I *heart* British music. Who doesn't. But for some reason, this week it's been ALL about my British girls. The newest Lily Allen and Adele (one of my very, very favourites) have been in particularly high rotation chez Lindsay. They're just brilliant albums, start to finish.
So this got me thinking about my love of all things British. Of course, there's the whole Shakespeare thing (yup, English major here). And the tea (mmm... tea). And the accent (ridiculously sexy). And the foggy, rainy weather (so poetic). And the brainless chick lit (which somehow feels a tiny bit smarter just because it's set in England).
I'd continue, but we don't have all day here.
In high school, had an ongoing joke with my old friend Tamra about my love of British boys. I assured her that I would marry one someday. I didn't, but I came damn close - my father-in-law grew up in London, making Geoff officially half British. Life works out kind of hilariously sometimes.
In university - just months before her wedding - my friend Erin and I realized that we'd never had a chance to go on vacation together. We quickly began to make plans to go away during my Reading Week, and checked flight prices to all the typical Mexican vacation spots. We were excited to spend an entire week in our bikinis... Until we spotted a seat sale to London. And so the decision was made. I acquired a passport in record time (a record that was later broken by myself when I needed to renew said passport for our honeymoon) - and off we went to the land of Jane Austen. It was an amazing trip. We saw so much, it rained the ENTIRE time, and I totally cried on the plane on the way home. London just felt RIGHT.
And it still felt right when Geoff and I visited again last year. It's just one of those cities in the world where I feel absolutely right at home. I would happily spend all of my vacations there, hustling through busy streets with an umbrella, teetering along cobblestone in too-high heels, and pausing for afternoon tea.
I am totally British in my heart.
Anyway. That's what I was thinking about, sitting here in Winnipeg on a positively London-ish cloudy Thursday afternoon, drinking tea and listening to Adele.
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Speaking of Adele... I know this song is older, but it's still one of my favourites. I think it's one of the most beautifully written and performed songs ever. Yup, I said EVER :)
I've been walking In the same way as I did Missing out The cracks in the pavement And tutting my heel And strutting my feet "Is there anything I can do for you dear? Is there anyone I can call?" "No and thank you, please Madam I ain't lost, just wandering"
Round my hometown Memories are fresh Round my hometown Ooh, the people I've met Are the wonders of my world Are the wonders of my world Are the wonders of this world Are the wonders of my world
I like it in the city When the air Is so thick and opaque I love to see everybody In short skirts Shorts and shades I like it in the city When two worlds collide You get the people And the government Everybody taking Different sides
Shows that we ain't gonna stand shit Shows that we are united Shows that we ain't gonna take it Shows that we ain't gonna stand shit Shows that we are united
Round my hometown Memories are fresh Round my hometown Ooh the people I've met Are the wonders of my world Are the wonders of my world Are the wonders of this world Are the wonders of my world
When it rains, it pours. For those of you wanting to catch up on the last six weeks of my life in pictorial form, you are in for a treat tonight! Make yourself a cup of tea first, though. And pace yourself. I've picked through the hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of pictures I had to choose from, and there are still LOTS for you to wade through if you so choose.
Click here for pictures from Joints in Motion in Athens.
Click here for pictures from our Athens vacation time.
Click here for pictures from Part One of our cruise: Mykonos, Greece and Kusadasi & Ephesus, Turkey.
Click here for pictures from Part Two of our cruise: Patmos, Rhodes, Lindos, Crete & Santorini, Greece.
And last but certainly not least... Wedding pictures! Here's Part One and Part Two, because I had a really hard time narrowing them down. (Thanks, Kristen, for doing such amazing work! We love them.)
So there you go! Enjoy. I've certainly enjoyed experiencing every moment that is captured here, and I'm so excited to share them with you :)
Okay, I'm creating this post, but seriously - nothing happened today. We woke up, packed, and went to the airport. We checked in and had lunch, and then got on the plane.
