Shorthand! Pizza! Michael Caine!

I'm typing this at an insanely late hour, considering the time I woke up (and the fact that I am an old lady now), but I'm too tired to work out how long ago that was, so you are spared for now. 

My shorthand exam this morning was... well, I'm not sure. I think I'm exactly 50-50 - I know I made at least two mistakes, and I'm not sure how well I've recalled the phrasing of some of the sentences in the middle, given that I was 3 or 4 behind the actual dictation at one point, but then, there is some margin for error, and I wasn't sure about my recall last time. We shall see.

The afternoon was mostly taken up with wrestling with my video piece, trying to upload it so I can start work on the editing. It's quite frustrating that we haven't seen our teacher for a while, as I think quite a few of us need help/guidance. I have to say, I don't like VJ-ing. It's bad for the nails. 

The evening, however, was good fun (and I felt I deserved it, after hours in a sweltering computer room while a significant proportion of the class had gone straight to the pub (some of them may still be there), although I had Normandy to keep me company so it wasn't all bad). Whizzkid is leaving for Norwich tomorrow (today, in fact), to resume his student life, so we had to meet up one last time, despite his unfinished packing and my lack of life this month. We met in Trafalgar Square, although as anyone who knows him very well will have realised, when I say this I mean that I waited for him in Trafalgar Square for about 15 minutes before getting a phonecall updating me on his co-ordinates. I was asked for directions twice and a tourist had taken a photograph of me before he eventually rocked up. But such is life (or rather, such is Whizzkid), and I can't pretend punctuality is my own most obvious virtue. 

I did have time for some touristy snaps while waiting:

Your taxes at work

After some wandering around in the general vicinity looking for somewhere with cheap-ish food and a free table, we found an Italian place with a 2-for-1 deal on pizza. I was actually quite impressed - when they did manage to seat us, the service was excellent (although this may have something to do with the fact that, near-overcome with thirst and hunger, I flagged down a waiter less than a minute after we'd been handed our menus and we reeled off our orders at top speed. I'm normally much more polite, I should add, and let them get round to me like a civilised person, but I was in a fit state to beat a path to the kitchen at that stage), the food was good and arrived very quickly, the waiters were all rather nice Italian types, and it was, with the deal, gratifyingly reasonable, at £25.31 for the both of us (including a beer and ice cream for Whizzkid and a coke for me).

Delicious technically free pizza

Emerging from the restaurant rather full (I speak entirely for myself on this front, as Whizzkid has the hollow leg syndrome often found in skinny young men) we ended up wandering around Soho for a while (very interesting, but a lot of the people there didn't seem particularly receptive to amateur photography), visiting a Japanese supermarket called Arigatou, which stocked, to Whizzkid's delight, mayonnaise in bags. From there we made our way up Regent Street to Bond Street, stopping to see a Thai restaurant with a large and mystifying display of what appeared to be moss in the window, and a large waxwork of Michael Caine in a tourism bureau window:

Am I alone in discerning a vague likeness to Wheels?

There were quite a few stretch limos out (and stretch other things as well), with quite impressive stereo systems, from the sounds of things. In the shopping district, we found Whizzkid a nice grey jumper in (you guessed it) Uniqlo, to go under his new coat, as all his other jumper-style clothes have hoods, which just don't work. We visited the waffle stall next to Bond Street underground station (if you've ever ascended the steps of that station, you'll know the one I mean, by smell at least) and devoured our waffles on another walk, this time to Waterloo. I'm still full. 

Whizzkid is going to miss London very much

We caught different trains from Waterloo. When I'd sat down in mine, I realised I had the bag with Whizzkid's new jumper in it (I'd somehow ended up carrying it for the poor shivering mite (he forgot his scarf. Bad move)), so had to make a bit of a dash to his platform to pass it over the barriers to him. I've done too much exercise today!

W very kindly gave me a lift from the station, sparing me yet more walking today, and I have been relaxing quite quietly on a sofa for the past few hours. I'm not sure if I'm actually going to be able to wake up tomorrow...

On that note, goodnight!

P.S.: Good luck in Norwich, Whizzkid!