Looney's in London

Mom & Dad came in September to visit for a couple of weeks. Mother Nature co-operated this time and it didn't rain everyday, all day. They arrived on the 15th Sept and I went to North Yorkshire for a meeting on a contract. And I took advantage of having somebody home and a guy showed up to drop off new dish washer. Once I got home, we went around the corner to the pub for dinner. There's a great place called the Hand-in-Hand that is an authentic English village pub ... that Wimbledon has just grown up around. They have fantastic pies [these are dinner pies, not dessert pies].

The next day, Mom and Dad slept in and visited the Village; I went to Barnsley to facilitate a partner meeting. And I am still settling into my house, a guy showed up to install the new dish washer. Wimbledon Village is a great place to get lost in, stop and have a tea or a glass of wine, so I guess Mom & Dad okay for the day on their own.

On Thursday, I worked from home in the morning and waited for the guy to show up and install the satellite. I figured Mom & Dad meeting work men three days in a row might be too much to ask. Good news! I got ESPN-America and the the St. Louis Cardinals were going to be on TV Sunday night / Monday morning at Midnight. We could record it and watch it at our leisure during normal hours.

After the Satellite was in, we headed into London. I had a meeting to be at in the office, and we had tickets to see Wicked later on. None of us had seen it, and it was really good. I had no idea what to expect, really. Fun story.

On Friday, we went to Buckingham Palace to participate in the summer open house and take some tours. We first went to the Queen's Gallery. It's a "timed" entry, so we started there and then could go at our leisure to the rest. It's basically a museum, filled primarily with paintings & tapestries and some sculptures. After that we went into the Palace and we visited the State Rooms, which was my favourite. We walked in the same entries and down the same stairs that the Queen would receive visitors for official functions. All very cool.

After that, we visited the mews where they keep the official state cars and carriages ... and horses. Most of the horses were somewhere else, but we did get to see four before we left. The glass carriage is the one that Princess Diana rode in on her wedding day.

After touring for four hours, we headed over to my office for a happy hour. No reason, it was just time for us to gather and have a glass of wine. We had a few nibbles and drinks and then headed back to Wimbledon for a rest.

On Saturday, we laid low. I was going to walk into the Village to get some groceries. Mom & Dad decided to come along and we stopped at Wagamama for lunch. We down to the Broadway [bottom of the hill] to go to the grocery at Morrison's, rode the bus back up the hill and then everyone had to carry a bag back across the Commons.

I ran Sunday morning in preparation for my upcoming run in Dublin and I was trying to spend time at home with the Misty-girl. We drove over to Kew Gardens, a huge botanical gardens park. I think we only saw about 1/3 of the park and that took us most of the afternoon.

I left Mom & Dad on their own on Monday and headed into the office. Monday was the day that I was to find out if we won the big account we had been pursuing for the last six months. Unfortunately, we did not. I was devastated. Worked my butt off for that one and really thought we had it ...

On Tuesday, I had a meeting, but then had to take Misty in to have the 25 staples she had removed. I decided to do a work from home day on Wednesday [23rd].

I went into work on Thursday and got a call from Mom in the early afternoon that Misty was down, and I rushed home. You know the rest.

Friday, we headed to Dublin with my friend Ramu, in order to participate in the Dublin Half Marathon on Saturday. We had time on Friday to do tour the Guinness Storehouse. Guinness just happened to turn 300 years old on the 24th [day before], so there was a lot going on in and around the factory. It was by far my favourite distillery / winery / brewery tour I have every been on. The place was amazing! It's seven stories and it's set up as a sensory tour ... things to watch, things to try, you walk, you ride, you touch, and so on. Afterwards we went to O'Neill's for a drink.

On Saturday morning, Ramu and I headed into Phoenix Park to participate in the Dublin half-marathon. The park is HUGE. The Ireland president lives there. The American Ambassador. We saw at least 400 deer. There is a massive cross where Pope John Paul II held mass 30 years before. I think we walked at least 2.5 miles to get to the starting point for the race. There were 8,000 runners in all. We finished in 1:58:38 ... 21 seconds longer than the Nashville Half-Marathon I ran 4 years previous ... and I was 77th in my age group. It was a good run. I had lots of energy to burn after my week. The only bad part was after running 10 miles ... they were bailing hay! Do you have any idea what that does to my already tired lungs?

We finished the run and headed back to the hotel to take ice bags and look for some lunch. We went to Stag's Head ... as we continued to tour the top pubs in Dublin. There was an upstairs / outside garden. After lunch, we headed to the garden where Ramu, Dad and I smoked a Cuban cigar in celebration of the run being completed!

On Sunday, we headed into Dublin for some more touring. We tried to stop at The Covered Market, but was closed for Sunday, so we walked through Temple Bar which runs along the Leffey River and has a bunch of shops. There wasn't much going on for a Sunday.

We did stop at the Ha' Penny Bridge for a photo, named that because it used to cost a half penny to cross over. We took a walk down O'Connell Street. It's a wide street with shops, statues, restaurants, and The Monument of Light, a stainless steal spire that's 394 feet tall.

On Monday, I worked from the kitchen for the morning and then Pam, joined us for lunch. I was back in full bid-writing mode, so Mom and Dad kept busy getting ready for their journey back to the States. We took a car early on Tuesday morning to Heathrow and then I headed into London.