In between, we did have a minor adventure. I left my passport and boarding card at the restaurant in the airport, which I realized about 30 seconds later. We went back to get it, and they had already found it and taken it to security. It ended up being a huge runaround, because they didn't take it to security (like they said) - they had taken it to the Air Canada counter. Which was in a totally different part of the terminal. And our plane was boarding in 10 minutes. Argh. In any case, it all got sorted out - easily, and with time to spare. But not really something I'd consider to be fun.
The flight from London to Montreal was good. Very empty, so we got great service. Watched Evan Almighty, which is probably the worst movie ever made. Then we arrived in Montreal, where we hurried up and waited. And waited. And waited. Our first flight was early, which gave us almost four hours in Montreal - which sucks when customs was quick and painless, dinner was speedy, and Geoff and Lindsay were simply tired and wanting to get home. It probably didn't help that our internal clocks were so screwed up, or that we were (are) both sick.
It *pained* me to be in Montreal (one of my favourite cities in the world so far), and unable to leave the stupid airport. The upside is that I got to finish the book I started on our first flight two weeks ago (The Shock Doctrine), and it was SO good.
The Montreal to Winnipeg flight was tiny - one of those stupid planes that you have to walk outside to board. Icky. I get really claustrophobic on those planes, and it didn't help that we ended up right near the back, so I was constantly closed in on the aisle side with people waiting to use the washroom and bumping into my shoulder when two people needed to pass.
And then we were home. Aaron graciously offered to pick us up (actually, I think he was volunteered, but whatever), and my grandparents actually showed up to welcome us home. We got our bags in the door and CRASHED. I'm semi-awake now, but I can hear Geoff coughing and blowing his nose upstairs - so I guess neither of us made a miraculous overnight recovery.
Which is too bad, because it's his 33rd birthday today. Oh well. I think we're both beyond the delusion that birthdays are magical :)
We had kind of an emotional goodbye with Ron and Lal last night. They were hugging us goodbye, and then kind of out of the blue said that this would probably be the last time they'd ever see us, so they were so glad they'd had a chance to get to know us. Right away, I started thinking they were wrong, that we'd see them again soon. But they're not coming to Canada, and who knows when we'll be back. They might be right. But this idea of having family so far away - who you only see once or twice in your lifetime, if you're lucky - is very strange for me.
When we got back to the city, we went to go see the Cenetaph where the queen had hosted a Remembrance Day ceremony earlier that day. We also walked down to Westminster Abbey to see the Field of Remembrance. That was intense. There were still so many people in both places, paying their respects. The lawn of Westminster Abbey was literally covered in tiny wooden crosses and poppies, and reading some of the inscriptions from the families made me cry. I'm really glad we went.
Which brings us to our last 'real' day of vacation. We got up to get ready, and when I got out of the shower, I noticed that Geoff was gone - but he'd left a note. A few minutes later, we appeared with breakfast and Starbucks from down the street. So sweet. We took the coffee and hit the town...
One of the amazing things about London this time is that was fall there. Autumn is my absolute favourite season, and I feel like I got to experience it twice this year - once here and once there. We went for a walk through Hyde Park so I could enjoy all the leaves changing colour. It was so beautiful. We walked past the Diana memorial fountain, which was interesting. I avoided millions of pigeons and other birds (shudder).
From there, a scheduled stop to buy tea at Harrods - plus, I wanted to walk through their Christmas department (which was practically a whole floor of the store). Amazing. Now THAT's how you do Christmas. And while I was in the store, I swear I heard a choir of angels singing... Not at this epic shrine of consumerism. But at their LUXURY TOILETS. The cleanest, most pleasant washroom experience I had on this entire trip, I kid you not. We used some NASTY facilities in Greece... And this was like having God apologize for all the icky washrooms we'd been forced to use over the past two weeks.
