Thom’s Thursday Thoughts on London

Thom doesn’t think I should blog on vacation, but I reminded him that recording his thoughts and delivering them to everyone was important work. Like an unpaid internship. Last week, Thom and I were in London, where our friends got married in a gorgeous Harry Potter-esque wedding. We spent a lot of time walking around London and I took note (and snapped more than a few photos) of Thom’s thoughts on a few things English.

1. For starters, even though I love London more than Thom does, he knows the city very well, having spent the last 5.5 years flying back and forth for his last job, including a 8-month project spent in London (a huge reason why we started dating in the first place). When we were deciding where to stay for this trip, he suggested finding an AirBnb in St. John’s Wood, a posh neighborhood, but not obscenely so (mostly Range Rovers and Porches Porsches and just one Bentley). I loved it and thought, not for the first time, “That Thom really knows his stuff.”
2. But sometimes he doesn’t. One afternoon, we had time to spare before meeting up with friends and Thom took me on a short hike up Primrose Hill, which, he told me, was named after Sir William Hill, but which is probably named after some other guy.
3. When in England, Thom eats Marmite, the English cousin of Australia’s Vegemite, his “primary yeast extract.” He wanted to buy huge jars of it to take home because it’s cheaper, but I said, “No,” because that’s my favorite thing to say to Thom.
4. Thom loves pubs, especially for the imperial pint, which is roughly 20 oz. while the American pint is 16 oz. “That’s 25% bigger,” says Thom, who is good at math.
5. Speaking of pints, we visited 7 pubs in 4 days, which equals lots of pints for Thom and about two bottles of rosé for me. This is what Thom calls, “A successful trip:”
   1. Prince Arthur
   2. The Reliance
   3. The Warwick Castle (Thom’s favorite of this bunch).
   4. The Duke of York (where I had my first Sunday Roast, which I thought was good but Thom says “Meh.”
   5. Edinboro Castle
   6. The Kings Arms 
   7. The Punchbowl (My favorite pub for food).
6. When writing this post, I asked Thom, “Is there anything you want to add? Anything we should do next time we’re in London?” He said, “I dunno, go to eight pubs?”
7. I shall now leave you with Thom’s best quips of the week, with accompanying photos.