Airplanes:

I really hate flying.  Really, really hate flying.  I’m pretty sure that 1st class would be better, but not much.  I hate being confined with no option to leave or walk or choose the people within my view.  Some very ugly people fly.

Nina is a champ flying with me. I extend 4 inches in both directions outside the parameters of my seat.  That’s in my shoulders, not belly.  I always book an aisle seat with Nina on the other side of me.

As much as I’m sure I encroach on Nina while flying, the flight attendants, beat the shit out of my aisle side body parts.  On the return trip from Heathrow, one FA was flying on her last flight before retiring.  She hit me with her fat ass more times than I can count.  The captain asked everyone to congratulate her when we deplaned, so I did.  I said congratulations, but you almost didn’t make it, if she had hit me with her butt once more on that flight I was gonna take her out!  She laughed and said it would never be a problem for me again.  Nice lady.

iPad mini mostly, but all in general:

While it’s a nice backup for someone like me that enjoys the internet, it will never replace a laptop for me.  I enjoy the keyboard and larger screen. I can’t type on that screen keyboard to save my life. I know I can get a wireless keyboard, but then I may as well use the laptop.  The iPad makes a great book reader and a nice game platform, and on this trip I abused both.  I even decided to add to my game collection on the mini.

People:

People here are more friendly than in London.  Until you get a comparison base line, you usually highlight the negatives about your daily encounters.  If you open the door for an elderly person in London, 30 other people will try to push their way in to gain an edge in the race to get where they’re going.  In this country, I never see that. I’m sure it happens, but it’s not often.

My feet:

While I abused my feet by walking the shit outta them in London, they are really in great condition compared to what they looked like prior to leaving. The humidity has to be the big factor in this.  Nina noticed that she didn’t need to moisturize after a while while there.

We averaged 5+ miles per day while there and we saw a lot of London in the process. I was beat at the end of each day, and I assume Nina was too.

Drink:

Beer

While it’s no secret that I prefer beer while traveling in Europe, this trip has placed it even more firmly in my mind. I drank more beer this trip than ever. I love trying house brews at various pubs, but am a little troubled by the number of corporate pubs that are showing up lately. They buy out an existing pub and bring in their beers and ales. Fullers was the one we visited mostly, but there were a few others.

Coffee

I have no clue why, but coffee in Europe is better than here.  It’s stronger, richer and has more flavor. No matter what we try here, it falls far short of what we’ve had there.

Food:

I LOVE pub food.  Fish and chips are my all time favorite pub food. We’ve had pretty good food all through London while there. Fullers, see corporate pub info above, has some pretty fine people working in their kitchens. We always tried to do pub grub for lunch and other type of places for dinner. Breakfast for us was whatever was convenient.

Pub customers are freaking fanatics about their football, soccer to us Yanks, and they get real vocal when games are on TV.  You can’t hold a normal conversation during a football game in a pub. It’s fascinating to watch as an outsider. I sat in a corner and just stared at these people for an hour.  I thought that there’d be a fight at one point, but it didn’t happen.

Tube:

One of the greatest places in the world to people watch! I love watching the crowds ebb and flow through the tunnels. Very focused herd mentality. Just move and avoid.

Trip in general:

With Nina hurting her foot, this trip was different than planned. Slower. No big deal, we adapt when problems happen. Nice trip, but we’ve had better trips there. Still saw plenty, but as usual not everything we wanted to.

Peace.

Glen, I used to live at 25 Duchess of Bedford House, Duchess of Bedford place, Kensington, W 8
Kensington high street , walk up Campen hill road…. Take a photo for me…..

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Today we leave for vacation.  I plan on posting pictures and narrative of our trip here.  I hope you enjoy my posts.  Click on the London tab above to follow us.

Shirley and ML are together in a room at Vida.  Should be an interesting 10 days for both of them.

After 20 + years, the switch in our bedroom fan went south and died.  Just the light switch, but it was our main source of light in the bedroom.  To be fair, I think the blame should fall on a certain short person that lives in our home.  I’m not gonna name names, but SHE is a fairly recent addition to our home in the past 4+ years.  She is very hard on pull chains.  I replaced the broken switch, even though while buying the switch I was tempted by the newer and fancier fans at Lowe’s.  I’m holding out for Dennis to offer me the fan that currently resides in his living room.  (HINT, HINT)  It has a fishing theme.

