Still continuing with Jessica's trip over here, which means I'm about a week and a half behind. The last few days of Jess' trip were packed full, we went and saw a play called Spring Awakening, it takes place in Victorian Germany and most of the music is rock-ish, I'd compare them to the songs in the movie Across the Universe. It was a really interesting play, the actors were great, but it was fairly depressing, still worth seeing though. We made a trip out to the Indian place in Harrow that Mom and Dad took me to, just as good as last time, better even because this time I wasn't sick.

The last Saturday of Jess' trip a group of us headed to Thorpe Park, an amusement park outside of London. We were there for Andrew's birthday, he loves roller coasters. The lines take forever to get through but it was lots of fun. We even tried out the new Saw ride based on the horror movies, it just opened this season. The ride was pretty awesome, only two rows of five people each would go at a time so you really experienced everything up close. The big drop is 90° up and than 100° down so you actually turn back in on the ride. It was so much fun. Typical English weather it had to rain once while we were there but to make things even more exciting it decided to start pelting us with hail for a few minutes. Luckily that helped clear out the line a bit so we got to move on a bit quicker. We were all plenty exhausted and falling asleep on the train ride home. Back at my place I made up some pizza for us and then we had some of the cake that I had made for Andrew the night before.

Sunday I had to work but Jess came out to visit and hung around the pub for some drinks. She got to meet the owners and some of the regulars, they were quiet amused by her, and her by them, good time.

We made a trip out to try "The London Bridge Experience", it was pretty much a haunted house in the vaults of the London Bridge. We also grabbed some very tasty fish and chips from a well known place downtown.

On our last day we ran some errands and went for afternoon tea at Harrods. Definitely worth the price. There was a piano player entertaining us while we ate through two plates of sandwiches, two places of scones, a dish of pastries and two pots of tea. I was very full by the time we left. After that we headed over to join a Jack the Ripper tour lead by one of the leading Jack the Ripper experts, he has two books out on him. It was a large group but still worth going on, the tour guide was very knowledgeable, it was graphic and gory but interesting for sure.

Since Jess left I've been working hard....kind of. This past Thursday my friend Jemma came with me to a party for this magazine called KnockBack, their editor is one of the women posing for me for my final project for school. The party was a lot of fun, there were two live bands and a dj, plus a martini bar and dancing. We drank a bit, danced a bit and laughed on the tube ride home as we each read our free copy of the new issue, the magazine just gets better each issue. I also finally got a chance to meet the editor in person, she seems really nice and energetic which should make the shoot go really well.

Friday James, Andrew and I went to a party at Jemma's house, the theme as we were told was "clubbing nightmares" so Andrew and James wore button down shirts with their collars popped and I put on a little black dress and killer (literally) heels. Turns out most everyone else was wearing florescent and dayglo tutus, leg warmers and the like. They had a few djs that played and the party was still going strong when we hopped into our cab around 1am.

This morning I had my first actual photoshoot for my final project, no more test shooting for this girl. My first subject was a woman named Ellie Levenson, she's a journalist whose first book, A Noughtie Girls Guide to Feminism, comes out this summer. I went round to her flat to do the images as that is where she does all of her work, it's a cute little house with a nice little backyard. The shoot went really well, she was so friendly, did the traditional make-a-cup-of-tea thing before we got started and we chatted away throughout. And she has already agreed that if we need to shoot again she is more than willing. It was good to get everything started on the right foot. I'll post tomorrow the two images I've narrowed it down to for her shoot and you all can give me your opinions, no feelings will be hurt. I have my second shoot tomorrow, I'm going to photograph my friend Jemma (she's just everywhere in this post) in the veternary office she works in, she works as an assistant and is going to go back to school to become a vet. It should be a fun shoot, plus I probably get to play with animals while I'm there.

