Another month gone, and we're so close to Christmas now! It's been a busy time since I last wrote, and has gone very quickly.
November started out with a trip to Germany to spend some time with Jorn and family, and to see Ethan in concert. This was Todd's first time seeing Ethan, and he enjoyed his voice. The concert was interesting - it was a collection of songs with Jewish connections, which in musical theatre doesn't limit you too much! My favourites were Prayer from Pimpernel, which I hadn't heard in ages, and the selections from Cabaret. I was waiting for some Jason Robert Brown though, and there wasn't any unfortunately.
Besides the concert, we also spent a fun day with Jorn's parents, who took us to Cologne to see the cathedral and wander around the old town, and to Xanten archeological park, which used to be a huge Roman settlement. Pictures are here.
We saw the new production of Passion at the Donmar Warehouse, which was quite good. We also finally gave in and went to see Love Never Dies, after seeing Phantom in the afternoon. It was not as awful as it might have been, but I don't need to see it again anytime soon. :) We also went to a small little theatre to see a production of Bright Lights, Big City, which was rather disappointing.
We've also done some Christmas shopping, including the Country Living Christmas Fair, and Greenwich market. We got all our shopping for home done, and sent the packages earlier this week, along with my Christmas cards. And just this weekend, I made my gingerbread house, we put lights up on the front of the house, and got our tree up. It did snow earlier this week, but unfortunately it's mostly melted already. There are a few pictures of our Christmas decorating here.
Last night we went to see Gill and Jakub and visit the Enchanted Woodland in Syon Park with them. There are pictures from there too, but I haven't uploaded them yet. :)
Lots of Christmas goodness yet to come! Hope you are all enjoying the season where you are!!
Okay, I've been terrible at updating again, despite my good intentions, but I'll try to make up for it with a recap here.
The last two months have been very full and busy. I'm getting into the swing of things at work, which is going well, even if I don't think
that recruitment is a long-term career path for me. We've been to a few theatre-related things - saw Jason Robert Brown in concert, went to a
really amazing 80th anniversary concert at one of the London theatres, where they had performances from the shows that had played there,
including Starlight Express (original cast!), Bombay
Dreams, Saturday Night Fever, Moving Out and Wicked. Then we went to a live conversation with Stephen Sondheim about his new book, which was
very interesting. I went to see Legally Blonde with some of the girls I used to work with the last time I was here, and then Gill and Jakub went
with Todd and I to see a very intimate production of the Drowsy Chaperone at a little theatre over a pub, which was excellent.
On September 25th we moved into our new home. The actual moving was a bit of a gong show - tube troubles and the keys weren't there when we
got to the office, and transportation problems with IKEA, but everything ended up working out. We love the new place - it is so nice to be in a
house again, with a back yard! We are still waiting for our stuff from Vancouver to arrive (hopefully this week) and our couch and chair to be
delivered (confirmed for the week after), but the stuff we did get is great. Todd likes his new TV very much (we haven't bought a new TV in about
8 years), and I am very pleased with our new bed.
To make the house feel more like a home, we went out the weekend after we moved in to a local cat shelter and ended up bringing home three cats.
We had only intended to get two (so they could keep each other company when we're out), but Todd fell for these two kittens who had been brought
in with their mother, so we couldn't take the kittens and not take the mother too! So now we have three. Cleo is the mom, she's a calico cat
who's about a year old. She will purr the second you touch her, but doesn't like to cuddle too much (yet). The two kittens are Percy, a black and
white boy who is putting on weight like crazy, and Cinnamon, a fearless little calico copy of her mother. You can see lots of pictures of them on Facebook. The two kittens were quite standoff-ish at first,
but are growing more affectionate. They love to play, but we'll have to keep an eye on them, as Cleo ended up with a bite or scratch from one of
them that became infected, and now she's on antibiotics and has to wear a head cone, poor thing!
Todd has done more exploring of the new neighbourhood than I have, but it's mostly residential, with a nice park about a 15 minute walk away.
There is an ASDA (a grocery chain owned by Walmart) nearby, and then a bit further away (a half hour walk) is a big mall with more grocery stores
and lots of other things as well. There is a library and community centre nearby as well, but we haven't checked them out yet.
We've done a few London tourist things as well, including the Open London day, where we didn't get to quite as many things as we wanted because
we waited two and a half hours in line for a tour of the Bank of England! But at least that tour was interesting. We went on a walking tour of
South Kensington one nice Sunday afternoon, and an evening walking tour of Whitehall another night. We saw Stephen Fry at the Royal Albert Hall,
and went on a Halloween walk around St. James's.
Last weekend we headed out of town for my birthday and spent a quick but lovely weekend in Paris. We had both been before, but not together, so
we booked in at the Novotel right near the Louvre so we could walk everywhere, and spent the first day visiting Ste Chapelle and Notre Dame, as
well as wandering a bit on the Left Bank, including up to the Palais de Luxembourg, and then wandering around City Hall area too. We stopped back
at the hotel for a quick break before dinner, and it started to pour, so we ended up staying in and ordering room service! On Sunday we spent
most of the day at the Louvre, and then a quick walk along the river and stop for lunch before heading back to the airport. We enjoyed ourselves,
but decided two things about our next trip to Paris - 1) we will take the train instead of flying and 2) we will go for more than 2 days! Paris
pictures are here.
Now it's Halloween already, and I am at home waiting for trick or treaters to start arriving. We really have no idea how common it is to go trick
or treating in London, so we don't have a clue how many kids to expect. But we're ready anyway! And then tomorrow is November, and it's almost
time for the Christmas season! I just learned last week that my office will be closed between Christmas and New Year's, so now we're trying to
decide what we should do for that week. Our current idea is to go to Iceland, but that might change!
I hope you have all had a good fall, and are ready for winter!!
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