Day Trois!

Day Trois: On The Move...

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, YEAH!

Part of the package with the Murder Mystery Dinner was a free breakfast buffet the next morning. I suppose they figured you'd be hungover and in need of something filling and full of grease.

The buffet didn't disappoint. Like most hotel buffet breakfasts, the offerings were more or less edible. Large tubs of 'streaky' bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, toast, bagels, pastries, cereal, yogurt and fresh fruit were available. Also, if your dairy content wasn't high enough, large hunks of various cheeses were there too.

 I actually saw one kid, surprisingly well behaved, tell his mum he preferred a 'croissant, raisin please. No toast, thank you'. 'Cuz that happens in the US -HAH! 

Mass quantities of streaky bacon!

I did contain myself. Though the Nutella buckets were calling to me, I had a more or less healthy meal. But I really wanted to consume mass quantities of sausage and bacon. 

Day 3 brekkie.

Fresh fruit, mushrooms, eggs, tomatoes and the ever present weird potato triangle. Mmmm. I also had apple juice and tea. Tea, tea, always tea. I'd need a teeth bleaching when I got back.

After eating, we gathered our belongings and checked out. We waited in the lobby while  Heather and Thomas, (arguably) the worlds most perfect couple in the world came by to collect us and escort us to our next place of residence.

Pics on the wall of the Sherlock Holmes Hotel Lobby.

They came and found us in the lobby, helped me lug the luggage and my mom's rear to the tube station. I stood in line and bought a couple of Oyster Cards. Not an aphrodisiac credit card, as one might expect, but a tube tap card similar to the HK Octopus card and the LA Metro Card. I think they have one in NY too, but I don't know what it's called. 

Oh so exciting! Do try to contain yourself.

H and T then escorted us, helping me

lift the luggage and mom's butt up and down, up and down and up and up and down and down all the flipping flights of stairs in and around the London tube to get from Baker Street to Russel Square.

Heh.  Sherlock, get it?

Doesn't make sense to me but yes, there are lifts in the tube stations, but only AFTER you go up and down and up and down the stairs. To say it took a toll on Edie-Baby and her ankles would be a grotesque understatement.

We eventually found our way to the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury. Woot. 

It's a Holiday Inn, what do you expect?

Since mom was still feeling under the weather, she bowed out of lunch with Heather and Thomas. So the three of us, me elated with my new found freedom, took the tube a couple of stops to Tibits.

H and T are vegans (of course they are) and I felt guilty for keeping them from their weekly volunteering at their church and zoo respectively (I KNOW, RIGHT? Perfect!) So lunch was my treat.

I can't tell you what I ate. Everything was sooooo tasty looking and even better actually tasting that I sucked it down without even the thought of a picture. I could have had 57 plates full. 57!!!!

This place would never make it in the US. Firstly, it's just too good. The servings are sold by weight, which would never go over in the US. A buffet by weight? Surely you jest.  Buffets are all you can eat! But it was so darn goooooooooooooodddd.

I can, however show you this:

Yum yum yum yum yum! Put with that a ginger lemonade fizz and you're in heaven. Trust me on this. 

We reminisced about NOLA and other stuff while we waited for the lightly falling rain to abate.

Since the air was fresh and not too cold, instead of taking the tube back, I was lead on a tour of various London neighborhoods. Theater district, SoHo... something else I can't remember... and we stopped in this place that my nerd friends will appreciate.

Yes, the world famous Forbidden Planet! I have no idea why it's world famous, but that's what I'm told. It was fun. Lots of collectible stuff. Nothing you need, everything you want.

They saw me back to the hotel passing through Russel Square where I took a pic of this bench:

BENCH!  Don't judge me!

Not an ordinary bench, thank you very much, but based on the reverse angles, the very bench where Dr. Watson meets his friend Stamford who then introduces him to Sherlock. This is in the show Sherlock of course, not the actual real ones, cuz well... you know... 

I bid goodbye to H and T. It was a lovely afternoon. Kisses and hugs to you friends!

I didn't want my few minutes of freedom to end just yet, so I took a stroll through The Brunswick Center. From what I gather, it's a bunch of snazzy apartments with everything you need on the ground floor. Certainly it has a Boots (!) and a Super Drug, but also a Waitrose, which I found out was a supermarket. Goodie, goodie, goodie!

I scooted in a bought a big box of decaf tea. I didn't want to buy a big box, but for some reason, decaf tea only comes in two sizes... non existent and HUGE. Add to that non-dairy creamer, some type of artificial sweetener (mom doesn't like sugar if she can have equal) and the obligatory Diet Coke.

Walking back to the hotel, I decided to be a good daughter and get something for Haggie to eat. I found this place: 

Over priced gourmet burgers! What could be better? I purchased an order of skinny fries (actually called fries and not chips). Like a toddler, the one thing mom will eat is fries. 

"Like mana from heaven." Was how she described them. So yay, chalk one up for me!

I'd had it with quiet nights and I put my foot down TELEVISION WILL BE WATCHED! Whenever I go, well anywhere, I like to check out what is on the local channels. It's an interesting cultural experiment. Try it.

Anyway, being forced to comply, Edie Baby was pleasantly surprised when I came across two new shows.

Mock The Week and Nevermind the Buzzcocks. Two silly Brit humor shows, kinda in the vein of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Interested?

Check them out:

So Edie Baby was sated and that's all I can ask, so there is the end of Day 3.