At the trunk or treat only one person knew who we were, but at another party Drew was the biggest hit of the night. Naturally, no one recognized me on my own, hah. Doesn't Mr. Graham just look so great? He totally pulled it off.
In case you're curious about the details, we ordered his shirt off Amazon, found the (Darth Vader) gloves at a Halloween store, the pants at DI and borrowed the boots. My costume was all my own stuff except a $1 shirt from DI and a clip board. By the end of the night I even had two signatures (Billy and Phil)! Naturally, it was more expensive than sticking to our traditional stuff, but it was fun to be something new and unexpected (though we did run as Harry and Hermione in a 5K this morning, as well at work on Friday). Now I'm just trying to think of other occasions to wear them... (Have you seen it yet?)
When did I become such a lazy blogger? I have no shortage of things to blog about, but I just never seem to get to doing it these days. Well, today I am doing it. Maybe it is a sign of things to come.
So, I like to go running. It is delicious. It's good for me. It's the perfect way to start the day. But I have this trouble with getting out of bed. In fact, more often than not I just stay in the bed. Yeah, I could run after work, but that involves two showers a day and dinner at 8:00. So morning is the time, but morning is for sleeping! But like I said, I like to go running and I know it's good for me, especially since I sit at a desk all the day long. But how ever am I to motivate myself?
The answer came to me last week: I must treat myself as a small child! When willpower won't work, one must turn to the time-honored system of a reward chart. But I wanted to make a cool chart, and I remembered Elise's magnet project. I am occasionally crafty so I decided to make cool magnets for my chart. I gathered the necessaries and pondered what pictures to use. For a while I thought I would make dumb magnets with different celebrity faces because the only magazines we have are Entertainment Weekly. Maybe if one of the issues had pictures of everyone from Battlestar in it that would work, but I would have had to settle for Miley Cyrus and the cast of Glee. No thanks.
But I had another moment of genius! We happen to have a stack of pamphlets, guides and brochures from London sitting on our floor, and they are bursting with tiny cool pictures. So I got out the duplicates and cut them up and 8 really cool magnets were born. Thanks, brain.
As I mentioned, my chart includes rewards also because nothing motivates me like getting stuff. I didn't want to make it fancy though or involve much money so my list of rewards are things like a pumpkin shake and getting to pick the movie on Friday night. So, week one of my chart plan has passed. Did it work? Okay, so Mr. Graham still has to drag me out of bed (usually by the ankles), but now I am kind of willing and don't try to dissuade him with sleeping-in snuggles. Hurrah! Yes, I did make a Love Never Dies magnet--it was the perfect size!
On a totally unrelated note: yesterday we went to Walmart where they had this photo spot set up for How to Train Your Dragon. You could even get a free 5x7 print of your picture. Doesn't Mr. Graham make such a great Hiccup? Maybe next year we'll be Hiccup and Astrid for Halloween.
Okay, so this final installment is a little overdue. We came home to a flurry of activity and perhaps I was a little loathe to admit to the end of our glorious trip. There were a lot of emotions involved in this trip but now that all is said and done, mostly I am still just a bit sad that it's all over. But! Let us not dwell on what is passed in a sad way. Instead I will sum up our last week.
Our last weekend, as you may recall, involved a number of museums and had Mr. Graham coming down with a cold. We started out the next week with him getting over his cold (as he always does so speedily), and then with me picking it up a day later. It wasn't the best timing, but if you're going to have a cold, better to have one in London. Right? Something like that. So, the list:
Monday was a bank holiday so there was no work for me. Mr. Graham worked the morning away and then we spent the afternoon at St. Paul's Cathedral. Naturally it was extremely large and impressive and beautiful. We also took the stairs up to the Whispering Gallery which was fun, but, despite our best efforts, we were unable to achieve the infamous effect. We then took the stairs up to the Stone Gallery, which provides a pretty great view of London.
