My First Blogoversary

Today is my 1st blogoversary! When I started this blog a year ago, I had no idea how much I was going to love going on this journey. As I’ve written before, this blog came along at a time in my life when I needed an outlet and it has been a great catalyst in my life. I’ve also been able to connect with some fantastic people from all around the world. I’m a Georgia girl, who came across the Atlantic and settled in England, and then kept traveling around the world everyday on this magic carpet that we call the blogosphere. I've met some great friends. What a ride! (smile) 

During this past year, I have had lots of fun along with some low points, but in the end, it’s all been great to look back on the highs and lows. And it’s all been great to experience it all alongside my hubby Brit Boy. 

Here are some of the things that I experienced and enjoyed sharing here on my blog during this first year of blogging: 

April 2008 - I got my unlimited leave to remain visa, which allows me to settle here and that was a wonderful step. We celebrated our wedding anniversary and the visa by going to see the play “Speed the Plow” starring Jeff Goldblum. 

June 2008 – We went to Wimbledon... what a thrill that was. We attended the Nelson Mandela birthday concert and we were able to see him speak briefly which was very moving. 

August 2008 – We went to the Madonna concert in Wales. 

September 2008 – We went to the Stevie Wonder concert. He was amazing! Stevie Wonder is Brit Boy’s favorite singer, so my hubby’s grin was a mile wide during the concert (smile) 

October 2008 – I was in the thick of trying to get my absentee ballot in for the election and after many attempts I got it in. This showed me that I have more persistence than I ever imagined. LOL. 

December 2008 – We went to the Simply Red concert. And at the tail end of the month, I had my visit to the US Embassy and it turned out well. On that day, Brit Boy and I got separated twice and found each other again, but I discovered for the first time since I’ve been here that I’m still able to take care of myself. And that was a great turning point for me, since I’ve relied so heavily on my husband since I’ve been here. I loved that day! (smile) 

Since the start of 2009, the big events have slowed down a bit, but it’s still been fun to share my life experiences with all of you my dear readers and commenters who make my day when you come to visit me. So I want to say a big thank you to you all!!!! (smile) This blog wouldn’t be what it is without you all. And thank you to all of my fellow bloggers for welcoming me into this world….what a pleasure!

Bournemouth, More Movies, and Lash Rescue

Yesterday Brit Boy and I had a date in the afternoon. As I mentioned before, he is on vacation for a few days and so we are doing our best to make good use of this time together. Of course the weather has decided to not cooperate with us, so we haven’t been able to go to Bournemouth to the beach like we had hoped yet, but maybe we will get a day of sun soon. Bournemouth is lovely. It’s a beautiful seaside town. According to their website, they are the greenest town in the South of England and apparently very happy folks according to a survey. Well, I can only speak as a visitor down there, but I think that I would be pretty happy if I lived down there. It has an easy feel to it and there is just something about the seaside. (smile) So I hope that the rain goes away in the next couple of days and we can get down there to soak up the green and some of the happiness.

So since Brit Boy and I can’t get to the beach, we have stayed closer to home. We went into town yesterday. We are becoming regular townies at this point. Wow! (laugh) Anyway, we went to the movies to see “Hancock” starring Will Smith. When we got there, the cinema was packed. I told Brit Boy that I never knew that that many people lived around here. It was a Tuesday afternoon, but it looked like a Saturday in a much bigger town. It was wild. The queue was almost out the door. We decided though that a few things had created this perfect storm of the throngs of moviegoers. The kids are out of school, it was a rainy day, and Tuesday afternoons are discounted. But it was all good. The queue moved fairly quickly and we got seats so we were happy. It was a fun time.

Before we went in to get our seats, we made a stop at the concession stand. Neither one of us had eaten anything much, so we loaded up. Each of us had a hotdog and a drink and a small popcorn. We didn’t share a popcorn because Brit Boy likes sweet popcorn and I like salty popcorn.

