Day 3 - November 28 - Addition

10:00 am - John wanted me to write more about the street market. There were hundreds of booths with everything from silver jewelry, fresh meats, fish (hawked like a carnival barker), silks for scarves, bolts of material, thread, curtains, games hand-made hats, mittens leather goods, purses, wallets, beautiful sweaters, clothes, shoes, paper goods for card making, scrap books, Christmas wrappings, Christmas cards, baked goods -- breads, cookies, pies (meat or sweet), fresh olives by the pound, books old and new, children's clothing, pillows, duvets, coats and more.

5:45 pm - John came in from work. He had a productive day and didn't get cold on his walk from work. I was out for several hours so I was bone-chilled when I came in at 4:00 pm. We dressed for a 7:00 supper meeting with Murco employees and walked to Sazio -- an Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away. John had penne with smoked bacon and a side of roasted vegetables. I had steak and salad. The salads are beautiful here (everywhere we eat). After dinner John had a cappucino and I had decaf coffee and we shared a chocolate souffle with a scoop of vanilla. Besides being very yummy it was also pretty -- served on a large square glass plate with chocolate syrup drizzles across it in a criss-cross pattern and powdered sugar sprinkled over the top. John said "Oops, they spilled chocolate all over the plate!"

I found out that Umar is from Wales but he looks Indian or something. He called his people Asian but I might have misunderstood. Andy, his boss, said he had lived all over the UK and was a "country boy" who never thought he would live in the big city, but he married a girl from London and that is where they have lived for 20+ years. Also dining with us was a Scottish consultant named Ian that is working on a different part of the same project John is here to work with. He is very shy or quiet and his scottish accent made him very hard to understand.
We also found out that the Cafe Rouge (next door to our hotel) was the greenhouse for the Samuel Ryder Seed Company. The hotel was the office building and the cafe was the greenhouse. Samual Ryder was the originator (in 1927) of golf's prestigious Ryder Cup.

All in all it was a pleasant day -- cold toes and all. Tomorrow I will visit the St Albans Cathedral.