From the Stone Gallery we continued on up to the Golden Gallery. It had a pretty nice view and luckily, unlike the rest of St. Paul's, you can take all the pictures you want! And even luckier, it was a lovely sunny day. From the top we went all the way down to the crypt to see the famous tombs of Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington, as well as those of JM Turner, William Blake, Joshua Reynolds, Edwin Landseer and so on and so forth. We even found a bust of George Washington tucked away in the corner. On the whole, like so many other pricey spots in London, it was totally worth the time and money, and we were glad we made it there at last.
On the way home we did our best to check out the famous Notting Hill Carnival. We got there in time to see a parade, surrounded by massive amounts of people. We didn't get very far--the music was so loud and the crowds were so tights. So we gave up on the unknown potential delights and went home for more ice cream and Cloverfield on tv.
The next day as Mr. Graham was feeling so much better, I started feeling so much worse, just in time for our trip to the Globe Theatre to see A Comedy of Errors written by a fellow named Shakespeare. Coworker Caity had a seat but we were in the standing yard for the common folk. Aside from my drippy, snotty nose and general weariness, it was a great time and the show was very creative and well done. Not to mention the accents were ever so authentic.
Wednesday was the worst sick day so after a long day at work and then dragging myself back home, I stayed there. Mr. Graham was kind enough to not resent me for keeping us at home on our second to last night, and took care of me instead.
Thursday was our last night! Caity and I made a half day of it, and left the Society for the last time. It was sad to leave our English friends behind, including the ninja bunnies in the courtyard. We packed for a while and then all set off for a last night of English larks. We checked out Abbey Road, which was surprisingly close to our previous lodgings, and then found some dinner a traditional English place. We did a lot of fond reminiscing over our delicious English foods (seriously, English food is good. Really good.).
Friday morning started early. We finished packing up and took a taxi back to the airport. It was a pretty painless process--aside from the fact that the airline had deleted Mr. Graham's flight reservation. Oops. They got it sorted out in a few minutes and off we went. We looked longingly down at the land as we flew away and got a good look at Ireland as we went. I won't bore you with the details of our less comfortable planes, the mishaps at Chicago security or the poor entertainment choices. In the end we arrived safe, sound and very tired. It was sad to finally part company with Caity, who will forever be our London friend. We took a last picture of our jet-lagged and worn out selves and went our ways.
And that was London. I feel like London and I truly bonded. I sweat buckets on its Tube, I tripped on its sidewalks, I rubbed my bare feet upon its famous tombs. I sneezed and coughed on it, and I even vomited on it. I saw all of its delights that I could and I loved it so.
Now it is over and done with. But never fear, you haven't seen the last of the London posts.
We're now starting our final week here! This past weekend was our last, and I have started bidding things farewell as we leave them. Things are winding up, and as such, we have been busily cramming in all that we can before leaving. It will be nice on our next trip here (whenever that is) to not have our sightseeing time limited by a work schedule, but heck, we can't complain. We saw so many things this week! I will describe them to you now with words and pictures and maybe an emoticon or two.
We went, at last, to the British Library. Despite its modern facade, there were many impressive old things inside that, naturally, one cannot take pictures of. But we did see many original manuscripts of things like Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Alice in Wonderland and Jane Eyre. We also saw Jane Austen's writing desk, Handel's Messiah and the Magna Carta. All of these things reaffirmed my belief that most penmanship these days is pretty wretched.
On Wednesday we made our final foray into the theatre district to see Starlight Express. Unfortunately we were about 8 years late so we saw Wicked instead. There was a brief kerfuffle at the ticket pickup when the (always)* crabby attendant refused to accept Mr. Graham's signature as genuine, despite the fact that he has one of the most consistent signatures I've ever seen. Apparently she just wanted to make extra sure it was really Mr. Graham and not his Wicked-loving evil twin. No, really. That was the reason. ANYway, so we went to the show and it was all spectacular and the cast was good. The show itself has too many girls and too many belty girl songs for me and my ears, but Mr. Graham had a great time. It did make the effects of Phantom and Les Mis look even more dated by comparison.
