Jolly Ole' England

I was SO excited for the week to be over so I could get out of the city & head to LONDON! I spent the week before my vacation working with Heloise in the Supply Chain because the entire Style Dept (practically) was on vacation & there was no work to do over there. It was cool to see a new aspect of Lancel & get to work with fun new people! I got to sit in a corner office...it was pretty sweet! We actually got off work around 4:30 & had a little celebration on getting a contract extension/going away party/baby shower all in one around 4, which was fun! Then I had to skitaddle & head home to get my luggage & get to the train station! Heloise let me borrow a Lancel suitcase & purse for the trip! Travel swagger? Yes please! I thought I had PLENTY of time to get to Gare du Nord & was definitely cutting it short! I didnt realize there was security for the EuroStar & OFCOURSE my carriage was at the complete other end of the platform & I was RUNNING so that I didn't miss the train- that would have been just the icing on the cupcakes. I got all settled in & the people on the other side of the table in the carriage didn't show, so I had plenty of room, which wouldn't have been the case otherwise because those trains are definitely not fit for tall people! Around 8 o'clock, Trevor called & was like "Have you crossed the tunnel yet?" Uhm not quite. We were sitting on the side of the traintracks at a dead stop....not good. I thought maybe there was a slow train in front of us, but after several dumb messages over the intercom, it turned out that our train had a mechanical problem that couldn't be fixed. We went to the next train station, which wasn't too far away & I thought we would be on a new train in no time. WRONG! There was supposed to be another train coming to save us in 30 minutes & whoever was in charge didn't put 2 and 2 together & had to break the news that the train couldnt pick us up because it was full. Then we got an announcement informing us that it would be another HOUR & A HALF before the "safety train" would come. Oh geez! Everyone bee-lined it to the snack bus! What felt like FOREVER finally came to an end & we marched to platform 4 at the Calais train station to await the train. I met a really cute old couple from Florida :) It was super windy & colddd waiting for the train & everyone cheered when it rolled up. I slept from there until we pulled into St. Pancras International Train Station in London. I was exhausted at this point- what was supposed to be a 2 h 15min train ride turned into a 6 hour ordeal. Ay yi yi! Trevor was there waiting for me & it was SO great to see him! We hopped into the cutest little British taxi cab & talked 1,000,000 miles a minute. Trying to catch up/cram a whole year into a car ride is impossible!! It was late when we got to Netherwood Road, so we stayed up & chatted a bit, then we both were like "We haveee to go to sleep now!" I think I woke up at 1:30 the next day- it felt wonderful to sleep in!!

Mrs. Marty already had theater tickets & managed to find 4 seats (Me, Trevor, Sasha & his gf Erica) next to them to see the musical Enron. It was raining, so we decided to just chill the rest of the afternoon & met up with Sasha and Erica at Nando's for dinner. SO good! The musical was funny and very theatrical, even though it was about the whole Enron crisis. Afterwards, we all hung out in the ritzy parlor of the #1 Hotel Bar in the world. Trevor's Greek friend Kristos was having a get-together at Cuckoo's & we got invited to celebrate at the Member's Only club. Besides the fact that he was a greek heir, everyone else looked like they stepped right out of Gossip Girl! ...and it looked like every guy had walked right off the set of a Ralph Lauren photo shoot! HELLO! :) We danced to techno/euro music!

Sunday we met up with Trevor's former co-workers at Alfreds's to spend the afternoon playing in Hyde Park! The weather was perfect & everyone was SO nice...it shocked me after being around Parisians for so long! We played baseball, kicked the soccer ball & had a huge game of volleyball- it was perfect! We had to leave early to go home & change to make dinner at 7. The Wikstrom's have dear family friends & the husband is a former stunt man from Hollywood! Now he is a stunt/unit producer...I think...and he is a very colorful/creative person with TONS of funny stories! He once stole a dead person's identity!! We got honeycomb icecream for dessert & besides the fact that it was OUT OF THIS WORLD, I think I found my new favorite flavor of icecream! DELISH!

