A civilized lunch!

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Leaving Edinburgh was difficult... we really wanted to stay, but we knew we had more waiting for us back in London. So we hopped on the train again (right after I got pooped on by a seagull! Two weeks at the Jersey shore and nothing until Scotland? Oh well...)
We had a really cute fun thing occur though, because we were trying to decide whether or not to get off the train in York for lunch. Well, at one of the stops this sweet older woman got on with a huge flower arrangement and sat where we were sitting. She asked us where we were from and said she was headed to New England soon to show a horse she had bought. She also, upon learning I am studying music education, remarked that she is a sculptor and had done several pieces for John Tavener, a British composer. We told her that we were thinking of getting off the train in York just to have lunch and say we'd seen part of it, and her response was, "Well, that sounds like a very civilized thing to do." That sealed the deal! I'm so glad I talk to people, because I keep on stumbling across neat things like that. Fabulous!
So we did get off the train, stow our suitcase, and head to the walled city. Within five minutes we were in the main part of town, and again knew we wanted more time there. But we walked around, popped into a little church (didn't make it to York Minster), and found a marvelous little Mediterranean-style restaurant for lunch. We had butternut squash risotto and more goat cheese. Yummy!
We made a quick run through the Shambles a narrow walkway lined with shops, and were back on the train, having spent exactly 2 hours off of it. The rest of our trip was quite uneventful, and yet our day was not nearly through.
So now, back in London, and this is Wednesday evening, what better way to enjoy than to see a play in the West End. So we went to see "In Celebration" which has Orlando Bloom in it. Oh yes, I said it, we broke down and did the cheesy thing. But actually, it was a really fantastic play about three brothers coming home to celebrate their parents' 30th anniversary, and the dad had been a coal miner for nearly 50 years and wouldn't retire, and they had worked really hard to put their boys through school and make better of themselves. But... there's always a twist, the boys weren't as happy as they parents thought they should be and thus the conflict for the play. It was interesting.
When it ended we decided to wait a few minutes to see if Orlando came out. Well as we waited, we became more and more committed to waiting, and the throngs of people started to appear. It was really quite funny, especially since the majority of the people did not see the play, which in some ways was frustrating. We paid, we should get first dibs. They did let people with little kids on to the front, so that was nice, we thought.
Anyway, after almost an hour, we finally got a glimpse.. Jason got a couple fun pics.. I'll find them and share them with you. The local restaurant employees said it's worse on the weekends, and we just couldn't imagine. For 10 weeks, he'll have to deal with this, and I'll be the rest of the cast gives him quite a hard time of it. Paparazzi and all! We even got a glimpse of Liv Tyler, who I am happy to say is one week older than me!
Well, I'm slowly getting caught up.. have installments on Bath, Salisbury, Portabello Market, and Hampton Court awaiting you!

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