Chapter 1
I was so excited. I was on my way to Euston station, about to spend a month visiting my sister who had been living in London for about 6 months. Ellie had been lucky enough to get her dream job working for a magazine company in London as soon as she had left college. This was my first opportunity to come and see her and her new apartment in Borough, London. Ellie was going to be working for the first few days, but then she would be taking 2 weeks off to show me the sights, shows and shopping in the capital city, that I had only ever visited once before as a small child.
To be honest not all of the excitement was saved for meeting my sister, I had found out that THE Eddie Redmayne lived in Borough, or once had, and had everything crossed that I might bump into him and manage to get his autograph. I had better explain that I have been obsessed with Eddie Redmayne since seeing him in a TV adaptation of Tess of the Durbervilles. He was amazing, I was hooked, and I have seen everything he has done since.
I looked up from my ipad (which I had been using to look at more pictures of Eddie)! A nervous lump came to my throat; I saw so many tall buildings. Everything felt as though it was closing in on me. I had to close my eyes for a few seconds to compose myself. I thought I might have grown out of this by now. How ridiculous, I am a 27 year old woman who is scared of large cities! In particular THIS large city.
When I had last been to London, I was about 9, I had come with my parents and Ellie. At some point during the trip I had become separated from my family and it had taken almost 2 very upsetting hours for us to reunited. I had been mesmerised by the boats on the Thames and had not watched my parents who had carried on walking. I had ended up following another family for a while before realising they were not mine. For the time I was without them I felt like my world was about to end. I had been taken to a police lady who stayed with me until my parents had been found and came for me. My mum was in such a state that I was barely allowed to leave her side until I was 16 (bit of an exaggeration, but it felt like that sometimes). Since this had happened I became panicked when in a busy place with lots of people and large buildings.
I had decided that at my age, I needed to grow up! My life had stalled lately. I had come out of a long, serious relationship a couple of months before and had left my job as a publisher because my ex also worked there. I was planning on this visit being a turning point in my life and was hoping to find some direction for my future life.
Taking a deep breath I steeled myself and opened my eyes. Wow! This is London! Let's see what fun I can have!
Chapter 2
Ellie's apartment was small but beautiful. My sister is an enigma, She has managed to hold down an amazingly demanding job, but also find time to decorate her apartment in the most eclectic mix of furnishings. There are items from all around the world, and yet the furthest Ellie had travelled is Majorca!
El, where did you get all this stuff'? I enquired whilst picking up a tribal mask
I found them in a market around the corner'. Ellie answered. You would not believe the kinds of things you can find around here! And don't worry it's on the list of places I plan to take you'.
Ellie had advised me that she has drawn up an itinerary of things we were going to do together. I just had to get through the next couple of days without her whilst she had a project to finish, then she was all mine. Ellie was aware of my nerves about being in London and had suggested I familiarise myself with Borough, the area she lived. I had seen a little of it on my journey down the previous day, and was amazed at how relaxed it seemed compared to the main city, considering it was only about 5 minutes away.
Taking Ellie's advice I left her apartment and went to explore. I wandered towards the main street in Borough so I would find it easier to get my bearings. I was feeling a bit peckish so decided to pop Borough station to the Starbucks to grab a cheese and marmite panini. I had once read in an interview that Eddie used to get these from here, so who knows he may have been feeling peckish too! Whilst I was waiting for my food I familiarised myself with an underground map….it looked like a spiders web! I will never get my head around this!
