Leila woke up at 8.50am and spent 5 minutes searching every fitness exercise platform she knew of to see if there was a live barre class starting at 9.30am. She gave up after a few minutes of searching, but then at 8.57am found that there was one starting at 9am. She leapt out of bed and started the class without even brushing her teeth (it felt so weird). Alex was happy to have a bit of a lie in.
After the class, they both showered and got ready for their day trip. They took the 11.12 train to Cambridge from Kings Cross stopping on the way to the station at Sourced market, where they shared an Oat Flat White that was actually quite tasty.
The train was pretty empty and they both wore their masks, taking them off only to sip coffee. They blogged and did some admin on the train, arriving in Cambridge only 50 minutes later. They headed straight for coffee to Espresso Library on arrival and it was relatively quiet given today, 4th July, was the first day restaurants and pubs could open inside (along with hairdressers and some other things.. not waxing studios). They shared one coffee again which was OK, not brilliant. They had to sign a paper form with their contact details for the Track and Trace and they were a little bit horrified about how old school and poorly done the system was.
Then they headed to market square and bought some prawn and chive dumplings from the stand Leila loves. Market Square was pretty busy and they then walked down by Magdalene, and up round the back of the colleges en route to Sidgwick site. They bumped into a girl Leila met on the GS Spring Internship a few years ago and had a quick chat. Sidgwick Site was empty and nothing had changed, apart from the addition of “Boutique Espresso” onto the Buttery doors, which Leila found mildly offensive given the quality of their coffee. They talked about how Alex wanted to improve the food offering on the site, but couldn’t due to the monopoly. They sat on the bench for a little and reflected before heading back via Grange Road and a very new looking Newnham College. They couldn’t get into Selwyn (or any other college sadly), all closed to visitors due to COVID. They chatted throughout the day about how they felt at Cambridge, their friendships and things they did. They both feel they weren’t themselves though L didn’t feel like this at the time but A did a little more.
They then headed to The Mill which was doing outdoor pints so they grabbed one and sat by the canal and talked more about how they felt at Cambridge. It started raining and L wrapped her green cardigan around her head for a while. Then they headed back into town and grabbed lunch from the Falafel Van, which Alex loves. Despite asking for his Fiery Wrap to be 10/10 spicy, it still wasn’t spicy enough for him. They ate the falafels on King’s Parade. Then they headed back to Grand Arcade for a spot of shopping and L went to Rigby & Peller and found a super cheap bra in the brand she likes thanks to the really friendly shop assistant there. She loved that she was asked to wear gloves to touch all the lingerie and hopes this sticks going forward. Then they went to Zara (as L was really excited about her cheap bra and wanted to shop more), but it was a disappointment. M&S was eerily empty but L found a bra for 1.99 GBP which scared her more than it excited her because of the state of retail shopping. Then they headed to Cambridge Wine Merchants which now has seats outside but it was fully booked. Instead they tried their luck at Varsity Rooftop which is usually crazy busy but today was empty. They sat on the roof and had a glass of Malbec and a cocktail. They talked about their potential travel plans for the year and how they should double date more.
They headed back to the station afterwards, and ran a little at the end to make the train. They watched Chelsea win 3-0 on the train back and A was getting super nervous the entire time and stopped looking at the screen loads. On arrival back, they both showered and L made a salad. They finished off watching Chelsea, L called Anish and then they went to bed. A nice day out filled with lots of memories.
Coffee, Wine and Isolation 