Rule, Britannia!

I am an Anglophile. Anything to do with England makes me a happy girl.

I didn't learn to like tea until I went to England and found out that milk and sugar make it taste infinitely better.

My favorite beer is British.

Most of my favorite books are set in England. Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice.

Kick-ass TV shows too. Little Britain, Blackadder, Mystery!

I was reading a Sherlock Holmes book today and thought that I need a club. Not a smack you over the head kind of club. (Although, that could be useful too.) No, I want a men's club. But for women, obviously. You know the beginning of Top Hat when Fred Astaire is waiting for... the guy whose name I can't remember and he's at the Thackery Club in London? "Absolute SILENCE!" I want somewhere I can go to read by a fireplace (since I lack one), have a cup of tea or a drink, and sit in peace. It sounds like heaven.

I've been to London three times and part of me feels happier there than anywhere else. Maybe it's the rain. Maybe it's the guy at the fish and chip place across from the Tower that calls you, "Luv." Maybe it's the Coke cans with Arabic on them. Maybe it's that they have buildings that are older than our country! Maybe it's the pigeons.

I've taken the water in Bath, marvelled at Stonehenge, purchased flowers in Covent Garden, seen the Royal Shakespeare Company perform The Tempest, strolled through the British Museum, eaten crap food and excellent pub food, had the best tuna sandwich of my life in Salisbury, a close second to that in Oxford, and (finally) visited Baker Street. I can never get enough.

Holmes may call it "the great cesspool," but I'll always love it dearly.