We’re leaving for Belgium tomorrow.  It’s almost midnight, and I haven’t blogged in a bit.  But I will be back to blogging after we return some time on Monday.

Today I went to Bournemouth by myself, and went to the beach!  It was great.  If I had known the beach was that awesome, I wouldn’t have waited so long to go!

Yesterday Megan and I walked to Harry Potter (2+ miles) in the rain, and got soaked.  We had to sit in wet clothes for the entire movie.  It was absolutely awful.  Oh, and we DID have an umbrella.

Pictures will be uploaded when we get back!  I’ve been taking loads.

This one is by far my favorite.  I mean, what the hell IS that thing?  It’s seriously like a plate on a headband.  The sad thing is that it costs 20 pounds, and the hat hats cost 50!

Saturday we had lunch at an outdoor cafe.

Mac, Lisa, and Mils went off to see a Tall Ship in the ocean (where Mac got an awesome eye patch), and Megan and I went to see an art exhibit.

At the Southampton library was “The Truth About Faeries: From Midsummers Night’s Dream to Lord of the Rings.”   There was a wide range of faeries: beautiful ones, scary ones, ones that looked like humans, ones that looked like gremlins,

In the evening, we all went to the park and played Frisbee.  On the way to the Common, I picked some apples from an apple tree.  Megan nor Mac would try it, because they said it was “too early for apple season.”

Lisa and MIls.  Lisa taught me a hilarious game where you take a song title or the title of a movie and replace one word with a certain other word.  What’s the word?  I can’t write it here…. but’s its a HILARIOUS game.

Megan and I both wore black tank tops and skirts!  We were fashion twins!

My face says “Really?  You’re taking a picture?” (L to R - Robin, Mac, Mac’s cousin Aaron, and Barny)

Saturday night we returned home for dinner, and made butterflies for the ceiling.

Sunday morning Megan and I went to a fabulous farmers market in Winchester.  It was amazingly large.

England has some really fat pigeons (they’re obese!), so we decided to buy one to eat for dinner.  We figured the fat would make it very tasty.  Plus, they’re oven ready.            Just kidding!!!

Coming back from the market, I saw several buildings that looked very British.

After the market, we went to Mac’s parents’ house in the New Forest. We went on a two hour hike through the woods with his entire family, including Mac’s 4 year old nephew!

Wild cows!!!  I had no idea how LARGE cows were.  They must stand 5 feet tall, if not more.

Megan walking with her niece and nephew.

Megan, Katie (Megan’s 8 year old niece), Donna (Katie’s mom), David (Mac’s dad), and Cain (Megan’s 4 year old nephew).

Mac, Simon (Mac’s brother, and Cain’s dad), Russel (Mac’s brother - in the hat), and Cain.

Look at this cute British house!

On Saturday, we all wandered around town for a bit.  Mac went on a Tall Ship (like the ones that were just in Boston!)  Megan and I went to a Fairy exhibit at the city art center. (Yes mom, we did get you something!)  Then, Megan and I went and bought granola and yogurt, and sat in the park for a bit getting some sun.  Mac and his two friends, Mils and Lisa met up with us, and then we were joined by Barny, Aaron, and Oli, and went to the Southampton Common.  It is this HUGE park in the middle of the city, and it’s probably several acres large.  We played frisbee, the ukulele, and the boys drank beer.  Frisbee was really fun, and Mac invented some new words.  When you’re very good at Frisbee, you have “Frizz.”  Such as, “Oh man, I lost my frizz!”

After the common, we went back to Megan and Mac’s flat and made dinner.  While I was on my computer, Bennie and Laura (our friends from Boston) video chatted me, and I called over Megan and Mac to say hello.  Mac then realized he had a web cam on his computer, so Megan and I could video chat when I’m back in America.  We tried setting it up, but when we spoke, there was crazy feedback going through the two computers.  Mac loved it, and played with it for a very long time.  Every time someone spoke, it was picked up by one of the microphones, and carried through the speakers into the other microphone, and it just kept going.  There were several times when the sound waves seemed to have gotten lost, and something would come back 10 seconds later.  “I said that ages ago!”  It was very weird.

We also cut out a bunch of butterfly pictures and hung them to their ceiling.  We had an assembly line going.  I would cut out a butterfly, Megan would give it the finishing touches (she had scissors, I had a kitchen knife), Mils would bend it and attach blue putty and a string, and Mac would hang it to the ceiling.  They currently have about 25 butterflies hanging from their ceiling, and it looks very cool, especially when the wind touches them.

