Bet you thought I forgot about this.

After leaving Italy, Mr. M and I traveled to London, where we managed to meet up with M:TNG-1 at Heathrow, eventually. The eventually was due to some fool in front of her at customs who pissed off the officials for no apparent good reason, delaying everything. We then traveled to our hotel, meeting keswindhover on the way. She guided us to the hotel and a nearby Turkish restaurant. I still can't believe I've actually met keswindhover. I have emails we exchanged in 2002, when we were both hanging out on the now-defunct Band of Buggered board, but this was our first FL meeting. She is as fun and adorable as I always knew she'd be, and she is the world's most magnificent tour guide.

The next day, Mr. M, TNG-1 and I wandered around. Our hotel was near Covent Garden, so we started in that area, passing a guy in a kilt who was balancing on a ladder and shivering as he promised or threatened, depending on your point of view, to show us what was under the kilt. Not being much interested, we continued on, taking in sights like Number 4 Bow Street where I babbled on about the Fielding brothers and Runners while Mr. M and M:TNG-1 politely ignored me. M:TNG-1 was more impressed by the experience of eating fish and chips while actually in England and this road sign:



But the big thrills of their day were finding was what is supposedly the actual cheese shop from the famous Monty Python sketch, followed by their excursion to some strange ritual. keswindhover obtained ticket for them to observe some men in shorts running around a field and occasionally hugging each other:



Not being an initiate in these mysteries, I chose to meet keswindhover at the British Museum, which I found after a surprisingly short time getting lost in the neighborhood of Bloomsbury Square. (Yes, I know you can see the BM from one end of the square. I'm that hopeless.) I'd been there once before, many years previously, and it was much more crowded this time. We had a hard time getting anywhere near the Rosetta Stone, but we still found plenty to see. Kes took the pictures below.


Torcs! There is something about torcs that draws even those generally immune to the lure of jewelry.


A clock in the shape of a boat



Bits of Greek architecture, with me standing awkwardly in front. (And we acknowledged the debate about the Parthenon friezes that has been going on for a couple of centuries.)

M:TNG-1 and I spent part of the evening sorting through her tax and financial aid paperwork, since this was the only chance we had to go through the forms together and make sure everything was correct. I couldn't just shove it all off on her, adult though she is, because we save money by reporting her as a dependent on our taxes, only fair since the federal government insists on reviewing our income as well as hers for student aid purposes. Because April 15 was looming, we sent all the forms home with Mr. M to be mailed before the deadline, while M:TNG-1 and I continued to cavort in London. (He had to go back to work on Monday; I didn't.)



I'll continue in another post as this is getting very picture heavy, and I have to make sure I have some documents ready for work tomorrow.