Really, is there anything else that can be said?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
I heart comments...
You know what makes my day? Whenever one of my faithful readers leaves comments for me about what I wrote! And the icing on this cake? When the reader says who they are! Even if it's just a nickname!
Don't disappoint me!
Don't disappoint me!
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
London/Dublin 2007! Day 1, Part 2
Ah, yes, day 1, part 2: where to begin?
So mom, Al, and I left Gatwick and went to the Gatwick Express train service, which links Gatwick directly to Victoria Station in London. Quite handy, if you ask me! The train ride was about 30 minutes each way, and my mom bought my return trip ticket, so it didn't cost me a thing! Hallelujah.
We took our seats in the regular class compartment (no first-class for us, shoot) and struck up a conversation with a couple of Americans travelling from Nebraska. They had no idea what they were doing and didn't have a map or anything...just a dazed look on their faces. Al and I intervened and got them pointed in the right direction with our map, which was a very handy pop-up map that I had picked up in 2000 when I was studying in Edinburgh at the University of Edinburgh, and told them to go to a bookstore after they went to their hotel to pick up a current map. I'm telling ya, if you're travelling, that pop-up map is where it's at! It fits in your pocket but has all sorts of helpful info on it. Highly recommended!
Once we arrived at Victoria Station, all hell broke loose. Turns out, this was the morning of the bombing at Glasgow Airport, and the day before there was a failed car bombing in London, so security was at an all-time high. But that's okay with me! I want to be safe! Unfortunately the city of London is friggin' huge, so extra security = slow moving people, and lots of them. So there were tons of officers wondering around the tube station, and there were long waits to enter the tube station from the train station, as security officers were giving everyone the once-over. Most people were understanding about all of this. One gal behind us was getting antsy and confronted an officer, who was super rude back to her, so she called him rude, and he called her ugly! Classic.
There were some tube stations closed for repairs that weekend as well, so Victoria Station was especially busy, as it was a hub. Luckily I took note of this--more to come later on that. Al was all in a tizzy and excited to be in London but trying to act cool; instead, he just was being a dope. He was walking too fast for everyone and getting separated from the group. At one point I yelled at him across the tube platform, "AL! Settle down!" That seemed to work. Al thinks he knows everything but he doesn't really pay attention to the crucial details. Case in point: he wanted to navigate our way to the hotel by getting off at Waterloo and transferring to a different tube line. I looked at him and said, "Well, we can't do that." Him: "Why?" Me: "Because it's closed this weekend, as the signs and announcements have been saying." Him: "Oh." I rest my case. Case closed.
So we navigated our way to the hotel, which was located near the Queensway tube stop in the Earl's Court area of London. The hotel, Central Park Hotel, was just a couple of blocks away on Queensborough Terrace, across the street from a Thai restaurant, and in the middle of a row of Victorian houses. Very London-ish. Since it was about 11:00 AM and our room wouldn't be ready until about 3:00 PM, we dropped our luggage off and decided to hit the road, starting our adventure right there and then. We decided to first go to the London Eye, since mom had bought tickets for us to ride online before leaving home, meaning we could cut to the front of the line and leave everyone in our dust. This was a lovely idea! Only problem: it was pouring outside and the Eye was shut down! Boo! Well, it turns out this wasn't so bad, because Al was being a poop again (he wanted to start his Wimbledon adventure right then and there) and said he didn't want to go anyways, so mom got a refund on her tickets and pre-purchased tickets for me and her to go on it Monday morning. By this point, my jeans were soaked from about mid-shin to the foot, so I rolled them up high-water style and kept trudging along. Damn this rain!
We quick walked along the Thames and over to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I would get a sky-view of these sights from the London Eye in a couple of days, and since all three of us had seen these sights before on previous (but separate trips), we stopped and nodded at it quickly a la Clark W. Griswold at the Grand Canyon in the movie Vacation, and we were off to our next stop!
We then took the tube to the Knightsbridge area to go to Harrods, aka Mecca. We were sort of limited to what we could do on this day, due to the rain, so we decided to cater our day towards inside activities. Shopping is definitely something we could handle! So we went to Harrods and tried to take it all in. Well, as best we could. Everyone else had the same idea as us--the place was packed! That's not really saying much, because London is always busy and more so on a Saturday afternoon, but the rain really brought out the crazies. Plus there were tons of people in town for Wimbledon, making it that much busier. But there's no place I'd rather have been at that time! We didn't look at the whole store, but rather we made a beeline for the Food Hall, which is the greatest part of the store. There's a ginormous deli section, a massive bakery, plus a section that sells signature Harrods food items for purchase in take-home tins and decorative packaging--the perfect souvenir! My mom bought some tea and jams for grandma, while I got a little piggy-bank shaped like the red mailbox with chocolate cookies in it. I have a piggy-bank from there that I got when I was studying abroad, so rather than keep the piggy-bank, I gave it to my cousin Meredith. She was very happy to get it because it looked like the mailbox in a book that she has. Again, big hit!
