Living La Vida London

Things one can't help but LOVE about London...

* The sense of history
* Narrow, and often crooked streets/alleyways meant for two cars to pass, but barely fit for one
* Heinz beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
* Calling dinner "Tea"
* Walking over tombstones of the dead in most churches
* E7ating in Crypt Cafes
* Double Decker Red Buses
* Black Cabs
* Fountains on busy corners
* Cobblestone streets
* Palaces in the middle of busy intersections
* The Queen's emblem everywhere
* The words, "Appointed by Her Majesty, The Queen of England" on the side of most food and other products
* The Boat Race - Oxford crew team vs. Cambridge crew team down 4 miles of the crooked Thames River
* Curry - best known as England's national dish
* Parks in the middle of the city - Hyde Park, St. James's Park, Green Park, Regent's Park...
* Commons in the middle of the "burbs" - Wandsworth Commons, Tooting Commons, etc...(these are mini parks)
* Double cheek kiss hello
* Football mania - go Manchester United - and no Wayne Rooney does not look like Shrek
* 70 million people living in a country the size of Florida
* The melting pot of diversity
* Streets lined with identical houses, seeming to go on for miles - looking like rowhouses but somehow more quaint and British with stained-glass windows
* Having a "garden" not a "backyard", even if there's not a single flower or vegetable planted
* Being called "Love" - even by strangers..."You want chips with that Love?"
* The Posh walking the same streets that the Not So Posh walk
* Bowler Hats
* Theatre District - the West End - any musical you could want, any night of the week - and stage plays as well
* Arcades - which are not places to play video games, but narrow, alleyways in the middle of a block that run perpendicular to the storefronts you pass, and are lined with specialty stores, like a Man's Shaving Shop, or a Tie Shop, or an Italian Leather store...
* Markets - Jubilee Market/Covet Garden Markets, Camden Markets, Portobello Markets, Bourough Markets
* Tiny, and even tinier cars
* The Underground - and the Overground (the tube and the train)
* English Breakfast Tea - English style, with milk and sugar
* Biscuits with tea - which are actually "cookies"
* Puddings with traditional Custard - which means basically any dessert with an amazing pudding-like custard over it
* Crisps (which are potato chips) in flavors such as Roasted Chicken, Prawn Cocktail, Smokey Bacon, and Honey Wiltshire Ham
* PUBS - all of them, and especially the traditional ones with fantastic names: The Cocks and Lion, The Rose and Crown, The Pig's Ear, The Fox and the Grapes, The Queen's Arm, The Red Lion, etc...
* Pints of Cider - Stongbow or Bulmers
* Jacket Potatoes - the size of your head and filled with whatever you want, but most likely beans!
* Huge and spectacular buildings, centuries old, next to modern day architecture
* Christopher Wren and his amazing contribution to London's skyline
* Art, art, and more art - The Tate Modern, The Tate Britain, National Gallery, Royal Academy of Art, Museum of Natural History, British Museum, etc...
* Churches, Cathedrals and Abbeys - some of the most famous and most awe-inspiring of all time (St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Southwark Cathedral, etc)
* Tower Bridge
* The English Language - not the American one
* Bobbies on horses in the city (police officers)
* Changing of the Guard - the fact that there is a Guard - the fact that there is Royalty
* London landmarks - like Big Ben, Parliament, and a gigantic ferris wheel (the London Eye)
* Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park - the fact that people go and listen on a Sunday afternoon
* Swans in every pond in every park
* Daffodils sprouting aimlessly and everywhere in Springtime
* An inch or two of snow/ice causing a stop-the-city panic
* Rush hour meaning that it's 6pm and you're trapped in a sea of pin-striped suits, you face smashed up against the glass of the tube while it hurtles down the black hole, and a mystery man's armpit is inches from your nose - and you're thankful he showered - and the people around you think there's still enough room to open their Evening Standard and read a few paragraphs before everyone is thrown off balance by the next stop.
* Two newspapers a day - the morning version and the Evening Standard - because no one in London wants to miss a minute of the important worldly events - like the status of the Premier League's scores (football)
* Gavin and Stacey - and for that matter, most British television shows and sitcoms - I mean, C'MON - the Eastenders?!

Surely, there are so many more things to list...but that will do for now. Sometimes the senses get flooded with a giddy appreciation and amusement of that which is different. And I am so enjoying being surrounded by all that is different, and all that London has to offer.