Watermelon Jim and the BEST day ever!

Watermelon Jim? Wait for it, we will get there. This has been an incredibly busy week. My last week in England before I go home and I have not yet started to pack. It will take FOREVER. Anyhow, a recap of the week....Tuesday something quite interesting happened. I had parked my car at our little parking lot at work; had reversed in to a spot on the second (and last) row which is sort of on a little hill and also which ends just as a person's side/backyard fence begins. So it's the row of cars, then the fence, then the yard and house. Well, I always use my parking brake there of course, and I know that when I put the brake down and release it, the car will roll back...so I was ready. I put the brake down and had my foot on the brake when I released and put the car into gear, then I hit the gas to take off so that I wouldn't roll back. But I had put the car in reverse, not drive. A little mistake really, just a slip up like calling someone the wrong name, but it cost me £40. Yeah I put a nice massive gash in the fence. It kind of gets worse-because I was running late, as usual, and I knew I would be back in a couple of hours, so I thought I would just go talk to the people who lived there when I came back. So I left, came back and parked again, and went in to ask Penny (our English secretary) what to do. She knows all the insurance info and everything. I said I thought I should go then and knock on the door and tell them what happened. She said, "No, just leave it." I said, "Are you kidding, don't you think I should tell them?" "No, once they burned down the fence and WE had to pay for it, so just let it alone." Alright. Against my better judgement I did not go. But I still thought maybe when I left work that day I should go and tell them. Well, an hour or two later one of my co-workers phoned and said that there was a note about the "incident" on my car. I was scared. When I left work I went to my car and read the hate note, which did tell me that if I did not come and talk to her that day with all of my insurance info, she would report me to the police. So I went and knocked on the door, told her exactly what happened and I apologized profusely; that when I left I was running late but worked there and knew I'd be back, etc. But she did not want to be friends and was not nice about it. She said it would be £40 for a new panel for the fence. The next morning I paid the £40 and she was actually nicer to me that day. The thing is, I work there, I park there every day, it's not like I was gonna try and run from it or something. But it's all done with now, so that's good. Tuesday night we had a Starbuck's night for Ignite. It was really great-had an old ACS student who's now a sophomore in college come sing for us. He's really good-Bobby Hamrick. And Megen and Travis did lots of Top 10 lists such as: Top 10 moments for Megen, Lindsey, Trav, Dustin...Top 10 things we say to Travis, Top 10 things Travis says, Top 10 reasons to come to Ignite...and so on. It was really funny stuff. My car incident that very day made number 1 on my list I believe. Wednesday evening my friend Ang from London came down and we went to dinner and then to a musical-Thoroughly Modern Millie. It was so great! I had wanted to see it back in New York forever ago, so was really excited to finally see it. We loved it. Thursday night Megen, Travis, Dustin, and I went out for our "final hoorah." Since I leave Monday and the boys leave 2 days after I return, we won't all get to hang out again together. So we went to this Japanese sushi/maki place in Kingston that I had been to once before. It's greatness. Then we went to the Ram Jam Club!!! It's a little building behind a pub that has live music on the weekends. It's a pretty cool little place actually. Went and watched Bobby play. And then, Bob Cheevers. You probably have never heard of Bob Cheevers, but he's straight outta Nashville. Sounded very much like Willie Nelson and had the same kind of hairstyle too actually. His first song was about a man that lived behind him when he was growing up in Alabama...this man sold watermelon off the back of his truck and his name was Jim. Watermelon Jim. That song was followed by Ragged Bone Man...then Spoon Man...etc. Love the songs about the random influences of Bob's life. Very interesting. Yesterday was Friday and I thought I would go cycle along the river and see how far I could get. I have wanted to cycle to London for a while now, but was pretty sure I couldn't make it, as it is some 20 miles. Not sure exactly how far. So I left the house at 11 and rode down to the river which is about 4 miles from home, then along the river path for the next like 4 hours!!! I cycled to London. Past Kew Gardens to Mortlake. Then I turned around and headed back...stopped to journal in Richmond-upon-Thames...got to Kingston and my quads and knees hurt pretty bad so I decided to just get to Surbiton and catch a train there. Took the train to Weybridge and cycled about 3 miles back home. The hardest part was the last bit in St. George's Hill going up Old Avenue because it's a gradual hill, a long one. I had to get off and walk for a couple of minutes. When I got home, my quads were excruciating, with a different kind of pain than I had ever felt. I was scared I had damaged myself. But after a few minutes of standing they were pretty good. It's just that I had been on a bike for like 4 hours of repetitive motion. Anyway, Megen had texted earlier in the day and had been offered 2 free tickets for Third Day, so we got to go to Third Day in London last night...making it the BEST day ever! We both LOVE Third Day and were stoked to go. Courtesy of Kevin Lowry, our youth council member. The concert was amazing and we had such a great time! Sorry this is the longest blog ever. Thanks for taking the time to read!

