Aches and pains

I remember the days when I could fall down and I'd maybe get a bruise or a scrape, but that was it. These days, I fall down and parts of my body not involved in the fall start to ache about 24 hours later. I am currently sporting a beautiful bruise...deep purple with a bit of greening around the edges. I'll have to take a picture and share at some point.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. The friend I was hanging out with had the same "museum pace" as I and he was helpful about keeping me from getting killed by this crazy traffic. I really am glad that I took the chance and wrote him in December. I remember being worried about not having anything to talk about, but it turns out that wasn't a problem. It seems we are both a bit more outgoing these days then back then...

We hit the National Gallery first. What can I say...Monet, Seurat, Holbein, Picasso, VanGogh...well you get the idea. It's just amazing to see these paintings that I've seen in books in person. Then it was on the the British museum. The courtyard is spectacular and the reading room is what you'd think of as a classic library. I got to satisfy my desire for all things mummy. There were some truly amazing enamel works on display in the European section. And in the ancient Europe section, there were Viking artifacts galore and a nice display on the Sutton Hoo burial mound. (You know I love me some Viking artifacts!)

Lunch was at a fabulous (albeit small) veg restaurant, Food for Thought. We wandered around Rough Trade records for a bit, then briefly browsed the shops around Covent Garden. Didn't get to see "diagon alley," but I'm going back sometime because mostly the market was closing up when we got there. We did get to see a few of the performers that are around the market. Dinner was a lovely Indian restaurant, then it was to the pub to finish off our time together.

I have to say that these Londoners really take their street cleaning seriously. I've now seen, twice, people employed by the city out sweeping the streets by hand. My friend asked if I found the city clean...I think it's one of the cleanest cities I've been in...although Edinburgh was pretty clean as well. It's fantastic.

Today, I'm off to meet ST and LB - the tall ones, as Flash says - and see their fair city.

One last interesting thing. I've only been sleeping about 6 - 7 hours a night and waking up ruminating on all the exciting things that have happened and are ahead. The interesting part about this is that I am not as tired as I normally am at home...and I figured out that it's because my allergies are not as activated here. This makes Spins a very happy woman, indeed.

P.S. If I haven't been around to visit your blog recently and you have any swear words on it, I probably can't view it from this cafe. Interestingly "sucks donkey balls" didn't cause any blocks. I suppose that's not a popular internet extracurricular activity.