The Return Of High Priestess Tor

Many moons ago a story began that went a little like this....

Chapter 1

The Beginning

In a small village called Am-thill on the edge of a dark forest was an institute of knowledge known as the Red-Bornè. Three children all born to come into power studied the moving of the universe there and forged a friendship that would see them through many long hours of darkness.

Lord Jarmies Marquis of the region of Brogborough was a wild character even in the early days. Insane of mind he always proved loyal to the cause and had a particular affiliation with ‘sticky’ spots, and so proved handy for getting out of them.

Prince Adme Lord of the Bog of Eternal Stench, born to rule his vast swamp empire when he came of age, settled well into the position of leader of the group. Fiercely loyal and devoted, a true caring soul he would the form the core of the trio around which their formidable power and light would gather.

Finally Tor, they all knew she was special. The Dean of Red-Bornè, Professor Brook, had her marked as someone who would change the world.

Chapter 2

The Coming of The Priestess

An insignificant journey it had seemed at first, a simple pilgrimage to the musical temple of Marillion. But as Tor had stood in the falling Autumn snow looking up at the high windows of the shrine a vision had come to her. Colourful strands of wool woven together in a scarf of power. Upon her return to Red-Bornè Tor began to knit.

Many months she spent closeted in corners of the institute furiously weaving together the rainbow coloured strands of yarn until finally it was done.

A scarf nigh on 20 feet in length and imbued with the power of light. Every colour of the rainbow glistened from the bright threads as she ran the completed work through her hands. ‘Adme it is done’ Tor cried out!

‘Hurrah’ Adme cried! Then Jarmies came running up to see what was going on ‘Oh wow that scarf should not exist!’ he shouted with glee grabbing the scarf and running round the room with it.

....Sadly the rest of the adventures were lost in the mists of time, broken phones and deleted text messages, which is a terrible shame as they were quite hilarious and told wild tales of sailing over vast oceans in washing baskets eating jelly-babies and drinking pink champagne. Also distant now is the tale of how, for one grand, perfect and beautiful day High Priestess Tor became a Goddess, but from that she fell, she fell a long way, until she lay broken holding nothing more than a ring that was just a band of gold and a twenty foot scarf muddy at it's ends.

Thus High Priestess Tor's days of knitting drew to a close, and the scarf full of faded magic and mud was folded away and put at the back of the wardrobe on the threshold of Narnia where it belongs, only dug out on the rare occasions that she is reunited with her Marquis and Prince.

That is until today.

The wool has gotten more tasteful, and the general aims a lot less fantastical, but nevertheless begun again has the knitting and returned has the priestess.

A Lovely Evening Out

Cousin Emily came to babysit Edward yesterday so that Luke and I could have a night out together. I spent most of Monday afternoon looking at all the restaurants and things to do in London trying to choose what to do and where to go.

We looked at a cruise and dinner on the Thames, there are some nice ones available but it was a little bit too expensive for just a normal evening out, we were also a bit worried about getting to the dock in time to catch it. We also looked at some dinner and theatre packages and again there are some good ones available especially for Wicked which is the show I'd most like to see, however again this was a bit pricey and we were worried about time.

We then decided the best thing would be cinema and a film, however after looking at the listings we decided there wasn't really anything on we were prepared to pay £20 to see, annoyingly Hell Boy 2 isn't out yet as we would have gone for that. We thought of going to see Batman but I haven't seen the first one, in the new series, and also we wanted to see it at the Imax however the only screenings with seats left are in the middle of the day around two, or midnight...tempting but I just know I'd fall asleep.

So all in all after lots of unrealistic over planning we decided to keep it simple and just go out for a nice meal. I narrowed it down to a Burmese place that sounded really friendly or a theatrical place in the West End that has opera singers and such walking around and is decorated like a theatre, I left in Luke's hands to choose which one he wanted to take me too....he chose a Thai place on the river that we'd walked past when we went to see the Telectroscope.

We spoilt ourselves and got a taxi, Luke wanted to keep it a surprise as to where exactly we were going and so I put my fingers in my ears jokingly. As we drove the taxi driver kept pretending to let slip the surprise asking things like 'so what time DOES the London Dungeon close?' finally he dropped us by Borough Market telling us as he did so that it is where they filmed lots of 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'. I love it when you get proper London cabbies that banter and tell your touristy things, it makes the taxi ride into a real event.

