Just Take That Top Off

    I felt like a real Londoner yesterday. Only briefly and half-naked, but still. That's progress.

    We went for a Sunday afternoon bike ride yesterday to a big park nearby. Riding our bikes is becoming our favorite leisure activity -- especially on these never-ending June days. (It just never gets dark -- glorious sunset at about 10 p.m. last night).

    We looked at the map and found a big green spot not too far from us and decided to head there. The parks are beautiful here -- acres of green often dotted with majestic old buildings and stone archways where you can loll around on the grass, ride your bikes, have your dogs off-leash -- really chill, as my sons would say.

     We laid down on the grass on a little hill to rest and the sun eased out from behind the clouds. It does that here, especially in the late afternoon and evenings, I've found. It can be overcast all day and then all of a sudden, a couple hours of just brilliant sunshine. 

     It felt so good lying there on the grass, face to the late afternoon sun after a good ride. 

     I looked around us. Nobody was very close. There was a cricket game in the distance, all the players dressed neatly in their whites. A group of friends having a picnic, laughing, drinking a few beers (you're allowed to do that here, I guess). 

    And further away, a couple sunbathing beside their bikes. Although they were lying down, I could see that the woman had either a bikini top on -- or was down to her bra, a pretty normal occurrence here when the sun comes out.

    We lay there for awhile. It felt so good to be outside. The sun felt so warm.

    Yep, you guessed it. Whipped off that t-shirt, got on down to the bra, and exposed some skin. Nobody's watching. Everybody does it. She's doing it over there. And nobody cares anyway. My husband took his shirt off too. 

    An hour later, our vitamin D intake topped up nicely, we got back on our bikes and rode home.

    And I even started to feel at home. Just by taking my top off -- like the ladies do here.    

    Can't go on about this too long, though. We've got an appointment to move our two expensive storage pods to the cheaper place this afternoon. All the way over in East London somewhere.

    I'm not looking forward to seeing my stuff.  

    Maybe later, though, the sun will come out and I can get down to my bra again.