Top 10 Highlights of My Trip to London
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Visiting the spot where the cholera outbreak of the mid 1800s started...and not only finding the exact spot where the cholera-spouting pump was, but finding a whole pub there dedicated to cholera!
- Making a Q-Tipped-Headed Guard at the Tower of London giggle.
- Making shrinky dinks and sitting on the floor of Leslie's kitchen, gathered around the oven ooo-ing and ahh-ing. There were moments where we were spazzing out all excited like Arsenio Hall audience members. It kept looking like they were going to roll up and be ruined...but wait! It flattened back out, yay! So triumphant!
- Playing drinking games at Leslie's local pub:
- Quick-thinking name game, where I say "Regis Philbin" and so you say something like "Pliny the Elder" and then the next person says "Eddie Guerrero". Then, much like UNO, if someone does a name with the same letter for first and last name...reversal! If you can't think of something, drink up.
- "The Minister's Cat". This is basically an alphabet game where you all clap out a rhythm, and go around the table inserting an adjective with that round's letter to describe the Minister's cat. "The Minister's cat is an awful cat." "The Minister's cat is an aerobics cat." Etc... If you can't think of an adjective, drink up, and proceed to the next letter of the alphabet. Andy was awesomely hilarious at this one, he was getting all in a twist: "THERE ARE NO MORE K ADJECTIVES!!!!"
- Getting a million British Invasion songs stuck in my head, particularly:
- "Going Underground" by The Jam, stuck each time I passed a London Underground sign which was every 12 seconds.
- "Waterloo Sunset" by The Kinks, stuck when I passed Waterloo Station and wondered if Terry and Julie would be meeting there on Friday.
- "Pictures of Jimmy" by The Who, which was me absent-mindedly getting confused between "Pictures of Lily" and "Dr. Jimmy and Mr. Jim."
- Learning that Leslie (if given the proper sunglasses) can do a ridiculously amazing Yoko Ono impersonation. "The sun is down. It's getting...so dark."
- At customs, the customs agent yawned in my face, and I smarted off to him saying that he wasn't allowed to yawn when I was so tired. He said, "Oh, it's just that I read your occupation is a web analyst, and I couldn't help but yawn."
- Unexpectedly happening upon a big Christmas caroling session at Trafalgar Square. And unexpectedly not being able to sing along. Did you know that there is a whole other violently different melody to "Away in a Manger"? And if you try to sing the American version along with the English version, it does NOT magically harmonize? And then you just end up looking tone deaf?
- Discovering that the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum are not those kinds of marbles, but the crumbled remains of the Parthenon.
- Pumpkin pie. Not, not THAT kind of pumpkin pie. When I say "pie," think Shepard's pie kind of pie. We went to a traditional English comfort food place, and I was so confused when pumpkin pie was listed with the entrees and not the desserts. It was explained that it was more of a casserole, filled with big chunks of cooked pumpkin all gooey with cheese and topped with a pastry cover. Amazing.
I had a lovely time in London, and I am looking forward to going back a few more times in the next year. Stonehenge, get ready! Wimbledon, look out!
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