Dinner with Easy Rider and Nigel

On Saturday morning, I woke up to find that my flatmate was still sick, and since she was due to leave for her family holiday that day, packed her off to the local walk-in clinic to see if there was anything they could do for her.

My friends who always host me in Edinburgh, Easy Rider and her partner Nigel, were due to come stay with me for the evening, and so they told me they would be at my place at noon to drop off their things before we all had to go out for our various lunch obligations.

Despite that they arrived right at noon, making me a bit late for my lunch departure, when I arrived a half-hour late nobody seemed any the worse for it.

I was at my friend Ali's place, where his girlfriend Nicola was making lunch for all of us. (Ali I'm sure would have pitched in more, if he wasn't feeling so thoroughly rotten and under the weather). My friend Will was there (the chap who had been so helpful with the mulled wine at my open house party), along with Tim (my erstwhile houseguest, who was now in Oxford, but I guess had come down to London for the day), and Toby and Emily (my hosts for the luncheon the week prior). In addition to those I knew, there was James, a young man who was in seminary, studying to be a preacher, although almost finished I take it, with an ordination scheduled for the spring. As well there was Tom, a nice-seeming chap, and some other random guy who left early before we sat down for lunch.

Admittedly "sitting down" for lunch is perhaps a weird way to phrase it, for instead of sitting at the table, Nic dished the lunch out onto plates, and we all sat on couches, eating them on our laps. I mean, there were chairs and a table, what was up with that? I really didn't get it.

After lunch, someone suggested that we take an afternoon constitutional, which made me terribly regret not having remembered to bring my hat. Goodness was it cold out! I spent most of my time just talking to Ali about this and that, as I always love the chance to catch up with him. It was interesting talking to the seminarian about the differences between a vicar and other types of clergy, just those things that you never really think to ask until you have an excellent resource like that right in front of you.

Finally it was getting late (only about 4 PM, but the setting sun had us thinking it was later), and after discovering that Tom was headed in the same direction I was, we decided to take a bus back to Shepherd's Bush together. I said my goodbyes to Tim, and unlike when he first left for Australia, it was just a rushed good-bye, I think we've suffered a bit too much in each other's company on this trip.

On my way home I decided to quickly nip by the Betty Blythe cafe for eggs, and it was really lovely how warm and cozy the cafe seemed on such a bitterly cold winter's night. I really wanted to just stay there with a cup of tea for a while, but it was really time to get home!

When I arrived, my flatmate was still sick but thankfully sleeping, due to some cough syrup they'd given her at the walk-in clinic. (She'd been waking me up with her coughing in the middle of the night, which I didn't really mind, but I'm guessing means she hadn't slept properly in days).

Nigel and Easy Rider arrived back from their lunch appointment, and so we changed and went out to dinner at my club. We ran into Alex, the guy I'd met at the club a few weeks ago who was a re-incarnated llama. He was having his traditional "Christmas drinks" with his friends there at the club and invited us to join him, but I said we were going to go for dinner first, and then we would join them afterwards.

We had a lovely dinner, and Easy Rider and Nigel really seemed to enjoy the club. I was sort of wondering how they would take to it, given that they are very much outdoorsy-type people, not the folks who typically get dressed up in suits and ties. Yet they really seemed to enjoy it, and when Easy Rider spotted the cheese board coming around, just about died with happiness.

I then did with them what I do with all guests, and took them on a tour of the club. We ended up grabbing chairs in the silent library by the fire and just chatting for a while (ironic in the "Silent Library", I know). But given that anyone who passed by assumed that we were in there and being silent, they passed us by, and so we had a nice, cozy spot in our big leather chairs by the fire to just sit and talk.

We eventually ended up back at the bar, and I thought that it was getting late (I was exhausted!) and that Easy Rider and Nigel would want to go home, but they surprised me by insisting that they were up for staying later and taking a cab home. So we joined Alex and his friends (goodness, they were so young, many just 22 or still in school, joking with Easy Rider and Nigel, who are nearly 40!), but everyone seemed to get along brilliantly. We made a lot of jokes about XKCD comics, and they seemed to enjoy the conversation.

When we finally left around 1 AM, it began to snow, and I thought we'd have no chance of finding a cab. But once pulled up very quickly, and just £17 later, we were back home. Compared to walking in the cold and snow, I had to praise Nigel for suggesting we stay late and just take a cab. What a brilliant idea!