JUST CHILLING

I woke up in the AM with the lads trying to contain their excitement in the kitchen while Sarah did her best in keeping Evie occupied quietly (it's a difficult feat to keep any toddler quiet!) so we could sleep in the adjacent living room. We were too doped up to notice any of the ruckus. After having the garbage removed in front of my home 3 days a week, literally nothing can wake me.

I forced my butt outta bed and rummaged through my luggage for something to wear. I had emptied more than half of the contents the previous day bearing a ton of gifts for each individual in the Ridgard clan. The lads had some toys, Mum got my gently used Dooney & Burke handbag (it was too big and looked like a oversized lymph node under my armpit) with a bunch of other cutesy stuff, Evie ended up with loads of clothing - some of which were originally purchased (and never worn) for Mikayla. Last but not least, Dad had the biggest field day of all - crystals.

[On my last trip, I got everyone a little bit of something, but it's usually harder to get a guy a gift. Although Sarah & Andy could give a rat's ass about getting stuff and would rather me appear at their door empty-handed, I for one, love to give gifts. It's like Xmas all over again.]

It was decided that everyone hang out in town for a bit and check out Tamworth castle. Richard suggested visiting Cadbury Park and Ching jumped right in as she always wanted to visit a chocolate factory. I declined for 3 reasons: 1) I wanted to spend some time with my pen friend 2) I am due to take my own rugrat to Hershey's in PA, so I'd rather see chocolates made with Miki 3) I was still put off by Richard's BO.

So, we'll let Ching suffer in the front seat this time.

She also opted to take Sam & Ben, so the upper half of the clan was beside themselves. Ben knew that Ching enjoyed a nice cuppa each morning, so he kept pacing in and out of the kitchen to see if she was awake. When I finally rose from the dead, Sam hounded me down so he could brew me a nice cup of coffee. Gosh, it's so nice to feel loved. Sam's got such a handsome smile which is wicked cruel. If you're pissed at him, he'll give you this innocent look in the face, and you'll forget why you're even mad at him.

Anyway, we all headed to town in 2 trips via Richard's car. We hit the local McDonald's (folks, the ketchup is way different), ordered everyone their meals and had a nice and misty lunch at the castle grounds. Because we had a late start, the castle trip had to be ixnayed to get to Cadbury on time.

Andy, Sarah, Joe, Jack and Evie hung out in town for a little before returning home in an authentic British cab. The cool thing is that you can actually fit the entire stroller (open and with your kid in it) into it as well flipping the seats down on the opposite for additional seating - you could fit about 5 adults and a stroller in this puppy.

Child #4, Jack, has some difficulty pronouncing his S's. So he'd call his eldest brother "Am" instead of "Sam". Before we hopped on the cab, we headed over a 99p Store (which was $2 store for me, thanks to the cruddy exchange rate) and passed by a policeman.

Jack says to his dad: "Dad, the policeman's stick [baton] is hanging out." Andy's face turned beet red and tried to stifle his laughter. The way the words came out of Jack's lips were: "the policeman's dick is hanging out." Mum and I had to gasp for air because it was too funny.

In all, it was so nice to play catch up and to relax. Both Sarah & Andy are very much into blended graphic artistry and the stuff they've come up with is awesome. Check it out:

Simplistic Desires - Wallpaper

[I'm going to send them a pic of myself and have them airbrush me and make me a hottie. One can dream, right? LOL! Hey, even Ching said the same thing!]

For dinner, we had a traditional English breakfast - bacon (OMG..the best! Why can't we have that here in the US!?), nuked scrambled eggs (Sarah's perfected the art of having it done in the microwave! I saw it with my own eyes!), sausage (yum), and tomatoes. I'm curious though, why tomatoes? I'm guessing that it goes with every beef dish...see, I love tomatoes, so I'll take it cooked or raw.

She thought we were mad when I asked if we could have breakfast for dinner. I really love a hearty English breakfast, but Ching observes a kind of vegeterian ritual where she doesn't eat any meat in the mornings. We put it off 'til later.

And...we had egg custard tarts for dessert. So, Sarah, we really did have egg tarts and bacon together after all!