Another attempt at a meme... Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday
Let's see how long I stick with this one...


Ten on Tuesday, July 13--Ten Things You Like About Where You Live

1. It's in England
2. There's ruins of a 12th century priory about a mile away
3. Dogs & ducks roam the neighborhood and enjoy walking right into my house
4. David lives here too
5. We meet our friends every Wednesday at the pub less than 3/4 mile down the road
6. There are hanging flower baskets in the town center
7. There's a nice path for running/walking along the river
8. There's a nice path for running/walking to Tesco
9. When I drive to base, I often get to drive past a whole bunch of sheep grazing in a field
10. Lots of interesting places to go for day or overnight trips & easy travel opportunities for longer trips too!

Around the Town Tuesday: Best Food

I missed two weeks of the Around the Town Tuesday blog hop (one week I was in Morocco...the other ????)
And now, the blog hop has been discontinued (at least for the time being), but I'm still going to post the two posts I missed...and try to come up with a few "topics" of my own. I like getting out in town & I like that you can see what you're missing by not visiting me. :)

On to the Best Food in town...

I've eaten at a few places in town and haven't really had a bad meal. There's a place called Marvela's that David and I like for breakfast. Next time, I'm definitely getting "bubble & squeak". I was intrigued by the menu item, but unsure what it was, so I decided against adding it to my breakfast. I've eaten at Tall Orders, a little cafe/sandwich place in town and had some chips from the kebab shop.

 Just this weekend, we went to The Bell for the first time. The Bell is a little bit nicer, a little bit pricier, and had yummy food! David wasn't that hungry (we'd been munching at the Cambridge Beer Festival all day) so we split "Chicken Wellington" which was served with a creamy leek and bacon sauce (although it was NOT as good as the creamy leek & bacon sauce I made last week!) and dauphinoise potatoes.

There's the Chase, where we used to go every Wednesday for 4.95 curry & a pint which I always enjoyed. We stopped going to the Chase (because it was always crowded & the guys in our dinner crowd wanted a more "pub-like" experience) and started going to the Dolphin.

The Dolphin had good food... but then it closed for a while and the staff from the Dolphin all moved to the Black Horse... so we did too! We eat at the Black Horse every Wednesday and my favorite things on the menu are the pies-- usually chicken & stuffing or chicken, leek & bacon...occasionally I'll have a seafood pie if they have it one the specials board-- and the bacon sandwich on a brown baguette. Yum yum!! Since we're regulars and pretty well-liked, the chef, Simon, makes us special appetizers not available on the menu and sets them out for us every week! On nice evenings if we're both home in time, we usually walk since it's only between 1/2 and 3/4 mile away from our house.

Our other "usual" restaurant is the Phoenix House Chinese Take-away place. We get delivery almost every Friday! We love it... David likes the Won Ton Soup & Vietnamese Spring Rolls and usually some kind of Chow Mein. I love the Singapore Rice Noodles & Shredded Chili Chicken!

There are lots of restaurants in town that we haven't tried yet... a few fish & chip shops, several Indian places, a Thai restaurant, etc. Unfortunately, between our Wednesday dinners & our Friday take-out, we don't get much chance to try other places in town!

(We don't have to try Subway in town... we've got one on base!)

Around the Town Tuesday: Parks

 Remember what we're doing on Tuesdays?

Last week, I gave you a little information about the town I currently live in, Thetford. (click that if you missed it) For those just now stopping by, I'm a military wife, so I get the privilege of moving somewhere new every 3 or 4 years. (Until it's actually time to move every 3 or 4 years, then it's viewed as more of a hassle than a privilege!) So, I'm  thankful for the Around Your Town blog hop for giving me some motivation to get out and learn a little more about my surroundings!  We LOVE it here, but as we learned when it was time to leave Okinawa last January, our time here will be over before we know it and we won't have seen and done half the things we want to!

This week's theme is "parks". So... let's get to it........

Are you ready for a quick tour of the Ancient Capital of East Anglia?

First, we need to hit the road and leave the subdivision... after we cross Castle Street, we'll pass by a stone bridge and a nice little picnic spot, and take a quick look at Melford Common, where you can walk your dog or play "football."

