I'm in my bathing suit!!! Yes, it's a heat wave in London and the hospitals are on alert. It's wonderful. I wanted to be in my bathing suit before the end of June but I thought it would be somewhere nearer the Mediterranean and not in England, but yesterday I went swimming and read in the sun for a while... it was almost too hot at times when there was no breeze. Anyway, let me start from the beginning, when I last left you.
Sunday was a nice and relaxing day. I finished my book, Eat, Pray, Love, and went to Hampstead to find another book. I found two books that looked interesting. One was a detective novel that takes place in Turkey and Venice. The other was about Guenica, Basque country and the Luftwaffe bombings. Both were interesting so I read a bit of the beginning to see which appealed to me more. I read some of the detective novel and was intrigued but the first page I opened to in Guernica said "Guenica; Dave Boling is a journalist in Washington state, USA. This is his first novel." Well, that answered that. I don't think the gal who sold it to me was quite as excited as I was to find a book by someone from Washington state while in London. But I get excited about odd things. Anyway, I bought the book then went to the other end of town to get baking supplies to make Snickerdoodle cookies for my birthday (Monday). I came back just in time to have the sandwich I bought and then leave again for dancing with Gabby and other CSers at Guanabara, a Brazilian club in London. We got there at 7 and watched the end of the forró dance competition. It was fun to watch and after about 30 minutes of free dance (Gabby, the other CSers and myself just watching in awe) we heard over the speakers "BRAZIL, BRAZIL, BRAZIL... (echo-like)" and the dancers slowly got off the dance floor and projected onto the screen behind them was a football match. No, not just any football match, the Confederation Cub Brazil-US match. So, there was two hours of saying I'm Australian (I had a few people going, too!) and trying to not cheer for the US. We scored at 10m and 27m but then Brazil scored just after halftime and then twice more, so we lost 2-3. Honestly, there was one bad call so maybe it should have been 2-4 but either way, we lost. Apparently it was amazing that we got as far as we did. Three hours, two caipirinhas and one bowl of garlic and red pepper spiced olives (soaked in olive oil... yummy) later, they began dancing again. Forró is a lot of fun to watch and a lot of fun to dance if you know what you are doing or have a good dance partner. I danced with a few guys who represented the spectrum of good and not good leaders. It was all fun, though. Toward the end of the night, one guy asked me to dance but kept catching me looking at my feet and told me to look at his eyes instead or at least look up and try to feel where he wants me to go, not watch his feet. Well, that's better than being asked if I would kindly allow him to lead me (like I was told my first time at Tito's). He was a great dancer and just as the club was closing and we were still dancing, I frantically asked him if it was past midnight. He looked at his watch and said it was 6 minute til and I told him it was almost my birthday. We kept dancing and when they closed at midnight, he went to the DJ and had him announce me a happy birthday. My first birthday wishes on my birthday! I knew it would be a great birthday from then on! Bruno and I went for cappuccino (yes, at midnight- he said it how he celebrates birthdays with his friends) and then we took the same bus back, realizing he lives about 10 minute walk from Grant's. We took a detour and went to Parliment Hill to see London at night and made plans for me to visit him on his lunch break the next day for a birthday lunch!
