This week has been filled with meetings, celebration and a dear friend from NYC! Some of you may have heard, the States have elected themselves a new president. I tried to stay up as late as I could to watch the election coverage, but the red-eye flight got the best of me. I went to be around 0100 and woke up at 0630 to tune in for the results. I had to pinch myself to make sure that I was reading the screen correctly...I will admit, I wish I stayed in the NY to properly watch the election coverage. It was amazing to discover how many Londoners followed the US election and how they were in awe of the the turnout in the US. I guess a good election turnout here is 40%...
Enough about politics...
For the first time since moving here I have not looked forward to writing this email. This email signifies that it is Sunday and with that the end of the weekend. I normally don't mind this, as it means that with Monday I get to see my friends and return to my body beautiful regime. But this Sunday means that B leaves tomorrow. My work husband came for a visit on Friday for the weekend. It has been an absolute pleasure having him here.
Friday evening after work, we went
to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. I rather enjoyed this exhibit. The exhibit was a showcase of her life as a photographer, so it displayed her photos from her well-known works from Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair along side with her personal photos of her family and dear friends. While looking at some of the personal photos, especially the ones of her daughters being born, you cannot help but think, "I have that same photo (different person of course), I should have an exhibit." Then you see the Demi Moore Vantiy Fair cover and you realize why it is that you don't.
On Saturday, we sadly had typical London weather - rain! Rather than going for the Lord Mayor's procession between Embankment and the Mansion House, we went to Borough market for raclette, mulled wine, burgers and oysters. Thankfully the rain seized momentarily for us to walk across tower bridge and around tower hill. We wanted to go inside, but we missed the last tour by 10 minutes. That started a theme for the rest of the evening - doors to St Paul's Cathedral shut pretty much in our faces, Gordon's was packed the 2 times we tried to get a table, favorite restaurant in Chinatown was closed for decoration....but we managed somehow to have fun :-) The interesting thing about having B Mak here was that he had already been to London numerous times so rather than racing from site to site we just got to spend time together. Definitely made me realize how much I missed having him around in NYC.
In the evening, we made our way to Blackfriars bridge for the Lord Mayor's firework display. We ended up watching them from the center of the bridge itself, which turned out to be really cool. The website said that they were going to usher people off the bridge and it was not a spot to view the fireworks, but they allowed everyone to stay - guess that was just there way of controlling traffic. Clever folks! After the show, we met up with the rest of the American crew and had an evening of food, drinks and laughter.
Today B Mak and I went for a run around London - what was intended to just be a 8 mile run turned into a 10 mile grand tour of London. We discovered 5 minutes into our run that there was a special event taking place in London and as such many of the streets were blocked - thus throwing off our route. We still managed to have a lovely route through London. We ran across Westminster bridge, along the south end of the Thames and then back across Lambeth bridge. We weaved through the streets and made it to Buckingham Palace which...yup...was closed off because of whatever was going on. Rather than running through the front of the Palace, we ran along the back of it and made our way to Hyde Park. We ran around Hyde Park and then ran across Vauxhall bridge toward Brixton for a traditional English breakfast with the American guys. Was the "quickest" 10 mile run that I have done in a long time. Time just seem to fly by and I was rather pleased that cardio wise I felt fine - my knees and ankles on the other hand were in a tremendous amount of pain.
After not being able to buy tickets to Quantum of Solace at the Picture House, B and I went to the War Museum to see the Ian Fleming exhibit. It was not quite what I was I expecting, but really eye opening in regards to who Ian Fleming was and how James Bond came about. It has been so nice having B Mak here....glad that we got the chance to spend the weekend together and just catch up.
Other than that, not much else to report. Hope you all are well. Miss you dearly!! I am off to bed
xoxo
T
3 comments:
TS, I hope your pain goes away and that you can soon run with ease!
i see you went to the annie liebowitz exhibit and tried for st. paul's ... what about the tower of london?? you know you're going to just have to wait now and go with me when i come visit. it's gone on too long and it has to be with me. :-)
While Australia and Denmark were high on my list, I believe that the main reason I chose London is because it is at a cultural crossroads in Europe. While offering the excitement of a bustling city, London is also renowned for its museums and monuments. This opportunity from WPI will not only allow me to visit the city as a touris
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