Menzies Blakemore Stevenage

... umbrella somewhere, because I couldn't find it the morning we left. So when the security asked me if I had an umbrella in my bag (not sure why it was such an issue, but whatever) I said no. They asked to manually search my bag. Knock yourself out. And low and behold! My umbrella! Jodi and I were busting up! I'm sure security thought we were idiots.
We boarded our plane to Heathrow. We chatted up our flight attendant (Ashleigh) since she was seated next to Jodi. She ...

... flight out of Dulles. Needless to say in my haste I forgot to take a printout of my itinerary. I was not concerned because all the flight and hotel information was also entered in my Palm Pilot...Wrong! When I got to customs at Heathrow, the immigration officer was grilling me on the fact I had no proof of a return flight or proof of temporary residency. I was going to see if they would let me gain access to the ...

... Museum, which was probably the highlight of Enlgand for me, and it blew my mind. After about 5 hours I had seen most of it, but my mind was reeling and my back was killing me. Over the next couple of days I visited the Tower, nice tour and pretty interesting exhibits, Greenwich, it was interesting but probably not as well planned as ...

... boats through. At about 3pm I walked with Ben from the Tower of London to the adjacent Tower Bridge, where our London Passes gave us entry into the exhibition.



The bridge itself is quite pretty, and they've painted it light blue, so it doesn't have the ugly dark colour reminiscent of most known bridges like Sydney Harbour Bridge. At the top we had pretty decent views of the Thames, but it looked a little empty not actually seeing Tower Bridge ...

... of London for a walk around and over the bridge.  This was one site we wish we had the money to get into, just for all of the drama that took place on this site.  Feeling very very done we dragged ourselves back to the hostel for a sleep, waking up just in time to meet Gabrielle's cousin Ian who's been studying and now working in London for over a year now.  Guiding us around London like a pro, Ian took us out to an amazing Thai restaurant for dinner and his ...

... the exit and walk down stairs of stone and steal like the ones I came up. I emerged at the first set of stairs I had walked up and went back into the dome. I couldn't find my mom or Jeff so I went down and waited by the exit of the stairs. They came down eventually and we left. Conveniently, there was a Marks and Spencer across the street. Marks and Spencer is a British mini grocery store where I've learned most of the food tastes weird. We bought some sustenance ...

... quantities. I snooped around a bit, thinking what to buy. In the mood I was in, I was not ready for spiritual literature or philosophy. I was also interested in no fiction, particularly classical. A biography? No. A detective or spy novel? No way. And then a book titled "Ripped and Torn: Levi's, Latin America and the Blue Jean Dream", written by certain Amaranta Wright, caught my eye. I took it into my hands, turned it over two or three times and it simply felt right. I would not ...

... world war campaign. Again these rooms are preserved just as they were in 1945 which some changes only to accommodate a Churchill museum. Visitors see the map rooms, cabinet meeting rooms, sleeping areas and offices, dining rooms, kitchens etc. You could spend a full day here and I highly recommend a visit to anyone going to London. The Wallace Collection at Herford House just behind Oxford Street houses a great ...

... You will find the true unmasked Thomas here :-). Many of you were shocked when I first told you I have decided to take a year and a half out and travel. Some of you think I was crazy, some of you think I was just wasting my time and some of you think this's a good idea but thankfully, most of you are very supportive of my decision. Thinking back, I can't believe I made this decision only 2 months ago ...

... and dinner, the whole group went to the Adelphi Theatre for a production of Evita. It was absolutely amazing - the dancing and the leads were incredible. Che in particular had an incredible range and his voice was just - well, it was good :) Our seats were basically up in the balcony in the back, but the theatre isn't enormous, so we could see pretty well. The theatre was ridiculously hot though ...