We found this out the first time we went to the movies here in the UK together. We got a popcorn tub together and were ready to share. Then I grabbed a handful and said, “Why is it sweet?” It looked like it was salted popcorn. This was one of those funny little cultural things. When we were in the lobby, there wasn’t a sign that said, “Salty popcorn here” and “Sweet popcorn here”. So how was I to know. And sweet was normal for Brit Boy and salty was normal to me, so we got our wires crossed and since we all come from our own experiences, it didn’t cross our minds, for Brit Boy to ask me or for me to ask him. It was funny and we laughed about it. It was no big thing. These things have happened from time to time between us in the past and we just see it as very cool that we get to learn about another culture through the person that we love most. This is one of the things that I love about living in another country at this point in my life…I get the opportunity most days to see the world in another way. So since then, we each get a small popcorn of our own, but we share our nachos and we like that. (wink)

So we went in to sit down and thoroughly enjoyed our hotdogs and drinks. Those hotdogs were really good. Then the movie started. I have read good and bad reviews of “Hancock”, but then we never follow reviews and just see what we like. Brit Boy and I like Will Smith movies and we really enjoyed him at the Mandela concert we went to, so we figured we would check out his movie.

We really enjoyed “Hancock”. It was laugh out loud funny to us many times just because his character said what he felt like. It was funny to see someone say the things that a lot of us wish that we could say when we get ticked off in life and we refrain from doing so. And deep down his character was a good guy. It was just a great laugh and a good way to spend a couple of hours on a Tuesday afternoon.

Oh, by the way, I did finally get my waterproof mascara remover. When we went around the corner from the cinema, we popped into the pharmacy and I got my lash rescue finally. (smile) I used my store points and didn’t have to pay anything for it, so I was able to rescue my eyelashes and not spend a cent.

Nelson Mandela and The Rest of Our Story

Today I will finish up my story of our time in London from June 23-28th. As I have said before, it was a glorious week with many highlights. I mentioned before that going to Wimbledon helped me to remember that there is still fun and good in the world because it was just a wonderful experience and was done so well. And I mentioned that there was also another highlight. It was the greatest of them all. Brit Boy and I saw Nelson Mandela! (smile) That was a glorious experience that neither one of us will ever forget. But I don’t want to skip ahead too much here. I still have the day before that to tell you about. So I will pick up where I left off last time.

On the Thursday morning of that great week, we woke up and took our time getting going. We had had an early wakeup on all the other days, so this day we decided to chill a bit. We got up at about 10am, got dressed, and then headed to the tube station. We topped up our Oyster cards at this point at the machine there. We figured that it would be best to do it then when the station wasn’t busy and there was a long line. After we put more credit onto our Oyster cards, we headed on our journey to Piccadilly Circus.

Piccadilly Circus is a wildly frenzied place, full of throngs of people and activity. There are tourists and native Brits all walking around this way and that together and I love the feel of it. I am usually not one for crowds of people, but in some situations like this, I feel it is the only way to go…you feel a part of everybody else. I like it there. You feel like you are in the middle of the action. It is touristy in bits, but what’s wrong with that? (smile) We like it a lot. It is like a playground to us.

We went to the area to have our nice lunch, or as Brit Boy calls it, our “slap-up meal”. This is his Brit-ism for a nice meal. (smile) We went to our favorite steak place for our splurge of the trip. We had been eating inexpensively the rest of the time so that we could spend a bit more to have our special meal. This place is becoming a bit of a tradition for us. It is not terribly expensive there, but it costs more than McDonald’s. (smile) Anyway, we had our splurge.

We had the same waitress as we had back in April, which was nice. She is always good to us. Brit Boy and I both had the steak and fries/chips, along with a nice green salad that we shared. For our appetizer, Brit Boy had potato skins and I had shrimp/prawns that were as light as a feather. Both things were so good. For dessert, we both had a slice of strawberry cheesecake that was divine. Here is a photo of mine before I dived in.



After our nice lunch, we headed to the tube station across the street. We went to the Victoria & Albert Museum. There is a tunnel from the tube that goes right into the museum and some of the others around there. Along the tunnel, there was a busker/musician who was playing his guitar beautifully…sort of a jazzy, classical feel to his music. He was great. I dropped a few coins in his case. Brit Boy noticed that the busker also had a sign telling about his website. It was cool….an age-old music tradition meeting new millennium technology. Gotta love it. (smile)

