Tuesday

I thought today was Wednesday and the cleaners were due around 2pm. However, I had a pleasant surprise when I realized it was only Tuesday.

We are dressing for rain but it is beautiful sunshine at the moment. We're learning how to dress with layers, removing articles in the sun, and putting them back on in the shadows. We're not accustomed to this. My favorite is t-shirt, scarf, and beanie, with a sweatshirt handy for the frequent cool spells. It can get downright cold by the Thames, in the shade, or sundown. The warmest I've dressed so far is t-shirt, sweatshirt, sweater, scarf, beanie, and gloves (and always jeans). It's warm in the underground. I have to say I'm really loving the weather so far. I love the mix of warm and cold, sun and clouds.

We took off for our routine walk down the hill to Archway. We're headed for the museum district to the National History Museum and the Victoria and Albert museum.

In the National History Museum, Pop, Jake, Luke, and I headed to the Blue Zone to see the dinosaurs.

Sari and Sam headed to Human Biology - Sam's choice. Grandma and Cari went to the V&A. We all met later for lunch at a cafe in the Victoria and Albert. The "cafe" is adorned like some Victorian princesses dining hall with giant chandeliers, columns, paintings, ornate ceiling, and trim, which contrasted with the stacking chairs, round cafeteria tables, and lunch trays.

We toured the V&A after lunch and it was so impressive - one of the finest I've been to (not that I have been to many museums to make a weighted comparison). We barely had time to scratch the surface before heading to our next destination, Harrods.

Traveling by foot in London is an experience. There are a lot of pedestrians, beautiful old buildings and architecture, old-style taxis, double-decker buses, old red phone booths, bass-ackwards traffic, and looking in the opposite direction before crossing the street.

The other thing that stands out is the London accents. They're not the smooth British accents of say Hugh Grant, but more like an actor putting on a cockney accent. I don't know if cockney is the right description, but it almost sounds like actors putting on a London accent. According to Cari the accents are different by location and class.

Harrod's is enormous and we barely scratching the surface. Sari bought some marzipan candy and immediately Sam was crying because he wanted the banana shaped marzipan not the pear and watermelon. The crying went on for some time before I finally took him back around to the first candy store and bought him the banana candy. I feel bad for Sam because he's a bit of the third wheel out here. He would be just as happy going to a park. He's been asking and I've been promising so I promised I would take him to nearby Hyde park. Unfortunately, it is cloudy, rainy and very cold now. We don't stay too long before heading off to catch the train back to Archway and up the hill to home.


While the house was being filled with the aromas of dinner being cooked, the rain opened up on the kitchen roof window. It was fantastic. Grandma made a superb baked chicken dinner with salad, mashed potato, and broccoli. Another night, another comforting dinner.