Now, let's take a look right across the street at the big green blob portion of that map:

(I decided to put my pictures for this week in "storyboards" because I had SO many, and "save-for-web-ing" and uploading to blogger gets too tedious)
This is Castle Hill, and it's less than 1/2 mile away from my house, along the route to the town centre. The top left photo was taken while we ate lunch outside at the Dolphin pub on Sunday! The hill is about 81 feet high, 1000 feet around the base, and is the "tallest medieval earthwork in England". Today, kids & grown-ups like to climb the hill (I haven't tried it yet!) and the playground is always packed on nice days!

On Sunday, we took the short-cut out of the neighborhood and took a walk down the paths behind our house:

This is part of the Nunnery Lakes Nature Reserve and besides geese, you'll find silly little deer called muntjacks, bunnies, pheasants, and people walking their dogs. (That's NOT our house in the background. :)  It's Ford Place, the nursing home, and you'll see just a little more of that in a minute.) There are nice paths, benches and a few little footbridges.

If you get on the correct path, you end up really close to Thetford's Forgotten Garden:

The garden had been forgotten for 30 years and now "friends of the garden" have fixed it up. I can't wait to go back later in the summer when there's more in bloom! The garden is "through the gate in the wall" behind the Ford Place (the pretty back stairs of the Ford Place are in the bottom right photo.)  It's a "secret garden", surrounded by these great old stone & flint walls. We've got another hidden garden in town... I haven't tried to find it yet though.

From here, we headed back the way we came, but passed the path back to our house in favor of the Nuns' Bridges:

The Nuns' Bridges are old & neat looking, but a little nerve-wracking to walk or drive across (they're one lane). This is the place where Thetford's two rivers, the Thet and the Little Ouse meet. The bottom left picture is looking down the path toward the town centre, and at the Gentle Meadow...another "park". They are called the Nuns' Bridges because they used to lead to the Benedictine Nunnery of St. George. It's also said to be where the Icknield Way, one of the oldest roads in Britain, passed.... the Iceni tribe (I mentioned their warrior queen last time) may have used this route, as well as Romans as far back as 43 AD.

A quick stop at the Nunnery Arch:

And our last stop before heading home (on a different wooded path...we love where we live!):

The BTO, or British Trust for Ornithology (wildlife) has its headquarters in Thetford. The ruins are what remains from the 12th century Nunnery. This is where Queen Elizabeth I came to eat dinner in 1578! 
Now, it's a great place to take a walk, sit on a bench, see a few cats, pheasants, and other birds.

And that wraps up our tour of some of my favorite Thetford parks!
Click here to check out some of the other towns on the blog hop!

Around the Town Tuesday: a History Lesson

I read about this today and I can't resist! I think it will be a fun way to get to know & see my town a little more, and for YOU to learn about it too!

For *almost* one year (I can't believe it!) I've lived in Thetford. "The Ancient Capital of East Anglia." I don't know exactly what that means, but it's on the sign so it must be a source of pride around here.
Thetford is here:

(according to Wikipedia) The big white blob is England. The little red blob is probably East Anglia. The funky shape outlined in the middle is (I think) Norfolk County. Don't say "Nor-folk" say "Nor-fuk" :) And Thetford is at the bottom right in that little notch. I ran to Suffolk county yesterday, so I can guarantee you that Thetford is at the very bottom of Norfolk County.

Here are the things I know about Thetford: there are ducks, lakes, bridges, pubs. The market is on Tuesdays and Saturdays. There's some pretty old stuff around here. Like from the 12th century. There is some even older stuff, the "Thetford Treasure" in the British Museum and it was found near the giant hill right down the street. There's a statue of Thomas Paine, a Thomas Paine Hotel/restaurant, and last year, a big Thomas Paine festival. King Henry VIII ordered a bunch of Thetford stuff to be destroyed. The traditional buildings are "flint cottages". A show called "Dad's Army" was filmed here and there's a museum for the show in town centre. There are great places to run. There's a Tesco, a Sainsbury, a train station and puh-lenty of charity shops. I love it here.

