Jason's Daily Notes

Saturday, 13 October
Swag was back in London. Swag, Mike, and I spent the day taking care of a few errands and shopping for Mike. I sent an email to Beau, whom I met on Friday at the Silicon Drinkabout, since I might get a job from it! (It really felt great to get good feedback on my startup idea; I think I need to buckle down and focus on it.)
We started off from the house in the early afternoon, walking to Brixton, where we checked out the market, which was cool, and then bought a couple patties (Swag was particularly hungry). Then a quick pop inside H&M.
The Victoria line was closed the weekend. So we then took the 133 bus to Borough, where I returned my library books (from Paris). Then, we walked to London Bridge station, where Mike successfully got his 16-25 railcard. I got a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks. Then, we accompanied Swag to the M&S near the Tate Modern, where he had to pick up something to bring to India.
Then, we caught the RV1 bus to Waterloo station (it does a loop around by the London Eye), where we got on the tube as the rain started to fall, traveling to Shepherd's Bush. There, we explored the Westfield. We did a full loop around the 1st (ground?) floor, checking out lots of shops, primarily for Mike.
We went to next, where Mike found some shoes that looked great but were not available in his size, so he ended up having to order them from the other store on Oxford Street. We continued around, then up to Gap, H&M, Hollister, and Topshop. In Topshop, Swag had 2 things to buy for Nike, which he did. And then, since the purchase was large enough, it qualified for tax-free shopping, which would be a substantial rebate to Swag, so we went for it. But the store's system wasn't working, and they didn't have the manual rebate forms; so they sent us downstairs to the mall concierge. He couldn't do anything (but he did lend Mike a pen to fill out his Oyster card registration form); he sent us to the currency exchange by the tube station. But they couldn't help Swag without the original form from Topshop! At this point, Mike realized that he also had forgotten his Oyster registration form. So we returned to the mall, where Swag dealt with Topshop, Mike got his form, and I used the toilet. All the while, their phone batteries were dying (I found a phone charging station, but it was all in use). So fail on the tax-free forms.
We were hungry, but still had to go to Oxford Street to pick up Mike's shoes, which we did AFTER going to Primark first! It was crowded, but we each bought some things, so it wasn't a waste. We then stopped by the 3 store for Mike and Swag to unlock the adult content block on their phones, but they couldn't do it because it was already too late. Unfortunately Next was also closed by the time we got there. Nevermind - time for food! We went to ASK Italian (to use our Tesco vouchers) and had an amazing dinner: Swag and Mike got mushroom chicken pasta (unfortunately the chicken marsala was unavailable!) and I had a spicy pepper and sausage calzone. Amazing!
We took the 159 bus all the way back home. It was Saturday night, but we were exhausted. So we stayed in.

Sunday, 14 October 2012
We continued the shopping from the previous day. We had considered going to Brick Lane market, but instead we went to Trafalgar Square, where we met Sandeep. I was starving so I rushed into Tesco to buy a maple syrup donut - yum! We had Sunday Roast at a very very touristy Wetherspoons. Then we took a bus to Oxford Circus and walked over to Next for Mike to pick up his shoes. Done. Then, to the 3 store to unlock their phones. Done. Then, back to Topshop to do more shopping. I lost the guys as we left Topshop. We then had no idea where to go, so I suggested bus roulette, but no. Then I suggested we go to Little Venice, which we did.
We walked around, then took the tube one more stop to visit Abbey Road. There were a few groups of American toursits there, and they asked me to help them coordinate their pictures. Silly Americans.
We then parted ways, with Mike, Swag and I going to the live jazz meetup near Holborn. Vladimir (?) was there, but no Alec. And no sign of Amanda or Asia. So we each had a beer, enjoyed some music, made some polite conversation and then left for home. Dinner was a hodgepodge of oven chips and pizza. Meh.