Monday Monday

There are officially two more days left in 'full term' which means I only have (wait, I have to count) one supervision, one class and two, two-hour lectures left! I will have a couple more supervisions after term is officially over, but I need a finish line to push for. I still have quite a lot of Arabic and a few more essays to write before I am free. And by 'free' I mean free to start revising anything I may have neglected this term. Cambridge really doesn't do the whole concept of an actual holiday. Oh well, I can push through it!

It was an absolutely stunning day today, and to celebrate I have another photo of that terribly exciting view:

I got up this morning to be at the boathouse at seven, and we had the most glorious weather for outing. Just warm enough so as to be comfortable, sunny, no wind.. Just beautiful. Sadly as soon as the outing was over I went straight back to my room for work work work, but at least I got to enjoy a very cheerful breeze!

Anyway, as promised, a recap of my Saturday London adventures with Mummy!

We aimed to start relatively early on Saturday morning, but both Mummy's and my body clock's thought otherwise, and we ended up having a leisurely morning. Mumz went for a run, and I hopped down and next door to Mark's and Spencer's to grab some breakfast. (I love M&S - it's a supermarket/department store, and is rather more upscale than I normally experience. Special treat from Mum!)

Everything was delicious as ever (Pain au chocolat for Mum, muesli for me, gummies for both of us!)

Our destination for the morning was Sir John Soane's Museum, which I've wanted to visit since the History of Collecting course I took in my second year. We took the tube to Holborn, and walked around a bit until we found the museum. We noticed a queue outside, so decided to try and find a loo before joining in. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on the circumstances) there is some kind of coffee joint every three feet in London, so we easily found a Starbucks. Because I have some sort of inability to just go into a place, use their bathroom, and leave, I bought a tiny Red Velvet Whoopie Pie. It was just so cute.

I couldn't resist. I didn't really like the inside bit (unsurprising since I don't like frosting) but the cake was tasty. Mumzy and I shared it while we waited.

Mumz demonstrates its deliciousness.

Sadly I have no photos from the museum itself, as no photography permitted, but here is a photo cheekily stolen from the internet that gives a good sense of what it was like. This really doesn't do it justice though.

Essentially, It's the private collection of one man (Sir John Soane, in fact), as he displayed it in his home. It was ideal for someone like me, who likes stuff. :)

Post museum it was time to find food. We'd planned to find somewhere quick like my old classic standby, Pret a Manger, but as we were walking back towards the main drag spied a cafe sign, and thought it worth investigating. Good decision, since we found a little (well, not very little actually) neighbourhood-style cafe, with coffee, cakes and food!

We got a broccoli & stilton soup to share (mm cheese) for a starter. They also had bread lying out, with big hunks of butter and your choice of any possible bread topping.

For more substantial eatings, Mum got a sandwich and I had eggs on toast. (I have become English in this respect. Love eggs. Love bread. Put them together!)

Fluffy yellowly delicious! On amazing sourdough bread. Massive success. I was too intrigued by their cakey goods to leave them untried, so picked up a jam flapjack to go. (We also got some coffee to keep us going through the food coma).

From there we decided to walk to Covent Garden, since didn't have too much time before I had to get my train back to Cam. We just wandered in and out of shops, and enjoyed the atmosphere.

The highlight of Covent Garden was actually our stop at the London Transport Museum. We wanted to explore this in more detail, but since we were pressed for time only went into the gift shop. However, it was an amazing giftshop. At some point when it's not dark I will attempt to take decent photos of some of our purchases. Basically, they had merchandise relating to every element of London from every era. It was awesome. And I stocked up. Obviously.

When we could no longer delay, and our appetite for materialism had been sated, we headed back to the hotel for me to pick up my bag and get my train! On the way, however, we had to stop in a supermarket to stock up on goodies. For some reason, I usually feel guilty buying exciting foodie things for myself, but if Mom is here and willing...I won't say no.. In any case, she needed to pick up a few British novelties to take people back home, and she bought me some biscuits and other little things for the journey/later. Thanks Mum :)

Once the rucksack had been wrangled, we got back in the Tube to head to King's Cross, where I just missed my train back to Cambridge. By 'just' I mean I watched it leave. Oh well. This gave us time to get another cup of tea/coffee, and spent a little more time together! Soon enough, Mumzy put me on my train and back into the Cam bubble I went.

I am now painfully aware of how very present in that bubble I am. My pile of books is glaring at me, but I'm ignoring it and going to bed. A bientot!