London Calling

My first trip to London. Honestly it wasn't on the top of my lists to visit. In fact it may not even be in the top five (France, Kenya, Latvia, Montreal, Colombia) Nova Scotia was ranking up there as well. At any rate it was a country I wanted to visit someday so better sooner than never right?!

The purpose? To see my good friend Ted get married to the lovely Laura. Since this had to be done the proper way - of course the wedding would be in England. Ashwell to be precise and what a perfect day it was for to people to be united in matrimony. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I arrived in London on Thursday July 24th and almost immediately went to see some of the sights and grab a pint. I had 6 hours to kill before booking it out to Royston where I was staying. Piccadilly Circus was the first stop. Frommers describes it as the "Heart and Soul of London" with all of the traffic it's definitely a circus and all of the people flocked on the statue of Euros are the pigeons. After catching a few more sights I had my first pint of Fuller's London Pride. Warm and right out of a beer engine, the way it should be. After having some to the worst fish and chips in the entire world I struck out to find my inn in Royston.

The next day was the wedding. Perfectly set at the Swiss Garden in Ashwell with it's ornate gazebo and peacocks roaming the grounds. After the ceremony we headed to a mini reception where I had the most fabulous English drink in the world. Pimms and lemonade. If you haven't had it I suggest getting one immediately. No I mean right now. My blog isn't going anywhere so head on out and get yourself to a fine establishment that serves Pimms.... Ok now that you've tried it, you know what I'm talking about. Mmm mmm good. Between that and meeting Laura's cousins Lidia and Helena I was having a ball. The rest of the night was filled with me giving advice to four kids and carrying a bottle of champagne filling drinks and making merriment. Now let it be known what I told the kids was the truth - 3 things they should remember as they get older; Look someone in the eye & give a firm handshake; follow your heart and be true to yourself; and learn how to dance. The night ended at the inn with the bottle of champagne and a couple who were at a different wedding laughing until the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday night in London. Soho district. about 20,000 people in the streets and bars and it was almost as much fun just walking on the street watching people as it was paying 5 GBP ($10) for a pint of beer. Gay, Straight, Bums, Clubbers, Teenagers, Cops you name it we saw it. In fact we even saw a British beatdown. 2 on 3. It was quite comical to see these small skinny guys throwing punches at one another. Kinda like watching midget tossing - lots of flailing around but no one's really getting hurt.

A word to the wise, if someone in London tells you, "Oh it's only a 20 min walk tops to get there," they don't know what they are talking about. The walk from Soho back to our rooms at the Latvian House was 1.5 hours. Fuckers.

The last day was spent sightseeing (look kids Big Ben, Parliament). I headed to the Tower of London and took a boat ride down to Westminster Abby, followed by a walk to Buckingham Palace. No sightings of Royalty, just a nice Sunday stroll taking in the sights.

Until next time Click here to see the pics.



Ciao Ciao

Tri-it!

The first thing I will say is that everyone can do a triathlon. You don't have to be young, super fit, or even really athletic to do one. Just determination to finish is all you really need. That being said, Tom, my cohort in this excursion to push myself, as well as Lori, our gracious host for two days, were making jokes about actually doing this the entire way to Lawrence on Saturday. Tom's sisters were poking fun at the length (Sprint course consisting of 500 meter swim, 11.4 mile bike ride, 3.1 mile run in that order). Where they come from they call those distances for a triathlon a "Try It."

Disaster almost struck as we were driving to Lawrence and Tom's bike started to fall off the bike rack and taste I-70 the hard way. Fortunately we were able to readjust and move forward. We stayed with Lori's mom Vikki and loaded up on carbs that night for dinner.

Neither one of us slept very well. I was up at 4am and then back to sleep and Tom said pretty much the same thing. I didn't ever think pre-night jitters would get ahold of me but I guess I was wrong.

Before the race started our friends Sheri, Mary, and Shawn all showed up to cheer us on. It was nice to see some smiling faces and welcome cheers.

The pictures tell the story much better than I could ever write but the highlights were when we were:

1. Driving to the site I told Tom I had an out because black people don't do triathlons. We don't. It was confirmed.

2. There is a stuff called Gu (ironically it rhymes with pooh), which we were told would give us the caloric and energy boost we needed during the tri if we ever started to feel run down. Well it worked but this thick viscous substance inching down your throat as you are "running" to the next stage needs some serious reformulation.

3. When people are passing you either in the same direction as you or coming back and they say "good job," they aren't talking to you. They are really saying, "I'm ahead of the fat kid..." to themselves and all you hear is "...good job!"

4. It is a humbling experience to have a 65 year old man basically beat you to the finish line by 3 miles... in a 3.1 mile run. It is equally humbling to say to yourself, "this 12 year old girl is not going to beat me biking up this hill..." and not only does she beat you but after two strong peddles you start crying like a 12 year old girl.

All said and done I am very happy for every one's support during all of this training and well wishes during and after it all. It was tremendous encouragement to help me finish my first (and there will be another) triathlon.

Until next time... Enjoy the pics!