Last day, birthday

Today was my birthday! Last night I went to bed early, due to the whole throat swollen closed, riddled with illness issue. Before heading to bed, I gave Dad some final ideas for tickets, hoping that my birthday surprise would be tickets into Olympic Stadium. But there were no more tickets. :(

This morning, I got birthday cake with candles and birthday champagne from Jan. That was really nice, because I feel like it's rare any more I even have birthday cake!! Then, we went to the Chase Visa VIP lounge to try for tickets. Every day, they had entries from 12-1, with a drawing at 1:15. We never made it to one in all the time we've been here, but today we made it, and then Jan WON! Unfortunately, his tickets were for tomorrow after I'm supposed to leave, and he refuses to wear an American flag on his face to it. :(

Then we went up for the VIP event with Carl Lewis. He was HILARIOUS. Such a good sportsman, and so positive, and his comments about our relay team and why no one is beating the 1991 long jump records were so insightful. I also loved that he said that while he was competing, he would always say nice things like "I respect this sprinter from country XXX" and now that he's a fan, he's only about USA, all the time. A man after my own heart. He didn't even talk about Usain Bolt, but after seeing Carl, I'm reminded what a classy sportsman we were lucky to have representing the USA for so long. I wish he had been able to participate in the 1980 Olympics, so that he would still be ahead of Usain Bolt.

When we got up to take our picture, I yelled "Carl Lewis!" and gave him a hug. He said he liked my American spirit. :)

Afterward, we went to the Borough Market, which was a cool market. Apparently, this is also where they show Bridget Jones living above the Globe Pub in one of my favorite movies. See below.

I got some great ones at the market, including this delicious cheese and potato thing that I intend to recreate when I get home.

Cheese + potatoes= two of my favorite things. The sign tells what was in it, but basically, they would roast half a huge cheese wheel under a really hot iron, then scrape the bubbling cheese over new potatoes. Crack, that's what it seemed like to me.

Many types of mustards.

Borough Market

It was Pimm's O'Clock again at this cute little stand. 

This pirate sassed me. 

This fish market was so cool. The picture doesn't do it justice. 

Lara, I got the rings!!!! 

Things have really died down in London, even compared to a few days ago, and also because I'm away from any venue now. I'm staying in Islington, and you can't even tell the games are going on!! But I wore my American flag face tattoo and Erin's homemade sash anyway! USA, USA, USA!