Shopping & Pizzeria Dinner

Sarah, George, and I shopped a bit after getting stuck in some serious traffic heading out of London late this afternoon.

Our stomachs were keeping us from shopping, so we called it a night and drove back into the city to get dinner.

George and Sarah picked a great Italian restaurant, Pizzeria Pappagone, and we were seated across from the wood burning oven - a perfect seat on a cold night. The oven kept us toasty, but not hot throughout our meal. Word on the street is that Sarah makes an incredible spaghetti carbonara and we had been talking about it earlier in the day so that was my dish of choice. We each chased our dinner with dessert (dark chocolate and mint gelato for me) before the evening came to a close.

George and Sarah dropped me off in front of the hotel and we have plans to meet up again tomorrow. I will pick up goodies from Harrods in the morning and in the evening we may crash the Harry Potter premiere that will be taking place in the city - if anything, it would be fun just to see the chaos and snap a picture or two. (Plus, Kate's mom would be TOTALLY jealous, so I could share the pictures with her.)

I have managed to stay up all day, so I am off to reward myself with a solid night's sleep.
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Cockfosters

After a bit of lunch and making sure everyone had my new mobile number, George and Sarah rang and invited me out for an afternoon of shopping outside of the city.

I'm all bundled up and back on the tube to see them both - it's been over a year since our last visit, so we have plenty of catching up to do. For those unfamiliar with the London transport, Cockfosters is a tube stop where we will meet.

Spending time with friends will be great and staying out with them will also help me adjust to the 5-hour time difference. So far, so good. I hope the energy sticks around well into the evening! (and that I don't fall asleep on the tube on my way there)
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Sunny London Day

Well, I must admit this was one of my easier overseas flights. The flight from RDU was more than half empty so there was plenty of room to take your own row of seats in order to have a better sleep. I managed to watch the beginning of 'The Blind Side' before falling asleep and waking just as breakfast was being served.

We landed right on time to blue skies and because the plane was so empty, I hopped off with my bag in less than 5 minutes. What was more astonishing was the fact that the customs line literally took 5 minutes and as soon as I had walked to baggage reclaim by bag rolled right past. Perfect timing. The only problem? SOS from the BlackBerry as it couldn't find ANY signal.

I topped up my Oyster card and took the first train on the Piccadilly line to my hotel. More luck? Why, yes! My room was ready so I checked right in and promptly changed to shower. Now I feel incredible; well-rested, clean and walking around in beautiful weather.

Topped up my Vodafone UK phone so I could call Verizon Global - they had my SIM card written down wrong, but now we're good to go.

Lunch today are my favorites from Waitrose - houmous, crusty bread, and tomato/mozzarella salad with sparkling water. Low key for the morning and once lunch is done I am going to look into theatre tickets.
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