A great escape

So I failed at staying in on Wednesday night. as Pratik pointed out to me oh so quickly as I marched out the door. "YOUR BLOG LIES!" Yah. I lied. I went out. So Notting Hill Arts Club is free entry on Wednesday nights because it is college night. And usually you would pay 8 pounds to go. AND we got to go visit our favorite waiter at our favorite tequila bar along the way. What is not to love? We heard a pretty great band called Joker and the Thief--this is NOT the song by the Australian band Wolfmother, but rather the band's name. Their sax player was incredible. It was hot and sweaty and a great time in this grimy little basement building. Drinks were ridiculously overpriced, but, having celebrated Spain's victory (VICTORY) properly at the bar after the game, its not like we really needed to buy any. So to David Villa, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fábregas, Andrés Iniesta, Puyol, Silva, Xavi, and the crew, I say make a delicious screwdriver out of big ole Orange Juice and have your fun. :)

Then came Thursday. I woke up (I had Alex set an alarm to wake me up at 7 when we got back from Notting Hill Arts Club the night before and he actually did, so thank you!) I didn't actually have to go to work in the morning because I was going to meet my boss at Liverpool train station at 1:30, so I wanted to go to the gym. Which I did do :) I ran, worked out my legs, and then headed home for a nice shower. After that I made breakfast (eggs) and then sat down to contact a bunch of online and print sources in Jersey (England, not the state) to blast a press release about an upcoming gig one of the bands have there. After I did that, I got dressed and headed out to meet Julia at the station (picking up lunch on the way). I took the tube to Liverpool and met her inside the train station, where we got an hour long train to Braintree, where we got a 20 minute cab to High Barn (all paid for by the company I work for, of course). Today wasn't so much going to be work as it was a "field trip," as Julia called it. Since I was working on promoting and managing the business of these bands, Julia thought it was a good idea that I meet some of them. I had already met Nick, so she was taking me to the studio where the Mediaeval Baebes are recording their latest album for the theater show they are producing. It was a pretty great day. I met all of the girls, one of whom is also a solo artist that we represent, and hung out in this beautiful slice of the English countryside for an afternoon. High Barn is a beautiful mediaeval barn that is about 800 years old set in the middle of this enormous field with a few buildings immediately around it. The buildings have been converted into office space for Andy and the other administrators of the place. They are very homy on the outside and very modern studio looking on the inside--something I really didn't expect when I first walked into his office. The barn itself has been kept pretty barn-esque (with the exception that it now has electricity, tables, and some other fixings. The overall structure of the building is relatively the same in the main area. But there has been added onto the outside a soundproof recording room, a sound booth, and a dining hall area. The girls were recording from inside the main barn area (gave them the kinda ambiance of the album and also had AMAZING acoustics) and Julia and I sat in the sound booth with Richard. Who was awesome. He is a musician who comes to High Barn from where he lives in London in a camper van, camps out there for a couple days at a time, and writes music and records there. FOR FREE. See, High Barn hasn't hired anyone to run their electrical equipment for whenever bands come in to record, so Richard does the work for free and in return gets to record for free. I think its a pretty sweet deal on both sides. So yah. Then Julia decided to go outside and bask in the sunlight for a little while...did I mention this place was absolutely gorgeous? As much as I love London, it was nice to get out for a day just to the countryside and be out of the smog. And I do love London, don't get me wrong...

tanget: the other day I found myself online looking up real estate prices for various areas in London and transfer policies to universities here just to see how feasible it would be (for Radhi in Wonderland) to move here and finish up university here (and of course work here while doing that cause pretty sure mom and dad would not be too thrilled with this little fantasy plan of mine). Turns out not so feasible....London is a very expensive city. Alas. Maybe someday. Maybe Barcelona. Maybe somewhere else. But maybe someday.

Back to Thursday: So Julia and I eventually decided it was time to say goodbye to the girls and head back to London. So we got a minicab back to the Braintree train station, took the hour long train back to London (during which I read the paper and then passed out) and then parted ways. I took the tube back to Gloucester Road and came home. I ordered a pizza--I was mad hungry, we had no groceries, and I was too tired to go to Sainsbury's to buy food. Then I sat in bed ridiculing myself for even contemplating a 10th night out. Some people can handle that. I'm not one of them. So I decided against it. But I was going a little stir crazy. I was getting cabin fever from just being inside and the fact that nobody was in the Crofton--or at least it felt that way--and Jen was going to bed and I have been in some sort of weird funk where half the time I don't even know what I'm thinking. So I decided to go for a little late night walk. As I was on my way out I ran into Shahar, who decided to come along. This ended up being one of the best decisions we have made all week. Maybe even since Edinburgh. We just had a chance to talk about whatever was on our minds. And I like talking to Shahar. She is easy to talk to and above all she is a great listener. She is one of those people who when you start talking about something, she doesn't feel the need to respond with a "I totally know how you feel" or interrupt you with a "oh well thats like one time when this thing happened to me." She lets you have out with whatever you are trying to say. And then, if you need feedback, she will give it to you. Otherwise she will just listen to you. Sometimes thats really all that is needed. Someone to listen. So I laid it on her....although I can barely even remember what exactly I told her, pretty sure I was being rather incoherent (sorry Shahar) and then I let her talk out what she needed to. We saw a big shiny palace-esque building that was all lit up with christmas lights, so we decided to go check it out. Turns out it was a MASSIVE Harrod's department store: disappointment. We kept walking...I don't think either one of use were really ready to go back to the Crofton for a while. So we eventually passed by this Lebanese restaurant and we both saw hookahs there, so we decided to go inside and ask if we could smoke shiesha. We ended up sitting there for like an hour just unwinding and smoking amidst a babble of arabic (pretty sure they were talking about the two weird foreign girls who were obnoxious and speaking english). This one guy kept laughing just this big hearty laugh that made me laugh every time I heard it. It was kinda contagious like that...which was nice. People should laugh out loud more. And smile more. Goal: Smile at people when I walk down the street instead of ignoring them. I don't care if they think I'm weird.

Anywho. After a little while (and I mean a long while) Shahar finally worked up the courage to ask for the check. You see, after we walked in they had turned up the "closed" sign, but told us we were fine to stay. Then we sat outside and the staff came out to what clearly looked like wind down for the day, as in after hours. But then some people came in and were served anyways. I feel like it was one of those restaurants that have regulars and rarely any other customers so its never really closed until there is nobody there. So yah, we were a bit intimidated by all of the arabic but we got our check and finally had to head back to the Crofotn because we both had work in the morning. Although we were highly tempted to go pass out in Hyde Park....which would have been glorious. It's been a weird week....but it was a good night. People continue to amaze me. Neither good nor bad. I guess I should say they continue to surprise me. I'm not sure that's quite the right word either. London...I still have a month left here and I am already starting to miss you. I am going to take in as much as I possibly can in the next month. It would be absurd not to.

Radhi