Cheers!

After dinner Brad and I hopped in a taxi to head out to Soho to meet up with my friends.  Thank God for taxis because we were both a little tired, but I wanted to rally because I always like to catch up with friends from Uni when I am in London.  Going to school here was one of the best times of my life, so it's good to catch up even if for only a few hours...

This is Alex and Ruth.  Some of you may recall them from last summers blog.  This time we are decidedly more sober...

And that's James on the right.  He and his boyfriend just moved to the Gambia in Northern Africa so it was amazing that he happened to be in town this week.

The guy on the left is our friend Mark that we happened to run into.  That's the great part about London, it's a huge city, but with so many different neighborhoods you always run into someone...

Good times...

Also, why is it that the second I have a beer, my eyeballs disappear?

That's Alex's boyfriend Alban.  He is a wacky little frenchman who was entertaining his wacky little french friends that were over from Paris.  He moves around too quickly so this is the only picture I got...

After the first bar Lo Profile closed, we headed over to the Yard for a quick drink and made fun of the horrible Go Go Dancers.  I feel that if you are going to call yourself a dancer, you should be able to dance, maybe that's just me...

That's Dan on the left.  He picked on me last summer about working on Jersey Shore, so he was excited to hear that I am working on the spinoff since it gave him new ammunition.  And that is James's friend Matt next to Dan (I'm 90% sure his name is Matt but it was pretty loud in there)...

It's been a great night, but we are off to bed.  Tomorrow is our last day in town, whomp whomp, and Mom and Brad want to go shopping, zzzz.  Night night!

Do You Know What I Mean? Uhm, no!

This morning we woke up super super early because I booked us on a full day coach tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford.  We were all a little tired, so it didn't take long for shenanigans to start...

Dad got a little overzealous with Mom's tea...

 After Mom finished drinking her tea and kettle, we hopped in a taxi to head to the coach station...

 We made it with about ten minutes to spare, whew

 And Brad pointed out that they make the seats this lovely splattered red color because it is easier to hide stains.  Ew and thanks...

 Brad was also a little sleepy...

 From there we had about an hour and a half drive to Windsor Castle.  All the while our tour guide Jess talked about anything and everything.  She was amazing! Basically she was Bridget Jones the tour guide, super adorable, definitely on the daffy side.  You could almost picture her telling all the stories with a glass of chardonnay in her hand.  Every battle had a bunch of people "banging each other on the head with big sticks"

And she finished every other sentence with "do you know what I mean?" or "do you follow?" I was with her on a few of the stories but when she started rambling about all the Jimmies, Lizzies and the rest of the Royals over the centuries, I went a bit crosseyed.

Eventually we showed up at Windsor and it was beautiful there...

 Brad and Mom both said it was one of their favorite places...

 The state apartments were closed so we couldn't actually go in the Castle.  Which was annoying...

 Until we realized that the Queen's Royal Standard flag was flying, which means that the Queen was in residence, which was pretty cool...

 Mom really loved watching the changing of the guards...

 Bridget Jones told us that this is the Queen's favorite palace...

 And that she refers to Buckingham Palace as "her office"

 On the way out we stopped to take a picture with "Vicky" aka Queen Victoria, who Bridget referred to as a grumpy rather dumpy/large woman.  She wasn't tour far from the truth.  Vicky was also the Queen who coined the phrase "we are not amused"...

 Oh apparently our tour company is super gay friendly, look french lesbians, or le dykes if you will...

 Next up we drove for another few hours as Bridget regaled us with more stories and then talked about a bunch of old rocks and the people that lived there.  And I kid you not she compared the Druids to Fred Flintstone.

We arrived at the "old rocks" or as it's more famously known, Stonehenge!  Brad was a little confused at first...

But then we saw the real thing...

And they were all pretty impressed...

 It sits in the Salisbury Plains which are beautiful and all, but REALLY freaking windy and cold

 It is amazing to think that these stones have been there for over 5000 years...

 I mean we tear buildings down after 50 years...

 Or they fall apart...

 And it has been an absolutely beautiful day...

 Stonehenge Monkey Arms...

 From there we hopped back on the coach and drove a few more hours to Oxford.  I've been to Oxford once before and it's just a beautiful city...

 Oh there is Jess aka Bridget Jones.  She was so cute you just sort of wanted to hug her...

 She took us on a quick walking tour and then let us walk around on our own for a bit...

 All in all it's been a long but amazing day...

 Now we are heading back to London to have dinner...

Mom and Dad are done for the night but Brad and I are going to meet up with some of my friends from Uni.  Cheers!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Hayfield Manor as we are heading back to London today.  It's gonna be a looooong day.  

We have to take a train back to Dublin, then a taxi to the airport, then fly back to London, then take the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, then take the Underground over to Charing Cross, then walk over to our hotel, zzzzzzz!  Here is basically what our day is going to be like...

 

Almost 8 hours later we arrived at our hotel in London...

 And it was a SUPER fun day!  Or...

 Mom skipped tired and went right to punchy...

 So of course what better way to deal with exhaustion...

 Than cocktails!!!

 Mmmm fruity boozy goodness...

 Cheers!

 Double Cheers...

 And that is when we lost Mom.  I think it was the mixture of her "happy pill" aka Xanax for the flight and her cocktail, but Mom started making fun of Dad for sneezing, coughing and blowing his nose all the time...

 And Brad lost it about 3 seconds later...

 Good times...

 I'm pretty sure we are delirious at this point, and we need some food...

 So we headed out of the hotel and walked through Trafalgar Square...

 They are already starting to set up viewing sites for the Olympic Games.  Pretty cool...

 We walked over to Covent Garden to grab dinner, but of course we got there too late and it was all pretty much closed...

 So we headed over to this Italian restaurant to eat before we passed out in a pool of our own laughter...

 Cheers again!! And zzzz....

 Now we are off to bed, we have another busy day of sightseeing tomorrow, adios!