Here is the link for the images from Spain with Jess.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

As always, things have been crazy while uni has been kind of boring. The past few weeks we've had group critiques for our major project and finally, after thinking for the longest time that I was getting along I am now moving smoothly. The studios are closed starting this upcoming week so all my shooting is going to be moved into the great outdoors, scary.

Jess, my older sister, arrived two weeks ago here in the UK for a visit. With an 8 hour time difference she was lagging a bit behind, to add to that she had two 3 hour naps before we got up at 2am to hop some buses to the airport. We headed off to sunny Madrid for a long weekend.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, it felt nice and warm, we were pleasantly optimistic as we headed towards our hostel. Ten minutes later we were less so as we stood outside the door to our hostel trying to decipher the sign in spanish telling us that this was no longer a hostel but a private residence and we were not to knock. This seemed especially strange because the date on the paper was for the day we were there and I had received an email from them the day before and they didn't mention anything being wrong with the place. After much stumbling around, dragging our bags behind us, we found an internet cafe with another email from the hostel telling us to contact them because there was overbooking. The sister hostel was just down the street so we headed there. They didn't have room for us for our first two nights but they called over to another hostel nearby for us to go.

La Posada was a very nice hostel, we got a private room with bunkbeds. The first day we went out and did the Hop on Hop off bus tour, after about 45 minutes I looked over and saw Jess nodding off so we hopped off for good (we bought tickets for 2 days so it wasn't a big lose). Jess took a nap back in our room and I wandered around town a bit. I made my way into Retiro Park wandering the leafy paths until I saw drawn to a nice patch of grass with a saxophonist playing on the path behind me, I sat down and read for a while before deciding Jess needed to wake up.

My artsy images while I was relaxing in the park.
The first image is so you can see what I saw while I was reading in the park.

That evening we joined our "entertainment director" Pablo for a tapas tour with some other kids from our hostel and another one. We went to three different bars where we got different tapas. The first one had homemade beer, the second one wine and the last one sangria. We had a lot of fun meeting other people, it was a fun group and gave me a taste of what it's going to be like going out when I'm backpacking.

Saturday Jess and I went to the Retiro Park to wander around, we randomly ran into two of the guys from the tapas tour, which was perfect timing because we were looking around to ask someone to take a picture of us.

We spent a few minutes with them then parted ways until the evening. We walked around the park some more and then down to the Atoche train station, which looks like a station from the outside but from inside, see the images below:

After that we did more of the Hop on Hop off bus. We wandered off to see an Egyptian temple that was given to Madrid as a thank you from the Egyptian government after Spain helped save the monuments of Abu Simbel from flooding. Kind of a weird thank you gift but unique to say the least. From there it was on to the palace and the cathedral.

Jess and I at the Egyptian temple

View of mountains and hillside from Palace

We got pretty used to the spanish hours which means eating lunch at 2 and dinner around 9, it keeps the evenings going really late. That night Pablo had set up drinking games for us in the kitchen so Jess and I headed there first to drink sangria from a carton while playing cards with a group of about 15 people. There was a nice variety to the group, Poddy and Matt, our Canadian friends from the tapas tour, a group of Australians, two Brazilians and a few other random Americans. Once that was done we grabbed Poddy and Matt and headed out with Pablo to meet some of the other guys from the tapas tour and some new people to go to a bunch of different bars and clubs. After getting into the last club we realized we were exhausted so Jess, Poddy and I headed back to the hostel. We were the first to leave yet it was already after 4am.

Sunday we switched to the other hostel where they gave us a free night for all the complications before.

Monday we headed to Segovia for the day. It's a nice little walled city that was worth the trip to see. It's out in the countryside a ways and while it's a good tourist destination it hasn't lost its charm. We got to see the old roman aqueducts, the towns cathedral before heading into the main square for lunch. Then it was off to Alcazar Castle which served as part of the inspiration for Cinderella's Castle at Disney World (not to be confused with Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disney Land). If I lived in a castle this would be the one for me.

