A spot of axe-throwing...

Sophie and I went down to London today by train, but this time we decided to travel from Wellingborough instead, and the tickets were cheaper. We were going to see an old school friend of mine, Barbara, who I hadn't seen for 28 years! The last time I'd seen her was at her wedding in London, so I was looking forward to a good catch-up after so long! She has a daughter called Holly, who had also wanted to come along but was busy revising for her mock A-levels.

Keith dropped us off at Wellingborough and we enjoyed a coffee and sausage roll in the tiny café before getting the 9.56am train to St Pancras. The train was only coming from Corby so it was empty! We had a pleasant journey to the capital and alighted on the station platform opposite the Eurostar trains. 

It was raining outside but this didn't dampen our mood, and we made our way to the Underground, taking the Northern Line to Euston, where we changed for two stops. It became packed with people and a group of men got on, all brandishing beer or cider cans so I think they were en route for a football match! 

We disembarked at Goodge Street and managed to attract a strange man in the lift on the way up to street level, who stood just a little too close as we went through the barriers... Thankfully, he wandered off as we made our way out into the damp Saturday morning. We were a bit early so we headed for a Costa Coffee and ordered two flat whites. The seating was downstairs (never a good idea) and as I rounded the bend on the stairs, I saw two men, one of whom was lying back asleep in his chair and looked a bit odd. The thought of being stuck downstairs with them both had us retracing our steps back into the fresh air and we stood outside the café to enjoy our drinks!

It had started to rain heavily but we were both standing under the awning of the café so we kept dry. After about ten minutes, we saw Barbara walk by and she hadn't changed a bit! We hugged and the non-stop chatting started! We had so much to catch up on!

We walked to the restaurant and took a seat towards the back. It was a tapas restaurant called Copita and we had a good look at the menu, choosing six dishes to share and a bottle of white wine. The wines were on the expensive side and I settled for one that was priced at £36.

It was great to hear all about Barbara's news and we never stopped talking, even when the food arrived and we tucked in. We chose prawns, scallops, Iberico pork, chicken croquettes, Padron peppers and a potato tortilla. The food was good but it wasn't very hot and the portion sizes were on the small side for greedy people like Sophie and me! 

We definitely found room for dessert - cheesecake for Sophie and me, and Churros for Barbara who shared her last two with us! With the wine finished and the restaurant filling up, we decided to head elsewhere for cocktails and more natter. Barbara, in a lovely act of generosity, paid the bill and wouldn't entertain us even seeing it. We were surprised by this and I decided to send her some flowers next week to say thank you.

The area of London we were in, Fitzrovia, was quiet with some interesting bars and restaurants dotted about. The places we passed were busy but after walking for a little while we came across a bar and I saw the word "Cocktails" which was enough to lure me in. However, we didn't realise that it was an "axe-throwing" bar... people (mainly men) were literally hurling axes at targets on the wall! Thankfully, there was netting in place to stop any stray axes from ending up in a customer's head! It seemed to attract crowds of men (stag dos?) and couples on a first date!

Sophie went to the bar and ordered Negronis for Barbara and me, and a Margarita for herself. The cocktails were very good and the bar was crowded and noisy, but it was certainly an interesting experience! I wonder if axe-throwing will ever reach Northampton?!

We stayed for a while and chatted and then decided to walk a little further. Barbara was surprised we had elected to take a taxi back to St Pancras rather than the tube, and we started to gravitate towards Picadilly Circus and Chinatown. The streets here were crowded with people out eating or shopping and we were constantly dodging other pedestrians.

I glanced at the time and saw it was about 4.15pm, so I suggested we call it a day and try and get a taxi back. Barbara was heading home on the tube, so we hailed a black cab, hugged goodbye and set off back to St Pancras.

It took us almost an hour to get back to the station as the traffic was horrendous. Our cab driver was of the old school who had been doing the job for 45 years, he said and sounded totally fed up. He dropped us off, we paid the £30 fare (still worth it rather than get the smelly, hot and crowded tube) and we ran up to the platform to catch our train back to Wellingborough. We found seats opposite one another and settled back to enjoy the hour's journey.

Keith met us at the station and we decided to pop to Broughton on the way home to get a Chinese takeaway as we were both hungry. We called into the takeaway itself, ordered the food and sat and waited for it to be cooked. It smelt delicious!

The evening was spent relaxing on the sofa with the newspapers and a glass of wine. Bliss!