EARLY BIRD DAY

Roman had a dentist appointment this morning so Ger and I got up early (8 AM) to take Abby to school at 8:45. I have been sleeping in these past few days so it was a surprise for the kids to see me before they went to school. Once Abby was dropped off Ger and I stopped at home, picked up our back packs and walked into town. We were actually in town by 10 AM. WE stopped at a cafe and had a BIG English breakfast. Ger chose to fore go the beans, pudding and brown bread so he just had eggs, ham, sausage, mushrooms and toast. (He gave me the mushrooms which were delish) I had eggs Benedict with smoked salmon. FANTASTIC!  A capichino to drink and I am full for the day.
The day is  milder than it has been but it is still cloudy. The sun was trying to break through every so often but at the moment, (3PM) it is pouring. It was good we walked into town early because that was the best part of the day. Also by going in early we got to see the Queens Guard marching out of the castle after the changing of the guard. Isn't that just amazing that you can see a parade any day of the week! The soldiers are dressed in their finest red uniforms and huge hats. Guess who didn't bring their cameras with them today?!
Ger and I wandered in and out of the thrift shops today. They have thrift shops on every street for all sorts of causes. Many are for children's health care, cancer and other needy charities. There were even 3 or 4 people standing on the street with Shetland ponies that are "Hospital Ponies". They were collecting for LOCAL HANDICAPPED CHILDREN. It took us about a half hour to figure out what they were saying. To us it sounded like "OCRA ANDY CROPPED CHILDREN".  We did donate a pound and got to pet the pony. As for the rest of the purchases, I found 2 books for one pound each and a wonderful scarf that is perfect for Florida with bright toucans and leaves on it. This Palm Beach Diva can never have enough pashmina's or scarves. We made a stop at Mac Donalds for a potty break and a soda, did some grocery shopping for the weekend and took a taxi home.  We have been trying to figure out just how far it is to walk into town but really can't figure it out. We will have to get Kyle to measure the distance for us.
Now that we are home for the day I have made dinner for tonight. Bridget is  working at Abby's school for the afternoon. She works there on Thursday working on their WEB site for them. Abby will come home with Bridget, eat a quick "dinner" and then she goes off to piano lessons and then Brownies right after that. Ger has gone to pick up Roman and I am sitting here hoping Abby's dinner will be done by the time she and her mum come home. These English appliances leave me scratching my head. There is no such thing as OFF and ON. Instead there are pictures that I haven't a clue what they mean. Fans, 2 squiggly lines, wavy lines and straight lines. And then the temperature goes from 175-190.  HUH?  I did manage to get the oven to get hot so I just hope it is hot enough to be cooking the dinner. As for the microwave, that's also a crap shoot.
I see Abby and mum dodging the rain drops on their race to get home.  No stop at the play ground today!

P.S.  Roman went to the dentist to see if he was brushing his teeth well enough to get braces must be doing good because when he gets back from the trip to the US in August he will be getting braces on his bottom teeth.  Horray for English health care!