We got back into Madrid with time to shower before heading for dinner, my favorite one of the trip. We were sent down a little side alley full of restaurants. We sat outside and had to order sangria first. Then we went to order a tapas sampler and entrees. Jess ordered for us, she ordered the tapas first and when we she went to order the rest the waitress told her that that was enough and walked away. Thank god she stopped us because that was more then enough for the two of us, we were fat and happy by the end of it.

Tuesday was our last day so we decided to just bum around a bit. We did a bit of tourist shopping and headed back into the big park to find some grass. Jess napped while I read and then we finally headed back to the hostel to grab our stuff and head to the airport. All in all Spain was a nice warm and sunny adventure for us.

The Answer to the Great Question Of.....Life, the Universe and Everything.....(is) Forty-two.

It's been a busy few weeks. Mom and Dad were over this past week for about a week to visit. It was a very fun time except for the fact that I was getting more and more sick over after the first few days they were in town. Luckily they are very self sufficient and have a tendency to wander off on their own anyhow they did quiet a goo job on their own.

We had a number of excellent dinners, one at an Indian place down the street from me that I'll be bringing Jess back to when she's over in another month, and this amazing place down on The Strand (our theatre district) that is roasts and other amazing dishes well worth the price. It was wonderful to get to see them and I wish they didn't have to go so soon.

I've been working extra hard at school and it has been well received recently. I presented the following images to my group this past Thursday and everyone including my tutor loved them. There were many things I tried with the images, some happy accidents that worked in my favor and the group saw even more in them then I intended but it was all what I wanted to get across so that just made it even better. I know I haven't put any of my school work up recently but these make me happy so I thought I'd share them.

The project is looking at the feminine identity and how the feminine and masculine identities are together and conflicting. So this is an interaction between the two, the black background blends and brings together the two identities in one space bringing together a tension and ambiguity about the situation. Take a look and enjoy the genius that is me :)



Last night Ellie and I went to see Katy Perry, one of my favorite new singers. She's from the state and just came out last year. I first heard about her while I was in Phoenix last May for Jess' graduation and that was before her first album had even been released so that shows how new she is. The concert was amazing. It was such a girl rock vibe with her dancing and throwing herself all around the stag, it was so great. The concert took place in a smallish theatre where they had removed all the seats so it was all standing room. Ellie and I took up residence at the top balcony where we had a great view, the only downfall is that we were situated next to a group of teeny boppers who kept screaming at all times, we felt very sympathetic for the mom who agreed to chaperone them there.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day, warm and so sunny. So Ellie and I took the opportunity to go downtown for a bit and wander. I had to get to work at 4 for a cocktail class, we're taking on a cocktail mixer made from all natural ingredients so that we can introduce a few new drinks to our menu. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I'm still very not pleased with the idea of a corner pub serving fancy cocktails and wearing t-shirts advertising drink mixes or beers, not quiet relaxed and neighborly, but for now I'll do what I'm told until I get a better job.

More in a few days after some more adventure.

So my choice is "Our death?"

This past Sunday was the celebration of Australia Day since it happens on Monday but here we are about 12-hours ahead of time. Ellie, James, Andrew and I headed into the city to go celebrate. We went to Church first and then found out that not only were tickets bought ahead of time required but there were about 500 people waiting to get in after all the ticket holders were in. We decided that we'd try out this other Australian party downtown, before we even made it there we ran into some other Aussies who told us that the que was an hour and a half long and they weren't letting any more people in. So we changed our plans and headed down the street to a nearby WalkAbout. It was very crowded in there but we managed to get a drink and see a guy dressed like a koala before we left. From there we headed to our normal Sunday WalkAbout. It was packed when we got inside but we made it in and managed to have a few drinks. Things were fairly good except that by the end I was getting knocked around and stepped on in the crowd, not my idea of fun. So we decided to head out and grab some food before going home. It was amazing how exhausted we all were by the time we got home at 8:30pm.

