New Year's Catch Up

Well, it's been over a month since my last post, but let's be honest, it's about par for the course for me. A lot has happened since my last ramble, so let's get right to it, shall we?

Christmas

I'm single, 28 and I don't drink, so what was I do to for Christmas in a foreign country? Whatever I want!

First of all, Here's a fun London fact: There is absolutely NO public transit on Christmas. Nothing. All transit workers get the day off. I expected limited transit, but given the scope of London, I was surprised to learn it shuts down. And then I was really impressed. Good for them! It was great.

The empty London streets on Christmas morning.

I spent the day with my "Kiwi" friend, who has also just moved here. Her flat is about a 45min walk from my place. It was so nice to walk down the empty streets.  I never could have imagined London so deserted. We spent the day talking, eating junk food and watching movies. We also went out for a Christmas Walk/Silly Photo Scavenger Hunt in Kensington Gardens!

This is my "photo with a statue". Hello, Peter Pan! 

I went home in the evening and Skype-called my family. I talked to my older sister and her two kids, who have been trained since birth to talk to faces on computer screens. They showed off their presents; my nephew received a "Loki" action figure and my niece received Disney princess dolls of "Belle" and "Rapunzel", all of which I heartily approved.  I then had some time to catch up with my sister's life. When I called my parents, where all of the "action" was happening, I found myself feeling quite a part of the proceedings, even though I was a face on an iPad screen. It was my little niece's second Christmas, but her first where she's been able to walk, so she was the designated present-giver. It was also her first experience with a Skype call. She couldn't quite figure out why I was on "the black shiny thing." At one point, the iPad was placed on the floor and I could see she was trying to examine it in some way, when suddenly everyone started laughing and they told me that she was trying to sit on it in an attempt to sit on my lap! Gah! That just pulls on the heartstrings, doesn't it? And there I experienced my first proper homesickness since moving to London.

All I needed to do was add a few BBC Christmas specials to my day and it was complete! I spent a lazy Boxing Day back at my friend's flat and waited for the arrival of my little sister to cure my Christmas home-sickness.

Sisters Re-United

Hailey arrived on Dec 27 and we just enjoyed London for a few days. She's visited before, so the touristy things were already taken care of. She was quite content to just walk around and enjoy the fact the I LIVE in London.

Ah, together again.
Hailey seemed to have forgotten how tall I am until this moment.
She was not impressed.

Hmm...Do you suppose we're related? 

We do love each other, really. 

Our pre-New Year highlight was going to see Shakespeare's "Coriolanus" which is now finishing up it's run at the Donmar Warehouse. It stars Tom Hiddleston (War Horse, The Avengers) and Mark Gatiss (Mycroft in and co-writer of BBC's Sherlock, as well as Doctor Who.)  I barely scraped tickets during the 20min sell out back in June. The show was amazing. The Donmar is a very small theatre, with only 250 seats, so even our "nosebleed" seats were great. The design was very minimalist and the use of the space just blew me away. The performances were amazing. There really is something special about a live performance. I've seen 4 of the cast members in films before this, but to see them in a live environment has such a different quality to it. The Kiwi and I are going to the live broadcast tomorrow night and I am really excited to watch it again and to finally be able to talk with her about it, as I've been holding back spoilers for a month now! ( To all of my non-London friends, the broadcast is available world wide, usually with an encore broadcast - check Cineplex listings!)

The stage for "Coriolanus" at the Donmar Warehouse.

Hailey and I decided to do the "fan-girl" thing and wait in the post-show autograph line and in that experience I confirmed three things.

1. Tom Hiddleston is an extremely kind and very patient man.
2. His fans are indeed crazy.
3. The crazy always ruin it for the normal.
(That's another post entirely. I'm not sure how I feel about meeting celebrities anymore. Meeting them, great. Their fans, not so much. And yes, I'm aware of the irony in that statement. Moving on.)

The ever patient and astounding Tom Hiddleston. 

We weren't able to meet him as he had to leave early to meet a friend, which he apologized profusely for, but we did get a few photos from the line. All in all, it was an amazing night. We saw a total of 6 plays (including the great "Les Miserables") during Hailey's visit and "Coriolanus" still holds the top spot for me.

The brilliant and witty Mark Gatiss

New Year 

New Year's Eve in London. You have to go the fireworks, don't you? That's what we thought. We went into the city quite early in the evening and had dinner in Piccadilly Circus. We found, quite by accident, Jamie Oliver's Pop Up Diner. It was reasonably priced, had a short wait and was, of course, very tasty! We walked from Piccadilly to Trafalgar Square, which was great fun since the roads were all blocked off to vehicles. Hailey could avoid the cobblestones and it brought out my 5-year old self to be walking down the middle of the road! It was beginning to get quite crowded as we went down Whitehall/Parliament St., and we soon learned that the bridges were about to be closed off. We then went down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace, as I'd been told the view was quite good from there, but on our way, we noticed St. James' Park was not very full yet so we wandered in to see what the view was like. It was great! We stood by the Horse's Guard Parade and could clearly see the top half of the London Eye. We had three hours to wait and spent it chatting with a lovely English couple who had lived in London for many years before they retired. They told us about their favourite spots in the city and gave us some tips for Paris too! (You can pre-buy tickets for the Eiffel Tower online. LIFESAVER.)

Our view. There was a mini light show during the 3 hour wait.
The pods of the Eye would light up with a rainbow of colours to mark each hour. 

The fireworks were amazing. Us two small town girls were quite impressed! After the fireworks, roads were clearly marked leading to the nearest Underground stations to get everyone home. The tube is free to everyone on NYE and runs well into the morning hours. (I think this is a strong argument for the transit workers to get all of Christmas off!) Getting home didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would and it was actually quite pleasant, given the crowds. London knows how to do crowd control.

The Grand Finale. 

Ah... All up to date. Nearly. For now. I'll write up another post about the rest of Hailey's visit. We went on a mad adventure, 4 countries in 10 days!

Happy New Year, indeed. I think it's going to be a good one.

In other news, I have a job! A temp job, but a job! More on that later. (By the time I get to writing that post, the job might be over.....)

Stay Tuned.