Play day #2

After a solid night's sleep last night, I was ready for another day on my feet.  Except for the fact that my feet were still sore from yesterday!  What a spoiled life I live sitting on my rear.

Being that today would be my last large chunk of free time, I decided to go looking for souvenirs.  There are souvenir shops seemingly every 20 or 30 feet here, but they all have the exact same stuff.  Keychains, t-shirts, bumper stickers.  And nearly all reference the British flag, red phone booths, or double decker buses.  Fortunately, after yesterday I knew where to go for shopping.  So, I hopped on the tube and made my way to Oxford street.

I must take a moment to comment on how much I enjoy the tube.  You can literally get to within a block or two of anywhere you want to go in the city, in a matter of minutes.  No parking to worry about, it gets you up and walking around a little bit, and is a dependable revenue stream for the city.  Plus, look at all the doors!

A door-lovers' dream.

Anyway, I took the tube over to the Oxford Street / Regent Street area and had mixed luck.  While there is extensive selection, I thought it best not to exchange my 401K for a pashmina from Liberty.  After seeing H&M on a TV show recently, I decided to see what one was like today.  Unfortunately, they were having a sale, which means you can get a good deal but may lose your life in the process.  Clothes were strewn about, women were running around frantically from rack to rack, lusting after the impossible deals.  They were shoving, cursing if you didn't move out of the way fast enough.  At one point I made the mistake of reaching to look at something at the same time as another shopper.  She started yelling at me in French, so I yelled back in all the French I remember.  "Je m'appelle Byron.  Je suis de Minnesota.  Je ne peu pas, a lait au Taxi!"  No, that didn't really happen, but I'm pretty sure a baby in a stroller threw something at me at one point.  Intrigued by the shopping experience here, I did some quick research on the internet and found that London is actually now the shopping capital of the world -- even over Paris!

Feet aching, I made my way back to the hotel and headed to my default local pub, Sawyer's Arms.  There I had an excellent steak stew with a puff pastry on top of it.  Kind of like a chicken pot pie with steak.  I also had a scotch egg, which quite honestly was very disappointing.  The sausage around here has been tremendous, so when the sausage in this dish was nearly tasteless, I quickly realized I would have to try for a proper scotch egg some other night this week.  At least I haven't eaten any more dried blood.  None that I know of, I guess.  This of course was all washed down by a "Speckled Hen" ale which was very yummy.

I began to put my coat on when I recalled that Steve and Barbara from earlier this week had told me how good the chocolate torte was.  So, I put in an order for the torte and a cappuccino and sat back down.  I made the right decision.  The Belgian chocolate torte was rich, creamy, and had a fruit infused sauce (primarily orange), lightly drizzled over the top.  What a nice end to the meal.

Next I came back to the room and was talking to my mother when I was surprised to hear a knock at the door.  I opened it to find two hotel employees who looked mildly concerned.  They proceeded to tell me that they were coming to check that everything was okay because I'd had the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door for several days.  I guess they thought I was dead or doing some nefarious.  Because, when I explained to them that I thought it was silly to have someone clean my room every day so I take down the sign only every so often, they still peered past me, trying to look around the room.  Fortunately, I hosted the rave last night, but tonight am just chilling out watching some Jimmy Fallon.

I'm going to try to make better use of my evenings this week now that I'm not so tired an expect things with my US employer to be more settled.  Mom suggested I head over to Westminster Abby, and I think I'd like to see Harrod's just to say I've seen it.  If any of you have suggestions or picture requests, please let me know!