We went to the Victoria & Albert (V&A) mostly to see an exhibition of memorabilia of The Supremes. It was fabulous. The gowns were amazing and timeless. A lot of those dresses that were from the 60s still could look fabulous if worn now. There is something about dresses from the 40s, 50s, and 60s that transcends the particular decade and will always look good. There were programs, photos, and all kinds of artifacts of this fabulous group of ladies. Mary Wilson had held onto a lot of this stuff, so she put it all together and now we have this great exhibit to see. I heard her in an interview here where she said that she didn’t throw anything away from that time. Thank God for her. (smile) The exhibit also had film of her and others talking about Motown and The Supremes. There was also a bit of archival footage of Martin Luther King Jr and things about the Civil Rights Movement as a background to give a feel of the times when Motown and The Supremes were doing their thing. It showed just how massive their achievement was and how it shaped history. They altered the perceptions of many in the rest of the world. The Supremes were elegant and all of the girl groups after them have a great example to follow. The Supremes were at their height before I was born, but I grew up hearing their music like everyone else and I think they were wonderful. The little girl in me just wanted to break into the exhibition cases and try on all of the clothes. (smile) As a former wannabee fashion designer, I was loving the fashions and the music is classic.

Whilst at the V&A we also looked at the costume collections, the jewelry, the photography, and sculptures. We were only allowed to take photos in certain areas. Here is a photo of some busts in one of the galleries. It is a lovely place.



Here is the outside of the V&A. Very stately.



After we came out of the museum, we decided to take a walk to Hyde Park since it was a nice day. We sat on a bench for a while and looked out across the lake. It was quiet and peaceful there and you forget that you are in the middle of a big noisy city. Hyde Park is probably my favorite place in London.

We watched the little blue paddle boats going across the water and then decided to give it a try ourselves. So we paddled out on the lake and I must admit that at first it was a bit unsettling since the wind got up and the currents were dragging us sideways when that was not the way we wanted to go. (laugh) I kept hoping that we wouldn’t spring a leak. But eventually things leveled out. We both loved it though. It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon. Whilst we were there in the park, we could hear them practicing for the Mandela concert the next day. Here are a couple of photos of us in the middle of the lake.You can just about see the edge of our blue paddle boat in the second photo.





Then we took the boat back to shore and walked over and had ice cream from one of the stands in the park. We found another bench and sat watching guys and a girl roller-blading and doing tricks. Along this same stretch of road, vans were going back and forth with VIPs inside of them to and from the concert area. We didn’t see anyone though. All the windows were blacked out. It was a fun time though. We bought sandwiches and potato chips/crisps from a stand at the tube station and headed back to our hotel.

On the walk from the tube station to our hotel, they were having a concert at Wembley Arena, which is next to Wembley Stadium. We couldn’t tell who was performing, but the crowds around there seemed excited. We kept walking to our home away from home. (smile) We watched the big Euro 2008 football/soccer match…I sort of read and watched. Brit Boy was really into it. It was a good restful evening. The next day was Mandela. We couldn’t wait!

The next day, we got up with the great expectation of seeing Nelson Mandela. The concert wasn’t until around 6:30pm so we had some time to kill. We took our time getting up. We left our hotel at about 11am and headed to McDonald’s down near the tube station to have brunch. Then we left and took the tube to Green Park.

Green Park is a lovely park too and has lovely mature trees and is fabulously…well, green. (smile) It is a peaceful place to hang out. Brit Boy and I found a bench and sat there to take all the beautiful nature in. We talked and then the rain came. First it was light, so we were fine with that. We are both immune to bother about light rain now. (smile) I am a recent convert now that I have been here a while. Plus, the trees are so big and thick that the canopies of leaves sort of act as an umbrella. But soon the rain came down too hard so we hopped back on the tube and went to Oxford Street. We figured that we could find some shelter in one or two of the many shops along there.

We wandered around Borders for a while. This store is my paradise. I love reading. Brit Boy enjoys it there too. We also popped in to a few boutiques…can’t forget the inner fashionista. (laugh) We didn’t buy anything because we didn’t want to be weighted down at the concert and also we were trying to be frugal.

Soon the rain let up and stayed that way all the way through the concert later. We walked along to Hyde Park in excited anticipation of the concert. We queued up with everybody else and waited to be let into the gates. We eventually got inside and claimed excellent spots near the front of the crowd. They had a circle right at the stage cordoned off for people with gold circle tickets, but we were right behind that group and had a great view.

