There And Back To See There And Back

Sorry to have taken so long to write about my day out with There and Back last Friday. I have no excuse other than that I really haven't felt like writing anything, but tonight I am forcing myself to write a few words.

My train left Waterloo on time and I arrived at my destination just a minute late. The arrangement was that I would meet There and Back at the station. She had a doctor's appointment and hoped that she would arrive at the station in time for the arrival of my train. We exchanged a number of text messages while I was on the train and I knew that she would probably arrive at the station a couple of minutes after my train arrived, and that is exactly what happened.

I saw There and Back walking towards me as I stood near the station entrance so I started to walk away from the station to meet her. And when we actually met there was a minute or two where we just stood there hugging each other and saying how lovely it was to see each other again. We had already decided in our daily emails that we weren't going to do anything too exciting, but rather just take the opportunity to sit and chat about whatever crossed our minds.

So, we headed off for a coffee for me and hot chocolate for There and Back. While we were drinking and talking I gave There and Back a few little presents. There wasn't anything really special, just a few bits and pieces that I thought she might like. I gave her Hat No 1 (well a girl really doesn't need three hats that are similar), a small piece of rock with amethyst crystals embedded on it, a small coaster made from a slice of purple agate (purple is There and Back's favourite colour) and a really cute, baby diplodocus cuddly toy (it was only about 4 inches in length and really cute, and as a vegetarian dinosaur it was the perfect gift from the Natural History Museum for There and Back who is also a vegetarian).

Then we went to a department store so that I could buy some tapestry needles and once they were purchased, the pair of us went to another area of the shop to drool over the knitting wool. I have to feed my knitting habit and There and Back has become a real wool junkie since I bought her a book on crochet and a crochet hook for her birthday. After a bit more wandering while chatting away we headed for the shopping centre's food area and made our way to Pizza Hut for our lunch.

We found ourselves being taken to a table, our drinks order was taken and we opted for the lunch-time buffet. This meant that we could eat as much as we wanted of the pizzas, salads and pasta on the buffet, but more importantly take as long as we wanted over our lunch. And we did; both of us having two platefuls of pizza and salad. We finished off with a visit to the ice cream machine.

After lunch we went for a walk to the park and sat in the sun on a park bench for about an hour. At this point I gave There and Back the other present that I had for her; the afghan that I had made once I knew that I would be seeing her. She was thrilled with it and I knew that she would like the colours because she had commented on how much she liked the photograph of my afghan that I had posted on the blog when I was knitting it some months ago.

When the sun disappeared and it started to get a bit cold, we headed back to the coffee shop where we had enjoyed our drinks earlier in the day. We had the same drinks again and chatted some more before heading for the station so that I could catch my train home. After having spent something like five and a half hours in each other's company we parted with a big hug and a goodbye. We had both enjoyed the day and are looking forward to meeting again in the coming months; it will be in London next time with the probability of a visit to a matinee performance of one of the musicals that are on in London.