Which brings me to another side-note: What's up with Europeans and their lack of standardization? I had a heck of a time having to re-figure out every single washroom stall doorknob / lock and flushing mechanism. Because they were ALL DIFFERENT. Anyway. I'm sure it made me a better person, or somthing. But gosh, I felt dumb!
In the afternoon, we split up for a while. Geoff had an out-of-the-way store and a (shudder again) Star Wars exhibition that he wanted to check out. Lindsay wanted to have tea outside near the Tower of London and visit Shark Week at the aquarium. We both had a great time :)
And then in the evening, another London date night. We went for an amazing dinner in the theatre district, then went to go see the stage production of Mary Poppins. I was like a six year old at Christmas. It was awesome. They even incorporated all these special effects to make her able to 'magically' clean up a room or empty out her carpet bag - and fly, of course.
It was a perfect ending to our incredible, perfect trip.
Remembrance Day in London has turned out to be a huge, spectacular event. And with good reason. It’s nice to be in a country that supports and celebrates its veterans in this way. I’m finding that this year has had special significance for me, in light of the wars we’re currently fighting (and in light of the new Naomi Klein book that I’m halfway through). It’s so tragic. But no matter why we’re involved in these wars or how strongly we might disagree, I think it’s so important to separate our support for the war from our support for our troops. Geoff and I missed the big ceremony with the Queen at the Cenetaph this morning, but we’re hoping to stop by there and the Field of Remembrance outside Westminster Abbey before we leave town.
We bought poppies yesterday, and they are so strange – different than at home. They’re made out of paper! Seems a little bit ridiculous in rainy London, but whatever.
This morning, we boarded a train to Marden, in the county of Kent, to visit Geoff’s family. We were picked up at the station by his uncle Ron and aunt Lal, then went to meet his cousin Chris, his wife Rosemary, and their boys Daniel (17) and Tom (15). We had tea with everyone at Chris and Rosemary’s house – a 300 year old cottage – then went for lunch with Ron and Lal in this great little restaurant overlooking the countryside with all the leaves changing colours. Beautiful. Right now, we’re in the town of Tenterden, at Ron and Lal’s house – in an hour or two, they’ll be returning us to the train station.
It’s been so very cool to connect with Geoff’s family like this. He hasn’t seen any of them since he was in junior high, so it’s been kind of like meeting strangers for him too. But they’ve made us feel right at home and we were instantly comfortable with all of them. His aunt can't get over how much Geoff resembles his dad :)
We visited a little shop with Ron and Lal this afternoon and we bought a beautiful Christmas ornament to mark this occasion, so we’ll have a little piece of his family at home with us every Christmas.
We woke up in London today, which automatically made it a good day. After a seriously lame breakfast at the hotel, we set out on Shopping Day. As did every other person in London, as it turned out.
I have long maintained that shopping – true, serious shopping – is a sport. Well, if shopping’s a sport, then shopping in London on Oxford and Bond on a Saturday within eight weeks before Christmas is definitely the Olympics. Poor Geoff handled it well. And Lindsay… Well, Lindsay was in her glory. (It should be noted that Geoff cheered up very quickly when he was let loose in a few notable toy stores.) We stopped at H&M and Starbucks for Lindsay, at the Forbidden Planet megastore and Muji for Geoff, and at Uniqlo for both of us. Uniqlo’s new London flagship store just opened this week, and it was a ZOO – but well worth it, as I picked up a Pantone cashmere sweater that redefines the word perfect. By late afternoon, we’d done another 10K, I’m sure (in distance, not in dollars).
After dinner (and a stop back at the hotel to drop off our bags), we had our London date night – an evening visit to the Tate Modern. Happy sigh. The Tate Modern was easily my favourite art gallery ever, anywhere. It’s HUGE and it’s all amazing, including the new main hall exhibit that features a giant crack through the floor of the entire exhibition space. Hard to describe, but it was incredibly cool. I was so happy to be standing in rooms full of original pieces by Monet, Warhol, Picasso, Pollack, and other pieces that took my breath away a little bit.
