English vacation (Day 7): London, revisited

We couldn't make it to church today because after a long search on the Internet, we found that the ward started at 9 am, and the trains didn't start in time for us to get there (yes, Daisha's my sister, but no, she didn't know the times because she doesn't go to church...thus the Internet search). I don't know how the rest of my family was able to make church while out here. The ward must have started later when they visited. The closest wards are in the London area, and there are only 3 ward buildings. The Mormon religion isn't that popular over here. Maybe they don't want to give up tea??? Ha ha.

This morning was an odd morning of feelings I didn't listen to that led to events that made it one of the saddest days I've had in a long time. I can't remember the last time I cried...until today. I got up in the morning and felt like I needed to get working on my blog and upload my pictures from Friday and Saturday. I also felt like I should put all my pictures on Daisha's computer and just make a disk before I leave, but I didn't. I don't usually blog in the morning out here, but I felt like I should today. I got the files ready for the pictures, but then we decided to head out to London and I had to finish getting everyone ready, so I never got a chance to upload the pictures. Big mistake! I should have listened to my gut feeling.

We headed out on the train to the Victoria station (the only one it goes to on Sunday), with Edward and Dakota (my nephew) too this time, though Dakota was determined to have a miserable time and let us know he was miserable. He's 13, so it wasn't a shocker, but he did snap out of it later and join our fun. I was excited to get pictures of him with us for once, but unfortunately those pictures are gone now.

Once we arrived at the station, we bought some Pasties (pronounced paa-sties...Cornish pastry things filled with meat and such) and went to Hyde Park to see Speakers corner, which is where all the people who want to preach or get something off their chest go to do it. They stand on a stool and preach to whoever will listen. There weren't too many there today, but a couple really stood out. One was an older white lady who was mad at people for living in countries other than their birth country. She thought people and races should stay in their home country and not invade other countries and use up their hospital beds, jobs, and housing. Not too far from her was a black guy who thought Americans were lame because 80% don't have a passport, so they don't travel enough and be part of the world. It was a funny contrast to listen to the two of them. There were preachers and socialists too. Even a Canadian Cowboy in a western hat and shirt was preaching about being born again.

If you ever want to go on a power walk to lose a few pounds, just walk with Edward in London. He's the fastest person I've ever walked by! He'd leave us all in the dust and be a block ahead of us before he realized we were way behind. I'm sure I'll be sore for days from the workout, but I was glad it was burning off all the yummy treats I've been eating lately.

We moved on and walked through more of Hyde Park and then went to the Natural History museum. It was really neat, and they had an animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex that roared and moved. It really freaked Hyatt out. He is my scaredy cat, and Tilly is always so brave. There was also a womb area to walk into and see a baby in its 7th month of development. There were tons of animals and far too much to see in the small amount of time we had. We next went to the Science museum and let the kids play with bubbles and science stuff in the Launchpad area. These two museums are across the street from the LSD church.

Hyrum tried to walk into Imperial college's revolving doors with Talea, and got stuck in there until someone swiped their access card to make it move again. It's one of the top 10 colleges in the world, and it's where Edward went to college. They don't just let anyone go in there to play in their revolving doors! I wish I still had the pictures that showed the two of them stuck in the door.

Next we headed over to the Thames festival. We rode the tube (Subway to us, although to the Londoners, a subway is an underground walkway) and saw some really funny ads for a health club about muffin tops and moobs (man boobs). We grabbed McDonald's for dinner since it was fast and next to the festival. We ate and then turned around to find Hyatt with his pants down trying to pee on the bushes in front of the crowd. Leave it to a boy...

We walked along the south bank of the river looking at booths and people.


There was so much trash on the ground! Apparently they didn't have trash cans around the city until recently because of all the bombings, so people are used to just dropping their trash. I've never seen so much litter in my life!

Hyatt was in the back of my double stroller until he suddenly wanted to be held by me. It was getting pretty dark, so I took my camera off my neck, put it in the back seat of the stroller (black camera on a dark grey seat close to the ground...I thought it was camouflaged), then held Hyatt and put him in the backpack on Hyrum. I forgot about moving the camera, and then we found some really cute baby items for super cheap, so while we were buying them and Daisha and Edward had the strollers, someone stole my camera from out of my stroller. None of us saw it happen, but when we started walking, Hyrum asked where my camera was. I looked down, thinking it was around my neck, but then I remembered it was in the stroller. I looked for it, then saw that it was gone! We searched the stroller and Hyrum and Edward retraced our steps, but it was long gone by then. I was sad, but not too devastated, at first. It could have been worse, right? It could be a kid missing. We walked on in disbelief and frustration. That camera cost $1200 and had all of our vacation photos on it. It was a Canon Rebel XTi with a nice lens and a massive memory card. After about 10 minutes, the reality of the robbery hit and I burst into tears. I felt like I'd lost a friend! I used my camera everyday and it was so nice! I don't know how I'll live without it! Unless you have a really nice SLR camera and use it daily, you won't know what I'm talking about. It was a huge part of my life, and now I'll have to use my point and shoot that doesn't take pictures as fast or as nice. Nothing compares to the quality of an SLR. It will be badly missed. I wonder if the thief will feel remorse when they look at the pictures and see that he stole it from a family on vacation, but then again, it was stolen out of my stroller, so I guess he already knew it was a family.

After all this, there was a parade that we walked along, but I was too bleary eyed to watch it, but I think the kids thought it was cool.


Hyrum enjoyed the drums, of course. We caught the tube to our train station, then we headed home. What a downer to end a fun day on. Edward has never had anything stolen and he's lived here his whole life, so it's not that it's a crime ridden city, it's just that the festival was a thieves paradise since the crowd was so thick and it was dark, and we just happened to let our guard down at the wrong time.

On a different note, I have to mention this, since I'm always obsessed with baby stuff. When I was at the mall yesterday, I was noticing the umbrella strollers. 9 out of 10 umbrella strollers were Maclarens, and if it wasn't an actual Maclaren, it was a knock off one. I pointed it out to Daisha, so we made a game out of it to point out Maclarens when we saw them. It was almost constant, everywhere we turned. Maclarens are an English brand, so I guess that's why they're popular. I have one and I swear by them, after having owned a cruddy $10 Toys R Us one. I have yet to see a cheapie umbrella stroller out here, whereas in the states, 9 out of 10 umbrellas are the cheapie crud ones. I guess they don't like to have wobbly wheels and bend over out here when pushing. Neither do I! Once you have a Maclaren, you will never go back!