We went through the deli and picked up a salmon sandwich that looked tasty, and since we were all hungry, it looked even more tasty than it usually would have looked. After a few more minutes of ogling the dessert case, we left and hit the road again. We started on down the street away from Harrods and the insanity therein, when we came across a real treat: there was a tour bus parked across the street that had the name of the tour company on the side. Normally, not a big deal, but the tour company was called Happy Al's! Which was an oxymoron, seeing as how Al was not happy that day. But we made him stand in front of it on this side of the street and take a picture with it:
So, by this point, hunger was taking over, so we popped into a Pret a Manger, which is a fairly fancy sandwich shop...well, at least the prices lead you to believe so. Granted, the dollar has been doing so poorly against the pound for years, but it was especially bad when we were there! Oh well. The tourists gotta eat! So we each had a little something to eat and drink and we also had the salmon sandwich from Harrods--not the best thing I've ever tasted, but fairly decent. Although it was very fishy smelling, more so than other salmon I've had in the past. But, like I said, fairly decent.
After we left here, we went and walked around for a while, heading towards Buckingham Palace, through St. James Park, over to Trafalgar Square, on to Leiceister Square, Piccadilly Circus, and finally ending up at the tube station at Green Park. This sort of became the hot tube spot for us, as we usually ended up over in this area at one point or another during the day, as there were many shops in this area (Boots the Chemist!). Along the way, while walking back from Piccadilly Circus on Piccadilly, we stopped at a flea market of sorts that was set up in the courtyard of a church (although I'm not sure if it's a church any longer or not), and I got a panoramic picture from a guy who was quickly closing up shop, as the rain was coming down at a pretty good clip, and rain does not treat photographs well! So that was my souvenir of the afternoon, seeing as how the piggy-bank from Harrods went to Meredith. Huzzah!
Seeing as how it was now about 5:00 and we were soaked, tired, and hungry, we got on the tube and headed back to our hotel. Our room was finally ready, so we grabbed our luggage and went upstairs. Well, this room was very basic: 2 twin beds, one rolling twin bed, a small desk, a tv mounted on the wall, and a tiny bathroom that had one of those countertops that extended into the bathtub itself. But we knew we weren't going to be in the room very much, so it worked out just fine for us. Our plans for the evening were to just go get some dinner and then come back to bed, so I didn't change out of my wet jeans--I just rolled them up a little more, brushed my teeth, and laid down on my bed for a few minutes. As Lenny would say, I was resting my eyes! But after about 20 minutes of this, mom and Al woke me up and we left for dinner at Wagamama.
Ah, yes, Wagamama! I remember it fondly. Years ago, my good friend Aimee, aka black devil, and I were two young and dumb flatmates at the University of Edinburgh and we went to London on our way to the mainland during our 5 week long spring semester break. Her roommates from USC were studying in London and let us crash at their flat, and one night they had us come with them to Wagamama. What a treat! Wagamama is a Japanese-style noodle house that has a modern feel to it--all white walls, minimal decoration, etc. I am a big fan of the chicken ramen noodle dish there, and Al went there when he was in London with his AP Euro class in high school, so we told mom that's where we had to eat for sure when we were in London.
Anyhoo, to get there, we walked through Hyde Park, as that was adjacent to our hotel, and mom wanted to see Kensington Palace (located in Kensington Gardens within Hyde Park), since Lady Di had once lived there and she hearts Lady Di. So does my friend Sony, and I tried to find her a commemorative magnet but had no such luck. But, I digress! We walked through the park, which was empty due to the rain and cold except for the few brave joggers and tourists. We made it to the palace but it was closed, so we quick walked around the perimeter of the palace and additional fenced-in garden, then continued onwards to Wagamama.
This particular Wagamama was located in the Kensington district of London, on High Street, and on the 3rd floor. Normally I wouldn't mention this, but walking up marble steps that were slippery from the rain all while wearing slipper Crocs made this task an adventure! Note to readers: don't wear Crocs. This trip has turned me against this form of footwear as an option for wearing outside of the house! They should be worn only for yardwork and the occasional doctor's appointment, when you are too sick to be bothered with tying laces!
