Happy New Year from London

Thursday, January 1, 2009

It's only 9 pm there, but it's 2 am here and we want to wish you a happy new year! We had some munchies at home and then about 9:30 we left to view the fireworks set off at the London Eye. The viewing area at Westminster was full when we arrived so we walked along Whitehall to Trafalgar Square and then on down The Strand to Blackfriars Bridge. From there we had a great view of the fireworks and enjoyed them very much. It was wall-to-wall people from Westminster to the place we stopped to view the fireworks - first they were all moving in the same direction - then still to watch the fireworks - then back the other way to make their way home. There was a lot of alcohol and shouting but nobody really what you'd call misbehaving - only having a good time to celebrate the New Year. We were in a crowd of several hundred thousand people, shoulder to shoulder - certainly the largest crowd we've ever been a part of. We never felt nervous, but we did hang on to each other quite a lot. Our trip back to the flat was relatively easy - we had given some forethought to how we would get home and it appeared to pay off. We had a seat on the tube the whole way, while we saw a lot of trains with people packed in like sardines.

We were to the Borough Market this morning and we've got a nice pork roast to cook tomorrow and we'll have a nice dinner here at home.

London thus far ...

Flight from Ottawa to Heathrow was uneventful. Check-in and security and the trip to the gate are always so simple and short in Ottawa - we were at the gate 2 hours before the flight. We weren't sure the ginger sparklers were going to make it through security - the agent who inspected our bag looked awful hungry! We boarded on time but sat at the gate for nearly an hour. Don't know what the issue was, but the pilot made it quite clear that he was ready to go! We were, consequently, an hour late getting into London. It was very cloudy so there was no view of the city as we approached. As the jet swung around the city and back in to land, we could imagine the view below from our August trip, but there was nothing to see this time but clouds.

Noise was at Heathrow to meet us and had driven out in the 'StreetCar' - kind of a timeshare car rental parked in the neighbourhood that you can rent by the hour. A quick run in to the Greyhound flat where we had a bit of a 'recover-from-jet-lag' nap. We've learned that the best way to avoid jet-lag is to only power nap on that first day and stay up and active until bedtime in the new timezone. Then we drove out to Wimbledon to pick up PetDoc from work. We did the Christmas present exchange and had nibblies for supper. Then we went next door to the Queen's Arms for sticky toffee pudding.

PetDoc worked Sunday 'til 2 pm so we had a leisurely morning at the flat. Later we took the tube to Hyde Park for the Winter Wonderland - kind of an amusement park / German Christmas market. Just to make the experience authentic, we had a mug of gluhwein (mulled red wine) and made our way through the park. Treated ourselves to roasted chestnuts and candied nuts and watched the skaters (I guess you could call them that - mostly a lot of arm-flailing and splatting on the ice).







From Hyde Park we walked over to Harrods to see the store lit up for the holidays at night. From Harrods we took the tube to Leicester Square and walked from there to Trafalgar Square to see the Christmas Tree. Then we walked on to Somerset House, where another outdoor rink has been set up. People in this part of London are no better skaters than in Hyde Park.


This morning PetDoc and Noise headed back to work and we made our way over to Covent Garden. From there we walked through the Soho district of London and arrived at Trafalgar Square. We were too late for lunch in the crypt at St. Martin-in-the-Fields so we found a nearby pub and had lunch. Then we walked along Fleet Street and over to St. Paul's Cathedral. After a brief tour there (didn't bother with the dome this time) we caught the tube back home. Noise cooked us a delicious supper of chicken breasts with mushroom sauce and vegetables - we enjoyed a nice bottle of wine (even though Noise had to run next door to the pub and get them to open the bottle). Tomorrow we're thinking we'll go over to Oxford Street and Hamleys and maybe over to Fortnum and Mason. Then we're meeting Des and Dave on the train from Paris and we'll spend some time with them and have dinner somewhere nice.

Christmas Day

OK - Geordie's a little more in the Christmas spirit today. Had a lovely Christmas Day with family - lots of goodies under the tree and two scrumptious turkey dinners. Last night's Christmas Eve church service was very nice, with Maryanne W 'leaving us spitless' with her gorgeous rendition of 'O Holy Night' and finishing with the congregation singing 'Silent Night' by candlelight. Weather was crazy last night, with rain and 60 kph winds. We lost a lot of our snow - including what I had planned to shovel off the roof :-) We're supposed to have 7 degrees C and rain on Saturday and that should get rid of a bit more of the white stuff. The weather in London is supposed to be cooler than that for the next few days!

Today we had two Skype conversations with PetDoc and Noise - one early this morning as we opened stockings and then another larger family conversation after they had returned from Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral. I was very envious!

By this time tomorrow we'll be enroute to London. It would appear that the crazy weather hold-ups over the holidays have been cleared and flights are back on schedule. We're checked in and have printed our boarding passes, so it looks like Air Canada is expecting us. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We're looking forward to meeting Gananoque friends D & D in London on the 30th, when they arrive from Paris.

btw - gas price update - .629 cents per litre and the fuel oil man filled us up this week at .779

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!

Guess we won't barbeque tonight. We've had lots of snow and high winds since Thursday. The snowblower has had a good workout. Tomorrow it's time to get up on the roof and clear off the accumulation. This morning we woke up to a howling blizzard. The annual Christmas breakfast was being held at the church so we headed down a little earlier than usual.

The choir had been preparing "For Unto Us a Child is Born" from Handel's 'Messiah' and there was some concern about a Plan B in case there weren't enough members able to make it to church in the storm. However, not a single member was absent! When you look up faithful in the dictionary, there should be a picture of Grace Church's volunteer choir. The anthem went exceptionally well and we all felt very good about it.

Although it's stopped snowing now, the red screen of death is on the weather channel. Looks like good weather on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I really don't care a lot about the weather as long as we're able to get to Ottawa airport on Boxing Day to get our flight to London to visit PetDoc and Noise. Just to make the world even smaller, Gananoque friends are going to be in London while we are there and we've already made plans to get together. Hard to believe that in five days Christmas will be over and we'll be in London.

Christmas has begun

The boxes are down from the attic, the tree is up and decoration has begun. Geordie is not a big Christmas fan, but he tolerates our foibles pretty well.














btw - gas is .649 today!!

Messiah Singalong

There was a Messiah 'singalong' in Gananoque on Friday night and it was extremely well attended. Participants were Orchestra Kingston, a community orchestra combining professional and amateur musicians, The Gananoque Choral Society, Frontenac Women's Chorus and the Queen's University Chamber Choir. The Gananoque Choral Society was actually formed about 15 years ago for the purpose of presenting Handel's Messiah so it was a return to its roots for that organization.

The performance was quite good, for an amateur group. The orchestra chose the Mozart edition of Handel's work and I must say I really don't think Mozart enhanced the original work in any way. I found the orchestral accompaniment too busy at times, intruding on the vocal elements. I had never attended a singalong Messiah and was disappointed that the audience was not seated according to choral sections. Sitting where I was, in the middle of a group of non-singers, was not conducive to singing bass, which was largely why I had gone to this particular performance.

All in all, however, an enjoyable evening.

And so it begins ...

River caught over with ice this weekend and a light dusting of snow makes it quite pretty.

BTW - gas is .679 today!!