The Masking... Royal Wedding part 3

For part 2, go here
Some pictures from Hyde Park:

Me, practising my "William smile"

Yes, Grandmother, I should've had a Stars and Stripes somewhere.

We left Harrods with a powerful thirst. Luckily, there's a chain restaurant, Cafe Rouge, just outside Entrance Three. Aaaaaaaaah. Sitting down and sipping ice cold Stella Artois and watching London go by was lovely.

And then we were like, "now what do we do?" And we answered ourselves, "South Bank Centre!"

We took the Tube to Waterloo, walked several hundred yards, and all of a sudden, this gal was on the banks of the Thames. I participated in the London Eye 4D experience...fyi...4D includes the sense of 'touch'. I rode the London Eye. See?

Looking Southwestish

Looking North Northeastish

The manner in which I chose to carry my Kate mask caused a stir amongst those around me.  I didn't notice, but Ruth did. Later she told me that people would stop, point, and stare. Many laughed.

Par for the course, wouldn't you say?

Notable to me about this experience... Big Ben? Totally squat and not skyscraperish like Peter Pan leads you to believe. And the clock face is lower than I thought it was. And the queues? Not very long at all. Ruth was surprised and remarked a few times how she had thought there'd be more people ...just everywhere. That the Tube'd be crammed and the sidewalks would be impregnable. Other than the short bottlenecking time period on the walk to Buckingham and away from it, were there any crowd issues.

Also of interest: I had Flight of the Order of the Phoenix going through my head the entire time I was in the LE cab. Go ahead, click that link. It's only 1:34 long.

Walked across Westminster bridge. Passed beside the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The HofP is an impressive edifice...just smaller than I thought it was. We'd hoped the Abbey would be open, but by the time we walked by (5:15, according to BB which chimed the once) they'd already closed the gates. So, onward to Covent Gardens for dinner!

WE HAD MORE PIMMS!

...and we ate food. Ruth is vegetarian, so her's was a Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Sammich. I splurged and got a pizza.

Got back on the Tube, headed to Kings Cross, got on train to head home.

And the train is where I got punchy.

Even though I only had three drinks the entire day...

These are the 'tame' ones... the ones I feel comfortable putting online.

These would be our recommendations for the next Royal Wedding...
Folding stools
Bigger hats with veils on the back and bows... many, many bows
Homemade periscope
Fully charged phones
Men to carry things
Pushchair with pretend baby (I swear, that helps to avoid the cattling!)
Shoes with thicker soles or change of footwear (I did pack socks for the train ride home though! Told you I was organized.)
And since I'm a large thigh lady, powder or bike pants. Not pretty. I'm healing though. TMI? Tough it out. Learn from my mistake.

What we did right...
Bottles of water
Light snacks (Nuts [thanks SJ] and Yogurt Fruit Bars)
Making an effort to be festive
Go with the flow style of plans... we didn't get upset at anything or anyone.
We were well behaved Sensible Ladies
Didn't lose anything
Backpack
Right number of companions...good dynamic

We so rocked this royal wedding outing. Thanks for reading.

Still Banned From Wetherspoons?

So I got a text sometime last week inviting me out for a "goodbye" party out at Wetherspoons, or rather, 'spoons'.  Immediately I thought, "yeah, right," because of the last time I went out with the kids. Technically, it really was a goodbye pub crawl, like you do here. The Jobseekers program that pays the salary for the CS shop workers ran its course and my friends are now moving on to other things, like moving away to Coventry. This was to be the last 'hoorah'.

To this day, we still have not made it to Wetherspoons as a group. Lifetime bans have that effect, I suppose.

No. The revelers started out at Studio where I came across these fine items...

A vending machine that provides slip on flats for those tired piggies after a hard night of working it in stilettos. 

Click to enlarge

Okay. I've never ever seen anything like that before. Excellent idea!

 Here's some samples of the footwear the ladies of the Northeast torment their feet indulge for the sake of fashion...

These particular examples of Northeast Footwear Fashion are extremely tame. Me? I was already wearing black flats. I learned my lesson the first time.

It was loud, too loud. I tried to convince these younguns that we should go someplace quieter. Some were amenable. And then some of them, who I didn't meet because of the fact that it was really loud and I couldn't be bothered anyway, decided to buy pitchers...

Good on him. He was over 7 feet tall anyway.

 I had to leave and I wasn't the only one who felt the same way. When people start drinking pitchers through a straw, it usually isn't a good harbinger of a fun night out with the lads...

So we (Laura, her boyfriend Matt, and I) moved on to...

Popped collar central...aka Varsity. Has lovely large bathrooms.

The Slug and Lettuce. Yes, that's really its name. And it is a huge place. But on certain days and times, they have really good deals like 2-for-1 cocktails. Had a very nice and spicy Bloody Mary. Bartender looked at me like I was crazy because I kept telling him, "MORE TABASCO!" I know it's a horrible picture, but what do you expect?

And then there was this guy. Still the Slug and Lettuce. Gave that chair quite the lap dance. Must've been an invisible rabbit sitting in it or something. It was Easter Eve after all.

Temperature at night was high 30s or low 40s. See the heels? And her dress is one of the longer ones. I was inadvertently flashed Britney-style at one point during the course of the night by a girl whose dress was much shorter than that pink number. 

And what was I wearing? Jeans that kept falling down (happies, dammit), Gap Favorite T-shirt (gray), Gap jacket (beige), Scarf (gray with fringe), black flats. Ponytail. And I couldn't give less of a damn that that was what I wore.

Oh and it rained too. Heh heh.

Finally, because Laura was feeling minor guilt that she was not hanging out with people she cajoled into coming out, we ended the night with all the pitcher-drinking hoodlums at Yates.  The DJ wouldn't play Sonique. Said it was too old. UH, HELLO? Ever hear of retro? Tosser. But I am now happily acquainted with these lovely songs...


and


and Lady Gaga's Born This Way which is a total rip-off of Madonna's Express Yourself...

Amirite?


I was happy to spend time with the ones I knew, happy to ignore the ones I didn't. Because I'm a Sensible Lady. Turns out that I was also Old Lady at the Club. Just like Chef says, don't bother me none.

And so, after a night of drinking a few drinks and observing the natives, I was home before midnight-thirty. To think that I was contemplating canceling so I could watch Game of Thrones.

I love bit torrent.