This was undoubtedly one of the most epic journey back home from central London to Canary Wharf. A day of deja vu's, almost quite literally. A journey where laughters were shared, sad moments and tears were shed. The journey did appear that it was never going to end, it was a journey to no where. It was a journey we lived on, a journey where we grew older (both literal and metaphorically). A journey where we lost the bendy busses, and Paul got really sad. A journey where we travelled from London to India to Limehouse. This is, the journey.
It all started when we decided to head to Cha Cha Moon for dinner, off Oxford Street. I was at my cousin's wedding at Tower Hill, and Lau Lau and Shaunny were to meet me at the Tower Hill tube station. That never happened. An incident had occurred - the central line was closed. This was a major disruption to our plan. Lau Lau ended up at Embankment and had to catch a bus to Tower Hill. Wasn't pleasant. Shaun on the other hand, ended up at Limehouse, which wasn't too far away. Good thing we catched him there. Because, coupled with all these circumstances, Lau Lau's phone was very low on battery and Shaunny was on the tube at some point so there was no phone signal. So after fetching Lau Lau from Tower Hill (who waited there for quite a while because she couldn't call me as her phone was now dead), we headed back to the bar. Then we tried contacting Shaun and then we find out that he's at Limehouse. So Rachel and I drove to get him. And on the way, I made the same mistake I did three weeks ago: I went into the tunnel instead of staying overground, which took us all the way to Canary Wharf. So we had to turn back and go through the tunnel again. And then we eventually met Shaun, who was seen playing his guitar with the hard case open. No change given to him though.
On the way home after fetching Shaun to drop their stuff off at home
So we then returned the car and walked to the nearest DLR station. My new cousin Matt told me that go to Shadwell, which according to him was pretty much straight all the way. So we followed his commands and, just like at any point in life, we came to a crossroad. We turned right, because it looked like the station was just slightly beyond our sight. Mind you, this was probably one of the dodgiest places in London. It's Shadwell. We walked through dark alleys, dark roads along town flats, with chavs starring at us, walked thru the back pathway of one of the flats, which was really dark, walked past back alley futsal courts and we eventually found civilization again. We saw this bloke and asked him where the nearest DLR station was. And we headed that direction. His directions seemed much better. As we walked to this DLR station, which we eventually found out was Limehouse (back to Limehouse again!), we realised we were in India. Because we saw a big bunch of people, Indian people that is, all looking sharp in their suites and sarees. And then from India we reached Limehouse. Again.
Eventually we reached Cha Cha Moon at 10.15pm for dinner. F-ing Cha Cha Moon increased their prices, but nonetheless we saw a hot guy/girl at the restaurant (one of the waiter/waitress). After dinner we headed to Piccadilly Circus and then to Leicester Square. After which, we headed to the red light district. To our amusement, Lau Lau did not know what a red light district was! Shaun and I managed to pull off a quick one, saying that it was a financial centre. The penny eventually fell. You should have seen the look on her face.
At Cha Cha Moon for dinner
At Piccadilly Circus
At about 12.30am we decided that we better head home before the tube shuts. I figured we were still good for time as I was always given the impression by my brother that the tube closes pretty late on weekends, to accommodate people who go clubbing. As we got into Piccadilly Circus tube station, they were already closing. But we managed to catch the Piccadilly line to Holborn. Once at Holborn, we realised that the tubes were then shut, and one of the guys who worked the station told us that we could catch a bus to Bank (which was our initial destination). Shaunny asked the bloke where to catch the bus, and whether it was on the same or the opposite side of the road. The bloke insisted for us to just go out and turn right, go past McD's and we'd see the bus stop. Sounds simple enough, and we found the bus stop. This was 1am.
The bus eventually came at 1.15am. One of the stops on the bus was Bank. But little did we know the bus was going to terminate at Oxford Street, before even reaching Bank. This was unfortunately the case. And guess what? We're back at Oxford Street where we first started. This was only going to get better.
While waiting for the bus again on Oxford Street
We eventually caught another bus which did go all the way to Bank without terminating on the way there. On the way there, the bus went past Holborn! But only on the opposite side of the road. So if the freaking bloke at the tube station had told us clearly to get on the other side of the road, we would have wasted the past 1 hour! This was at 2am.
And so we eventually reached Bank, which seemed like the first productive journey we had for the day. And we realised we were in trouble. At Bank, we did not see any bus which was headed towards Canning Town (which is near Canary Wharf). And Bank being a quiet area, we realised we might have to head back into the city centre to catch another bus which goes all the way to Canning Town. It appeared that our only productive leg of the journey was threatened. Thankfully, we found another bus stop which was en route of the bus going to Canning Town.
At this point, we were plagued with another big problem: Rachel and I had issues. Our contact lenses we getting dry. Lau Lau had them on since 11am, which I had mine since 8am! But mine was only one eye, where as hers was both. Big problem.
At Bank
Eventually we caught the next bus and headed towards Canning Town. On the way, we went past India and Limehouse, went through Canary Wharf and came out the same place it entered and eventually reached Canning Town. It seemed like we were never going to get there. This leg took us close to 1 hour.
From Canning Town, the bus to West Silvertown (which was the stop right outside my place) was not to come until another 27 minutes or so. So we decided to walk it home. As we started walking, as usual we were lucky, and the rain started pouring. Heavily. Not to mention the wind, since we were near the river and the key. One consolation was that we found iPod earphones on the way home. Shaun took it. Typical of him.
And so we finally made it home at 3.30am. I know you must be wondering why I'm waffling on about our journey home (you must be bored by now), but I promised Shaun and Lau Lau that I was going to blog about this.
To celebrate reaching home, Shaun taught me my first guitar song: Wonderful Tonight. Quite literally true.
So in this journey, we learnt a lot about life, our friendship got closer, the tree of us grew old, we had grandkids on the way home, we experienced all four seasons, we went to India and back. It was a journey which never seemed to end, just like this blog post. At one point we even contemplated walking home as we would be assured this will definitely be a productive part of the journey. What can I say as a conclusion? Firstly, always plan your journey so that you don't end up at the same place you started. Secondly, never miss the tube.
The End.
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