Kismet

Isn't that just a lovely word? "Kismet" has such a wonderful ring to it, I think. Otherwise, it has no thematic bearing on the content of this post (or, at least, no intentional bearing...)

Today was my no-class day for the week, and I made the best use of it I could. Basically what that amounted to was taking the tube all over the city trying to find stuff (most of which I did successfully!). That was my afternoon. My morning was actually spent trying to find directions. Unfortunately, the guide map I have is NOT of great quality, so I was trying to match up landmarks on it with the more detailed map I'd pulled up on the internet, and it took me the better part of an hour just to find the right section of the city to fond Hammersmith in. Frankly, I was very surprised. It seems like I hear "Hammersmith" this and "Hammersmith" that all the time, so I expected it would be prominently displayed on the map, but I ended up completely ignoring the guide map and just going with my on-line resources after I got frustrated enough.

First stop: Hammersmith Friends Meeting. It was surprisingly easy to get here, and the tube line I was on seemed almost deserted. Actually, I sort of got the impression that all of the Hammersmith/Ravencourt Park area was like that. Although geographically close, the area I found myself in was a far cry from the bustle and glitz around where I'm staying. Granted, Kensington doesn't even appproach the glamour of some of the places we've visited like the Piccadilly Circus and Leicester (pronounced "Lester") Square, but it's still decently classy, especially since we're so close to the palace and everything. The Ravencourt Park area, by comparison, seemed older and tired, less agitated and more comfortable with itself, almost like an aging woman who doesn't bother wearing make-up any more. And maybe because of that, I got the feeling that this part of the city was more real than Kensington, more real than most of the places I've seen.

The meetinghouse was about a 5-10 minute walk from the station, and it was closed since there was no worship today. However, interestingly enough, as I approached the meetinghouse, I met an older woman who was also going to the same place, a member of the "congregation" there (Quaker meetings don't have congregations, per se, but I can't remember what a worship group is called. It might just be a meeting) and asked her some questions. I wish I could remember her name, but it was very hard to hear over the traffic in the background (even in the quiet parts of London, you're never too far from a major thoruoghfare (sp?)). Anyway, she was very nice and we chatted for a few minutes, but I didn't get to find out about the history of the meeting like I'd hoped to (and maybe I'm spoiled like that. After all, New Garden Friends Meeting was right across the street from Guilford, and there was almost always someone working there. Of course it was a semi-programmed meeting, and on the large-ish side (more than 100 members, if I remember correctly), so I guess there'd have to be a secretary or clerk or someone I could ask questions of).

On my way back to the tube station I found a Games Workshop store (it was an accident! I swear!) and I had to pop in for a minute and look around. Warhammer stuff is at least as expensive in England as it is in the States, so I didn't spend much time there after all. They now make a Lord of the Rings tabletop wargame and a Warhammer RPG, too. I thought that was neat. Aside from the two guys working there, I was the only person, and we joked around a little bit, talked about how hard it is not to swordfight with rulers, and played balloon volleyball for a few minutes. My right shoe came untied.

After that I decided to make my way back to the station and catch the tube back to Camden Town. Before I got to the station, I felt really compelled to stop at some bus stop and look at the schedule, and one of the bus routes went from Hammersmith straight to Camden! I waited for about 3 minutes, but then I decided that I wanted to keep moving, so I went to the tube anyway.

30-ish minutes later, I'm back in Camden Town. Since I was by myself (all my friends were at class, so I took this journey on my own) I took a little time to look at some of the stuff that I didn't have a good chance to check out last time I was there. I even looked at a couple of record shops. It was very exciting! I also went back to that place I saw over the weekend that was having the big sale, and got a nice pair of street shoes.
I was really annoyed a few days ago when I realized that my the eye loops on my trainers (in the UK, any kind of running shoes, street shoes, cross-trainers, tennis shoes, or sneakers are called "trainers") were coming out (stupid bad stitching), and trainers are basically worthless without their laces!
Based on what I could puzzle out from the tags and signs, the shoes I got originally retailed at close to 40 pounds, but were on sale for 19.95. Then, through some additional discount I wasn't able to figure out, when the cashier rang them up, they were only 18.40-something. I checked my bank balance a while ago, and it translated into $34.63 or something like that after the exchange rate. Not bad at all for foreign shoes, methinks! Also, I bought some CDs. ( :

I had a 5:00 meeting, so it wasn't too long before I had to get back to Kensington, so back onto the tube go I. Unfortunately, things are running a little slow, and I get back to Glouster (pronounced "GLOSS-ster") Square with only 15 minutes left to get back to the flat, drop off my stuff, and get to my meeting. My left shoe came untied. I did make it to the meeting on time, though.

After that I came back to the flat, made some tortellini for supper, and started cooking my second (and probably last) cobbler. Now I'm trying to talk someone into coming to the grocery store with me to get ice cream. Cobbler is delicious, but cobler + ice cream = amazingness.
It ehn't gonna happen tonight, though. About half the group is at the pub, and those who are still here are mostly planning to stay here for the night. Pity, that. I'll just have to get some tomorrow and re-heat the cobbler.

Peace, love, understanding and respect, my friends!