Alas, I digress once again. We made it up the stairs and found ourselves a place to sit. Seeing as how we were soaking wet, we were all happy to be sitting in a warm restaurant, no matter how many hardships we faced coming up the stairs. We all had a beverage, although I think mom had wine while Al and I stuck with non-alcoholic beverages (I know, hard to believe!). I ordered the aforementioned ramen dish, as did mother, while Al had a salad and another dish (it might have been some sort of udon noodle dish). The place was pretty busy so our waiter was a little ragged, but he brought everything out to us piping hot, and that's what it was all about. We made fast work of the food, seeing as how it was really about 1:00 AM to our body clocks and we were sleepy, and everything tasted good...well, again, we slurped everything down really fast, so maybe it wasn't that good after all. After settling the tab (note to readers: if you pay by credit card, you write the tip in first, sign, and then they run that amount through and bring you a receipt so you don't have any surprises a la Enjoy! restaurant in AV-town), we cautiously headed downstairs and made our way back to the hotel.
I took a shower when we got back, mainly to warm up, and learned that my new jeans (which were so new they hadn't been washed yet, except for the London rain) gave me a rash all over my legs and up onto my hips! Piss! I didn't realize this until after I got out of the bathroom and finished hand-washing my jeans after the shower, and sat down in my bed to put on lotion, when I pulled up my pajama-pant leg and saw a pink rash all over myself. And it was itchy like a mutha-f*cka, too! So I took a good dose of Benadryl, or whichever generic equivalent I had with me, and turned in for the night. What a day or two!
So mom, Al, and I left Gatwick and went to the Gatwick Express train service, which links Gatwick directly to Victoria Station in London. Quite handy, if you ask me! The train ride was about 30 minutes each way, and my mom bought my return trip ticket, so it didn't cost me a thing! Hallelujah.
We took our seats in the regular class compartment (no first-class for us, shoot) and struck up a conversation with a couple of Americans travelling from Nebraska. They had no idea what they were doing and didn't have a map or anything...just a dazed look on their faces. Al and I intervened and got them pointed in the right direction with our map, which was a very handy pop-up map that I had picked up in 2000 when I was studying in Edinburgh at the University of Edinburgh, and told them to go to a bookstore after they went to their hotel to pick up a current map. I'm telling ya, if you're travelling, that pop-up map is where it's at! It fits in your pocket but has all sorts of helpful info on it. Highly recommended!
Once we arrived at Victoria Station, all hell broke loose. Turns out, this was the morning of the bombing at Glasgow Airport, and the day before there was a failed car bombing in London, so security was at an all-time high. But that's okay with me! I want to be safe! Unfortunately the city of London is friggin' huge, so extra security = slow moving people, and lots of them. So there were tons of officers wondering around the tube station, and there were long waits to enter the tube station from the train station, as security officers were giving everyone the once-over. Most people were understanding about all of this. One gal behind us was getting antsy and confronted an officer, who was super rude back to her, so she called him rude, and he called her ugly! Classic.
There were some tube stations closed for repairs that weekend as well, so Victoria Station was especially busy, as it was a hub. Luckily I took note of this--more to come later on that. Al was all in a tizzy and excited to be in London but trying to act cool; instead, he just was being a dope. He was walking too fast for everyone and getting separated from the group. At one point I yelled at him across the tube platform, "AL! Settle down!" That seemed to work. Al thinks he knows everything but he doesn't really pay attention to the crucial details. Case in point: he wanted to navigate our way to the hotel by getting off at Waterloo and transferring to a different tube line. I looked at him and said, "Well, we can't do that." Him: "Why?" Me: "Because it's closed this weekend, as the signs and announcements have been saying." Him: "Oh." I rest my case. Case closed.
So we navigated our way to the hotel, which was located near the Queensway tube stop in the Earl's Court area of London. The hotel, Central Park Hotel, was just a couple of blocks away on Queensborough Terrace, across the street from a Thai restaurant, and in the middle of a row of Victorian houses. Very London-ish. Since it was about 11:00 AM and our room wouldn't be ready until about 3:00 PM, we dropped our luggage off and decided to hit the road, starting our adventure right there and then. We decided to first go to the London Eye, since mom had bought tickets for us to ride online before leaving home, meaning we could cut to the front of the line and leave everyone in our dust. This was a lovely idea! Only problem: it was pouring outside and the Eye was shut down! Boo! Well, it turns out this wasn't so bad, because Al was being a poop again (he wanted to start his Wimbledon adventure right then and there) and said he didn't want to go anyways, so mom got a refund on her tickets and pre-purchased tickets for me and her to go on it Monday morning. By this point, my jeans were soaked from about mid-shin to the foot, so I rolled them up high-water style and kept trudging along. Damn this rain!
