London Trip Report
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003
<b>A Day of Strange in London</b>

Hi everyone, this is installment 7 of day 8 of our recent London trip. Wednesday morning was cold and wet. I was feeling a little better, but still couldn't breathe or walk easily. Penny and I met in the lobby about 9am and went to Dino's. This has been a wonderful place to have breakfast in the mornings, and I can't begin to thank the fodorite who mentioned it for the recommendation. It has been dependable, fast, and very inexpensive place to have our morning meals and the service is great!

Penny and I went over our itinerary for the day. Mine would begin at the Science Museum for <b>the Lord of the Rings</b> exhibit at 10:15 and hers would be a day long shopping expedition, using her day 2 of her guide for shopping walks. She would be all over the Soho and Tottenham Court area today. We also would be meeting two of my Fodor's friends, at 6:15 at a restaurant called <b>Indigo's<b>. Penny and I agreed to meet at the restaurant that night, instead of back at the hotel.

We split at 9:45 and I caught the #49 bus toward Exhibition Rd. The bus does not go all the way, but it is within 3 blocks or so and walkable for me. I arrive at the Science Museum about 10:05 and head upstairs to the second floor. The Lord of the Rings exhibition is a timed event in which you can purchase a ticket for a specific time period. I think weekdays mornings are about 10 pds and evenings and weekends are 12 pds. It lasts about an hour and you have free reign to look at everything during that time. This exhibition is all about the costumes used during the filming of the trilogy, the weapons made for the films, and various other set props. It is also a kind of behind the scenes look at how they made the film, an specifically how they made the special effects for the film. If you are a fan of the films as I am, this is absolutely a must see. It will be traveling around the States sometime next year if anyone is interested.

I arrive at the exhibition and the first thing you see is the temporary gift shop set up right outside the exhibition entrance. I will tell you the gift shop is really no big deal. Mainly souvenirs like mugs, T-shirts and stuff. It had some computer game stuff and storyboards, but nothing really out of the ordinary. Hopefully by the time it reaches the states they will have beefed that up some. The real prize is the exhibition itself. My god, it has everything you could want in it, with the exception of the actors. The exhibition is set up kind of like the books you see about it, each area dedicated to either the race of people, or a particular character. One of the first things that immediately catches your eye the costumes that were used. If you have watched the movies as much as I have, you will immediately recognize which ones are which. The first ones that caught my eye was the one worn by Arewyn and several of the women of the movie. They are absolutely beautiful. More than the costumes, the weaponry and the detail given to the swords is just eye popping. I don't want to take up to much time here with this, but lets just say that, for a fan of the film, this was wonderful. Placed in many areas thru out the exhibition are videos of the special effects guys showing how they did certain scenes. They also had two guys working with a special room made with the green screen and the equipment used to digitally combine the actors with the computer graphics. You could sit in the green room and have your face and body combined with sets from the film. The kids were lined up and just dying for this. I spent the whole time just gasping at everything and dying to see the last part of this trilogy (Believe you me, December 17 is a Holiday for me).

Then this is where my day started to turn to strange. All of a sudden the paging system for the museum came on, and a calm voice asked all patrons to immediately EXIT the building. Being American, after 9/11, I have to say this startled me somewhat. It could have been anything from a fire to a bomb threat. At first, I don't think anyone really heard it or took it seriously. Me, I was making my way toward the nearest exit pronto. I headed out and moved down the road about a block or so and waited to see what would happen. The museum people were trying to get everyone to move across the road and finally the police arrived and had everyone move about a block down. We all waited about 30 minutes to see if they were going to let everyone back in, and finally I just decided to head on out. I don't know if I would have felt comfortable going back in and I knew that my time at the exhibition was probably up anyway. I know others may be more blas&eacute; about this or used to this, but it gave me the heebee geebee's.

I stopped at a little caf&eacute; a couple of blocks down the road before I got to the bus stop and had a sandwich and coffee and took a look at my guide book to see which area I wanted to hit next. I decided to take try and make my way over to the Charing Cross Rd area. I was tired of the metro and made a decision to take the buses over there and see a little of London. We had been using the bus locally around the hotel, but had used the underground for the rest of the trip and I wanted to spend my last two days looking around the neighborhoods of London. I also needed to conserve my energy as much as possible, because it didn't look like my breathing was really getting any better. For those of you who have not been following my other reports, about half way thru my trip I came down with a severe cold that immediately turned into some type of mega breathing disorder. It had aggravated my almost long forgotten asthma to the point that I was not able to walk 50 yard without gasping for breath.

As I was walking down to the nearest bus stop for the number 49 bus, I came across two #49 buses just parked in a piazza. I thought, great, I don't have to walk so far. NOT! They were stopped, but would not let me in. Both of them told me that I would have to walk down to the stop to catch it. Of course, I couldn't understand at the time, that they were waiting I guess because they had gotten to that area early, maybe?

So, I walked down the road to the number 49 stop, thinking that I would head to the hotel for a pit stop and then head back out to Charing Cross Rd. As I stood at the stop, with several people beside me waiting, here comes one of those #49 buses..then there goes the number 49 bus...it didn't stop. I looked at the lady beside me and asked if it was a request stop and she said, no it was a planned stop and she missed it also. So we waited, knowing that another one would be by in a few minutes. Just a few minutes later, the number 49 bus comes rambling down the road, I decide to not take my chances and I waved at him...and then spent ten seconds waving at his back end. The 2nd one had not stopped. I looked at the lady and said what is this, a strike on this stop? By that time several people at the stop were seriously getting in a snit. The lady next to me said, that's okay, the number 349 bus was coming by shortly and we could take that. I listened to her and when it stopped got on and sat and was talking to lady, she was asking were I was from and a few minutes got by me and then as she was getting off, I realized my hotel was no where to be found, nor was Gloucester Rd. That's okay I said, not to panic. I got out my trusty guidebook and saw that it had turned and gone down Old Brompton before it had gotten to Gloucester rd. and I must have missed it when I was talking. I approached the driver and mentioned what had happened and he let me off at the next stop. He told me to take another bus, the number escapes me but I thought he said the 345, that would be coming by in a few minutes. The dunce that I am, forgot to cross the road so that I was going back THE OTHER WAY! AAGGGHHH! I got on the next 345 bus and 30-45 minutes later I was in..STOCKWELL?? and being told by the driver that everyone had to get off the bus it was the end of the line. Where the hell was STOCKWELL? I also saw names like Battersea and Brixton. So where was I?

