Happily, I was able to leave at breaktime on Friday and travel to London for an exam board thing, which was a bit amorphous but did involve some merch, including little branded cupcakes, and a catch up with current and previous bosses. Afterwards, we all went to a nearby pub for some drinks with the guys I see every year at the May conference I go to, and usually only then - what a treat to get an extra evening with them. There was a gradual peeling away until it was just two of us but we managed to make the evening last until 10.30. I didn't even really notice I hadn't eaten dinner until I was in bed later.
It made me reflect a bit about how hard it can be to make friends as an adult and how it's even harder to make friends with members of the opposite sex, due to the obvious. I also met up with this one - R - in July for drinks but it feels hard to suggest meeting just the two of us. How do you do that without potentially sounding like you're asking them on a date? Or does it just not sound like that: is that not what is assumed? I will continue my experiments in this area. We're probably going to the theatre together in December; I finally felt able to ask after five rounds of drinks. Absurd.
Saturday was a lovely sunny London day; I took myself to the Last Princesses of the Punjab exhibition at Kensington Palace, to a conference at the British Library, then on a long walk to Trafalgar Square via an ice cream shop recommended on Ruby Tandoh's central London ice cream map (I recommend this). Mango and Milo in a black cone. Lush.
I had a quick wander around the National Gallery which closed much earlier than expected, then tried to catch a bus back to my hotel in Kensington. It drove straight past me but I remembered that, the previous night, I'd been stuck on said bus in traffic not much further on, so I walked its route and overtook it, catching it at Green Park, where a woman was sitting in the actual bus stop on her suitcase (why, just why). I got a very early night after some Sticks n Sushi and some sweet treats from Whole Foods and with the new book I've started, Land by Maggie O'Farrell (superb). I had a very restful night.
This morning, I went over to Liberty and managed to get their last Bayeux Tapestry scarf. Then home. I am about to go to bed because I am not sure I will be able to hold out and not check my school email, but I want it to be a properly work-free weekend because that is on my early autumn list. It has been restorative and very much needed. Now only two weeks until half term and this week will be much easier because there are exams happening which halves my lesson count. And I have two nice dinners planned and a sauna booked. I can do this. I will prevail.
As for the rest of the week - a bit of shawl knitting. I have been enjoying Celebrity Traitors and watched Trust Me on Netflix, about Mormon polygamist paedophiles. I had my nails done in a glorious shade of almost-sparkly navy that I can't stop looking at. Not much else to say.
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