First night in London!

So I moved in today to a huge disabled room - my bathroom is a wet room with a little seat in the shower which is perfect because I hate showers so much.

I went shopping with two of my flatmates, and we brought the trolley back to our flat (he's called Barry-Keith , he's very happy) because it was easier than having to carry all of the bags. We then went around and tried to meet everyone in our building and the other building (north and south block) - it turns out that south block (my building) is pretty much girl central with the odd guy , whereas north block is the complete opposite. There is definitely the potential for rivalry... evidently south block will prevail , women are from venus and all that.

Prior to arriving I had organised with a load of girls to go pacha our first night in accommodation (mainly because I earned £5 off every ticket sold) and our tickets were upgraded to boat party tickets this morning. We ran for the tube, ran to Westminster Pier, arrived and it was full of middle aged people who were not the kind of people we wanted to be stuck on a boat with for three hours. An hour later whilst walking along south bank (we stopped at embankment in this weird pop up fairground they had there - Pimms Sundowner was amazing and I wasn't IDd!) we saw the boat - it was soooo dead , a couple of people waving their hands to the disco lights and that was it. We kept walking for a while and then caught a tube to Oxford Street, walked around Soho and then headed home to 'predrink'. We met a lot of people in our flat (for instance Dan, who was the American 27 year-old friend of a guy called Neville, who had met each other in Vietnam during Neville's gap year and just happened to be staying with Neville for one night before flying back to Houston tomorrow) and finally left for Pacha around midnight.

I've never been to a club before , but I can tell you they are not my thing at all. As a girl in a relationship - and with a bit of dignity - I see no entertainment in letting a load of guys come up and dance with you like you're a pole. I'm fine thanks, leave me alone. I spent a lot of the night edging away from guys, and as Libby and another girl called Sophie left the club to go to a casino in Soho without telling us, I ended up three-wheeling Charlotte and a guy she met called Phil. I managed to find another guy to make it less awkward , but his dancing consisted of the robot... we were clearly the coolest people in that club. It's now 4am, I got back around an hour ago and have just been drinking tea on my first night at university after escaping from a club because 'it was too loud'. Clubs are not my thing.

I don't have anything to do until 4pm tomorrow, so I can have a lovely sleep after the shower I'm about to have (sitting down , of course) and then emerge tomorrow ready to meet a lot more people , who are actually on my course this time , and forget all of their names immediately. At least I'm considerate - I wear a necklace with my name on it.

(From left to right - Dan, Joyce (I think?!), Neville, Phil, Meh, Charlotte, Sophie and Libby's forehead)

A Flight With Mario

Technically the first post is not Annie Vs London - it's Annie Vs Late Night Flights That Are Delayed, but it's the start of me leaving my parents behind.

Last night I flew from Malaga to Gatwick, but on the way I picked up a guy called Luke. Luke was 24, living in Marbella but flying to London to recruit for his business. We got talking when I thought I'd missed my flight because I was being dozy and started running for the gate - he let me go in front of him and then realised I was on his flight. We talked in the queue about not much, and then I looked at his tattoos.

Luke looked very similar to a friend of my brother's, so I was interested in whether the stories behind his tattoos were equally as wacky as I knew they would be had they been on the friend. He told me about all of his tattoos, which were stamped randomly all over his arms and collar bones. The most interesting were the five Mario Mushrooms he had on his forearm - the story was less so. "I woke up one day, looked at the Mario Mushroom sticker on the back of my phone and thought 'I'd like to see his face for the rest of my life', so I got five of them".

The other tattos were: a treble cleff on his collarbone, his first tattoo and paid for by donations at a music festival on his 18th birthday; an assortment of coat hangers which had no explanation; an old wind up telephone on his forearm with the phone unattached and found on his shoulder - again, no explanation; a heart on his wrist which an ex paid for, and he then transformed into an 'apple' once they broke up - the similarity evaded me; and an Oscar Wilde quote.

He had three dogs - a chocolate laborador, a laborador mix and a chihuahua that he had recently adopted. After a short attempt at teaching him Spanish by having him read Harry Potter - to the annoyance of all the other passengers on the plane, as his accent was awful and he kept yelling words he thought he knew but he did not - we boarded the plane and went to our separate seats. Before we parted, he turned to me and said quietly "You always meet people twice" and that was it.

Bring it on London.