I know I looked like the idiot of the day..especially since I didn't want to admit to anyone that I was totally lost. (Oh, Patrick or Degas you would love this moment, I am sure! grin) I stood there and watched that bus pull away..(I know looking like a lost loony. ) So I did what I normally did in times of panic and that was to have a cup of Joe and contemplate my situation. I walked back down the road and found the nearest restaurant and did just that. As I was reading my map, which didn't include Stockwell. I realized that I was screwed. As far as I knew I could be in zone 100, and my metro card only covered zones 1 and 2. So I did what I normally do in times of panic, reconnoiter and scout out the locals.

I knew my world was okay when right across from my caf&eacute; windows was,yes, you guessed it,.lolololo, and a charity shop,and..lolololo, right across the block from it was, yes, you guessed it..a secondhand bookstore. I started laughing, ..I know these people in the caf&eacute; thought I was crazy, but I didn't care! FATE! I tell you, you can't sneeze at it!

I spent about an hour going thru the secondhand bookshop and found several books, a group of Joanna Trollope books, and some British mystery for a good friend of mine at home who at 85 still reads everyday. Knowing her, she probably has already read them, but knowing they were actually from Great Britain will make her day, and several children's books that I really wanted for another young friend of mine at home. I spent about 30 minutes in the charity shop looking thru their books and stuff, although my only find there was a hardback of British Mystery shorts. I did lust after a set of blue glassware, but knew that I really would end up breaking those before I got home.

I came out of the charity shop and turned down the road and found several gift shops and decided to spend a few minutes in one of them. In the back there were some cards and stuff and all of sudden I came across a rack of books called &quot;HELEN EXLEY GIFTBOOKS&quot;. I had never seen these before. Oh, I have seen journals and scrapbooks, but not these. The were wonderful!

These were trade size paperback and each had themes. One was For a Mother, another was Cats. Each had a subtitle called &quot; A Book to make your Own&quot;. They were wonderful, when you opened it, on the left page of the spine, they had these great illustrations done by illustrator Juliette Clark, with wonderful quotes (about Cats in the Cats book) by British poets and writers, and the other page to the right of the spine was blank with borders , made for you to put something of your own on it, journals, poetry, clippings etc. It had about 75 pages like that. In the cat book for example, they had a beautiful illustration of a cat curled up on a cushioned chair, and at the bottom a quote from Saki (1870-1916) &quot;He lies there, purring and dreaming, shifting his limbs, now and then in ecstasy of cushioned comfort...a dreamer, whose philosophy is sleep and let sleep.&quot; These were made for me and my cat lover friends.

I purchased 6 of them, one for my mom called &quot;For a wonderful mother&quot;( the quotes were hilarious), and 4 of the Cat books, one for me and friends for Christmas etc, and another for me called &quot;A Woman's Journal&quot;. They will make wonderful gifts. Note: Since I have come home I have found that this company publishes a whole line of gift books that are just wonderful. I have never seen these locally but you can get them from Amazon.com.

After making those purchases, I finally noticed the time and realized that I was going to have to figure out a way back to into the main part of London. I really had no idea were I was, just the road and the bus stop. My atlas did not go out this far. I had noticed several buses passing and finally decided to wait at the stop and hope the bus driver took pity on me.

The next bus was the number 345 bus again, and this big black Jamaican woman was driving. She stopped and everyone got off of the bus. I asked if she could give me minute and she said yes and I explained my situation, showed her my card and she said it was still okay. She laughed and called me adventurous, I asked her if that was a synonym for &quot;stupid&quot; and she laughed again. She told me to get on that she would have to let me off at the end of the line, but she would be swinging around and starting over back to the &quot;big city&quot; as she laughingly called it for me. I asked her where I was and she said it was Stockwell, on the edge of the Battersea/Lambert district, which was a suburb of London.

We rode for about 10 minutes and she let me off and told me to hold on for about 5 minutes and she would swing back around. When she did, I was the only one that got back on and she headed back. It was quite surreal. I told her what had happened that morning with the #49 bus and she said that the buses were running way behind that morning. She said that more than likely they were just making up time, but that it was just &quot;wicked&quot; that both of them did it, rode past me like that after telling me to walk to the stop..she also told me that I would have to meet up with another one of the 49's to get to my hotel and she would let me know which stop. She stopped to pick up some more passengers and I sat down and started looking at my purchases.

