Thursday 2nd December 2010 (part 2)

Sunday dawned cold. 'Kin cold. I mean there was no wind to stir the chill, but the air just hung feeling heavy like the opposite of a fur coat. we walked to a cafe and had huge hot drinks and a cooked breakfast. we had to sit on the mezzanine floor as on the lower floor, the cold hugged the ground like a mist.

We headed out towards one of the old industrial areas, now taken over by the gay community; all bars and clubs along an old canal, all overshadowed by warehouses which are now loft apartments and the such.

What was amazing, was that a couple of clubs were still playing high energy dance music, although whether they were folks dancing still, is a question I cannot answer.

We crossed back over towards Piccadilly Basin, which we hoped would be full of narrow boats and those filled with water gypsies. Or I did. Possibly. Instead we were greeted by a car park on a brown field site, overlooked by more ex-warehouses. We spotted a shady character heading down a towpath into a tunnel, and I thought we should follow.

The towpath lead under the carpark, the road and Piccadilly back towards the gay quarter. It was good to see such and odd place, and wonder what goes on when the sun sets. Best not to ask or wonder, eh?

We headed to the station for a coffee as a couple of other friends were heading for our meeting, and we thought that being there would make meeting easier. Not taking into account that I had changed my phone, and I did not have Ang's number. So we sat and waited, drank coffee and waited some more.



I got a call that Ang and Claire were at the wheel, and we stomped off into the cold to meet and to take pictures; lots of pictures.
The meet was of a group I am a member of on Flickr; we are all pretty much like-minded, and so set off into the masses of the Christmas market to see who or what we could snap, and to talk of course.



After a couple of hours of wandering and snapping, thoughts turned to beer and my thoughts turned to football; as Norwich were about to play Ipswich, and it was on TV. So began the hunt for the pub with a TV or was open, and we settled on the Old nags Head. They had a TV and the barmaid found BBC 1. Sadly most of the beer was off; they just had one beer, one lager and no milk for coffee. But, they did have the football. And after removing several layers, I got down to the serious business of watching the game.



The good news was that Norwich won 4-1, and that matched the number of beers I had, and so was pretty merry. We put our coats back on and headed back for more snaps, and to get some nice smelling food. The light was amazing, and we all got some fine shots. As the light faded, we headed to Bloos local for a couple more beers and then we scattered; home or back to our hotel.



That night Jools and i headed out, in a warm taxi, to an Indian place Bloo had recommended called East 2 East. It was very swish, but the food was fine, just a little spicy for me. I explained I normally had something Madras-like. a Madras, but thought I should try something different of about the same spiciness. When it came, it bubbled and hissed in its tray, but I could spot the whole chills right off.

Even missing those out it blew the top of my head off, and I could only eat less than half of it. But was full enough anyway.
walking out, we realised our hotel was a 5 minute walk away, and we could save ourselves the fiver cost. And so we walked down the deserted streets, under the Arndale and back to the hotel and warm, soft bed.