Ailbhe's Day Out - Part One: Growing Up

So Rob and I were a leetle late for the train to London, which meant that I was a leetle late meeting Gideon. But we met, which was nice.

We toddled off to the British Museum, and talked about how old everyone is getting. I mean, Rob and I have a mortgage. Almost everyone we know has found someone they're not going to break up with. No-one is having casual sex anymore (sadly, this includes some single people who'd like to, but scarily few). Jan and Jen both have mortgages too. I almost never dance anymore. Certainly I never go out and dance for 6 hours straight anymore.

Also, I am now totally outside the fashion loop. I mean, for a while, I was sort of ahead of it - my fashionable sister wore clothes similar to mine only a few years after refusing to be seen near me while I wore them - and then I was sort of with it, and now I'm totally outside it. I no longer wear anything way out or way cool or way in or way anything. And I own not even one pair of tight black jeans.

And I still haven't got any leather trousers.

And none of my clothes are torn anymore.

And - worst of all - a woman in Woolworths told her husband that "the lady wants to get past". Women in Woolworths think I'm a lady. I must even look grown-up. Why can't I look like a girl, a student, a drop-out? I used to be interesting.

Ailbhe's Day Out - Part Two: Fun and Frolics

So now that that's off my chest, I can talk about the cool stuff we saw and the cool places we went and the coolness of it all.

We went to the British Museum first, and looked at the comparatively new Great Court. It's not new, it's newly open to the general unwashed public.

It was marvellous. You can clearly see which bits are new stone and which are old, of course, but it's still wonderful. The Reading Room is awe-inspiring. When I grow up, I want a library like that. It was very well-stocked and I saw a few things I have liked reading and a few things I'd like to read and a few crimes against literature (Beatrix Potter!).

We also looked at the Romans and Greeks, and then stopped for lunch as I reaslied that if I was going to see the Egyptians I would need a break to stuff my brains back in my ears.

Lunch turned out to be at Wagamama. This was good, because I had only been there once before, when I first visited my ex in London, and I had hated it. It was loud, there were chopsticks, and he laughed at me for not understanding the menu. This time, with Gideon, it was loud, there were chopsticks, and he explained the menu to me and didn't laugh at me once. It was a bit of an extravagance, of course, since we're both living more-or-less off our partners right now (contribution-based jobseeker's allowance is minimal), but it was very lovely, nonetheless.

After that we went to see the mummies. We spent a lot of time wandering around the museum going "Wow, now that's what I call a serious act of theft!" and similar. It's incredible the lengths the Empire went to to thieve, transport and preserve other peoples' monuments and footpaths. "I do think that Letitia would rather like that in her drawing-room, Reggie, shall we take it?"

I always like looking at the Mildenhall Treasure.

Christmas Shopping

While I was in the area, I wanted to go to a little shop on Museum Street to buy Rob a Christmas present. I was looking for a wooden puzzle, but couldn't afford any of the ones he didn't already have. We found a lot of fascinating stuff though, and I did manage to get a pressie of sorts. We'll see when he unwraps it.

Gideon also brought me into Gosh Comics, down to the basement where the original artwork is kept. That was an educational half-hour...

Ailbhe's Day Out - Part Three: The Evening

So I toddled home to meet Janice, and Gideon toddled off to tidy his flat before guests arrived.

I met Janice at the train station; she was a bit down. It's the winter; it's so dark all the time. The sun hasn't shone at all this week that I've noticed. Just clouds of a particularly uninteresting shade of grey.

So we were trying to think of something to do and hit upon the idea of going to see a film in the ci-ne-ma. Like, not on video or DVD or TV, but actually on the Big Screen. Woo.

So we found out what time Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was on and toddled off to the cinema with plenty of time to spare.

It was sold out.

So we opted for a wartime ghost-story that promised to be amusingly badly done, possibly even farcical, and went to have coffee while we waited for it to start.

The Others.

It was terrifying. Janice watched most of it with her eyes closed, and some of it with her fingers in her ears. I clutched at her, unable to stop watching the film. One woman in the audience screamed. When we emerged from the theatre, we were shaking and hardly able to light our cigarettes.

We made it home, discussed the film for a while, and eventually stopped shivering and went to bed. Janice lef ther bedroom light on. I left my bedroom door open to allow the light from downstairs to filter up. I slept very very badly.