A Saturday Evening 'Quickie'

So, it's late and I am absolutely shattered. What an interesting day. I have been excited for a while to learn that Levi Roots was coming to the bookshop to sign copies of his new book. He did not disappoint. I guess I was a little disappointed that his publicist seemed to de-personalise the experience by constantly being at his side. Then again, it was her job so I cannot fault her for doing it... was just glad to have been able to assist in setting up for the 'event'. And hey, at least I got my book signed (by giving it to a smiley person in the queue with my name on a post-it for her to present to Levi for him to sign)

*sigh*

Past disappointment. Am over it already. I just wanted to do a quick post on some of my adventures of the last week...as in during the week.

On Wednesday 9th Sept, I took a trip down to Piccadilly Circus and to the Japan Centre. I was extremely excited and nervous for some reason. I was afraid that I'd feel a little out of place and that everything would be in Japanese. D'oh! It was not as I expected.

I first browsed the ground floor which consisted of food and homewares. There I was able to get my sushi supplies like Seaweed Sheets, Rice, Wasabi and Rice Vinegar/ Seasoning for Sushi. I also bought some Jasmine tea bags, a bamboo mat for rolling the sushi and a tea cup. I did consider purchasing a good Japanese knife as there were really good ones there for about £6.99 but decided against it for that day and planned to buy it on another trip I would make there.

I then browsed on the basement floor which was the book section, filled with Magazines, Books and Japanese artefacts for sale. There was even a pair of 'geisha slippers' made of wood, for sale (sorry, I forgot the special name given to this type of shoe). I wanted a sushi book to give me some more ideas and inspiration for fillings, techniques and different types of sushi. (I will edit this post to include photos and links another day when I have photographed things!) I found one...I also wanted a good beginners Japanese book in addition to the one I already have and I found the staff to be very helpful and friendly and I eventually settled on a Textbook/CD combo called 'Japanese for Busy People' and is a romanised version so that the Japanese words are written phonetically to aid pronunciation. Fantastic! This will keep me occupied as I no longer have any studying to do (in the near future!)

SO I'm definately going to go back pretty soon...well when I can afford to!

I then walked from Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square Tube Station and to a second hand bookshop on Charing Cross Road where I remembered purchasing a second hand 1800 book for Leo's birthday nearly 2 years ago.

(Such a big deal was made of this book at the time; I merely thought it was pretty and that it would be well received...which it was. It was an interesting find. However, as I hadn't really been "dating" Leo for long, this present was supposedly too thoughtful and an indication of my undying love and devotion to him forever...

*rolls eyes*

G.O.Y.** It only cost me £6! Pah!)

I love the antiquarian bookshops there and love a good bargain so ended up buying two books for £4, both of which are related to African History/ Slavery. Very interesting reading and I'll ALSO be going back there pretty soon to browse for a bit longer (by this point, the sushi rice was weighing me down a bit and it was BOILING hot on the underground)

On the walk from Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square, I came across NUMEROUS Croatian football fans in their shirts all singing and chanting and generally looking very excited about what I now learn is the England-Croatia match which took place on that day! At the time I can remember being a little worried about the chanting and wondering what the crowds were protesting about!

All in all it was a good day and I think I will be taking a little walk and browse there after payday, which is next week!

SO that is all dear readers, I felt compelled to write this down, just in case I forgot because I really had an enjoyable day that day and made up some avocado, cucumber and red pepper sushi rolls that very evening...yumm!

Surprisingly, despite the fact that this is a long-ish post, it did not take me very long to write but I shall stop for now as I am growing increasingly weary and I have to wake up early for work in the morning...

Good Night all!

CBC

xx



** G.O.Y. = GET OVER YOURSELF!!
(It wasn't my fault that I was a good present buyer...)