Me, James, Ellie and Andrew at WalkAbout

Monday Andrew and I went to see Wicked. It was the second time that I saw it but Andrew hadn't seen it before. The show is amazing every time, I just enjoy it so much. Andrew really liked the show as well and we had already agreed that once he got a job we would go see a lot of the plays and musicals that our out, I believe our next one is going to be Thriller which is a Michael Jackson tribute or some such, should be pretty good.

The rest of my time has been spent, well, a lot of it in the library. I didn't do as well with my Major Project as I would have liked, I got a passing grade but I just wasn't that thrilled with the project and it really showed. So since this project is what I will be using to first introduce myself into the art community I decided that I needed to show something amazing that I really liked and enjoyed creating instead of something bordering on mediocre. So a few days last week I was in the library in 5 hours stints just doing as much research as I could. I showed some of the work and talked about it with David, our course leader, on Wednesday. He said that he could tell that I didn't enjoy the way the last project was going and he was glad I was doing something now that makes me happy. I've taken his recommendation of books to read and am examining some artists he recommended as well.
I ran into him again Friday morning as I was waiting to show the department head my work to get his opinion as well and David was excited to see me reading the book he recommended. Andy, the department head, was very encouraging as well. He said that I am a very good student and that he can tell I work very hard but that the Major Project I had handed in just wasn't quiet there and he too could tell I didn't like it. This is one of the things I like about my program, all the tutors are so very encouraging and really willing to help you out in any way they can, it's nice to know that they are behind you, hoping you succeed and willing to make an effort to help you when they can see you're making an effort to do the work. So this should turn out very good, I'm super excited about how my project is heading now, although it is starting to look more and more like I might be a feminist or something :) go figure.

Since Andrew's place is right next to campus it's pretty easy for me to pop over and say hi once classes are done. Well when I did that Wednesday evening I got a pleasant surprise. It turns out that Andrew had gone in for the 3rd or 4th, there were so many, interview for this one company and he was on the phone with them when I got there accepting a position with them (Yay!). It's a contract job which means he is signed on for 3 months and if they like him they will keep him for another 3 months. I'm so excited for him because he has needed something to do, and money, so that he can stay. The job has something to do with a computer program called SharePoint and the companies intranet, and yes I do listen to him I just don't understand all the Information Technology stuff, very confusing. It's located down in Canary Wharf which is a very nice area to be in.

Top: Canary Wharf Station from above and park surrounded station; Below: Canary Wharf from the water

He decided that he wanted to go out for drinks in the city on Saturday to celebrate but since it was short notice it was only me and his friend Latica from back in Australia. He wanted to go in the afternoon so as not have a wild and crazy night. We met down in Covent Gardens and while it was oh so cold, in the 20s or so, it was bright and sunny with blue skies, a rariety in London, so there were droves of people out. It was actually really nice to see the city so full of life. We grabbed a beer on one of the upper levels in Covent Garden (the main building has two or three pubs on the upstairs of the arcade with balconies to see down into the square) and watched a very entertaining street performer who ended his act juggling knives while walking a ladder in just his underwear, he was Scottish if that helps that make any sense :) After that we all grabbed food together and were tired out (we seem to get tired out so easily), we headed off home so Andrew and I could be bums on the couch some more.

So last night began a big snow storm, according to the BBC it is in fact the biggest snow storm London has gotten in 6 years. So of course at about 11:30 last night Ellie and I had to bundle up and go run around the streets messing up the pristine snow, we had much fun, we even made snow angels in someone elses front garden thinking it'd be a nice treat for when they woke up this morning. Of course it kept snowing last night so you can't see any of that and now we have probably 3-4 inches of snow on the ground and it's still snowing, lightly now but it's still going. Most of the trains have been cancelled, the tube line is severly delayed and buses aren't running yet because the roads are still too slick so it should be a nice day of relaxing, unless of course I still have to go into work tonight. Even still it's beautiful to see and I am sure Ellie and I will go play more once she's up. I'll take some pictures so you all can see that we do get snow here, even if it's not as much as in the states.

