Pussy cat pussy cat where have you been.....

I've been to London to see the Queen!!

Last weekend was the Trooping of the Colours in London, the Queens birthday parade. We decided to go in and see the Queen to wish her a happy birthday on a day that isn't even her birthday. There was a band and soldiers in the parade before the Queen.

There were more soldiers and more police lining the Mall to protect Her Majesty. You almost couldn't get pictures in between them. It took a lot of time for them to get them straightened up. A few people in the royal family drove by in their carriages.

Men came through on horses to make way for the Queen.


Finally the moment had all been waiting for...


It was very cool to see the Queen but almost a let down. It happened so quickly. I felt like a child waiting to see Santa at the end of the parade. Unfortunately I remember being much more satisfied with Santa.

Greenwich Mean Time

Today I went for another adventure. Although this time, it was pretty much the opposite of a beautiful day. It was a gray cloud light rain day. I decided to go to Greenwich as it is something I wanted to do before I leave here. I went to an indoor market and then headed to the Royal Observatory.
At the Royal Observatory you can find many attractions. The most famous is the Prime Meridian line, the center of time.
So there I am in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres at one time. The Time galleries were interesting. It all kind of makes sense now.
Another part of the Observatory is an Astronomy Exhibition. It includes London's only planetarium. I was going to go but it was sold out for the showing at the time I was there and didn't want to hang around for 2 hours. Although looking back, maybe I should have. The Royal Observatory is on the top of a hill. Some argue the highest point of London. You can see a good view of the city.
In this picture you can see the closest building. This is the Queen's House which just happened to close 5 minutes before I got there for some sort of event. There is also a wartime museum. By this time I was getting wet and cold so went in search of a Starbucks. Evidently everyone else in London had the same idea. It was a good end to the day though.

A beautiful day

Today I had the day off because I am going to a conference for work on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny both, so I decided to take advantage of this. I started my day with flip flops and a tank top which was amazing. It hasn't been nice enough here for that since one day back in July. That was a good day. So I went into London and went to Dutch pancake house for lunch. Of course I got the ham, cheese, and pineapple pannenkoeken.
then washed that down with the glorious poffertjes.
Sadly I was unable to eat all of either of these. I really wanted to but knew my stomach just wasn't quite big enough. It was so much food but incredibly delicious. I would say authentic too except the menu said the poffertjes came with maple syrup. I asked for icing sugar instead.

Then I walked out side opened my handbag and to my misfortune found this. UGH!! Broken sunglasses on what could be one of the sunniest days here. But I wasn't going to let that ruin my beautiful day.
To my great fortune I was headed to the sunglasses capital of the world. This is huge market. It has anything you could ever want. There were even some Central Asia guys selling some good food. I had a small sample as I walked by of Gozleme which is a Turkish pancake. Anybody see a theme for the day? I couldn't eat anymore, I was so full from lunch. Anyway, there are more sunglasses in this market than I have ever seen in one day. So that was helpful but now I had to choose one.

I searched and searched for the right pair. Me and sunglasses in general don't exactly get along. It is hard to find a pair that doesn't make me look like a bug. A random salesman of whom seemed to be of Central Asia decent helped me pick out the perfect pair. And according to him they were Gucci. Since they were only 6 pounds, I am a little skeptical. But they looked decent and I was desperate. Here I am with the new sunglasses.
I went along with my day walked through the markets and then went to the park to read. It was so sunny. It might be the only time I have felt warm in the past 11 months. It was glorious. I even got a slight sunburn which should be a tan by the morning.

It came time to head back to the rail station to head home. I was exhausted and hungry. I didn't really know where I was going when I walked away from the park. I knew the general direction I needed to go. I wanted to see a little of London that I had not seen before which indeed I did. I came up to the part of the city with the expensive name brand shops. It was pretty cool to see all of the shop workers in suits and waiting by the door.

In all these stores I felt a little out of place, but thankfully I had my Gucci sunglasses. And the brand name written on the side hadn't even worn off yet. However, I am thinking it will only be a matter of days.

Bump it!

There are many distinct differences between Americans and Europeans. When I was home in March I saw many bumps which reminded me of the prevalence of this hairstyle in America. Then I started wondering if anyone in England did their hair like this. I have been watching closely everywhere I go to find a bump in someone's hair. I recently went to Bluewater shopping center. This is a huge mall and has many American stores. It has a Hollister. I went in thinking surely I would see a bump, but there were none to be found. This weekend I attended a conference led by Americans in London. There were people from all over the world at this conference. I finally saw a girl with a small bump. I thought well I guess my theory is incorrect. There are a few in England. Later this same girl walked by me speaking to her friend. She was definitely American. haha. I guess it is a good thing that I can spot Americans from far away even if it is just because of their bump. I am not going to lie, but I am pretty happy I have not been in America for the past year and a half and have missed a small portion of the bump popularity.

Under my umbrella

I was recently back in Oklahoma and remembered why I always used to check the weather every morning. I still check it each day here, but for a different reason. In Oklahoma you need to know whether to wear your shorts or your ski jacket. It could be 80 degrees one day and then 30 the next. One nice thing about the weather here is that it will probably only vary in temperature from day to day by a few degrees. However I still have to check the weather to determine what umbrella to bring with me that day. I carry the little umbrella every day. Then some days I have to switch to another umbrella depending on the amount of rain. Some days are rain coat days, some are medium size umbrella days and some are big umbrella days. This is a very serious situation. I is quite embarrassing if you bring the wrong umbrella. You might get funny looks because it is barely raining and you are caring an umbrella that can also work as a small boat. Or you might be soaking wet because the little umbrella may not be quite enough. Here is a picture of me and my umbrellas.

Krispy Kreme

I have eaten more Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the past 8 months than I have in a really long time. It was exciting to be able to get a good doughnut in England once moving from Turkey so it was a big deal. The past few months at work have been a little crazy. Because of this, at least twice someone has brought them in for us. These are always exciting days. Most of the Krispy Kremes here are little stands. I guess they have to be made somewhere, so last weekend we went with some friends to a real Krispy Kreme. It was a huge store compared to the ones in America. We got to watch them be made. The hot sign unfortunately wasn't on but it was still a fun trip.