i love steps

I had a fantastic day yesterday. My friend G has decided to give up beer, fags and being a lazy uncultured bum and has decided to visit galleries around London. Yesterday he invited me to come to the National Gallery with him. I am the first to admit that I am pretty geographically clueless. I can only map parts of London in my mind once I have worked there for a while or been a few times. G tells me The National Gallery is at Embankment. We travel to Embankment.

Me - I am pretty sure no galleries are on this side of the river in this area.
Him - Eh, I dunno. Lets cross then.
Me - Ok..
*Walking along the Hungerford Bridge, we come to the map/skyline of London*
Me - Crap. The gallery is on that side.
G - O mannn. What do we do?
Me - I dunno. Carry on and walk along South Bank instead? Or go find the Gallery?
G - I don't mind.
Me - Ok, lets not be a pair of losers who can't find a famous gallery.
*We cross back over the bridge in the 30 degree heat and start heading towards The Tower of London*
G - Must be down here somewhere
Me - I just don't remember a gallery being on this side of the river in this area.
*20 minutes later*
Me - Another map over here lets just... oh mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
G - So lets head back the way we came shall we?
Me - Srsly. We are a total pair of losers. I'm embarrassed.
*Back to the Hungerford Bridge but right at the top instead of left*

Have you ever turned right at the top of that bridge?? There is a whole other town up there! Market stalls and whatnot. By this point though I would have stabbed a man for a glass of water. We found a little newsagent and I downed my water. Delicious. Best water ever. And FINALLY we found signs to the gallery. Which was just where I remember it being, down from Leicester Square tube. If only I'd remembered that. Especially since me, so, Matt and Lol were there on St Georges Day.

I loved that G thought the place was so amazing. He had never been before and could not quite get his head round the fact that he was 3 foot from Van Goghs Sunflowers.
"But, like, I can TOUCH that! What is it DOING here? Is this for real? Do you know how famous this picture is?? How old? How come it is here? This must be one of the best galleries in the world."

It was great taking someone so enthusiastic although he did 'wain' "get it? I am hay WAINING! Waning! Need to get out of here" after an hour. Although so had I at that point.
He loved the Constables and Turners whilst I am more Monet and Van Gogh.
When we left, we walked past the Portrait Gallery and popped in to look at the BP portrait exhibition.
G - That's a photo!
Me - No, all are paintings.
G - But this one is a photo.
Me - Nope. Brilliant isn't it?
G - THIS one is a photo. Must be.
Me - ALL of them are paintings.
G - But THIS one ..
Me - Srsly. I will kill you.

By this point we had clearly had enough culture and needed to lie flat on some grass with a sandwich. We had a slight debate about where to get a sandwich - I voted Costa or Starbucks but he was all pooh pooh American chains so we went to a Subway style sandwich shop. In HIS face though because I ordered a vege baguette and he ordered a meatball baguette and the server was a twit so he also ended up with a vege sub. Haha.
I have been very stressed recently. There were work moments that made my hands start curling into fists, I moved and my gma is very ill. So to lie in the sun on the grass was just a moment of gorgeous. I rested my head on G's stomach and he stroked my hair and we discussed the most important issues in life - if you could live anywhere but London, where would it be? Pigeons - friend or foe? Is that mark on my shirt your dribble or dressing from my sandwich?

Then we bought an ice cream and shambled over the Hungerford Bridge (for the 3rd time). It was BOILING and I'd kinda had enough of The Hungerford Bridge but it was beautiful out so I said, instead, I LOVE STEPS I DO. Which made G laugh for up to and including 4 minutes. By this time I needed another bottle of water. Hydration is very important. So we wandered along South Bank to the end where the little beach is. For some reason there was a small group of tiny flags on it with photographers. So we sat in the sun and watched that for a bit. I had another bottle of water. As G said, gosh, you like water don't you. It was really flippin hot. Then we walked back and over the bridge and walked to St James' Park. I was kinda bursting for a wee at that point but it was really too hot to look for a toilet.
We spreadeagled on the grass here, with one eye open for pelicans. Those bastards will eat anything.

Then we walked all the way round the lake and back to where we started because G wanted to know what the Horse Guard place was. Basically it was a slight tunnel thing with one poor guard standing in full dress and to attention whilst tourists hung off him for photos. As we both said, poor bastard.

Then we walked to Covent Garden.
G - Do you KNOW how to walk to Covent Garden.
Me - I know roughly where Covent Garden is and am more hinging this on that we can't miss it.

Luckily we found it; more specifically we found a pub. I went straight to the toilet. By this time I had drunk about 4 bottles of water. Deep joy. Then I washed all my makeup off because it was totally melted anyway and just covered all bare skin with sun cream. G says that there is no need for sun lotion in England but he is Italian and a twit.

So we had a nice beer in the sun and by that time it was 6pm and we both decided to head back to North London to a pub garden where we could actually sit down. It had pretty much got to the point where I had enough of standing and walking. To sit down in the pub garden finally was bliss.

Then we got some chips and walked home. Perfect end to the perfect day.