It was a very early start for a Saturday. I had to get to Southampton Central Station to catch the seven-thirty train to London Waterloo, where Funiculosus, my Rope Master would be waiting.

I prepared my clothes the night before. He’d asked me to wear a particular pair of socks – black, red, and grey with the word “sub” written on them. He was going to wear his “master” socks. Starting from the socks, I picked out my DMs, ripped black jean shorts, my puppy paw print T shirt, and a pink checked over-shirt.

The journey was direct and uneventful. He messaged me exactly where I would find him at the station – and there he was – his big smile greeting me. I went straight for him and we hugged!

It was still early, so we walked to China Town, which isn’t far from Waterloo Station for the first meal of the day: sweet pork pasties. The bakery wasn’t yet open, so we wandered and chattered. We looked at the queue outside the Lego store. I would not be going in there today!

When the bakery opened, we went in and he pointed out all the delicious looking pastries. The pasties he got us were still warm and we stood in the street to eat them. The stuffing was indeed sweet – almost dessert like. The pastry was buttery and crumbly. Delicious!

Then he walked us to Covent Garden for the next food stop. It wasn’t open yet either, so we wandered around the Garden’s southern market – tempted but not yielding to buy goodies. In the arcade was a string quartet playing Offenbach’s Can Can extremely well. It was their last piece of the day. It was very good, and had I heard more from them I might have bought the CD.

The streets were still quiet, but the numbers were slowly growing. London is a delicious sensory overload, so a quiet start is a good way to pace the day to avoid sudden overload.

The next place was now open. Here we had fish balls, another pasty thing (this was incredible – much more my flavours than the sweet pork we had earlier), and some chicken drumsticks. I nearly dropped the pasty on the floor, but my ninja-like reflexes caught it. Funiculosus offered to swap, bless him! He does take such amazing care of me!

While we were eating, I noticed that his fingers would shake sometimes. I curse my knowledge of what that could be. I felt a flood of concern – but I didn’t mention my fears, although I said that I had noticed. He said that he doesn’t know what it is. I left it at that – I cannot push my own history and experiences on this man – dementia, Parkinson’s, neuropathy, or “simple” anxiety. I have had experience through friends and family of each of those horrible illnesses and the thought that somebody else that I care about might have any one of them fills me with horror. But I am not a doctor and don’t know anything!

For a break from eating, we went to the kink shop Regulation. I love kink shops – all the toys and gear! Funiculosus is really big on socks and loves the sock stands. You can’t ask somebody to explain the motivations of their kinks to you – they just are. Socks aren’t my thing, but I love being dressed by him in whatever he wants to put me in. I now have quite a number of sexy socks that I enjoy wearing because they excite him.

Our plan in Regulation , which is Funiculosus’ favourite shop, was for him to tie me up in the shop. When he’d first mentioned it, I was a quite uncertain that I would be OK with that, but as I thought about it I had become more and more excited by the idea!

He asked one of the shop assistants, who gave him a funny look and a rather curt “no”. Funiculosus was gutted … and I realised that I was too: not only was I looking forward to it for its own sake, I had come to think of it as a sensory reset during our London trip that would help me through the day.

Hey ho! It was not to be.

From there, we went into the two Prowler stores – Prowler Red is the kinkier shop – and the more fun of the two! They have a whole wall full of puppy gear! And a singlet/jock set that I still cannot get out of my mind. I have no idea where I would wear it … but that thought obsession is there. I could imagine Funiculosus really enjoying roping me in it!

He told me not to buy it but to save my money for my holiday. I’ll try to be a good puppy and do as I’m told.

And there’s something I absolutely adore! His name for me is “puppy” – in everyday life and when we play. I have never had anyone give me a pet name that felt so right before. Its an expression of love and affection and I absolutely adore it – and makes me go all gooey!

For lunch we went for dim sum. Seven separate dishes of various kinds. My favourites were the cold marinated octopus (which really surprised me), and the steamed dumplings with the soup inside that gave an explosion of flavour when bitten.

Lunch was leisurely with plenty of delicious jasmine tea.

I was stuffed after that and needed a break.

Funiculosus took us to a bear bar, getting only slightly disorientated on the way. For me, the day was easy: I just had to tag along and let him lead wherever we were going – it is so wonderful being able to do that! My marriage was full of an uncomfortable tension where I often had to lead, navigating was particularly stressful because at the slightest hint that I wasn’t certain where we were going, my husband would get cross and impatient – yet was unable to lead us himself.

The bear bar was quiet. It was even quieter upstairs!

I pulled over a chair and flopped onto Funiculosus – I was zapped and was glad of the utter silence of the upper room. Silence apart from the rumble of Funiculosus chattering away. I have said that his voice can be exhilarating and energising – and arousing, however I also can find it very calming – this was a time when I found the sound of him talking cooled my wired spirit…

As we drank our beers in peace, a couple came upstairs. I ignored them, although I was aware of the words. Another chap sat at a nearby table and started talking to them. I got the impression that they didn’t want him nearby, but that impression was quite wrong!

… when we finally left the bear bar, Funiculosus told me what was going on: the chap who was sat separately was, in fact, wanting to be their slave. The couple made him give up his shoes and mobile phone, and kept sending him down for drinks for them! Funiculosus said that he could see the “slave” dropping into his subspace, each new level was marked by a deep sigh as he dropped further.

That’s a world I cannot join, but I can appreciate and I can get excited about as an idea … however, its not a world I want to be in. Its important to recognise the difference between fantasy and reality in kink – many guys fantasise about being castrated, but it would be a catastrophe for them if they were. For them the fantasy is better than the reality. You can try life as a “slave”. You can’t try life as a eunuch.

We wandered into Japan Town to see the Japan Centre. The food there looked amazing and I really wanted to try it – Japanese food looks so wholesome! However, it wasn’t part of the plan, so I had a matcha latte and left it at that.

We wandered back to SoHo for Regulation, Clone Zone, and Prowler. Again I tormented myself with the pink puppy singlet, but I was a good boy. And I looked for a version of the magic butt plug that Funiculosus had used on me. Out of stock.

So I bought a couple of badges and was done at that.

When I get back from Spain and he gets back from his holidays, we’ll visit London again … and I will buy stuff!

Dinner was a three meat combo at a restaurant in China Town called the Four Seasons. There was a small queue, although the wait wasn’t long. Funiculosus warned me that this was one of those Chinese restaurants where they liked a rapid turnaround. If you’re not expecting it, it can feel a little rude to our slower paced Western tastes.

The three meats were two porks and a duck. One of the porks was the same kind as we’d had in the first thing we’d eaten – this time it wasn’t so sweet and I enjoyed it. The duck had a lovely colour, but I wanted crispy skin and that wasn’t the style of the food. The pork belly did have some crackling; the trouble with that was also the fat – pork belly is supposed to be fatty, but I don’t like the texture of fat. It was a good thing that we’d also ordered some crispy chicken satay skewers, which really were delicious.

Despite being warned about the quick turn-around in that restaurant, I felt the staff were super-efficient yet friendly.

The day was slowly moving to its close and I felt a bit sad. Funiculosus is excellent company and an instructive host – he’s a food manager, so he knew how things were made and what was good to eat. I tried everything he suggested that I try, most of which I loved.

To finish, we walked to the street food market near Waterloo Station. More food that smelt great, however I was in the mood for pudding and this was all savoury. We resisted!

We were on the same train for part of our journey, which was packed, but we’d managed to get seats next to each other.

A perfect day.