Okay, and here is where it turned strange again..About 15 minutes later she told me it would be the next stop. We got to the stop and the number #49 bus was already there. ..she honked twice and he ignored her and drove off ...all I heard was her clicking her tongue and she told me we would catch up to him at the next stop. I was smiling, I could see this disaster a mile away and she hurried behind him and stopped right behind him on the next stop and honked twice and he did it again, by this time she was just hitting furious. I got a chance, as we came up next to him in traffic and realized that it was one of the drivers from this morning and told her so...when I did, she just said &quot;well, we will see about this&quot; and she flipped her dregs and then she gunned the bus and got ahead of him before the next stop. Here I was in London, with a jumbo Jamaican black women playing chicken with another bus driver. Only me, I tell you, only me. lolololol

He almost tried to pass her and pass the stop, bless her but she wouldn't let him go. She stopped and told me to make it quick. I did and knocked on his door and I swear he wasn't going to let me in, but I think he realized that she wasn't moving. He opened the door and I got on and gave her the thumbs up. Himself, I flipped out my travel card and then proceeded to give him the full southern tongue..&quot;Didn't he hear her beeping and after missing two stops that morning, did he expect to pick up anybody and was he driving a bus or just passing the time driving for pleasure?&quot; He told me to take a seat and I asked him for his name and id number...and &quot;when he gave me that, I'd would take a seat.&quot; I told him. That got a few claps from the back of the bus, I got my pen out and stood their with my eyebrow raised, and he finally gave me his 1st name, I waited with a pen in hand, and he looked at me, I said &quot;by your badge it says Harmon&quot; he said yes, and then I asked him for his Id. Then I took a seat and told him that I would be &quot;stopping on Gloucester if he decided to work that day.&quot; It doesn't pay to get me mad now. The lady next to me smiled and I winked at her. I proceeded to pull out my map and watch the roads cause I really wanted to know where I was. <b>Hey you guys, my first London burb trip...what a treat! (grin).</b>

We crossed the Thames and headed back to South Kensington and as he hit Gloucester rd, I hit the button and said &quot;the one across from the tube stop&quot;. He stopped and I said in my snottiest southern voice &quot;You'll hear from me!&quot; and I took my time getting off. It was the best exit I have had in a long time. (grin) . Now I could hear him mumbling a nasty word.. and he shouldn't have done that because I really wasn't planning on doing anything until then. When I got to the hotel I called the transport hotline and reported the him. The young woman on the phone was very nice and I was a sweet as sugar...Crazy tourists my ass, I do despise people who think they have all the power. He will have to answer for that one at the end of the day.

What a day so far! I was having fun...it feels really good to be evil for a few minutes when you are feeling ill, however I was gonna pay for that bitchiness later. Crazymina, if you are reading this you would be proud of me....

I had gotten back at the hotel about 4:30, so I took a quick shower and changed because I needed to head back out to meet my fodors friends for dinner. I knew the address of the restaurant, but didn't exactly know how to get to it. I left about 5:30 and hit the tube station. The address said #1 Aldwych near Covent Garden, off of Strand. My metro map looked like the Temple station was the closest (I would be wrong but didn't know that until later), so I took Gloucester to Temple and unfortunately my tube was delayed for about 10 minutes at Westminster. We found out later that another train had de-railed. The train finally started back up again and I reached Temple and exited the station and then headed toward Aldwych. Aldwych is a road shaped like a semi circle that covers about 5 blocks and starts on Strand and ends back on Strand a few blocks down. I really couldn't tell which end to start at, so I just started walking. By this time I was late, it was about 6:20 and I was so out of breath I thought I would pass out. I finally just had to stop and take a few minutes to breath. I trudged onward only to finally figure out that I had started on the other end of the road. When I got to end of Aldwych there was no number 1. Okay, I knew they were here somewhere and I finally just started asking shop owners.

After about the 3rd one, I was pointed to a building across the street and I went over there and found not Indigo's, but another restaurant. I walked all the way around the building and saw a sign on the side of the building that said Indigo's but the side door was locked. I headed back around the other side of the building and finally just walked into the other restaurant, only to realize that this was a hotel and lobby. I asked the bell man and he pointed to the elevator and said the &quot;M&quot; floor. I mumbled thanks and in the elevator, realized that this payback time for that earlier bitchiness and just counted my blessings that I had found it and nothing else bad had happened. (I counted too soon on that).

I finally reached the restaurant about 6:30 and made it to the table where I met starspinners and one other fodors friend. Both were worried and I apologized for the lateness explaining that I couldn't find the restaurant. I sat and relaxed a minute, and then looked around and...no Penny. I said to myself &quot;oh hell&quot;. Now I love Penny to death, but as much as I am time challenged, she is direction challenged. I looked at both of my companions and told them that she was liable to be out there walking the street. We waited a few more minutes to order and finally close to 7:00 I told them I needed to call the hotel to make sure she was okay.

Luckily, Penny was at the hotel. She had gotten in about 30 minutes earlier. She had been shopping all afternoon and her tube had been delayed by about 40 minutes. (the same time mine was with the same problem. Since it was so late, she had left a message at the restaurant to go on without her...which we never got.) I got back to the table and told them what had happened and we went on to order. As with just about every restaurant on my trip, the food was great! My fodors buddy had picked a winner here. I had the Caesar salad with grilled chicken breast. I will tell you that I was so tired that I can't remember what everyone else had, but I do know they enjoyed it.
We all talked and laughed and had a wonderful meal. As we conversed I made the realization, thru different topics about families and such, that life was the same for all of us the world over. We had the same day to day issues, whether we were American or British. We may come from all walks of life, different backgrounds, differet financial situations, but we still all get up each morning and put our shoes on and walk out the door. It quite a comforting and reassuring thought...

We had a wonderful time talking about our trips and travels and the board and Starspinners filled us in on her experience with the play &quot;Wait Until Dark&quot;. She had hard time in not comparing it to the Audrey Hepburn make of it. I still would have loved to see it but just didn't have time. We finished about 8:30-9:00, and they offered to walk me to the metro stop, telling me that Covent Garden was closer. We got our bill only to find that they had not split it and I was planning on paying by credit card since I had used all my cash that afternoon. <b>Newsflash: if you are traveling with friends rather than as a couple, you need to let the wait staff know each time to separate the bill. </b> They automatically combine it if you don't and get real irritated, understandably, when you forget. My fodors friends made it easy by paying with cash, and I just told the waiter to put the remainder on my card...Now remember that little blurb about paybacks and hell earlier?...well yes you guessed it. Paybacks were not over with yet.

