A busy weekend

I bumped into L on campus on Friday, and we arranged to go exploring together on Saturday. So, after getting up a bit later than I'd intended, and rushing to get my light fixed before it was time to meet her, I set off with her on what was originally supposed to be a stroll round our area to see what was there, but which turned out to be an amazing trek round London, during the course of which we pretty much covered half of the city's tourist attractions, mainly because I was so keen to show her everything.
We walked to the Bank of England, then St Pauls, popped inside briefly but didn't go very far as there was an entrance fee (we were only going to have a quick look inside anyway), went over the Millennium Bridge (something I'd been wanting to do for ages but had somehow never got around to when I was living in London before), went into the Tate Modern to have a look at whatever was in the Turbine Hall, but they were in the process of putting up the next installation so we just saw some things that looked like smaller versions of water chutes, walked along the embankment, browsed in the second hand bookstalls in front of the National Film Theatre (I found a book that I'd resisted the temptation to buy in W H Smith the other day and was momentarily excited, but it was actually more expensive, since it was hardback and a first edition), crossed back over on Hungerford Bridge (in spite of having lived in London for for years, I only just found out it's a foot as well as a rail bridge)- I was keeping an eye open, and just before we crossed I spotted the restaurant I needed to come back to in the evening for S's party- had lunch in a small park near Embankment, went to Trafalgar Square, sheltered from the rain in the porch of the National Gallery, then went in to use their loo, had a bit more of a look at Trafalgar Square in the sunshine (I told L about Ken Livingstone's controversial pigeon strategy), went to Piccadilly Circus and the Japan Centre (where I stocked up on some Japanese ingredients and L found some Korean spicy sauce (she taught English in South Korea for a year), went to China Town, passing briefly by Leicester Square, where L found a Korean and Japanese shop I'd never noticed before that had the sauce slightly cheaper, and she got nostalgic over the Korean and Japanese sweets and snacks, went through a corner of Covent Garden, pushing our way through the crowds and past the people pretending to be statues, went down to the Strand and along to Aldwych, worked out which stop the buses for halls went to and from, for L's future reference coming to LSE, and found a landmark that she could use to know when to get off till she got familiar with the route, walked down Fleet Street, where a rainbow appeared, and on into the City, which was serenely tranquil compared to both its usual weekday self and the places we'd just come from, pressed on to Monument, looked up at the gold thing on top and walked round it, then went up Gracechurch St and back to Liverpool St. My feet were protesting in no uncertain terms by the time we got to Monument, or even before, but it was a great outing and definitely worth it.
When we got to Liverpool St, it was already time for me to meet Ginger, so I said goodbye to L who continued on to halls. Ginger and I then also went back, and she dumped her stuff, and we got ready. We then intended to take the 26 down to Waterloo, but all the 26s that came were stopping short of that, closer and closer to Liverpool St- I'm not quite sure why. So in the end we took a 388 to Blackfriars and walked, which made us a bit late. Pretty much everyone else had already arrived. I didn't know most of them- they were people S met at work, or people brought along by people S met at work. But I was there*, and another friend/ acquaintance from my course whom I hadn't seen for years. Actually, I generally find it hard to hear what he's saying, and this time he was on the other side of I to me, and I could barely hear a word, so I suppose the pleasure of seeing him again was more than outweighed by the embarrassment of seeming like I didn't want to talk to him. Ah well.
The restaurant was called Iguana and served South American food, which was very nice, and cocktails, which were even nicer. In a moment of slight awkwardness, it turned out that our table, led by I, me and Ginger, had gone for starters, while the other hadn't. I (me) had a mango and brie tortilla as a starter and then a kind of stuffed butternut squash as a main course, which was really excellent, and I, Ginger, and I shared a pitcher of a cocktail with watermelon in it. Two pitchers actually.
At one point, I went to the loo, and this girl who must have been about ten years old was going down the stairs in front of me, and kept giving me funny looks. I couldn't work out what I could possibly have done to offend her. Then, when I had just gone into a cubicle and closed the door, she called out 'I like your dress!' Thinking hurriedly back to the scene just before I'd closed the door, I decided that she could only have been talking to me, and said 'Thanks!', being completely stumped for anything else to say. Bizarre. It is a nice dress, though, if I say it myself. I made it out of some silver satin I got as a remnant in John Lewis a few years ago, so it only cost me something like ten or fifteen pounds, and it's a strappy empire line style. I was pleased that S said she was going to dress up for her party, because I like an excuse to wear things like that.