Toepath or Towpath?

Today is Friday, so the American Women's group went on one of their long walks as they do each Friday-and I joined in. I brought Kristen Millisor (senior) along too. I think this was my third walk with them. They're about 6-7 mile walks starting at 10 a.m. and finishing around 12:30 at a pub/restaurant. They are always fantastic and usually out in the country, but today was a different walk. It followed along the river beginning at Hampton Court Palace and ending in Richmond-upon-Thames (where Mick Jagger and numerous other famous peeps live). Anyway, we walked along the towpath...or is it toepath? When I first heard them say towpath-I imagined in my mind "toepath" because we were walking-and usually the paths are called footpaths, so this made sense to me. But then I wondered why this one was called a toepath and not a footpath like the others. Anyway, as we arrived into Richmond, I saw a sign next to the path that said "towpath" and so I said to Kristen Millisor, "Oh, I thought it was toepath, like as in toes...why is it towpath? What does that mean? Who's towing what along the path?" She had no answer. Turns out its towpath because it's along the water and they towed boats or something like that. The ladies found it quite amusing that we thought it was toepath. In any case, the was was wonderful! The weather was like a true summer day (even though rain was predicted). Blue skies, warm, fairly sunny. It was just so beautiful all the way...I loved looking at all of the houses whose backyards end at the river. What a great backyard. Many of the houses were really fantastic too. And so many different kinds of trees along the way. I think I said out loud at least 3 times that "I love this country." We ended at a restaurant right along the water. It was a really pricey place, especially for lunch...but I found a cheap way out and just got a side salad as a main-for £5!! The mains were £13-£19 so I felt pretty good. Kristen was even cheaper-she just got chips (fries) for £3! After lunch we hopped on a boat for the ride back to Hampton Court. What a fantastic day.
This week has been great and breezed by. Wednesday I headed into London with my ladie's bible study group for a sort of "send off" to the 3 women from our group that are moving this summer. We went to this art museum for lunch. It's actually in a mansion though, so it's this pretty amazing place. Didn't have time to view the art, so I'll have to go back. The food was pretty great-pricey of course-but my ladies are so kind and generous and I did not even have to pay a pence. They're great. Anyway, I found another new favorite place in London. It's right off of Oxford Street and it's called St. Christopher Place. The next street, James street, is my other new favorite. We walked down James street to the Wallace museum, and walked back up St. Christopher's afterward. James has tons of little bitty street cafe's and St. Christopher's has lots of unique, but expensive, boutiques. It's just a super cute area. I found one store called Marimekko that made me ever so happy because it's my bedspread store!! The bedspread that I have on my bed in Texas is Marimekko-it's these huge red and hot pink poppies and I love it so much! It's so beautiful and bright and happy. So I saw Marimekko and peaked in and there was my exact bedspread design on a raincoat!! And on dinner plates and cups and all sorts of other things. Soooooo expensive though. So anyway that was a super fun time. And then that night my high school girl's Bible study group had our little dinner party. It was our last time together and Emily made cookies and brownies and Singapore noodles with prawns and chicken. So good! Kelly also brought these fantastic little white chocolate raspberry cookie bar things that were incredibly yummy. We had a good time.
Now I am just about to go to Megen's house for French night. We planned this ages ago after we went to Paris together, but it's been rescheduled and rescheduled until now! We are going to watch Amelie and make crepes for dinner and read all of our haikus that we wrote in Paris. I'm pumped!