Trapped!

Today Randi and I met up for a day out in London. I arrived at her apartment just after 11am, and after a few minutes for bathroom breaks we went out to take the lift (elevator) down to the outer door of the building.

I had just come up in this lift, but it just wouldn't go back down. The buttons didn't respond. We were reluctant to take the emergency stairs as they set off the alarm, but in the end we pressed the lift alarm button and told them what was wrong.

We waited for five minutes, and when no one had arrived, we took the stairs anyway. But there was no way out at the bottom, just another set of steps down to the bomb shelter basement (!!!) and a door into the other, non-residential part of the building. These offices are empty because apparently the building is soon to be demolished.

The outer doors were locked, so we wandered through the offices looking for an exit, but the only way out was through push-bar fire doors into an inner parking courtyard. We had to be very careful not to get stuck out there if those doors slammed shut. And there was no way out from this courtyard either.

It was getting a bit scary. The best we could do was imagine how Bobby would solve the problem. My favourite fantasy was that he would have kicked the locked doors down... There was a red emergency phone, but though it appeared to ring, no one answered. Then, as we got back to the locked outer doors, two security men came along with keys and released us from our imprisonment. We explained exactly what had happened, then left them to try and sort out the problem.

We did laugh, but seriously, if there had been a fire, we would have been trapped, so in truth it was most unfunny.

After our trauma, we walked through the busy streets alongside the gardens of Buckingham Palace until we arrived at Hyde Park Corner. We visited the Wellington Museum in Apsley House, the London home of the first Duke, and the nearby monument to him, the Welllington Arch.

I took Randi's picture on the walkway at the top of the arch. In the background, to the left is the London Eye, and to the right the towers of Westminster Abbey have just disappeared behind Randi's windblown hair. The greenery to the left is St James's Park, to the right Buckingham Palace Gardens.

By now we were getting hungry. Randi really wanted to try a cream tea, and we had been told that the hotel on the corner did them. Lady Gaga has been staying there, and from the number of autograph hunters outside, she probably still is. We blagged our way in, but it was too early for their cream teas, so we continued on down Knightsbridge towards Harrods, and there we indulged ourselves in delicious fruit scones, apricot and strawberry jam, English Breakfast Tea and - TaDa! - mouth-watering clotted cream.

Before making our way back to our starting point at Victoria, we visited the pet department, where some playful chihuahua puppies were delighting onlookers. Randi decided to pass on doggie treats to take home when she saw that a small packet of biccies cost £10!

And in the way of Vixens the world over, we didn't stop talking for a moment. It wasn't even all about Vincent, either!