Ryan Is Gone And We Are Sad

Okay so Ryan came and I ate too much delicious food and drank too many alcoholic beverages and stayed up too late and didn’t exercise enough and forgot I had a blog. NO REGRETS though, we had an excellent time with him and would love nothing more than for Ryan to get a job in London and move here and hang out with us all the time. It would be fantastic, frankly.

I am going to TRY to recap the last couple of weeks though, but they’ve pretty much been a blur. Between work (which is going well – everyone there is super nice and friendly) and having Ryan up, I have barely had time to breathe. Luckily, we have plenty of pictures to tell the story for me!

We did a lot of walking around SoHo. I think we’d had a few drinks when we took this because I remember HOT SALTED BEEF being kind of funny. I think there is a joke about Ryan’s sexuality somewhere in there. But yeah. HOT. SALTED. BEEF.

Mike took off St.Patty’s Day from work (I couldn’t as it was only my third day!). He and Ryan busted out the Penguin costumes, added some Irish flags and a couple of foam leprechaun hats, and hit the town. Ryan meets a Turkish Katie Holmes lookalike and proceeds to go on TWO dates with her over the following week. I meet up with the boys in their costumes at a bar closer to home after work. I get there first and am grilled by a middle-aged gypsy looking lady about where is my boyfriend and why hasn’t he proposed matrimony and if he isn’t there in the next 15 minutes, I need to dump him. Mike and Ryan arrive, and I am SAVED as she refocuses her interrogation on poor Mike, who is just trying to have a fun St.Patty’s Day in a penguin costume!

March 18, we decide to take Ryan to the “Canadian Bar” for a taste of home. Cricket on the telly, cask ales on tap. SPOT ON, MAPLE LEAF PUB. SPOT ON.

Ryan and I met Mike for beers a lot in SoHo, where we’d grab dinner, then walk around discovering stuff. We managed to take the most British photos ever.

Friday night, we went to Camden. I remember there was a bar that was playing death metal, then we walked down the street, and an openly gay DJ in his 50s with a shaved head, a black wife-beater, and mom jeans spun some lovely late 70s and early 80s punk. I don’t remember much else of the evening, but we got home with fried chicken and these mysterious photos on our camera. I don’t even have an explanation for these. I think we had fun though.

Saturday, we all rolled out of bed late morning, and walked to the high street for some breakfast (lunch), then caught a double-decker bus to the London Eye. We could have taken the tube, but Junior wanted the double-decker bus experience, and it was actually pretty neat to see the city as we were traveling through. The London Eye was fun, but it was a foggy day, so we didn’t see as much as we could have. They have “bomb checks” of each car on the Eye between offloading one set and loading a new set of passengers. I dared Ryan to tell them they were doing a “bang up job”. He refused. Probably for the best. Prison or not-welcome-in-the-UK Ryan would not be the best Ryan.

OH! On the way there, we found a museum with a piece of the Berlin wall outside. I hope we can make it to see where the Berlin wall was at some point, but I posed with this piece anyway. Mom would want me to. When the Berlin wall came down, she dragged me out of bed to watch the live news footage because it was “a piece of history”. At the time, I just thought it was cool because I got to be up watching tv late on a school night. 20+ years later, I realize how epic it was. Thanks Mom!

Since the Big Ben is practically on top of the London Eye, we decided it was a good chance to get some touristy photos. Pigeon was all getting in our photos. Stupid pigeons. Still haven’t forgiven them for the time that one shat on me. Avian vermin.

What time is it, Ryan?

TIME TO FUCK OFF, THAT’S WHAT TIME. (Note, we were just messing around. We weren’t mad at each other AT ALL. In face, I’d forgotten about this until I saw the photo)

We walked to SoHo and introduced Ryan to the magic that is spicy beef noodles. After that, he was feeling a little poorly (see: drinking in Camden the prior night), so we went home and chilled out and watched South Park. Yes, folks, we flew thousands of miles to a different continent to watch South Park and drink beer in our pajamas with our friends.

Sunday, we stayed local since the tubes are super-lame on Sundays. We found a bar with JENGA in it. So, of course, we took a block from the bottom and we put it on top..

While we were out and about, we passed a pub whose name we can’t even being to guess the pronunciation of.

Sunday night, we did Quiz Night at our local pub. Most of the questions are about Football (soccer) or English politics. We do terribly, coming in dead last with a whopping 7 points. The next lowest score is 21. As punishment for sucking so badly, we have to dance around the pub in silly wigs. Oh well, at least we managed to amuse people with our silly pictures.

Most of the rest of the week is spent exploring restaurants and pubs. Junior has his dates with the Katie Holmes lookalike. We did one last fun night in SoHo last night, and sent him on his way early this morning. He should be JUST getting through customs now after flying all day. He’s barely landed, and we miss him already. COME BACK SOON, RYAN!