My wonderful working Visa decided to take its own vacation and went kaput again. I was having an absolutely dreadful &quot;You should have brought your American Express card&quot; moment right there in front of these wonderful Fodor's friends. I just about died. Yep, the waiter came back and said my card declined. I was totally caught off guard. Final Newsflash..never go in to a restaurant out of town with only one credit card and no cash, unless you have familial backup, and since Penny was nowhere to be found. Gads! Luckily, one of my fodors friends graciously saved the day. I was just mortified, but they were very nice about it. Thanks you guys, you saved my bacon! I didn't even think about it at the time, but I could have called Penny and she could have put it on her card via phone, and this would probably have saved me a lot of trouble later trying to work out how to get the money back to my fodors buddy.

Anyway the day was saved and we all headed out, slowly in my case because of my problem with the breathing. We all talked about our travel plans. Too soon we made it to the metro, they would be talking a different line. Starspinners would not be leaving London until the 1st of November, and my other fodors friend would be traveling on her own trip soon. I would also like to mention something that affected our British friend that night and many of us using the metro that week. She had to take 2 or 3 metro lines and a bus to make it home because several of the lines were down that week. We had also had 2 derailments, which gave us pause. Just a warning to be careful. I can't imagine having to detour as much as our british buddy had to just to get to work or in and out of the city each day. I just hop in my car and am there at my work in 15 minutes and I live 10 miles out in the boonies. the difference, no traffic! We parted promising to email each other when we got back. What a great time (and it would have been perfect if it wasn't for that blasted plastic failure moment! GRRRRRR!)

I just want to say that I have really enjoyed meeting these two fodors friends. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it was meeting and putting a face on some of those people we talk to on the boards. We all spend so much time each day posting there and reading messages, and I enjoy it tremendously, but it makes a quite a difference meeting up with some of you personally. Both are wonderful and interesting women and a joy to meet and talk to. If you know others that will be traveling to your destination, take the time to do this. Check on the fodors board to see who will be going to the same traveling destination at the same time and arrange to meet up. Our board is great, but meeting some of you in person is wonderful. You won't regret it. We are all just people of the world with one common love and that is travel and that's enough common ground to get you started.

I made it back to the hotel and filled Penny in on what had happened that day. She hated missing the dinner, but she was exhausted. She had not stopped all day, hitting the Soho, Tottingham Court area and finally finishing up in the Notting hill area. That was a whopper of a shopping day. We spoke about spending the day together shopping tomorrow on Oxford and Piccadilly and hoping to make it to Harrods, which I had yet to do. I filled her in on my Visa problem again and she told me not to worry about it she had the extra I had given her set aside just in case. (That was my other, last resort contingency plan (grin)). I told her I would check on it in the morning.

We decided since I was beginning to feel quite terrible again (I pushed too hard that day with no rest), and she was exhausted, that we would sleep in a bit on our last day. Thursday would be our last full day and I was just pooped. Neither one of us had anything special scheduled except for our last night dinner on the Hispaniola, a docked restaurant ship on the river Thames near Embankment. We decided to meet at 10am in the lobby the next morning.

Even as strange as everything was that day, the drill at the Science Museum, the bus thing, and the AE moment after dinner, today was a great day! I felt like I got to see a little bit more of London that day. I didn't really want to stress my illness to much in these last few days of notes, but ladies and gentlemen, it had slowed me down quite a bit all day. I would have normally been able to make it 10 stores on a day like today, but it was not to be and I can only be thankful that I was able to do what I did do. It was more than enough.

I know many of you are used to reading trip reports about tours and museums, so I hope I haven't bored you to much with my little stuff. I have already done the other stuff and this trip was about learning about London itself and meeting some of its people. Thru my book hunts and charity shop visits I have met and talked to a lot of people and it has been great. I have tried to write all the names and faces down in my little travel book, and there are too many to mention.

One name I did not get on this day, and one that I will forever regret. That woman bus driver. (sigh!) I wish I had gotten her name! she deserves a big thank you card for making me feel empowered on this day. She also made my little mix up with the bus out to be a grand adventure, which it really was. All in all, I think I had a grand day!

Toodles!</b></b>

erinb, you are lucky to make it back safe and sound. And I thought I was the only one to experience such crazy chains of events. But isn't travel grand? What wild and wacky stories you have to tell all the jealous folks back home!

Hi degas,

Thanks for your reply...yes I loved my visit and looked at that day as a great adventure. It gives me the incentive to strike out further away from central london again. There are wonderful areas to be explored! I do love London!

Okay so here's the rest of the story again!

London Trip Report
Thursday, October 23, 2003
<b>If it was your Last Day in London, What would you do?</b>


This is installment 8 of Day 9 of our recent London trip. After fighting the pillow monster all night, I finally woke up about 7am Thursday morning and decided to go ahead and get up and check out my notes. I knew that today was our last true day to do anything. It was almost damn depressing, I had so much I still wanted to do and see, but then I just realized, &quot;Hey, London ain't going anywhere, I will just have to come back again&quot; lololol. We would be flying out around noon the next day on Friday, and would not really have time to do much that next morning, so this day had to count.

As far as my notes go, I wanted to check on stuff that I still wanted to do. I was little disappointed that I was not really any better health wise, but darn it, I was determined to finish some of the things I still had not done, namely, shopping for stuff with Penny at Army/Navy and Oxford and Piccadilly (We had both gone in different directions the last few days and I actually had not gotten to doing much shopping for my request lists.)

This trip had been about seeing those few tourist attractions that we had missed on our 2-3 previous trips, but it was also mainly about shopping and just revisiting London one more time. We had really done a lot of stuff while we were here, but I had done mostly book hunting and charity shop shopping and needed to do what I call regular shopping for specific items for family and friends. Also, despite my many purchases of books and gobs of stuff, I had not yet bought what I call my London 2003 <b>Memory Gift</b> for myself.