Andrew and I made the quick decision that we wanted to take a holiday and since neither of us had been to Rome we made plans to go there. After this was all booked I found out that I still had almost two weeks until classes started so we booked another trip, this one to Barcelona. However we weren't so smart in our planning and we were scheduled to get in from Barcelona with one day to spare in London before heading to Rome.
But we're young so we figured we'd go for it anyhow.
We got great prices on lastminute.com and had 4* hotels the whole time.

Barcelona was beautiful. We had to catch a bus at 3:30am to get to our flight because the tube doesn't run all night. But once we got there and napped we were good to go for the day. Their metro was easy to use and we spent the first day wandering around the Gothic Quarter, a section filled with narrow winding streets with balconies and they seemed so full of life. We made it down to the harbor for lunch before wandering some more and finally heading to the hotel for some room service and to crash early, it'd been a long long day of traveling.

The second day we stopped by a tourist information booth to grab info on doing a bike tour, and headed over to sign-up for it. While waiting for the tour to start, on another winding street, we grabbed pastries from a little shop. It was great because I was able to understand some of what was going on and speak spanish a little to people. I used the phrases "do you speak english?", "one minute please" and "thank you" most. I managed a few other that surprised even me but even without that everyone was so friendly it didn't seem to matter, it just made me feel better to at least try.

We were the only people signed-up for the bike tour so we had a personal tour of Barcelona all to our selves. This was exceptionally good because I needed the time to re-learn how to ride a bike, the phrase "just like riding a bike" now means nothing to me because I didn't remember and almost ran into the wall five times just trying to get out of the alley. It was a sunny, beautiful day to ride around, once I got the hang of running people over we were off. It was 3 hours and took us all over the city, down to the beach, through the Gothic Quarter and to see most of the monuments we wouldn't have found otherwise.

Our tour guide had recommended a restaurant in this quaint little square for dinner so we went there. It's a cooking school so it was excellent quality for a very inexpensive price. We went all out, appetizers, sangria and even desert.

Our final day we had a lot of time to kill so we wandered the Gothic Quarter some more, our favorite area by far, and eventually found a pub with beers for 1 euro. We had a few there before heading to the hotel to grab our stuff and get to the airport. Well, for all the time we had all day we managed to get to the service counter for our flight 5 minutes after they closed check-in for our flight. They told us there was nothing they could do, we were stuck (even though the plane was 45 minutes delayed in leaving). So after a minor break down we bought new tickets to leave Saturday morning and found a hotel with shuttle service to stay at. We would have stayed at the airport but I was past my breaking point and I was scheduled to work Saturday night until close and was going to have to head straight from the pub to the airport to get to Rome.

It ended up working very well in our favor besides the spending so much extra money part. The hotel was really nice with a bed so huge that I rolled over 5 times to get from one side to the other side. We slept so well, probably better then we would have it we had made it home Friday night instead and had to take 3 different buses to get home. So instead we made it home Saturday around 2 with time to repack, I had just made dinner getting ready to go to work when my manager let me know they were slow that night so I didn't have to go in. Instead I got to sleep early to get up to catch yet another bus at 3:30am.

We arrived in Rome soon after the sun had risen. We had quiet a time getting lost trying to find the hotel and trying to confer with people with no common language. But we made it to the hotel, even better than the one in Barcelona.

After a rest we headed out to explore. We figured we'd hit all the main sites that we're near each other so we started with the Spanish Steps. We grabbed pizza from this little shop tucked in near the Metro station. I have no idea what I ate because I told the guy behind the counter to just give me whatever he'd have so it was some kind of white pizza with mushrooms and I think anchovies or something, absolutely delicious.

We walked all over the city seeing so much and absolutely exhausting ourselves. Following the routine in Spain we grabbed some take-out from this little place around the corner from the hotel where they spoke almost no english and curled up watching some tv in our room.

