skulking about in London - part two...

Skulking about in London, Part two: Wednesday… our last day. We thought we would just skulk about a different hood with a pricier zip code (or whatever the UK equivalent of zip code is) so we took the underground up to Notting Hill where we ended up at The Churchill Arms. Guess what kind of food they served there… THAI! More on the restaurant later. But after our meal we ended up chatting w/ a guy who worked for the government but couldn’t really speak about what it was that he did (super sneaky) btw - i did tke a photo.. but thought, just MAYBE i should refrain from posting, in case he was REALLY important to the UK government.... Then we chatted up two locals (Simon and Gerry) who were hilarious. They had been pals for life and were just as enamored with us, as we were with them. That day we spent nearly three hours inside the pub.

Our new BFF's - Simon and Gerry!

How PERFECT is this pub? look at the guys sitting at the bar!

After that, we decided to take a walk to Hyde Park via Kensington Gardens – which is the street where all of the houses of embassy can be found. I didn’t know this street existed (the government spy told us about it). I was taking some photos when from a loudspeaker, I was cordially asked to “kindly put away my camera because photos are strictly prohibited on this street”. I didn’t know! We made our way to Kensington Palace and Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, through the middle of a Libyan Protest demonstration and through the neighborhood where I will be moving to (ok wishful thinking, but it’s a nice fantasy)!

Me... seconds before my camera was banished from this street!

My new street of residence in Londontown... moving announcement coming soon (j/k)

This is the backyard of my new street... no yard, I'm not complainin'... just sayin'

We walked and walked and walked and didn’t make our way back to the hotel until pretty late – just enough time to pop in, freshen up and grab some dinner. Bella Italia – for Italian. I got the special “pasta della mamma” because by now I was actually starting to think about the life I had left behind for a minute… and my job as a mom… which I did miss. Kurt had his fave – Carbonara… (he said mine was better… that’s my guy). After our dinner, we wanted just one more drink, and pretty much the only bar open late enough was our hotel bar. We weren’t that excited about it – but the payoff was huge. We met Daniel… master mixologist who talked our ear off for 2 hours and got us plenty pissed with some signature cocktails. I am not normally a hard liquor drinker, but he mixed me some heavenly coffee martini situation… and some drink with bourbon and chiles, garnished with currants… serious. Loved. Kurt had an “old fashioned” done the right way. This “mixology” profession is serious stuff, and they don’t mess around. Thursday morning came very early. Since I was incapable of packing the night before, I had to do it in the morning – along with showering and getting ready to catch a cab by 7:30 a.m. by which to make the 8:15 train at Paddington station. Yes… we were THAT couple, running through the station trying to make it to platform six to catch the Heathrow express. We made it… barely. The rest of the trip was spent in the AA lounge – then onto the 10 hour flight home. The flight home was a little different than the flight out. Instead of completely overindulging in wine and Tylenol PM… I caught three movies and slightly less wine. about 3pm LA time/ 11pm London time. He was SO happy to see us. He grabbed my face and just kept kissing me. I missed those baby kisses, and his sweet little smile. He had a great time at hom Mom, Dad and Lima bean met us at the airport where it was e with gramma and grumpa – they just loved on him and might have had as much fun as we did – in a different way. Need to detox…starting tomorrow!