UK Soon!

I got it, I think I got it!

two days of riding to East London. Getting out at the London Bridge Tube stop and switching to Stratford, East London where the Olympics will take place. Taking at test at the British East something or other academic who ha..what a thrill.

One had to scoot to get the tests done in the allotted time. I had 40 minutes to explain a graph of housing grown in UK for next ten years, with tenements, single dwell homes, and two other houses on it and explain their growth. Sample book said exact figures would be as dry and boring as where I am heading now.

I really don’t know what day it is anymore. The highlight was coming into Brighton station as the train slowed down and Russ pointed to the building where Csaba took his English proficiency test.

London was clear and sunny and we ate by the London eye ferris wheel, and walked and walked and walked back to the London  Bridge tube station. Along the way there were fairs along the Thames, tables of books, maps, food, jewery, ethnic clothes, scarves, and sun sun sun and coffee.

We got up at 4:30am yesterday to get to the test in London. It wasn’t a foggy day and I wondered how long this thing would last, but the age of miracles hadn’t passed, and suddenly I was that finished test there and in Foggy London Town the sun was shining everywhere.

During my Eliza Doolittle day, everybody was polite and pleasant and it was great to see healthy Nigerian men workers on the train, and all others of beautiful faces, colors, clothes and cultures, languages and food ethnicities. It was like Chicago and my favorite Polish restaurant could be just around the corner.

If I went the wrong way on at a tube stop to powder my nose, I could just explain to the stationmaster and he would let me back where I came from without swiping my Oyster card.

When Rex Harrison did My Fair Lady on Broadway, he absolutely hated it. He couldn’t sing, so he did his thing, helped them get to the church on time, kinda sang getting to know you, and if you ever want to listen to a Broadway soundtrack, his part in that production was a tongue twisting miracle.

My legs quit hurting long ago after I got my knees in shape by going up every staircase and stairwell I possibly could. But nothing could help those 4 am wake ups, and we have to be at Heathrow Wedneday on much the same timetable.

So I finally succumbed to a soggy London chill and cough and slept 12 hours with Russ and Csaba giving me tea and chocolate, which is at the side of the bed each night while I sleep, and having all manners of tea, straight lemons, straight honey, wrapping in all the wool I could find, and trying to breathe.

These guys are amazing, once I collapsed into the warm bed with my iPod and radio, they asked if I was hungry or should they wait. I told them I couldn’t even breathe and the long soak in their tub was the only thing that brought me back from death shivers like a fish in the Thames.

So what I am saying is that is has all been fun, a wonderful adventure, full of food like lox and bagels Csaba is making now, quotes on my essays courtesy of my dad bringing me up about<“the almighty buck” in an essay on kids and telly watching. I don’t know if Bob Hilliger’s words of wisdom are ready for the UK but it would be a good thing if they were.

Sesame Street information regarding 40th birthday said their model was the time and enthusiasm level of a tv commercial because that is what kept kids attention. Perfect plan.

I have my own nurse here about ready to give me breakfast, and I feel better, who knows what I am taking for medicine for this chesty cough courtesy of the wonderful Boots drug store? all those ingredients and like my dad said about ice cream ingredients,”well they must be good, because they taste great.”