Reading + Spitalfields + Christmas Eve

We took the train to Reading last Friday where Fiona spent some time when she was 18 working at the Cavisham Girls School. It’s basically like Geelong, i.e. a hole, but we had a pretty cool day walking around the place. We met up with some of her old drinking mates from the pub, these people are serious drinkers, i kept up but just didn’t remember anything after the 3rd pint. Thankfully the pub was conveniently mere steps away from the train station and we successfuly stumbled home.

Sunday Week ago I went to Spitalfields Market which is in East London near Liverpool St. This is a renowned Sunday market in London that is similar to the Victoria Market, expect much smaller and with a better range. There were independent fashion stalls, second hand clothing, amazing food stalls (cheese, wine, pastries, fruits and vegies) which gave away free samples and a lot of people! Not everything is that cheap but it is a fun English Sunday tradition.
We have been fairly slack this past week. I’ve been in bed with the flu and Fiona has been nursing me to good health. One of those bitchy nurses that shoves pills down your throat and looks like she is going to beat you up if you don’t act right, but a lovely gesture nonetheless. We both went shopping in Oxford St which was madly populated by hordes of last minute shoppers and certainly not as fun as shopping at Chaddy on Christmas eve. The general christmas ambience is pretty special though, everywhere you look people are walking around with shopping bags and there are bells and carols all over the place. I love bells. We have a church right behind our apartment that has been doing 5 minute bell sessions that interrupt any activity that you are engaged in, including sleep. I love bells.

Christmas Eve we headed for Trafalgar Square for what we thought would surely be a major carols gathering. Wrong. We walked through SOHO and Covent Garden through streets alive with Christmas celebrants, arrive at Trafalgar Square and its empty. Well there were people there but it would’ve been a better carol service if it was empty. Maybe we were too early, but Trafalgar Square is not a carols destination. Suprising, yes. We decided to drown our sorrows at the local pub. Alas, food was no longer being served. The supermarket was also closed so we couldn’t buy food to take back to the apartment. All that was open was McDonalds and Burger King and I couldn’t find Turkey, Mash and Peas on their menus whatsoever.

Comments: 

Campbell (January 28th, 2005 at 7:09 pm)
Poor story, so lonely without any comments.