The squirrel whisperer

So I was on my own on Monday and had a great time. After spending many hours in Harrod's (more on that in a minute) I walked over to Hyde Park, and upon walking in spotted many squirrels scurrying back and forth. Or as Amy likes to say - the squirrels were twitterpated! The reason for this was a woman on a bench with a baggie full of peanuts in the shell. These crazy squirrels actually ran up her leg and sat and waited until she offered them the peanut. Can you imagine?! It was amazing! I got some great shots and hope I can get them posted soon. Mandy's hard-drive is completely full, so downloading my pictures to her computer is a risky business. When we did it the other night I chose a few to post on the blog and then she deleted all of them from her iPhoto. They are still on my camera of course, all 350 of them so far.

Harrod's was an unbelievable experience. The store has 4 1/2 acres of retail space dedicated to the excesses of consumerism. I think I was there for about 4 hours, which included having lunch at the Pizzeria counter (the first wood-fired pizzas in London) and dessert at Mo's Diner (so called "American diner food"). The pizza was delicious and the dessert good also. My "apple pie" was actually an apple tart.

Harrod's is so big that there are signs everywhere directing you, a map to follow and people all over the store to further help you. Mohammed Al-Fayid sure is paying a lot of people to just stand around in that store. But it is so great to shop in London. None of the sales people ever bother you unless you ask for their help. They just stand there looking available. Mandy's friend Jessie said that English people hate walking into stores in the U.S. and being badgered by fake-sounding sales people. I must say I agree.

I did buy a very few tiny little souvenirs in there. Honest, Steve. Very few and very tiny. I took quite a few pictures in there also, especially of the food halls. It was amazing.

Hyde Park was beautiful, and I only saw one corner of it because it was getting late. I took some pictures of myself since I was a person with no friends yesterday. (ha-ha) I took the Tube there and back all by myself. Luckily it was only one line, since Mandy says I am a spaz when it comes to public transportation. I'm getting a little better, and after all I am a native Californian. We don't take public transportation and we don't walk. All we can do is drive!

BTW - we never did get to the pub for that football game on Sunday. Turns out the game was early in the day. I hope we can make it to one later in the week.

As I write this Mandy is sitting for the first of her two final exams. She finishes in an hour and then will meet me here at the hotel so we can go off on some more adventures. My feet are feeling better each day. Guess I am starting to get used to all this exercise!