Okay, you ask &quot;What is a &quot;memory gift&quot;? It is exactly what it sounds like. A gift for myself to remember this trip by. It is not a souvenir or anything remotely like a souvenir. It is something for me or for my house, and when I look at it or use it, I remember this trip. NO! NO! it will not be a bottle of cough syrup or box of tissues,tsk tsk. Seriously, it will be just something special that I have purchased here in London. I had no clue what it would be. Last few trips, it was things like a set of Wedgewood cups and saucers that I use everyday now for coffee or tea. Or like from Paris in 2000, it was 2 tapestry squares of a beautiful flowers and fruit bowl that I had matted and framed for my dining room. I found them in Montmatre. Or from our last trip to London and Paris, it was watercolors of park scenes from both cities, that I look at wistfully all year long. Or the ten scarves I use all winter long over and over again and each year as I pull them out for the winter, I remember how much fun it was purchasing them on the Rue du Rivoli. Souvenirs get put in boxes and scrapbooks. &quot;Memory gifts&quot; are gifts to yourself, and reminders of your trips as you use that item in your everyday life. This year would be a challenge. In previous years I had definite idea's of what they would be, I really didn't know what it would be this year.

So, I started out the day by going over my notes and realizing that the two things I missed, Madame Tussards and Oxford would have to wait for another trip. I had a purpose that day and it was to buy out London with what little I had left. Penny and I met in the lobby about 9:30am, a little earlier than we had planned, both of us eager to get started. Once again we went to Dino's across the street for breakfast. We set up a schedule for the day. With my physical limitations I didn't want to slow Penny down any, so we agreed to split up first, to allow her to do a quick run for something she forgot yesterday, and then we would meet back at the hotel about 11:30am to head out for shopping.

I wanted to see the Park again and just ride around London some first thing that morning. So we separated and I took the number 49 bus(different driver today (grin)), North on Gloucester Rd and got off at the entrance of Kensington Gardens. I took my time walking and just walked around the park for about an hour. It was a blustery fall/winter day. Just gorgeous! One of the things I love about London and Paris are the people watching. In my small town, we have very few cultural and ethnic differences. Oh they are there, but outwardly, most American's are just so American. Those cultural differences are more overt with family and friends, but in public, they are toned down. London and Paris are truly a &quot;melting pot&quot; of such differences. I have heard New York City is the same way, but I have only been one time and it was really just a quick visit stopover. So, I love people watching. After days of shopping, and sightseeing, that Thursday morning was a wonderful relaxing experience just walking and sitting in the park, watching Londoners walk by.

After about an hour , I did a circle back out on Gloucester Rd and caught the number 49 bus back down to the hotel. I got off about 10 blocks from the hotel and just walked the neighborhood, something I had not really been able to do since Sunday. This has been an absolutely wonderful area and I will be promoting it heavily when I get back. It has everything and I wanted to see it all this last day. I actually found another second hand store and stopped in for a few minutes. Add one more book and a set of neck chains made with silver and gold links. It also had a stationary just down from the hotel about a block and if you can believe it a small second hand book store with some wonderful second hand hardbacks. (More of a hardback selection and some rare books also). Hey, right in my home area all this time and I didn't know it. (Give me a break here, my sense of smell was shot to hell! (grin))

I made it back to the hotel around 11:30 and rested a few minutes in the lobby to wait for Penny. She was just a few minutes behind schedule, but by 11:40 we were headed back out to the tube station. I will tell you I have had a memory lapse here and can't remember the tube stop we headed for, but I do know the store was The House of Fraser Army Navy department store on Victoria Street. I think it was the Victoria tube stop. Both Penny and I had shopped at this store on our first trip and both of us were trying to find a certain item. In my case I had purchased a set of six small tea service spoons. I wanted to try and match that set and buy another set of 6. My sister wanted a set also but with a shell design.

If you have never been shopping in London before, London has everything. Any kind of specialty shop you can imagine. It also is the home of the major department stores. (I always think of the program &quot;Are you being served&quot; when I enter them.) This store is like all London department stores, big, still 5, 6 and sometimes more floors. They sell everything from clothes to housewares....shades of Americana past. We no longer have big department stores like this in small town America. They have all downsized for mall stores or have gone out of business entirely. I know the larger cities still have them, but in most small towns they are just gone. Wal-mart has taken their place and the quality is nowhere near as good.

Penny found several things she was looking for, including some sweaters for her hubby. I did find my tea server spoons for my sister, but my pattern was no where to be found. I decided to purchase just a plan ribbed pattern that would work. This time I purchased 12. Both Penny and I window shopped the rest of the store and headed back out. She found a wine shop and got a couple of bottles of wine. We decided to stop and get a bite to eat at a small family restaurant across the road, I had just a soup and sandwich, while Penny finally tried the Sausages and Mash. She loved it.

After lunch, we headed out again and stopped at a Whittards Tea Shop. . I could not believe it, but I had actually bought very little in the way of tea this trip. I always normally stock up for a year for myself and my mom, but just had not done so and had forgotten to put them on my list. (God, if I had left London without loose tea, I must be ready for a hospital...lololol) Needless to say, I stocked up on tea. It didn't hurt that Whittards was having a huge buy 2 get one free tea sale. My favorite is always English Rose Tea. Who would have guessed it? (big grin).

We hit Oxford street about 1:30pm for all the rest of the big department stores. Penny had heard that one in particular carried plus size women's and we decided to check it out. You could walk on Oxford street for miles and not see anything else but department stores. It is a wonderful area to shop!(thank gosh it's not Christmas time yet!). We hit John Lewis, DH Evans, Debemhams and did them all quickly in about 2 hours.

We found the store that advertised a new &quot;fuller women's&quot; department. I want to say it was John Evans. Needless to say the department was really a corner area on the 3rd floor that featured a new designer line of clothes. After looking through them, Penny and I just laughed. The skimpy black dress, more suited to a wispy size 3 was not going back with these two &quot;fuller size&quot; women. Not for 300 pds. For 300 pds I could stay 5 more days in London. We headed back to the real world in shopping.

