Giggle and Dance: Day ten: Hanging with the bro

I had a bit of a lazy start to my day: just answering emails and going through all my pics from the previous day and deciding which ones to use on the blog. I didn't leave the house until close to 4pm. I texted Aaron the previous day to let him know that I've pretty much HAD it with the touristy scene and am in need of some one-on-one quality time. So he invited me over to see his place in East London.

The area kind of reminded me of Astoria/Jackson Heights a bit. There's a huge Indian community in East London and a ton of restaurants and kids and people everywhere. i didn't take a photo of the area because...well...I just didn't want to look like a tourist for a day, so I kept the camera in my bag.

I did, however, whip out the camera once I got to Aaron's place...

Do you see that wooden "seat" with the white stopper thing on top? Well that's a toilet from the 18th Century. Haha. His roommate uses it as a regular ol' seat (when the top's down, of course). Aaron's roommate is a bit of a hoarder, so there was a ton of random stuff scattered all over the apartment. I'll show you more random stuff later, but for now, here's a picture of Aaron's tiny bedroom!

And here's the other side of it...

It's a sweet little room. Aww, I just noticed that plant in the corner. Aww.

Here's one side of the bathroom...

And here's the other...

And here's Aaron!

Oooooooh.

I love seeing people's apartments. I knew his place would be really clean and nice. Aaron just didn't seem like the messy type. His roommate, however, is a slob! She's a medical resident, so her hours are insane and she's hardly home, but her sloppy presence stays even when she's gone. Her fucking clothes were everywhere. (Oh God. I hope Aaron doesn't send her the link to this blog.) Aaron's a bit frustrated having to put up with her messiness, but apparently she makes up for it in personality and energy and positivity. He says she's a really cool lady. But just...messy.

THEN...

Aaron heated up a roasted red pepper soup with coconut milk with chilis that he'd made from scratch earlier in the day. He cooked EVERYthing from scratch. He roasted the peppers himself and then skinned them and then pureed them. Okay, now you're gonna think I was just hungry and that's why I enjoyed the soup so much, but I wasn't that hungry and let me tell you that it was THE best fucking soup I've ever had. Period. Amazing.

Here he is preparing the soup for me...

And here's the soup!

He put a swirl of organic olive oil on top and some freshly ground black pepper. So professional!

Aaron loves to cook. He hardly ever eats out. He just loves the process of preparing his own meals for himself and for others. He also likes knowing exactly what he's eating. Amen to that.

I was excited to see his fridge, 'cause I'm just weird like that, and wouldn't you know it, it was filled with organic healthy food. That's my bro, Baby!

He then showed me this high tech surveillance camera system that he and his roommate never use...

He's like, "I have no idea how to fuckin' use it. What a waste. There's no fuckin' storage in this place, but they give us this useless crap."

Here's his cool old school radio. He listens to a French station that plays a very eclectic mix of tunes. Aaron grew up in Ireland and France, but he calls France his home. His mom still lives there. So it makes him feel close to home to listen to the French station...

There were beautiful white lilies on the table that smelled amazing...

When I finished the soup, we decided to go upstairs and check out his roof deck...

And here it is:

As nice as the roof deck was, we didn't stay up there long 'cause it was fucking cold. (God, I've been cursing a lot. I blame London! People curse like crazy here!)

So we went back to his place and played with his roommates random stuff...

This thing is a bomb detector...

And why does one need that...in London?

And here are some forceps that she uses to TOSS HER SALAD. (Forceps are what doctors use to pull the baby out of the mommy quicker during childbirth. They wrap around the baby's head.)

I just hope she washed 'em before tossing her salad with 'em, is all I'm sayin'. To each his (or her) own.

They do also make a nice pair of rabbit ears...

We were having too much fun.

We texted Shane and decided to meet up with him for dinner in an area called Soho. Shane had been raving about an amazing Thai restaurant there, so Aaron and I hopped on the bus and made our way over to Soho to meet him...

We got a little lost. Aaron kept going on and on about his amazing internal GPS system. We were lost. But...we did manage to end up exactly where we needed to be in a matter of minutes, so we weren't lost that long.

We finally met up with Shane at a restaurant called Busaba Eathai. The place was PACKED, so we had to wait outside for about 15 minutes until they could seat us...

They gave us menus to look at while we waited on line, so by the time we got inside we knew exactly what we wanted. And within ten minutes, we were eating...

The food *was* amazing. Shane was right. I had a very spicy massaman curry with brown rice and a side of Chinese broccoli.

It was toward the end of the meal, when Aaron thought he'd eaten all of the best parts of his lamb curry, but then discovered a hidden tender piece of meat underneath some lemongrass and was very excited. Here's the moment before he swallowed the last jewel...