Monday, my 25th birthday (which had started already fantastically!), I began by making the cookie batter for Snickerdoodles so it could chill while I went to lunch with Bruno. I learned that 1 part Baking Soda and two parts Cream of Tartar makes the same as Baking Powder. Who knew? I thought I made a costly mistake in the baking soda/powder/cream of tartar part of the recipes (going between two recipes is just disastrous but one was from Mom and the other was a UK recipe (for the American cookie) so I figured they would use ingredients you can find here (I never did find cream of tartar). Anyway, I got it all sorted out. I put the batter to chill and took the London Overground to meet Bruno for a market lunch, which ended up being just cherries but it was worth it. Fun to see a funkier part of town, very eclectic and gritty. When he went back to school (work), I wandered town for a bit and bought some watermelon (that I will eat just after I post this!) and a new toothbrush (my birthday gift to myself!) and, of course, a white chocolate hazelnut Ritter Sport bar. Yum. Back at Grant's, I made cookies and thought they were the best ever, which they were, fresh from the oven at least. I met Grant and others at Games Night in Central London and discovered my cookies had turned rock hard. There were a few soft-ish ones, but there were many (joking, but serious) comments to watch out for your teeth so they don't break and teasing comments like that (I was making them, too). Andy brought Blamange, a sort of creamy, strawberry, pepto-colored jell-o-type pudding. It was good. Not everyone thought so, but after two 568mL (that comes to just over a litre, folks) of Bulmers, anything will taste good (except my rock cookies). After my two Bulmers, being drug out by my hair (almost literally) by Grant ('there are two hungry Irish people waiting outside for us!'- was that meant to reference the Irish potatoe famine or was it just in my head, Grant?), we went to Wagamama (a noodle bar) where, when told the kitchen was about to close, Grant assured her that 'we will eat so fast you won't even see us.' We ordered whatever our fingers pointed to and we didn't really know what we got until it came, we ordered in such a rush. It was really good though. After we (we being me after two Bulmers) sang a round of 'Magica Emi', we parted ways from the friendly Irish and Grant took me back to Hampstead (about a 20 minute cab ride) in Black Cab fashion. It was my first black cab in London and it was so much better than the bus or tube. Nothing against public transport, but it was a nice treat for my birthday. Back at his house, he showed me photos of his adventures and I must have felt something because at precisely 00:35 (12:35 am to Americans!) I looked at the clock and realized it was my birth minute! I was born at 16:35 Pacific time on the 29th, which is 00:35 in London on the 30th. So I celebrated my birth minute that didn't fall on my birthday. Haha. Took some explaining to get people to understand it (not really important, but small trivial things that I love!) but I got to celebrate it, well, recognize it, at least. It was a great birthday.
Tuesday, Grant and I met up with the Irish gal from dinner and went swimming in the duck-shit-infested mixed swimming pond (they also have separate men's and women's ponds) at Hampstead Heath. It was fun, if you forget the ducks and duck shit you're swimming with. After coming back and showering (soap is a must), we had some tea, everyone left and I went back to the Heath to read in the sun. My 85 SPF sunscreen has done the trick and I don't think I got too burned. Bruno joined me when he got off from rehearsal and we just hung out and chatted until we had catch to the tube to go meet our respective friends. I went to The Couch again to meet CSers for drinks and then we went out to another bar (some close at 11, like The Couch, and some close later) but it was too loud to hear anyone and I was getting tired, so I found a bus that, theoretically, comes every 10-15 minutes after midnight, but I am positive I waited 20-30 minutes for it. I saw too many other buses go by before my #24 bus came for me. Luckily, since it's a heat wave in London (only 2 degrees Celsius cooler than Barcelona, someone said!) it wasn't cold at all past midnight and I was fine in a light jumper (sweater), skirt and sandals. If I had known the bus would take so long, I would have taken the tube (but it costs nearly twice as much) but by the time I realized how long it was taking, the tubes were almost closed and I knew if I left to see if there was one last one I could catch, the bus would come just after I left.
I got back around 1am and since staying at Grant's, my new alarm clock has been the kettle when he makes tea for us in the morning. Today, I didn't hear any kettle, but I woke up to the sounds of Velcro (on Grant's ankle brace from when he injured it walking last week) downstairs and when I looked at the clock to see it was past 10, I went downstairs to find him getting ready to walk out the door, late, because he slept through his alarm. I said goodbye and then went back to bed. I am going over to Bruno's to watch a Brazil football game tonight that is being played in Brazil. He said the telenovelas (like our soap operas) are such a big thing there that they don't change their time slots for anything, even football. So matches can't start before 9:45p which is 2:45a here. Anyway, I'm off to buy some bagels and top up my phone.
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