We quick walked along the Thames and over to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I would get a sky-view of these sights from the London Eye in a couple of days, and since all three of us had seen these sights before on previous (but separate trips), we stopped and nodded at it quickly a la Clark W. Griswold at the Grand Canyon in the movie Vacation, and we were off to our next stop!
We then took the tube to the Knightsbridge area to go to Harrods, aka Mecca. We were sort of limited to what we could do on this day, due to the rain, so we decided to cater our day towards inside activities. Shopping is definitely something we could handle! So we went to Harrods and tried to take it all in. Well, as best we could. Everyone else had the same idea as us--the place was packed! That's not really saying much, because London is always busy and more so on a Saturday afternoon, but the rain really brought out the crazies. Plus there were tons of people in town for Wimbledon, making it that much busier. But there's no place I'd rather have been at that time! We didn't look at the whole store, but rather we made a beeline for the Food Hall, which is the greatest part of the store. There's a ginormous deli section, a massive bakery, plus a section that sells signature Harrods food items for purchase in take-home tins and decorative packaging--the perfect souvenir! My mom bought some tea and jams for grandma, while I got a little piggy-bank shaped like the red mailbox with chocolate cookies in it. I have a piggy-bank from there that I got when I was studying abroad, so rather than keep the piggy-bank, I gave it to my cousin Meredith. She was very happy to get it because it looked like the mailbox in a book that she has. Again, big hit!
We went through the deli and picked up a salmon sandwich that looked tasty, and since we were all hungry, it looked even more tasty than it usually would have looked. After a few more minutes of ogling the dessert case, we left and hit the road again. We started on down the street away from Harrods and the insanity therein, when we came across a real treat: there was a tour bus parked across the street that had the name of the tour company on the side. Normally, not a big deal, but the tour company was called Happy Al's! Which was an oxymoron, seeing as how Al was not happy that day. But we made him stand in front of it on this side of the street and take a picture with it:
So, by this point, hunger was taking over, so we popped into a Pret a Manger, which is a fairly fancy sandwich shop...well, at least the prices lead you to believe so. Granted, the dollar has been doing so poorly against the pound for years, but it was especially bad when we were there! Oh well. The tourists gotta eat! So we each had a little something to eat and drink and we also had the salmon sandwich from Harrods--not the best thing I've ever tasted, but fairly decent. Although it was very fishy smelling, more so than other salmon I've had in the past. But, like I said, fairly decent.
After we left here, we went and walked around for a while, heading towards Buckingham Palace, through St. James Park, over to Trafalgar Square, on to Leiceister Square, Piccadilly Circus, and finally ending up at the tube station at Green Park. This sort of became the hot tube spot for us, as we usually ended up over in this area at one point or another during the day, as there were many shops in this area (Boots the Chemist!). Along the way, while walking back from Piccadilly Circus on Piccadilly, we stopped at a flea market of sorts that was set up in the courtyard of a church (although I'm not sure if it's a church any longer or not), and I got a panoramic picture from a guy who was quickly closing up shop, as the rain was coming down at a pretty good clip, and rain does not treat photographs well! So that was my souvenir of the afternoon, seeing as how the piggy-bank from Harrods went to Meredith. Huzzah!
Seeing as how it was now about 5:00 and we were soaked, tired, and hungry, we got on the tube and headed back to our hotel. Our room was finally ready, so we grabbed our luggage and went upstairs. Well, this room was very basic: 2 twin beds, one rolling twin bed, a small desk, a tv mounted on the wall, and a tiny bathroom that had one of those countertops that extended into the bathtub itself. But we knew we weren't going to be in the room very much, so it worked out just fine for us. Our plans for the evening were to just go get some dinner and then come back to bed, so I didn't change out of my wet jeans--I just rolled them up a little more, brushed my teeth, and laid down on my bed for a few minutes. As Lenny would say, I was resting my eyes! But after about 20 minutes of this, mom and Al woke me up and we left for dinner at Wagamama.
