On a high....street, that is

Keep Calm & Carry On Shopping Tote Bag
Originally uploaded by mooosh ♥ miso funky.

What a day! This has been a super sunny Saturday and I've enjoyed it by single-handedly helping to keep the British economy afloat.

I woke up early today, owing to the fact that in summer time here it gets bright at about 4.30am. By 7am I was wide awake, and starting to get really warm so I knew it was going to be a gorgeous day.

The only commitment today that I knew I had was a hair salon appointment at 2pm; otherwise, I was fancy free. I headed out at around 11am and walked up to the High Street. It's not called "High Street" though; rather, that just seems to be what an area's main shopping street is called here [FYI, the High Street in this 'hood is actually called St John's Road].

Up and down I went, in and out of stores, spending cash as I went. I called into Clark's and bought two pairs of black leather ballet flats (one matte, one patent). The Pakistani shop assistant helpfully suggested I should buy heels because I am so short, which he thought was terribly amusing. I replied that after a day spent in heels in this city, he'd have to carry me everywhere I wanted to go. Wiped the smile right off his face, ha! Fortunately we both laughed.

A few doors away is a great little place called "Recipease", a Jamie Oliver place. I suspect he must own it, because it's chock-full of his products, ready-made meals and even a test kitchen down the back where they run cooking classes. I am thinking about doing one, because they look really good. There are some longer courses like knife skills, which goes for 4 weeks but is a bit serious; and then there are one-off classes like a pasta one or a green chicken curry one, where you focus on preparing just one meal and eat it at the end. There are about 8 stations in the kitchen, so the classes would be pretty good and I thought a nice way to meet people. The students I saw in today's class (the pasta one) didn't seem to know each other, or at least they weren't talking to each other - so it's hard to tell, as nobody seems to talk to anybody else in London.

But I digress.

I stopped at the 3 store and got myself on a 12-month plan, which I'd been meaning to do for ages as the pay-as-you-go thing was costing me a fortune. I will have a different phone number until Monday (apologies in advance for any confusion that causes), but then I will get to switch my phone number back to the old one and order will once again be restored.

I called into the charity shop and bought a top and two trashy novels to do my bit for cancer research, then I turned left from the High Street onto Battersea Rise, and found my hairdressing salon, entirely on time for my appointment.

I was a bit nervous going to the hairdresser for the first time, to be honest. My regrowth is so bad right now it's a miracle I have the confidence to leave the house at all. Still, with all the shopping I did today, I can't really afford to get my roots done until next pay day - not properly anyway - so I decided just to have a cut. My hair is only short, but it's dead straight which doesn't leave a lot of room for imaginative styling. Still, the instant my hairdresser and I saw each other, we fell in love. He is so lovely and we chatted for ages about everything, me rambling away about nothing and he spritzing and snipping. He is not from London - rather, a small town somewhere about 2 hours' drive north of here - and he lives walking distance from the salon and really loves the area. His girlfriend is studying to be a ballerina and so as a result he gets dragged along to a bunch of live theatre and dance productions, including in the Royal Opera House, which I haven't been to yet. Turns out his girlfriend is going to live at her ballet school, so he'll be looking for a room mate soon (around the same time as me). He even suggested we could live together - but I chose to think he was joking. Or was he? Thinking about it, there has to be advantages to living with a hairdresser, right? Especially a straight, clean and self-sufficient one who knows how to cook and gets along well with his family? Yep, I can see it now - we're going to be best friends. I will reassess this situation in a few weeks' time when I go back to get my hair colour done - more news to follow.

So much adventure on the High Street today, no wonder I'm ready for a nanna nap!