Sunday, 26th June.

What a bizzare day.

A whole year since I graduated. A whole year since that Dr Who finale and the cracks in the walls, and Hannah's amazing call on the sleeve of a jacket..

In the morning, a nice amble back. A shower, and lots and LOTS of sunshine.

Meeting for lunch. Wait outside in the sun. First pub does not do food (definitely missing a trick), so have a drink, and wander to the second pub. It does food, with a 50 minute wait.

We wait.

I believed it would be fine - I was going to London that afternoon to swap a petticoat for one of the correct colour. I invited Hannah, and it became a last minute half-day trip.

All was good.

We finish lunch, help to pack the car, and I boogie on in to town, where I meet Hannah, fresh from her fishy pedicure (which is apparently like holding your feet in the bubble stream of a jacuzzi..). We head straight for the train station. It is hot, though we bypass icecream, as I was pretty full at that moment in time.

We buy tickets. We get on the train to Liverpool Street, which has arrived rather early. At platform 4.

A woman gets on the train, shouting that anyone for London Only should get off the train immediately, and get on the one at platform 3, which was leaving that second for King's Cross.

We try to get more information, but she's already left to tell the next compartment. We dither a little, and some other passengers who were heading for Liverpool Street decide to get off, so we follow.

More accurately, we run.

As soon as we're on the train, it leaves. The announcement is made that this is the train for London King's Cross, stopping at Royson, Hitchin, Stevena... Hang on! *stopping* at??!

We had been conned! We were on the slow train. But still, Hannah's phone reliably told us we were due in at 17:36. This was still enough time to tube and walk to the shop (which closed at 6). I e-mailed them and tried to warn them that we were on our way.. However, the train line was awful. We stopped, seemingly at random, and went very slowly. And there were 7 tunnels that really hurt my ears.

Eventually, we were at King's Cross. I had to get a tube ticket. Then we realised that the lines we could have taken to do the journey in 2 stops we all out. CURSE you line works. Sunday travel is NO FUN.

So, we have to noodle round and go in a big circle. It is hot. And crowded. And distinctly Not Fun. We then run from Liverpool Street, trying to use a combination of remembering the directions given on the website, and the signposts and road names. We get there, passing a market and Patisserie Valerie.

The shop is closed.

Amazingly enough, we were only 15 minutes late.

We turn round, and decide now is a good time for ice cream.

We're sitting under a sort of marquee. There is a teeny tiny dog on a lead. It is adorable. We drink ice cream milkshakes a little too quickly. But they were good.

We sit, and ponder. "We're in London. What should we do now?"

We ponder some more. And eventually decide that it's London! there exists the West End!

Our phone batteries are starting to run low. We hurriedly look for the details on last minute tickets, and possible shows are narrows to Phantom and Les Mis...

..Neither of which have a show on on Sunday.

I call mum quickly. She has a laptop, and can search more rapidly than we can. We conserve our battery, but first put a plea out to any London people on Facebook who might want to meet up with us.

A call from mum reveals that the only show on Sundays that we haven't missed is Thriller. Which we decide to pass upon.

No replies from London people, via Facebook or text. We decide to retreat, go home, possibly get out the paddling pool, and maybe make a little dinner.

One final attempt to find people in the station, after passing two warring women and checking the tourist information out, and we call 3 of our friends. Alex has her phone off, John is in York, Phil is available! And currently deciding where to have dinner! Result!

We establish that we shall meet at Tower Bridge. Off we go!

We meet, with impeccable timing, Phil and Irina : ) We skip along, look at shops, find water (where we take many photos), cross the bridge, and head towards curry.

Curry touting is a new phenomenon to me. They were desperate to get us through the door. £8 each for a 3 course meal, with 2 rounds of free drinks. Madness.

Eventually ended up in one that had a lovely sign outside "We don't tout, because it's illegal". He was nice. And gave us free drinks. We ended up paying with a fifty pound note. And talking about Jonas Brothers, Jack Black, Joe Bleill et al. And Julian Barratt.

We had fun. Half-day trip could have its title restored.

We remember that we still have to get the train back to Cambridge. We're going to have to get the tube to King's Cross. Joy.

What faff. We end up at the station, at 23.30. There was a quick train at 23.21. The next train is 00:07.

It is the notorious SLOW train.

If there's a stop on the line, it stops on it. We played dots/boxes, until I was actually falling asleep. There were lots of "gleeks" around, including someone who was in the costume team for the London shows.

We were back at Cambridge at 01:39. Luckily, we were met at the station and driven back (thankyou Rich!), else we would have been in bed at 3am.

It was quite a day.