November/December

Guy Fawkes (or Bonfire Night) is celebrated in London at the start of November with a series of big fireworks displays around the city. With the assistance of George we managed to get ourselves onto a river cruise from which to watch the fireworks. We met with our friends at Westminster pier not quite sure which of many boats was ours. However, after some trial and error we made it onto the correct one and managed to stoke out a good (but chilly) possie on the top deck. The boat trundled its way past a lit up Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament as well as Battersea Power Station till we reached Battersea Park. They even fed us along the way. We were certainly pleased of our spot when the fireworks started as we had a virtually unobscured view of what was going on. Even better than the residents of Chelsea on the opposite shore. The boat then slowly made its way back up the river to drop us off, sufficiently impressed but also sufficiently cold to need to head home and defrost ourselves.

It was also time to say goodbye to another pair of flatmates. This time it was Lauren and Jeremy who were heading back to Australia. Moving in to replace them were Andy and Camille who were the people we had taken the room from when we had first moved into the flat. Things had come full circle for them.

November was when we made our first trip to a London Club (yes we are lame). It was Proud Camden which is in the old stables at Camden Lock. Pretentious doesn't begin to describe it, but that was OK because we were celebrating Kate and Tree's 30th birthdays in 50s style. Jess was looking sweet in pink and white stripey dress and Marcus was looking cool with his slicked back hair. The place was packed but it was good to catch up with everyone. We wondered what was happening when the woman with a snake showed up but the party continued well into the night.

We also made it back out to the O2 Centre in Greenwich. This time to see one of the biggest acts of the moment, Gorillaz. The members of the band are cartoon characters but unlike previous times the band has toured, this time they actually had all the people out on stage singing and playing. There were loads of guests, some we had heard of and some we had not. Little Dragon was one of the better ones and although De La Soul were an hour and a half late they made their presence known when they did show up and jumped around the stage full of energy. Not the best concert we have been to but was still a good night out.

We managed to score ourselves tickets to a special screening of the latest Harry Potter movie at the Imax. We weren't sure why it was special but when we got there there were people dressed up in all the wizarding gear including what appeared to be professional actors as Hagrid and Professor McGonagal. It was good to see what all the Imax fuss was about too.

We lost even more flatmates in November with our kiwi flatties Bex and Riki finishing up their Visas and heading back to NZ. A traditional last meal at Ziloufs was in order as well as having some people around for some, surprisingly, subdued drinks.

By December the cold weather had well and truly set in again but that didn't stop us heading down to Borough Market. Still as delightful and tasty as it was last time we wandered around picking up various delicacies so that we could cook them up for a flat Christmas dinner. As nobody was actually going to be around on actual Christmas we had to settle for having it at the start of the month but in typical fashion we ate (far too much), drank and were merry as well as hanging tinsel and decorations around the flat. It was also a good way to get to know our new flatmates, with the flat having basically changed completely in the previous month.

More Christmas celebration was in order with a trip after to work to Winter Wonderland, in Hyde Park with Ian and Amy. It was pretty darn cold so we made the most of the mulled wine and the bratwurst (and the giant singing tree?) before beating a hasty retreat back to the flat.

Snow arrived in London towards the middle of December. It caused massive trouble for travellers with Heathrow and many of the other airports and train routes being closed for days. Luckily we got out the night before it all went down, on our biggest trip yet. This time to Denmark, Germany and Austria....

https://picasaweb.google.com/JessicaLMcMillan/November2010 
https://picasaweb.google.com/JessicaLMcMillan/December2010