We sat down yoga-style on the grass and took in the scene. We were sitting next to a fellow who had come over from Germany just for the concert. He was nice. He asked me if I would hold his spot next to me and I said sure. So he went to get a drink. He had a piece of yellow plastic that he sat on, so I used that to hold his spot and I placed our binoculars on top of it. He was gone for quite a while and I thought that he might have found somewhere else to sit, but a while later he came back. He told me that if the rain did come that I could have his other piece of plastic to cover us since I had held his place. I thought that was so nice and so in tune with the vibe of the event. Miraculously though, it didn’t rain. The sky looked quite ominous at several points, but it held off. Here is a photo of the stage before the concert started.



Soon the concert got underway and everyone stood up. The concert was great. Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith helped out with the presenting and Will at one point came out on his own to get the crowd going. He said that he had to get in on the action since he was introducing all of the other acts and he wanted to see if he still “had it”. (smile) Well, Will still has it. He was great. He did a bit of one of his hits and then he did a bit of the theme tune from his show “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. I was singing along through it all. It was great. (smile) He really rocked da house!! The crowd loved it.

Eddy Grant was also great and had a sing-a-long with the crowd. He looks the same as he did in the 80s and can still do his thing. He is a great performer and is going on tour again. He brought lots of life to the stage. Here is a photo of him in action.



Simple Minds was great. I loved it when they did their song from years ago, “Mandela Day”. They also did “Don’t You Forget About Me”. It was great because they were one of the acts from the very beginning who worked to raise awareness of Mandela’s plight and what was going on in South Africa. Here is a photo from when they were on stage.



The Children of Agape Choir were wonderful along with Annie Lennox. Their song was so stirring to the soul. They sang with a raw, beautiful power. Annie Lennox is one of my favorite singers and she is also one who has been fighting the good fight for years on behalf of those involved in the 46664 campaign. She showed a photo and talked a bit about this little girl who was an AIDS orphan and had AIDS herself. Her face was gaunt and she looked as if she were on the brink of death at such a tender age. Then Annie showed the other photo of this little girl, who was hugging Annie, and she looked like a totally different child. It showed the power of what the access to proper AIDS medication can do to save lives. The little girl is not cured of course, but she has been given a chance. It was a powerful illustration.

The Soweto Gospel Choir was wonderful too. They were a great addition to many of the acts that were on stage. They were dressed in beautiful brightly-colored outfits that just popped out at you. They were glorious to see and hear. Beautiful voices. Josh Groban was great. He has an amazing voice. Emmanuel Jal is a great hip hop artist who was a child soldier in Sudan. He is now performing music about reconciliation and hope and he is very talented. He really got the crowd going with his set too.

I really enjoyed everyone and there is just not enough room here to talk about all of them. I wish that I could. (smile) They had a great line-up. There were artists from all over the world and they were wonderful.

In the middle of the concert, there was a pause for the great one. Will Smith came out and introduced Mr Nelson Mandela. Here is a photo of him coming onstage.



Both Brit Boy and I were very moved by this moment. I was overcome with such joy at that moment when Mr Mandela or as they call him “Madiba”, came out to speak. I instantly welled up with tears because I knew that this was surely one of the greatest honors of my life to see him. There was a hush that fell over the crowd of nearly 50,000 people. Mr Mandela is coming upon his 90th birthday now, so of course he has to take it slow as he walks, but I know that he was determined to come and speak to us. He had traveled a long way to come to England, but he did so in order to help out the 46664 campaign and the work it does and also to be there for everyone to honor him on his 90th year of life. It was amazing, but you could just feel all of this love in the air when he was onstage. The air changed. It was wonderful. Mr Mandela gave a short speech, but every word vibrated all around us. And what I took away from it is what the slogan of the concert said, “it’s in our hands”. It was like he was saying, I have been on this journey my whole life and now it is your turn to do what you can. And I thought yes. He has done so much for humanity and if anyone deserves a rest, he does. I hope to be as able as he is when I am 90 years old. I figure that all of us were amazingly lucky to be able to see him and hear him. I know that it has validated and awakened some plans within me to help others. I just felt like he was passing the torch to all of us to do whatever we can to help others in whatever way we wish. I can’t be Nelson Mandela, but I can be me and do things even if it is in little ways. I have always sought out this path in life and now I just want to do even more. (smile) Brit Boy does too. The 46664 campaign is one great way to help others.

