A/N: I hope you enjoy this chapter, I certainly enjoyed writing it! By the way most of the prices are genuine, besides the Cappuccino's price.
I waited around the taxi pick up zone, waiting for one to pull up. I had being waiting at least thirty minutes in the queue for the cabs. I mean I know that I have next to no patience, but this is ridiculous. I decided, instead of distressing myself on the matter at hand, I would sit down on a nearby bench and soak in the London air.
After another fifteen minutes of waiting I decided to give up on the London taxi (there would be plenty of other chances to ride in one) and headed for the tube. The place in London which has always been my dream location is Piccadilly Circus. Unfortunately the hotel my boss had picked wasn’t in Piccadilly; however I decided to have a quick detour and go there on my way to the hotel.
After many minutes of searching I found the airport tube station and after waiting a couple of minutes, the tube was waiting for me. The outside was predominantly graffitied with a tinge of white. I walked on and I could smell the years of service it had given to the London people and as I walked to a seat I caught a glimpse of colour from the chewing gum splattered under the seats.
I sat down, taking in all the details, then reaching into my bag, grabbing my book and started to read. I had always dreamt of this moment where I would be sitting on the tube heading towards Piccadilly, reading my book (strange I know) but it’s kind of novelty thing.
It took about ten minutes to arrive at Piccadilly Circus. My heart gave a giant leap when the PA announced that Piccadilly Circus was the next stop. With a childhood grin plastered on my face I carefully placed my book into my bag, waited for the train to stop, walked to the door and stepped out. I tried to avoid the urge of taking a picture of the Piccadilly Circus sign however I couldn’t resist. I snapped a quick picture, trying my best to look more like a journalist, rather than a tourist.
After climbing two escalators – which caused me to immediately regret that I didn’t go to the hotel first and drop of my bangs – I heaved my bangs up one more flight of stairs towards the light of Piccadilly. The second I stepped out of the underground station, I was in awe. I looked up and saw the famous advertisements. The fountain was standing high and mighty in the middle of the roundabout. As I stood fixed in an upright position the native species that inhabited Piccadilly decided to give me a warm welcome. In that very instance I felt a slightly warm substance hit my shoulder. I quickly turned to see what it was – even though I knew perfectly in my mind what the substance could have been – and saw the pigeon dropping on my shoulder already soaking into my new top. I let out a little squeal and quickly grabbed out my tissues from my bag and wiped it off. Oh well, I didn’t really like that top anyway.
After my gift from the birds above I suddenly heard an earthquake from around the area of my stomach. It came to my attention that I was now hungry. However I knew I wasn’t in the mood for something fancy, just simple. I looked around to weigh up my options. First there was McDonalds; maybe not can’t really afford the extra calories. There’s some random French restaurant, which I can’t pronounce the name, so I’m not going to eat there. I walked around in desperation to find a simple restaurant. Then out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of one word I had being dying to put into action. On the overside of the street was a café named Eat. Sounds simple enough. I walked in and the soothing smell of fresh hot soup filled my nose. That’s when I decided that my stomach was hungry for some nice hot soup. I walked up to the counter and looked up at the menu. It seemed that their soup menu was organized in days. For example certain soups were only available on certain days. Since today was Wednesday I turned my glance towards the Wednesday selection. After many crucial minutes of deciding I came to the conclusion of ordering the Wild Forest Mushroom soup. Also the caption below the description of the soup was ‘less than 5% fat’, this defiantly appealed to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not what you call fat, but the extent of my exercise consists of a twenty minute run around the block (which I don’t do as frequently as I could).
Finally, deciding on Wild Forest Mushroom soup with a Cappuccino. I stepped up to the counter, looking ready to order.
“Hi, what can I get for you today?” the lady at the counter said with a cheek to cheek grin plastered across her face.
“Can I please get the small Wild Forest Mushroom Soup with a short Cappuccino?” I replied with a smile.
“Would you like our wheat free seeded rye breabread with your soup, it cost a 0.65p extra?”
“Yes please,”
“Okay, that adds up to £5.20,” Okay so that’s around $7.80, not bad for lunch.
I reached my hand into my bag, trying to avoid the poo infested tissue and grabbed my wallet. I took out a five pound note and rummaged through my mountain of change and manage to pull out a twenty pence coin (how could I have this much change and have only been in London half a day, oh I remember mum willing gave me all her left over change from when she went to London).
I handed the lady the money and she told me it would be ready in a minute. I nodded, replied to her with thankyou and sat down at a table next to the window. After a few minutes engrossed in the view, a waiter came with my food, “Is yours the small Wild Forests Mushroom, with a short Cappuccino,”
O my goodness, that waiter is really attractive.
“Um, is this order yours?” he asked again.
The sound of his voice took my mind back to reality.
“Oh right, sorry, yes it is, thank you,” I smiled.