Sounds like Beth and Nancy are having a great time on their European cruise.  The pictures they share are nice, but small and few in numbers.  I promise that I will not cheap out in the number of pictures from our trip.  They will be thumbnails, but if you click on them you can see a full sized version of the picture.  Tori and Debra also were very stingy with posting pictures of the Florida trip.  What’s up with you people?  You don’t get charged for posting pictures!

Well, we are looking at days before we leave , not weeks anymore.  This will be our longest trip abroad to date and most likely the last trip to London for a while.  I’m shooting for the continent for our next visits the Europe.  Amsterdam and the Netherlands could be next.  Thanks to our air miles from business purchases, overseas travel is cheaper than staying here.

Right now we’re also talking about Moab in July or Ouray in August.  One, not both.  Moab is free of snow anytime from May on, but Ouray can still have closed trails throughout July.  Ouray is our favorite, but Moab offers more of a challenge off-road.  I know you’re having a hard time with my indecision, but I’ll let you know as soon as I know what our plans will be.

Erin is gone.  I can’t wait to see her on Sunday and I may  even offer to pick her up in Dilia for Tori.  May.  I’ll only be able to see her Sunday and Monday since we leave on Tuesday.  She amazes me every day with her vocabulary and perception.  She also spends way too much time with me because I’m noticing that she’s picking up my sarcastic nature and smart-assed comebacks.  Rotten kid is too smart for my own good!  She’s quick.

Well, have a great weekend everyone!  Peas.

Well, I’ve been remiss about posting here.  I know how much you all hate when I don’t post, but I’m back.

Another short trip to Illinois is behind me.  I went east to attend the memorial service for Uncle Harry.  It was great seeing so many of the family and I got a chance to talk to them all briefly.  Uncle Harry was a very popular man, he filled the church with family and friends.  The service was very moving and not at all preachy.  Family members talked about Uncle Harry and spoke of life with Harry.  It was nice.

Nan and I did dinner the night before the memorial.  We spent 3 hours together and had a great time.  Even though we seldom speak, it’s like we were never apart when we see each other.  We walked the Yorktown Mall after dinner at Claim Jumpers.  Nice enough restaurant, but we were hoping for a quieter place.

Lunch with Joe, Steven and Dennis yesterday was an informative event.  Lots of tales that I dare not post here for obvious reasons.  As usual, I was a font of great ideas for both Joe and Dennis, ideas that both wisely chose to ignore.

Less than a week before we leave for London.  Shirley goes to Vida to make the trip easier on Tori and Andy.  She’s not happy about it but I told her it’s only for the time we’re gone.  For those of you that care to contact me while I’m gone, my London # will be posted here as soon as I have it.  Please take time differences in account when calling if you don’t want me calling you when you’re sleeping.  You know I’ll do it.

Tori and Debra are back from Disney.  Interesting trip I guess.  No other comments to be made by me.

Erin leaves me today and returns to the other people.  3 Erin pics for you.  The first is a cell phone pic of her and I while we fight for possession of my phone.  The other 2 are of her preaching to me from our on site pulpit.  We either preach to each other or sing to each other from that thing.

This morning I will be taking my Jeep in for its first service.  I haven’t even had this thing for 2 weeks and I’ve pushed it past 4100 miles.  Zeke’s comment when I scheduled the service was, “Already!”

I’m really enjoying this Jeep, but then I also enjoyed my last one.  I took it for a back country ride the other day and outbound I had the sway bar connected while inbound I disconnected it.  Much nicer ride with it disconnected.  I have yet to test the lockers and I hope I never need them while off-roading.  I will be in deep shit if that happens, but better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Peace Peoples!

I finally stopped and took a picture.

Not a big deal, but I keep looking at it as I drive by and I finally stopped.

Wind is blowing so hard here that as it blows over the vent stack for my plumbing, my toilet has waves breaking in the shallow end.