Saturday, April 4, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The huge surprise!
For months I had been looking forward to my mom's visit. I went to pick her up from Heathrow and she was taking so long to come through the arrivals doors. I couldn't go through them to baggage claim for security reasons, so I was just waiting. I was so anxious to her see her that I gave myself a stomachache. Finally I spotted her short, blond little self really struggling to push her trolley of luggage that was piled high (mostly with things I had had her bring for me). I realized that she was struggling so much because she was pushing with only one hand, the other hand was holding a camera and filming me, which I thought was a bit strange. As soon as our eyes met she looked away, so naturally, I followed her gaze and there was my sister Andrea pushing a cart right next to her! I hadn't even noticed her because I was so focused on my mom. Of course I was so shocked that I immediately burst into tears. We made quite a scene, which my mom said everyone at the airport thoroughly enjoyed. She had taken an entire week off of work to come. She had purchased her ticket even before my mom did. She got to be amused for months every time I emailed her airfare deals that I had found in an effort to try and lure her to come here. What a wonderful surprise! She posted a video of me calling Scooter (who was at home in Oxford studying) and telling him the news. I am reluctant to share the link because I believe it is the first video I have ever seen of myself crying - and it is not a pretty sight! Click here to get to her blog where you can view the video (go to the post on March 4th).
Valentines Day
We had a really nice Valentines Day. We went out to eat the day before (to avoid the crowds on the 14th) at Strada, which had the most amazing bruchetta I have ever eaten. It had peppers, and goats cheese, and some type of vinaigrette. I'm going to try and replicate it someday. 
We decided to spend Valentines Day in London because we really hadn't done too much exploring up to that point. We have been there plenty of times, but it has always been en route to somewhere else. We basically walked along both banks of the Thames River all day and stopped when we saw things that interested us. It was a lovely day (by England standards, which means that I was wearing tights under my jeans for warmth) and we even had partial sun for a few hours. We saw Portobello Road, 
the Tower of London, 
Tower Bridge, 
Westminster Abbey, 
Parliament, 
Big Ben, 
the London Eye, 
Trafalger Square, 
Piccadilly Circus, 
Covent Garden,
St. Paul's Cathedral,
Shakespeare's Globe Theater,
Millennium Bridge,
and visited the National Gallery. 
It What trip to London would be complete without seeing some street performers? We saw some of the best. One man was double jointed in every limb and twisted himself into impossible shapes, then his fellow performers put him into a bowl, and another man balanced it on his head and ran around. I could barely watch I was terrified that he was going to fall. 
Another one was a man wearing nothing but hot pink boxer briefs; he rode a unicycle that was probably 10 feet high and then came down and juggled chainsaws that were on. No joke. These were honest to goodness real chainsaws which he proved by cutting through things that people from the audience handed him. 
Again, I could barely watch. I'm so glad that Scooter hasn't chosen street performing as a profession. I would be a nervous wreck.
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