England - My new Favourite Thing

They don't over heat their interiors. You can comfortably wear your woolies inside spaces that here would be heated to hot house temperatures - like my office for example...

V&A

The Victoria and Albert is officially my new favourite place in London. The food at the cafe is excellent, the tour guides knowledgeable and the whole thing is free.

More London Snow

Wow - London with snow is rather fun. There were kids of all ages throwing snowballs and making snow men yesterday. Today, the snow is sticking around and we are hoping our flight gets off the ground.

London Snow

You would think as a card carrying Canadian that I would welcome a bit of the unusual cold we've encountered here in London. Well, if I've learned anything, is that material goods prepare you for the world. We tool and cloth makers alter ourselves to deal with the unnatural weather conditions we force ourselves into. I did not bring clothes for snow. I brought clothes for rain, although arguably, improper footwear as I wished to look stylish rather than practical. Anyhow, I am completely  unprepared to deal with snow, except mentally. Mentally, I'm very prepared. And so, I will bravely go where trains and tubes fear to run!

The government (Ministry of Weather?) has actually issued a red alert and put the national guard on warning to deal with the snow. We had to cancel a planned journey to Bath to visit with friends for fear that we'd not get back; and also for fear that we'd tempt them to risk their lives coming to see us.

I'm looking on the bright side - maybe I'll have to stay in London another couple of days if the flights are cancelled....

Worst Food Poisoning Ever

The food poisoning went on longer than I've ever experienced. It is Thursday night and we are finally feeling better. We dragged ourselves out to see the Cirque du Soleil show Kooza which was well worth the effort. Tomorrow we are off to Bath... weather dependant.  Apparently the snow predicted is already deemed a National Emergency.

Big Day Ticking Boxes

I've now seen the Rosetta Stone with my own two eyes. The script is really small considering it's in stone. I'd estimate its around 24point font. The egyptian artifacts in the museum are really astounding. That was after our grand success purchasing a mobile phone on the Totenham Court Road. It actually works - much to my surprise.

Then we had lunch at a lovely pub in a back street of St. Jame's - very classically a public house with a land lady overseeing all, dark wood and horsebrases every where. Next we were off to the National Gallery to meet up with my Aunt Evelyn for afternoon tea. That was a really lovely visit, she even had a small collection of photos for me that have come from settling up the estate of my Aunt Rene. A lovely few hours visiting and chatting. I had not been brave enough to get on a bus in London - for all the obvious reasons, they are unpredicatable and you've got no idea where you are. As Evelyn was taking the bus to her train we screwed up our courage and got on as well. That worked out very well as she is an excellent tour guide. After not many blocks of slow progress (it was rush hour) we were coming up on St. Paul's and the millenium bridge which is on Christopher's London list. We made a split second decision, and lept off to cross the bridge. At which point I was in need of a lavatory, and lucily the Tate Modern was still open - they've rather cleverly hidden the facilities within one of the exhibits so we've seen a bit of what the Tate Modern has to offer - strange and unusual. Even though it was cold I still thought a bit of a boat roade would be nice so we got on one of the Thames clippers - a new privately owned public transit option on the Thames. Even takes the Oyster card, which by the way has been perfect for all the transit ups and downs. Our original intent was to take a ride on the London Eye as it was a lovely clear night, but as we approached it looked like it was shut down for the evening; so we disembarked at Charing Cross pier. By which point I was popsicle like. That didn't stop us from getting a shot of big ben all lit up. We stumbled upon the Sherlock Holmes Pub, which leads to a rather sad 24hours. We got food poisioning from the gravy on the Yorkshire Pudding. Yes, both of us, 1 bathroom. Our entire night Tuesday night was extremely uncomfortable and now our entire Wednesay day. I'm finally starting to feel human again.

Late Risers, Good Drinkers

Woke at 1:30 - many hours after I'd abused the alarm to shut off let me just say. Bit of a rush to make our date for whiskey tasting. Totally missed our lunch reservation for Jamie Oliver's 15, sigh. Lovely time tasting whiskey at Berry Brothers with Doug McIvor. Afterward we were just able to roll ourselves across the alley to an amazing Italian restaurant. Tomorrow we have designs on a cell phone - not as easy to come by as one might think. Then we're off to lunch with Doug M. and afternoon tea at the national gallery with my Auntie Evelyn. We've left the evening to recover. More news later.

London

We arrived bright and early in London... and I dragged Chris' sorry self to a public market.  We both had to buy wool jackets because it is so chilly here.  Our flat is lovely warm and clean though and is a nice refuge for us... along with the odd English pub one has to dip into to warm up.

We are very proud of ourselves and have managed to stay up to attempt to acclimatize to London time.  Tomorrow brings lunch at Jamie Oliver's restaurant and a scotch tasting and tour of Berry Brothers...

Whitehorse - Vancouver - Montreal - London

We're safely installed in our London flat after some interesting adventures. Red eye flights are just not much fun, no matter what you do. By the time we rolled into Montreal we were bleary and sleep drunk. Happily we were able to get a room for the day at the Mariott in the airport. We showered and collapsed into bed for 7 hours of much needed sleep. The view from the 8th floor spa and pool was amazing. We never made it any farther than the airport I'm afraid. Montreal has a certain je ne s'est quoi you'd have to agree with. The air security (CATSA) cops were wearing scent, bling, and in one case pink camo pants and hat with a flashing LED belt buckle that said "have a nice flight".

MOVEMBER - A Little Late...

Chris once again participated in Movember.  Though the cause focuses on a certain kind of Cancer Christopher prefers to focus on awareness of Cancers 'BELOW THE BELT' since his MoM passed away from COLON Cancer.  Chris recognizes that his attempts to grow a Movember Moustache are rather pitiful but it is not about how good or bad your moustache looks right ?!?