Friday, April 16, 2010

BIG BEN, WESTMINISTER ABBEY, AND PALACE OF WESTMINISTER


Big Ben is the largest, chiming, four-faced clock in the world and will be 151 years old in May. 
Westminister Abbey is the traditional place for coronations and burials of English monarchs.
The Palace of Westminister (bottom picture) is the Houses of Parlament. 

Thursday, April 15, 2010

RECIPE FOR AN IRISH EXPERIENCE


















Recipe for an Irish Experience:


2 dumb Americans

Lots of warm, friendly Irish People

Several sight-seeing tours, sprinkled with a few dozen Castles

The narrowest roads you can find

More rain than you need

A dose of homesickness

Skype

Instant Messenger

Several thousand Frequent Flyer miles

A tenative, 2 year assignment

Green for garnish


Take 2 dumb Americans and put them right into the heart of the Republic of Ireland. Mix them well with lots of warm, friendly Irish people, even though they can’t understand a word they are saying. Drive them on the “wrong side” down narrow roads with one-way “humpy bridges” on several sight-seeing tours. Be sure to sprinkle in the few dozen Castles, until seeing castles on the side of the road becomes routine. Do all of this in the wind, rain and freezing cold. Toss in a dose of homesickness and cure it with Skype, Instant Messaging and lots of frequent flyer miles. Be sure to take out of the oven before the 2 year assignment is up. Garnish with so much green you’ll have to wear sunglasses. Smile as you ingest, because it will be one of the greatest experiences of your life!

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE?

I have 2 US friends here in Ireland that are leaving tomorrow (Friday) to fly home.  She just called me to say she heard that the airports in Ireland and England were shut down because of a volcano in Iceland that is spewing ash into the air.  It may clear, but then again...
I told my friend that maybe Ireland just doesn't want to let us go yet. :0)

GOTTA LOVE THE IRISH!

My sister, Delirious, sent these to me in an email:

Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place.  Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord take pity on me.  If you find me a parking place I'll go to mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me Irish Whiskey!"
Miraculously, a parking place appeared.
Paddy looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one."


Father Murphy walks into a pub in Donegal and says to the first man he meets, "Do you want to go to heaven?" 
The man says, "I do Father."
The priest said, "Then stand over there against the wall."
Then the priest asked the second man, "Do you want to go to heaven?"
"Certainly, Father," was the man's reply.
"Then stand over there against the wall," was the priest's reply.
Then Father Murphy walked up to O'Toole and said, "Do you want to go to heaven?"
O'Toole said, "No, I don't Father."
The priest said, "I don't believe this.  You mean to tell me that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?"
O'Toole said, "Oh, when I die, yes.  I thought you were getting a group together to go  right now."

Paddy was in New York.   He was waiting patiently and watching the traffic cop on a busy street crossing. The cop stopped the flow of traffic and shouted, "Okay pedestrians."  Then he'd allow the traffic to pass.
He'd done this several times and Paddy was still on the sidewalk.
After the cop had shouted, "Pedestrians!" for the tenth time, Paddy went over to him and said, "Is it not about time ye let the Catholics cross?"

Gallagher opened the morning newspaper and was dumbfounded to read in the obituary column that he had died.  He quickly phoned his best friend, Finney.
"Did you see the paper?" asked Gallagher.  They say I died!!"
"Yes, I saw it," replied Finney.  "Where are ye callin' from?"

An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Conneticut. The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.
He says, "Sir, have you been drinking?"
"Just water," says the priest.
The trooper says, "Then why do I smell wine?"
The priest looks at the bottle and says, "Good Lord!  He's done it again!"

Walking into the bar, Mike says to Charlie the bartender, "Pour me a stiff one - just had another fight with the little woman."
"Oh yeah?" said Charlie, "And how did this one end?"
"When it was over," Mike replied, "She came to me on her hands and knees."
"Really," said Charles, "Now that's a switch!  What did she say?"
She said, "Come out from under the bed, you little chicken."

