Row, Row, ROW YOUR BOAT. Keep rowing.

Last few hours in London were spent in Regents Park with the lovely Miss Morgan Briggs. Weather beautiful, flowers blooming, children screaming at parents because they were hot/cold/hungry/tired/bored. Spring had definitely arrived.

Made our way to row boat rentals to get a half hour of relaxation on the lake. Half hour cheaper than an hour, and really, how much can you do in a boat for an hour? "Oh my. This bit of lake is vastly different than that last bit. Much wetter." We thought that a pleasant row out to a sweetly drooping willow should take less than 30 minutes.

Problem with movies like Bridget Jones's Diary is that Hugh Grant and Collin Firth make rowing look entirely too easy. For slightly younger women, full of the youth and vigor of life, not to mention undoubtedly stronger and full of more pluck than weak, proper Englishmen, this should be smooth sailing.

Outward voyage to said tree a little difficult, but we made good speed. Only spun round in circles 5 or 6 times. Absolutely certain no one was watching us out in the middle of the lake... hmmm... Can now understand why everyone had convenient lakeside sunning spots. Birdwatching? Poppycock. Probably locals were placing bets on which group of tourists would be able to survive the homeward journey before giving up and using maps to paddle back to shore.

With 15 minutes to cover the same amount of distance, we began our return trip. Blasted wind insisted on blowing in the same direction it had been blowing for the past quarter hour, which was very unpleasant. Eventually surrenderred the oars to Miss Briggs, who was decidedly better at the whole "Slow and steady wins the race" thing. My methodology had been more "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead," but didn't really work out in the end. Served instead as coxswain (don't know what that means? look it up).

Made it to the dock with seconds to spare. No crew on dock as they were busy with other customers, so Morgan hooked us up to the closest rowboat, jumped on dock and I threw our bags out to her, grabbed on to her hand and launched myself out of the boat. Wonderfully exciting adrenaline rush to end our adventure. Left feeling very sure of ourselves, although next time might take on the paddleboats, as tiny English children had out-sailed us in speed and accuracy.

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Food Crisis

Have discovered why everyone in England has thighs the size of toothpicks: food is abundant when one has no appetite, and mysteriously difficult to access when hunger strikes. Kyle is becoming increasingly bored with "cafe food," the only type of nourishment available to him while I am off learning grand and glorious facts about art and film. Must be rather difficult for a 6 foot athletic young man to live off of croissants and coffees for most of the day.

Yesterday had an awkward situation trying to figure out how/when to eat dinner, as were meeting Caitlin and James for a movie at the Odeon. Decided to look for food before the film, as pubs generally stop serving around 8pm, exactly when we would be out of "The Gran Torino." (Great movie, by the way... acting horrendous but amusing.) Had to look for food at 4pm--awful time to be hungry. Passed one establishment that served food "Wednesday through Saturday, 12-3pm and 5-8pm." Wonderful.

Kept walking down Welford Road for what seemed like a thousand years to Kyle but was really only about 10 minutes to locate Grimsby Fish and Chips joint, but restaurant closed. Got large hot package of fish and chips to go, wrapped in three layers paper. Made it to a sunny bench and tore into package like two hungry beasts. Best fish ever had.

I'm getting kicked now... lovely boyfriend has only had two cheeses and a banana today. On our way to a Latin restaurant. Let's hope it's open!

Country music

I love it. I miss it. Large parts of my life involve driving fast in the sun with my sister... windows down and radio turned up. In a place where sunshine is rare, people keep to themselves and there are zero country boys, listening to this music has been a life-saver. Recently played songs include:

Country Man - Luke Bryan
Just Got Started Lovin You - James Otto
What Kinda Gone - Chris Cagle
Baptism (with Randy Travis) - Kenny Chesney
Meet in the Middle - Diamond Rio

This is making writing about German Rococo architecture a little difficult. Oh well. : )