Lisa Does London- days 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7

Hello all. I'm back. And I know you're all dying for a play by play. Here goes nothing....

I realize after my last post that I was a little negative about my whole London adventure. It took a couple of days, but London grew on me. Manhattan is still my most favorite city in the world, but I would put London on a top 5 list. Ok, maybe top 10. Anyhoo.

I finally settled into the office and got to know a couple of my coworkers a little better, which helped my disposition quite a bit. They were kind enough to look after me and take me to dinner at this amazing Indian food restaurant and introduce me to real ale. Apparently, Indian food is more popular in London that fish and chips. Who knew. I would go on to eat Indian food a grand total of 4 more times on my trip after this initial dinner. 4 times in 2 weeks is probably WAY too much, but I can't get the stuff in Oklahoma so I was making the most of it. Now that I think of it, 4 times is most definitely way too much. Yeah. Moving on.

I wandered around the city aimlessly and took a few pictures of things that I felt were important for a first time visitor in London to see. I came up from the tube stop in Westminster and was greeted by "this mighty fine timepiece" (if I may quote my loving husband).

The Houses of Parliament at dusk were beautiful....

All sightseeing aside, I would say overall, there were three highlights during my week in London:

1. Abbey Road

2. Pimm's

3. St. Paul's Cathedral

Let's talk about bullet point #1. I am a closet Beatles fan. I don't think it is in any one's best interest for me to elaborate on my music choices, but let's just say I had pretty much convinced myself that I would never get to see this place. My coworker, HH, (or double H as I like to call him) was driving us to dinner when he mentioned Paul McCartney lived on the street we were on. I had been pretty reserved on this trip up until that point, so I guess the loud squeal that came out of my mouth tipped him off because he immediately changed lanes and told me I had to see something.

It took me a minute to figure out what he meant, but I am fairly certain I started hyperventilating to myself and chatting about ninety words a minute about how I thought I would never make it here. I am sure he thought I was a complete lunatic (and possibly he still does), but he was kind enough to pull over, walk me to the crossing, take some pictures of me and let me have my minute staring at the road. I am fairly certain I skipped back to the car.

Sidenote: I realize as I am typing all of this, JH is vomiting at the thought of their music and I can only imagine the comments he is going to leave after this post, but, go for it my friend. I can take it.

Bullet point #2. Pimm's. This stuff is delicious. I typically stray away from liquor as I have every one's best interests at heart, but I will definitely make an exception to this rule when it comes to Pimm's. I still can't figure out what is in it, but I am completely compelled to throw a Pimm's Party for all my mates in Oklahoma very soon. Apparently the British only drink this in the summer and it has lemonade in it, which is in fact not lemonade, but sprite or 7up, which causes a girl from Oklahoma great confusion, but this is just one example of my American ways leading me astray whilst working with a bunch of Brits. Le sigh.

Anyhow, I spent a Saturday evening at an outdoor pub drinking Pimm's, listening to my coworkers rattle on about things I knew nothing about but somehow I didn't care as I just continued to throw back this refreshing beverage. And I successfully made it home in one piece, which I think is a feat to be celebrated. Ahem.

Bullet point #3. Last one- get excited. St. Paul's. Apparently religion is not all the rage in the UK so everyone kind of questioningly cocked their head to the right when I mentioned I wanted to go to church on Sunday. We had planned to take the day off and I really didn't know what else to do and I wanted to see the cathedral but I didn't want to pay $20 to get in. There is no charge for worshippers so I found the schedule of worship and popped into the Evensong service. It. was. awesome. We opened with one of my favorite hymns (Abide With Me) and then the choir took over. To say this was just another church service would be the understatement of the century. I truly enjoyed it and worshiping in this particular house of the Lord has left a lasting impression on me and probably saved London from being put on Lisa's top 5 least favorite places. So there you go.

On Monday, (Day 8 of my trip) we headed to Scotland....