There are literally four pastry shops within a fifteen-second walk from our flat. And even more down the street and around the corner. I want to know why everyone is so thin here! It doesn't seem fair. I haven't indulged in a pastry yet from any of them, have been walking every day, and have yet to lose any weight. Oh well. Enough of the self-pity.

Saturday morning and, guess what? It was another beautiful day! I can't believe how lucky we are. We walked around the Notting Hill neighborhood just north of us and through Portobello Market. No photos--I didn't want to look like all the other tourists. I made my first purchase (aside from the three books at the British Library)--a coral necklace similar to one I had seen in Paris last year (remember, Peggy?)--only this was one-tenth the cost. Hmm, at least I THINK it's coral. . .

I was up on the rooftop terrace again reading and snoozing a bit while Gord worked in the study. Later on we went up to the top of what used to be a department store but is now H&M and Marks & Spencer. There is a five-acre rooftop garden up on the sixth floor, with a restaurant in the middle. It had fountains, flowers, ponds, ducks, flamingos--very odd, but pleasant nonetheless.

Stopped in at our pub for a pint. I had a Natterjack and Gord had a Fullers London Pride, and for an encore he thought he would try a new one--Strongbow--that turned out to be cider. I had always wanted to try cider--it's well named because it did actually taste like apple cider. (I wouldn't order it again, though.) After dinner we were going to go down to the Thames to watch part of the Thames River Festival, with fireworks and all, but then Gord pointed out that today was Saturday, not Sunday. Oops. We'll try to catch it tomorrow. Instead we spent hours online trying to book train tickets to Liverpool, but couldn't get them to go through . . . or so we thought. Next thing I know, there's an email from our daughter at home indicating that the credit card company had called because there was some suspicious activity on our card. So I called them to find out that we had purchased six pairs of train tickets! Every time we "tried" to purchase them it would put us back to the beginning and there were no confirmation numbers or anything to indicate we had bought them. The office is closed until the morning--hopefully we'll be able to straighten out this mess.

It occurred to me that I am not usually one to partake in beer and, although I've only indulged a few times so far, this might be contributing to the fact of my not shedding pounds. But, darn it, is having three pints in 2-1/2 weeks really that bad?

Reading: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence