After some spotty sleep in Jake's room (very nice view of the backyard - and a bit weird with no screens - no "mozis" you know), I wandered down for some breakfast. This was simply an acclimation day to get us used to the time zone. We started by joining Roma at a birthday party at her friend Penny's house just nearby. We were woefully underdressed, but it didn't matter. All the guests were super-nice to us and the food was fantastic. Even chatted it up with Chris and Linda, US transplants living in London now. Oh yeah, Sam had his first beer - a Heineken :)
From there we went back to Roma's to enjoy a street party celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday. The whole city was doing something, and meeting her neighbors was great. We chatted it up with several of them, and can see why Roma's loves this part of London. We also witnessed a chap passed out due to a seizure...good times ;)
After this Toby took us with him to Camden Town to watch the England match against Russia in the Euros. Very big tournament, and this would be Sam's first experience in a bar/pub with sports fans. We arrived at a place called Lock 17, and made it just in time for the game. We found seats and watched a scoreless first half, then England scored in the second - and the place went bonkers. Toby spilled his pint everywhere and mass-hugging ensured. It remained 1-nill until the very last minute of injury time when Russia equalized. Very disappointing since England hasn't won an opening round in ages.
Even so, Sam and I milled around a bit more, then headed off for a late dinner in the neighborhood. Settled on a Chipolte-type eatery. Then we caught the train back to West Finchley, and came across the street party - still going at midnight! By this time however there had been complaints about the noise, and the police arrived shortly after we did. Then the representatives from the Council. The party was only down to a dozen folks by then but they were still ticked that so much attention was placed on them. Roma laughed thinking what we have done in a short 24-hours.
We finally made it back to the house, and I had a nice chat with Roma before retiring.
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