Monday we got up for breakfast at the hotel since it was included and since it was a wonderful european breakfast there was bread, meat and cheese that we used to make sandwiches to have for lunch, brilliant idea.

We went to the Colosseum and explored that. Then went to St. Peter's and climbed all the way up to the top where we got a 360-degree view of Rome. We ate our sandwiches in the plaza outside of St. Peter's and then walked down along the river to find a monument we had seen from the top of St. Peter's. The whole city was amazing because every corner we turned there was something new we hadn't seen yet. We kept thinking we knew where we were and then we'd get into the square and find that we were no where we had been. It was pretty great to see all the little squares and fountains.

Monday night we had dinner outside in this little alley and splurged again having an appetizer, desert and a thing of their homemade red wine, very tasty.

Tuesday we had breakfast and packed extra sandwiches since we were flying out that night. We went over to this big park and wandered around through the gardens. Our day is going to sound romantic but it was us so it was mostly goofing around the whole time. We had lunch in the park by a nice fountain and then wandered over to this little lake where we discovered it was only 6 euro to row a boat around it for 20 minutes. Since we had time and really wanted to check out the temple structure in the lake we headed off. Andrew did most of the rowing but made me switch with him towards the end so I could row us into things too.

I can't remember what else we did that day before heading home but I know I needed to get this off before it's way too late, especially since I need to write another one soon. Pictures will be added soon.

More craziness over in London. Once I got back from Christmas I spent my entire time working on my two papers I had due last week. They didn't seem that challenging until I was stuck short 700 words shy on each one. Yea, a bit stressful and all. Those got turned in and then it was time to work, and work some more. 

Saturday we had a last minute 80s party at the pub, which means there was a lot of people packed into the pub, including the new group of american students attending the school down the road. They seem like a good and friendly group so we're looking forward to seeing them around. Because there was so much going on I worked until 3am at which point the place was still insanely packed. It was a good night all in all.

I worked last night and am going in tonight. Tomorrow however, the real fun starts. Andrew and I are heading to Barcelona for 3 days. We have a flight that leaves at 7am, which means we need to leave at 3:15 on a bus to get to the train station to catch the 5am train out to the airport....oh yea. We have no idea what we want to do or see in Barcelona but neither of us have been there and we got a nice 4-star hotel for incredibly cheap. It should be a good time. We get back late Friday night, Saturday night I work again and then Sunday morning we are up super early once more to get to the airport to fly to Rome for 3 days. Tons going on.

This blog will stop here because I have to make sure I'm all ready to go and head off to work. I'll post a nice long one with pictures of our travels when we get back next week. 

What I drunk last night, would have floored a rhinoscerous.

To pick up where I left off I got home to Connecticut and got right into helping Mom make cookies, clean and finish up Christmas shopping. It started snowing the Friday after I got in and continued with almost no stopping until late Sunday night which created nice snow banks for when Andrew flew in Monday afternoon.

Tuesday Andrew and I got up very early to head into New York City for the day. We packed a lot into the day there starting at Rockerfeller Center to see the tree and ice skating. Then we checked out some window displays along 5th Ave, very surrealist inspired work, really interesting.

From there we had to go into FAO Schwarz to play with toys and load up on candy, it's great to have adults in a candy shop because we act like kids we just actually get to buy it.

From there we went and got our picture taken with a very effeminate Santa Claus before trying to find a pizza place to get warm and get some food that wasn't pure sugar.

After sufficiently warming up we went back into the cold to wander through Central Park then on down to Time Square, with a brief stop into M&M World, four floors of M&M's, can't go wrong with that. Finally we headed back to Rockerfeller Center to see the tree lit up at night and then slowly dragged ourselves back to the train to head back home again.

Wednesday we went out to Best Buy so Andrew could buy a computer, a PC but we can forgive him that. And Jess arrived from Phoenix just in time for the snow to be all rained away. After the Christmas Eve service we relaxed for a bit before everyone headed to bed.

