Farewell to London

Monday night, we went back to the Gaucho restaurant for dinner. Mom was smart enough not to order the fish this time. ;) I had a burger. Yes, it seems silly, but it was a tremendous sirloin burger, with a big slice of shaved parmesan on top, and marinated mushrooms underneath. Yum. Mom also tried their beef empanadas, which were very tasty. This time, we didn't have dessert. (we stopped at Tesco and bought ice cream instead -- we had to replace the stuff in the house that we had eaten during the week!) That night there was a Fawlty Towers marathon on TV, with commentary from the actors and other news people and comedians. I haven't laughed that hard in a loooong time. :)

Tuesday was a long, busy day. Mom & Dad got up at 6am to get ready to leave. The car service was coming at 7. After they left, I tried to go back to bedp, but that big creaky house got the better of me. I went downstairs and turned on the tv (we never did figure out how to get the bedroom tv to work!) but the sofas are so short, I couldn't really nap on them, although I tried for an hour. I went back upstairs -- by this time, the sun was starting to come up -- and actually dozed for a bit.

Then I remembered that the "house boy" was going to show up at 9:30ish, so I had to get moving. I thought about taking the tube down to London Bridge to go to Betty's, but Dad had given me 12 packs of holiday cards to carry home for him (for next year) so the stuff was far too heavy. I called a minicab, and it cost me all of 20 pounds to get across town. I was there by 10am. (ok, so that's a $35 cab ride... it was worth it!)

I had some tea with Betty (she was on conference calls all day, poor thing!) and came to the realization that I forgot one thing at the house in Hampstead: my digital travel alarm clock (with the date and temperature). DAMMIT! This thing has been with me around the world - Chile, Spain, Australia, all over the US... I hope they can send it back to me. (eh, I could just go to Brookstone and get another one.) But that pissed me off all day long.

I left Betty's and went first to the Queen's Gallery shop to get dad another one of those Charles & Camilla heart ornaments. And took a picture of Buckingham Palace while I was there, just for good measure. (Like you all needed proof that I was actually there or something...) ;) Then I found a bus to take me to Knightsbridge for the Harrod's pilgrimage. I think if it hadn't been slightly drizzling (typical English weather), I might have walked.

I stopped at ZARA before going into Harrod's. When I lived in Spain (Oy vey, 13 years ago?!), ZARA had just arrived, and it was a big deal because it was the first clothing store that let you touch the clothes, instead of having them behind the counter. The scarf that I wear in the winter is from ZARA in Salamanca in 1992! I bought a cute sweater, and moved on to the craziness that is Harrod's. The food hall always amazes me. I walked through the teas and chocolates section (and tried not to drool) and went downstairs to the Harrod's logo shop. BIG SALE! Woo hoo! The prices didn't look too bad but every time I calculated the equivalent amount in dollar$, it bothered me. So I didn't buy much.

Quick lunch, and then I was going to go to the London Aquarium or Westminster, but as I was getting on the tube, there was an ad for Mario Testino's photographs of Princess Diana, at Kensington Palace. Never been into Kensington Palace, so off I went! Plus, I got to visit another of the big shopping areas, Kensington High Street. :) The palace is beautiful. My only complaint is that there are NO placards or labels on the displays - if you want to know anything, you have to get the (complimentary) headset and listen to the guide-people babble on about each room's contents. UGH. I hate that. The shop there had some beautiful stuff too, but too expensive, and by then I was getting tired.

So I trundled back down to the High Street and remembered that I had to find a post office. Yes, there is a post office in Kensington - two, in fact. Unfortunately, the one I chose to visit was at the far other end of the road :( That done, I decided to call it a day and go back to Betty's. I got there at about 5:45pm. Poor Betty was still on conference calls, so I sat on the bed, read the paper, did some sudokus, and ended up passing out for an hour. I didn't really intend to pass out, but... there was no stopping it. Fortunately, I woke up in time to go to dinner. :)

We had a nice dinner at an Italian place right on the waterfront called Ask. It was soooo nice of her to let me stay over! The car service came for me at 7am and I was at the airport at 8:15! I was so happy to be coming home. It felt like I had been there for way more than 10 days.

We landed early, and I'm glad to be home! :)

Now I have to psych myself up for the Rose Bowl tonight!!!

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