St. Pancras Statue, Tower of London & Tower Bridge

Sussex Best Bitter

It's delicious! And the way it's poured/pumped is pretty cool too!

Holy Crap!

I was walking through the tube and heard this man singing, so I turned on my camera and started recording, what I wasn't expecting was to be smacked in the face by a stunning view when I popped out...

What isn't filmed is my reaction when I turned to the right and was confronted by the monstrosity known as "Big Ben"!

Tower of London Guard

Yeoman Guard outside where the Crown Jewels are on display!

long lost relatives

Emma & Jenn

Reggie & Lisa (and baby-in-belly)

Sam (the Ham)!

Samuel, Lara, Archie

Sophie, Samuel, Lara, Archie, & Joe

Gina, Jake, & Jamie

Meg, the Dog!

^^^^^ Meet Meg <<<<<

Safe European Home

I do not make any claim of being an expert commentator or videographer.

a room with a view

OH Sweet SLEEPY!!!

With the time change and 10 hour flight, I feel like a day has been stolen from me, but also so incredibly tired I can barely think straight.

The plane I flew in on was populated with some of the prettiest/most stylish people I've ever seen at 30,000 feet. It was long, but great. I will forever recommend Virgin Atlantic for international flights, if possible. Even the flight attendants were pretty (both male and female). And let me not forget ... one of the was named "Rad". No joke, his name was RAD! Unfortunately, I couldn't find my camera in enough time to snap a proper photo of his name tag. The in-flight entertainment was absolutely stellar. Movies I watched included, "The Soloist", "The Boat That Rocked" (a.k.a. "Pirate Radio" for us America types), and "The Hangover". They had somehting like 55 movies to choose from, and most of them were awesome! I also played some serious sudoku, but that's another addiction for another day.

When I arrived in Heathrow, things went quite smoothly. I didn't realize how accurate "Love Actually" is!!! There were throngs of people crowding the arrivals gate. I felt like Moses walking out of there ... and then couldn't find my aunt. HAH! So really, more than "Love Actually", as per usual, it turned out more like "Bridget Jones", a comedy of errors, and the two of us passing each other (more than once).

Emma's house is quite adorable. A little cottage home, perfect for a single person or couple. I love it! She demands it's too small, but I strongly disagree. I think it's wonderful. I'll try to post some pictures (hopefully tomorrow), but tonight I am just too sleepy. Hopefully I will wake up with renewed energy to take on a sunday pub extravaganza. Emma's dog, Meg, is the kookiest cutest mix of creatures I may have ever seen. She seems like she should be in a movie or something. Like she's the outcast dog that nobody likes and then she wins everyone over with her undeniable charm. Much like Rudolph. Again, pictures tomorrow.

She made me soup (potato leek) for lunch and shepherd's pie for dinner. SO GOOD!!! I love the homemade comfort-y goodness and we've been chatting for hours! Watching television here gives me hope though. They actually spotlight real looking people. Rather than waifs with boob jobs, there are real men and women, with real bodies, doing real-people things. It's a nice change! Now that's change I can believe in.

So today, was kind of a catch-up day, tomorrow ... let the games begin.

what are words for?

They say the definition of crazy is to repeat the same behavior over and over, expecting a different result. I try to remember this on a fairly regular basis, because I tend to be a creature of habit. I think most people are. The reason I type this though, isn't because of me, it's because of what I have recently noticed others doing. Too often I hear from friends who are "shocked, shocked I tell you," when they repeat behavior that has once burned them and they end up getting the same unwanted result. This seems ... counter-productive, counter-intuitive, and in some cases just flat-out dumb!

I think this translates into inter-personal/conversational behavior as well.

I know a number of people who dumb-down their conversations just to get through a night. It goes a number of ways. You might dumb-down your conversation because you think that's what people want to hear. You might think it makes you really attractive and "cute"/"hot" to be dumb as a bag of hammers! You might be forced to dumb-down your conversation so you don't have to end up in a bar-fight, or you might have to do it just to maintain a flowing conversation because your conversational counterpart can't keep up. And the list goes on, but the list isn't the point ... the point is this ... if you find yourself regularly in these situations, do you think it might be a good idea to rethink the people you've been chatting up?

Maybe the venue has changed, but if the conversations are remaining the same aren't you just talking to the same person occupying a different vessel? And clearly ... if you do this over and over again, the conversation isn't so satisfying.