Wow, that was a lot of fun.
Let's start with Friday.
I went to university and then on to pick up Helen from Kings Cross Station. Due to a great deal of timetable tomfoolery she arrived before I did and ended up meeting me at the entrance from the underground.
Not knowing what to do for the afternoon, I suggested we visit the Tate Modern as I hadn't been and had wanted to go with someone (visiting art galleries on your own is kind of sad and also not nearly as much fun). We had a great time and she thanked me for coming up with such a great idea - (Why yes, I do r0xx0r your b0xx0rs, in fact on occasion I have been known to pwn).
Fantastically, I got to see Metamorphosis of Narcissus again which I'd only seen one other time; back when the Tate was still in Pimlico. It's my favourite painting by my favourite artist and it still beats the pants off seeing it in print.
Speaking of which that'd make a rather interesting Desktop picture.
Anyhow Saturday was where it was at so to speak, as I met up with loads of the old gang from Shatin College; Shaun Siniah, Charles & Ianz, Tiffany, Richard, Jackie Liu and of course Helen.
Naturally the first thing we had to do was eat Dim Sum. Poor Helen can't get any Chinese food in York so a massive 9 person Dim Sum fest was virtually a statutory requirement. Haar Kau, Siu Mai, Char Siu Bao and Cheun Fan all piled up on the list. We had put together a tidy little order selection when a guy who's name was pronounced 'Hey' (no I'm sorry mate, I don't know how to spell your name) arrived. He took one look at the order Tiffany had written down and passed to him and said, gesturing towards Tiff, "What? This isn't even enough for you!"
He was right of course, so we added an extra couple of orders of everything.
We ate our fill, traded jokes and generally had a great time. I really missed those guys from Shatin - at least now I have their contact details and they mine, so they'll contact me next time they go out. Hurrah!
You can tell how good a Dim Sum meal was by how totally devastated the tablecloth is after it. What with 'Hey's' long distance tea pouring antics and my mid-grab chopstick failure akin to realizing that the laws of gravity should apply whilst flying Hitchhiker's Guide Style, we clearly had a pretty damn good lunch.
After Lunch it was time to go and play some pool. Helen and I played twice and each time lost to the other by potting the black before we should have (or in my case exactly when I should have but with a spectacular miss-cue resulting in a forfeiture of the game - Doh!) Damn good fun peppered with Power Ballads, chosen from the jukebox.
The day was moving on, so the next port-of-call was decided swiftly; the British Museum. Loads of joking comments were made about Britain thieving culture and whatnot from around the world but then we're so very good at it and it's not as if they're taking good care of their heritage ;) (I speak specifically of China here hehehe)
I reckon the British Museum ought to sell T-Shirts that say "All your Cultural Artefacts Are Belong To Us!"
I'd buy it.
I do love the British Museum, especially with Sir Norman Foster's glass atrium now covering the great hall.
Anyhow, after a lot of walking we decided to head back to Tiff's and then go for a drink.
So it came to pass that a great big group of us walked into the local Wetherspoon's and sat down to a meal and a lot of beer.
We played 'The Penny Game'. For the uninitiated The Penny Game's rules are sufficiently simple and fair to facilitate its play during even the most advanced stages of inebriation.
There is a penny which can be dropped into someone's drink. If it is dropped into your pint you have to down that pint in one. Then you typically get control of the penny.
The first victim of the evening was Hey, as he sat down with a big'ol pint of Guinness - Extra Cold.
*clink*
So he chugged it and fished the penny out from the suddy depths of his late-pint's foam. He tagged someone else and eventually he left to get another pint of Guinness.
*clink*
He had only just sat down! Hey diligently downed his pint and accepted that he would have to be rather wiley if he wanted to actually enjoy any fermented vegetable beverage.
All trembled in fear of the penny at this point. Shaun kept zealous guard over his pint using his hand and Mark actually held his glass so it was pressed against the underside of the table. At this point I was far down the table and thus out of penny'ing range (Har har!).
Hey got up, presumably to get fetch himself a pint, which he would at least be able to drink slowly what with having custody of the coin. Realizing he was safe Shaun relaxed and allowed his hand to slide from its post above his Fosters.
*clink*
"What the hell!?" Shaun cried in disbelief. He realized Tiffany had 'pennied' his pint but quickly noted the rule I had come up against when I tried to penny him with a 20p piece:
"It has to be the same coin Tiff."
"It is." She replied, laughing herself stupid along with the rest of us.
Hey came bounding in with his hands open to show he hadn't got it and had in fact slipped it to Tiffany.
"Oh s***!" Shaun exclaimed.
In the subsequent 30 minutes Shaun was pennied 4 times and was about as drunk as I had ever seen him. On the spur of the moment he decided to call up Suzie - another Shatin College student from our class who was in Canada. He persisted and managed to get through to her before insisting in a sprightly tone that she passed him onto a 'hot roommate'. At least everyone got to say 'hi' to Suzie and most had a chat with her.
Finally after everyone had sobered up we played a game of RISK the classic game of world-d-domination (I can't say it any other way after my friends relentlessly repeated the adverts for it). All was going well for my Red Army, who's every move was accompanied by a string of Communist Propaganda (eg: "The brave proletariat of the Ukraine move to strike into the heart of Europe and spill the blood of the bourgeoisie land-owners!") and I managed to control Europe before the game had to be broken up.
Billy Bryson, in "Notes From a Small Island" wonders: "Why it is the the beds in the houses of Grandparents and in-laws are always so deliciously comfortable" and the same thing puzzles me. Although in my case the phrase pertains to the comfyness of the guest beds prepared for me by my Aunty Jilly - after having trudged through biting winds at 5am from Barnes because I missed my stop, the bed which awaited me was glorious.
Today's Snapshot has been carefully selected out of the many I took whilst in London. It is, to those in the know, Char Siu Bao - a Dim Sum item which few can turn down.
I leave you with the Text Message sent to me by my mother in reply to my message; "I'm eating Dim Sum... Hope you're enjoying your 6hr Drive":
"Bastard, U can walk home from London!"Mwahahaha!
Later
John