Ah, yes, Wagamama! I remember it fondly. Years ago, my good friend Aimee, aka black devil, and I were two young and dumb flatmates at the University of Edinburgh and we went to London on our way to the mainland during our 5 week long spring semester break. Her roommates from USC were studying in London and let us crash at their flat, and one night they had us come with them to Wagamama. What a treat! Wagamama is a Japanese-style noodle house that has a modern feel to it--all white walls, minimal decoration, etc. I am a big fan of the chicken ramen noodle dish there, and Al went there when he was in London with his AP Euro class in high school, so we told mom that's where we had to eat for sure when we were in London.
Anyhoo, to get there, we walked through Hyde Park, as that was adjacent to our hotel, and mom wanted to see Kensington Palace (located in Kensington Gardens within Hyde Park), since Lady Di had once lived there and she hearts Lady Di. So does my friend Sony, and I tried to find her a commemorative magnet but had no such luck. But, I digress! We walked through the park, which was empty due to the rain and cold except for the few brave joggers and tourists. We made it to the palace but it was closed, so we quick walked around the perimeter of the palace and additional fenced-in garden, then continued onwards to Wagamama.
This particular Wagamama was located in the Kensington district of London, on High Street, and on the 3rd floor. Normally I wouldn't mention this, but walking up marble steps that were slippery from the rain all while wearing slipper Crocs made this task an adventure! Note to readers: don't wear Crocs. This trip has turned me against this form of footwear as an option for wearing outside of the house! They should be worn only for yardwork and the occasional doctor's appointment, when you are too sick to be bothered with tying laces!
Alas, I digress once again. We made it up the stairs and found ourselves a place to sit. Seeing as how we were soaking wet, we were all happy to be sitting in a warm restaurant, no matter how many hardships we faced coming up the stairs. We all had a beverage, although I think mom had wine while Al and I stuck with non-alcoholic beverages (I know, hard to believe!). I ordered the aforementioned ramen dish, as did mother, while Al had a salad and another dish (it might have been some sort of udon noodle dish). The place was pretty busy so our waiter was a little ragged, but he brought everything out to us piping hot, and that's what it was all about. We made fast work of the food, seeing as how it was really about 1:00 AM to our body clocks and we were sleepy, and everything tasted good...well, again, we slurped everything down really fast, so maybe it wasn't that good after all. After settling the tab (note to readers: if you pay by credit card, you write the tip in first, sign, and then they run that amount through and bring you a receipt so you don't have any surprises a la Enjoy! restaurant in AV-town), we cautiously headed downstairs and made our way back to the hotel.
I took a shower when we got back, mainly to warm up, and learned that my new jeans (which were so new they hadn't been washed yet, except for the London rain) gave me a rash all over my legs and up onto my hips! Piss! I didn't realize this until after I got out of the bathroom and finished hand-washing my jeans after the shower, and sat down in my bed to put on lotion, when I pulled up my pajama-pant leg and saw a pink rash all over myself. And it was itchy like a mutha-f*cka, too! So I took a good dose of Benadryl, or whichever generic equivalent I had with me, and turned in for the night. What a day or two!
BW3 in AV--Smoke Free!
Yesterday was a great day for humanity...MN restaurants went smoke free! God bless America. Well, at least those of us that don't smoke are saying that. Sorry!
So the whole gang was there: Deb, Sarah OK, Jeremy, Ron, myself, and, of course, The Sherman family--Matt, Betsi, and stud muffin Cade. He's so cute! Definitely the big star of the night. Betsi and Cade showed up last, since they wanted to make an entrance. But we were all waiting for Cade to make his first smoke-free appearance, so it was worth it.
Both Matt and Betsi pulled out their brag books and showed off Cash (CAde SHerman, get it?) in all his glory. The highlights: a pic of him in the plastic sit-up chair that showed off his chubby legs; a black-and-white shot of him smiling and looking like a 40-year-old man before he entered the "Biggest Loser" house. The pics were a big hit!
Needless to say, the next big hit of the night was the smoke-free environment, which was awesome. Why did it take this long to get the smoking ban rolled out to Dakota county? Geez! It was nice to get home and not reek of smoke. Although I managed to spill a cup of blue cheese dressing down my pants and onto my blue down vest (yes, it's a little Marty McFly of me, but who cares), so I smelled a little like that. Oops.
Betsi started going on about how she has never watched "Project Runway" and didn't get it when we were doing our Heidi Klum impersonations. It's only the greatest show ever! She will definitely have to come to the season premier viewing party on Nov. 17. I can't wait!
Here are some pics of our mini-celebrity from last night:
Sarah OK is so funny!
Dancing with dad
