It's the birthday boy or girl

Well I'm 25 today. It doesn't feel much like my birthday except I don't usually wear a dress and fancy shoes to work. Ben made me a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham and onions, toast and tea. We're all about tea now since we came back from England.

Yeah England! Our trip was totally awesome. It was fun to visit Isabel, the weather was great, we saw lots of different parts of the city and took a day trip to Cambridge, we ate and drank well.

Here in my standard blog-list form are the highlights of our trip:

Tuesday
Gorgeous sunny spring day!
Dropped our bags off at Isabel's work in Kensington
Picnic sandwiches in Hyde Park
Prince Albert memorial
Jet-lagged stupor
Transferred bags to Isabel's school via Portobello Road
Attempt #1 to ride London Eye; changed our minds on account of extreme late-afternoon brightness
Street musicians
Fish & Chips at Chandos Pub
Wandering near Trafalgar Square
Chocolate & whipped cream waffle
Crowds and paparrazzi at premiere of Sienna Miller movie
Nodding off over pints at the Lamb & Flag
Met Isabel after class at 10, headed home
(Isabel rents a room from a lady with two kids, 25 and 14. Her landlady: energy conscious, protective of her space, clean, loud, dramatic, fan of weed. We always came and went with Isabel. Couldn't really hang out outside of Isabel's room. Couldn't put paper in the toilet or flush unless you went #2. Turn off all lights when you leave the room. Shoes off on second floor. We were always on our toes a bit when we were at home.)

Wednesday Amazed to feel awake and rested
London Eye
Guards at the London Eye discovered the pocketknife in my purse; the long-lost pocketknife I'd given up on finding, fallen into the lining, which had made it through airport security in my carry on bag. Funny, happy.
2012 Olympics publicity event
English lunch at Frank's Cafe
Tate Modern
Fun tube slides
Tea in the museum restaurant
Peek into St. Paul's Cathedral
Internet cafe
Indian dinner at Mela
Tube to Camden Town, which felt a little like Brooklyn
Went to Dublin Castle, hipstery bar
Met Isabel at school, went to pub across the street
TV producer in the pub bought us drinks and became our friend
Greek bartender- quite a character
Played a guitar and was joined by drunken Brit singing enthusiastically on "Blame it on Cain" by Elvis Costello
TV producer tried to convince me to come back to London to audition for X-Factor, the UK's version of American Idol
Fun times

Thursday
Buckingham palace pre-changing of guard
Harr0ds Department store food halls in Knightsbridge
Picnic in Hyde Park of food from Harr0ds
Met Isabel, double decker bus to Camden Town market
Kebab lunch
Pints in a corner pub
Ben & I went to get tickets to see Boeing Boeing, a French Farce playing at the Comedy Theatre
National Portrait Gallery
G&Ts before the show
Boeing Boeing! 7 doors on stage. Farcey. Funny.
Met Isabel at the Royal Oak
Master Kebab takeaway

Friday
Ben and I went from the King's Cross railway station to Cambridge
Rented bicycles
One zillion bikes are everywhere in Cambridge
Perfect sunny biking weather with a little breeze
King's college chapel
Bike path by the river Cam
Ploughman's lunch with homemade sausages at the Green Dragon
Beautiful English countryside biking
Free service at King's College chapel, choirboys and all
Ben started to feel a bit sick
Train to London
Met Isabel over crappy Italian food
Pints in Trafalgar Square

Saturday
St. Patrick's Day
Slept in!
Met the landlady for the first time
Went to Portobello Road
Lattes and almond croissant
Bought tea for friends from a girl with an American accent whose family turned out to be from Wauwatosa.
Peanut snacks
Nutella & banana crepe
Focaccia sandwich
Spicy chicken burger
Shopping the market
Red dress! On sale! Handmade in London! Fits perfectly! I'll buy it!
Not actually on sale. 65 pounds instead of 30 pounds. Put it back. Left sad.
Decided to buy it after all. Came back, ready to see if she'd bargain at all.
"You're back! I'm just marking this dress down! The sign's confusing and it's not just you who thought that it was on sale. I can sell it to you for 30 pounds!"
New dress!!
Went to Chelsea mid-football game but couldn't find a bar showing the game anywhere
Watched some rugby instead
Got caught up in post-game crowds on the tube
Waited in line to see art exhibition in East End; didn't get in
Got dinner from the Pieminister outside Vibe Bar
Drank wine
Shots from Shot Girl
Smirnoff Ices
As we left there was a big line and bouncers and everything; we'd just missed the cover charge
Realized Ben left his back inside; was only let in to get it "because of the accent"
Big Bhangladeshi parade of victorious Cricket fans
Free bottle of wine, Bollywood and Indian appetizers on Brick Lane
Fun drunken times

Sunday
British Mother's Day
Slept in again, through early morning POUNDING music and smoke drifing up through the floorboards
Met Iffy's cousin to pick up mysterious envelope
Trek for English Breakfast at highly recommended Alpino- Closed!!
Yummy English Breakfast at Turkish caff across the street
British Museum
Free organ recital at Westminster
Pints at Chandos pub
Sunday Roast at Masons Arms, just before kitchen closed!
Closed down Masons Arms
Walked home singing "Satisfaction"
Watched TV till we fell asleep

Monday
Took Isabel to work and left our bags there again
Went to the Kensington Palace Orangery for a fancy tea breakfast
BEST
SCONE
IN
UNIVERSE
Fancy fun times
Picked up our bags, said goodbyes
Tube to Heathrow
Flight back; broken TV on my seat!
Long crappy ride on the Blue Line to Division
Home again!

So there you go. It was a good time. We were sad to be back, but both Ben and I had lovely welcomes back to Chicago on Tuesday. I worked with my favorite Tuesday night crowd and then went to the Hideout with Kevin to see this 91 year old bluesman named Honeyboy Edwards play with Devil in a Woodpile. Ran into members of the band we open for at Duke's. Then Emily happened to show up! Tamales from the tamale guy! Danced late into the night. Diner food. Ben saw some punk and noise bands with Mike in a muffler shop in Logan Square. Barely slept, but it was a great welcome back to town.

I'm gonna go walk in the sunshine. It's (pretty) good to be back!