Here's what I learned just for this blog post:
There's been "activity" going on here since 2,500 B.C. The Iceni--a Celtic tribe-- starting piling up that giant hill in 500 B.C. and were using it by 40 A.D. Talk about perseverance! There was also an Iceni gal named Boudicca... a "flame-haired warrior Queen" who found joy in revolting against the Romans. I'm glad things have quieted down here now.
Back in the 10th Century, when Thetford was the Saxon capital of the area, they even had their own mint/coins.
After Henry VIII had had his way with Thetford's religious buildings, the town went through some tough times, but in the 19th century it was known as an "elegant spa town". Maybe that means I'll be able to find somewhere to get my eyebrows done this week.
The Bell Inn (you can see a bit of it in the photo above) was featured on Ghosthunters!
Queen Elizabeth I ate dinner down the street from my house in 1578!

These are all old pictures because I just read about this today and couldn't add "walk to town centre and take pictures" to my to-do list. I'm really looking forward to visiting new & old places and taking more pictures for this blog hop!

Countdown!

There are a few things I'm counting down to...David's return (though I'm still waiting to hear when that might be), Survivor!!!! (tomorrow!), The Winter Olympics (and the Ravelympics...completing a whole knitting project in between the opening & closing ceremonies)
But...my favorite (favourite?) Countdown is still the one that comes on each day on E4.
I've been recording it everyday and watching when I get a chance, and I'm really improving at the math. I mean, maths. :)
In an episode I was watching today, I impressed myself with a group of difficult letters by being smart enough to use the British spelling and get a 6 letter word instead of a 5:
MOULDS
Unfortunately, my brain was stuck in American-mode in the next grouping of letters when I only found the word "enables" for 7 instead of
PENALISE
which I would normally spell penalize.
And, much to my amazement, I knew (guessed) the definition of "snollygoster" and Rachel Riley didn't. So I'm smarter than Rachel Riley.......until the next numbers round. :) 

12 of 12: It's My Birthday!

January's 12 of 12 is the one I always remember to do because it's my BIRTHDAY!!! Every month (or just some of the months, if you're me!) there's a big bunch of bloggers that participate in a fun photo project hosted by Chad Darnell. This year's Jan 12 was really different than last...when I was out running in shorts along the ocean instead of trudging through the snow in a long sleeve, fleece, jacket, tights, pants, headband and hat.

I remembered to charge the battery for my new camera the night before so I'd be ready first thing in the morning. I checked my e-mail and had lots of notices about messages on my Facebook wall:

1. Living Room, 0907

I checked the weather (33 degrees) and looked out the window. The snow was pretty slushy, so I figured that today would be the day that I'd venture outside for a run. These pretty plants poking through the snow caught my eye as I ran down my street. I liked the red berries and the purple cabbage, but didn't stop for long as a gigantic German Shepherd was barking at me.

                                              2. My street, Thetford. 1009

I ran through the wooded path and then through the neighborhood in which I first looked at a house. I ran on the sidewalks when they were covered with enough snow not to be slippery, and then switched to the roads when the sidewalks were too icy. As I got closer to the town centre though, I had to just walk because everything was slippery!! Now that I'm old (ha!) I can't risk taking a fall!

3. Thetford. I can't remember what church this is, and I looked twice just to make sure too! And the Bell. 1038

I was able to do more running on my way back home, but when I got to Melford Common, it was suuuuuuper icy, so I shuffled all the way down the street, slooooooowly!

4. The Black Horse, Thetford on the way to Melford Common (Magdalen Street?).  1046. This is where my friends and I eat dinner every Wednesday.

5. Thetford, across the street from the Black Horse. 1047. I always go past this building and think, "I wish I had a purple door!" Oh well...at least I have a purple laptop!

6. My street, Thetford. 1055. This is my favorite sign. I always slow down, but I've never seen any plants cross the road! Ha!

After I came home, I called the photo printing place on base and learned that it would be more than double the cost to get photos printed there than in my town centre. So I walked back to town and got my photos done at one hour. Which meant I needed to just walk around and waste an hour. Which meant that by the time I got home, I had spent nearly 3 hours walking and running around in the 33 degree weather. So I needed some soup. I would eat soup in 120 degree weather because I just LOVE soup. Today I opted for Ramen noodles because I always make them in the microwave and I was very cold and very hungry. And then I only have to wash one bowl instead of one bowl and one pot.

