Weekend Happenings in London

Brian and I have enjoyed a fun, very sunny, and outdoor-filled weekend here in London. Friday night, we walked through Kensington Gardens till almost 9:30 pm, came home to a late dinner of pancakes and scrambled eggs--and all the while it's still light outside! Thoughts: the only place to buy real syrup--Aunt Jemima syrup--not maple--is the same place that sells Life cereal, hence we paid a whopping $10 for the bottle, but oh well. You gotta have some pancakes every once in a while. Secondly, the difference in the amount of daylight is dramatic between winter and summer months here. Remember in the winter it is PITCH DARK at 4 pm (!! I know)--the parks are locked, etc... it is depressing. But now, we're awakened to birds singing and sunlight filtering in at 4:45 am and it feels like we're sleeping till noon if we get up at 7:30. haha. AND, it isn't completely dark until after 10 pm. In a good way, it feels like a really long day!

Yesterday, we must have felt the need to be quasi-marathoners, because we walked from our flat in West London all the way to Leicester Square in the West End to search for last minute, good-deal ticket options for a show. That is like 4-5 miles one way, but hey, the sun was out and so we wanted to be, too. We walked by way of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, St. James Park, and Trafalgar Square. And let's not forget to mention one other reason we hiked over there: Chipotle just opened its first UK location in the theater district, too. Oh, air conditioning and Mexican food. What a miraculous combination. Our tacos/burritos were delicious. One our way back home, with Wicked tickets in hand, we joined the hundreds of other sun-starved Londoners and just laid down in the soft grass in the parks. Very good people watching. A group of 13-year-old French teenagers were chasing each other around squirting one another with water bottles. Ah, young "love." Junior high flirtation must look the same in every language. So, after we gladly reached our flat after our rest in the park, we got ready, ate a bite, and headed back to out to see Wicked. We were in the crow's nest, but still had a great view, and even though I AM NOT a fan of being up that high, it was great. Brian has decided I need to conquer my fear of heights... at first I thought that was wicked, but later decided he was right.

This afternoon, we headed to Holland Park to again, enjoy this fantastic weather. Londoners go to the royal parks like Americans to go their neighborhood pool, just flocking like bees to the honey. And let's be honest: no one in Greater London can afford a backyard unless your name is Queen Elizabeth. We had a ball being avid observers. So anyways, we spread our little blanket out, started sunning away, and soon found ourselves surrounded by every type of character you could imagine. To our left, we had the small Italian group of aspiring theatrical stars, reading their lines to each other very passionately, while a female member of the troop seemed to be lost in her own little world, making herself a fine sailor-esque-style hat out of this morning's Times. To our right, a couple with the most adorable King Charles Spaniel (black and white variety) was the envy of a very cute baby boy who could not get enough of the the dog and kept looking at Brian for his attention while pointing to the dog, saying, "Woof!" And let's not forget to also mention the two groups of yoga-actives by the fences. It was like a combination of yoga and slow motion karate. No music, no clearly defined leader, very much in their own world, and they must have entered the "cardio part" of their work-out when they started the rhythemic clapping, startling each other out of their dazes. I have done yoga before, but this was definitely WAY different than the yoga classes in Dallas. wow, I don't think Brian has had to work to suppress his laughter so hard in a long time. This was right before the lady with the blonde hair and NEON GREEN bangs walked by us. There was also a family, we supposed to be German, whose little blonde boy was dressed in a red and white short and suspender outfit that looked like it was straight from The Sound of Music costume room. And, a sister and brother nearby playing badmitten, although the brother seemed much more intent on beating the "ball" on the ground rather than actually play the game, just to aggravate his sister. And, in true London fashion, we heard just about every language around Europe being spoken.

All in all, we actually have some color on our faces now, have been able to enjoy the parks immensely, and have been very entertained. Hope you all had a good weekend, too, and let us hear from you! :)