While Penny was shopping I finally caved and sat on one of the sofas in, I think in Debemhams. Just sat there. The sales clerk asked me if I needed assistance and I told her, No, but if I fell asleep it would only be for a brief catnap. She laughed and asked me how long I had been &quot;at it&quot; and I grinned and told her laughingly that I had been &quot;at it&quot; for 8 straight days. I told her if I could have taken it with me and could have afforded it, I would have bought that sofa right then and there.

Finally Penny realized that I was AWOL and came back to find me. She just stood there with her hands on her hips, tapping her foot with that motherly &quot;I thought I told you to stay right behind me look&quot; and shaking her head. I looked at her and said &quot;What? and &quot;I was just trying it on for size&quot;. Lololol, She just sighed and grinned and said, okay, time for pit stop. I told the nice sales lady who by that time was sitting on the couch with me laughing her A off, to have a nice day and I would be back for &quot;it&quot; later. She was still laughing as we headed toward the food caf&eacute;.

We both got hot drinks and water and took a few minutes to go over our purchases. Penny had been much more successful than I had. I reminded her that she was going to have to fit it all in only one other suitcase. I also told her that I was &quot;done in&quot; and we still had two more stores to go to, Seldridges and gasp! Harrods.

We contemplated skipping one or the other and both decided we had made it this far and that the battle was almost won. I will forever be grateful for her fortitude because Harrods would have won out and we might never have made it to Seldridges, where I found my &quot;memory gift&quot;.

We arrived at Seldridges around 4pm and it was like most of the other department stores, but one area that I was interested in was their floor dedicated to home decorating. We skipped the rest of the store in favor of that and boy did we hit paydirt. It had a huge area that had nothing else but fabrics for sewing. In that section I froze, just looking around me in awe at the beautiful fabrics used for decorating home and hearth. And that they came from all areas of the world. They were rich, rich brocades, tapestry fabrics and simply just about any type of design and fabric you could ever hope to or want to use in decorating your home. I think my eyes rolled back in head before Penny took a hold on my arm and told me &quot;whoa mama&quot;. It did not escape me that we were both feeling lightheaded at this point. Penny is a crafter from way back herself.

Now Suzie Homemaker I am not, but one thing I love to do is collect good fabric to make stuff for my home. I couldn't sew a skirt or dress if you paid me, but I love to make pillows, recover furniture, and make curtains for my home. I also love to make cloth rugs, using leftover pieces of beautiful fabric and squares and strips of fabric.

I had found my &quot;MEMORY GIFT&quot; in capital letters. Penny and I spent the better part of the 30 minutes just searching for what we wanted. The person who set up the displays for that department knew how to coordinate terrific combinations of fabric and window treatments, and Penny and I were actually snapping photos of some of the displays to take home for ideas. Tourists!

I kept coming back to 2 bolts of fabric, both brocades in a heavy tapestry type design, the background a beautiful burnt cream with silk threads in a design of flowers and vine. The colors in the design were a beautiful forest green, dark deep rose, and grape purple, all the beautiful colors of an antique fall. As I noticed the price, 25 pds for a British meter(?) of fabric, I kept saying to myself &quot;too much, too much&quot; and would look for something else. Finally Penny said &quot;You keep coming back to it and you know you want it&quot;. I did very much want it and realized that nothing else would compare. I bought 2 lengths of it. THIS WAS MY MEMORY GIFT TO ME. I knew what I would use it for and that would be three things. Several pillows for my living room furniture, a vanity stool to be covered, and a small area rug in my hallway. And everytime I saw them I would remember this trip and this day. That is the beauty of a Memory Gift.

Totally satisfied that I had completed what I had set out to do that day, I realized that I was &quot;done for&quot; at about 5:00 on Oxford St. I had gotten all my family and friends gifts and had found my memory gift. We took the tube to Harrods in Knightsbridge to pick up last minute tins of cookies and teas and stuff and it only took me about 30 minutes. I also knew that my energy was going fast and we still had the evening to get through. Penny was going to be a while in Harrods and had one other stop to make, so we decided to split up so that she could quickly get what she needed to finish and I could rest up a bit at the hotel. We agreed to meet in the lobby at 6:45-7:00. I got back to hotel in about 15 minutes and rested for a bit, then changed. Penny called me, gasping for breath, letting me know she had just got back and would be a few minutes. We met down in the lobby just at 7:00.

We took the tube stop to the Embankment station and walked under the bridge. The Hispaniola is the 1st River restaurant that you come to on the left and you enter the restaurant via a long ramp walk that eventually leads to a wide very steep covered breezeway that connects to the ship. Warning here, it is very steep. Penny and I almost felt like you were climbing down a vertical ladder. We made it safely onto the ship and entered a most elegant restaurant with impeccable service.

The Hispaniola has a wonderfully appointed restaurant and lounge. If you wanted to, you could have pre dinner drinks in the lounge or be seated immediately in the restaurant. My understanding is that it has great entertainment on the weekends in the form of a Latino style music and dancing.

We chose to be seated in the restaurant. The restaurant is full service and you had several choices of menu. Since we were not having a pre-theatre dinner we chose to order off of the full menu. For as nice a restaurant, the prices were extremely reasonable. Both Penny and I ordered a pre dinner drink at our table while we were deciding what to order. On a Thursday, the restaurant was not busy, but in talking to the waiter, that was not normal. They usually had almost a full capacity between the single reservations and the group reservations, so if you are interested you need to book early on this restaurant. I will tell you toptable helped us get this reservation. The online site for the restaurant did not respond and toptable kept coming back with no reservations available. I finally emailed the toptable site and they rechecked with the restaurant and got us these reservations.

