Latter Days

Jill and I have spent out last few days here together with Lynn, a friend of hers who lives in Egham, which is close enough to London to just call it London. Lynn's originally from South Africa, but she's been living abroad for eight years now. She and two of her friends, Karen (her housemate) and Jenna (may as well be too), have kept us entertained. They're a robustious bunch.


I would be remiss if I didn't put this video of Lynn trying to pantomime the phrase "Saved By The Bell" online.



When we weren't playing Cranium or eating an enormous Full English, we took in some local scenery. Jill and I arrived a little on the early side on Saturday, so we went to Windsor, had lunch alongside the Thames, and walked around town a bit. Windsor is every bit as charming as you'd expect the Queen's home to be.









The next day, Lynn showed us around Great Windsor Park itself, which, again, is as beautiful as the royal park should be. I can't get over the sky here. I think it's the ever-changing weather. Regardless, I'm easily suckered into taking a picture of anything as long as it's green and leafy and under a blue sky full of a thousand clouds.






It was a good little hike, actually. That statue of George III took me by surprise. You're walking along through a nice royal park, and then suddenly boom -- a huge bronze statue of a king on a horse. It's right at the end of the Long Walk, too, so as you stand in its shadow and look out, you can see all the way down the promenade to the castle.

Afterwards, we retired to the Fox and Hounds, the "local," where we met up with Graham, another friend and former co-worker of Jill's, who brought along his son Adam. Nice guys.


The pub wasn't still serving food, though, so we made reservations at this great place called the Belvedere Arms for dinner. It is not named after "Mr. Belvedere," the regrettable TV show about the English butler living in the U.S. Great food, though. Jill couldn't stop talking about her olive mashed potatoes. Simple enough concept -- mashed potatoes with bits of olive -- but neither of us had ever seen it before. Then it was back to Lynn's for more madcap fun with the girls.


Today was Jill's last in England. Her flight was at 4:50, so this morning we went to Staines (big ups for Ali G's hometown -- for reals) to do a little last-minute shopping. JJB Sports not only had a ton of great deals, it also had Jill's initials. Then it was back to Lynn's just in time to get the bags together and follow Lynn (mostly) to Enterprise to drop off the car. While there, I saw this sign, and took a picture of it for some reason.


We kept Jill company for a while, but eventually it was time for her to board, and we had to say goodbye. Of course, I'll be seeing her in a few days, but for her and Lynn it's a different story.


I went straight from there into London to see it one more time, since I fly home myself tomorrow. Again, I didn't necessarily see the big landmarks, but just some little things that interested me.




On a whim, I also saw Severance, which has been called "as witty as Shaun of the Dead and as scary as Descent." I haven't seen Descent, but I'm sure I disagree, and the comparison to Shaun is, at the very least, unwarranted. Nevertheless, it had its moments, but was otherwise a pretty bog-standard slasher. Who knows when it'll show up on the other side of the Atlantic. It's from the Isle of Man, after all. Not exactly a huge movie. It does star Tim McInnery, though, TV's Lord Percy Percy, so that was something.

It was a good last day in London, but I still have a list of things I would've liked to have seen or done, like seeing the Rosetta Stone again or a show at the Globe. Next time.

Because of the movie (and a chicken doner kebab at Dionysis after) I was a little later than I'd anticipated, so Lynn was kind enough to pick me up at Egham Station. It's so great to be somewhere with a good public transit system (and, failing that, a friend who'll pick you up at the closest train station). Came back here to discover a couple hours of "Bottom" reruns followed by Adult Swim on Bravo, so TV isn't letting me down on my last night here.

Official last entry coming tomorrow. As for tonight, time for bed.