GTs with the BFF

Penny has been here visiting, and let me tell you: it's been a week of totally Good Times. We have been doing some Cambreejey things, and some Londoner things, and a whole lot of hanging out doing nothing. It's been heavenly. The weather, however, has been rubbish. What can you do? England summers are kinda crummy. (I am trying to introduce rubbish into my regular vocabulary - as an adjective, not a noun. What do you think?)

We took Penny punting. It was too early to have a 'punt and a pint' and too cold for a 'punt and a picnic' but I think she had a good time anyways. Lots of laughs, at least. Eliz would only wear a life jacket if I was wearing one, so I look super fashionable safe.At one point, Elizabeth & I were "row, row, rowing the boat" and were probably working against Matthew's punting, but he is a superstar punter now.

After the punt, we went to Strawberry Fair, in Midsummer Common. It is this weird, wacky festival where people dress up like fairies. Yep. And we saw lots of adult men in animal-themed onesies. I know. Penny and I did some sah-weet people watching. 

You might be thinking Strawberry Fair is no big deal, but let me tell you. Ahem: "Strawberry Fair is set to take its place in the Guinness Book of World Records as it smashed the world record for gathering together the largest number of people dressed as fairies in one place, ever." That's right: 337 people were dressed as fairies that afternoon, and a new "Royal Fairy Family" was crowned at the event. You know what else happened that day? A whole lot of 16- and 17-year old British kids got drunk for the first time, and were stumbly and ridiculous by 3:30pm. I think they were more interesting to Penny & I than the fairies. There is this phenomenon of short-shorts here and unfortunately, it seemed like every girl at the festival got the memo. So many bums hanging out. So, so many.

Thanks to Queen Elizabeth II, we got a four day weekend - wooot!! Matthew was the Best Dad In the World and let me and Penny go into London by ourselves for a whole day, and then he and Elizabeth came to meet us the next day.We had a grrreat day doing grown up things. We wandered around Buckingham Palace for a bit, to get a taste of the festivities, and then headed to Chelsea and Kensington to pretend we were rich. And when we passed quiet, fancy shops, we just went in. No worrying about fitting the stroller through the doors, or stopping Elizabeth from touching anything - nope, we just browsed to our hearts' content. And in Harrods, we saw more than the toy department. Did you know they have a pet department in Harrods? No jokes, you could get a dog from there. We saw them. I felt bad for them. And then we saw the ridiculous dog beds you could buy for your pet. And then I suddenly didn't feel bad for the dogs, because whoever buys them is going to buy this bed for them, and I'm pretty sure it's more comfy than mine:

We saw the bunting and hoopla for Queenie, and the fireworks too. It was a pretty fab time to be in the city.

There were roughly 8 kajillion people in the city centre, and so there were lots of cops and crowd-controllers around. This helicopter was like one of those bees that gets into your house but can't find their way out. Loud, and just kind of everywhere.

After sleeping at my Nan's house (when she wasn't even there!! It felt sooo weird...) we met up with Matthew & Elizabeth in the city, as well as my cousin Ross and his wife Dina, and their baby Lily. We all went to the Science Museum (read: Heaven for Hawkeye). We learned how GPS works, and why atomic clocks are necessary for them, and we saw a "real life spaceship!!" (Matthew Hawkeye, May 5, 2012) that went to the moon. Our Cool Friend Alex met us for lunch, and then we went to the Natural History Museum too. I know!! Two museums in one day?!? Thank goodness they are both "loud" museums. Wouldn't want to repeat the Fitzwilliam experience...

It is so good to have Penny here. Today we had a completely wonderful day. She took care of Eliz while I did some errands - what a great friend! - and then we made muffins and watched Friday Night Lights. We all went to our fave pub, The Castle, for after work drinks with Matthew, and then had a curry for dinner! Good Times with the BFF!!