Day 3 London

We started our day right with our good English breakfast at which time Michael was reminded of how very much he does not like pork, note others around the table looking on in amusement.

Once everyone was done with breakfast it was time to hop on the Underground and go get signed in for the soccer tournament. That seems simple enough, I mean after all thousands of Brits do it every day surely us bright intelligent Americans can handle it. Well rest assured we can with a couple of minor mishaps. It seems Dale (aka, Sunshine) was a little behind the pack and so got left. However, we are Americans and gay soccer playing Americans so we aren't going to leave a man behind without a fight. Matt bravely stuck his head between the closing train doors. As it turns out this plan was not successful and a bit painful. The bright side is that Matt did manage to dislodge his head from between the doors and we don't believe there is any additional brain damage (beyond that that made him stick his head between the doors) and Dale hopped on another train and arrived shortly after we did.

Back together and most of us in one piece, although we did have to speak softly for those that had a little too much to drink and brought god knows what from Philly back to their rooms, anyway we made it to registration. Kudos goes to the London hosts, it was very well organized and we were in and out and at the pub accross the street in no time.

After registration the team went off in different directions. Bill and I had the pleasure of heading off with Ryan (the next big Designer Star, look no further HGTV). Ryan took us to Sir John Sloan's home. It was incredible the collections this man had. The house was huge and designed with windows and doors and skylights to show off his various collections. Ryan is correct that he was well ahead of his time in his designs. You only get to go through 4 of the 7 floors but there are art galleries with less in their collection and this was just his house.

Surrounded by this inspiration to purchase more we headed to Covant Gardens to see what personal treasures we could find. It amazes me how much of the items there I could buy in Seattle, that is not to say there aren't uniquely British stores and things to be had. After only a short time we lost Ryan or he ditched us (who knows).

We then headed over to the Portrait Gallery, now just 2. It's amazing the size and magnitude of the paintings especially the older ones where you know somoene spend days posing and the painter spent months painting. It kind of makes photographs seem like cheating.

After that full day of adventures it was time for some lovely Indian Food, drinks with friends and then off to the nightlife. On our way out we had to face the dangerous Underground again. We managed to stay together for the most part, although Brian hit his head a couple of times and Michael and Jeff felt they should relive abs class suspended on a bar. In all fairness they were probably just excited to be on the train since they originally had the wrong tickets and had to go back to start over. (Bill failed here where Rachelle never would have.) In Bill's defense, he did wait for me to make sure I made it safely through to the other side.

Tonight we headed out to Fire. When we first got there it was a bit slow, but when it starts hitting midnight or so and the crowd begins to pick up. I was really impressed with the 70's gang with the afros and big shades (ok, I was also a little jealous). Fire turned out to be a pretty good time, but we only stayed about 2.5 hours. Of course, during that time I saw Drew and Brian (Carl) makeout about 20 times and I don't think anyone should be subjected to that. There's your bright spot for getting to stay home.

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