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I had decided to have this week off, and naturally, during my week off I wanted to go to Camden. The week before, I had asked the Halloweiners if any of them wanted to join my partner and I, Robin and Raya agreed to come; Robin was also going to meet us in Camden with Levi, as they would both be coming from Reading.
I made the mistake on deciding to get to Camden at noon, as I wanted to have a bit of a lie in and time to get ready without rushing. I met with Charlie and Raya at the time we agreed upon, then walked down to the train station together, picking up a nasal spray for myself along the way. The pollen bloom seemed to be a lot later this year than the last couple of years, normally my hay fever affects me most during March - May, sometimes even as early as February, but not normally as late as June, particularly not late June. Anyway, we got to the train station without any issues, bought day travel cards to London and waited for our train. Getting to Peterborough was fine, we were seated, though our train did get a bit delayed due to another train being at the station in front of us.
We then caught the train to London on time, but what we didn't realise, was just how packed it was. We thought, because it wasn't peak time, we would have been able to get a seat. But we were so wrong. We probably should've stood further up the platform instead amongst the crowd, but we made our way onto the train, but the carriages are those ones where the door/lobby space is really tiny, and there are separate doors to the seating area, so there's not much space to stand. So many people were already sat in the seats when we got on, and the few that were empty were reserved. We squeezed onto another carriage, but then Raya's bag got caught on someone's skirt! It took a while for them to untangle from one another, but eventually Raya was able to separate from the other person. Unfortunately, during the whole debacle, the metal clasp on Raya's bag broke, and with no table to fix it, they said they probably shouldn't go any further, due to their petticoat and bag, so we agreed to just stand by the toilet. There were already a lot of people stood in this area, and people were almost constantly going in and out of the toilet.
Our train was a direct to London, so unfortunately, that meant no stops along the way, so seats wouldn't free up. We were gonna all get sore feet before we had even got to Camden, I had my Selene boots on, so I knew my feet were gonna be extra sore too. I could see all of us were tense because of the seating situation, or more rather the lack of seating, and Raya was desperately trying to hold it all together after their ita bag strap broke. Luckily Raya had a spare strap, but there was nowhere for us to look at it. One of the clasps had already broke on the bag before, and they had barely had this bag for two months! The fact it didn't even come with the inserts just screamed red flag to me, I suggested that Raya replace the whole bag as it looked like it was just always gonna be trouble.
After a long and tense journey, we got to London and agreed to just sit down somewhere for a bit, before getting the tube from King's Cross to Camden. I bought a drink, but as I was walking round WHSmith's, I don't know what but I somehow got caught on a guy's backpack? So that was frustrating. We sat at a bench and updated Bin and Levi on the situation, they were both already in Camden eating Wendy's. Raya managed to replace the strap as I finished off a smoothie. We then upped and left to catch the underground to Camden. The tube was fine.
After arriving in Camden Town station, a man stopped us and was asking us for a donation to a knife crime charity (or something to that effect), he said "Excuse me! You dropped your smile" to us. He then carried on his sentence by saying "This isn't a scam", which sounded like it was a scam, so I kept looking down at our bags in case someone tried to rob us. We said we weren't interested and just headed straight to the Wendy's across the road to meet with Robin and Levi, who were just polishing off their meal. Raya decided to order something, but Charlie and I aren't keen on fast food (other that Gregg's and Subway), I wanted to have pizza from one of the market stalls. Also whilst we getting ready to leave Wendy's, I spotted a guy with a crown on his head and one of those like red mantles draped on him, and he was sat upon this shoddily put together throne made from a colourful garden chair on top of what kind of looked like a table and table cloth? I was a bit confused.
We then went to Traid, which is a charity shop in Camden, just opposite Camden Town station. There was a few pairs of trousers that I liked the look of, however, they were too big for me. Raya and I looked at some of the white and wedding dress section (for their cosplay) where we found a mysterious garment that we couldn't really work out what it was, there was lots of tulle and a lining but we couldn't work out what on earth it was. I think Robin and Levi got a few things from Traid, it was surprisingly busy in there!
