The End of Touring

Hello, folks! Long time, no see! Well, that's really my fault more than anything, but, as I mentioned previously (a week ago...), I'm tired of just being on the computer! Goodness, this little Londoner needs some good 'ol big screen TV in her life.

Let's start with a quick recap on the past weekend:

I took off last Friday, August 1, because my program lets me have five days off total. That, and I really didn't want to work any more full weeks at Pro Capital. Anyways, that morning I went off to Alfie's Antiques Market just to look around. I kinda like looking at old stuff-- but I realized that each decade accumulates a lot of 'junk' that dealers try to pass off as collectible. Really, it's just out-of-date junk. Some of the stuff was neat but very much out of my price range. While walking back to the Tube station, I passed through a small street market and went in a fabric store to look around. My, it was a designer fabric store what with prices easily around £100 for a meter of fabric (3.28ish feet). In another small shop, I found a very classy set of slingback teal pumps for £15 but decided against them because I didn't really need them.

After the antiques market, I rode the Tube to Trafalgar Square and went up inside St. Martin-in-the-Fields (crazy long names...) to attend one of their free lunchtime concerts, which was a piano and violin duet. I really enjoy these types of sitdown performances and plan on going to lots of senior recitals at Truman this coming year.

From the church, I took the Tube up to Charles Dickens's house. Goodness, I've been trying to go there since early June and finally made it! My favourite part of the house was the curved wall and door in the dining room. It was neat to see some of the furniture saved from when Dickens lived there.

To round out the day, I headed over to Harrods for a final look around and a few pictures. Funny thing about that place, you've got the tourists and the shoppers. The tourists just gawk at everything while the shoppers plan to spend money. I saw a lot of Middle Eastern women decked out in bling-tastic burkahs ready to spend from their rich husbands' wallet.

On Saturday, August 2, Emily and I went off to Madame Tussaud's which is the original wax museum founded by, guess who, Madam Tussaud. It was neat to talk around the A-list celebrity hall not really knowing where the wax models were because they were usually not up on platforms. That way, you could stand next to them and feel like they were actually right there. I remember walking by a bald guy, doing a double take, and realizing it was Patrick Stewart. George Clooney, Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt, Daniel Radcliffe, Miley Cyrus, Orlando Bloom, Johnny Depp, the Beckams, Will Smith, John Wayne, Alfred Hitchcock.......The next room had sports, literature, and royalty folks such as Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, the child Mozart, the Queen, Prince Charles, Princess Diana, King Henry VIII, Queen Victoria.........later on was the world leaders room with Nelson Mandela, Saddam Hussein, Yasar Arafat, Adolf Hitler, Tony Blair, George W. Bush, the Pope, the Reagans, Nixon, Kennedy.........(this list is mostly so I can remember years from now)

Some models seemed more accurate and life-like than others. For example, the President Bush one did not at all look like him, well, except for the cowboy boots. Visitors could go up to most of the models to pose with them- even so far as to touch them, it was expected.

Because I'm a wimp, I could muster the courage to go through the SCREAM! part of the gallery. It was basically meant to scare you, a lot, with screaming, a lot of screaming. Eheh. So, we moved on and went on a small ride they've made near the end of the tour. It's something like the Epcot ride in the middle of the Epcot ball. You ride in a mini London cab fashioned with two seats and go through the history of England...except that the history starts in the Middle Ages. The history book I bought early this summer says otherwise.

After finishing up at Madame Tussaud's, we walked through Regent's Park. London does have very good parks; it's been nice to explore a few. Finished with that, we went over to the Covent Garden market for a look around. But first, food! I requested a pub so we could get pub food, which is one of my new favourite types of food. And, very typically, I got fish and chips, mostly because I didn't know if I would have them again before leaving (which I haven't, and probably won't).

We then explored the craft section of the market. I had a headache (from caffeine withdrawl, though I don't know why. I hadn't consumed any more than normal), so I bought a Coke for £1 (good price). We wandered a bit and had some fun seeing the neat things the vendors had. I like markets; they're much more personal than a store.

On Sunday, August 3, I made my traditional (at least for the summer, anyway) pancakes. Before they left, Katie Beth and her flatmates gave me a lot of their extra food. One of the items was a bottle of syrup though it's not really maple-flavoured syrup. I'd say it's a little more like Golden Eagle. Anyways, I always put a bit of that and some raspberry jam on my pancakes. At home, I eat them plain with butter. After breakfast, I went off to church and spent my last Sunday at Bethesday. :(

Pastor Jared didn't finish until 12:45 PM (service starts at 11) and afterwards the church had prepared a lunch to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Interesting note: My first and last Sundays at Bethesda were on the first Sundays of the month, and, thus, each had meals. I left around 2 but because I was meeting Jenni and Emily to go to Buckingham Palace at 2:45 PM I couldn't go get my hair cut as I was planning.

From the flat we went over to the Palace, got our advanced tickets for 3:45 PM, and got in line to enter. All of the tickets are by timed entry, so there were basically giant groups of people being herded about. We even had to go through security! In any case, the Palace was gorgeous. I think I liked it better than Windsor because Buckingham is where the Queen holds state dinners. Since her reign began ('52 or 53'?), the only US presidents to have one for them were Presidents Reagan and Bush (current). During our visit, they had the grand dining hall set up for a state dinner exactly as it would appear. All the plates and cutlery are measured so they are absolutely in line when looking down the table.

The drawing rooms are so incredibly ornate. I still wonder why one would need so many, in essence, humongous living rooms, but hey, it's a palace. Also, the Palace has 72 bathrooms and over 200 bedrooms! Even with all those bathrooms, we had to use the temporary ones outside the Palace. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, so I caved and bought a £4 booklet of postcards.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the end of Laura Beth's touring in London. I made a list early this summer of all the places I wanted to visit. Then, I filled out my weekends with what I would see when, highlighting each item in my list with yellow once I had set a time for it. When I went to the place I wanted to see, I highlighted it in green. My list is now completely green. Wow.