The Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park talks to you.

I fully expected this free thing to be super boring. What can you say about a statue? "I found it and gazed at it?"

Just you wait.

The Peter Pan statue is located in a beautiful part of Hyde Park overlooking the Long Pond and Italian fountains, and it's a really pretty statue. I like how everything kinda swoops and swishes, from the clothes to the bunnies.

View of the Long Pond near the Peter Pan statue. Notice each seagull has its own post!

Peter Pan statue

But after you've admired the craftsmanship, Peter Pan will call your phone to talk to you.

Creative use of technology FOR THE WIN! It's a pre-recorded audio file, but the actor who's speaking on behalf of Peter Pan does a really good job. I was more than entertained and happy to listen to the end (about a four-minute little skit)! Very simple to use, too — I typed the short URL into my phone and then just had to push one button to get Peter to "call" my phone. (It uses data, so if you're visiting, be sure you have international data privileges or a UK SIM card with data. If not you'll be charged roaming fees!)

The "incoming call from Peter Pan" screen was a nice touch!

It's definitely a fun pit stop for any tiny human in your life — and for adults, too!

Looking for more free things? Check out my other posts as I check off 101 free things in London from this list!

Six-Month Check-up And Ten Rather Random Things I've Noticed

Six months.

Six??

Months?!

As of Feb. 11th we have been London residents for exactly (you guessed it!) six months. Which means we've theoretically completed ten percent of our Big London Adventure. Which means we have less time, but still a long time, before it's on to the next adventure.

The last few weeks I've sensed a shift in how I view our little life here. I'm shifting from feeling like a tourist — or like an imposter, or like a kid wearing her mother's heels — to feeling like I'm a resident. Like I live here.

OMG we live here!

The shift makes me ponder a couple things. First, that it's okay to spend several nights in on the couch watching movies: A) because it's cheeeeeeap, and B) because I like it. Second, I can't be jaded already. At least, not yet. When we first arrived I thought everything was magic! (Take a photo of that bus! That building! OOooooh, a pub! Take a photo of the pub!) Now I think, I don't have to sustain that level of excitement all the time. But I still want to appreciate every day as an opportunity. But I reeeeally want to sit on the couch. But what if I get a job soon and then I don't have all this free time anymore? Won't I feel like I've wasted all that time? But what if I get hit by a bus and regret not spending more time just hanging out? What if God is a TV repairman and I didn't do enough? WHAT IF IT'S ALL WRONG.

Um, okay. Moving on...

As a trained anthropologist (I have a degree, darn it!) I'm tickled by the minutia of daily life and how it's different here. So, here are ten things that still make me go, "Hmmmmmm" about London:

1. Everyone carries bags around. More than just a purse/backpack. I chalk this up to not having a car -- and therefore no trunk, backseat or floorboard on which you can "store" your random stuff during the day. You need it? You haul it. Plus, every day you need to carry an umbrella, different shoes for your commute, gloves, a book for the bus ride, maybe your laptop...

2. Dogs wear sweaters from October through... well, at least through February.

3. Everyone — or perhaps just tourists, it's hard to say — ducking LOVES the squirrels in the Royal Parks. If you see a squirrel, you will see someone going well out of their way to take a photo.

4. Chances of rain are always high, but they increase to 100% if I am riding a bike share bike. Yesterday it was sunshine and blue skies until I hopped on. Then the wind picked up and the sky patched with clouds. It's like the weather didn't expect me to ride that day. "Oh blimey! Ellen's on the bike! Quick, kick up some wind and rain and -- phooey, we missed it. Call it off..."

Nice try, weather! 

5. People are nice to you if you're nice to them. But do not stand between them and their train home.

6. OHEMGEE the politeness. I am (often) a very polite person. I hold doors and say thank you and offer you my seat on the bus if you're old. But you can't out-polite a Brit. They always pour your glass first if there's a water carafe. You don't drink a sip of your pint without a "Cheers!" to your drinking companion. This video is hilarious because it is ridiculously, ridiculously true.

7. Everyone talks about the weather because everyone thinks the weather sucks. Unless it's sunny and then we talk about that.

8. WhatsApp wins. Don't resist it.

9. Queueing is a favored British pastime, but if you approach a crosswalk all bets are off. It's every man, woman, and child for his or herself and there are no rules. Pedestrian signals mean nothing and chaos is nigh. Run. Just run. Or wait for the green man, ya goody-goody.

