What had initially been billed as two nights in London turned into three. This time it was purely my fault, although once again it actually turned out for the best.
On Thursday afternoon I travelled down to meet up with Sammi to discuss travel plans. At Stourbridge station I ran into Raj who was standing on the platform with five Canadians. I asked what he was doing and he replied that he was off to London, so we ended up travelling together. It turns out the Canadians were visiting friends, and they were planning a sightseeing day in the city, but with no prior knowledge or a guidebook, it soon became apparent that I knew the locations well enough to provide a tour itinerary. It was really quite lucky that I managed to run into Raj, as in a week’s time he heads to New Zealand for a year and it seems unlikely I would have had a chance to catch up with him before he went. Quite a stroke of luck.

After meeting Sammi in Topman on Oxford Street, we caught up over lunch then went to STA to figure out what the travel plan is. It looks like that we’ve finally decided that we will be doing two separate trips – the first will be to Nepal, Tibet and North India for a month. We will then go our separate ways for the next four weeks while she goes to Malaysia and I go back home (or something) and then we meet again in Lima, Peru, travelling the Inca Trail, through Bolivia and into Brazil, flying home from Rio. I’m really looking forward to it now.

Afterwards I dropped in at the Regent St Apple store (it’s been expanded since I last went) and then headed out Ruislip way. Usually when I come down to London I let quite a few people know so that I can meet up with friends Ive not seen in a while, but as I’d planned to make a short stop I hadn’t contacted everyone I usually would, so it was with total surprise when I ran into Platty coming through the turnstiles as I got off at Uxbridge. After a quick catch up (where there was surprisingly little gloating about the Ashes, which were in their final throes) I met with Devito for a couple of pints before going to see Night at the Museum.

After getting half the cinema staff got involved in a discussion about what I should do with my holdall (apparently it’s a fire restriction, but they can’t accept responsibility for looking after it) they finally let us in and got to see the film, which was pretty funny, light hearted stuff with some good names. Thankfully the plot wasn’t too taxing as neither of us would have been able to cope.

After getting home we watched quite a lot of Only Fools and Fast Show before putting on British wedding comedy, Confetti. I’d been wanting to see it for ages and I can’t say I was disappointed.

We woke mid morning and then went off to meet Swan at Liverpool Street. We then look the bus to Stoke Newington and met with Duffy, James (his housemate) and Emma before playing a few card games and burning myself repeatedly while cooking pizzas.

We took the bus to Old Street (Shoreditch) and found a couple of bars to while away the early night (cocktails etc) before making our way to Herbal. This had been on the recommendation of James – a new club with a funky house night – or at least that was what it was meant to be. As we approached the door, the formidable looking bouncer (like Mr T had lost his chains) asked us if we knew “...what is happening in here tonight?” When we looked at him blankly he said, “You don’t know what’s going on tonight”. Apparently it was looking a little odd that six pasty white kids had turned up at for a hip-hop night on a club just off Brick Lane. We headed to another place called Cargo.

Ten pounds to get in is pretty standard fare in London and it turned into a pretty awesome night. I’m not really sure what the music was, but it was live and good enough to dance to. We tried to get on the stage (Devito tried several times) but got shoved off by the bouncer who clearly thought the only people up there should be the DJ and the MC.

After arriving back in the flat we were joined by some random neighbour-girl of Duffy’s who no one can remember anything about or why exactly she was there.

In the morning we headed down the road to a greasy spoon for a killer fry up. Unfortunately it nearly did kill James and I don’t think it did me a massive favour either. It started to rain, and I got on the tube to Clapham North.

Butts and Brown have moved from Clapham Junction to a more central location and it was great to catch up, see what they are working on and hear some more stories (some of the best stories are written in Clapham). It was only after an hour of talking that Butts suggested I check my train times. It turned out that I’d missed them; all of them. We went to get some food at a pizza place off the Common (we were going to go to a Thai place, but Butts couldn’t find it) and after we headed over to The Fountain (?) for a couple of beers and to be accosted by ‘The Claphamites’, girls only too willing to believe that Rich works at a Dolphin sanctuary.

Butts and I stayed up swapping ideas until about 3am and arranged to wake at around 11am in order for me to get to Marylebone. As with all return train journeys, my escape was (partially) thwarted and I had to change to get to Paddington and therefore missed my train again. Thankfully an hour later another train was leaving so I caught that instead and after a quick sleep I was home.

There is plenty to be keeping me occupied this next week…