Out and About in the City and other Drama's

THE BAD
Saturday I bounced out of bed fresh as a daisy ready to get on my hustle and what did I do? I locked myself out of the flat. After cussing and fighting the urge to scream whilst running down the street in frustration I pulled myself together enough to walk the fifteen minutes up the road to my aunts house. Of course, this story would be a non event if she had been in but of course she wasn’t. Of course the spare key to her house was inside the flat on the original bunch. No phone, No money, No keys. I tell you peeps I was ready to take a brick and smash my bedroom window then I thought about my aversion to cold and the financial implications and common sense prevailed. I walked to the local key cutters/ dry cleaner’s and asked if they had a phone number for a locksmith. Which they did. The lovely man who ran the shop allowed me to borrow his phone, the locksmith was able to get me into my flat within two minutes and it only took them 15 minutes to come. Job done, £50 later. While looking in my wallet for the card to pay the teefing locksmith I realised that my main card was not in the wallet. Therefore I had to pay with another card which I knew had limited funds on it. Ring the bank cancel the first card. By this time of course the branch was closed so I had limited access to money this weekend. I rationalised my terrible morning by reminding myself of our brother’s and sisters in Haiti and went on with my day to meet friends in Notting Hill to go to Portobello Road market.

THE UGLY
Only when I got off the tube did this friend think to text me to let me know that she was running over an hour late. Now, I have a ten minute rule. If some-one is more that ten minutes late I am leaving their ass. I ain’t got time to waste Chuh! This lady is a very recent addition to my social circle therefore I didn’t go off the way I really, really wanted too. I rang her and explained that I was vey disappointed that she didn’t think to ring me earlier so that I could have left the flat later. Further, that I was not pleased at the rudeness of her tardiness. She apologised of course and bought me a drink to make it up to me when she eventually arrived. At this point I realised that it was not her fault. But mine. If I had left her after ten minutes as stated in the Coco book of friendship I would not have to be pissed off or felt the need to lecture any-one about time etiquette. As peeps would know how I felt by my absence, we all know the old saying ‘People only do what we let them’. While this lady was not trying to get under my skin but she did and earlier events during the day did not help. Despite this when the group eventually all met up we had a lovely time.

This was a parade of musicians that were hired by a wedding party to follow the couple through the market.

THE GOOD
We went around the market at a leisurely pace taking in all the sights and scenes. There was loads happening from buskers to parades and an eclectic mix of shops and stalls that housed one off goods rather than mass produced high street stuff. Some of it was lovely while a lot of it was tacky and over priced.

As a Londoner I don’t remember ever visiting this market before, and definitely not in recent years it felt like many other London neighbourhoods like Brixton or Blackheath that have had loads of money ploughed into the area under the guise of regeneration which is really the code name for ethnic cleansing if you ask me which results in the working classes moving out and the middle classes with their Starbucks, wine bars and kitsch so called one off cafes that charge £5 for a cupcake, move in. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it. It was cool but I was very aware that lunch at a local eatery was by no means cheap eats. This was not central London people, just a little cute fish and chips spot. Damn! There goes the neighbourhood.

However I did manage to scoop this cute real leather purse for a steal. I'm in lurve!

In the evening with my awful morning a vague memory went on to the Westfield mall to have a walkabout. I really lurve it there. This mall is capitalism on crack. It is beautifully lit, the décor is soothing and every shop that you go in, has a seductive tone that makes you want to whip out your wallet and spend all your money. After walking and talking for a bit we went to a restaurant chain called The Greek for dinner. It was really very nice. If you have eaten here before I would recommend this particular one as it is so much nicer because it’s new. The waitress was so well mannered and helpful and the food was decent and well priced they definitely get two thumbs up. An excellent spot for a first date.

Unfortunately for me by the end of the evening my throat started to feel scratchy, by the Sunday I was really under the weather. And woke up with the sweats; so not sexy.  Ah well, despite the calamity it was allgood.