While we lay in bed, we decided that we really wanted to go to a different coffee shop and they both got googling and instagramming respectively. A found two in Primrose hill that he thought looked likely and so they headed off on a long wander towards Camden, on the way they went through Camden Market which had reopened and, although they didn’t buy orange juice in the end, it was really nice to see all the shops open and the smells reminded Alex of when he was young and used to hang around. They eventually found The Little One’ coffee shop which was an small batch roastery with loads of kids and families hanging around. They got two OFWs, but upon tasting were worried about whether it really was Oatly. They chatted about deferral and A had used a little bit of time in bed to work out his thoughts on whether visiting the USA but deferring would be a more sensible plan than committing to be there the whole time, especially when everything was so uncertain. On the way to the park, they met Steph and Paul from A&O outside a smoothie place. They chatted for about 15mins about A&O, NY, how long Alex and Leila have been dating (unclear), and GS people that they both know. Leila thought it was weird they’d bumped into so many acquaintances over the last 2 days on their trips around London but also really nice. They sat on Primrose Hill for a few minutes having the coffee (L gave hers to A because of lack of Oatly) and then headed back because it was nearing time for D&D via Coffee Jar for a second coffee and Sainsbury’s to pick up their new wok. On return, Alex committed to learning how to drive and they continued chatting about his deferral for a bit. Leila was starving on return and made a little salad thing with her spelt soda bread and real butter which was amazing. Alex decided he wanted bread too and made toast despite his mum telling him not to eat lunch ahead of their picnic.
Alex’s D&D was cancelled last minute so instead he cleaned up our previous blog posts and they started looking at holiday venues again. L was feeling tired and decided not to workout but instead showered and listened to Gandhi’s grandson talk about why people want to tear down his statues right now as they feel he did do enough to help black minorities, and just focused on Asians. He was really humble and honest and openly slated Trump and his visit to the Ashram which he was a complete waste of time and a photo opportunity only. Then Alex headed to Barbican to the park near his grandma’s and his entire family were there having a picnic. His mum brought wine and had made a tart and lots of goodies and his grandma gave him flakes. They chatted about deferral, jobs, how life was going and A’s grandma and grand aunt liked his haircut (surprising). Food was yummy and was nice to be out with the grandma and her sister. A was checking the Chelsea score who were 0-1 v. Aston Villa at half time, L also checked the score and worried that A would come back really moody. Meanwhile, Leila looked at some more holiday venues in Dorset and finished The Three Body Problem. She then joined the JFR call and headed our for a walk to CDY which was really busy and she sat by the canal and the jazz man on the book shop boat and walked all the way to Barnsbury before it started looking like it was going to rain. She listened to the Economist at 1.5x speed (learning from her boyfriend) and then on her way back stopped at Cos which had just opened and did not have any hand sanitizer (poor) but she bought a cheap shirt which she will now return.
A’s grandma wasn’t able to change the times on her clocks after an electricity outage the previous week, so A (as he was the one with a mask in his bag) headed up to adjust them. While he was up there, his grandma showed him her paint by numbers painting, which was actually really good but some of the colours were likely wrong. She then pulled out a bunch of old photos while she was looking for the instructions and showed him pics of his dad, cousins etc. Everyone looked so young and his dad looked 100% different as a child (everyone else was at least a little recognisable). He took a selfie with the mask – he was super safe the whole time. As a reward his grandma gave him a pack of flakes. On the cycle home he listened to the radio commentary on the Chelsea game and thought it was good Karma which led to the eventual 2-1 to Chelsea final score.
Leil arrived back into the house just as the match finished. She was immediately a bit more anxious despite having a lovely few hours out alone and wondered if it was her new medication again. She lay on the sofa listening to emotional classical music for a while just thinking and then A came down wearing his pretty new white shirt and they chatted for a bit. They headed out to CDY for a drink as lots of places opened earlier in the week (Caravan, German Gymnasium, Vinoteca etc). They got 2 cheap wines from GG – Alex got the Romanian one which was way better and he knew immediately that L would prefer his so he tried to offer it to her. Then he ordered snacks from Caravan without letting L know and she worried because she loves having input on these things and their taste buds are famously different in some ways. However, it could not have been more spot on – jalapeño cornbread and lentils, avo, green beans and tahini. L was super happy (there was also old school RnB on in the background) but it got a bit windy on their table so they moved down by the canal and finished off with their feet over the edge. It was nice and romantic, until the plastic fell into the canal and they both stressed. Alex lay flat on the floor (in his new white shirt) and almost submerged his entire arm into the canal to rescue the fork. He was successful.
They returned and A had a flake, L had half a cookie and they booked their first AirBnB on a dairy farm in Dorset near the Jurassic Coast and sorted out Norfolk too. Then they watched the first hour of The Theory of Everything which was really good before heading to bed where they had a nice chat and L told A stories about his life in the next year in different scenarios. A insisted they had a dog called Tootsie in the stories……….
L felt like she couldn’t sleep and so they stayed up a bit longer and chatted but she felt quite content and happy. TBC.
Coffee, Wine and Isolation 