Day Forty-Six

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

Even though it had been decided that we were sleeping in, I still found myself waking up every once in awhile in the morning, as if afraid I had missed something deathly important or exciting. But we all finally woke up around ten in the morning, dragging ourselves out of bed and generally being lazy. Adanna cooked us up a “proper English breakfast” and refused our offers to help, saying…almost threateningly, “Everybody gets one.” And it was really, really good. A little bit later, after Abbie and I were ready, Adanna’s friend Lamia (I think that’s how you spell her name…don’t quote me on it) came over.

We were going to be going up to the Portobello Market that day and checking it out. Apparently it’s rather well-known, but neither Abbie nor I had ever heard of it before. It took another half hour for Adanna to finish getting ready, which is astonishing for the amount of clothing she usually wears (she herself admitted this). After that it was a bit of a walk to get to the market. After experiencing a gray, slightly damp day previous, it was nice to see the sun again. But that also meant it was rather warm outside…though nothing compared to mid-August California temperatures.

The market featured, among fruit and vegetables, clothes, sunglasses, handbags, and pretty much anything else you could think of. We stopped in a cute souvenir shop along the way and Adanna purchased a gift for her mortal enemy—the one we call James Dugan. We all bought a pair of sunglasses (they all went with cool aviator specs…I just bought a basic pair to replace my stolen sunglasses until I can get my hands on some Target ones. Mmm, Target).

After the market, we walked up to a local bar and grabbed a pint. There was a beer on tap called Früli that claimed to be a strawberry beer. I was intrigued and so was Lamia, so we both ordered it. And oh, was it good. It really did taste like strawberries more than beer. I don’t know if I’d want to drink it all the time since it was a little sweet, but it would definitely be a treat. After our pints, Lamia bid us goodbye and Adanna continued to lead us up the hill to see the Royal Court Theatre (home of Sarah Kane, etc.). At one point we got on a double decker bus. At one point we passed Harrod’s. We were all quickly losing energy and succumbing to the heat by now that by the time we reached the theatre, all we had energy to do was take a few pictures and wait in their downstairs bar while Adanna used the bathroom.

We caught a bus to go back up near Portobello, though walking may have been faster in the rush hour traffic. I fell asleep, and Abbie had to nudge me to wake up when we got off. We stopped for “proper fish and chips” in the words of Adanna, and even though she had never been to the place before, it was supposed to be really good. On the way, we met her hair dresser (random) and got our food to go, getting on another bus to take us home.

I am not afraid to admit that we completely vegged that evening, watching Southpark and Family guy while we mindlessly ate our food (it was good) and lying in front of the TV until late in the night. None of us could even summon up the energy to turn on a light when it got dark until we finally got up to go to bed.