Back to school

Ok, so I haven't exactly enrolled in medical school or anything but I started my once a week, 3 week Intermediate Wine and Spirit Education Trust course. This will hopefully provide me with more knowledge and confidence in being able to speak about and sell the wines we sell at work and of course to be able to carry on conversations with my friends, who are all wine buffs. So like a good girl on her first day of school I laid out my outfit, set several alarms, and went to bed early.

Unfortunately my first few alarms went perfectly into my dream that I was supposed to bring out a big bowl of food every time the buzzer went, clearly showing that works is creeping into every part of my life. When I finally finished getting the food out I opened my eyes to see that my dream had crept 30 minutes into my morning and I HAD to make the 8:15am train from Battersea Park Station. I quickly got ready but only had 15 minutes to make it to my train and with a still throbbing broken toe it isn't easy to walk quickly across the entire park.

I started anyways and was making pretty good time until I ran into two kindly older gentlemen with plastic bags filled with bread. To some people this might have been a, 'Look at those guys, how sweet,' kind of moment but for me it was an, 'Oh crap, they're about to feed the damn birds!' And before I could even finish my thought or add any more expletives an enormous long legged huge wing spanned bird lept over the fence right in front of me. I've since done a bit of research and I have learned that the monster that stood in front of me was a grey heron

and as I swung around to escape it the kindly old men had already opened their bags and I was suddenly surrounded by birds. If you've met me before you might know my complete and utter aversion to the beasts. I lunged at the first bird and he headed back over the low fence towards the river. I thought I'd finally escaped but when I looked behind me I'd suddenly become the PIed Piper of Battersea Park birds. Apparently my friend had gone to the other smaller water fowl and somehow "kindly old men with bag full of bread' translated into 'limping 29 year old female with bag full of bread.' Completely forgetting about my train and even my course I just started running, much to kindly old men's amusement.

Unfortunately even running didn't help the fact that I missed my train, not a good first day of school. As the next train was coming in 30 minutes and I had to be there in 45 I got on the bus, went to the tube, waited 4 trains before I could get on, got lost at London Bridge, and walked into my class 15 minutes late. Fortunately I quickly caught up, got my tasting glasses, and we started with Chardonnay!