Lots of Gardens

More catch up I guess! I promise to be more timely with my posts from now on.

So what do you want first?

An update on my rash I bet.

So today I woke up and really felt like my rash was pretty gross and needed some more attention. Turns out it is infected.  I went to the clinic again today and sat around for two hours. Finally they gave me some antibiotics and bandaged up the one arm thats really disgusting.  I’ve been really smart and used a towel to spread it around my body so now I have it on the other arm and my neck and my forehead and my stomach and a little on my back.  It’s so beautiful, I’m really happy about it.

But hopefully now with the antibiotics it will get better.  I think its probably poison ivy. I’ve never had it before so I don’t really know but it makes sense since I was in the backyard before I left and there is lots of poison ivy there.

My arm looks really stupid all bandaged up but I guess its better than looking at the disgusting rash underneath.

And since I didn’t bring any long sleeve shirts cause it was so hot in MD before I left, I don’t have anything to cover it up.

After the doctor I stuck my head in one of those tourist trap souvenir shops like they have in NYC and bought a London sweatshirt to wear over it.  They wanted to charge me 18 pounds but I bargained down to 10 pounds! Mostly I just said, ‘naw thats too much’ until they got it down but I’m sure they still made a profit on me. They tried to act like I should take it because I wouldn’t find anything like it for that price anywhere else but whatever, I didn’t really need it so I did a good job bargaining.  I think I might have been mentally channeling Sashia at the time or something. ( I know you read this girly! Shout out to you!)

Anyway, enough complaining, I’ll update you in pictures now.

Yesterday Eve took me to Kensington Gardens and we met up with her friend John who has a great Scottish accent and lives near the garden/palace.

Eve and John, my awesome tour guides

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  First we took a bus to get to Kensington, one of those typical London double decker buses that everyone knows.  Some pictures from the window:

Kings Cross Station

guess why i took this picture

Stupid tourists getting on an open top bus tour in the rain

And then we got to the gardens.  John had so many great stories, it was like having my own personal tour guide.

Princess Diana Memorial Playground

John likes the playground much better than the fountain which I will show later.  It looked pretty fun to play on but we didn’t have any children with us so we couldn’t go in.

Kensington Palace- under construction which irritates John to no end

The Dashing Dog Show was being held... further annoying John

More gardens, lots of plants and flowers…

And then the beautiful (?) Albert Memorial came into sight…

Its a monstrosity but I think Londoners are pretty fond of it.  Queen Victoria built it for her husband Prince Albert after he died.  She was pretty obsessed and had a giant gold statute made of him.

but the details are beautiful

Beloved Albert

Now comes the exciting part..

Watch carefully

Can you spot the difference?

An suddenly the heavens opened…

and it began to rain...i mean POUR

so we ran for shelter with everyone else under a tree...

and then realized it was getting really cold and the rain hurt a little…..

but soon it began to let up and we headed for a cup of tea because thats what you do in England right?

And the gardens again looked like this:

There are a lot more boring garden pictures that you’ll be able to see on facebook eventually but here is the boring Princess Di Memorial Fountain:

And me with Peter Pan!

And then we went to a favorite pub of Johns where I got to eat ham n cheese sandwich and drink a pint of Magners which John insisted I finish of course.

And that was yesterday! I did all that despite my itchy, burning rash, so there.

And today after the clinic I went with Eve to meet up with her daughter Nicky and grandkids Jack and Emma.  They are a really great family.  Awesome sarcastic British people.  The older boy Jack is so smart and was asking me all these obscure questions about America which I had no idea how to answer and then he’d turn around and play some childish prank on his little sister. Typical.

We went to another part of Hampstead Heath where the gardens are more tended and they have great concerts and ponds and things.  I felt like I had stepped into a scene from Mary Poppins.

used to be a hospital...

beautiful view

Emma with the statue

Overall, despite my rash, its been a great day and trip so far!

Tomorrow starts my class so hopefully my pictures won’t be more boring gardens for you. I’d take more of myself but thats hard to do when you are the one with the camera!

I’l try to post a picture of my ridiculous arm later too.

More tomorrow! Check back for the exciting conclusion to… The Revenge of the Red Rash or…

( Mom, did you get the Rocky n Bullwinkle reference? eh?)