We made our way down the street, browsed some of the market stalls, then back onto the street. We also stopped by the storage container shops, and I got a little crocheted fish keyring, I think all of us got some stickers and patches too! Back on the street, Levi pointed out a shop selling big boots and I mistook it for the New Rock shop. The interior was bright red (the floor, walls, ceiling and shelves were all red) and I said that I thought the shop was further down and that the interior was silver before, but felt compelled to go in there because of everyone else. I wanted to go to the New Rock shop to get a leather coat to go with my Selene boots, I wanted a Selene coat. I looked round what I thought was the New Rock shop, and picked out and tried on a few coats. I was looking for the coat that I had tried on when I was last in Camden with my mum, it was long at the back and (shorter) sort of like a waistcoat at the front. I couldn't find that coat so I assumed they didn't have it any more and went with a trench coat instead, which wasn't quite what I wanted, but close enough. £300 later, we left the shop, I thought it strange that they hadn't given me a New Rock branded bag, like I had received last time. A few steps later, and there it was, the shop that I remembered going in, the actual New Rock shop, with its metal plated floors and walls. I had already purchased a coat, I couldn't justify buying another, but I felt niggled with myself that we had gone in the wrong shop and the coat I bought wasn't even a New Rock coat and not quite what I wanted ;-; We passed by, I couldn't go in there and look because then I would just be filled with more regret.
We visited some more stalls, just over the canal, as Robin was looking for the shop that sold the moon T-shirts, which we found, he was in his usual corner. Unfortunately, I don't think they had many and they weren't in Robin's size, so we just headed down the stairs to get into the stables area. Charlie and I bought a slice of pizza each while the rest of the group continued round to view some more stalls. Charlie and I seated ourselves in one of the bubbles, it felt nice to rest our wary feet. As we were eating, a little starling flew down onto the table, pooped, ate some crumbs and leftovers and left! Whilst we were eating, the bois came back and we moved to a bubble with more space, my bag kept getting caught on the seat though when I was trying to pull it up to leave, which was annoying. Sitting in the bubbles wasn't great because there was no shelter from the sun, it was like a miniature greenhouse, there was no shade so we were all being blinded.
After that, we then walked round where Robin, Levi and Raya had been, there was a stall selling guitar handbags, which was super cool! Robin and Levi hopped into a photobooth, meanwhile Charlie purchased something from a camera stall. Levi showed us the photos, which were amusing because it didn't tell you when it was going to take a picture. I would've liked to have gotten a pic with Charlie, but I could see he was a little despondent after a vendor told him off for touching the stuff without permission. I could see the vendor's point but I couldn't see a sign that said "Don't touch" because of course people are going to be wanting to touch and handle the bags or hats they were selling. Raya was a little distant too, I wondered if it was because of what had happened on our way to Camden, which was understandable.
We carried on around the rest of the stables, Robin, Levi and Raya spent a while browsing some pin badges and these tiny pictures (I'm not sure what they were but they sorta looked like fancy long stamps with nice illustrations on them). Charlie and I did a quick once over the area but didn't spot anything of any interest. I wanted to go sit down again as the soles of my feet felt like they were burning and aching, but we had no luck, there was nowhere to sit. Eventually, everyone finished up browsing and paying for their things, so we moved on. We were near Burleska Corsets shop, and I wanted to go look in there on our way down, but we ended up just going straight to Cyberdog.
I let the others go in ahead of us, I asked Charlie if he was feeling okay and that he didn't have to go in, but he still wanted to look, so we went in. I grabbed a choker that I had wanted to get last time, because the only one left had spikes missing. Charlie decided he needed some time to process things on his own, so I left him to browse the chokers by himself (I also said he could pick one out as a wee treat for him <3). I found a hoodie with the London underground map on it but with some of the words and lines changed to rave and queer related stuff, which I thought would amuse Charlie (he's been getting super into maps lately, also if you didn't know by now, yes, me and my entire friend group is queer, happy belated pride month and happy disability pride month!). He enjoyed that!
I caught up with the rest of the group, Charlie followed shortly after with his choker that he picked out. Robin and Levi went into the 18+ section whilst we looked at a skirt with Raya, before debating whether of not we should go into the 18+ section. We showed our ID's and headed down, further into the basement. I stuck with Charlie and made jokes about some of the stuff that was down there, and just was overall silly to try and cheer him up a bit, which seemed to help. I viewed some of the harnesses and lingerie but didn't see anything that particularly caught my eye.
Charlie and I headed back up and I paid for our chokers, we then sat somewhere where we probably weren't supposed to sit but we needed a moment, we sat at a table on the porch of a café. Charlie had a vent to me about some things and I did my best to console him. My friends reappeared and sat a few tables away from us, they could see we needed a bit of space. After calming down a bit and having a small rest, we carried on to a shop called Black Widow.
I think I'd like to go to Black Widow again, and I think Charlie would too, because we both saw things we liked, I particularly liked a couple of the waistcoats and frilly shirts, I think Charlie would have looked great in those. I liked one of the corsets as well, but I had so much stuff on and I didn't really want to faff about with trying them on when we were on a time crunch (SaiSai closes at 6:30pm and it was almost 5:30). Raya tried on one of the skirts, which I think the sizing must've been Asian sizing because they said it was tiny on them, and also weirdly the way it did up was with Velcro (it was a kilt style skirt). Whilst we were waiting, me, Robin, Levi and Charlie were chatting to the person who was running the store, they said they used to come to Black Widow back in the 80's/ 90's (can't remember what they said) when they were younger and now they work there themselves! We also saw a lady dancing on the bar table in a pub across from Black Widow!
