Disaster Management

So, I am off to meet up with a friend in a bit. We are meeting in Trafalgar Square and then might have a wander round the National Portrait Gallery followed by a bit of shopping. I actually hate shopping, I am definitely not a browser and like to go out and buy whatever I have gone out for and then go home. My friend J loves shopping and spends hours wandering aimlessly buying presents when she doesn’t even have anyone in mind to give that particular item to. It could end in bloodshed.

I have known J for years and there is normally some level of disaster connected with us meeting up. A few years ago we went to Slovakia on holiday and on our second day away J left her passport, money, plane ticket and entire life on a cable car (well probably not her entire life, but most women are totally lost without their bag). We happened to be on exactly the opposite side of Slovakia to Bratislava where we would have to go to get a replacement passport. So the next day we got up at 5am and took various trains that finally got us to Bratislava. After a bit of waiting about we managed to arrange a replacement passport, but had to come back for it later. Unfortunately this was the summer of 2003 which was about the hottest there has ever been. Wandering about in the middle of the day didn’t really improve me and I managed to get heat stroke, was sick in a really beautiful Bratislavan street, and had to find a pharmacist, who I had to communicate with through sign language and a very out of date Slovakian- English dictionary in order to get some medication to make me well enough to face the long train journey back to our hotel.

We spent last New Year together as well and were staying with a couple of friends in Sheffield at the house of another friend of mine who had kindly lent me his house in his absence. It all went fine except for J opening the curtain one morning and pulling down the entire curtain and curtain pole. Fortunately my friend was very understanding when I called to tell him.

And then there was when we went to Barcelona and had a run in with some pickpockets and some bloke who was pleasuring himself in a local park. Anyway, you get the idea... Adventure and mayhem usually ensue whenever we meet up. So I shall see what the day holds and given our track record I will be very disappointed if we have an uneventful day.