We left early Saturday to spend the morning at the mall. Craig was planning on spending the afternoon with the kids at his nan's (and she lives near the mall), so I got to do some shopping prior to getting on the train for London after lunch. We managed to solve Craig's birthday gift issue with a single store, and I found tons of things I'd been meaning to get for ages, so very productive.
I got into London around 2ish and met up with
i_digress_uk and the_royal_anna around 2:45, where we promptly set off for Starbucks and lots of talking. Then, it was an early dinner, courtesy of Craig, and then "Pirates of Penzance." To err on the gentler side of discretion, I'll say, 1) it was obvious that the cast was having fun, which is always important, 2) there were some lovely voices, especially Frederick's, 3) it was a joy to see ASH smiling so much, and 4) the funniest part of the whole show was ASH's mucking up of a line/stage direction in the middle of the 2nd act and then lapsing into a giggling fit about it. I was crying from laughing so hard along with him; his giggles are quite infectious.After the show, it was off to the pub so we could properly dish about the show and then back to Emma's flat for more chatting and drooling over a pretty, pretty man. First was JM's episode of Millennium. What a lovely, understated performance. I think it's probably my favorite of his non-Buffy work now. Then, Chance and Winding Roads. We were going to watch Buffy after that, but it took us half an hour to decide what episode, because we kept finding things we loved about so many of them. "Crush" finally won, but by the time it was over it was 5am and time to get a little bit of sleep.
I woke up at 7, and forced myself to try and sleep longer, eventually getting up at 9. I didn't want to disturb the others, though Emma had said to get her up at 10, so I got dressed, called Craig to have him find out the train times for me, and then wrote until 10. I was going to leave at 10:30, because it was going to take me 2-3 hours to get home, but it started to rain and so I stayed until 11:30. I got to Liverpool Street, only to find out there were engineering works and the direct route to Colchester had been replaced with a 3-transfer route. I called Craig to let him know it was going to take me longer, and he promptly said he was picking me up at Shenfield (which was the first transfer spot and about a half-hour drive from us). He did, and because we were so close to his parents, decided to stop in and visit, staying until after dinnertime. I got home around 7, completely knackered but happy, and now today I have to catch up on everything.
It was an absolute joy to get to spend time with Emma and Anna again. Lots of fun conversations, lots of JM appreciation, and wonderful company. I have to catch up on all my e-mails and such this morning, and I have laundry galore to do, but this weekend was definitely worth it. It needs to be repeated very, very soon. :)
