After arriving in Putney on Saturday morning and being let in by Jackie (mum was her bridesmaid when mum was only about 13 so Jackie is a family friend from way back), I was sitting in the kitchen, chatting, when Donna comes running down the stairs and I get a huge and long hug. We hadn’t seen each other in person since November last year and who knows when we’ll next be in the same country together. I was very happy to see her again. She looks like she’s grown.
The three of us chatted in the kitchen for a while before I could stay upright no more and trundled upstairs for a short nap. I know, a cardinal sin of fighting jetlag, but there was just no way I was going to be able to do anything without a bit of shut eye. Jackie was also getting ready to go away for the weekend.
I had set my alarm but only for weekdays so it didn’t go off as expected and Donna had to rouse me from a very deep and needed sleep. We were due in Camden Town by 1pm to meet Ashley and Karen for lunch. A quick freshen up and we were out the door, catching the bus, then the overland, then the tube up to Camden.
The weather was amazing. First real day of summer I think. Not a cloud in the sky, the air warming up to about 26 or 27 and sunshine everywhere. People were out in their tens of thousands. Camden was absolutely packed with people taking advantage of the sunshine so we joined the throng as it pushed out of the underground.
Karen (a childhood friend of mum’s) and Ashley (her wife) were waiting for us at the gates, we hugged and said our hellos, then set off for fish and chips at a place further down the markets. It was wonderful to see them again as the last time for me was early last year and Donna would have been a few years ago. Despite our connection on Facebook, there was still so much to talk about and we happily passed through a couple of hours.
We all then went for a bit of a walk through the markets and they showed us Cyberdog, which was an amazing store filled with dancer/raver clothes. There was even a girl and a guy on a platform up high dancing away in the middle of a sunny Saturday. The clothes were mostly glow-in-the-dark/neon wear, some truly awesome outfits, and it would have been exactly the sort of place I would have bought up big about ten years ago. Was very tempted to get a few things as it was.
Ashley and Karen needed to head off to a hen’s night in London so we said our goodbyes about 2:30pm and Donna and I walked through the markets a bit more. Originally I was intent on heading home but saw that Hampstead wasn’t all that far away and being such a nice day thought it would be a good idea to go to the Heath. I’d only ever been there once before with Glen and a friend from Australia and Donna had never been so it was a good opportunity.
Caught the tube, got out at Hampstead then walked down the long street to get to the Heath. We bought fruit salad from the M&S nearby and headed onto the Heath with a million other people. People in England go crazy when the sun comes out. I think it must have to do with very few people having gardens of their own so they go to these large parklands to soak it up.
We walked through it for a bit before finding a shady spot in a field and sitting down to chat and eat (more eating). We stayed until about 5pm before walking to Belsize Park to catch the tube home. It’s been so wonderful to see Donna again and there’s so much to talk about.
We were catching the Victoria line down to Vauxhall when the tube stopped one before the station we needed (at Pimlico) and the driver announced that there was a person on the tracks so the Victoria line had been shut off. Donna and I beat most of the crowd out of the station and walked over the bridge to Vauxhall to catch the overland back to Putney. Smart move. I’m sure it would have been hours before they got it moving again.
I was surprised that they announced it was a person on the track (whether they’d jumped or fallen) as I would have thought they wouldn’t want that bit of information out there. Turns out people want to know the reason, no matter what it is.
Back in Putney we went for dinner at Wagamama then back to the house to watch a couple of episodes of Ringer on my laptop before we went to bed (I was falling asleep, or had fallen asleep rather, on the sofa).
I must say, it wasn’t such a bad effort to achieve all that the same day as I arrived. Almost as good as going to a three-day outdoor rave in Stratford the same day as landing in London after flying from Perth. But I was 19 then so that was nothing.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?