London town II

Daniel and I eventually settled on a tube station to meet, after looking up the stops on the site and much texting back and forth. Being in the library has calmed me down a little. I really was trying to push off of the bad feeling considering I'm in bleeping London.

Debating where to go since we really didn't want to waste the day. Ended up settling with Cambridge since London was just a bit painful to go to after the cancelled meet. Cambridge was about a 60-mins or so drive from the town that we're at. So we got there, and went to Nando's which is a Portuguese restaurant. Food was real good, though I only had spiced chicken and rice along with a free drink for first-timers at Nando's. So just walked around Cambridge pretty much and stopped by the mall for a little while. Browsing through the music store, and ended up buying a book which I've kinda been meaning to get for quite sometime. A behind the scenes look on the business side of how the Spice Girls reinvented pop back in the 90's. Did I mention I was a fan? So yeah, ended up buying it at 60 % off. It got me thinking though, about the whole things happen for a reason that people say. I dunno, if the meet/date or whatever was to be cancelled just so I'd be able to find this book hmmm.. That's a bit lame lol since I could have ordered the book online. So ended up just going back to the house, and reading the whole night. Yep, waay to spend a night in England eh.

Thursday - The day finally rolled around though it wasn't a good feeling I had when I woke up. Not getting to see Daniel yesterday really got me frustrated and got me questioning about the whole trip. Laying in bed thinking if I should even bother going through with the whole meeting up thing. I even considered of just packing my stuff up and heading to a hostel around London until I fly out of the country. It is good getting to see my friend Jim, but it just didn't seem like it was enough. I just wanted to leave everything behind and be in company of strangers since the whole cancelling thing really pissed me off, if it hasn't been obvious.

Looking back I can't pinpoint what helped to kinda change my mood for the day since all I remember now was showering, then us driving to base to get gas and grab something to eat. So we left the base and headed out to the station so I can catch the tube, along with our lunch. During this drive was the only time I got nervous about meeting up with Daniel, mixed with excitement that FINALLY, we'll get to meet, a day after the planned date (the time to meet, not the other thing called 'date'. It's not really a date now, is it?) So we finally arrived at Redbridge where I'm gonna have to catch a ride to Shadwell station which is 2 zones away from each other.

The meet up time was at 4 pm but I didn't get to catch one until around 3:30 pm. So was just thinking, heh, I should be able to make it on time. Well 4 pm rolls around and am still on the Central line just approaching Bank station. And from there, would have to switch to Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to get to Shadwell. Well with two suitcases, weighing about 20 kilos each, it was a bit of a struggle having to walk up and down the stairs to get to the other line I had to catch. Finally got to Shadwell, feeling not so fresh after all these damn walking, around 4:15 . Got off the railway, and was gonna start descending down a flight of stairs, until one girl mentioned that I can just use the elevator. Wheeew! (It was actually the girl that I smiled at during the ride, so note * smiling really does make a difference)

Finally got on the first floor after the descent which seemed to take foreverrrrr. So hopped out of the elevator, and looked around the station, trying to find Daniel or someone that resembled him and nada. He was nowhere to be found. I dunno, felt a little annoyance that he could not have hang around a little longer, if he actually did come. 30 ft away from the stairs was a payphone, so went and called Jim letting him know that I got to Shadwell just fine, with no Daniel in sight. Asked him to text Daniel and mention that I'm at the train station waiting. I tried calling Daniel but only got his voicemail so just left a message on it as well. After two phone calls, I still had credit left on the payphone but I really can't get my change back. Good thing that some girl was standing, waiting to use it so I told her that she can just go ahead since I still had some credit left. She had a look on her face like if I was kidding or something. I dunno, it seems like these days, people don't expect any good thing done to them that if you act kind or corteous, they're just in shock that someone was nice to them. That made me feel good inside so I stepped aside by my luggage and was sweating and looking around trying to find a familiar face. And right when I looked at the stairs, a guy in a brown leather jacket, waved at me smiling, and all the anger from the day before just went away and all I can think of was how glad I was that I came.