Day Off

Today has been an unusually fun day so far.  It's mid-afternoon and I'm at the hotel having my afternoon tea and just relaxing.

I was totally worn out last night and dropped off early.  Then, the jackhammers out in the street woke me this morning.  It's probably just as well so I could have a light breakfast.  As expected after forcing myself to a rigourous schedule these past two weeks, I really didn't feel very well when I got up:  very tired, headache, listless -- all of the signs of just being worn out.  I've also been eating far too many calories in all of these meals, so the pants that I brought along to wear to the wedding on Sunday would not begin to fit.  So, what can I do to fix all of that?  Shopping, of course.

The shops at Victoria Station were the first I came to, and it took a while but I found several things that I liked so....I took all of them.  Then, I found a small Sainsbury shop (that's a local grocer) and grabbed a bottle of diet Coke.  Already I'm feeling better! 

There's a small "garden" area behind this b&b with tables and chairs and a lovely breeze, so I decided to hang out there with my computer and journals.  I had had a great conversation on the train from York yesterday with a couple of football fans (soccer), and got some good tips for finding a game that we can attend later this week when Steve is here.  It took me forever to find a place online where I could order tickets without the restriction of having them delivered to my home address (my credit card billing address).  In the interim, communicating back and forth with Steve, it turns out that his friend Troy (who will also be here for the wedding) will be here Saturday with his wife and his parents, and they're also interested in going to a game.  So, on Saturday the six of us will be watching Fulham take on Everton.  Of course we'll be cheering for Fulham since we'll be in their stadium.

On the corner near my b&b is an Italian deli called La Bottega.  When I was here my first week I had gotten take-out there and today decided to just drop over there for a late lunch since I don't want to wander too far.  My objective today is restorative as I have plans to go to Buckingham Palace tomorrow and also intend to take part in a Jack the Ripper tour tomorrow evening.  Anyway, they have the most interesting foods at this deli.  Today, I had a wonderful salad of mixed greens, balsamic tomatoes, steamed cauliflower and broccoli -- topped with what I believe was a square of mozzarella wrapped with prosciutto.  It had been grilled lightly (just enough to melt the cheese and crisp up the prosciutto) and placed in the middle of the salad.  It was so much lighter than the foods I've been eating and I loved it.

Now, I'm going to work on my journals and photographs as I have some really fun photos from a walk I took in the City of London on Sunday.  That is the financial area of London so it's fairly deserted on a Sunday afternoon, but it's also the oldest part of London -- right near the Tower of London and also where Dickens spent a lot of time.