Luke was a bit disorientated and couldn't quite work out which way to go, I guessed at this point we may be going to one of the restaurants on the water front, and even suspected the Thai place as he knows that's my favourite cusine, so I pointed the way to the river-front.

I was indeed correct and we went in, we thought they were going to seat us at the nice table by the window but it had been reserved for someone else so we got put in-front of a wall! It didn't matter though because I was looking at Luke as he is SO sexy and gorgeous.

The food was beautifully cooked and the place had a real 'out of London' vibe, I think because all the tables were well spaced and we didn't end up spending dinner listening to the next tables conversation like last time we went out for dinner. We talked about lots of things, such as our friends and travelling, I made a real effort not to talk about Edward too much as this was 'our' time.

After dinner we decided to try and catch the last 'flight' on the London Eye however even though it wasn't too far down the river there wasn't any clear route to it. We spent more time wandering down roads with traffic on them, that on the romantic river front, which was a shame, but we still had an enjoyable time. We got to Blackfriars around the time the Eye shut and so decided to give up and head home, I fell asleep wrapped in Luke's arms on the tube.

Sunshine And Anime

GoAs Will was up in London we decided it would be cool to try and visit an anime shop as he's really interested in it, and they are the kind of specialist things you only tend to get in big cities. I also wanted to change my i-pod case as it didn't fit, and get the new Porcupine Tree album. So I hatched a shopping route, asked my other anime friend where the best shops were and dragged the techie boys out into the sparkly sunshine!

We got the bus to Warren Street, and began walking down to Fopp, my steroids had kicked in so I was feeling highly energetic and capable! About half way down Tottenham Court Road and before we got to the record store (which also has anime books in the basement!) we stopped at a Japanese restaurant to be in keeping with the theme of the afternoon. Luke and I had cooked dishes, and Will had sushi which looked on reflection to be an awful lot nicer than ours, though Luke and I were in agreement that ours had probably been nice a few days before when it hadn't been re-heated umpteen times.

It was pretty cool just to be sat out in the sunshine on a London street eating Japanese, it was hard to tell with Will as he's quiet, but I think it would be fair to say that both Luke and I felt pretty cosmopolitan and cool in that moment. Every so often it hits me just how awesome my life is, and that I'm living in one of the most fantastic cities in the world doing something I love, it really cannot be beaten.

We then carried on our way, and I made a b-line for the Porcupine Tree album the second I was in Fopp. We then went downstairs and I went to the till while the boys looked at the books and DVDs.

Further on up the road to the shop I got my i-pod case in. Very embarrassingly the thing had two different sized backs in the box, I just hadn't seen the second, and so it did actually fit after all! The boys had gone to Muji next door as it's one of Luke's favourite shops 'just too look in', so I went in to join them, but couldn't find them, so came back out again to find them hanging about looking dodgy on the streetz!

Onwards to Forbidden Planet, which we had discovered was the best place to go to for anime. I had very briefly looked at a map of where it was so that we knew where to head, but I then got confused as to which road it was exactly that we were supposed to take off from centre point. However given a little pootling we did find our way at which point I felt highly smug and proud of myself and all my genius navigation skills!

We spent a good long while in there ogling all the weird nerdy things. There was lots of debating as to whether we could afford the £200 for the entire of Babylon Five on DVD, or maybe the same again for all of the X-Files eventually settling on Firefly for under £20, however should Joss Weedon ever decide that he wants to make enough to fill a £200 box set I promise on my life I WILL buy it!!

Then very weirdly just as we were about to wander off and look at the comics this chap walked past, and I thought 'ooo I know him'. So I did that think of trying to look at him more, whilst not giving away the fact I was staring at him just in case it turned out I didn't know him, but hurrah I was indeed correct and it was my very darling old chum from college, Peter. So abandoning Will and Luke momentarily I minced over and gave him a truly massive cuddle!

I don't see him very often even though I talk to him all the time on MSN as we are both just a bit disorganised and shit hehe, so it was fantastic to get the opportunity to say hi face to face for the first time in about a year, and have a bit of a natter.

I then realised I really had actually lost Luke and Will and that I really ought to find them, as innocent young females must be careful not to dance about unaccompanied in a short skirt round what is effectively an over-sized comic book store for long periods of time...it is just asking for trouble!

