London trip! (long post but full of detail)

What a bland title for such a complex experience...


Monday morning, it hits half 7 and my phone starts buzzing and I know I have to get out of the warm haven that is bed and shower. The shower at James' can be quite unpredictable but thankfully it was warm and woke me up enough to feel confident that the day would go well.
By 8 we were both ready, I'd eaten an apple and James had decided to surface and walk with me to the train station even though he didn't need to be up so early, which was very lovely of him.
My train was delayed so we had to sit on the rather cold station chairs and wait. I got on the train, listened to music and made my way to London.
Met Alex at Leicester Square tube station and we headed off to see an exhibition by Noel Fielding which was in a cafe. Strange one that was but still worth a look. 
It's wonderful spending time with Alex, he has so many ideas that he just wants to share, knows so many things an has had and has still some amazing opportunities. 
We headed over to Green Park where there are a load of smaller galleries that have work for sale. Some of these are works by prolific people like Richard Hamilton that are going for about £65,000, others about £500 by the less well known but often (in my opinion) more aesthetically pleasing, artists.
I saw some genuinely inspiring work, and some totally pants stuff too; it's good to see the range though, and that terrible stuff can sell for £16,000. 
We headed to Subway for lunch, just because it was near and we were very hungry. Laughing at the fact they bother to sell side dishes. Who would want them? We chatted about music, as you do.
After visiting some more galleries I'd covered all those on my list for the day by about half 4 so we just headed back to his flat.
Due to it being "Email Monday" I just chilled out and listened to the snippets of information and ideas he was sharing. Charlie turned up after a meeting he'd had and we all just hung out as I learnt various things. These included the Chromaroma thing that Alex had signed up to. It's an online multiplayer game played through Oyster Cards. Also found out that Sugar wanted a photo of Charlie for a poster which he refused. Listened to some sneak previews of songs. (New Chameleon Circuit demos!) Also, a load of other things I cannot share because even though no-one really reads this, I don't want to spread all over the internet because they're things that you tell friends and not everyone.
Anyway, we were all starving and there was no food in the flat so we headed off to the Tesco nearby.
A very odd shopping experience as I've never shopped with anyone who doesn't go for the bargains and only buys one carton of juice even when they're on offer. (Not BOGOF just 2 for £3 and one costs £1.80 sort-of-thing!)
While Charlie cooked us tea, Alex and I played Buzz. I failed miserably as I'm just not quick enough and make silly mistakes. Pasta, red pesto, and peas was a delicious tea as we watched a documentary I think was called 'Evangelical Right'. It was a mix of extremely interesting, disturbing, educational and funny. In some aspects downright scary and in others exasperating.
Followed up with some Wii time where I failed at Wii sports and gradually got better at Super Smash Bros Brawl until I even reached the point where it was just me against Charlie (Alex and the CPU were out) and it was 1:1 lives. Unfortunately, as I fail at computer games, and Charlie actually knew what he was doing, I lost.
The inflatable mattress I slept on was way comfortable.

I forgot to film properly in the NeriCoolikeLocation... which is a fail on my part.
I read Pick Me Up in the morning and we set out to see some more Art about 11.
We hit up the bigger galleries on Tuesday by starting at the TATE Modern. I got to see some Francis Bacon, the Sunflower Seeds and some other great things. We headed to a competition gallery that we'd been flyer'd for and on the Millennium Bridge we saw Ben Wilson (the guy who paints on chewing gum) working. I managed to film him chatting to another guy about his work and that'll probably show up in a video of mine and perhaps Alex's as I sent him the footage too. We headed to the Oxford Street area and found this genuinely lovely cafe in which I had a fantastic chicken, bacon, avocado and cranberry "french burger" and was asked by the waiter why I don't like cheese.
We went to the V&A to see the 'Shadow Catchers' exhibition which is photography by 5 artists, done without a camera, just a range of different treated papers and exposure techniques. What you see is the original and only photo. Just awe inspiring.
Saatchi rounded off out gallery visits and because we had about 2 hours spare we headed to Harrods.
A genuinely wonderful London experience that shop is. Alex spent ages looking at shoes (because he's been wearing slippers recently) and ended up (after lots of thought and advice) buying some Ugg shoe/slippers that are black and some GUCCI velcro shoes which were just because he doesn't have anything remotely waterproof otherwise! On the way out we met some American students who, headed by a girl called Crystal, had been looking for Alex and/or Charlie for 3 months. We chatted to them for ages and they were so lovely!
To the station, food and another delayed train home got me to Preston just after the time my 'Last-Train-to-Lancaster' should have left. It was late and Rach from SSAGO was there and then I was in Lancaster and James was there and I was so tired and we walked home and he had a sausage sandwich and we fell asleep.

Normality resumed on Wednesday when we had a lie in, went shopping, lazed around and ate and watched a film. We watched Drop Dead Gorgeous on iPlayer and it was cheesy and hilarious and pretty good actually even though some of the characters were a bit obnoxious.


Today, I'm back on the internet for the first time since Sunday. I've watched GLEE and adored the Singing in the Rain bit with Mike and Mr Shue.

Going to catch up with youtube for a bit, after lunch work hard, check my post and work some more, maybe watch SJA. Afterwards it'll be tea time and then GREG DAVIES doing comedy in town.

Looking forward to it.

Hope you liked hearing my adventure... stay tuned for more random Liz.