13 August, 2011

Today we went to the Shepherd's Bush Festival and the of the largest malls in the UK.

We started out with a visit to La Crema for breakfast.  This is the same place Bob and I went to a couple of days ago for a traditional English breakfast.  Funny name for an English restaurant.  All of the tables were too small for our big brood so we took two.  Almost all orders were delivered this way, "Can I have the full breakfas,t but without the beans and tomatoes, and with hash browns?" or "Can I get this, but without the sausage?"  Hannah and Ariel shared. 

There is something kind of odd that I have noticed in a lot of public bathrooms.  The sinks have two faucets, one for cold and one for hot, so you can either use the hot water or the cold water.  Who thought that was a good idea?  Your hands are either burning or freezing. Sometimes I keep my left hand under the hot faucet and the right hand under the cold then try splashing the water on the other hand to make it warm.  It doesn't really work.  Equally odd is that many still have those old style hand towels on the roll that most of haven't seen in decades.  The kind where you grab the towel and pull and it turns in the machine to give you a clean spot.  I am sure it's been at least thirty years since I've seen one.

The festival was right across the street from the restaurant.  There were live bands, some face painting (as promised,  but no unveiled woman taking advantage) some cheesy rides, and then... we discovered some African drummers.  They had about thirty drums and were teaching the audience.  Ariel, Michael, and Bob got in on the fun.  Michael didn't quit until his hands and arms got sore.  Matthew and Jacob enjoyed some laser tag, and Hannah got her face painted and went into the bumper balls.  I wasn't sure if Bob's big smile was because he was having fun or because of the cleavage shot he was getting from the woman sitting beside him.  I didn't include a picture in order to maintain the G rating.

Then it was off to the mall.  Oh my, this mall was HUGE.  We split up into two groups, the guys and the girls.  We had an hour and a half.  We girls went into three stores, the Disney store (didn't buy anything), a book store (bought a little something for Hannah), and the cutest little shop that featured all sorts of colourful things no one needs but everyone would want (bought a little tooth fairy box for Hannah).  I don't know where the guys went, but they came back with bags and bags.  Who says women shop more than men?  We also ate there, well the kids did.  They don't have a real food court, like we think of.  They had real restaurants with a host or hostess and real seating, with real wait staff.  We went to a burger place and all of the kids ate.  Bob and I wanted Thai and there is a little place just down the street from our house. 

On the way home I ran into the grocery store to pick up a few necessities and the woman in line in front of me said, "Why don't you go ahead of me and use the self-check out?"  Well I live in Sarasota, I know how those things work.  I went over and scanned my items, put them in the bag, and pressed the "finished" button.  Then the machine asked me to scan my card.  My card?  I don't have a card.  I don't even know what kind of card it was asking about.  I turned to the register where the real people were and they gave me a look of concern in exchange for my look of confusion  I said, "I don't have a card.  What should I do?"  The cashier told me not to worry, just hit the cash button.  Doesn't that beg the question, why did he give me a concerned look?  Here's the thing.  Bob had asked me to get him some cigarettes while I was in there, but with all of the confusion at the self-check out machine, I forgot.  So I got back in line and now it was really really long.  I thought Well, I will just run into a convenience store on the way back but then I remembered that a lot of the stores are run by Muslims with signs that say, "Absolutely no alcohol on premises"  I didn't know if that meant there is none to sell or none can be brought in.  I was going over what to do in my mind when I ran across the street (English style- look right, not left) when I saw Bob standing there waiting for me.  Phew!  One less thing to worry about. 

We went into the Thai restaurant and ordered our food.  Now we are home for the evening.  During the day I was able to get lots of English people to talk to me.  I even met an Australian woman who has done a number of home exchanges and was excited to meet another exchanger.  It might be the part of the city we are staying in, but there are surprisingly few English people.  Everywhere we go the people are from somewhere else.  Our waiter was from South Africa, the next door neighbour is from Australia, we met an American woman yesterday.  There are far more foreigners than English here.  I wonder if they say, "Would the last Englishmen to leave the city please take the flag," like we say about Miami.