Monday, I made T go sightseeing/do "touristy" things! We saw Buckingham Palace & the Wedding Cake, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminister Abbey, St Johns Park, etc! Trevor loved when I made him take a picture in the iconic London telephone booth! All in good fun :) That night he had to go meet up with his friend, so I got to be the only child & have Mr & Mrs Marty all to myself! Dinner was lovely & got even better when we ate Ben & Jerry's half baked icecream while watching Grey's Anatomy re-runs!

Tuesday was rainy & cold, so we went & visited Mrs Marty at work. Her office is incredible! I finally got to meet her PA's who I have been in touch with via contact & it was great to finally put a face to a name! Ellen is from Alabama & went to school at Furman & you can't even imagine how wonderful it was to FINALLY hear a southern accent after 5 weeks of the french mumble! I had Indian food for the 2nd time in my life & it was much MUCH better than the Indian food I had in Chicago! That night we got to skype Mom & Dad & Alicia and it felt like we were all back together again! It was SO great for us all to catch up! Mrs. Marty was heading off to Seattle the next AM, so the timing was perfect! It made me miss home though :(

Wednesday....OFF TO SCOTLAND! We had Alex book us a train ticket & hotel in Edinburg, which is actually pronounced Edenborough. We grabbed a burger at Alfred's, ran home & packed in 15 minutes then were off to St Pancras. Things seemed to be running so smoothly....then we got to the train station. We didnt have the tickets printed out & the kiosk wouldnt print them because we didnt have the card we purchased them on...and neither would Mable at the ticket desk. We had the reference number & proof of identity & she said it was impossible. She was not very nice & basically told us there was nothing she could do. So thanks to Mabel, we didn't make out 6 pm train. Luckily we got refunded, but had to wait 6 hours...so we went home & hung out & were on the verge of falling asleep when we headed to the train station. We were SO happy when we got movin' on the train!!! SCOTLAND HERE WE COME! Not quite Spain like I had expected, but you're not hearing complaints from me!

(AFTER GETTING HOME FROM SCOTLAND)

After a 4ish hour train ride, we pulled into London around 9:30 & headed home to chill/watch Gossip Girl! We hadn't eaten dinner, so we walked over to good ole' Mickey D's (or MacDo as the French would call it) & ordered take away. What's better than GG reruns & McDonalds fries after a long trip? The next day, Trevor went to go see Chelsea play soccer, or "footie" as the Brits refer to is as, & I went to get my shop on. I walked through TopShop & found some cool clothes then walked across the street & spent the rest of the afternoon getting lost in Harrods, which was fabulous! By far the coolest decorated department store Ive ever been in. Everything was over the top & themed & it was stunning! I couldnt even look at the clothes because I was too busy looking at the decor! There was a memorial for Princess Diana & Dodi & they even had her what would have been her soon-to-be engagement ROCK on display. I dont think ive ever seen so many diamonds one one piece of jewlery in my life! There were also these fantastic food halls...like people go there to eat lunch, ice cream, sushi, go to the chocolate bar, buy tea/poultry/seafood & cheese...so it's not just a dept store! There is also an entire Christmas section & I felt like I was in santa's workshop! I bet it is SO COOL to be in London around Christmas time! I wanted to buy all the cute little ornaments! That night, I met up with Trevor, Christian, Kasha, Kamille & Ivanel for dinner at Chino's Sushi Restaurant, conveniently located right across the Thames from Big Ben! Trevor & Christian know a waitress there so we got to try all kinds of neat sushi & we were about to burst after all the food she brought out! ah!!!

I left London the next afternoon & Trevor flew to Colorado. Luckily there were no mechanical delays on the way "home," except I left sunny London for rainy Paris & that wasn't really welcoming to come back to. Oh well! Back to work in the AM...we'll see about how waking up before 12:30 pm goes!

SUCCESSFUL TRIP! Next stop: going to see Trevor in Geneva!