All in all, it was a good party, though I'd moved slightly beyond the happy stage to the a-little-silly stage by the end (those of us who didn't have to hurry off also had some of the red wine someone gave S as a present). But Ginger and I managed to negotiate the bus back home and sign her in again at the entrance (contrary to what we were told earlier by the bloke on reception when we specifically asked, but in accordance with the wishes of the bloke who was there when we got back), and stayed up talking for a few hours before turning in.
This morning, I cooked her a Japanese style breakfast with some of the stuff I got at the Japan centre yesterday- rice with seaweed and pickled plums (umeboshi) and miso soup with tofu. As I only had two bowls though we had to have the soup and then the rice, which in any case took ages to cook, and wasn't that good because I hadn't got anything to wash it in so missed out that step. Ginger left soon after we finished eating, and I decided to do some laundry since I found, by stopping a girl on the stairs who was carrying an empty laundry bag and some washing powder, that the washing machines were finally ready (being a new hall they hadn't quite finished them when we moved in). They hadn't put a notice up or anything, though they did tell us the machines would be free for a week to compensate for them being late.
Before I could do the laundry, though, I needed some washing liquid. The plan was to go to Spitalfield Organics which is just round the corner and has Ecover products, which are better for the environment. But while I was out, I also wanted to get whatever I needed for supper, so as not to have to go out again. I decided what I wanted to cook, worked out that I needed an aubergine and some marscarpone in addition to what I already had, and went to Tesco's, a bit further down the same road, but it didn't have either. So I came back to Spitalfield Organics, got the washing liquid and some of the nice raspberry yogurt I've become addicted to for breakfast- I hadn't realised they sold it there, but was very pleased to find they did as I already knew they didn't have it in Tesco's and had been getting it from the Sainsbury's near LSE which is obviously a lot further away. They also had plenty of other good stuff, which I shall be coming back for sometime, including almost enough Japanese ingredients to make trips to the Japan centre redundant.
I got an aubergine and some figs (an impulse buy) from a vegetable stall in Spitalfields market, but in spite of the market and surrounding shops including several places that sold stuff like olives and other deli ingredients, I couldn't find any marscapone cheese. In the end I went to Tesco's on Bishopsgate, which I'd always assumed was the same size as the one I'd just been to without any luck, on Commercial Road, but which actually turned out to be very big inside and did stock marscapone.
So then I went back and put the washing on and rigged up a clothes line with some string and hoovered my room and tried to clean the bathroom a little (but found I really needed some kind of cleaning agent, cream cleanser or something) and went back and got my clothes and hung them out.
Supper didn't turn out quite as I'd planned- I wanted to make kind of rissoles with the spare rice from breakfast, pickled plums and miso, and some gyoza (Japanese dumplings) using up my vegetables as the filling with some marscapone, but neither quite worked. The rice wouldn't solidify into fritters, even when Flatmate 7, who's really nice and from Taiwan, and whom I was talking to while I made supper (mostly about food- what I was making, and Taiwanese and Japanese food) offered me an egg, so, inspired by something she'd said, I went for making it into egg fried rice flavoured with miso and umeboshi instead. It tasted quite nice, but would have been better as rissoles. The gyoza took ages (chopping the vegetables into very small pieces and laboriously filling and sealing each gyoza wrapper) but went perfectly untill I came to the second stage of their cooking- after browning the bottoms, I would always pour a little water over them, following what I'd seen done on a Japanese cookery programme, then let it boil away, cooking the top halves of the gyoza and leaving a sort of wafer made of the starch or whatever that washed off the gyoza wrappers, and the gyoza would then lift out in one sheet with the wafer, which could be cut away. But the gyoza stuck to the pan this time and every single one left its bottom behind when I tried to get them off, so they all had big holes. I think it's because the pan I had in Japan was non stick and had ridges, though it could be that, unused to electric cookers, I went on heating for too long. They weren't that great taste wise either- I think because I don't have any salt yet (keep forgetting to buy it) and so couldn't add any to the vegetables while I was stir frying them before adding the marscapone. Never mind, maybe it'll all work better next time!

*That is, the friend from university to whom I am referring by the letter I, not I myself. Yes, I know this is going to be confusing. But you'll work it out