The set up
After what seemed two incredibly hot days even for a Mediterranean, there’s finally a rainy day that has come along to refresh us and cleanse us. And with it came a little bit of melancholy but not enough to keep me from being inspired to write my walking story. I’ve just heard on the radio a very old 80s song by Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan – Especially for You – and it took me back to my teenage years when I was in love with Jason and was dreaming of being his girlfriend instead of Kylie. All those dreams I had of him and the stories I made up…Those where carefree and innocent years! I relieved them for a few minutes this evening and then I got inspired to share my grown-up walking adventure!
The challenge
In everything that I do in my life whether it’s work, relationships, friendships, family, there is always one common thing that I do and practice without fail. I give all of myself to it and even more. No matter how big or small the task or challenge or request, if I decide to do it I go for it with full force and with all my heart. Don’t ask me why. I question myself on a daily basis in order to discover the reason why and still after so many years I haven’t come with an answer. I’m just accepting it.
I will research and ask and seek before I go for something or create something, I will make up in my mind the ideal scenario, I will hedge the likes and dislikes, I will contemplate response and reaction to my giving and finally when all this planning, worrying, researching and scouting is over I will execute the request. You may wonder where I find the energy for execution after all of the above has taken place…that is another matter altogether!
A small scale example of the above was the search of a birthday card for my French friend. Now you would think that finding a card isn’t really rocket science and in England where there are ample places with card choices it should be a fairly easy exercise. A walk in the park I should say to keep in with my walking theme!
And so I thought myself initially but then following my normal pattern of giving it my all it ended up being quite a cross-London walking adventure. It all started on a Friday morning a week before my French friend’s birthday.
The first walk
I was due to meet my best friend from Athens who was visiting and staying in London for a few days. Our plan for the day was to look into finding last minute tickets to walk through the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the V&A. Although we haven’t seen each other for quite some time we both had a keen interest in seeing the exhibition but unfortunately we couldn’t get hold of any tickets. Undeterred, and probably for the best, we opted to go for a coffee at the museum’s terrace and sit outside as it was such a glorious summer day.
Not having seen each other for a whole year it was natural that there was a lot of our lives that we had to share that morning. Funnily enough though one of the first things I’ve asked her,w was to help me not to forget find a birthday card for my dear French friend. The argument was that being so excited with catching up with her and me being carefree since I was on holiday from work I was bound to forget it. And to me it was important to send it on time.
After a 3-hour marathon of life-news-sharing, part of which included my description of my new friend so that she got an idea of what type of card we were looking for, we decided it was time to stretch our legs. And of course, being women the stretch of legs was towards the V&A shop! There were lots of temptations there, some of which we both didn’t manage to escape from. Interestingly enough the shop also had a collection of birthday cards which would have been perfect for what I was looking for. It was remarkable that from my description my friend totally understood the character of whom we were searching a card for and together we discovered among the collection what we thought would be the ideal one. Alas, being women instead of grabbing it and finishing the task we decided that while it was The One there might be something even better at out next destination which was Tate Modern. And so the card was left behind.
At Tate Modern, round two of life-sharing-news session took place on the restaurant overlooking St Paul’s which is one of my favourite and most dearest places in London. Another couple of hours were spent over a glass of prosecco before we embarked for the search of a card in the gallery’s gift shop. Although we both had high hopes, there was nothing to capture our attention at all in all three gift shops that we went to. I mean if that is not determination I don’t know what is!
Knowing that the next day we would be visiting Portobello we both agreed to end the search for that day, especially since it was near dinner time and we both felt that no proper decision or search can be done with an empty stomach. And so day one ended without a purchase but with the knowledge that the perfect card existed and it was waiting for us at the V&A.
The second walk
The next day my friend and I met up in Notting Hill and after a nice morning cup of coffee in the cool shade of the little garden of the hotel that my friend was staying, we walked in the roads around Pembroke Square and all the little side roads with the picturesque and typical houses of Notting Hill. We were playing the game of choosing which one we would love to live in and took in all the colours of the front doors and the scenery of a very typical yet non-touristic side of Notting Hill. Walking on we discovered the High Street in Westbroke Grove with its lovely unique restaurants and boutiques. We entered a couple of home interior shops where we discovered nice little treasures for the house but which luckily although we were tempted none of us ended buying anything this time!
Our walking eventually took us to our destination which was Portobello Market. Having left it so late in the day towards lunch time, the place was heaving with masses of tourists. None of us was too enthusiastic about trying to break through the crowd or go with the flow so after a few visits to a couple of places with genuine and some not so genuine antiques as Hugh Grant says in the film Notting Hill and not having found the card we were looking for, we decided that since we were going to Covent Garden for lunch we would make a quick stop at the V&A to get the one we saw the day before.
With certainty that we would accomplish the mission, we set off for South Kensington and arrived on queue at V&A heading straight to the shop contemplating a home-run and getting the card. To our greatest disappointment the card was nowhere to be found. Despite the fact that there were several copies the day before, it seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth altogether. I cannot describe our disappointment of not being able to find a copy despite going though all the shelves twice in case it was misplaced. Yet my friend not ready to give up on our perfect choice, used her female persuasiveness (batting eyelashes with sweet smile and damsel on the verge of tears type of tactics) and had the V&A sales assistant opening up for us all the card drawers and look through meticulously in case there was any stock left. But the card was not to be found.
If this was an adventure movie that would be the plot’s major set-back. And that’s how we saw it and we decided that we still had a chance of getting our adventure ending in triumph in Covent Garden. And in my world I always live with the motto that everything happens for a reason, so I was slightly comforted by the thought. I won’t lie though that at that time I was quite disappointed. Yet I soldiered on as I didn’t want this set back to spoil the enjoyment of my day with my friend.
The last walk
Our next stop was Covent Garden where I walked my friend through the markets and the different stalls with various works of arts and gifts. I was happy to see my friend take in all the different things that she was experiencing and felt satisfied with sharing this place with her even if it’s quite touristic. As we were reaching a point of desperation for not finding a card and energy was going down due to hunger pains we went to have our lunch at the Big Easy and took a break from our mission.
It was a good choice as indulging into the culinary delights of lobster, steak and prosecco we revived our body and spirits and with renewed fresh energy we started walking again towards the Royal Opera House for one last chance of finding something unique. And as we were walking towards the Royal Opera House out of the blue there appeared a card shop and we entered it with timid hopes. Choice was ample and the timid hopes soon turned into certainty. At last I held in my hands the card that was the perfect choice for my friend. Not only that, it was actually a lot better than the V&A one and if I wasn’t afraid of being taken for a lunatic I would have jumped up and down from the sheer joy of finally finding what I wanted. It goes without saying that we were both so happy and proud of ourselves that our adventure ended with such huge success. Above all it was quite special to have had such an interesting and challenging purpose in our walking across London.
To some the above might sound an unreasonable effort and time spent. For me it is what friendship means. Taking care in the little details as well as the big ones. This was a little detail but one that was received with pleasure from the receiver and that’s what matters.
A big thank you to my Greek friend for sharing the adventure with me and helping me get the perfect birthday card. A big thank you to my French friend for giving us a reason to walk through different places in London with a challenging perspective.
Walks and Smiles 