h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Have spent the *whole* weekend away from Cambridge, which is a pretty rare occurrence.

Took the afternoon off on Friday and got the (very crowded - why?) 3.45 train to Kings Cross. Walked to Tavistock Hotel, checked in and dumped my bag, then hopped on a bus to Cambridge Circus, to meet ex-UCL friends at the bar in the Curzon Soho. After a pleasant chat and a couple of glasses of wine, pottered back in the direction of Bloomsbury, stopping off for a pizza at Pizza Express in Coptic Street, which is where my ex and I had dinner on our wedding night (it was romantically significant ...).

Was just checking email and Facebook on my iPad in the hotel foyer when other ML friends rolled in, after their Indian meal, also in Soho.

Breakfasted next day with three ML-ers, then went off to see the Royal Manuscripts exhibition at the British Library. It's fantastic, well worth seeing, but it was *very* crowded, which meant you had to go round at snail's pace in order to peer into all the display cases - quite tiring, so I have to admit I skipped a few in the end. Had lunch in the cafe at the BL, and then headed for the Royal Festival Hall for the ML mega-meet.

It was lovely to see good friends from many previous meets (some going back almost 10 years!), although I was sad that several of them have had a really rough time in the past year. Also great to meet new people.

A group of 10 of us went for dinner and then a sub-group headed off to pub/gig/clubbing, which I chickened out of - rather regretted it when I heard that dancing to 50s and 60s vinyl (with Keri) had taken place!

This morning dawned cold but sunny - a nice change after torrential rain yesterday afternoon - and I set off for a wander round Bloomsbury, but then on a sudden impulse jumped on a 73 bus to Stoke Newington, where my ex and I had lived for 6 years (1975-81). Arrived in time for the main service at our old church and was able to surprise one of my oldest friends, who still attends there. She was a teenage member of the youth group we ran there, and is now ... one of the churchwardens! Very much enjoyed chatting to a surprising number of people who still remembered me.

Stayed after the service for a cup of tea, followed by drinks in the pub, and eventually left at 2.45 to go back to the hotel for my bag and get the train back here. As lunch was a sandwich on the 4.15 train and I hadn't done any shopping, I was obviously obliged to go to the local pub for dinner - oh dear!

Great weekend, very relaxing.