Today I met up with my friend, Sara, for a spot of writing at the Royal Festival Hall. We're both working hard on revised drafts so it's good to spur each other on with prearranged writing appointments. As I walked across the Jubilee Bridge towards the Royal Festival Hall, the London Eye looked glorious.
Sara and I began writing in the main foyer of the Festival Hall. I think this venue must be the unofficial study of hundreds of London writers. It's a lovely space with lots of room for people to sit with laptops, uninterrupted. Or that's what we'd hoped anyway. After an hour, a pop dance session began. It looked great fun, but wasn't so good for writing. We moved to the members' bar on the sixth floor. This is a gorgeous space with beautiful views over the Thames. But, ahem, Sara and I aren't actually members and after a while were invited - is that the word? - to move on. We ended up on the fourth floor, where we each sat a desk and wrote. Relatively uninterrupted, other than the odd other person who joined us in this lovely space to talk loudly into mobile phones! Here's a picture of where I sat working.
Sara wasn't far away at an identical desk. We broke off mid-afternoon for chocolate cornflake cakes, the calories surely burned off by all the moving about!
Sara and I both got a lot of work done and I felt that we had both packed away our nerves and anxiety for an afternoon at least. At 5pm we went our separate ways and I wandered past red spotty trees to walk back over to the Embankment.
What a lovely afternoon of writing. How unexpectedly entertaining. I got home to discover that my nextdoor neighbour had locked himself out. With the help of a ladder and a shed, he was able to climb over into his own back garden and let himself in. That and the X Factor have meant that the day's entertainment has still not ended. What on earth will happen next?
