My mom and Mary came to visit Jannah in London a week ago. I was so excited for them to arrive I could hardly sleep and pretty much couldn't stop smiling, which actually isn't that out of character for me at all. They arrived on Sunday, March 14. I was so excited to get to see them, I have missed them like crazy!
Well right away we began the day with exploring parts of London. I took them to Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the National Portrait Gallery, an Irish Pub and much more! We spent much of the day laughing, mostly at my mother's expense at first. It was nice to get a break since most of the time their jokes are geared towards me. For some reason my mom could not grasp the concept of the London Underground. Often we would hop aboard a tube and she would have the most blank stare of confusion upon her face or sometimes even be left standing on the platform all together as we took off in a completely opposite direction at 60 mph.[While standing inside a train on the underground heading towards our next destination...]
Mom: "So...are we still on the underground?"
This made for a very easy target. That Monday, mom treated us to a showing of Les Miserables at Queens Theater. It was easily the best live performance I have ever seen, next to Mary's 8th grade rendition of Pinnochio of course. The orchestra was amazing, the acting was perfect, and the singing was beautiful. I left the performance with a strong urge to pursue a future in music. This was quickly killed when I began to belt out Le Mis ballads in the streets of London and I received awkward stares from strangers and my own family was begging me to stop.
On our way home we stumbled across another Irish Pub, O'neils, which I quickly fell in love with.
4 Vodka/Cranberries for the girls - check
1 booth right near the dance floor - check
1 Strange British boy who awkwardly wanted to be my dance partner - check
1 Congo Line who needed a fearless leader (me) -check
And yes, I led that line without hesitation throughout the bar. I also prided myself on getting the DJ to play ABC by the Jackson 5 which was a huge hit, well at least at our booth it was.
The rest of the week we spent seeing even more sights of London: Big Ben, Parliame
nt, The Jewel Castle, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, and St. Jame's Park (where I unsuccessfully attempted to coax a royal squirrel into my purse, I got damn close though!) It was so great having someone to share all of the sights with! We also happened to meet the author of the Henry Egg children's book series, Lee Benson, who had us randomly stand in front of Parliament and hold the eggs that he uses in his sketches. I think he liked us.Another highlight of the week was all of the great restaurants we ate at! My favorite being Thai-in-a-box, followed by Japanese-in-a-bowl, then Fish-on-a-plate, and lastly Irish Whiskey-before-noon, which I would not recommend to anyone even if it IS St. Patrick's Day, thanks mom! :o)
The next day we spent at the London Tower (thanks Mary!!) It was absolutely amazing! There
is so much history behind those walls. There were churches, dungeons, prisons, houses, towers, castles, and gardens. There was so much to see, it was magnificent! Mom also had the opportunity to live up to her potential as "THAT" tourist who asked random questions in front of a tour of about 50 people, while Mary and Jannah tried to disguise ourselves in the crowd.
While inside one of the many museums of the tour I was off wandering around taking pictures of the different exhibits. While walking, I felt like there was someone taking pictures of me looking at the various things; I would turn around and see about 30 people with their cameras out, so that didn't help. Then these random guys started coming up to me and asking to read the historical significances to them, since they did not know much English, I gladly cooperated. I started putting all the pieces together when I was just talking with my mom and the Spaniards took a picture of us conversing. They then came up and put their arms around me for a group photo! Instead of coming to my rescue, my mom offered to take the damn picture then took one with her camera as well! THANKS MOM! I didn't leave Hannah's side for the rest of the tour.
We spent about 3 hours within the tower, but I could have spent all day there. The amount of history there was abso
lutely amazing. After the tour we got ice cream and spent about half an hour trying to capture the famous "jumping" picture in front of the London Bridge. After about 17 takes, my mom's camera skills or lack thereof, we finally snapped one...only to have Mary delete it on accident! We finally just settled on one because when it comes to taking photos, Maggie is more than challenged.Me: "Hey mom, your finger is covering up the flash."
Mom: "Hmm...I wonder which finger it is...Oh! Look there's a hat on the ground!"
Overall it was an awesome week! The food was great, the sights were spectacular, and the hotel was beautiful and in a great location as well. About every time we would walk up and down the street, there was a kindly Arab man who would try hollerin' at Maggie.
Crazy Hookah Man: "Oh, you are surely their sister, right?" "Ayyy, Mummy!!"
This definitely provided us with great entertainment and enough of a reason to not eat at his restaurant.
Again, thank you Mummy and thank you Mary for coming! I know Hannah and I had so much fun with yall here! You are missed so much! LOVE YOU!
[Que: inside joke]
Well...I am not a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...so I better get going!
cheers!
janie
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