After looking over the wonderful menu, I finally ordered the pork loin, served with tender potatoes and asparagus, while Penny decided to have the Chicken Penna. We ordered a carafe of wine and each had a appetizer, both salads. The food was excellent and the service was great. About half way through the appetizer, the evening entertainment began in the form of a young man playing the piano, a lovely Steinway, and singing melodies from different shows and ballads.

I want to say this was a wonderful experience as a last night dinner in London. The view of the lights of the city on the Thames River and being able to see all the sites at night was just gorgeous. We had wonderfully relaxing three course dinner for a very reasonable price. Both of us ended with cappuccino and just sat back and listened to the music and took in the sites and talked about our trip.

I was really surprised that I had been able to make it through the last few days. I knew that I was really sick and had just pushed on, but knew that as soon as I hit the states, I would be seeing a doctor. I also was extremely grateful that Penny was my travel companion because she was independent enough to head out on her own and still enjoy the trip. We talked about all the things we had seen and done and just had a quiet relaxing time.

We finished up around 9:30 and headed back out and just walked along the river for a while, enjoying the view. I love London along the Thames at night. You could see all the really wonderful sites, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, the Tower Bridge and yes even the Millennium Wheel. All the wonderful old building are just all lit up for the evening. To our regret, we still had not found an evening river cruise. Eventually we made our way back to our hotel. Both of us were kind of quiet, sad that our trip was ending, but also grateful that we knew we would eventually have a chance to come back.

Once back at our hotel, both of us realized that we had the daunting task of re-packing. We decided to meet the next morning at 8:00 to have breakfast and check out. I spent about 2 hours trying to stuff everything back in my suitcase and was forever grateful that I had brought the &quot;big one&quot; with me again.
Even doing so, I had that and a duffel bag filled with stuff. When I had put what I thought was the last item in my suitcase, I realized that not only had I packed my change of clothes for the next day, but that I had also packed my PJ'S. (oh god!). NEWSFLASH! Don't do this!

Out came the stuff again and once I had found everything, back went all the stuff again. I took a shower and just sat back and watched TV, wide awake with my overstuffed suitcases sitting innocently in front of me just screaming &quot;You are and idiot, you will never be able to lug me to the plane tomorrow!&quot;. When I didn't think I could re-arrange or stuff anymore in the cases, I happened to glance over at my desk in the room and noticed a big bag of stuff under the desk...oh gads...I was just too exhausted to have it again and decided to finish it in the morning. I had this really strange feeling I was forgetting something when I fell asleep.

Toodles!

And the final day again!

London Trip 2003
Friday, October 24th, 2003
Pull up your Boot Straps it's Moving Day!


Okay, I don't care how well you plan ahead, if you are not careful, exhaustion, absentmindedness, oh hell, just plain being not careful can turn in all to crap on the day you are suppose to head out and fly home.

Our day started okay, both of us were up around 7:30 and we met in the lobby to go to breakfast at Dino's around 8:00am. We had a nice breakfast and said goodbye to our favorite waiter. I love this place. Penny, had spent the night like I did, trying to fit all of London stores into our too small bags. She had a bag of stuff that just would not go. And she had brought a suitcase within a suitcase, giving her two full suitcases to pack stuff. She asked me to try to fit it in mine. I told her I had forgotten to pack a bag of stuff myself and would try, but would make no promises.

About 9am, we realized that we had to get it in gear. I had finally remembered what it was I had forgotten to do the night before. Major NEWSFLASH: if you are flying out around noon the next day, don't wait until the morning of to take a look at your hotel bill. The last night, before you hit your room for the evening, stop at the reception desk and ask them to print a copy of your bill so that you can look at the charges. That is what I had forgotten to do. We headed back to the hotel and did this and realized to our horror that the bill was wrong. One of the rates were wrong and there were several charges from the bar that were not ours. We had to wait for the day manager to straighten it out and by the time we finished it was almost 9:30 and Penny was starting to panic. We had hoped to be leaving the hotel by then, and we both still had to finish getting those last minute things in our cases. We told the manager we would be right back down and would check out. He assured us that the bill would be straight by then.

I quickly went back upstairs and swept the room for any lingering stuff and Penny dropped her bag off at my room on her way down to pay the bill. By that time she was in a serious panic because she realized that she had given me the wrong time for our flight out. She had originally told me 12:55, when it was really 12:05. Now by that time, I began to panic. I think I almost broke the suitcase stuffing the last things in it and still didn't get all of Penny's stuff in the bags.

I propped the hotel room door open with my bags and did the last minute destroy and search of the room, only to realize that I had forgotten to clean out the hotel safe. Would that have not been a present for the next person or what? If there was anything left in that room, it was not mine!

It was 9:45 and I headed down to the lobby. By this time, I was gasping for breath and sounded like a marathon runner on her last tired legs. The Indian man in the elevator looked at me and I know he thought I was having a heart attack...I quickly gasped out..&quot;asthma..running late&quot;..he grinned at that point and offered to help me with my bags. People are so much kinder and helpful than you expect them to be. I was grateful and not too proud for his assistance.

When I got to the lobby Penny had already gotten us a taxi, and he helped us get the suitcases in and we just fell in that cab. Both Penny and I laughingly said &quot;Get us to train station, Victoria, quick&quot;...he laughed and said &quot;We are running a little late are we?&quot; He pulled into Victoria at about 10:00 and we did the hop and skip to the train, just catching one at around 10:05. Penny and I sat back and I tried to catch my breath, which was not co-operating, unfortunately. Penny was worried and understandably. I was having real trouble and we were running late, late. To top all of this off, the Gatwick Express stopped dead about 30 minutes into the trip. Over the paging system we heard the dreaded words..delay. It was 10:30 and we were still not at the airport for check in.

