Christmas Time!

Quick catch up:

Celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve then made our way down to Winchester and the Seftel's house. Ate lots and lots of delicious food, went to a service at the Cathedral, went to a Jane Austen exhibition, went on a nice walk up this big hill and played on a fun tree swing, played lots of games, watched Enchanted and Titanic 2 (worst movie ever!) and ate more!

Once back in London we went to the Geoffrey Museum (all different time period living rooms) and the Honey's house for dinner (we had pavlova!!!) We watched Upstairs Downstairs. Its really really good!

The following day we went ice skating at the Tower with Emilia, Mrs. Honey and Elisa Naini. Afterwards we went to lunch at our local pizza place and then to the National Gallery for a short art talk. Finally in the evening we went to see the Oscar Wilde play An Ideal Husband. The funniest parts were when one actor got droll stuck in his beard and when in the final romantic/dramatic scene someone backstage did bunny ears behind a frosted glass window. We saw it and started giggling. We were in the front row and when the cast came out to bow the main actress gave us a chastising mean look.

Christmas Celebrations

Enjoying Christmas celebrations and decorations. Went shopping with Mommy and then to the Horgan's Christmas party.

Science and Singing (and SNOW!!!!)

So today it snowed SO much. There is a white blanket all over the city and Green Park and Hyde Park look lovely and Narnia-like. This morning we went on a tour of the Royal Institution for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Christmas Lectures. We then walked to Knightsbridge, popped into Harrods, had some lunch and proceeded to the Royal Albert Hall for a Christmas Carol sing-along. It was very festive and cheery. Some of the highlights included multiple "Mexican waves", very enthusiastic audience members and the large number of paper airplanes soaring across the theater.

I love food

Went out to love with Anita today at a really cute cafe on Marleybone High St area called Cocorino (or something like that....) I had delicious salad caprese and pumpkin soup.

After work the Horgan parents came over for dinner.

Back to December

Christmas is so close! Today it snowed and it was so lovely and scenic. Huge flurries of large flakes, real snowflakes! Today my family was given a "behind-the-scenes-tour" of Houses of Parliament by the Seftel's nephew. We sat and watch both the House of Commons and the House of Lords breifly...we even saw some snoozing MPs and Lords!

Candlelight Carols

Raced away from work today to get on the Tube headed for Westminster, where I was supposed to me mommy and the Honeys--lo and behold they were in the carriage of the train I so happened to get on! It was such an amazing coincidence!!! Of all trains and all carriages we met in the same one with no prior plan. We then proceeded to Westminster Abbey where we attended a carol service...very magical and very English.

Oh! also had a lovely lunch at the "Natural Kitchen" in Marleybone with Anita.

Tired...

So yesterday I was sleepy and tired at 4:30--it gets dark so early that I always think it is way later than it is! We went to Whole Foods and got our Christmas tree. We then went to the Chocolate Festival and ate a lot of free samples. Next, we headed over to Sommerset House to see the Dior Illustrated exhibition and watch people ice skate. Following this we went to London's oldest cheese shop and bought some cheese. Then onto Covent Garden stopping on the way at a really merry store called Aubin Wills and window shopping. Once at the market we browsed, listened to a string sextet, and took in the decorations. Along the way we saw tons and tons of Santa Clauses around the city. Our final stop of the day was for some caroling around the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree. Once back at the apartment we struggled with making our tree stand up, watched Poroit and Transformers.

"Hail, Chime on, Merry Merry Christmas Bells ''

Went to a caroling show in Camden Town after work...it was quite entertaining

Happy Christmas and Happy Birthday!

So yesterday was the Brown's Christmas party at Number 5 Cavendish Square. The building had beautiful lights and decorations including a giant red bow tied around the 2nd-3rd floors. The party was very nice and festive. It had a long cocktail mingle period and then a seated dinner where they served a Christmas turkey dinner. Prior to eating there was a secret santa and Christmas crackers with poppers and ballon rockets in them....it was actually quite wild with people hitting each other with ballon swords and shooting off their rockets...

Tonight I went to Anita's 25th birthday party. She is an intern in Bridal and really really nice. The party was at an amazing venue called Teas Me in Landbroke Grove. It was extremely intimate, just a single room with a square table which 8 of us sat around. The decor was really nice with brocade wall paper, lots of candles, flowers, etc. The food was also really tasty, extremely natural and wholesome tasting. My favorite dish was a plate full of DELICIOUS sweet potatoes/yams. All of the people we also really nice. Rushina, Stacey and Lydia from studio were there. Rushina's friend Zoya, Anita and her flat mate and another friend of Anita's. All the girls were extremely nice and all in all it was a very lovely evening. At the end Anita gave a little speech in which she thanked each of us for coming in an extremely personal and touching way. She is really nice and I had a lovely evening.

Tata for Now!

Lots and Lots of Sludge

Went on a London walk to the town of Rochester for "Dickensian Christmas"--essentially a Christmas festival celebrating Charles Dickens (he lived there). It was quite snowy and the snow turned into giant pools of slushie sludge--very cold, very messy. The majority of the celebration was centered around the high street of the town and branched out to the Cathedral and local castle. There were lots of Dickens characters waking around and locations from his books were in the town. We ate lunch at a really cute restaurant and later had a warm and cozy cream tea in a tiny tea room on the "first" or as we know it the second floor of an old building. The highlight was the nighttime town caroling in which they projected Christmas carol lyrics onto the castle and everyone sang along to a choir and band while fake snow was blown onto us. This was also enhanced by the fact that all around us were Dickens characters in period dress/costumes carrying lanterns and candles.

Tata for Now!

Better Late than Never

This was my first ever attempt at pumpkin carving! I don't know how I had never done it before....it was much more difficult than I expected. We had no special tools so I just used a kitchen knife. It looked pretty wonky in the day-light but all lit up on Halloween I thought it looked pretty cool!

Tata for Now!

Also!

Today we got a microwave in the office and everyone was so excited they went out and bought meals at the supermarket so they could microwave them. So..yeah!

Tata for Now!

So....

I haven't really been an active "blogger" recently as we have had no wifi and thus I depended on Apple store visits and dongle usage. However, we now have internet. Three cheers--Hip, Hip, Hooray! I finally feel settled with my schedule..classes and work. I can't remember if I said what my classes are so I shall now: Digital Photography, Digital Imaging, Painting and Drawing, Fashion Drawing and then after Christmas...Illustration and Graphic Communication.

Recently at work I have started writing a lot of copy for the website. Here is an example of a bag I wrote about: