January

We returned back to a cold and snowy London. Turns out this is the coldest winter for 20 years. It gets pretty cold and dreary outside so you tend to just bundle up and stay home as much as possible. That meant we had a lot of nights at home getting to know our new flatmates better. Playing games and having a few drinks. However, we still managed to get up to a few things out of the house over the course of the month.


The highlight of the month was of course Jess celebrating another year with her first birthday in London (28th on the planet). Marcus and Jess both took the day off from work for birthday surprises. Fresh fruit breakfast in bed and then we were off to Somerset House home of the best outdoor ice skating rink over winter. Marcus hadn't quite thought things through though. Who else is around to go ice skating during the day.....schoolkids!! Hundreds of them! Luckily initial worries turned out to be unfounded as most of them spent the whole time stuck to the walls around the edges. We skated round and round. There weren't too many tricks but it was still good fun. After that it was off for a gourmet three course dinner at 12 Temple Place in the Swissotel. The food was fantastic, as was the service and made us wonder why we weren't going out for more gourmet meals. We went for a walk in the afternoon and then the flatmates came home and we went out for dinner with them. After all that eating out there was more food to be had with Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles on the cake which Marcus had made for Jess. It was sure nothing to look at but it tasted good.

That weekend it was cold but we still managed to get some tourist activity in. This time it was a trip to the Vitoria and Albert Museum in Kensington. There was some interesting stuff there and a wide variety of things to look at but it couldn't help feeling a bit like the museum was jammed full of all the stuff that the other museums didn't want. Nonetheless Jess enjoyed the fashion through the ages exhibition.

That night it was party time. We had some space reserved at the Alwyne Castle around the corner and everyone (including Kate and Phil from NZ) were coming to Islington to celebrate with Jess for her birthday. It ended up being a great night with heaps of familiar faces (and some shenanigans on a skateboard) and a good way to celebrate.

The next weekend it was party time again. This time our flatmate Riki was celebrating his birthday with a good old fashioned flat party. The flatties were there along with Riki's friends from the bar downstairs (where he works as a chef). We also discovered that there is a cupboard in the flat full of random dress up clothes. Not quite what we expected when we moved in but a good load of fun. All in all a good way to keep spirits up when it is so dreary and cold outside.

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