Rain, rain, go away…

...Come again some other day! Apparently, 2007 saw the wettest June that ever cursed the City of London, and July is already chalking up the rainy days, as well. It has been absolutely miserable! It feels like it just never stops! So what do you do in London when it rains? You get up and go, just like any other day! You have no choice, and sitting inside listening to the rain gets really old after a couple of weeks.



This weekend it rained every day, so Friday night Andrew and I went to the movies for the first time here in London. We have a cinema in the Fulham Broadway tube station, so it was close by and easy. We saw Ocean’s Thirteen, which was really good.



On Saturday, after a very frustrating lunch, we spent the afternoon at the Natural History Museum. We’ve been trying to save the museums and sightseeing for when all of you come to visit, so that we won’t have to see everything several times, but the rain finally got the best of our plans.

We needed something to do! So we saw the giant robotic tyrannosaurus rex, along with all the rest of the dinosaurs except, strangely, the pterodactyl.

Andrew and I noticed that there were no pterodactyls in the exhibit at all, nor were there any explanations as to why. I’ve just looked up the reason. According to Wikipedia, “Pterosaurs, often called pterodactyls, are sometimes referred to in the popular media as dinosaurs, but this is incorrect. The term ‘dinosaur’ is properly restricted to a certain group of terrestrial reptiles with a unique upright stance (superorder Dinosauria), and therefore excludes the pterosaurs, as well as the various groups of extinct aquatic reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs (giant marine reptiles that resembled fish and dolphins), plesiosaurs (carnivorous aquatic, mostly marine, reptiles), and mosasaurs (serpentine marine reptiles).” Interesting!



Later that night we had dinner in a pub called the Chelsea Ram, which is not too far from our flat. Granted it was pouring down rain while we walked there, and despite the fact that we were both wearing raincoats and each had our own umbrella (called a brelly here), the rain still soaked us by the time we arrived at the restaurant. Our tour book, Access London, describes the Ram as “a great London institution [...that...] is hugely popular with Chelsea locals and other who travel from all over London for the friendly ambience, the great selection of wines, beers, and the rest, and the terrific food. You can just hang out and enjoy a pint of something warm and quintessentially English.” The food and atmosphere were great, and I’m sure that we’ll go back.



So on Sunday, Andrew and I went with Nigel to our long-awaited first cricket match! We had been really looking forward to it for months. Of course, when we woke up on Sunday, it was raining! We met Nigel at the Paddington station at ten that morning, and walked to Lords stadium. Our seats were in the back row of the lower deck, so we were sheltered from the rain, but being at the top of the lower deck with the upper deck above us and no back wall made our seats right in a wind tunnel. We were freezing all day long! On the plus side, the game was really interesting, and Andrew and I learned a lot about cricket, a very confusing game. Nigel explained the rules to us as the game was going on, as well as the history of the stadium, the area, and his experiences growing up attending cricket matches with his father. He is really such an interesting man and is just full of facts! Andrew and I really enjoy hanging out with him and hope to attend another match soon, when the weather is better. We both agreed that the match would have been a great Sunday activity on a warm, sunny Saturday.

So Andrew left for Dubai again on Monday morning, and I’m all alone here again! For those of you who don’t know, he’s been placed on a project with General Motors in Dubai and will be gone for two weeks at a time. He’ll be spending time in South Africa and Egypt, as well, while he’s on this project. He's going to make a special post on Dubai, though, later. Here are some photos of his first trip to Dubai…