"Turn that frown upside down!"

... admonished Amrie.

"(rude, deleted items)" replied H, with accompanying facial expression.

This greatly amused man across aisle on Tube. We were rather amused ourselves.

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Such a fun weekend in one of my favorite places! And where would that be, kids? YAAeeeYySSSS, London! And London with Helene is fabulous fun, especially when you meet people claiming to be Scottish who have no apparent ties to Scotland.

So, my planned 3 hours door-to-door travel on Saturday was actually more than 4 hours. And then we had to rest and watch Catharine Tate before beginning ice skating excursion to Alexandra Palace. This is on a hill in North-ish London and the view is really amazing (as is the wind)! But this cannot be even remotely captured on camera. I tried. Here is another interesting item (yes. it is a blue plaque. we all know am silly and touristy, but i forget things!).

45 minutes was a little less than Helene had hoped for, but in the end it was Just Right, because: a) have not skated in close to 10 years, b) there are some wierd muscles that one forgets about c) Helene had been skating 2 days before and thought she was recovered and d) i was wearing a skirt (? i know...) and had the session lasted any longer, the chances of my derriere sustaining substantial injury would have increased exponentially by the second, beginning at 45 minutes, 1 second. Fortunately, stayed within the zone of fooling fate and am terribly proud to say that did not fall ONCE and even did cross-overs (!), although this was miracle as there were LOTS of Speedy McSkaterton ASBOs whizzing around us in very alarming manner. I felt O-L-D.

Saturday night had lovely night out for curry in Brick Lane with H's friend, Paola and the evening ended with a spirited discussion on talent/lack thereof and business sense/lack thereof of Madonna. No semblance of unanimity was reached.

Sunday, we were good girls and made it to 11.00 at St. Bartholomew the Great. It was founded in 1123 and has a lovely atmosphere (if you have for some reason never heard me go on about it). This was the third time (a charm) to have tried to take people to see it relatively recently -- the other two times, it has been closed. Encouraging not to be locked out of a church three times in a row... Lovely wine reception afterwards that we were shuttled into as we were trying to mosey out door quietly, and were invited to lunch at the pub by a darling gentleman named Nicholas, but as had hearts set on breakfast food, just went for 1/2 pint after. Sadly we arrived as they were leaving. But we managed and went on with the day :)

Then went to Holland Park area to The Castle. Lovely, comfy place to spend an afternoon by the fire visiting, reading, people watching... And, if you are with meeee,...

(idea for film scene)

Two girls are sitting on sofa by fire solving problems of life, the universe and all that.

Couple arrives, looks for place to sit; requests to sit on other sofa at coffee table.

Cosmopolitan, yet kind-hearted girls smilingly oblige.

Separate conversations continue for several minutes.

More people come into room searching for places to perch.

Man approaches table and mutters request if he can sit at small puffy stool across coffee table.

Couple obliges for all current occupants and returns to smoochy conversation.

Man sits and stares at beverage.

After approx. 92 seconds, man twitches neck in alarming jerky manner.

Man sits and stares at beverage.

Man looks at intensely conversing girls across table (we are solving problems here) and asks, "So, are both of you originally from London?"

Girls pause with raised eyebrows and reply politely to the negative, providing countries of birth.

Reply is greeted with silence and fierce staring at beverage.

Southern girl ventures, "So, are you from London?"

"No. (pause, pause, pause) I'm Scottish. (pause, pause, pause)"

"Oooh, and where in Scotland are you from?"

(pause, pause, pause) "I grew up in Southwest London" the Scotsman replies.

(pause, pause) "I see. So, your parents were from Scotland?"

(pause, pause) "No. (pause, pause, pause) They are from London..."

"Ooooooooh, I see...."

fin

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Monday and today, visited several schools, the Fulbright office in London and the Methodist offices in London.

Yesterday (Monday), was on a site that I was told is one of the oldest Christian sites in England, with artefacts dating from 44 AD. However, cannot verify this at the moment. It was a really old church that the counselor told me was built in the 10th century. Sadly, it was locked. But at the same time, did not have camera with me, so it is just as well. Should return. BTW, this is in Thorpe, next to TASIS (and here is an interesting site of other historic destinations).

Last night, met Helene's friend, Siobhan, and the 3 of us had a grand time in Smithfield! (It was unexpectedly pleasantly surreal to be looking at the same buildings that I saw approx. 5 years ago on my first visit to the UK and have that be a normal part of my life instead of viewing those buildings as a tourist. 5 yrs ago this Easter season! Life is odd.) Anyhoo, many more problems of life and the universe were solved. Our plans will be implemented shortly.

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Trip back home with last day that BritRail passes were good. So sad, but got a great run from them!

Apparently the train today took a detour through Watership Down. There were millions of rabbits in the fields! Okay. Well, maybe not millions. But hundreds! Okay, dozens. It amused me.
Also, snow! Wheeeee!

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And today was St. David's Day celebration. St. David is the patron saint of Wales. So, actually, St. David's Day is tomorrow -- March 1; but as tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, that takes precedence over saints' days and so it had to be celebrated today. The Queen will be in Cardiff tomorrow for the opening of the new Welsh Assembly Building (the one that caused a big kerfuffle with being over budget and unnecessary). On St. David's Day, you are supposed to eat lamb and Welsh cakes (this is my short-hand version of it), so the event planners ordered massive quantities of lamb for dinner. Until the Queen realised that it was the first day of Lent, and all the lamb orders had to be rescinded and fish ordered instead!

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Probably have more fascinating tidbits of trivia, but don't want to overburden.

Eloise Ogden MAY very well have arrived by now!

AND daffodils have bloomed in Wales but not in London.

See, she just goes on and on...