“Your welcome, enjoy your meal,” he smiled back and just for the record he has a really cute smile.
After he walked away the smell of the soup drifted into my nose. I let out a sigh, picked up my spoon and started to eat. I had forgotten how hungry I was; maybe it was that cute guy’s smile that drove away my hunger. No it wasn’t, stop being so stupid Claire, you can’t be drooling over random guys smiles that you will never see again. You probably forgot you were hungry because of the amazing view of Piccadilly you have from your seat. Yeah that’s it.
As I was happily sipping away at my soup (quietly, in case you through I had taken on eating habits from Bill), a girl who looked around my age walked into the café. She met my eyes, and smiled and I smiled back. Thinking nothing of it I went back to eating my soup. This is really good soup I thought as I was sipping it. As these thoughts were occupying my head the girl who smiled at me before came and sat down opposite me.
“This seat taken?” she asked politely. Say no she’s probably a thief wanting to steal my handbag or something.
But despite these thoughts I said, “No it’s not,”
“Do you mind if I sit”? she asked.
Again despite my previous thoughts I said “Yeah sure, I don’t mind,” Maybe this is a common thing for Londoners to do.
“Thanks, I’m Maia,” she said as she gestured a hand shake.
“Hi, I’m Claire,” I replied as I shook her hand.
“So, first time in London?” she asked after a couple seconds of silence.
“Yeah, is it obvious?” I must admit I became kind of worried, I don’t want to look like I’m some tourist (which I guess I am, but I don’t want to appear like that).
“Nah not really, what brings you to London?”
“I’m a journalist and I’m here with a team from our newspaper, we’d doing major a spread on London,”
“Sounds awesome, well, trust me; you’ll find plenty to write about,”
“I’m counting on it,” There’s a couple seconds of silence, so I had a glance at my watch because I suddenly felt really tried. As I looked it was 3:30pm, and Australia is nine hours in front, so that makes it 12:30 am, no wonder I’m tried. I finished the last drops of my soup and cappuccino, said goodbye to Maia, and took one last look at the cute waiter and headed out.
I had the address for the hotel which was 200 Westminster Bridge Road. I decided to take the tube to Waterloo than walk to the hotel. I caught one last look at Piccadilly than went down the stairs towards the tube.
My second tube ride was similar to my first; however I was ten times more tired. The whole day was really catching up to me now.
After about fifteen minutes, the PA called Waterloo and I prepared myself for a long walk. I stepped off the tube and started walking as quickly as I could. However while I was speed walking I tried to take in some of the sites, however I couldn’t really think about that because by the time I arrived at the hotel it was 4:00 pm, making that 1:00 am in Australia. However the minute I walked into the hotel my tiredness seemed to vanish and was replaced with awe. The hotel was beautiful, it looked really fancy. I felt like a kid again, I wanted to run to the elevator and up to my room, open the door and leap onto the bed. However I decided overwise.
I slowly walked up to receptionist desk and a young lady came to my help.
“Are you here to check in?” she asked.
“Yes, please, a booking for Claire Brooks,” I replied.
“Oh, yes top floor, first room on the right,”
“Okay thanks, has Matthew Thompson checked in yet?”
“Yes, however he went out about thirty minutes ago and hasn’t returned yet,”
“Okay thank you,”
She handed me the key and I pushed the ‘up bottom’ on the elevator, and then selected the top floor. As I pushed the bottom there was a slight rush through my nerves. I have never had a room on the top floor, yet alone stayed in a penthouse suite. I was starting to get really excited, especially about the view; hopefully it’s a view of Big Ben. I grew more and more excited as the elevator climbed higher and higher. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I heard a ping and the elevator door opened to a stylish hallway.
I headed out the elevator to the first room on the right. I took a deep breath and opened the door. For a couple minutes it’s like I’m in a dream, the room is massive and on the overside of the room there is a large curtain. I know behind that curtain is the view. I abounded my luggage in the middle of the hallway and walked slowly towards the curtain. I reached out my hand and pressed a button on the side of the wall to open the curtain. It takes a couple of seconds for the curtains to be fully drawn, but once they were they revealed the most breath taking view I have ever witnessed. You could see it all; there was Big Ben, the houses of Parliament and the London Eye. I couldn’t believe my luck.
My admiration was interrupted by a loud thump from outside my room, followed by a groan. I quickly hurried to the door and saw my boss on the floor, groaning.
“Matthew, are you okay,” I said, while helping him up. My next thought was what caused or who caused Matthew to fall, but I didn’t have to think long. I looked down at my luggage, plonked in the middle of the hallway. Oh, I forgot I had left that there.
A/N Sorry that it's been so long since I updated this story! I was pretty busy with school and I wanted to finish Stumble in the Right Direction, anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thankyou for reading.
P.S Eat. Is actually a real cafe!