The thought of commuting now makes my blood run rather chilly and I am definitely out of touch with the London 'scene'.
Yesterday however, I found myself London bound for Lynsey-Lou's belated 40th celebration. My Uni girls are some of the most glamorous of my friends (no offence meant to anybody else!). I therefore togged myself up in the compulsory LBD and high heels and headed off. I'm not self-conscious by nature but being dolled up to the nines at 3pm at St. Albans station, I did feel a little out of place. The fast train was changed from platform 1 to platform 3 and back again which meant my feet hurt before I'd even got out of the Shire. No matter, tis the price one pays for glamour. I comforted myself with the thought that Clare wore her 5 inch Louboutins to work without complaining every day so I could therefore manage one day of blisters. Clare told me when I arrived, limping, to the hotel, that apparently nobody in London actually wears their high heels to travel around in and that I should've teamed my frock with a pair of trainers for the tube. I'm so officially outmoded these days. I also hadn't accounted for the wind tunnels you get in the tube which gave me a little bit of a Marilyn Monroe situation with my short floaty dress. It did bother me that both my old muckers immediately asked if I was wearing underwear during this occurrence. How badly behaved was I at Uni? I have absolutely no idea as the three years have just amalgamated into one long alcoholic-fug.
Somehow, with a four-year-old and a three-month-old baby, Clare still has her finger firmly on the pulse of where are THE places one has to be seen in London. As the weather was so nice, we ended up on the terrace of 'Aqua', overlooking Regent Street. We did what we normally do on a night out and the four of us put £20 each into a kitty. We then decided we would drink the cheapest bottle of champagne...which was £72 on the menu. When we ordered it (at the bar, after a 10 minute wait), we were charged £81.56. Apparently there was a £9.56 service charge for us hanging around at the bar to be served... It was the shortest-lived kitty that immediately went into negative equity. Owch.
We were therefore truly over-excited when we got to the next bar and the champagne was 'cheap' at £55 a bottle. Woo-hoo! Clare was saying that she didn't even think about the prices of things these days as she was so used to London living. I was thinking that I had no idea how I used to afford to drink in town every night of the week. Although it was in the days before kids sucked you dry of every last penny. ;-)
Lynsey had bought me an early birthday present for my oh-so-important 37th birthday next week. I was lacking in present for her belated 40th however. We probably could have glossed over the fact if I then hadn't left her kind present and card in the bar when I left! Yikes! How ungrateful can you get? When I texted to confess she said she would buy me champagne next year and then I could enjoy it and neck it before I left. She definitely knows the way to my heart.
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