7. Living Room. 1257. Lunch.

 

Then it was time to get the invitations done for the baby shower I am hosting. I had been waiting on the ones I ordered to arrive, but it's just getting too close to the shower date, so I ended up having them reprinted. They'll probably be sitting in my mailbox next time I check the mail!

8. Living Room. 1458. And see my purple laptop making an appearance in this photo? It's not really that purple. More pinky-purple than in the picture. I love it!

I spent some time on the phone (because it's my birthday and I was content to stay home and receive phone calls!) and then I went upstairs to get some stamps & inkpads so I could put the finishing touches on the invitation envelopes. When I came back downstairs, I saw a little card that had been put through my mailslot. It said "sorry we missed you" and it was from a florist. I opened the door and sure enough, there were these pretty flowers sitting on my snowman doormat! No wonder David had said earlier, "Oh, you're planning to e home all day? That's good."

9. Front Porch. 1730. My birthday flowers from David.  

I put the flower on the coffee table for a little while, but then I needed to get to work on those invitation envelopes so I ended up moving them to the step tansu.

 10. Living Room. 1740. My flowers! And my screensaver that reminds me of my dad's old clock.

11. Living Room. 2100.  A little late to be eating dinner, but I was on the phone at normal dinner time. Time to take a break from invites (see them half-stamped in the background?) and eat a salad and watch Countdown.

12. Living Room. 2130. All done! It's a rock-star themed shower mostly because the mom-to-be has tattoos. So I was so happy that I had this tattoo-style stamp set in my collection! And so happy that my mom sent me a Stampamajig for Christmas so I could get the wings in just the right spots!

13. Living Room. 2300. And an extra one because I miscounted while I was uploading. (Or maybe it's not extra and I miscounted while I was typing.) This is a present from my Aunt Margie. I can hardly believe my will power, because I've had this present since Monday and... I DIDN"T OPEN IT UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY!!!! I swear! I must really be growing up!

My new substitute-favorite game show

I haven't seen my old pal Alex Trebek or heard that "thinking music" in ages. When David was here, we played Trivial Pursuit (Pop Culture Edition, and I WON!!!) and I didn't give all of my answers in the form of a question. I miss Jeopardy. I think my brain pistons aren't firing as rapidly as a direct result of not watching.
So, I must find something to take up for my daily dose of smart. I have the "Challenge" channel which airs a lot of game shows. I love game shows. But mostly, I love Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. I was pretty excited when I saw that Wheel of Fortune was on, but when I watched it, I wondered why on earth the WoF set was so dated. Our Wheel of Fortune has come a long way since the 80s, but this one...well, hadn't. As I watch more and more "Challenge" channel, though, I think (or at least hope) that many of the shows are actually rebroadcasts from the 80s. The hair, the clothes, the glasses... wow.  Who Wants to Be a Millionaire seems to be new, but they ask questions about stuff I don't know. British stuff. One day, I was super excited because I got a question about English Geography right!!! Because they said "What county are Diss and King's Lynn in?" and I knew that because those names are on a sign that I pass nearly every time I drive away from my house. But that was not a typical occurrence, so I needed to find a game show that I could watch, play along with and have a chance at feeling good about myself afterwards.
And then, a couple of weeks ago, I found Countdown.  (again. I had seen just the end of it once before)
Oh, Countdown. It's on every weekday afternoon at 3:25, just five minutes before Jeopardy would be coming on at home, so that's got to be a good sign!
Here's how it goes: There are two contestants. Each "letters" round, one of the contestants asks for 9 letters by saying "consonant" or "vowel" and the letters are revealed one at a time. The players then have some time (30 seconds, maybe?) to find the longest word they can with the letters. I'm not exactly sure how the scoring works...sometimes only one gets points and sometimes both do. There is also a lady with a dictionary who tells you the longest or most interesting words that could be made with the letters. I love letter games, but I'm not that good at Countdown yet. If the point were to find as many words as possible, I'd really be something at this game. But it's not.
Today I was really excited to find an eight (!!!...usually I'm stuck with sixes, and sevens with the right letter combination) letter word from these letters:
E A I T T M N E S
I also found the longest word possible in this round:
T P O I F O I N T
But I did not fare as well with
R W S U A A I D P or R F R O E A L S J
(I won't tell you what I found, just in case you want to play along in the comments!)