Sunday Megan and I went to the Winchester Farmers Market. It was HUGE. There were some vendors who were selling very specific things: garlic, apple juice, bread, meat…. there must have been 50 different vendors. It was amazing. Then, we all went to Mac’s parents house in the New Forest, where I saw a boat load of New Forest ponies, AND wild cows. It was very weird.

I took a lot of pictures of everything, but it’s a lot faster to upload these videos. I’ll do pictures later.

I was at Marks and Spencer looking for a cool new hat.  They only had fancy hats for….. church?  I’m not really sure what they’re for.

Or perhaps not a hat at all!  Maybe a cute little headband thing.

Ok, which one is your favorite?  I like the top greyish hat for fancy occasions, but I like the red and black headband for going out at night.

You know the old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?  Well, in Megan and Mac’s flat, the saying is more “If it ain’t 100% broke, don’t fix it.”   Megan’s bike is a five speed bike, but only four speeds works.  Their toaster also only toasts on one side.  It pops up, then you have to flip the toast over and put it down again.  Both of these things do what they’re suppose to do, just not perfectly.

Seriously, though, these things all work just fine.  That’s how they’re doing their part to help keeping things out of the landfill (they call dumpsters “skips”).  Most people would go out and buy a new toaster.   But their toaster just toasted me a delicious bagel, and her bike has been getting me in and out of town!

I will admit that sometimes they take it a BIT too far.  I’ve been helping out around the house as I can, and I try to make my bed (which is a futon, out flat, on their living/dining room floor), and I do the dishes and vacuum while they’re at work.

After dinner/breakfast, their tiny kitchen gets quite dirty.  Here, it’s loaded with dirty dishes.

This is their ENTIRE kitchen.  And they both love to cook. :(  Bottom left white thing is their fridge!!!

I was doing dishes yesterday while they were at work, and when she came home, I said “Megan, I think it’s time to get a new sponge.”  And she looked at me, and said “Yeah?  Ok.  There are new ones under the sink.”  I stared at her.  Seriously? If there are new ones, why hadn’t they gotten one out?

They let their sponge get THIS bad (see comparison), and Megan needed ME to tell her to replace it.

That’s a bit too far for my sake.

My mom is a librarian and she probably finishes a book every two days.  Because she reads so many different books, she often forgets what the cover of her current book looks like.  She is constantly wandering around the house saying, “Where is my book???”  Then, if I’ve misplaced something, I’ll say “Where are my sunglasses?”  And she’ll answer, “Probably off having sex with my book!”  It’s a great response.

I’ve already decided that when she dies, her tombstone will read “Where’s my book?”  I think everyone in my family can agree that is the one statement that sums up my mom the most.

Things in England are going very well. I’ve been doing a lot of cycling and walking, which is great.  So far Megan and I have only gone running once, but here’s hoping for tomorrow morning!  We’ve been very busy, so I haven’t had time to write in my blog every day.  Plus, it seems like we’ve been staying up very late to do things (I think I was up until 1ish or 2ish three nights in a row!).

One night (I have no idea which night…. Friday, I think) we went out for Sushi at Zen.  It was fantastic.  Megan and Mac thought I was silly for taking pictures.

Saturday Megan and I went to an Indian Mela Festival downtown.  We both had delicious food, but mine was WAY too spicy.  I can see through time.  We also went to a mini health fair where we had our BMI, Blood Glucose, and Blood pressure taken (mine were all excellent - Megan is close to death).

After the fair, we had to run over to meet some of Megan’s work friends.  They had free tickets to the Southampton Saints football (soccer) game versus the Amsterdam Ajax.  It was the first time Megan had ever been - and talking with her friends, she seems to be the first to go!  Oddly enough, back home I have a scarf for the Ajax that my friends Sean and Anniek from Amsterdam gave me.  Good thing I didn’t have it with me.

I really like how the seats spell out “Saints.”

Megan, her co-worker Hannah, and Hannah’s husband, Dave.

At the game, they had security AND police officers protecting the fans of the other team.

Megan and I were both very surprised that fans weren’t allowed to drink on the field.  They had to drink their alcohol in the inside, where they bought it.  This is very weird for us, because at baseball games, they even SELL beer on the field.  There also were no vendors shouting “Hotdogs here!  Get your hotdogs!” or anything like that.

