Thanks to that wonderful and lovely distraction called the World Cup, I haven't really suffered from the usual off-season Arsenal withdrawal symptoms, and I'm very ashamed to say I've hardly been on ATVO, and the last 2 Premier League games last season which I missed while I was away, I haven't watched. Not even a single highlight! So Carlos Vela's chip against Fulham, I can only imagine what it was like. I'm not sorry I haven't seen the highlights of the Blackburn game, though. The less seen or said about it, the better! But I'm sure I'm bound to relive that disaster sometime during the course of the season! Anyways...
Oh yeah, I was out for a party last week Saturday, and I've got a story to tell! Not so much about the party, but the getting there!
(It's quite a long tale, so why not listen to some music!? One of my favourite (and timeless) songs- Toploader's Dancing in the Moonlight! Please excuse the poor quality, but you only need to listen, ayways! ;-)
So it was Esther's brother's (denim and white themed) house party, all the way in some place in Eest London I'd never heard of before, Purfleet. The plan was to go to Chris' house first, as I don't live to far from him, watch the World Cup 3rd place play-off- Germany v Uruguay- then go to the party.
All was looking well and good. It was a really good game, and we even stayed a bit longer and watched James Corden's World Cup show. Don't really know what it's called as one always feels the urge to change the channel whenever the show comes on, but as our very own Arshavin was on it, why not?!
Anyways, we finally got our act together and left at about half 10 thereabouts, and got to Hatfield station. Just missed a train so had to catch the next one, which was at about 11pm. The plan was to find our way to Limehouse, then catch the C2C from there to Purfleet. Got to Limehouse, only to find we'd missed the last train to Purfleet. Apparently the last train was ages ago, too! The only way to go was back, so we went back a stop to Fenchurch station, hoping to find someone at the station who could I don't know, tell us an alternative route or something. Got there, and the advice was to take the train to Barking, then from there, either take the bus or a cab to Purfleet. Didn't sound like a bad idea, except that the next train wasn't for another 30 or so minutes, and this was already getting to midnight. So Chris and I decided to just cab it from where we were to Purfleet. How hard could that be, right?
Went outside the station to find one, but there wasn't any. The taxi ramp was empty and not being from London, didn't have any can numbers. So we spoke to a couple of the guys working at the station asking where to get a cab, and they're like there's a bus stop round the corner, you might find one there. So we get to the bus stop and not surprisingly, there wasn't any. We were just trying to get our bearings right when this 'not in service' bus stops in front of us. The bus driver- a really nice mature Caribbean dude, Jamaican I think- opens the door and is like, 'Do you know the last bus has gone already?', and he's like where are you going? So we tell him that we're trying to get to Purfleet and he's like jump on the bus, I'll drop you somewhere closeby, then take the bus 25 to Barking, which was really really nice of him. So he drops us off at a bus stop a few minutes away.
So we're at the bus stop trying to figure out where exactly we are and what direction we need to travel. Turns out we're close to Monument station. We do see a Bus 25, but I figured it'd be much quicker if we took the underground from there to Barking. So we don't get on the bus. We're about to start walking to the underground station, when this guy at the Bus stop is like 'Erm, it's a Saturday, the undergrounds are shut already'. Damn. We get talking, where are you going, blah blah blah. He was on his way to Dagenham, and he suggests we get on a cab together, since according to him, Dagenham's on the way to Purfleet. We're perfectly happy with this, because in all honesty, we really didn't have a clue which way to go or anything. Finding the cab is the problem, though.
There was this cab at the bus stop, an Addison Lee cab, but he's like he's not in service and gives us his company's number to call. Hurrah! But it's one of those 0844 numbers, which you can't dial on your contract phone, and you get charged some funny amount. But I had a pay as you go phone on me as well, so I decide to use that instead. It turns out to be one of those automated services, so I got put on hold for a bit, then finally got to speak to someone called Joel. But just as I'm about to finalise the whole thing, I run out of credit. Awesome. To make things worse, I was actually starving! And it's not your usual hunger, but the type where you're stomach is totally empty and you can't take a step without your stomach hurting. Really clueless to why I was that hungry, as I'd just eaten before we left, even though I didn't eat that much. But yeah, we're kinda stranded, and I'm dead hungry, and no shops or anything around are open. Two things I always have in my bag are a tube map and a bottle of water. Obviously, not the same bottle of water all the time, but a bottle of water. But this time around, I didn't have either, and desperately needed them! Water would have been absolutely fine for me at that stage, as I felt drinking lots of liquid was what I needed. Also needed a tube map really badly as I honestly didn't have any clue as to how near or far we were from our destination, or which direction we had to go! But thank God for smartphones! Was able to download a tube map (now permanently saved on my phone). Shame there's no water app!
