Weekend shenanigans

Apologis for the lack of post yesterday. I was in London and Waterloo closed insanely early so I had to stay at the flat for the night, and only got back to Woking at 3pm today thanks to engineering works and general laziness. 

As you may have guessed from the above, I actually did something yesterday! Outside! 

Jumanji and I decided to meet up in London yesterday evening for shopping, eating and lots and lots of talking. I also wanted to (finally) give her her birthday present (actually, a month and ten days late is pretty good by our standards).

This is what she got:

Sorry about the blurriness - I took the picture on the train and it wouldn't stop moving!

 All from the local Shiny Shop (that's the technical term). Jumanji likes quirky jewellery (quirky everything, in fact!), and has accumulated bags and bags of the stuff over the years, but I'm not one to judge an addicition.

We had a wander around he Oxford/Bond Street area, trying to find a wedding present for Jumanji to buy her friends. We ended up in Muji, and had tough deliberations over a wooden bowl and matching pairs of slippers. There was also a lot of aimless browsing of clothes shops. I mentioned that I need new clothes I can wear to work and on other outings. The highstreet has other ideas.

The highlight of the evening was a trip to Eat Tokyo, in Soho. They really believe in quantity, as the picture below demonstrates:

Although Jumanji's not complaining

It was also pretty cheap, with a menu that just went on and on. The restaurant itself is tiny, and we had to wait a while in the even tinier entrance for a table, but we kept ourselves entertained. 

Me, trying to hide my atrocious chopstick skills

We each ordered a main and a side dish, which turned out to be quite a lot of food. I had oyakodon and vegetable tempura, and Jumanji had a katsu curry and some sort of tofu I've forgotten the name of. Oh, and some part of my meal came with miso soup, too. We had quite a crowded table:

We didn't manage to finish all of it, sadly, but we tried our best.

After dinner, we had a wander around the (increasingly chilly) streets of Soho, which eventually became a search for dessert. Not just any dessert (the boyf says I'm not allowed to call it 'pudding' unless it actually involves a pudding, but 'dessert' just looks a bit wrong to me), something chocolate-y! Here we had our first encounter with London being a bit pathetic. I don't mean to be overly demanding, but you'd think the celebrated metropolis and largest city in the country would have something open after 11.30pm! We eventually found a cafe where the staff told us they were open as long as we wanted (much more like it!) and had chocolate brownies and chatted for a very long time.

And tea. Don't forget the tea

 Afterwards, we headed back to Waterloo, where I discovered more London patheticness, and had to make other plans.

Today, I made the not-so-wise decision to do a spot of grocery shopping after I got off the train (which took twice as long thanks to engineering works on behalf of my old foe, Clapham Junction). Slogging home with bags of shopping is only fun when they contain clothes and shoes, not milk and cucumbers! My muscles have still not forgiven me.

I haven't had what you'd call a restful weekend, but I had fun! It was really good seeing Jumanji and doing something again! I really enjoy going to work (more than I ever believed possible), but it's easy to get stuck in a rut. I'm back in tomorrow, though, and just about ready for another week!

Goodnight!