Early in January I spent a most wonderfully enjoyable weekend in London with some of my Andean friends. I was disappointed when Aquiles phoned to say all the seats on all the buses were fully booked and that they wouldn't be coming down for the weekend after all, but didn't remain despondent about it for too long having decided that I would go to them instead! - it being Aquiles last weekend in London before flying to Peru early the following Tuesday. I just had to go and say goodbye in person. So Thursday evening I got on the phone and booked my train tickets for Saturday, returning on Sunday.
The whole weekend was great including the Friday when Colin and I met up with my friend Verna and many of her other friends at Cafe Martini, an Italian restaurant in Bath, to celebrate her 60th birthday. We had a wonderful evening with them and both food and our fellow diners were wonderful. It ended up being quite a late night and when I got home I had to take all the Christmas decorations and tree down (to avoid bad luck!!!!) as well as pack a small bag with what I needed for my weekend in London so it was pretty late by the time I got to sleep.
I was up early next morning - usual time 5.30 am - to get ready and Colin came at about 8 o-clock to pick me up and take me to the station. I had to buy batteries for my personal CD player and snacks for the journey and then we had a couple of coffees at the station as my train was already 45 minutes later than its stated time. We waited 30 of those 45 minutes and a train for Swindon arrived and the train manager said that any London passengers could get on that and change at Chippenham to catch a London train on another line and thus save a bit of time. What he had not taken into account was that before arriving at Chippenham, our train had to stop at signals and wait to let two other trains pass. Consequently we were just pulling into Chippenham station as the London train was pulling out! We were all devastated as it meant almost an hour to wait for the next one. It was quite a cold day and I was regretting not wearing a warmer coat! I was wearing my knitted skirt with matching poncho and just one sweater underneath and it wasn't really warm enough for all that hanging around! Luckily I had my personal CD player with me to pass the time listening to some andean music, and tucking into all the snacks made the wait less boring too. Luckily that train arrived on time and we left Chippenham at 10.40 but it was an unbelievably slow train and we didn't arrive at Paddington until 1 o-clock (2 hours and 20 minutes later than if my original train had been on time!!!
Luckily it was only two stops away on the underground to Notting Hill Gate Station where I got off, and walked to Portabello Road Market where Aquiles and Claire would be playing their music. When I got there they weren't playing at that moment (I was listening out for them) and had set up their equipment behind a big van, so I walked past and for some reason cast my eyes to the right and saw Aquiles sitting on one of his speakers having a snack. I said "My goodness I could have walked right past without seeing you" but he said he would have recognised me and called me back! I then surprised him by showing how much I'd improved in Spanish and spoke to him and replied to his response in Spanish without too much difficulty - he was most impressed!!!! At that moment Claire arrived with her snack (they can only go off one at a time as one has to watch the equipment) and it was great to be with them both again and we chatted until it was time for them to play their next set and they said they'd just be playing for another hour which just gave me time for a look around the market, having arranged to rejoin them an hour later.
The market was brilliant and I could have spent a fortune! I didn't get far when I saw an Andean band - Santiago - playing and really regretted my train having been so late as the music sounded wonderful and I would have liked to stay and listen but if I'd done so there would have been no time to visit a bit around the market! I managed to resist all the lovely bargains and beautiful things on the stalls until I got to an Indian clothing stall and went crazy on the beautiful velvet blouses and tunics, all beautifully embroidered and with little mirrors inset in the material. I bought two and luckily there was a bank nearby and I went in to get some more money including a bit extra in case I saw anything else. Which I did - when I got to the end of the street there was a girl selling hats made to her own design and there was a beautiful hat which looked like an animal skin with the fur on the inside (but imitation skin), beautifully hand painted and with a scarf bit to go around the neck. It looked a lot like a Peruvian hat with its pointed shape and when I tried it on I loved it so much and even though it cost £25 I bought it and put it on to wear as it was still very cold and after a while I felt much warmer with the hat on. I had to walk back practically with my eyes closed in order to resist all the other lovely tempting things. One thing is for sure, I'll make sure I've got plenty of money to spend next time I go to Portabello Road market and I will go again, hopefully with enough time to listen to Santiago's music and that of Waykis of Peru who are usually there also but weren't that particular day.
As I approached Aquiles and Claire who had finished playing I saw that Carlos Saldana was with them and Aquiles pointed me out as I approached and Carlos was really delighted to see me and gave me an enormous hug - the last time I saw him his English was very little and he'd improved a lot which made such a difference and he was the most animated I'd ever seen him! During the course of conversation when Aquiles said I was there for the weekend and would be staying overnight at my ex husband's flat, he said "No, I must stay at his place" and I was delighted to accept. (Carlos and his wife Suzanna and baby Tupay stayed at my house last May when they were playing in Bath and Suzanna and Tupay came to Bath to be with him. Suzanna and Tupay weren't with him on Saturday, as they'd gone on holiday to the Caribbean (Antigua) with her family. Carlos then stayed with us for the rest of the weekend and we all went for a Thai take-away before getting the underground to Claire's flat in Bethnal Green. At the house we opened a bottle of Jack Daniels Whisky and were drinking that and I was able to check my messages as Claire's computer has internet access and was delighted to have messages from Hugo in Peru and Jacco a Bolivian musician living in Texas (who sent me his band's CD 'Paisaje de Condores' for Christmas this year). I typed a couple of quick replies. While all this was going on we were listening to music and having a good time. I was able to practise spoken Spanish on Carlos who was amazed that I was speaking his language. When I last saw him I had no Spanish at all apart from the odd few words.
