Our fourth day in London was primarily a shopping day.  Unfortunately, by “shopping” I mean, “look at beautiful items, take a peek at the price tag, gasp, and quickly return the item back to its place on the shelf”.  We started the day at a store named Selfridges.  It’s probably the biggest department store I’ve ever been in; I have never seen such a complete collection of every luxury brand I know, and many more that I’ve never heard of.

Shopping for me usually consists of searching for items that have been reduced by at least 50%, and then snatching up the best deals; I rarely buy anything at full price.  As I walked through racks and racks of gorgeous clothes, I noticed that I didn’t see a single “sale” or “clearance” sign.  And for the items I was looking at, I wouldn’t typically consider buying them unless they were at least 70% off, and even at this discount, I wouldn’t consider cheap.

As I meandered through the store, I kept searching for that elusive sale sign, but I was greatly disappointed.  I was too embarrassed to ask if there was a sale section; I already felt that I was getting the honey-you-can’t-afford-anything-here-so-why-don’t-you-return-to-your-cardboard-box-in-the-alley-where-you-belong look.  I tried to give them the oh-sweetie-drop-the-attitude-you-work-in-a-shop look right back at them, but I knew that this store was out of my league, so we worked our way down to the in-store cafe where I ate a £12 ($16) hot dog and left.

Gail, Larry and Kevin continued shopping, but I returned to the hotel.  My body decided to remind me that eating a half-pound of English bacon and sausages every morning and having fish and chips every day for lunch or dinner does not play well with the GI system.  So as I ran back to my room, quickly turning green, the Three Musketeers continued onto Bond Street to look at more pretty, shiny, but completely unaffordable items.  London does a fantastic job at making you feel poor.

Vegetarian? Not tonight!

A big shout out to Kevin’s co-worker, Lynn Bitter, who recommended a steak house named Seven Dials; it was absolutely fantastic! Ordering was a bit unique, however (or al least different than what I’m used to).  Their menu lists the types of meat and cuts they offer, and gives you a price per 100g for each one.  After choosing the meat you want, you then look at chalkboards on the wall that list the available sizes for each cut/type.  As people order, sizes are erased from the boards, so the later you get to the restaurant, the more limited your options will be.

Kevin and I decided to get the chateaubriand.  The smallest size on the board was 700g, so we went with that one.  I should’ve done a better job at converting that to a more recognizable unit of measure before ordering; 700g is 1.54 pounds!  I still wasn’t feeling well, so I wasn’t really paying attention.  What we also didn’t pay attention to was that this piece of meat was going to cost us about £95 ($128).  It was wonderfully delicious, however, and worth every penny (or at least that’s what we keep telling ourselves).

Book of Mormon

[If you’re a member of the LDS church, I apologize. Please skip this section]

For the second night in a row, we went to the theatre and saw Book of Mormon.  I didn’t really know what to expect; all I knew was that it was written by the same people who write South Park, so I knew it was going to be a little bit politically incorrect.  Boy, was I in for a surprise!

This production is absolutely hysterical, but totally raunchy; definitely something you would never want to bring your kids to.  The first time they broke out into a song that used the f-word and the c-word (not the see-you-next-Tuesday c-word…another c-word that describes a bundle of nerves in a woman’s swimsuit area), I froze, not knowing how Larry and Gail would respond to such brash language.  They were both laughing, so I relaxed a bit.  After they dropped the 20th f-bomb and c-bomb, I glanced over to catch their reaction.  They were still laughing. Whew!

It was wrong in so many ways, but was absolutely fantastic! All of us loved it.

Kevin, are we in Heaven?

Yes, yes we are.

Our 5th day in London was just a packing/travel day.  I was really sad to leave London.  The more we explored the city, the more we realized how much more there was to explore. I feel that we only scratched the scratch that scratched the scratch that scratched the surface of everything there is to do here (I know, that sure is a lot of scratching…is there a cream for that?)

Arriving at the cruise terminal was incredibly exciting.  We got through all of the check-in processes very quickly and were aboard ship in no time.  I’m absolutely blown away by how wonderful this ship is!  Luxuries abound, and the staff does an excellent job at catering to your every need.  I feel incredibly grateful and humbled that I’m able to experience something so fantastic, and I’m excited for this leg of the journey to begin!