Marianne!

I found my old ballet buddy from Texas, Marianne. Our mothers went to the same high school; in fact my mother introduced her mother to her father. We lost touch after she moved to Amarillo as a teenager, and then she went to Austin when I moved to Holland. Marianne is now some kind of artiste, a folk singer slash playwright. She picked me up from Fulham Broadway and took me to a barbeque at her guitarist's house. Leon was grilling up sausages, which was a gift from the gods, as I was famished after having only 2 crackers and about eight grapes all day. Marianne and I each had a bottle of Spanish red wine, and got ridiculously drunk, or caned as they call it here. Leon then took us to different pubs. Marianne was in the middle of a band drama with the other female member and her husband of her band, so we sent naughty text messages all night. There's drunk dialing, but we were drunk texting, which was apparant the next day when we read how we were too drunk to "boycycle" home -- the freudian slip here apropos... We ended up spending the night on Leon's uncomfortable futons. I remember thinking it was weird to be sleeping in a part of London I had no idea how to locate -- was it North? East? West?. Marianne and I woke at 8 am, and kept talking like silly schoolgirls about boys and men. Leon was asleep, so I did the dishes. Marianne kept telling me it was so "Texas of me," but it was the least I could do after his kind babysitting, and all the cups of tea he made for us post pubbing.

Marianne and I went then, unshowered and horribly hungover, to have coffee at the Flea Pit (unforunate name) at the Columbia flower market. It was fantastic. I loved the servingware the cafe used. Very 60s and 70s and all mix and match. Outside it was a beautiful market with beautiful flowers. She bought me two orchid plants for my room, and some heather for her own garden. We stopped at a place to have cupcakes which made me feel like I was in kindergarten when it was someone's birthday and the mom brought cupcakes for the class.

After walking through the hip crowds and pretty ferns and plants, we went to my place and then walked through my neighborhood which is actually INTERESTING!!!! I haven't been to the north part of Camden where all the markets were... Wow! She also showed me Primrose Hill, which is upscale and sedate, but more importantly adjacent to Camden. Tuesday I will go back and apply for cafe jobs there.

To cap it off we had a fantastic dinner at Belgo, where I had BELGIAN food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mussels and frites, creme brulee, more wine... I was in heaven! She also reminded me of something important: she said that it was okay not to know what I wanted to do with my life, as the most interesting people in the world don't.

Marianne and I are doing the flower market thing as our Sunday ritual. It was great to hook up with an old friend, one from Texas no less (here come the accents...), and see London with a pro. Magnificent day.