The Sunday Currently: #EnglishSummer

I know I keep bombarding you with the #EnglishSummer hashtag, but the weather here has been so unusually glorious for the past week that I can't help it!  We've only had one day of rain and it's supposed to go up to 29°c (84°f) today, which guarantees that, even though London has been waiting for this weather for years, every other thing you'll hear an English person say will be "It's too hot!"  We're going to a rooftop bbq shortly, but I'm sure that we'll all be popping in and out of the house as Britain's most-loved son, Andy Murray, is playing in the Wimbledon final this afternoon.  I have to catch you up on my weekend on Oxfordshire still as well as yesterday's wedding on the South Downs, but let's use this Sunday Currently to recap the past week in London, shall we?

currently...

revisiting... all of my old haunts!  I really should be better about checking out new places when I'm in London, but it's so comforting to walk down the memory-filled streets and feel like I'm back home.  Among other adventures, I've spent a morning working in the British Library, caught up with a friend in Bloomsbury, wandered Cecil Court to admire the curiosities in the rare book stores, popped into Topshop as I cruised Oxford Street, and recreated a dinner-and-a-movie date night with Jon in our old neighborhood.

eating... at delicious new restaurants and at familiar favorites!  Melissa, aka Beantown Prepster, introduced me to The Happenstance near St Paul's on Fleet Street, and it was fab.  But I love returning to standbys like Busaba Eathai and Bluebird, where Ellie threw my hen do. Plus, I may have been to Pret more than once for a quick lunch - they don't have my favorite baguette in the American branches - and Jon's promised me a curry from our local takeaway for old time's sake.  (He's also convinced me that we should go to the new Shake Shack that just opened to great fanfare in Covent Garden for lunch on Tuesday...)

smelling... the roses!  We're long past rose season in Washington, DC, but they're just peaking here in London and they're absolutely gorgeous.  Jon and I went to the theatre the other night to see Twelfth Night, and there's a pathway just outside that's lined with the most splendid rose bushes - as you walked down, you were simply enveloped with the heady scent.

meeting... new friends who feel like old friends because of the power of social media!  Jenna noticed my tweets the other day and realized I was near her office, so she ran out for a hello and a quick hug.  I had a cold glass of water and a long chat with Anne, whose memoir I reviewed here last year, and - though the circumstances were less than ideal - she radiated exactly the warmth and sass I imagined her to have in real life.  And I was thrilled when Casey's off-hand suggestion on Twitter that we meet up on Friday afternoon turned into an actual date!  We had ice cream in the courtyard at the V&A and talked work and relationships like we'd known each other for ages.  Halfway through, we were joined by the sparkling Lauren of Aspiring Kennedy and her absolutely adorable daughter Viola.  It was so fun to take these relationships off the screen!

hoping... that our marriage license appointment on Tuesday morning goes smoothly.  Everyone I've talked to each time I've called the register office with a question has given me answers that directly contradicted what I'd already been told, so I'm a little nervous that we'll arrive and they'll say something like, "Oh, didn't you know?  If you want to get married you should have walked backwards up to this building and spun around three times counterclockwise upon crossing the threshold while chanting 'God save the queen.'"

wanting... our [expletive] wedding day to be here already.  We're basically done with all the planning - now we only have the little annoying logistics left, and I just want to be [expletive] married.

feeling... nostalgic.

loving... being with my fiancé.

wishing... that I didn't have to leave in three days!  Happily, Jon's taking Tuesday off work, so we will get to spend my last full day together.

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