You have no concept of how ill I feel right now.
But it was worth it. It was so completely worth it :)
I pushed it far too much today, did far too much, and now every muscle in my body burns, my throat feels like someone's covered it with paint stripper and I'm so exhausted that I can't walk in a straight line any more. But it was worth every single part of it because I had an absolute blast :)
BTP is my longest-standing internet friend. We met on the Bugs message board five whole years ago, but because of being busy and being ill our meetings are generally two years apart! We'd been texting like maniacs lately and it was only right that we should meet up to torture each other in person.
The star of the day, however, was a wind-up lobster. She'd been threatening me with it for the best part of a week and I'd grown increadingly paranoid about it! I wasn't sure if the lobster was real or not, or how big or small it was or anything. All I knew was that it had been a rather testy lobster of late, disliking the train delays and being compared to the Evil Houghton. But the lobster exceeded my expectations by miles.
We set it off in Technopolis, and giggled madly at the way its pincers moved as it travelled along. It reminded us of one of those cars that you pull back and watch speed along until it gets stuck on a ridge on the floor and you have to rescue it. There was just something about it. It was a comedy lobster. A comedy lobster to end all lobsters. I've asked for access rights to the lobster, though I am nervous about it travelling all the way to Surrey on its own - especially as it didn't even have a ticket! *tsk!*
We exchanged nasties.... lots of evil nasties, some of which will become Chain Nasties..... and the most evil of which (or should that be witch?) was a bloody Sabrina book! Argh! That's the most evil thing I have *ever* been given! Although I am trying to consider myself lucky that she didn't get me one of the Salem series! *gulp* Plus there was the terrifying fact that we actually seemed to know far too much about the programme despite both disliking it so much. Still, I have a plan. A plan to actually *read* the book when I'm feeling very ill one day and to send her constant text updates on the plot!
It felt so good to be in London again. I had no idea how much I'd missed it. The sounds, the smells, the buildings, the tube. Yeah, I know, people are supposed to hate those things - but when you suddenly find yourself unable to get there for so long it just feels.... incredible to go back. Revisiting all the sights that used to be so familiar, recalling all the funny things that happened and the people we encountered. It felt pretty good.
The only downside of the day were a couple of gits. We were waiting for a train and they sat down next to us - and the one sitting beside me lifted his arse cheek and farted at me not once, but three times in a row. He then poked me in the back a couple of times which I tried very hard to ignore but you know how much I hate being touched on my back. This was a real finger poke. When the other one started trying to intrude on our conversation and I told him to piss off he said, "I was only trying to fucking chat you up!" I told him I was a lesbian and he bit my head off by saying, "As if I'd chat up a fucking ugly bitch like you!"
Yeah, that doesn't make any sense when you've actually just told someone you were trying to chat them up.....
He sat there muttering rotten things about me until he got on his train, bizarrely focussing on the fact that his trainers cost several hundred more pounds than my 'shitty' boots. This was strange, because I wasn't actually wearing boots. And the stench from the arse of the other one when he stood up - ugh.
We went to the Docklands (where we were entertained by an over-exhuberant announcer on the train!) and made our way to Poplar bridge, where I finally left the necklace. Today did me a bit of good letting go of 'that' friendship, and of that awful time of my life. I left it in exactly the same spot that I left that..... creature.... almost five years ago. I honestly don't know why I kept it for so long. perhaps I was just too scared to move on. I should have gotten rid of it a long time ago. It was as though today brought everything full circle.
We went to the bead shop that I absolutely adore and I ended up buying a whole pot of blue beads, as well as letter beads to make a 'Miranda' necklace (except they were all out of order in the bag and I almost had to change my name to Naridam) and a scary looking porcilain pig bead to give to BTP as revenge for the scary OWL bead that she was buying *me!* We laughed our heads off at some of them and wondered who would buy them - after all, who wants a necklace with a little silver laptop on it?!!
By the end of the day I felt terribly exhausted. I don't know how I was still walking at the end and by the time I got on my train home it just hit me like a sledgehammer. But it was well worth it - it was one hell of a brilliant day.
On the way home I saw a building called Simon's Fishyard, and in the yard were 10 vans with big, red lobsters printed on them. I just smiled so broadly over that. I'll never look at a lobster in the same light again, I swear I won't!
And now? I need a lay down for a while before I call Y and attept to explain to him why every home should have a wind-up lobster :)
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