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The perfect Saturday

October 28, 2001 ~ 2:52 p.m.

Yesterday wasn't supposed to turn out the way it did. This isn't going to be particularly funny or moving�just a simple tale of a Saturday well spent.

Originally, I was supposed to work. Once I got to work, however, I caught the Saturday supervisor completely off guard. He hadn't heard that I was supposed to come in, and as there were five people working on commercials already, I clearly wasn't needed. So, feeling peeved, I went back home.

It was a beautifully sunny morning. I knew I would be heading into London later on that afternoon to meet my wife, as she had an errand to run. So instead of taking the local bus home, I bought an all-day Travelcard and took the commuter-rail train into London. I got off at Victoria(actually, not that I had much choice, as Victoria is the last stop on that line). I purchased a cafe latte from a coffee kiosk and headed back home to our little place in the southeastern suburbs.

The wife had just gotten back from the postal depot, as there was a package from my folks back in America which the mailman couldn't deliver. So we opened that up and inside were pictures and American flag pins (to show our support) and all sorts of autumn decorations, even including some colored autumn leaves. Colorful foliage is not something we have seen much of here in London this year�the trees are still green. The wife, despite being British, proudly put her American flag on her coat lapel, and I put mine on my knapsack.

Then we headed out. We were going into the "sticks" west of London to take care of our errand. Earlier in the week, a young woman had contacted us, hoping to buy a spare wedding album which we were hoping to sell, from us. So we headed about 15 miles west of London to the countryside to give her the album. We collected �25 in return for it. This done, we hopped the train back to central London (the fourth time in one day for me).

We had dinner at a favorite Italian restaurant near Victoria Station. The meal was great, the music they played was funky, and the wine was like nectar. It also did what wine always does to me�it made me feel relaxed and mellow, but also a bit silly.

After leaving the restaurant, we headed to the shopping mall above Victoria Station. There is a nice bookstore at the far end of the mall, and we must have spent a whole hour in there, looking through travel, science fiction and humor books. We even copied a dirty limerick down from a joke book. If someone on the 'net ever pisses me off, I now have a weapon with which to spam him!

Standing by the train tracks, I looked at my watch and was astonished to see that it was only a little past 7 p.m. The night still being young, I suggested going to a pub. There just so happens to be a large pub on the corner of Buckingham Palace Road called The Shakespeare; we'd seen it loads of times, but had never actually gone inside. I had several beers. The wife and I talked, joked and flipped through the books we'd bought. I admit to getting quite drunk, but that is all part of the fun.

After leaving the pub, we found that our train home wasn't for another 20 minutes, so we went for a short walk. We walked around the block by Victoria Station in the mild evening air. Well, she walked, while I did more of a drunken trot.

Once we got home, the first game of the baseball World Series had just begn, so I sat in bed and watched that. Eventually, the alcohol caught up with me and I fell fast asleep during the fifth inning, but I could tell that Arizona would win. (Go D-Backs!)

It was a great Saturday. I was supposed to work all day. We never planned it. It wasn't supposed to turn out the way it did.

But I'm very glad it did.

� M.E.M.

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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.

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