It rained all day today! I hope it's not like that tomorrow because we're going to the Concert for Diana and it's 6 hours long! I'll be pretty upset if it rains the whole time.

This morning I got up and it was raining out so I decided going for a run would be a negative. I talked to Christa and Allison and we were going to go to Tate Modern to look at the artwork and then to the awesome Christmas store that's open year round, but then we talked to our other friends and decided to have afternoon tea at 2 instead. I love all of those girls! They're so much fun and they're all from New England, but Christa is from St. Louis, so it wouldn't be that far to visit them. We had tea at The Orangery which is a part of Kensington Palace and it's right across the street so we didn't even have to walk very far! The guy who seated us was hilarious. Allison and I decided he looked like an English version of a Pierre. We sat around a table and he had to bring an extra chair so he was looking around and there was a highchair right behind him and he grabbed it and acted like I was supposed to sit in it. I really want to go back there and have tea more often. It's such a bright and open place and the atmosphere is so inviting. It used to be the greenhouse a long time ago. Everything on the menu looked so good it was hard to choose. I ended up getting this really good fruit salad that had strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, and kiwi fruits and then there was natural yoghurt (that's how they spell it here) with organic honey and sunflower seeds, and the fruit was sprinkled with vanilla powdered sugar! It was yummy. I also had darjeeling tea and they made it from the actual leaves so I got to use a strainer when I poured it! Everybody got something different and loved what they got so now I have to go back so I can try more desserts!

After tea Christa and I came back to the house to change and get directions to the navy base. When we left for the tube station it was really starting to rain and got a little cooler too. The directions said it would take about an hour on the tube to get to West Ruislip, but it really only took about half an hour. It's in Zone 6 on the tube map and we're in Zone 1! I was hoping it would stop raining by the time we got out there, but it didn't. So the directions to the base were pretty much non-existent and all we knew was that it was on Ickenham Road. Luckily the tube station is on that road so we just had to pick left or right. I should have gone with my first instinct to go left, but we went right instead and had to go back the other way once we figured it out. For some reason I didn't expect to see a whole lot of navy guys, but there were...it makes sense since it's on a base. I wasn't thinking at all today. I got to the entrance and a guy snapped on his latex gloves. I think it made him feel important. He looked like he was in his 20s and was searching my bag and asked me if I had anything sharp, pointy, or that could burn anything. I said that I had my umbrella and he asked me if I was going to hurt him with it! Haha, that made me more relaxed because they were joking with us the whole time. After being in DC and Parliament and going through security so much I've got the checkpoints down to an art. When he gave me my bag I just went to the next guy and put my arms out so he could do the metal wand and he laughed because I already knew what to expect.

There was so much to do there! They even had rides and games and big blow-up trampolines and a giant slide. Plus they had all kinds of food, there was a dog show, a motocross show, singing, and a DJ. Christa and I went on this ride where you sit in a car and it goes up and swings around in all directions really fast. Except I picked the wrong seat and she was smashed up against me the whole time. We were laughing the whole time and once my head went back I was laughing so hard and I couldn't get it back up because of how fast we were going so that just made me laugh even harder. The ride gave me a huge bruise and knot on my leg because I was smashed up against the seat. It was a blast though. After that we got cheeseburgers and went and watched the band singing. Then we got doughnuts and coffee. They made the doughnuts right there and they gave us chocolate sauce to dip them in! We sat around and listened to the DJ--he played good songs and we thought it would be funny if he played Destiny's Child's "Soldier" song, but they didn't. The fireworks started at 9:45 and they were really good! I didn't know they were going to let off as many as they did and it was even to music. It made me feel at home because all of the military guys were American and it was nice to talk with them.

Tomorrow is the Concert for Diana! Hopefully it doesn't rain. It's a 6 hour concert.