Oh, The Delays

The problems of not having internet access whenever, it's awful. Five days? I think that's the worst it's ever been. Maybe it's six now, I can't remember.

I found out that my scanning job that I was completing while updating last was only half of what had been left for me. I'm going to spend Monday scanning that in. That's a horrifying thought. It was bad enough. On Friday Emma and I took a trip to Kingston to stock up on paint and paint-rollers and wallpaper stripper. While shopping, it started to rain. And it rained properly. Heavily. I mean, it started pooling in the sheltered walkway we were in. Then the drains from below started spurting water, so Emma and I took refuge in Argos, where the same thing happened. The drain was spitting water onto the middle of the shop floor. I've never seen drains start pumping water upwards, it was shocking. The drive home was also slowed by the fact that Robin Hood gate was underwater by about forty centimetres, and so the traffic lights had failed.

The parking lot near Whitelands was under a metre of water, and at least two cars were flooded out. Apparently a Volvo was floating around Asda. Most of our road was also completely flooded, but my good old Peugeot held through, and the shortcut I took cut a lot of waiting time.

Ooh, I was a little distracted there (I stopped writing for about 40 minutes or so). Sorry, I'll continue.

After we returned, I cooked myself some ribs (with a bourbon BBQ drizzle, which was quite strong). Dan was on his way over, and begged for a lift, but the traffic was solid and despite his initial anger, he understood why I couldn't make it out. While he dried off briefly, and burnt his tongue on a very hot Kaori Curry, I cleaned up and the three of us, Dan, myself and Emma, went to Natasha's place for a housewarming party. It turned out that due to the flooding, we were the only ones to show up, even though we were slightly late due to the fact that we walked. But it was a very fun evening, where I met one of her flatmate's ex-boyfriends, who is a really nice guy. We watched some of Cruel Intentions, and we ate popcorn and discussed the benefits of not washing hands after using the toilet.

The three of us had a fun time, and after we walked home it was quiet enough to give Dan a lift back to his place. I felt bad, as I missed Weiwei's birthday party for it, and I'd really like to see her more before I go.

The day after, Saturday, we set about destroying the living room's decoration. We stripped the rest of the paper we hadn't taken off before, we went down to bare plaster in most of it, and we basically took it back to the 1950's mint green it was before it was papered and painted again. And since the students who have lived there for the past few years weren't proactive in decoration, we felt we'd really put the room back in time. We saw the huge crack in the kitchen dividing wall was more of a structural defect than a crack, and we'll set about filling it up soon. I went home to go online briefly, but it was brief (as in not enough time to update the blog proper). Emma and I had planned on going to central London for a week, and we really wanted to dance and party. But everyone that we'd asked had backed out apart from Kiwako, and she was already in central for a film. I gave Dan a bit of a hard time about it, because I thought it would have been great for him and Julia to meet some people and get some dancing out, especially after how much work they've gone through. But sadly, his excuses prevailed, and he didn't come along. We'd pretty much given up until a rogue text to Hosei received a reply. He was willing, and we instantly dashed towards central.

A kind lady gave us a travelcard when we approached the station, saving us about £5. We tubed it up all the way to Oxford Circus, where we met Hosei and a huge group of people at a pub near H&M. I met a girl called Yuko, who was from near where I stayed in Japan, and we exchanged Osaka stories until closing time, while Emma chatted with Hosei. Ki and Warren came half way through the evening after their film, and everyone in the group save Warren made along a route towards a club. The party was a goodbye party to someone I'd never met, nor did meet, called Hiro, as the group is from a Japanese teaching facility in London, that offers free lessons which I might partake in next year. Yuko is a teacher there. We all ended up at Bar 101, where I'd partied with Ki and Kyoko and Mizuki and Koji before, as it had free entry and free tissue (for earplug use). The music is never great there (though they played Galvanise), and Emma and I did the 'pointy thing'.

All the non Japanese guys still in the group were obviously in love with Yuko, and I watched them acting very pathetically around her. It was quite funny. No matter how desperate, I would not look like that. Since through most of the night Emma was distracted with an important conversation, I spent most of my dancing time dancing with Ki, and for a brief moment we went outside for a good old fashioned gossip. She was being pursued by a man trying to recruit a girlfriend for his boss, and whenever he showed up we made a humerous dash for the entrance/exit. Once back inside, I texted Emma in Japanese (and my dubious fluency impressed her enough to ask if I'd had help).

We started maing our way back, and after saying goodbye, it was just Emma, myself and Ki on the bus home. After getting to Putney, I drove Ki back to her place (with a stop off at Sainsbury's), and then Emma and I went to bed and collapsed. By then it was 4AM.

A note from Kaori for our return suggested that we leave at 11AM for a street festival (ref. Matsuri Festival). We laughed at this, but I sadly had to wake up at 12:15PM, and I was still tired, but operational. Emma and I trekked around trying to find a place to buy a bus pass, but eventually we took a bus to Hammersmith to buy one, costing us an extra £1.20 each. Great. But we took a variety of buses to Liverpool Street, which sadly seemed a but daunting to the tired Ki, who did not join us today.

We arrived after about two hours of bus travel, and various worries about directions, we arrived, and searched for the others waiting for us. It wasn't so much Matsuri as it was a market with art and a band and mostly Japanese people. But it was still fun and we still laughed and I enjoy the company greatly. We stopped for a sit down and some Indonesian food, and after we took a bus trip to one of Hosei's friend's house, and we hung out and chatted about bidets and rats. When it became late, we all made our journeys home, and it leaves me here. After getting back and having some cereal, I drove back to use the internet and check my downloads.

I have had some deep thoughts recently, but I'm really too tired to talk about them now. Sorry. Sometime I'll be able to update properly. The Univeristy Library flooded very badly and I think it's out of order, so no late night computer suite for now. I'll probably update again tomorrow, but for now, that's what's happened. Hope it was interesting. It was a difficult entry to make.