Elise visits London Town

You know what's AWESOME? When friends visit in London.

Elise McKenna paid me a little visit in London just in time for Thanksgiving! 

We had a lot of fun exploring London. 

Arriving in Central London and she found this! 

 Delicious brunch at the Sherlock Holmes pub. 

This is a replica of one of the rooms inside the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Crossing the Millennium Bridge 

On our way to the Tate Modern

Installation piece at the Tate Modern. The strips displayed cliche sayings on a loop and we must have sat there for at least 15 minutes reading them all.

Yay! Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland

 Just hanging at Winter Wonderland

At Sommerset House, which is literally right next to my school

Thanksgiving dinner. Two of my favorite people.

ALFIE! We've been waiting a year to see this amazing man 

perform the role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.

What a great man.

Trying on crazy hats at Piccadilly Circus.

Obligatory tourist photo

I really like my friends. Rach and Elise became fast friends. On the train to Windsor!

At Windsor Castle! I am the proud owner of a Windsor Castle season pass. 

I will literally go there EVERY week. :)

The girls excited about visiting the place of the educational beginnings of many great men,

 i.e., Eddie Redmayne and Prince William

Because sometimes being delirious wins over logic or socially acceptable behaviour.

The pastry table at Portobello Market is ridiculous. I mean... how do you even choose???

So happy to finally visit!

At the Greenwich visitor's center. We all did this. 

Amazing hall in Greenwich. Absolutely beautiful painted ceiling. There is a lot of symbology and history painted into that ceiling. I loved just starring at it.

 We're on the prime meridian!

 Well, technically Elise is in one hemisphere, I'm in the other and Michael is in both.

Mandatory trip to Harrod's and more specifically the Harry Potter Shop.

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

On our way to church, we passed the Natural History Museum

Dress up at the Victoria and Albert Museum! 

They had a theatre costume and set exhibit which resulted in this.

 My love Jonathan. Here he is looking quite dapper.


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A

{A Night with the Phantom}

Michelle, Devin and I absolutely love Ramin Karimloo.

I will declare here and now that I am responsible for that. 

Ever since I saw him perform in the 25th Anniversary Les Mis concert as Enjolras,

 I have been all about his fantastic voice. That was a weird sentence...

Anyway, about a month ago, the girls and I took a trip to Birmingham to see him perform live. 

It was a lot of fun to do a girls getaway. We headed into town and ate lunch at Nando's (my favorite), watched The Help (and scored two complimentary movie tickets since the sound cut out and we were not able to finish our movie), ate Indian food and went to the show.

Ramin Karimloo. What a man. I have to say he is at the very top of my favorite male vocalist list. 

He shared a fantastic selection of songs from Sunset Boulevard, Carousel, South Pacific, Les Miserables (which we got to sing along to), Phantom, and the Phantom sequel "Love Never Dies."

After the show, we got to chat with the man himself. What a cool guy! I was so impressed with his ability to not only patiently speak to every single person who waited for him, but also his individual attention to those people.

After the concert, we were a bit wiped out but not enough to go back to our hotel. We ended up at a casino where we proceeded to order hot chocolate and hang out by a fire pit. Random? Yes. Awesome? DEFINITELY.

The next day, the girls and I had lunch and then returned to the movies to see Ides of March starring the very handsome Ryan Gosling.

All in all, it was a great trip. I love seeing Ramin live and I am thrilled that he has now joined the London cast of Les Miserables as Jean Valjean.

Here are some videos I found on YouTube... We're sitting just behind him on the choir balcony.




It's hard to see his beautiful face, but his voice is FANTASTIC. 

recent findings

An awuful blurry photo. So glad for flight attendant friends who drop in for a day.

Dinner with Miss Patricia De la Torre at Busaba Eathai and a visit to Big Ben/London Eye/Westminster Bridge.

Song: How Deep is The Ocean (Irving Berlin's White Christmas)

Movie: I am embarassed to admit I attended a midnight showing. In the words of one Kate Fujikawa: "I didn't know Twilight was a comedy! It definitely had me laughing."

Activity: Strictly Come Dancing at Wembley Arena (UK's version of Dancing With the Stars)

Sight: A coatrack that  fell from the wall.

Smell: BACON. Yes! I blame Danielle and Will for my new affinity towards bacon. Remember how I was once repulsed by it? I wish that time was now.

Drink: eggnog steamer at Starbucks!

Frustration 1: Ignored intuition

Frustration 2: Lack of progression

Excitement: HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Excitement 2: Elise will be here in just 4 days. PTL.

Project: I wish I could say something fun like "Producing this concert featuring..." but instead, I have to say two 4,000-word essays for KCL.

New favorite London thing: Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland

Grey Gardens

I've just recently become aware of how many people do not know about this movie.

If you haven't seen it, please do. It's fascinating, and really well done.

It is based off the documentary by the same name made by the Measly brothers.

It will be worth your time.

Cornwall

A few weeks ago, my friend Michael put together a trip to Cornwall which was lovely.

New friends Sophie and Claire came too.We rented a car and headed on out to the English countryside.

As we all know, I have a serious problem with staying awake in cars, and in general, but especially in cars. I didn't on this trip!

There was so much to see, and the contryside was absolutely beautiful. It felt so good to breathe fresh air and to feel like I had space all around me.

(I love my concrete jungle, I do, but this was a needed break).

We headed down to Perranarworthal where Michael's ancestors are from and explored this little graveyard next to this really tiny, beautiful church.

There was a lady there who let us go inside the church and take a look.

Aftwerwards, I drove for a bit. I didn't kill anyone, but I had a hard time staying to the right of the lane. Then I happily handed the car back over to Michael.

On our way to Penzance, we took a wrong turn and ended up at Keynance which is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

We went down to the beach and climbed along the cliffs.

I cannot really explain the amount of joy in my life at that moment. The photos don't do it justice.

After a day of driving, we finally made it to Penzance and had the most delicious dinner at one of the oldest pubs in Penzance.

 We stayed in the local hostel which was actually one of the nicest I have seen.

The next morning, we headed out to Mount St. Michael. It was ABSOLUTELY amazing. When the tide is low, you can walk out on the causeway all the way to the castle. I wish it had been open, but we were still able to walk around the island a bit before the tide came in.

On our drive back to London, Michael proposed that we go to Stonehenge, and so we did. It was fantastic. We were able to visit the burial mounds and to see Stonehenge from a distance (by the time we arrived, it had closed).

I loved every part of that weekend, and cannot wait to go on other trips and see what else England has to offer.