We take a little bit of liberty sleeping in and an even slower morning. There is no harm in resting the body when it will allow one to enjoy the day even more. Jordan and I fiddle around on her laptops for a bit and I do some writing and then oh my god it’s midday. We pack our big bags and head over to Dave and Molly’s house where we will be staying for the weekend.
I’m absolutely overflowing with excitement when Citymapper tells us we should be taking my first London bus to get to their house. We walk to the stop and then I count the minutes excitedly until the enormous double decker hybrid-electric bus arrives to collect us. Just like the trains I just tap my phone and get in - so good.
We arrive in no time and drag our noisy suitcases to their front door. Dave is working from home and Molly is on the phone to the bank so we just make it a quick little stop over. They have a beautiful flat and we have the quickest of catch ups, leave our bags and head over to the Science museum.
We take a train this time and upon getting out find a shop that Jordan says is a right of passage for getting a transit coffee in London; Pret A Manger. We also grab a sandwich and tuna salad and then walk down the beautiful streets of central London, past Imperial college (where Dave did his masters) to a part to eat lunch. There are many children playing soccer and an Imperial college orientation group attempting baseball.
A stroll gets us to the Science museum that is absolutely out of this world. As we walk in there are enormous steam engines installed in the floor hissing and spinning away. There is an incredibly well curated exhibit on space exploration, Steven Hawkings, flight, telecommunications and so much more. We’re exhausted, and bewildered, after a few hours and we drag ourselves back home.
Jordan has a sleep. I have a lovely catchup with Dave. He makes us some negroni’s and we sit outside on the little balcony beside the garden. Dinner poses potentially going out or making a pasta at home - we opt for the latter and all walk down the nearby grocery for ingredients. Dave whips it up and Molly seduces me into drinking Prosecco with her. To warm up the room Molly lights a fire on Youtube.
Then it’s time to party. We have been told to get there as close to 9pm as possible. We take our first Uber in London through a residential area down to a warehouse that will be hosting the party. Walking to the top floor we find a pretty classic party going down. There are lights, a bar, vinyl decks and so many South Africans.
The Stirrups seems to be a centrepiece for the South African contingency within London that have congregated here to recreate a Cape Town party. It’s quite hilarious actually. The music doesn’t inspire much dancing at first and we explore. Adam show us the smoking area downstairs and we find several half naked people covered in lumo paint outside. It appears that there is another party here.
We bounce between the party and smoking area several times and I’m shocked - yet not surprised - when my friend Chiquita walks in. It’s lovely to see her, albeit slightly absurd to bump into her in London. We find ourselves outside again and meet two people from the other party. After a good chat they invite us inside with them. We take our tops off, walk into a small tent and a member of the staff shoots us with a water pistol containing lumo paint.
It’s a full on rave down here. The music takes a different tone and people dance, use poles and just generally exude quite a sexual energy. It turns out that we’re being hit on quite aggressively by our two new friends - but tonight is not the night for that. After some time we make our way back upstairs to find Dave and Molly. We go outside to the smoking section, someone called TK asks for a lighter and then another person from the downstairs party introduces herself and asks our names and preferred pronouns. This is lovely and we have a small chat - unfortunately TK doesn’t really get it and suddenly there are four people wagging fingers with raised voices trying to educate TK on gender.
The Dave and Molly in question are having quite a big party and it seems that we’re going to be heading home before them. We hop in an Uber to avoid a forty minute bus trip and find our way back home. The Uber driver is fascinated by South Africa and asks many questions. Blue the cat welcomes us at the door and is upset when we don’t let them in.
