London - Day 1

So the morning had arrived. Finally I was going to meet my very good friend Laney. My daughter dropped me at the station at 09:40 and I caught the train at 10am for Charing Cross. I was a little nervous about travelling across London on the tube on my own, with 2 changes to make, but it turned out I needn't have worried 'cos it was actually really easy to get from one to another. I was also excited. Excited about meeting this mad woman who had befriended me 2 years ago and with whom I had made an instant connection.

A couple of texts during the journey kept us each informed of the others progress, and my final text from Laney was as I exited the tube station at my destination. I rang her to say I was just a few minutes away from the B&B and she said she would come down and meet me. So I set off, dragging my suitcase behind me, rumbling along on it's wheels.

How I wish I hadn't packed enough to last a whole week! Truth be told, I hadn't packed that many clothes, but a girl has to have a choice of shoes, and boots, and make up; and how can you travel without a hairdryer and hair straighteners? Then there was the camera, in it's bag, with an extra lens which I had packed inside my suitcase.

As I walked, I was keeping an eye out for Laney. Would I recognise her? This was London and it was a busy road. After just a short while, I spotted her across the road, quite a way down, but I knew it was her. I crossed over and we just threw our arms round each other and hugged. It was amazing to finally be standing there, on the same spot together. We started chatting straight away, about the journey up and the room at the B&B.

"It's on the top floor" said Laney, "and it's small"

She wasn't kiddin'. We reached the front door, and in we went. I was absolutely exhausted, having rushed from station to station, carrying my suitcase up and down half the tube station steps in London. 54 stairs later, I dropped my case and just flopped on the bed. Laney, bless her, made me a cuppa and whilst I drank that, we got our breaths back and chatted like it was going out of fashion.

We decided to go into the city, but being so tired I thought I would leave my camera behind. When will I learn, never, never leave the camera behind!!! Laney had hers though, so I thought that at least I could get copies from her.

We crossed the Hungerford Bridge to the South Bank and wandered along, chatting, talking, listening, laughing. As we passed the wheel I remarked to Laney that she really ought to take some pictures so she took out her camera. It didn't seem to work though, now I wonder why? Daft woman had left it switched on and the battery was dead!!! lol

We had something to eat whilst sitting watching out over the river and Laney gave one little pigeon, one little chip. Soon there were dozens of little pigeons wanting lots of chips! One flew up and sat on Laneys knee, seriously, it began eating from the container. Another flew up and sat on the head of the first trying to get a look in too. As I sat, watching in amazment, eating my own, yet another pigeon flew up and thought he would try to take the damn thing right out of my mouth!!! Shame about the camera battery though Miss U!!

We wandererd a bit more, talking continuously about family, friends, bloggers, life, photography and the exciting time we were going to have the following day when we were meeting up with another two bloggers who were over from the States. Eventually, but mainly because I was totally wiped out by this time, we did the return journey to the B&B. We had intended to go out and eat, but I was past being able to do so and we decided on a Chinese take-away which Laney kindly went out for. We had eyed it up on the way back to the hotel, and while she was fetching it, I rested. Feeling much better by the time I had eaten, we continued to learn more about each other and share stories about real-life and blogland. By 11pm we thought that it was time we were getting our heads down as we were looking forward to a busy day in the morning.

"One last ciggy" Laney said.

So we traversed the 54 stairs and sat on the steps of the B&B for 5 minutes. Back in the room we proceeded to put our jammies on, but in such a small space it was difficult not to be rubbing arses every 2 seconds, and then we crawled into bed. An hour later we actually laid down too!!! Still this didn't stop us talking. We continued to rabbit away, like long lost buddies who hadn't had any contact for years and were trying to catch up all in one hit.

Our last trip down the 54 stairs was at around 02:45. Laney said she was going down in her PJ's and I said I would join her. I always open my mouth before I think things through. Laney had 3/4 length black leggings and black t-shirt, I had bright pink shorts and t-shirt. So there we were, 02:45 in the morning, sitting on those same steps we had frequented several times now, smoking and chatting. We even took our cameras down so we could take photo's to prove how mad we are!!!

The following day, we got up early, had breakfast then tried to shower. Alas, no water from the shower, and precious little from the sink. There was just enough to have a wash, and we made do.

With an hour or so to pass between booking out of the first hotel and into the second down the road, we sat at Cafe Rouge and watched the world go by. Everyone was in a hurry. We took out our camera's and began to photograph our surroundings including people rushing from here to there.

We were right next to the traffic lights too and every time they were on red, we aimed our camera's at passing motorists; it's amazing how many people just want you to take their photograph! This guy saw my camera and just waved at me, I hadn't even been pointing at him at the time!

Soon it was time to cross the road ourselves and book into our second B&B. It was almost time to meet up with out other blogger friends...