Monday, April 3rd 2000

Finally I’ve made the big move! I’m here! I’m in London!

Arrived in London 5.15pm after a long turbulent flight from Stockholm. My 65 kilos of luggage didn’t make the journey from Heathrow to Central London any easier, and it cost me a shocking £95 to have packed a couple of t-shirts too many!

I had pre-booked a room in a hostel in Errol Street, but I must have gotten the only cab driver without local knowledge as he had no clue where this was. It turned into a very long drive.

Finally in my room, I was not about to start unpacking my overpriced luggage, so I had a quick shower to cleanse off the journey dirt, a change of clothes and a 10 minute rest before heading to Soho for a celebratory drink. Yeah, I felt that I should definitely celebrate my move to London! Even if I was doing so on my own!

A short while later I found myself in the Village pub with a beer in my hand, and as I turn from the bar towards the door, my mate Thom from Stockholm walks through the door Incredible! Now, I should explain the circumstances, Thom and I aren’t close friends but rather social friends, chatting whenever we meet out and about. When I spoke to Thom late last year and mentioned I was planning to move to London, he was thrilled as he was about to move there himself with a friend called Chris. We decided to stay in touch and meet up when I had moved over, but then I lost his contact details and never thought I’d find him!

That was why it was just unbelievable that he should walk through the door of that exact bar, just seconds after I had arrived! Also very lucky as it turned out he knew all the staff there too, and I was on a fast lane to making new friends. Later that evening we ended at Heaven, even though I had convinced both my mate Franck back in Stockholm and myself that I wouldn’t go there on the first night! Unbelievably I bump into another social friend from Stockholm whose name escapes me, but there goes my theory that London is too big to meet anyone you know. Two Swedes in one evening!

At some point I chatted up an 18 year old cutie called Dan. Camp as a row of tents, but very sweet, funny and charming. We chatted, drank and danced for what seemed like hours, and he asks me to come home with him. I am sure we took a cab as I cannot remember getting a night bus, and the next morning I realise he lives quite far out from the centre, near Finsbury Park. Mission: figure out how the hell to get back to my hostel!

It is 10am by the time I crawl into my own bed, and fall asleep for two hours before meeting Thom at Old Comptons Cafe for lunch at 1pm. And then it is time for some shopping! While Thom is investing in a new wardrobe, I get a new sim for my mobile. After that we stop off for drinks.. and more drinks! We found a small basement bar called Frevd where they serve the longest Long Island Ice Teas we have ever seen! So we stuck around for a few before making our way to the Escape bar.

By this time we were getting relatively drunk… and there he was! The most handsome man I had ever seen walks in, and I have trouble breathing. Not that there is a lack of totty to rest our eyes on in this place, they are a plenty, but this guy is stunning! Don’t ask me what happened but somehow we got chatting, and Thom convinces me to ask him out for lunch the next day. So I did, but it turned out he was travelling to Paris the next day. He gave me his number and suggested we meet for lunch next week – and then we snogged for a bit!