London, our London...

[byslantedlight]

It's been that weekend again - The Scarsdale Bash... *sighs happily*

It's so unfair that it's over, and it seemed to go even faster this year (I vote for a long weekend in London again next year!), but it was rather good and full of many Pros-y people including some we don't see very often and new Pros-y people and... just... much happy!

It all started on Friday, a gradual gathering of the troops, until there was eventually catching the Tube to Westminster, and wandering down the Embankment past the Wheel, and through the German Christmas market, with its gluhwein (untasted) and carousel (also untasted)...


...past the fire-juggler on the river shore...


...to a decent pizza place where we sat freezing for ages whilst we waited for a table (well, it was a Friday night in London), but where the company and the views more than made up for it! (Sorry, no picture of the company, we're all shy... *g* But I'm waving to foxcat74, cornishcat, angel_ci5, murphybabe, moonlightmead and msmoat!)

(That's the inky-black water of the Thames, that is, and Christmas decorations beside us, and St Pauls all festively on the opposite bank... *g* Excuse the blur, I swear it wasn't me swaying, it's just that I had neither tripod nor anything to lean against...) There were garlic dough balls, and red wine, and pizza, and more chat, even though it was a proper noisy London restaurant night, and more like shouting across the table... I kept waiting for the room to go silent just as someone said get Doyle's cock out or the like... *g*

...and then there was walking back, and working out Tubes, and dodging shopping trolleys tipped down Tube steps by eejits who didn't even bother looking to see if someone might get hurt, but eventually we were back "home".

And it wasn't even Scarsdale Day yet... *g*

But then it was! Five of us woke up in a rather decent YHA ensuite room, and via cups of tea and polishing nails and bits and pieces of sitting gabbing, we managed to get ourselves out and about five steps further along the street to a breakfast shop... *g* Walking to the station a little later on brought an unexpected sight on the London streets - I couldn't get my camera out quickly enough (stoopid cold fingers, stoopid gloves, stoopid purple-sparkly-nail-polish) - a tank! (In my head Cowley was saying It's war! It's bloody war!, and at the same time somehow When is it anything else, Doyle?... *g*)


Bizarrely enough, in the whole rush of London, we bumped into linnhie at Kings Cross, so then there were six! And then we were at the Scarsdale, and there was lisaloveslewis too - yeay! The sky was blue and clear and the sun was shining even though it was - well okay, a bit chilly *g* - but we sat outside under the lads' tree anyway, just because! And that's where rosie55 found us, with her amazingly good box of home-made orangettes and (ohhhh) lemonettes, which I highly recommend! Oh, and then there was msmoat, and elizabethoshea, our constant_muse, greengerbil, ladyhawke2 and a brief glimpse of heliophile_oxon, and... and... and... who am I missing out?! (You must all be dobbed in... *g*) I finally spotted retrogirl73, to whom a hundred thank yous as ever for organising it all, but didn't get a chance to say a proper hello, so extra big waves to you now... And of course there were people at the other end who I didn't know, but they looked like they were enjoying themselves as well... *g* And a wee table of non-lj people right beside us, one of whom had come over here from over there 26 years ago just like me - so hello to Chell too (though I suspect that's not even close to being spelled right... *g*)

Annoyingly, I took a Scarsdale pic for public consumption on my phone, but it seems to have vanished it (too full of pics, I'm told), so you'll have to make do with a quick one of the bar - the Scarsdale in December - and perhaps those up above with our lads getting in the way of the architectural features you'll be wanting to see... *g*


Eventually people started drifting away, because things apparently have to end, but a wee coterie of us were after dinner and Pros-y chat, so via the brilliant memories of constant_muse and greengerbil we found ourselves wandering the moonlit streets...


...until we got to La Pappadella, where the night wore gorgeously on, complete with some rather tasty food, and more Pros-y chat! *g*

(That wasn't actually what I had, but I liked the colours... I had tricolore to start, which was all fresh and full of tomato-avocado-mozzarella goodness, then gnocchi with a tomato, basil and cream sauce - yum - and then a chocolate and hazelnut ice cream thingie for dessert... *sighs happily and wants it again now*

Oddly enough - and rather spookily, I'm thinking (*g*) - we bumped into linnhie at a completely different tube station on the way back to our YHA, so there was a bonus ten minutes with her before more ways were parted, and we were off "home" again, and there was eventually sleep, and...

...and then it was Sunday! We had breakfast at that breakfast shop on Euston Rd again (were we near Pentonville, then? The Angel Islington? Hmmmn! *g*) - no tanks today, but ladyhawke2 and constant_muse came to join the five, and the Pros-iness continued... It's just so nice to be able to talk to people who get it, isn't it! Even when you're not talking Pros, you know that you're with people who get it! *g*


And a wee visit to the British Library, where this chap always startles me - he's somehow bent over in such a lifelike way, and so intensely concentrating! But I can gaze at the dreamy spires of St Pancras too, so that's alright...

...and inside, of course, there are wondrous things, even if the Royal Illuminated Manuscript exhibition turned out to be a bit too rich for our blood... and of course I always enjoy a bonus daydream of Larton Doyle somewhere close by, bent over a table and surrounded by books, researching diligently away and dreaming of Bodie in his jodhpurs at inopportune moments... *g*

And then even the Five had to go our separate ways, though foxcat74 and I clutched at London magic just a wee bit longer with a wander down to Foyles... there may have been buying of books, though we were very good and only bought one each in the end... *g*

And then home! Thank you to everyone who made it yet another gorgeous weekend, and here's to meeting up again very soon indeed!