Flynn staggered home very late after another evening with his drinking buddy, Paddy.  He took his shoes off to avoid waking his wife, Mary.
He tiptoed as quietly as he could toward the stairs leading to their upstairs bedroom, but misjudged the bottom step.  As he caught himself by grabbing the banister, his body swung around and he landed heavily on his rump.  A whiskey bottle in each back pocket broke and made the landing especially painful.
Managing not to yell, Flynn sprung up, pulled down his pants, and looked in the mirror to see that his butt cheeks were cut and bleeding.  He managed to quietly find a full box of Band-Aids and began putting  a Band-Aid as best as he could on each place he saw blood.
He then hid the almost empty Band-Aid box and shuffled and stumbled his way to bed.
In the morning, Flynn woke up with a searing pain in both his head and his butt and Mary staring at him from across the room.
She said, "You were drunk again last night weren't you?"
Flynn said, "Why would you say such a mean thing?"
"Well,"  said Mary, "It could be the open front door, it could be the broken glass at the bottom of the stairs, it could be the drips of blood trailing through the house, it could be your bloodshot eyes, but mostly...it's all those Band-Aids stuck on the hall mirror."

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

OUR TRIP TO LONDON - RIDING THE HOP-ON, HOP-OFF BUS

This first picture is the headquarters for Google.  Can you see the sign in the middle side window?

Just in case you're looking for a new car:


The rest of these are Trafalgar Square which is a famous square where they hold different events. 
The name comes from the Battle of Trafalgar which was during Napoleon times. 
 It is also at a one of the busiest intersections in London.





If you want to see a live video of Trafalgar Square, click on this link: http://www.camvista.com/england/london/trafalgarsquare_streaming.php

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

OUR TRIP TO LONDON - MARBLE ARCH


Since what we mostly did was ride the Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus, you will see that most of these pictures are taken from the bus.  It was such fun!   I told my husband he has to use his own camera from now on, since he didn't check that the camera was still on indoor from taking pictures in Paris at the Musee D'Orsay, thus the blueish color. :0+ 
The top picture is Marble Arch.  It was originally built as a gateway for the new Buckingham Palace, but in 1851 it was moved to its present location.  A popular story says that the arch was removed because the queen couldn't get her stagecoach to pass through it.  They are considering moving the arch again, possible across the street to Hyde Park, because now it sits on a large traffic island which does not promote the flow of traffic.
Next to Marble Arch is the Hyde Park Speaker's Corner.  This is a place where anyone can go and stand up and make a speech as long as the police think your speeches are lawful and your language is clean.    It seems to me that I remember reading in a book about early Mormon missionaries in London, that they used to go there and preach the gospel.  Who knows, maybe they still do.  I wanted my husband to take a picture of it but he wasn't able to get it. 
The next picture is the Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus.  London is one of the cities with the most buses.  Look at the top picture and see all the buses.   There are 2 different Hop-On, Hop-Off bus companies, plus the city buses, plus ALL the charter sight-seeing buses.  I loved seeing the red double-decker city buses.  It reminded me of the Knight Bus in Harry Potter.  :0) 

The next picture is a typical souvenir shop.
Hard Rock Cafe - London
The rest of these are some weird buildings we saw.  The first one, my husband calls the Faberge Egg building. 

Monday, April 12, 2010

OUR TRIP TO LONDON


We went to London this last weekend.  We flew over on Friday morning and flew back Saturday night.  Friday afternoon we rode the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus over to the theater district and went to the Queen's Theatre box office and asked if they had any seats left.  They had 4.  Two on the floor and two on the 1st upper level.  We took the 2 on the floor (yes, they were together) and sat almost in the middle on the 5th row!  We rode the Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus back to our hotel and put our feet up and ordered room service for dinner.  Then we had the bellman get us a taxi and we went to the theater.  (We couldn't ride the bus back because it doesn't go that late.)  Most London taxi's look like the picture below. The taxi drive was cool, but Les Miz was even better!  What an incredible experience!  Les Miserables is my very, most favorite musical and I have wanted to see it for years and years.  It was fantastic!