10. Cheese and sparkling wines are very specific. It's not just brie. It's [regional] brie. My mimosa mix sparkling wine is most likely not champagne, but Brut or Cava or Prosecco. You get bug-eyed glances if you suggest buying a bottle of champagne (it's pricey).

And the list goes on.

I'm sure by August I'll have even more to report. But right now I'm just happy to report that, over all, we're happy! We have a trip coming up soon to Copenhagen, and plans forming for Scotland and Wales trips, too.

And very soon... a new website...!

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BONUS! Pronunciations. Before you get all sassy, I'm not talking about the accent. I'm talking about when I try to read words that I've not yet heard pronounced, or words that I really thought were universal. For example:

• Bermondsey. I see, "Bihr-MUND-zee." They say, "BURR-mund-zee."
• Islington. I see, "EYE-ling-ton." LIKE ISLAND. OR AISLE. BUT NO. They say, "IZZ-ling-ton." 
• Southwark. I see, "South-Wwark." They say, "SUH-thark."
• Oregano. I see, "urr-EGG-uh-no." They say, "or-eh-GAH-no."
• Innovative? Nope. In-NOH-vuh-tiv. 

In fact, I'm relatively sure that someone on one side of the Atlantic or the other (I'm not naming names) gazed — probably drunkenly — across the ocean and said, "Right, now let's really mess with those blokes. When they sail back we should just say EVERYTHING differently." And now, everything is spelled the same but no one understands a damn thing.

Fridays with Fullers

A bit late on this write-up but excited to share it!

My old man got a bit older in January -- the big 3-0! And since he likes beer, I took him to one of his favorite places on this earth: Fuller's Brewery.

(I was thisclose to keeping it a secret! But with my history of bad directions, I figured it'd be better for us to actually get there instead of wandering around in circles, so I spilled the beans the night before.)

Gaaah, of course it was ducking gray weather!

It's a fascinating building: whereas the breweries we're used to in the states are, for the most part, in locations where they can expand out and out and out, Fuller's is in its original London location, where they have to fill in whatever space they have left in the building if they need to install new equipment. So. Lots of narrow stairways and crammed spaces. At one point Britton said it looked like the engine room of the Enterprise. (He would.)

The Fuller's Tour is also a bit of a history lesson. Fuller's has been brewing in the same spot since 1845, a short 170 years ago — and they've kept some of the original equipment on-site to show how things used to be. Like the giant brewing drums (so big young guys would have to climb all the way inside in order to clean them) and the open-air fermentation pools (careful of contamination, and of staff casually siphoning of a pint or two...).

And of course, the guide also taught us about BEER! We got to taste some beer seeds (er, malt), smell some hops, and see the production line for the kegs. As well as most steps in between as well. (Those steps don't photograph as well though)

"For delicious beer, just add water!"

Birfday dude!

And finally, the whole reason you take the tour at all — the beer tasting at the end! We each sampled several of their brews, and of course it was all quite tasty. It's not like we were going to be let down... it's free included beer! (And we're still tickled that neither one of us has to be DD since we don't have to drive anywhere.) Plus, Fuller's has made a stout to compete with The-Famous-Irish-Beer-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named (in this post, at least), which I thoroughly enjoyed. Huzzah!

(And a very happy (belated) birthday to my exit buddy! So glad we're on this big adventure.)

Oh, and we got some really delicious pizza afterward, too!

END!

Visiting the Barbican Conservatory (Photo Essay)

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Another item checked off of this list of 101 Free Things to Do in London: the Barbican Conservatory! Hidden away in a hall off the center of the Barbican Centre is a very green, warm oasis of tropical plants and koi ponds enclosed in a greenhouse. It very much feels like it used to be the outside of a building complex and someone decided to slap a greenhouse on the side of it.

The day we visited the Barbican Conservatory, the weather was actually rather warm outside — close to 60F — so the warm wonderfulness of finding a temperature-controlled greenhouse in the middle of the City of London in January wasn't quite as novel as it could'a/should'a been. If the weather snaps again though, and it's a Sunday (it's only open on Sundays), and I'm nearby, and I don't have to make a special trip outside of my warm and cozy blanket nest... I'll maybe visit again.

Acclimating: Part 3

Last week, I ate sushi on the tube at 10:30 pm and didn't care what other passengers thought. I sat in the car I knew would be closest to the exit at my home station. And I called it a station, not a stop, without thinking about it.

Londoner Level 2: Unlocked.

(This was Level 1.)

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