It was a lovely date night. A little hard to top in Winnipeg, probably :)
Can that be true? Ten days?! Time is flying, let me tell you... I can't believe we're in London, and that in a couple of days we'll be back in Winnipeg. I don't feel ready yet, but I do realize that a return to reality is inevitable. I'm just not really thinking about it yet :)
Today was largely uneventful. Geoff and I were up early for breakfast and disembarkment, then we said a quick goodbye to the people we'd met - including the JIMers who'd come on the cruise (a quick congrats to Brad and Laura, who got engaged in Rhodes this week!) - and headed for the airport via taxi and the underground train.
We got to the airport with lots and lots of time to spare, which was nice. We browsed through some of the stores and took advantage of the free internet, grabbed some lunch, and then boarded our flight to London. It was a HUGE plane, and the flight attendants working our section of the plane were both middle-aged men, which struck me as a little odd. And one of them was quite seriously the strangest man I've ever met. I kept on having these awkward little encounters with him, and it seriously made me uncomfortable when he poured my tea. I couldn't stop laughing (though I might just be tired).
Probably important to mention at this point that I woke up sick today. My sinuses are totally plugged up, my throat is hurting, and I'm coughing and sneezing. The flight today was excruciating. I'm hoping that the drugs I picked up as soon as we arrived in London will work their magic before the long flights home on Tuesday. I didn't want to buy anything in Athens, because I couldn't read the packaging, but I'm almost wishing I'd taken the risk. Blech.
Landed in London a little late because of a backlog in flights (due to the wind), jumped on the Tube (fortunately, easy because Erin and I figured it all out last time), and easily located our hotel (easily for me because Geoff was the poor bastard who had to lug around both his bag and my big one.. hey, he volunteered!). The hotel is good. The location is AMAZING - about 50 restaurants within 3 blocks of here, and less than a 60 second walk to a major underground station - and the rooms are a reasonable size for London. It's nothing fancy at all, but clean and totally cool for a four-night stay. We're kind of in between Earl's Court, Chelsea, and Kensington, which is a pretty prime location for seeing what we want to see.
We checked in, then set out on foot to find (a) drugs for Lindsay, (b) the correct currency for the country we just arrived in, and (c) food for Geoff, preferably of the British variety. All three were accomplished within ten minutes and less than half a block. Awesome.
So that's the update! Safe and sound in London, with just a little bit of frigid English drizzle and too much fog and smog to see any stars at all. Geoff's been grinning since we landed :)
No really set plan for the next couple of days, just a general idea of a few stores we'd like the visit, and few touristy things we'd like to check out (or see again, because it's a revisit for both of us), and an appointment to head out to Marden-Kent and Tenterden to visit Geoff's aunt, uncle, and cousin on Sunday.
Sharing the journey that has taken me from being a single girl in the advertising agency world to a married mommy running my own freelance writing and consulting business (and every random adventure in between).
THINGS I LOVE: Thunderstorms, power ballads, princess camping, exploring new cities, Jon Stewart, greatest hits CDs, clever ads, packing for a trip, George Clooney, impractical footwear, movies about spies, Starbucks, reading an entire book in one sitting, a house full of friends, movies about spies, buying presents, a perfect French manicure, warm modernist architecture, getting flowers for no reason, being faux brunette, Mary Poppins, making lists on Post-It notes, decorating for Christmas, having a brilliant middle-of-the-night 'aha!' idea and then actually remembering it in the morning / THINGS I HATE: People who whine, wearing sweats in public, 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner, birds, American tourists in foreign countries, taking down the Christmas tree, poems that rhyme, the misuse of semicolons, being lied to, unpacking after a trip, being closed-minded, naming your kid something common but then spelling it stupidly, cowboys, overly cautious drivers, fake curse words, ridiculously long surnames, strangers who start awkward conversations with you in places you can't readily escape
