Elefante gets around...

While I was away, my coworkers took turns having Elefante visit their offices. And they even took pictures to document his journey.

In Susan's office, he enjoyed playing with the world.

In Sy's office, he even had a portrait of his ancestors.

He felt most at home in William's office, with its lush jungle atmosphere.

My favorite: In Erika's office, the little people run screaming in fear. Relax, he's a gentle giant.

And in Laura's office, he chills out with a brisk refreshment.

Meaty crisps

You may know that in Brit-speak, french fries are called chips, and potato chips are called crisps. I read this before I went. What I didn't read about is how they apparently like their crispy snacks to be flavored like meat. My favorite was Bacon Rashers.


A rasher is a serving of bacon, as in, your eggs come with two rashers of bacon. But Bacon Rashers are crispy corn and rice snacks that look kind of like dog treats, and taste very, very much like bacon. And yet they are "suitable for vegetarians." (How much do I love that all vegetarian things are labeled as such, and every place we ate had veggie options clearly labeled on their menus.)

The drawback of Bacon Rashers is they "give back" in a very unpleasant way, so you can only have a few at a time.

(Tesco, by the way, is a grocery store chain.)

We also tried Strong Onion and Cheese potato chips (not bad) and Steak and Onion potato chips (yuck!). At the airport we saw Roasted Chicken potato chips...we did not partake.


And they're not Lays potato chips. They're Walkers. But the design of the logo seems to indicate it's the same company.

Cornish Pasty

These are so yummy! It's like a calzone, but instead of pizza dough, it's made with a flaky crust, and there's a pot-pie-like filling inside. We had these twice. Once for dinner our first night in Covent Garden, and then again for lunch in Bath. Chicken and vegetable, cheese and onion, chicken and mushroom, yum yum yum! And by the way, you pronounce it past-ee, as in not the future, but the past. It's not paste-ee, like glue. Cheerio, love!

Big Ben Bong

London from the airplane

Dog on the Tube

Well behaved, and appeared to be quite happy. Did druel a bit.

We didn't see nearly as many dogs in London as we did in Italy. And only one cat, out in the Cotswolds.

London and the countryside

Cheers from England! We are having a fantastic time taking in all the sights in London and the surrounding countryside. We've seen so much, and I'd love to go into every little detail, but it is late and we have an early start tomorrow. This is the first chance I've had to hop on the internet because we've been so busy. It stays light until 10pm so we have been getting back to the room late, then going over our plans for the next day, and by then we are just exhausted. We have been walking so much my feet are ready to fall off! I tried to plan a reasonable itinerary but once you're here, you just want to run around and fit everything in. So here is a small sampling of what we've seen and done so far, with a few comments thrown in. There will of course be MUCH more once I return to the States. I have a few days in Santa Clarita where I'll be able to relax and journal about everything that happened.

First Night

We saw the Sound of Music at the theater

View from the London Eye

Changing of the Guard - band marching in

At St. James Park

Classic pose

Beefeater tour at Tower of London

Tower Bridge

At the Horse Guard

Beautiful gardens in the Cotswolds

A few more pictures here.

Dis. Gus. Ting.

9am, 86 degrees, 70% humidity. Yuck.

It's supposed to reach 100 here in Raleigh on Saturday and Sunday. The high for Santa Clarita this weekend? 82, with max humidity of 32%. Then in London, we're looking at highs in the low to mid 70's. Can I just say? Good time to get the heck out of Dodge.