There are also three "numbers" rounds in each game and this is where I really struggle. My math anxiety kicks in when the Countdown version of "think music" comes on.
For the numbers game, the contestant chooses 6 numbers by asking for "big" and "small". I think the available "big" numbers are 25, 50, 75, and 100. Then a target number is randomly selected and you have like three tenths of a second to use addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to make any or all of the six numbers (don't have to use them all, but can't use any of them more than once) equal the target number. The players try to reach the target number, or as close as possible.
It always stumps me. Except for the day when the target number was 108 and two of the numbers given were 100 and 8. I finished that one way before time was up.
Today I was SO proud of myself, because I solved a slightly more challenging numbers problem within the time limit.
The numbers were 5 small and one large (3, 9, 2, 5, 5, 100) and the target was 175.
Right away I saw what to do... again, I won't tell here in case you want to play along.
I was so excited that I drew stars all around my answer.
The next numbers challenge was to reach 336 using 9, 1, 9, 25, 50, 100.
I managed to get to 334, which was just as close as the contestants. The Vanna White of Countdown (Rachel Riley, who is apparently incredible at math) said she got to 335, but didn't show how.
And the final numbers challenge, the target was 167 and the numbers were 6, 3, 4, 75, 100, 25.
I got to 168 (and 166), and I was happy enough with myself for tying with the contestants. The Pat Sajak of Countdown (don't know his name) got 167 exactly. But he used division, and I just don't think I'm ready for that. :)

A 12 of 12 in which I left the house....

I have to interrupt the Scotland "travelogues" to share my 12 of 12. It's a good one because the photos aren't all of my living room (although I did sneak a couple of living room photos in, because it just wouldn't be my 12 of 12 if there weren't some lame living room photos thrown in there!)

So this was a pretty exciting 12 of 12, because: 1. I remembered that it was the 12th. 2. I had plans to leave the house. 2. I had plans to leave the house and go to London. and 3. I had plans to leave the house, go to London, and meet up with another 12 of 12er! Oh, and 4. I had 5 articles of handmade-by-me knitwear with me.

But it wouldn't be MY 12 of 12 if I hadn't let plenty of photo ops just pass me by. Here is the 12 of 12 that will exist only in my mind:
1. 6 tubes of wrapping paper falling out of the closet when I removed my blue coat.
2. Me remembering to put my running clothes in the washing machine. This would've been hard to photograph, as it did not actually happen.
3. The 4 balls of yarn I put in my bag as a reminder of just how much I overestimate myself sometimes.
4.  The clock in my car, to prove that I managed to leave the house even earlier than I had planned. Miracle!
5. A new parking pass machine at Epping.
6.The girl filing her nails on the tube. I wonder if she does this every morning. She had really nice nails.
7. My hazelnut hot cocoa.
8. A singing vacuum cleaner in the underground station. No photos without a donation. And I used all my change in that new parking meter.
9. The Christmas garland decorating Debenham's department store.
10. UniQlo- another reminder of Okinawa!
11. Frogging the three rows of new knitting project I started on the ride in, and casting on again...twice. 
12. The super-hot actor Channing Tatum sitting next to me on the tube and asking if he could hold my hand. It exists in my mind, and you can't disprove it!

And here are the 12 of 12 that actually exist in photo-form:

1. 0800- Tottenham Court Road, London. Helen said that an easy place to meet would be the Dominion Theatre and that I couldn't miss it because there is a big bronze Freddie Mercury and a huge "We Will Rock You". She wasn't kidding!


2. 1045-(I think...my camera is still on Okinawa time and I'm too tired to figure it out) National History Museum, London. A dinosaur! Don't be scared, this diplodocus is a plant-eater! And he's dead and has no muscle tone whatsoever.


3. 1055-National History Museum, London. On to the primates! Chimps are cute! Even though I read a friend's facebook status this evening and it said something about a bad chimp that was featured on Oprah. I still think they're cute. Mom, tell Aunt Cookie that neither of these guys stuck their tongue out at me.


