When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life

Wow... it's already happened. The reason I've been absent is because I have completely entered the time warp that is London. It's like walking into my favorite pub at 12 noon and the next thing I realize is that the pub is shutting down and I haven't eaten anything since breakfast. It's like that.

Everyday I try to think about how to capture what I'm seeing and feeling and putting it into words, and it's beyond hard. I want to say it just right. My dad reminded me about this quote (which also happens to be written on the wall of my favorite pub) and it says "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." -Samuel Johnson

I am so hyper-aware of everything that's happening around me, in a way that I didn't experience the last year I was here. I feel like I've opened up my periphery vision and am seeing new things that were always there, but I wasn't ready to see them at the time. Let me tell you, this has proven to be good, bad, and really really funny.

Before I talk about potentially offensive things (even my Grandmother reads this!!) I want to share the story about how I met Patricia, this lovely 70 year old woman from London who has completely inspired me beyond belief. The other day I was sitting next to the Tower of London, reading The Times and drinking a coffee, and soaking up the sun in my sundress. It has been beautiful lately, about 20 degrees and sunny everyday. So, this gorgeous lady comes over and asks if she can sit in the chair next to me so she can soak up the sun too. Before she can put her coffee on the table, we start talking. About everything.

To make a fairly long story short, she is the epitome of how I want to age and to be a beautiful, strong woman like herself (very much like my mom and grandmother too). She told me her "secrets" to achieving a happy life and they included things like staying fit, eating right, and creative visualization of things that you want to accomplish. She is a firm believer that the energy you put into the world is the energy that will be returned to you, and she hinted about believing in God. I soaked up her words and wisdom and was beaming by the time I met up with my boyfriend (who I kept waiting for this lovely lady). When we parted, she said some really inspiring and tear jerking words, that I can't even share them on this blog.

I think in the past I've been too quick to say that Londoners are generally snobbish and uptight... and that's a theory that I'm slowly breaking down right now. Everyday I have a meaningful conversation with a stranger- a phenomenon that I thought only existed in Canada.

And then there's the Irish. This is another fairly long story that I'll abridge. So I went to Wellington Barracks (steps from Buckingham Palace) to watch Vince perform and be part of the year's biggest inspection of the guards. I'm sorry honey, but being a guard myself, I got bored. So I went to a pub thinking I would have a quick drink and meet up with Vince once he finished being inspected by the guy with the funny hat. The next thing I know, I'm sitting at a table with 7 drunk, grown up Irish men and laughing so hard I was nearly peeing myself. They are 100% a different breed of person. Perhaps some of the funniest people I've ever met in my life, very closely followed by the English. I was suspicious that they were some kind of policemen or security intelligence members because aside from the muscles, I tried taking a picture to remember these blokes, and they were having none of it.

Anyway, I need to be careful as it turns out, because when I got up to leave, one of the guys told me to tell my "Army boyfriend" that I had been drinking with some former RUC members. I figured it had something to do with some kind of political group of Northern Ireland, and google confirmed that I was mostly right. They were a form of police service that fought in Northern Ireland during a time of lawlessness and violence, and it was formed in 1922 until 2001. You can google the rest.

Alright, I've just realized that I have enough stories to write a book so I'll share one more that made me laugh really hard. The other night I met up with two lovely ladies that I haven't seen in 6 months, and we met in the city (near Liverpool street station) for some dinner. Towards the end of dinner, one of the ladies turns to us and says "right, are we up for a wee bit of karaoke tonight?". Normally these words made me run away crying because there's few things in life that I hate more than karaoke, but I'm trying to be "yes woman" lately. So off we go, walking down the small alleys of the city towards the karaoke bar.

Here is the hilarious part... the karaoke bar is an Asian restaurant, where you walk in and there's a small, beat up couch in the corner, a screen overhead, and a family of Asians that speak minimal english and charge way too much for a gin and tonic. We 3 ladies arrived and were obviously the first people there aside from the 1 very large fish swimming in the fish tank. It was just so odd that for the first 10 minutes, we sat on that beaten up couch and laughed our butts off, and the hilarity level got even higher when this tiny Asian man started singing for us. "How are you ladies tonight? You feeling sexy?" Oh my god it was so funny.

Only minutes later did the place completely fill up with drunk city boys (another breed of person) looking to scream into the microphone and perform various embarrassing acts with each other... so we left. At least we left having had some really good laughs.

I realize that I'm not doing a very good job at "describing London" so I will work on that. I'm still trying to get the words right, but I figured these stories were worth sharing in the meantime.

Time to sit in the sun and read the newspaper!! xx