the lost week, part 1

i should have written about this ages ago, when i was still wrapped up enraptured. but you know how it is. you don't really want to write when you're happy and having fun moments like that are so few and far between that you might as well just enjoy them before you have to write about them. i am ofcourse referring to the lost week of freedom. i said i'd write when i got back from the melodymakers and i just never got around to it. so here goes.

on tuesday. my plan was still to make a round of the tiny music shops to get my musical education rounded out. i got up at around 9 or 10 i think and set out soon after. went to turners to top up my phone and headed for the bus stop. that's where i met: The Rudest Bus Driver in England.

i had a nice book: the world according to garp and it felt like it was going to be the perfect day. but when the bus came round, i hadned him a fiver and without looking at me without even checking his cashbox he said: don't have change for that. And he turns around to look me in the eye, just so he can say: you can find change OUT THERE. i've got the skin of a peach and i take all rudeness personally. so i called jackie. we had planned to meet in camden after our individual journeys but i was so upset that i asked her if we could meet and go around together instead.

when i finally met up with jackie in leadenhall market, it was a blast. we had a wuick lunch and overheard some people say that that was where Diagon Alley was shot. Dunno if that's true, but it was nice to think of. Leadenhall wasn't much of a market, too posh. So we set out for Spitalfields which was on the opposite end of the road. On our way there, we came across Verde.

Verde&Green is a little specialty shop. And for every chocoholic I know, I have one thing to say: TEA INFUSED CHOCOLATES for 50p a pop. Thé Citron, Earl Gray, Thyme Orange, Equateur... the chocolate's so smooth, it's a sheet of silk the moment it spreads on your tongue. We bought two of each.

When we extricated ourselves from the delights of Verde&Green, we walked over to Spitalfields but the market had closed. But there was one shop. Oh GOd it was called Queen's. It was like stepping into the dream room in Labyrinth. Princess Pretty on Acid. They had venetian masks and lascivious looking toad princes, a christmas tree made of peacock feathers...putang ina lumukso ang inner bading ko. There was a Snow Queen theme a Woodland Fairy Theme and a god knows what that was I just remember thinking that had i been in college i would have been in that shop all the time... We stopped into this shop called Wood n Things and it had all these great low tech toys. Wood puzzles, craft projects, ganda. I was looking at this carnival mask that looked like a crimson butterfly made of feathers. Didn't buy it. Whew.

Before you start thinking that i completely gave up on my musical exploration Jackie and I DID go somewhere. We headed out to Neal's Yard by Covent Garden Station. Oh my god I love that place. There a shop where you can get a £10 massage (mahal pero mura na yan dito). And these jewelry shops and what-not. Organic healthfood stores. It's in this pretty little courtyard. I was in heaven. Then we stepped into RoughTrade (www.roughtrade.com) it's this little music shop known for stocking only the best of the new. The staff really knew their stuff and marked all the cd's with descriptions of the music. And like any good music shop, you cou bring it over to the counter and play the music. I bought a Cuban Son cd because it made me smile.

After all that, we went to watch 2046. I love that film. I think it's all gorgeous. And i have a whole other entry for that movie. So that's that. I'll write more about the lost week some other time.