I woke up before everyone else (something like 10:00?) and grabbed a hot sandwich and coffee from Apostrophe, in hopes of getting closer to filling up my Apostrophe card before I leave (unlikely). By the time I had completed the sandwich, the other three had awoken, and I was instructed to pick up groceries for breakfast, which I did, first with Natalia and then again with Amy. Joe cooked some exceptionally good eggs and toast and bacon, which I scarved down despite just having had a sandwich and being already full. The four of us kind of chit chatted in the kitchen for a while, not necessarily with everybody else at the same time, and I tried not to get in the way while others cooked and cleaned. Natalia went somewhere (a museum?) and Joe went upstairs I think, and I chatted with Amy and then I took the tube and a train to Finsbury Park (by now it is already 4:00 p.m.)
Here, I met Eve and Jesse (my other coupled American friends in London) and their friends (another couple) for bowling at Rowans. I was 45 minutes late, so they had started playing my game. Whoever had been bowling for me was doing quite well, but I kind of blew it. Did much better on my second try, I think I ended up with something like a 136. Or maybe it was 126. Either way, it was the best I had bowled in years, something like 6 spares (but zero strikes). There was nostalgia value in this, of course, as Eve was among the larger group in late high school that would go bowling on a regular basis. 12 years ago.
In the arcade was a large neon sign that said "Los Angeles."
We took a bus to dinner. On the bus, I was explaining to Jesse how I got paint on my jacket in Zermatt and was considering using nail polish remover to remove it. This Turkish looking lady sitting next to where we were standing suggested using "white spirits" to remove it. Then her 6 year old daughter announced that Jesse was a "proper man" and that I was not, presumably because he is taller. I countered by asking how tall she was (much shorter than me) but she defeated me by rolling her eyes and saying "But I'm six!" I asked her how old she thought we were and she said "seven", so she wasn't that smart. Later on, a drunk lady tried to show us her gold tooth.
Dinner at Mangal 1. There was a large display case full of raw shish kebabs (and the like) and next to it, a smoking wood grill, and a fat guy sitting in front of the grill placing the kebabs on. The five of us shared a number of grilled items and salad and it was very, very good. There was something we ate that I think was called "meat bread". At dinner, I learned that one of the friends is the guitarist for the Modern English.
This was followed by a bar, and lively discussion, which was followed by my realizing that it was after midnight and the tube would no longer be running, and Eve and Jesse suggesting that I sleep on the pull out at their Stoke Newington apartment and my quickly accepting this offer. I stayed with them long ago on my 2005 trip to London, and their new place is much nicer.
Camera Obscura -- Let's Go Bowling
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