Near the end of the concert, Brit Boy and I decided that we needed some air and we were hungry, so we squeezed our way away from the front and went to the food stalls. The crowd was more dispersed back there. We went to a food van that was selling foot long hotdogs. The van had car license plates from the US all over it and it just so happens that one of the license plates was from Georgia…my old stomping ground. (smile) We ate our hotdogs and watched the concert from further back.

We made a run for it right near the end of the concert to beat some of the crowd heading to the tube station. Others were thinking the same thing. The security let us out of a side gate which was coincidentally the same side that we had been sitting along the day before, watching for VIPs. So in a full circle moment for the week, who should we see leaving out of this side gate but Boris Becker!!!! He was only a few feet away from me. (laugh) So Mr Becker was "thisclose" and I was thrilled. Back in the day, he was a fave of mine. I decided to not run up to him for an autograph because it was dimly lit over there and I didn’t want him to think we were going to attack him. (laugh) It was enough to just see him again. I took it as a good sign and a full circle moment that we had seen him twice…once at the beginning of our adventure at Wimbledon and once at the end of the glorious week at the concert. Maybe I will get an autograph one of these days! (smile)

The next day was Saturday and we headed home. We checked out of our hotel and walked back to the tube station in the hot sun. It was great though. I had become very brawny over the course of the week and pulled that bag like it weighed nothing even though it didn’t. I know that we must have walked thousands and thousands of steps by the end of our trip. We both joked that it had been like being on a wonderful marathon across a continent or two. (smile)

We took the tube to Victoria Station. We had a couple of baguettes and a drink. We then headed around to the coach station. Brit Boy and I were talking about the fact that the coach station is tiny and not even big enough for the amount of people that come through there.

We took our coach/bus back home and then got a taxicab back home. We both crashed on the sofa with a dopey smile on our faces. We were so happy to have had such fun and we were so tired. But I tell you, I will take that kind of tired any day, when it is due to such a wonderful ride like we had through that glorious week.

First Day in London

Brit Boy and I are still having broadband problems, but we have pieced together things enough for us to get back into the internet world until we can get things worked out permanently on that front. I am so glad, because I don’t want too much time to pass and then I will forget bits of the absolutely great time we had in London this time around. This was the longest stretch that we have spent in London and it was fab. We went from the storied courts of Wimbledon to the truly sublime experience of seeing Mr. Nelson Mandela speak and pass the torch to the rest of us in taking care of our world. It is a week that Brit Boy and I will never forget. (smile)

I will begin today with our first day there and continue onward in the next few entries. So Brit Boy and I set off on our trip, on Monday, June 23rd. This time we didn’t take the train due to some scheduling and money-saving considerations, although in the end, we didn’t really save any money, but anyway we took the coach/bus into London. Let me say, Brit Boy and I remembered why we love the train so much after two hours on the coach. (laugh) It was hot and grubby. We have had better coach rides, so it isn’t always like that, but this time it was icky. Still, we are going to stick to the train when we can because it is a more comfortable way to travel and it takes half the time. In the end though, we were too excited to really care. We were just glad to be going on this cool journey together.

We arrived at the Victoria coach station in London at about 1pm. We were hungry, so we wheeled our bags down the street and across the way to a little shopping complex there at the Victoria Station, which houses a grocery store and various shops, as well as restaurants. We set out on our trip with the idea in mind that we would eat cheaply as much as we could to save money in these times that we live in. (smile) Well everyone else had the same idea and all of the fast food places were packed, so we had to go over to the Italian place across the plaza. Luckily, it was sort of Italian-esque fast food, so it was reasonably priced. The food was really good. Brit Boy and I both had a slice of pizza and a platter of finger food that we shared. The platter had chicken strips, nachos, and various vegetables and was served with two sauces. It was nice and filling. Here are a couple of photos of our platter and my glass of drink.





In yet another cost-cutting measure, we decided to stay outside of central London this time since we were staying several nights. We stayed in the Wembley area of London. Our hotel was virtually a stone’s throw from Wembley Stadium. Here is a photo.



