Thursday, April 3, 2008

Joolia Says...

Friday I woke up in Farnham, Surrey (south of London) and it was crap weather. My boyfriend Adrian and I both had colds and the heat hadn’t quite warmed up the guest bedroom at his Mother’s house. We were supposed to “Do London” that day. We lay in bed, hunkered down with body head and sniffles and read our books for an hour or two. His Mum brought us tea to the door…good ole Mum.

Finally we decided it’s now or never and we had to get moving if we were going to see any of London. As we started to drive in around 1pm, the clouds broke and the sun started to shine thanks to the ever changing English weather. In less than an hour we pulled up right next to the London Eye, parked and walked right on, barely a wait. You could see for miles through our egg shaped pod. Big Ben kids, Parliament.

We then walked over a bridge to the afore mentioned clock and gov’mnt building. It really was beautiful. Then we swung by Westminster Abbey as we were heading to Buckingham Palace by way of some really beautiful gardens. By the way, swans are freakin’ everywhere in England. Who knew?

Snap snap, smile smile everywhere, quickly. Just past Prince Charles’ crib there is a changing of the guard ceremony. Then we hop a London black taxi off to Cheyney Walk to see homes where famous people lived and because it was nearby to our Gordon Ramsey dinner extravaganza. I saw where Oscar Wilde used to live. Speaking of Oscars, the name of the restaurant…Foxtrot Oscar…for those who don’t know Gordon’s proclivity to profanity it means F*ck Off. It was one of the best meals I’d ever had. A beautiful bottle of English Rose + Wild boar pâté for apps and lamb in a béchamel sauce = Perfection.

We then took off to the Tower of London where we witnessed a 700 yr old ceremony of the locking of the Tower called “The Ceremony of the Keys”. It has only recently been shown to the public and has been exactly the same for all these years. It was just about one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed.

Saturday we got on a plane and came home. *sigh*

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