Of course things change, and so some improvising had to be done.
But first my time with Sam:
~March 22nd~
Sam and I got up relatively late and she thought, "Hey let's take a day trip to Sussex."
Before I met Sam at the OSF Seminar, she had spent a term abroad in Sussex and so had some old friends there that were home for the Easter holidays. She had not seen them in four years and of course want to take advantage of their being home. I was very excited to come along.
For brunch we went to the cafe where Sam works. It's a snug place called The Curved Angel tucked away just at the foot of the steps of a church. It was very relaxed; you could just ask for something to eat and grab a drink from the fridge whenever and when you paid you just had to remember what you had and tell the person at the till. Sam's friend, Maude, a lovely French woman, was pretty much running the place that day.
Sam's friends from Drama Centre, Isabel, in the directing program, and her boyfriend, Joe, in the acting program, joined us. Joe had recently auditioned for and got into the 24 Hour Theatre Festival that was happening at the Old Vic Theatre, run by Kevin Spacey. He had had a workshop the other day so the actors could test their voices in the space, etc. and he had been sitting next to Mr. Spacey during a group discussion/banter.
I'm jealous.
Afterwards Sam and I gathered up more layers at her flat before heading for the Waterloo train station. At the station we met up with a friend of hers, Peter, in the third year at Drama Centre, who was also making his way to East Grinstead, so we thought we'd all take the train together.
It was a quiet trip on my part. I spent most of it staring at Peter's face. Only when he was speaking, of course, so it looked like I was just listening to him while he and Sam played catchup.
He's gorgeous. That's all I'm gonna say.
That and when we parted ways he gave a smile that made my knees give way a bit.
"So, did you like my friend?" Sam asked me as we walked away.
"'Like' is an understatement," I replied.
We then made our way to the buses to get to the village where her friends lived...and then it started snowing. We had moved from Spring in Angel:
...to Winter in Sussex within a matter of hours:
Sam's friends were lovely. We met at a pizza joint in a quaint little village and then gradually moved the party to a pub next door.
After a few hours we had to say bye and called a cab to go back to the station and from Waterloo we walked back home...making a stop at Sam's favorite kebab place along the way.
~March 23rd~
Orlando had left the previous day and this morning, Peter and Sophie took off for their Easter holidays. So Sam and I had the flat to ourselves.
We mainly lounged around...and I would read while Sam packed up her things for her flight home the next morning. She insisted I stay at the flat while I waited for Alex to fly in on Tuesday.
That evening we went over to her friend, Rachel's, for dinner. Rachel, who's from Ohio, is a first year at the Drama Centre. She had just got back from visiting her boyfriend in Paris, so naturally she was in need of some company and she wanted to feed us the good cheeses and wine she brought back.
As a thank you I wanted to make some kind of contribution...but all I could offer was Easter chocolate and more wine.
So that was my Easter!
Sam and I waddled the short walk back to her house pretty late, but not too late. We stayed up chatting and before we realized it, it was 1 and Sam had to take off around 5 for her flight and she said, "You know I might as well stay up the rest of the night."
"I'll stay up with you," I decided.
My sleeping schedule has been out of whack ever since.
But it was worth it I think; I got some extra time with Sam and got to see her off. I would've hated to have been half asleep when she left.
~March 24th~
The next day I woke up to an empty London flat and had no idea what to do with myself.
Orlando said he was gonna be back by Monday, but he never showed up. I woke up relatively late and wasted away in front of Sam's computer and my book before I realized it was dinner time.
I got myself a sandwich from a Pret A Manger nearby and watched Manhattan from Sam's Woody Allen collection.
And then I discovered one of Sam's Polaroid cameras and decided to leave her a picture and letter for when she got back.
That night I got an email from my Alex entitled "EEK".
Alex was visiting some family in New York before she came to see me.
On her last day there, the NY underground was apparently going berserk.
As a result she missed her plane and her airline, Air India, only has one flight that goes out of New York into London each day. Fortunately, she was able to get a place on the plane going out the next evening.
However, that meant that our day in Birmingham was off the itinerary.
And so began my lovely extended stay at l'auberge boheme.
To be continued...
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