I did indeed find my boys over by the X-men comics. We carried on mooching about, and bumped into Pete a few times. Though it was kind of odd I introduced Pete to Luke, as I figured it would be nice for them to know who I was talking about, and talking to all the time. Not sure how we got onto it but I think it was via some unfair slating of Titan A.E, but Pete told us we really should go and see Sunshine as it is very pretty, and quite good.

We then headed up to the till, and then made our way out and back towards Oxford Street, whilst doing that thing of comparing what each of us had bought. We had Firefly obviously, and Will had, surprisingly enough, got anime stuff.

We pootled into Virgin for a bit so the boys could have a look at games. I actually lost them again for a while as I got distracted by the band that were playing live in the basement, as they were pretty good, but I couldn't work out if I knew them or not. I re-found them up by the games, debating which one to get, then we headed out before we bought too much. At the door there was a sign saying that the band was Ash, which made it all suddenly make sense!

I then had to go as I was supposed to be going over to Oxford to get my bag off of Bryan, as in the mad pain-filled dash back to London a few days ago I hadn't brought it with me. I made my way down to Marble Arch to get the tube out to Oxford, but had to nip into John Lewis to do a pee, while I was there Bry called to say he was going to be working till about 8 or 9 probably later, and so that I couldn't really come that night unless I wanted to stay, which I didn't as it would have meant being away from Luke. There was a very pretty top in the shop but sadly it was about £200, I really have no idea how anyone could spend that much on something simple!

Kind of pleased that I didn't have to trek to Oxford, as I was now feeling pretty tired I headed back to home via Ann Summers who had a fantastic sale on, just perfect for cheering up poor sickly boys dying of nast evil puffy hayfever :o)

I called the boys and asked if they wanted me to pick up dinner, I nearly didn't as I just wanted to walk in and cuddle Luke and surprise him that I was still here, but I was also hungry and knew I wouldn't want to leave the house again once I'd got in. So Pizza Hut it was, where I ignored the request for just pizza and got extra garlic bread!

We then sat about eating, while Luke played on the game he'd bought. Will assembled his anime figure that he'd bought and it was pretty cool. He then joined Luke on the game.

Noting that this was the last I was going to get out of either of them for the rest of the night, and given I was quite shattered having walked so far I retired to bed.

Chinese Karaeoke

It was Sir Vince's 19th birthday on Wednesday, so to celebrate he had arranged a karaoke party to which we were all invited, however I can't help feeling this all got a little over-shadowed by the fact Rabia wore a dress!!

We all got the bus over to China town and to this restaurant thing then up about a million flights of stairs to a little room that looked like a private-back-room in a strip club only with two large LDC screens set in the walls. A friend of Vince's called Fong was sharing the party as it was her birthday too, she was already there, as were some of Vince's Chinese friends who we don't really know.

It would be fair to say by this point I was feeling out of my depth and rather culture-shocked, however still quite determined to have a dam good time and celebrate properly!

As the evening went on everyone relaxed a little more, and did some singing. Finally it appears I have found a use for my ability to remember the words to all Girls Aloud tracks despite having only heard them a few times! However I think everyone was a little mortified i knew them, and Luke may have considered having to leave me out of principle haha!

We had food brought to us while we were there and it was pretty nice, though when it came to cake Ricky decided to eat it off of the plate as he didn't have a fork. The urge to squish it in his face was immense as it was typical Chinese cake with lots of cream and very soft sponge hehehe!!

All in all it was pretty good fun, though I think it would have been better if it had just been people I knew because then we could have been more silly and we wouldn't have been too shy to do over-dramatic duets and bad dancing!

The Chinese pop songs that we couldn't understand, and that all sounded the same were also kind of hard to get past hehe!

We then walked down to Leicester Square and had HagenDaz which was highly yummy. Julie thought the waiter was cute, so we were all teasing her, even though we quickly decided that he was probably gay, given how much he minced!

We then waited outside as Vince had nipped back to the karaoke place to pay the bill, and got accosted by all the guys from all the clubs trying to convince us to go in, offering rubbish deals that were mostly just for us girls.

They came back, but by this time Julie was feeling really poorly, my tummy was starting to hurt and Rabia and Aarron had, had enough. So we left Luke, Saied, Vince and Karolina to go clubbing without us, and got a taxi home as it was cold!

I intended to go to sleep, but ended up chatting on msn and was still awake when Luke came home, so I got to cuddle up and go to sleep in his arms which was lovely, and somthing I really needed after the craziness of the past few days.

I had no voice left, the singing was bad, the ice-cream was good...top party...happy birthday Vince!!