Near the end of January James and I made a list of things and places that we want to do and see around London and the UK in the coming years, and we got off to a cracking start at crossing them off by having another "tourists in London" day in early Feb. We tooled around the City (the original Roman part of London, commonly called “the City”) one rainy Saturday and went to the top of the Monument. This is a column that was erected to commemorate the Great Fire of London which happened in 1666. It sounds weird to say that they were commemorating a fire, but it was more like remembering the rebuilding effort and remembering what London was like before the fire, you know. Anyway we went to the top and I thought that we weren't going to be able to see anything due to the dreary weather, but we gladly could see all the important bits of the skyline (pics on James' facebook page). We also saw the London Stone, which I thought was going to be a bit of the old Roman wall (there are parts of it somewhere in London), but it turned out that it was just some old slab of rock found around the area a long time ago – very underwhelming. It was also weird b/c it was just in a little glass case in the side of a wall along the street – if you weren't looking for it you would almost certainly miss it. Odd. After that thrilling piece of history we made our way to St. Paul's cathedral, and went inside for an organ recital. It was SO beautiful!! I had never been inside so was mesmerised by the mosaics and the size, and the organ sounded amazing as well. The unfortunate part was that they close off most of the church on Sundays as it's only open to worshippers, so we couldn't really get a proper look around. But it was still lovely and I'd like to go back someday (on a day when you have to pay – meh) to have more of a tour.
In early February the Six Nations rugby tournament started – this is a tournament between England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, France, and Italy which happens once a year. England did well at the beginning but ended up losing to France, Ireland, and Scotland. Boo. It was really fun to watch though, I would say that rugby is my favourite British sport so far. I still find football (soccer) very boring and miss American sports very much. Although being in a foreign country does have its benefits in that you can forget about the pain when your team chokes in the second round of the NCAA tournament, since we don't have every news station going on about it. Sigh...
The next week Denisse was in town from the States and I had my “staying do” to celebrate my staying in London, as I mentioned in my last entry. That weekend was also Valentines Day, and I told James that we didn't have to celebrate it (since it is a fairly contrived and commercial holiday), but I did say that I would like some flowers. This does not sound as selfish as it sounds – he used to bring me flowers nearly every week as he would pass a flower stand on his way to my house, but since I've moved to Shoreditch he doesn't pass one and I hadn't had any flowers for a while. Hence my gentle suggestion. But I never did get any on Valentines Day! He made up for it a few weeks later though with a lovely bouquet from a local flower market. The rest of the weekend was spent watching rugby and the Olympics (and cheering my Americans onto the top of the medals board!!).
I've discovered the coolest place – a sort of gym that only does classes - your standard cardio and toning classes but also has loads of dance, yoga and pilates! I love it so much – the dance classes are fun, although I feel like a bit of an idiot sometimes b/c I'm so out of practice, and the yoga instructors are really excellent. The other day I did a headstand all on my own, without the wall, for the first time ever! Very exciting stuff.
I also discovered an excellent restaurant in February - I went to a French two Michelin-starred restaurant called Pied a Terre for a work dinner. It was arguably the best meal I've ever had (except for mum's home-cooked meals of course!). I checked online to see about prices as I'd like to go back someday (we had had a set menu), and it was about 75 pounds for three courses! Guess I'll have to make it for special occasions only...
A few weeks ago James and I went to a work colleague's birthday party in a gay pub, and and my favourite bits were how James kept getting blatantly checked out from head to toe, and my in depth conversation with one of the guys about the effect that Alexander McQueen's death would have on the fashion industry. The following day we went to my very first live rugby game with a group of work mates. This was a friendly match (like a scrimmage) between London and Melbourne, and it was League Rugby rather than Union Rugby. It's just two different leagues but there are slightly different rules between the two. Union is the more popular and it's what is played in the Six Nations. The game was awesome to watch, although it was freezing outside and London lost.
Love to all and miss you!
Heather xoxo
