you can get the train to St. Andrews and back for £36 (and that's without a railcard: it's £23.80 if you have one).

If you go here (http://nationalrail.co.uk) and search for journeys from Liverpool to Leuchars leaving on the 26th to arrive by 18.00 and returning on the 27th after 15.00, it'll bring up a 10.57 departure from Liverpool, and a 15.44 departure from Leuchars, both of which you can get for £18 (there's also a return at 06.51 for the same price).

The website is being slightly erratic at the moment, so they might not necessarily come up, but if you try a few times it should work.

Umm, anyway, I hope that helps -- I know Colleen would be very happy if you could be there.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ack, I'm sorry, I should have replied before - I do appreciate you doing the research for me. The problem is I need to be in London for Sept 26th, so I couldn't come for the party anyway, and coming sooner is less notice and so more expensive.

[zeta-of-s.livejournal.com]

Umm, I should probably confess that I didn't actually do the research for you: I'd already done the hours of trawling through websites to work out whether I could go myself, and then when I read your post I was sure I remembered it being cheaper.

... But your version of events makes me sound better, so forget I said that.

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

...that is the pizza of OMG

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

oh, yeah. *vbg*

[tau_sigma]

Website erraticness is mentioned above, so I shall add my three pennorth (...how on Earth does one spell that?): GNER website is sometimes erratic, Virgin always messes me about; best bet (I find) is to try nationalrail.co.uk, if what they have is cheaper than what a train company is offering you, refresh until you get offered the cheap one. There is no rhyme nor reason, I swear.

I wanted to go too, and can't, which is terribly sad-making. *sigh*

Anyway. Good luck with the LSAT (now that I know what it is, oh goodness); you are WIN and joy and will no doubt do well. Good luck, though.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Hey, I know this is belated, but I just wanted to say best of, uh, retroactive luck on the LSAT! I'm sure you did fabulously. I expect to see you at Harvard next year. :D