4. 1120-National History Museum, London. There is something out there that is cuter than a chimp. Waaaaaaay cuter...and it's called a moose! I thought this would turn out to be a bad picture (and you may think that it did) but as it so happens, it's an excellent picture. How could a picture with a MOOSE in it be anything but excellent?


5. 1135-National History Museum, London. The museum building is really beautiful! If you want to see photos that really do it justice, you should probably check Helen's blog. She takes so much care in taking her photos and actually takes more than 12 seconds to get her camera out, turn it on, snap a picture, turn it off, and shove it back in her bag. Which is probably why her photos are always so great and mine are always so... not quite as nice.


6. 1200-Science Museum, London. The 3rd floor of the museum had all kinds of things to play with. Now, we all know we shouldn't actually play with dry ice, but this exhibit was fun to watch.


7. 1205-Science Museum, London. This is Helen and I as thermal images. The light spots are the warm spots and the dark spots are colder. I am the one with the cold nose and cheeks. And freezing cold glasses.


8. 1210-Science Museum, London. These magnets reminded me of the same sort of activity at the museum we went to in Fort Lauderdale. David and I spent quite some time building towers of magnets there. Partly because the longer we played, the longer we got to stay in the airconditioned museum, but mostly because connecting magnets together is just plain fun! I will have to bring him here because there was lots of fun stuff!


9. 1330-Dee's Diner, Debenham's, London. Yesterday Helen e-mailed me and asked if there was anywhere particular I wanted to go for lunch. She said that there's a diner in this department store and that they have fun milkshake flavors like Rolo and Oreo. I think she went on to talk about some other food options, but I'm not sure. She does not know me well enough yet to know that once I hear or read "milkshake," I've checked out of the conversation... there is only one thing on my mind, and it is cold, thick, and, preferably, chocolatey. Like my Rolo Milkshake.


10. 1845-Living Room, Thetford. I promised you living room photos, didn't I? I had a lovely day touring and chatting with Helen, but I was glad to get home, because it meant that my hour and a half drive from Epping was over and that I could turn on my Christmas tree!


11. 1915- Living Room, Thetford. Time for jammies and slippers! I loooooove my new slipper boots. I try not to let them make me think about the slipper boots I'm knitting for myself but need to rip back quite a bit. They are hiding because they don't want to depress me any more than they already have.


12. 2100-Living Room, Thetford. My Amused sweater, which I am determined to finish tomorrow, one month after starting it. I have just a little bit of sleeve left, and the collar. The title of this photo is, "Get off the computer and Knit!", but I think I will get off the computer and sleep. After all, I have until tomorrow to finish it! I'm not happy with the way the yarn is pooling in the 2nd skein I used. :(

Anyway, thanks for reading about my 12 of 12. And, Helen, thanks for doing 12 of 12 with me today!
Tomorrow, I'll return you to your regularly scheduled programming (Another Scotland blog entry).

2 posts, 1 day!

My 2nd post of the day!
It's November and that means it's NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, when you're supposed to try to post to your blog every day.
I was out of the house by 8 on Nov. 1 and so exhausted by the time we got back 12 hours later that I couldn't hold my head up long enough to blog. I know I'm going to be away from the computer (don't know how I'm going to survive!) for the rest of the week, so I'm going to have to change my goal from "post every day" to "post 30 times". Fair enough, I say.

So what had me so exhausted yesterday??
I'll give you three clues:
1. I needed an umbrella
2. I had to mind gaps
3. I saw a lot of black cabs & red buses

That's right, I took a trip to London!

My goal was to leave the house at 7:45, so I was pleased enough when we pulled out of the driveway at 7:56. I'm usually up before 7:45, so getting out of bed wasn't a problem...it was getting out of my pajamas that was difficult! I absolutely refused to take a shower, which was fine, because it rained much of the day and I was absolutely soaked!