We went back to the stables area and the group went to go get bubble tea, whilst Charlie and I went to Buleska Corsets. I saw a skirt that I liked the look of but they didn't have it in my size. The rest of the gang reappeared and we did a quick browse through the street with the umbrellas, before beelining to SaiSai. The staff in Saisai urged us to be quick, as the moment they closed, we had to leave as they were going to the airport. I think Robin, Levi and Raya went upstairs to look at the men's section. I remembered that there was a chair in the corset room, so went and rested there for a while and Charlie sat beside me on the floor. After a short rest, I got up and browsed the corsets as Charlie sat in the chair. I found one that I liked, but it was faux leather and was too big for me. I then headed downstairs and browsed some of the sale rail, but couldn't find anything that I liked. I did, however, find a cute little batwing capelet in the lolita section! It's from Dark In Love and I'd never seen it before! I had been thinking of getting a capelet for a while, so I decided to get it. I then joined the rest of the lads, who were already outside waiting for me.
We then walked all the way up towards Chalk Farm station, to find the Nando's, only to almost get to the station and still haven't spotted it! Both Charlie and Raya whipped out their phones and searched for Nando's Camden. It was all the way back by Camden Town station... I was so tired and desperately wanted to sit because my feet hurt so much. Raya suggested that the Nando's looked like it was where the one they went to last month with a friend. It would've been nice to have known that a bit sooner! I had no idea that it had moved, since I hadn't been to Camden in over a year. I was too tired to be pissed off at this point. We just plodded along the road, until we reached the Nando's.
We crammed into the entryway, where there were two people in front of us waiting to be seated. The waiter was busy cleaning a table and when he spotted us, he ushered the two people in front to the waiting bench. He rushed off and began cleaning a different table along the wall, it was a table in the middle of the long booth thing that stretched across the back wall. He then grabbed the two that were in front of us and seated them down, so we then sat on the waiting bench. Robin watched him clean a smaller, round table and moved another chair over, he then told us to go sit at this tiny table. I said out loud "Is there going to be enough room for us? There's five of us", and we clearly all had a lot of stuff, but the waiter just ran off, so we crammed around this tiny table, that can't have been much more than a metre wide. I was very pissed off and tired, but too tired to do anything about it. Levi suggested that maybe the waiter saw us and just wanted us in and out as quickly as possible, which I thought was strange, because we were literally in Camden
Poor Charlie did his best to shove my bag of stuff (which, by the way, he had very kindly been carrying for me throughout the day, everyone say thank you to Charlie) under his chair. Robin and Levi ordered together, while me and Charlie ordered through Raya's app. Bin and Levi had ordered first, so received their food first, I asked if I was able to steal a couple of chips, which they agreed to, so I ordered the boneless platter (with Charlie) to have a large side of garlic bread and coleslaw. The rest of us were still waiting for our food, so Raya headed up to the bathroom, I followed shortly after. I vented to Raya about how poorly the day had been going, and the table situation didn't help.
When we returned, our food hadn't arrived still and Robin and Levi had eaten almost all of their food, all the chips were gone! I fell silent, Raya could see I was upset about it and offered to buy chips for me free of charge. I accepted, feeling utterly deflated and done with this day. Eventually, our food arrived; not too long after, Robin and Levi decided to head home and thanked us for the day out. We mostly silently ate our food, the only thing I think I remember saying was how much I was dreading my driving lesson the next day, as it was almost like 7:30pm.
After finishing our food, we caught the tube back to King's Cross and shortly after, our train back to Peterborough. I did want to get a drink whilst we were in King's Cross, just so I had something to drink on the journey back, but just as I was saying that, our platform for the train came up. Instead, I ended up using a QR code at our table to order a Sprite to where we were sat. The waiter even gave me a plastic cup and napkin! We discussed the day and what we should've done and could've done. It was a bit of a shambles but I can go on about that, a lot of stuff was out of our control in all fairness.
Thankfully, Charlie's dad picked us up and drove us all home, I think it must've been almost 10pm by the time I got home. I took off all my makeup, changed into my jammies and made myself a hot chocolate, I think I earned it. It was such a tiring day. Oh well, I look forward to when it starts getting a little colder so I can wear my new coat! Also keep an eye on my Insta, as I plan on wearing my capelet soon too ^^
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