Catching up

I have a fussy internet connection tonight, so I'll just hit the highlights...

After almost a year and a half of living in the UK, plus 5 applications, I finally have a NINO!! (That's "National Insurance Number"). The equivalent of a Social Security number. I believe I'll probably get a refund because I've been paying too much into the system without a NINO, but we'll see.

Went to see Little Shop of Horrors on Friday night in the West End. As it happened, Alistair McGowan played the part of the dentist-- well known comedic talent here in the UK. I think you'd have to have someone like that to follow up Steve Martin's interpretation in the movie! It was very funny, and very well done. I was initially disappointed in the ending, which is very different from the movie, except that then I came home and looked it up on the internet, and it turns out that in the "original" movie ending, everyone died and the plants took over the world. So I guess the stage production got it right after all...it was a stage production to begin with anyway, so I suppose it was the movie that changed things around a bit, for a happier "awww" ending. Jo was here visiting, so after the show, I took her to my favorite Thai restaurant in Soho, a place called Busaba Eathai, where you always have to wait in a queue, end up sharing big group tables with strangers, but the food is so good you don't care!

And this morning, I went to Hampstead Heath with Angelica and some of the other physios to take part in "Race for Life". It was a beautiful day, and the views from Hampstead Heath are just breathtaking (it's a massive park)-- I was able to pick out St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye, among other things. We had an amazing pub lunch afterward, including Sticky Toffee pudding (very hard to find in London itself, normally only at pubs in the country)...and I found myself thinking I really need to book my weekend with Rob's parents in the Cotswolds, because summer is going to have gone by before I know it.

What else...on 1st July, London goes smoke-free. About time! Two weeks until I rotate onto the acute stroke unit, and best of all, only three weeks until I'm up at Wissahickon!!!