They are doing lots of revitalization and construction around that area. My guess is that on top of rejuvenating things, they are sprucing up things in time for the Olympics in 2012. They are building lots of housing and workspace around there. Here is a photo of some of the change going on out there.




By the time that we got to our hotel in Wembley it was well after 3pm which was check-in time. So when we got there we thought that we could go in and dump our stuff and lounge a bit in preparation for our early start the next day. But when we turned up, things were in all-out chaos in the lobby. (laugh) There were about 100 teenagers milling around who were either on their way in or out, we couldn’t figure out which. And then there were about eight others there waiting for their rooms. So we were “checked in”, but then we had to go along with the others and wait in the bar for our rooms to be ready. It was cool though. In the end, they gave us free drinks, so all was not lost. (smile)

After almost two hours, we all were finally shown to our rooms. They couldn’t give us our keys at that point because things were still chaotic, but we were able to get it later. As another consolation, they offered us all free breakfast the next day, but Brit Boy and I didn’t hang around the next day for that…we were off to Wimbledon and we didn’t want to miss a minute. (smile)

That evening, as we were settled into our room, I took this photo of the sunset out of our window. It was lovely.



From our window you could see for miles. This photo makes me calm because it makes me remember the sense that I had at that moment that we were on the eve of a wondrous journey over the next few days and I was right. This sunset was a perfect close to the day before some of the best days of my life.
My next entry….our day at Wimbledon.

Acupuncture and London Here We Come Again!

I should be packing right now, but I am procrastinating. Although, at least I have piled my clothes that I am taking with me onto our bed. And in a bit I am going to go downstairs and have a bit of lemonade and then I will do my packing. Here is my wardrobe for next week ... fashionable, huh? (laugh)



Yeah right. (laugh) Well, maybe not "fashionista-esque", since we will be hoofing it a lot around London, but I am leaning more towards "casual and slightly fashionable". I am packing my sunglasses optimistically in hopes that I will need them to shield my eyes from all the bright sun at Wimbledon. Brit Boy and I are so hoping that the rain holds off for the tournament. We had lots of rain last night and today it is sunny and clear and windy. So if we can just have sunny, lovely weather like this for the tennis it will be splendid. One other fashion note, I am NOT going to be taking my “blister-blooming boots” this time. If you are not familiar, please read my post from our trip to London in April…I limped for days. (laugh)

Brit Boy and I ate a big breakfast this morning, so we both may not be hungry until 9pm. (smile) Since we are going to be gone all week, I am trying to use the last of our perishable food so it won’t go to waste while we are gone. The last few eggs, last few pieces of bacon, a few pieces of bread, and the last of the orange juice have now been consumed so we are almost all set. Whenever we get a space in our guts for some dinner, we will have a baked potato each and some brussel sprouts…and then tada…no perishable food left except for a few slices of bread and a bit of cheese to make sandwiches to take along with us tomorrow and then our consciences will be cleared. Since food shortages and high prices seem to be the rule of the day, we don’t want to throw away anymore than we have to.

Yesterday, I went to my next to last acupuncture visit. Karen and Ta were kind as always and I had my treatment. Karen and I talked as Ta made me into a human pin cushion. (smile) After all the pins were in…about thirty…she placed three big sponges along my body to cushion so that she could place the towel over me and thus the pins would not get snarled up or go in even deeper with the pressure of the towel. So they leave me in the room, all Zen and stuff, with the lights out and lovely Chinese spiritual music playing in the background. Then within five minutes the fire alarm goes off in the shopping plaza. I’m not losing my mind, but instead of being scared, I laughed first that this was my current condition with all the pins and I may have to run for my life in my underwear. (laugh) But good ‘ol Karen comes into the room just as the alarm pipes down and she says that it was a false alarm. She said, “Don’t worry, we will take care of you if there is a fire or anything. You are our friend.” Then she patted me on the arm. I told her that I had no fear and knew that they would look out for me. I was the only customer in the shop at that time. Karen is a sweetheart and I told her so. I always feel very relaxed in that tiny shop. (smile) Even though I have my last treatment coming up in the next couple of weeks, I am still going to stop by and say hello every time I get into town, just to see my friends.