Anyways, so the dude we met at the bus stop, Dan, is like he thinks there's a cab company around and that we should just walk in and book a cab there and then, so we start walking. I'm in absolute agony, but I didn't have much of a choice, anyways. So we start walking, and chat some more to Dan. Turns out it was his birthday that day, and he'd just been out with a few mates and was trying to get home. He's hungry too, and then tells us that he's a head chef! If only he had some sort of food on him, right? Anyways, we walk from Monument to London Bridge, and come across a Kebab shop! Awesome! I get myself a can of coke as that's about all I can handle, or water, but being a coke addict, I went for that instead! We also ask the woman at the shop where the cab company was as Dan couldn't find it, and she's like it's round the corner. You can't begin to imagine how full of joy I was at the sight of the cab company! Tired of walking, and just want to sit somewhere and sleep! After eating something, ofcourse.
Anyways, so we book a cab from London Bridge to Purfleet, stopping at Dagenham, and it cost £55, which was to me, a very very good deal, Purfleet being as far away as it is, and it being late at night as well. So 3 of us get in the cab, and off we went. Dan is being very chatty, and I ask him about where he's head chef at. Turns out to be a nice cocktail bar at Soho Square, Barrio Central. He tells us about his boss, and that they've got a new menu coming out soon. He even gets us to add him on facebook, and Chris and I are like we'll definitely pop in one of these days. He even told us about his ex-girlfriend, about her being from Spain and them meeting here while she was doing her Ph.D. He then moves to Spain with her and starts working there, only for them to eventually break up. Ouch. He seemed a really nice dude, and to top it off, when we got to Dagenham, he actually paid half of the cab fare, which he didn't have to do, there being 3 of us, and him not going the full distance. So yeah, nice dude. He gets off, and we continue to Purfleet. Yay! Unluckily though, we got off at the wrong house! It was in quite a nice area, but there weren't any street signs- as far as we can see, anyways- and the SatNav seemed certain we had reached our destination. Tried calling Esther and our other friend who was at the party too, Oyinda, but couldn't get through to any of them! I'd changed into these ridiculous heels in the cab, and we had to try to figure out how to find the stupid house! Luckily for us, we could actually hear the music, so it was only a matter of finding how to get to the house, which we eventually did. Phew!
So the party was slated to start at 9pm, and what time did we get there? 2am! (Un)fashionably late, right?! I'm usually shy (anti-social) at parties and stuff, but nothing like an onerous journey and severe hunger to make you shyness (anti-socialness) disappear. I might have felt like crying, especially during the long walk to find a cab company, but it was actually good fun, the journey. I'd agonised for days, whether or not to go for the party and only decided to go, the night before, but I'm happy I did. It was quite the adventure, but it's stuff like that which make life interesting. (Admittedly, I'm a thrill-seeker and love adventure).
Had fun at the party though, even though we'd missed most of it (fine by me, actually. Anti-social, see?!). Party finished at about 4am, but we crashed at the house until about 6am, before then finding our way to Esther's in the morning, for another round of sleep. Adventure and party over.
Took some dodgy pictures with the camera on my (new) phone. I had my proper camera in my bag, but couldn't be bothered to use it, as I'd already dumped my slightly heavy bag in some room. Here are a few of the better ones:
Brother and sister:
Hungry (and now happy) girl and part of Chris' face:
Zainab, Chris and Esther:
Oyinda and I:
Esther and I, too-hungry-to-eat (True!)
Oyinda butting in and spoiling what would have been a good picture!:
Much better:
So I figured out a few things on Sautrday:
*How a car feels like when it's running on nothing but fumes
*Hunger and tiredness makes me hyper and less anti-social!
Anyways, high time I ended this blog before it gets any longer! (proof I'm back to my blogging ways, as long blogs have returned, woohoo!).
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