Paper Rings
And just like that, Friday came along! I started my morning by checking out and walking the whole of twenty minutes to the hotel me and my friends had booked for our longer stay. The only thing I kept thinking that morning was that I had wished I had simply extended the stay on that hotel rather than taking a different one, but I should consider myself lucky it was but a twenty minute walk only.
I walked there early in the morning with the hopes of being able to leave my luggage for later, as I did not really fancy to bring it with me to the meet – and much to my surprise – not only could I leave the luggage for later, I could also do all the paperwork prior to checking in later! This made me incredibly happy, as it means everything would just be DONE WITH.
Once done, I headed out to Starbucks for some nice breakfast. Yes, shoot me. I do love myself som Starbucks, and while Espresso House will forever be my number one, I do love treating myself Starbucks whenever I’m out and about since we do not have that where I live.
Time went on quicker than I actually expected, and it was time for me to leave. Now let me tell you a tale of London underground. The travel time to the destination of the meet was 30 minutes. So I figured, and hour should be enough. After all, I had no luggage or anything the like, and the underground stations where right next to the Starbucks. And getting to Paddington was really no problem.. But as I stood on the relatively newly opened Elizabeth Line, together with cosplayers galore heading off to Comic Con (which has the same train and destination as I did) only to learn that the ONE train we had to go on was having issues and thus “cancelled” sort of. We got adviced to get on the next train and change to the DLR at some other destination. Said and done.
Then I finally arrived in Canary Wharf for our meeting, but of course I got a bit lost, and being stressed from the trains sure did not help! I was meant to be there around 13.30, but in the end I got there at 14.30. But you know what?
All of the stress and resentment I felt towards the underground simply vanished the moment I saw my beloved Tree standing outside Platform waiting for me! I met her last in April while on the Sabaton tour, but by jove have I missed her! I try to catch her streams as much as I can, bit it quite is not the same as when you can hug someone and talk to someone. I updated her briefly on the drama of the trains and she let me know that Platform had.. mildly fucked up the booking despite promising the hosts a certain way it would be dealt with. That is very sad, to be honest. We scouted this destination when I was in England on tour, and what we loved about the destination was the impeccable service… which.. Just was not quite there anymore, the way we remembered it.
But nevertheless! I got to meet a whole group of amazing people, for example AntTyrant which is someone I’ve seen and interacted a lot with in Tree’s stream and Quillster! We all sat together and played Mario Party at the location and simply caught up on everything and nothing. Despite all the hick ups, it was a splendid time nonetheless. And it was equally amazing meeting all of Matt’s community as well!
If it was not enough that I had had issues with the underground, meanwhile, Sophie had been having her share of issues as well. Her train from Disney to Lille had been delayed, like, heavily delayed to the point where she missed her Eurostar connection taking her to London. And upon looking on the website, all of the remaining Eurostars for the day was sold out. Nathan and I were deep in looking for flights to get her on – because at the end of the day – what matters to us is that she comes, even if we have to break bank to get her there. So it was a turbulent and hectic morning, but by the time I had reached Platform Sophie had managed to get on a no-show seat in Eurostar, and as we sat down in a nearby pub for a drink I got the message Sophie was approaching St Pancras and I had to leave the meet a little early.
So, GLADLY; issues on Elizabeth line had been resolved, so getting back to my friends were easy. And seeing these two people, some of my best friends ever, again, was so emotional and we were all just… kind of freaking out. Despite being in our 30’s, we most likely looked like unattended kids. Especially, considering we headed into the first Tesco we found to buy as much snacks as we could muster for our planned movie night in.
We went back to the hotel, went out to get Sophie’s beloved Shake Shack. I am not gonna lie, she threatened us that if we did not enjoy it she would cancel her friendship with us. Gladly, we did enjoy it quite a lot! After this, we went for a little stroll – ended up in Chinatown by chance, walked by Shaftesbury Avenue which for us Potterheads felt special and saw all the theaters. We also came upon an IKEA that was designed as an IKEA bag. Lovely.
When we got back we simply crashed and watched a Harry Potter movie. I gave Nathan the deodorant he left at my place this summer, he got me hot sauce, Sophie had brought a Rémy shoulder plush and he handed her Lordiary. As we watched The Deathly Hallows, we fantisized and talked about what was to come the coming days.
And oh boy. We were in for a treat.
// Sara
Sara Hammerzmith 
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