Finally about 10 minutes later we started up again and arrived at the airport about 11:00am. We quickly made our way to check in and luckily, seeing our time of departure, they agreed to put us on the fast track. NEWSFLASH! There is a good reason that they suggest you get to the airport at least 2 hours ahead of time. Everyone else for you flight is arriving and the lines will be long. It takes at least 45 minutes even on a fast track check in to go thru the security check, to get your boarding passes, and finally to check in your suitcases. You then have to go thru a carryon bag check again and then make your way to your gate. Everyone could see I was having real trouble breathing and was very helpful. If we had planned it better, I would have called ahead and asked for emergency assistance, but we didn't. And god love them, at each point, they told us the next point was &quot;just around the corner&quot;. Let me tell you those long causeways are not just around the corner. At 11:50 we were on our last long causeway to the plane and I was almost fainting. I told Penny to go on without me and try to hold the plane.

Here is where the goodness of people came thru for me. A flight attendant and a captain watched me struggling and offered to help me with my stuff. I gave up one of the bags and just gratefully thanked them. It turned out to be my captain and one of my flight attendants. She asked me if I was okay, and I told her what was going on. To my dismay, after I jokingly said &quot;I hope they have oxygen tanks on the plane or I not gonna be able to make the flight&quot;, she got this real worried look on her face. I realized &quot;OOP's&quot;.

We made it the boarding gate about 12:00 noon and there was Penny patiently waiting for me. As we got on the plane, my asthma just took over and I was struggling to really take a breath. I took my seat and just tried to relax and work myself out of the attack. Here's where what Penny calls the &quot;Only you&quot; situation began. Next thing I know there is this really official looking lady, who was bending over me and asking me if I was okay. She informed me that they would not be able to provide oxygen for the flight (oops again). That she was there to determine if I was okay enough to make the flight. That if something happened to me that I needed oxygen that they would have to divert the plane for an emergency situation and they could not have that, if it was determined that it was a possibility.

Okay you guys! Here's were my southern fortitude kicked in. My mother would have been proud. Faced with the fact that I would be asked to miss my flight, I quickly sucked it all in and stomped that asthma attack flat. Dead cold. I don't think I have ever done that before. She scared the spit out of me. I assured her in my most arrogant voice that I had just had a cold and that we had been running and I would be fine, it would just take me a few minutes to catch my breath. I was having a little trouble breathing, but now that we had stopped, I would be okay. She took a few minutes to talk to me and realized that I had it somewhat under control and gave the go ahead.

Somewhat mortified, Penny and I sunk back in our seats and grinned at each other. I had delayed a flight! Gads! What in the Sam hell would be next on this trip! We both took stock and prayed we had not forgotten anything when we realized that both of us were still holding our carryon and bags. She got up and put everything overhead for us and we buckled in.

At this point, I would have liked to have said that everything went smoothly with the rest of the flight, but faced with the fact that I did not have my inhaler, nor would there be any oxygen backup in case I had another attack, the stress of this kept me from really being able to relax the whole flight. I had to keep standing up. The seating in coach is so cramped that I could not breath freely sitting down. I would get up and go stand in the back for a while struggling to breath. Penny was a trouper during all this, just staying calm. One of the attendants let me sit on one of the wall seats in the back and the colder air in the back seemed to help. She said she had a brother that had asthma as they were growing up. I told her about my cold and the weather having set it all off and she seemed to understand. I also said that I should have had asked for assistance when I got to the airport instead of running like I did and she offered to see if she could arrange it on the arrival of the plane back in the states. I told her I would be extremely grateful.

Although the flight home was not an easy one for me, it went by relatively fast and next thing I knew we had landed. The attendant told me to wait until everyone departed and then they had brought wheelchair assistance to take me thru the airport. I did not feel guilty one bit. Penny looked relieved. We had to separate because he would have to take me thru the areas that had wheelchair access and she would need to go thru the regular areas of customs. I winked at her and said hey, there had to be some benefits to this. We agreed to wait for each other at baggage pick up.

The young man who helped me was a godsend. He breezed me thru security and customs with no problem. I will tell you one thing while I was quite relieved that they passed me through, this late concerned me a little bit. With the scare of SARS, this will make you pause: There I was a tourist coming back from a foreign county, one who had contracted a sudden and severe respiratory illness over a short period of time, and not a soul asked me about it. Not one. Kind of makes you pause, doesn't it. Of course, I was grateful that I had not been quarantined, but still, not one question.

We finally made it to baggage pick up and then baggage recheck and re-claim and next thing we knew we were at the door. Penny's hubby showed up and she was happy to see him. French took one look at me, and sighed, &quot;okay, Sandy, what have you done now?&quot; I of course said &quot;Who me?&quot; I am forever getting Penny into some type of trouble! Hey, really it is normally the other way around, but I don't have a hubby to report to so we pretend.(grin). He just gave a long suffering sigh and said in his most military AKA slash deputy type voice (Well he is retired military and he is a county deputy). &quot;You can make your report in the car&quot;. It always cracks me up. Penny was just a grinnin!

And what did we do first thing in the states...we of course hit the restaurant. I had not been able to eat on the plane and I was just gasping for, yes you guess it, an American burger with all the trimmings. God, you have to love it!

We made it home safely and in one piece. I hit the house and there sitting on my kitchen table was my trusty inhaler. I went thru the motions of using it, but I will tell you it was kind of a &quot;Well heck it's too late now&quot; feeling. Penny and I agreed to meet on Sunday to share and gloat over our trip purchases. My mom was there are the house with my sister and yikes, the house had been re-organized in my absence. I was to tired to fuss and she just did what all Mom's do best when their babies are sick. Soothe brows and pull out the medicine cabinet and pillows. Okay, okay, yes I am 43 years of age, but it still makes you feel better when Mom's do it. I lay in my bed grateful to be home, wistfully missing London and all the wonderful sites, sounds and experiences.

I went to sleep that night, hearing myself say in my best Arnold voice....&quot;I'll be back!

Toodles