We had almost forgotten about the rainy weather during our tube ride...but immediately upon getting back to ground level, we were reminded: we had picked a really crummy day to go to London. And my cute flowered umbrella (that has matching "wellies" that I stupidly opted not to wear) apparently doesn't do well on windy days:

It was flipping itself inside out every few minutes. At first it was annoying...then it got kind of fun, sticking it into the wind in the opposite direction to get it to pop back... then it just got annoying again.

David's request for our trip to London was to see "Big Ben". We came out of the tube station right next to it, and by the time we got across the street to Westminster Abbey, our shoes and pant legs were already soaked! That's my umbrella in the top of this picture.

This phone booth was the only dry place I found all morning!

We walked past the Horse Guard on what we thought was our way to Buckingham Palace. David wondered if I wanted to get my picture with the horse, but I declined since the sign says, "Beware! Horses my kick or bite." I was already cold, wet, and dangerously close to miserable, the last thing I needed was a throbbing injury inflicted by a horse who might be even crabbier than I was!

We both decided that our need to eat took priority over our need to see any more sights. The first spot we tried didn't open until noon and we really didn't want to wait 30 minutes. So we walked a little further and found a place that was already serving food. I had a pot of tea since they were out of hot chocolate and since I forgot that what I really wanted to order was the hot mulled cider. The tea was tasty and warmed me up! Unfortunately, it didn't dry my socks! :)

David was totally boring and ordered a coke and a chicken sandwich. I ordered "mini Toad-in-a-Hole"! I remembered my web-friend Helen talking about Toad-in-a-Hole in a 12 of 12 or something and this was the first time since I've been here that I saw it on a menu. So, I just *had* to order it, even though it was a "sharing platter" and I had to try to eat 7 little Yorkshire puddings with sausages in them. I ate 4 and gave one to David. They were good, but it was just a lot of food!

Shortly after we left The Old Shades, it stopped raining!

We continued toward Buckingham Palace and decided to walk through St. James Park.

The park was really nice. I'm really quite satisfied with fall in England. Okinawa fall just wasn't the same! England fall still isn't quite the same as I'm accustomed to, but it's definitely a HUGE improvement over the perpetual green in Oki!

David enjoyed playing wildlife photographer in the park. There was a big variety of water birds and lots of squirrels who mostly seemed to think that all the people walking through the park were there to be entertained. Or attacked. One squirrel chased me! I was freaking out! It wasn't this one:

He seemed content just hanging out on the fence until too many pictures were being taken.

When we were almost to Buckingham Palace, I announced to David that I want a pair of black equestrian-style riding boots. This soon became the focus (or half of it anyway) of our afternoon.

After seeing the squirrels, David seemed pretty uninterested in the Palace. He was also disappointed that he couldn't mess with the guards.

A fire alarm in the Green Park Station meant we walked to Piccadilly Circus for the tube. That was probably the luckiest thing to happen all day (well, besides the rain stopping and the sun coming out in the afternoon!) because we walked past a "Japanese Shop". I said, "Japanese Shop? Like a 100 Yen store?!? Let's go in!" So we went in and guess what... it WAS a 100 Yen store! Only the items were all marked waaaaaaay up. Good thing I still have some pals in Oki that I can place a 100 Yen order with if I need to. Some little bento-picks that I actually have already were 3.50 pounds... not at all 100 Yen! Even so, I was so excited! Felt like "home" to be back in my favorite Okinawa store:

(My pants are all rolled up because they were wet and heavy, so the bottoms were dragging and I'd rather look silly than ruin the bottoms of my jeans)

From Piccadilly Circus, we headed to my faaaaaaavoritest place, Covent Garden. It was my favorite place in all of London when I was here on a college trip in 2000, and guess what! I still LOVE it! It was Arts & Crafts market day. David was such a good sport and patiently sat through me trying on 4,000 pairs of black boots (and coming up fruitless) and 300 grey wool coats (also fruitless).

We started our journey home and got as far as Loughton, where we had to wait for a few minutes for a train that would go all the way to the end of the Central Line to Epping.

Soggy & tired, I was happy when our trip was *almost* over. From Epping, another hour or so by car to Mildenhall so we could grab some pizza and watch the Giants game. I worked on a tiny mitten while we were there, but the Giants were  not doing well and D was tired and disheartened so decided to leave at halftime. No arguments from me!