9-10-2011

So I've developed a pretty ridiculous habit of running. This trip has actually been kind of hard on my obsessive compulsiveness since I only found the time/energy to run twice the whole time with the lack of routine. Well, those two runs got me super close to my 300th mile with the Nike+ app on my phone, and I figured where better to break 300 miles than somewhere far away? So, I picked Hyde Park as the perfect place. It really is a perfect place for running. Being in two really big cities made me really miss seeing green and trees. That picture is of Nicole considering trying to climb said tree. For the sake of being nice, I'm keeping the pictures of her attempt for myself to laugh at, but this is her deciding that it was a lost cause. It was a lot easier for me to climb in my silly runny clothes. Hyde Park is pretty awesome though, I would totally go there to sit on benches or to feed birds if I lived there. I was always under the impression pigeons were dirty birds, but this one took a bath in front of me to show me that they do care about hygiene. Lots of people run in Hyde Park too. Lots of people run in London in general, but it's so good in the park that they were setting up for a huge 5k while we were walking around. I asked Nicole if Adidas would let me run their Woman's 5k Challenge, but she didn't think that they would. I called discrimination. Look! We saw an animal. Coming from an area where deer sleep in our yard and they've seen bears in the woods, it was weird not seeing animals the whole trip. This park has lots of organized birds.

After the park, we decided to go visit another animal that I'm fond of. Look at these trains. Lots of trains. What kind of animal could we find at such a station? Yup, we're at Paddington Station, and we found the bear. The story of Paddington Bear pretty much sums up Nicole and my relationship, except she's the bear and she looks after me. I did however buy a very expensive coat last year specifically because it reminded me of the one that Paddington Bear wears.

On to more British stuff. This road is named after mushrooms, or maybe mushrooms are named after this road, or maybe our cat is named after mushrooms. Whatever the case may be, we've arrived at the Portobello Street Market in Notting Hill (like the movie). This was fun because it was more affordable antiquey stuff. Lots of stuff. Even weird stuff. Nicole found stuff she liked, and I found stuff I like. I like how this woman looks very much. I was also fond of the side streets and the more daily life looking parts of the market. Most of all, after the market, I was the most fond of more treacle tart. Since we stay living like kids with no parents, we can have desert before dinner and not get in trouble.