The Taylors remain winless in London...except for home cooked meals, baby!!

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond - I turn 32 tomorrow!!! Today was a GREAT day! We popped up (relatively speaking) around 9:30 (I slept another 30 minutes), at which point my muffin puffin whipped up the last of the coffee and some toast with nutella and peanut butter (SO GUUUUUUUUUUUD). We left the house at 10:45 to cross off another of the "must do's" for our year in London - a Guinness Premiership Rugby match.

Today's fixture - the London Wasps vs. Leeds Carnegie. Now, a few words about this match:

1. The Wasps are one of the UK's premier Rugby teams. In fact, coming into this game, they had won 7 of their last 8 matches and hadn't lost at home in a year.

2. Their opponent, Leeds Carnegie, is a little known team from York who moved up to the Premiership this year. All signs pointed to them getting SMASHED.

3. On paper, this was a thrashing in the making, with the Wasps keeping their unbeaten streak and the Taylors FINALLY witnessing a home team victory (in case anyone's scoring, this was our FOURTH attempt at seeing a home victory...).

But OOOOOOHHHHHH NOOOOOOOO - it was not to be. Instead, countless mistakes led to a Leeds Carnegie victory, 15-9. There wasn't a single try (their version of a touchdown) for crying out loud!!!

That being said, we had an absolute BLAST at the game. Despite starting out as crap, the weather ended up great, we had uber tasty food (helloooooooo cornish pasty), and the game was a ton of fun to watch. Key points about rugby:

1. People are RIDICULOUSLY friendly. When the other team comes out or scores, the home fans cheer.

2. There isn't a single curse word uttered the entire match. I basically looked like the Andrew Dice Clay of the Premiership today.

3. When the other team kicks a field goal, the crowd is silent and 100% respectful. Seriously - WTF is wrong with these people?

4. Unlike soccer, you can drink in the stands. Let's just say I now find Guinness to be wicked good.

After the game, we caught the next train back to London, at which point we rolled straight to Fizzy's house, where we had a home cooked dinner! That's right - the Wombles (caterers and owners of their own B & B) fixed us a truly American meal - meatloaf, mac & cheese, and homemade (we're talking even the crust and the peeled apples) apple pie! Dudes, this meal was EXTRA AWESOME. I had six glasses of wine (but hey -they were small glasses), and I ate until it hurt. This meal was INSANE GOOD - my stomach is never going to be the same again. Thanks SO MUCH for the amazing meal, guys!

So, between the rugby (my favorite English sport hands down) and the dinner, it was a GREAT start to November (even if the sun was down at 4:46). And now it's time to gear up for the arrival of the Americans - game face is on!

Okay, that's all the news that's fit to print. Chat tomorrow!

Love,

Sam and Jenny