Sunday, Megan and I volunteered at the Big Lunch.  “Basically, it’s a party in your street, in everyone’s street. On 19th July we’re asking the people of Britain to stop what they’re doing and sit down to lunch together. Why? Well for lots of reasons really but mainly to put a smile back on Britain’s face.”  It was quite fun, and Megan and I met these two wonderful Muslim women.  Megan might tutor one of their four children, and we went to the other woman’s house for tea!  We were all talking about marriage, and sex, and she told us a lot about Muslim culture and religion that we didn’t know.  She was a Muslim woman, but was aware that in these days, her sons probably wouldn’t be able to wait until they were married to have sex.  She was very realistic.  It was a fantastic time, and we stayed and chatted at her house for two hours!

That night, we went to Hamptons where Megan’s friends were putting on Log Jam, which is a music and artistic improv night.  They bring all the instruments, markers, crayons, and paper, and everyone else can play music, and make art!  It was very fun, and a lot of her friends were there.

Barny drew this of Tom (he was wearing face paint), Megan (who looks Asian), and me.

Mac showed up a bit later wearing the Brew Fest shirt that I brought him.

Megan made this drawing for me.  It’s true!!!

Here’s a quote from the movie Meet Bill:

Working Sucks!

It doesn’t matter if you’re in a bank, a department store or a doughnut factory,

because once you’ve been there long enough, the only thing you’ll care about
is when your next pay increase is, how many vacation days you’ve accrued,
and if your health insurance is gonna pay for the cholesterol medicine
that keeps your heart pumping no matter how much shit you work through it.
Then, after you’ve gained 20 or 30 pounds because you’re so fucking uptight all the time,
you wake up and discover that you’re working for your father-in-law
in a position with a gratuitous title, and you’re totally replaceable.
And not only is the new guy better at your job,
but he’s got a better car and better jokes and better hair!
So no matter what you do,
you make sure you make a lot of money doing it,
because it all sucks!

This is what I’m saying:  Mini house, bartering for things, growing my own food.  That’s life.

On yesterday’s flight from NYC to London, the plane was only about 70% full.  The staff said that it was just an off day, but it made it awesome for most of us traveler’s, because we got to stretch out, and even lie down!  I was able to sprawl out on three seats, and actually fell asleep.  It was fantastic.

I took an earlier bus from London to Southampton, so Megan and Mac came to get me a bit earlier than midnight.  I met a nice chap on the coach, and he let me use his mobile.  He was very nice, and when the call didn’t go through, he said “Send her a text!”   He was saying he couldn’t wait to get home and have his last cup of tea, and I giggled, and said, “That is SO British!”  And he said, “It is, isn’t it?”  It was great.

After we got home, I unpacked my one mini suitcase that had loads of food in it.  I gave Megan all of her things that she had asked for, and gave Mac the Brew Fest t-shirt I got for him!  After unloading everything for Megan, I had an empty suitcase!  Then, we set up my bed, and rearranged the furniture a bit.  Megan and Mac’s flat is a disaster!  It is mostly Megan’s fault because she has a load of crap everywhere, and Mac keeps trying to get rid of a bunch of things.  I told Megan that I would help her clean up a bit, and she said “We can do a Clean Sweep!”  Clean Sweep is a TLC show where you take out EVERYTHING from the rooms that are cluttered, and put it on the lawn.  Then, you make three piles:  Keep, Toss, and Give Away.  You’re not allowed to have a ‘maybe’ pile - and usually the people only end up with 50% of their things!  Then, they have a huge yard sale, so they can pass on their crap to others.  I don’t think we’ll empty her house, but she has a lot of organizing to do.

My internal clock woke me up this morning at 7am, even though Boston time it was only 2am!  Megan and Mac are both at work, so they’ve left me here with my computer, a map, house keys, keys to Megan’s bike, and well wishes.  I’m still kinda tired, but after I wake up a bit, I’m going to grab the map, her bike, and my messenger bag and hit the streets!  Megan suggested that I ride over to the common to practice riding, and I said “yeah, cause I really need to practice riding a bike.”  And she agreed.  Then, I had to say “Megan.  I don’t need to practice riding a bike!”  She asked when the last time I rode was, and I told her that when Mike was here for the Longsjo, we were all riding our bikes around.  Sure, I wasn’t riding IN the Longsjo, but I don’t think I need practice riding a bike.  Megan said that I was free to “give it a go”, and just remember to ride on the left side of the road.  That won’t be too hard, because I’m used to running on the left side.

I’ll be sure to take photographs!