Christmas morning we awoke to coffee and the discovery that Santa had come by and he even remembered where to find Andrew.

After stockings came the traditional eggs benedict, one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Then came presents and a bit of resting.

Friday was day 2 of Christmas where my Aunt Deb (my Mom's sister) and her family came by for much food and more presents.

Saturday was day 3, off to New Hampshire for Christmas with the Swenson family, even more eating, drinking, presents with some pool and Wii thrown in for good measure.

I'd say that Sunday we rested but that didn't happen. Instead on Sunday Andrew and I headed into Boston to check out the city since Andrew had never been. We first went down near where Jess used to live to get some sushi, so yummy. Then I had to take Andrew down to Fenway, I mean, it was right there. So we walked around and got to see all the construction going on. We popped into a sports bar across the street from Fenway to have a pint and watch a bit of the Patriots game. After that it was off to Government Center to walk through Faneuil Hall and down to the waterfront to get to the New England Aquarium (Andrew had never been to one of those before). I love the New England Aquarium, especially because when you first walk in the whole ground floor is all penguins and they are my favorite. 

Of course after that we were getting a bit hungry so we made our way into the North End to find Mike's Pastry for some cannolis. While chowing down we went off to the Prudential Center to go up to the very top and get a 360 view of Boston at night, then back down again for more food at a local bar called Pour House that Jess used to frequent back in her Boston days.

And finally it was home again to watch Goodfellas and get a bit of hot tub time.

Monday there was massive running around and packing and it was off to the airport again in a whirlwind. At the airport I sent Andrew off to the correct terminal and went to find my friend Kelly who went to Philly U with me and was flying back to London for New Years here with me.

We got in early early Tuesday morning and by the time we got a cab home we were so exhausted that there was a big nap session, of course I kept waking up because I was so cold and couldn't figure out why. Turns out that Ellie and James had gone back to Brighton for the week and had turned off the heat, and the stove which I discovered when I tried to make some food for us. We headed out to do a bit of shopping down on Oxford Street. And even though we were exhausted we stayed up until after 2am with Andrew playing Battle of the Sexes a new board game I got for Christmas.

Wednesday Kelly, Ellie and I went into Watford to do a bit of shopping, Ellie still needed to find an outfit for New Years Eve so we were on a mission.

We were a bit late heading out for New Years Eve but had amazing timing non-the-less. We took the tube as far as we could which was two stations shy of our destination. The others were closed due to overcrowding because the tube is free on New Years Eve. So we joined the crowds of thousands to walk down one of the main roads, The Strand. We arrived at King's College down near the Thames which is where we got tickets to a party at the colleges student bar. Once we got in James, Ellie and Andrew headed upstairs to find the bathroom while Kelly and I waited while Andrew's friend Rachel checked her coat. The plan was for us to head to the bar on the 4th floor to get drinks and meet them. Things were going well as far as we could see, we got in the elevator and then out again on the floor with everyone else, there were no markers for the floor but there were a lot of people getting off and going into the bar so we followed along. We made it to the bar, got drinks for everyone but couldn't find them. We wandered around the floor which wasn't very big and looked and looked to no avail. Finally it's 3 minutes until midnight (we got in at 11:30 or so) and we still can't find them and I go out towards the elevator until I find someone who works there and ask what floor we're on. Turns out we were on the 2nd floor, so the three of us ran up the two flights of stairs and found everyone else the moment we walked in the door, which means by the time we said hi the countdown was at 3. After that the real party began with much dancing.

We got home around 5 or 6, had a bit of an eating session as we were all starved and headed off to sleep for a few hours.

Today has been a nice relaxing day, mostly sleeping in and watching tv bumming in the front room together.

Back to more relaxing and enjoyment of having Kelly around.

Photos of Christmas holiday and New Years for all to see: here.