In the evening we all went out. First of all to a cultural event at Conway Hall - featuring dances etc by the Malpuche Indians of Chile which was very interesting. Best of all Dante Concha was there and it was fantastic to see him again, and when we left the hall he came with us and spent the rest of the evening with us. We went into a nearby pub and stayed there until it closed and had a couple of beers. Then we walked quite a way in the general direction of Carlos's flat at Notting Hill (Dante also lives at Notting Hill) and on the way bought another bottle of Jack Daniels and all went back to Carlos's flat to drink it and listen to more music. It was wonderful being able to have a long chat with Dante (not having seen him since since the Sidmouth International Music Festival in early August) and I was thoroughly enjoying myself in such wonderful company.
Later on, when we'd finished all the whisky, Dante went off home and the rest of us stayed the night in Carlos' flat. Claire and Aquiles had to share a single bed and I slept on the sofa which was quite a short one but I fell asleep okay and my legs weren't too stiff the next morning. I was awake long before them so listened to a few CDs via my headphones and wrote out my postcards. I finally went and woke them up at 11 o-clock as it seemed they would sleep all day if left. I woke them up nicely with cups of tea and coffee and luckily they got up and whilst having breakfast we all decided to go to a Peruvian restaurant at Elephant and Castle for lunch. Carlos phoned Johnny Rodrigues to see if he could join us and I spoke to him as well and he said he would do his best to join us and we had quite a chat on the phone. We were late leaving Carlos's flat as it took him about half an hour to find the piece of paper with his wife's phone number on it but eventually it was found and he rang her and I spoke to her as well and luckily she didn't seem to mind the fact that we'd all slept there the night before. With these delays we reached the restaurant an hour later than the time we'd told Johnny and when we got there he was waiting with his wife and son for our arrival before having lunch. I was so delighted to see him and by the fact that he'd made the effort to join us. It was the first time I'd met his wife Sandra and she was lovely too. I sat next to her at the table and we chatted alot. Just walking up the stairs to the restaurant and hearing the music that was playing I knew I'd just love it in there. It was an Antara CD playing on our arrival and beautiful music! Carlos had gone crazy about one of my CDs and had played it alot at his flat (Fusiones y Reflejos by Markamaru) and he even joined in with my favourite song on it by playing his acoustic guitar beautifully in accompaniment. Carlos is a close friend of Johnny as well as being in the same band, so he asked them in the restaurant to put the Markamaru CD on and it was great to listen to it as we ate. I gave it to Johnny before we left as he has a CD writer and is going to make two copies (one for him and one for Carlos) and let me have it back next weekend - he and Carlos might be coming to play in Bath next weekend and I invited both to stay at my house if they do. Johnny was telling me that he and Carlos had been on the Blue Peter programme on TV that week with their music and would be again on BBC on Monday at 7.30 am (which I've got someone to video for me as at that time I'm on the road on the way to work).
We had a lovely Peruvian meal, washed down with Inka Cola (a very popular soft drink all over Peru - which tastes a lot like bubblegum and is lovely poured over ice) and spent a very pleasant two and a half hours at the table, chatting, enjoying the food etc. Before we left, the restaurant gave me one of their calenders, much to my delight) which I have pinned on the wall along with my other andean memorabilia at work. I was also able to buy half a kilo of Aji Amarillo there which will keep me going for my Peruvian cookery for a couple of months or so. We had to dash at 4.30 to have time to go back to Claire's flat to collect Aquiles 200 Andean cassettes which he is lending me whilst he's in Peru. We loaded them in two boxes onto a trolley and hung all my bags on it too and I then said goodbye to Aquiles who was dying to get to bed as he was still suffering a hangover from the night before, and Claire came with me as far as Liverpool Street station and saw me onto the train for Paddington. It takes two people to manoevre the trolley on and off trains and up and down flights of stairs so I was a bit worried how I'd get it off the train at Paddington. Just before arriving at Paddington I asked a chap sitting nearby if he'd help me and he did. He had time to get off and help lift the trolley off and then get back on to resume his journey. In fact people were most helpful. One man helped me carry it up a huge flight of stairs on arrival at Paddington and when I got to the mainline part of Paddington station another man helped me carry it down another flight of stairs to get to platform level.
On the train I was able to stow the trolley and sit close enough to it to keep an eye on it all the way to Bath. Every time I looked at it I felt excited about all that Andean music contained within it!!! I had a go at reading a free Latin American newspaper (written in Spanish) given away at the restaurant that day, plus read a few more pages of my book on the Inca Trail, and listened to Andean music on the CD player all the way to Bath. Luckily that train was on time and when I realised it would also arrive in Bath on time I phoned Colin to say what time I'd arrive but asked him to come an hour later as I wanted to visit the internet cafe by the station for an hour first as there had been no time that day to check for my messages on Claire's computer. To my dismay the internet cafe had just closed when I got there - two hours earlier on Sundays than the other days of the week! So I phoned Colin and he came straightaway to pick me up and I was home by 9 pm, just in time to watch a really exciting film called Anaconda, set in the Amazon jungle. A really scary film and had I put a visit to the Amazon on my agenda this summer I think I would have cancelled it again!!
All in all a really brilliant weekend, which made me wish I had gone up to London to spend weekends with them on other occasions before whilst Aquiles was here. (He won't now be back until April).