Well, I better get to my packing. Just one last quick note. I won’t be able to post anything from tomorrow (the 23rd) through Friday (the 27th) since I will be in London and away from my laptop. I will probably go into shock and miss my little green machine, but we are trying to pack lightly. (smile) But rest assured, I will be taking notes on what we see and do on our next London adventure and I will also be taking lots of photos to share with you all. Brit Boy and I will be doing the rounds of London this time for sure…Wimbledon, King Tut’s exhibit, the Victoria & Albert Museum to see some Supremes memorabilia, and then on Friday we have the Nelson Mandela concert. And I will also share wherever else that we come across on our latest trip to the Greater London area. It’s always a fun time when we take a trip there, so I look forward to sharing it all here with whomever takes the time out of their busy days to read my blog. Once we arrive back home on the 28th, I will start spilling my guts on all that happened. (smile) Thanks for visiting with me here. Until then…take care :-)

A Quick Note

Just a quick note, in only eight days, Brit Boy and I will be at Wimbledon. I can’t believe it. We are both so excited about that and it is made even more memorable because we had the good fortune to be picked to sit in centre court. We are so grateful. We are just hoping that the weather is nice that day. Also that week we are going to see the Tutankhamen exhibition at the O2 and we are going to hopefully finally get to St Paul’s Cathedral and see Sir Christopher Wren’s fabulous architecture. A while back, I wrote about Brit Boy and me going to West Knoyle one day, which is right next to East Knoyle, here in Wiltshire, where Sir Christopher Wren is from. In all of our visits to London, we have yet to go have a look. So we are hoping to get there. And then on the Friday, we are going to the Nelson Mandela 90th birthday concert and we are overjoyed about that. That will be a true milestone to remember in our lives to see Mr Nelson Mandela. As I have said before, I will definitely share my experiences over that week here in my blog, along with photos. So the countdown continues. (smile)

London and Cupcakes

My sinusitis or whatever it was, has nearly calmed down all the way. I had a bit of a sore throat also and that made me feel awful for those couple of days, but now I am doing much better. So I wanted to get back here and get caught up on what is going on. Here is my mini rewind back to Saturday.

Well on Saturday, I went to see Karen and Ta again, to have my acupuncture. It went fine. Then Sunday, Brit Boy and I just hung out around home and enjoyed the nice weather. The weather had been spring-like at that point for a few days, although today it is kind of windy and there has been some rain. The temperature also cooled off too, so I have been putting on my cardigan and taking it off because I can’t decide if I am warm or cold. (smile) Back to Sunday though, I spoke on the phone with my niece who lives in California. She was doing great and we had a good talk about all things retro. (smile) She is only about nine years younger than me. She says that my pop culture tastes from back in the day gave her lots of good memories since she followed some of what I followed. We discussed the upcoming return of New Kids on the Block and a lot of other musical acts from back in the day. It was a wide-ranging discussion and we talked about current artists. This conversation was peppered with me singing lyrics from everyone at random. It was hilarious. It was kinda cool that she said that she enjoyed following some of my tastes from back then and that she has good memories because of that. Awww. (smile) That was good to hear. It was a good talk, filled with good nostalgia.

Then on Tuesday, the 13th, I was in a baking mood, so I baked some red velvet cupcakes again. Brit Boy and I love them. They are SO not low-fat, but we eat them in semi-moderation. (wink)(smile) I won’t make anymore for a while though in order to save the specialness of them and to save our waistlines.

I have to backtrack a bit. I wanted to save this bit of news for last. Brit Boy and I are adding another event to our next London adventure. Back on Wednesday, May 7th, we got a chance to buy some tickets to a concert during a presale that we had registered for. We were able to purchase two tickets to the 90th birthday celebration concert for Nelson Mandela that will be held in Hyde Park on June 27th. We are so excited. It is amazing to think that Brit Boy and I will be seeing a truly great person of our times. We are really humbled by this opportunity. To see Nelson Mandela will certainly be a great highpoint in our lives. I will most certainly share this experience here on my blog. The timing of all of this works out great, because this will be the same week that we go to Wimbledon. So I will definitely share some of the experiences of that week here, along with some photos. It will be a fun week and we just can’t wait. So London, here we come again. Oh and this time, those blister-causing boots will be left at home. (laugh)