back by the sea!
Hello! I’ve now been back in Scarborough for a week and as anybody who has ventured outside today will know, the heatwave, although not quite on the London scale, has yet to let up with the predictable exception of today, when (having worked on Saturday) I’d half-planned a trip to the beach. Obviously.
Taking up where I left off, I was extremely fortunate in several ways London-wise; my aircon worked, my Maltesers bought from Poundland and smuggled into the Haymarket Cineworld to watch Carmen (being streamed from all of five minutes away at the London Colisseum) on the Wednesday evening may have melted a bit but I managed not to drop them all over myself in the dark, I just made it back to the hotel after dinner out on Friday night before the thunder and lightning started (but in perfect time to watch it) and the hotel wifi allowed me to wait patiently online in the cool and tranquil lobby for over an hour after checkout so I could get my perfect seat at FrightFest – yay!
It would be sacrilege to some who seemingly have nothing else to do with their time and money, but I’ll take an hour (and six minutes) sitting drinking tea over eight hours standing around outside in Leicester Square any day of the week, even if I did have a couple of hairy moments with what became known as the Circle of Death, a handy glitch which repeatedly froze the seat selector page and caused muchas panicky clicking of the back button followed by either a) a scary error screen, then another chance to try adding one’s chosen seat to the basket or b) scary error screen, then being dumped back at the end of the queue for another hour. Thankfully I got a) on my third try which is just as well, as I don’t think my battery would have held out otherwise. I’m in the Arrow screen, for anybody interested.
Having got home safely a few hours later after a calming sushi-and-miso-and-fruit-smoothie hour at the Itsu round the corner and a less calming post-sushi freeload around Fortnum’s having been dragged in by the window displays, my luck struck again the next day whilst browsing through Abebooks (supposedly birthday present shopping) and presented me with a unexpected treat when I unexpectedly came across a first UK edition/first printing copy of American Psycho (my Joint Favourite Book Ever) in lovely condition and less than half the price of the previous comparable one I’d seen a few weeks ago. Jackpot.
My other favourite book of all time is The Wind in the Willows, a first edition of which would set me back a migraine-inducing amount (admittedly that doesn’t stop me looking at them) so on the basis that I was actually saving hundreds of pounds I snapped it up and have been gloating over it since it arrived, although whether or not I’ll read it rather than stick to my treasured but unremarkable (and a bit knocked about) paperback copy I haven’t decided yet. Maybe I will, but only in a very genteel way sitting properly on the settee rather than sprawled across it with a bowl of Cheerios and coffee mug balanced on my stomach.
To practical matters, and I’m now back in Scarborough for a full month until August 13th; with the school summer holidays nearly upon us I will be planning a few days off for some routine maintenance (on the flat rather than me, but you never know) around the end of the month when lots of people go away. I’ll keep everybody posted, and hopefully it won’t be too much of a pain plus I’ll have a boiler that works properly amongst other things – woohoo! Future awaydays are also in the offing, including a trip to October’s Grimmfest in Manchester in lieu of holidays, but more of that later.
This week it’s business as usual – my town centre flat is cool, calm and quiet as ever and whilst I won’t be around on Saturday, all other days are fine. Some more pictures are in the offing too whilst the sun’s still shining – watch this space!
More soon.
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