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Published: July 16th 2009
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This past week has passed by so quickly that I haven't had a chance to add an entry. On May 26th, El arrived early in the morning. That day the weather was decent, but we decided to stay in and give El a bit of rest. Deanne came over later in the day to hang out with us... we played cards, and Shel amazed her with some magic card tricks. She's a smart one though as she was able to figure out a couple of tricks and then started practicing them on her own! Mai and Mathias mam came over for dinner and spent the evening watching Eastenders and Britian's Got Talent 😊 They've had the semi-finals all week and we've been hooked on it, sadly. Anyway, last night was the final show so it's over now....and in case you're wondering...Diversity won! ;-)
On Wednesday we ventured out in the rain to the British Museum by tube with Mathias mam, Deanne, El, Shel and myself. It was a rainy, cold, windy day, so everyone and their brother was at the museum since there was little else for tourists to do. Not to mention, the museum is free to the public,
so that's another incentive. It was so packed that it was almost uncomfortable... but we managed to spend a few hours there and saw some interesting exhibits. The highlights were the Rosetta stone (found in Egypt and was the key to translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics) and Cleopatra's mummy. The place was huge and impossible to cover in a single visit.
The next day Shel and I went to Greenwich on our own. This is the location of the famous Greenwich observatory with the Prime Meridian marker. Here is where the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is kept. The observatory was commissioned by the king long ago and the first royal astronomers are credited for calculating the longitudinal grid. Interesting area, and there is tons of history here for the astronomy and physics buff.
That Friday, my mom flew into London from Houston. Again, we didn't do much the entire day as she recovered for a bit of jet lag. On Saturday, we took advantage of the beautiful day and Shel, mom and I went to Central London. The weather was perfect and everyone was out and about that day. The area around the London Eye was happening as the
street performers were out in droves. I hadn't noticed that the last time we went there so there was a different vibe than before... felt like we were in San Francisco or some other big city in the states. As mom rode the London Eye, Shel and I strolled across the Thames on the Jubilee bridge and then back around on the Parliament Bridge, just enjoying the views and atmosphere. We caught up with mom and then the rest of the afternoon, we spent walking around to Parliament and Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, the National Art Gallery right next to it and Leicester Square. We had lunch at a gyro place and rode a bus out to the Tower Bridge area. After strolling around there for a while and just people watching, we headed back to the tube to return home.
Sunday was May 31 and it was my mom's birthday. It was also Franky mam's birthday the day before, so they were hosting a birthday lunch at their house. Lunch was catered by Chef Margaret 😊 We had a great time and they ended up celebrating mom's birthday as well as both he and mom cut the cake
together. Sweet of them to include her!
The next day, we just prepared for our trip to Italy. We had an early flight the next morning (like 7am I think) and so we tried to call it an early night... of course that never works out, so we didn't get to bed until like 11pm and others, much later than that! Anyway, luckily we all got to the airport on time the next day, so that's all that matters 😊
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