On Thursday all three of us travelers went to the British Museum. Caity hadn't been yet, and it was a much more pleasant experience this time for us. No crowds, no sweltering heat, huzzah! This time we went upstairs and saw the rest of the Egyptian collection as well as the Anglo-Saxon things. We saw the Mildenhall Treasure, which I was pretty excited about since I recently read about it in Roald Dahl's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.** I was also excited to see the Sutton Hoo objects. I'm pretty sure I wrote a paper about Sutton Hoo, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was about. I definitely remember writing a paper about this though: It was a pretty bad paper, but it was also my last and I just wanted to graduate (sorry, Dr. Finlayson, that you had to read it).
Friday we made another trip to the National Gallery because it was one of the few places that I really, really wanted to see again. We stayed for a few hours and I bought more postcards. When we got home we watched the last two episodes of the latest IT Crowd season, and one episode was like XD and the other was like o.O
Saturday started with a run and the progressed into running about from one place to another. We went to see the Marble Arch at Hyde Park, along with the giant horsehead, before going for lunch at the Orangery. Mr. Graham got the Ploughman, which we understood to be a sandwich, but we were a little bewildered as to how it all went together. We must have been feeling extravagant because we got dessert too. I got the lemon crunch cake because I was imagining candied lemon peel and some delectable frosting. Alas, it was simply pound cake with a sugar sort of topping. Mr. Graham had better luck with the Orangery cake.
After the Orangery, we went to Hampstead Heath, which is basically a large, wild sort of park. We tromped up and down hills and wandered through many little woodlands and felt pleasantly isolated. On the way home we stopped at Wagamama for dinner, but both agreed it was overpriced and not particularly amazing. What WAS amazing though was the most recent episode of Project Runway which we watched later. It was possibly the greatest runway judging I have seen on that show.
Our Sunday plans were up in the air for a long while because we couldn't decide on going to Yorkshire or not. In the end we decided not to go because the amount of train time and cost required were pretty high for the amount of time we'd be able to spend there. Next time, York, next time. Instead we hit three museums: the science museum, the natural history museum and the Tate Britain. The Science Museum was mostly a snooze, but we did check out the IMAX Deep Sea movie. I was hoping it would be a domed IMAX screen because those are the best, but it was just a bit curved. I told Mr. Graham that we will go to the St. Louis Science Center over Christmas and he will see just how cool a science museum can be (so cool)! We did have fun in the veterinary history exhibit, which was the size of a small bedroom and probably hasn't changed in 15 years.
The natural history museum was much more entertaining with its collections of dead creatures. The real winner of the day was the Tate Britain. It was much smaller than the National Gallery, but it was a pleasant smallness. They had a great collection that included some really lovely Pre-Raphaelite paintings, among them one of my least favorite paintings in the world, The Awakening Conscience: Blargh.
And that was our week. It was much more hustle and bustle than usual, but it was very satisfying to cross off so many things on our to-do list. This week will involve packing and sorting, but it will also include standing for Shakespeare in the Globe Theatre and more ice cream. Huzzah! *I can say always because we have encountered her several times, and she is always sulky and unhelpful (not to mention suspicious of signatures). **I love to recommend a few stories in this book, though there are several that I am ho-hum about and one that kind of makes me recoil. The non-fiction ones are the best: Lucky Break, A Piece of Cake and The Mildenhall Treasure. Even (or maybe especially) if you don't like Roald Dahl, you should read those because they're quite fascinating.
One of these days I'm going to start a blog post by saying "Here we are in Utah" but it's not quite time for that yet. Still, our return is starting to loom up on the horizon, and we have just under two weeks left here. I wouldn't say the time has necessarily gone speeding by (or dragging by), but I'm still surprised that it's getting closer to that time.
But! It's not that time yet, and we had several adventures this week. Let's get down to business.
Last week we went to see Into the Woods at Regent's Park, but the show was rained out before it could start. This past Tuesday we made a second attempt, and we made it about 15 minutes into act 2 when it started to drizzle. Drizzle turned into a downpour and back home we went. Some might describe it as "agony."
We took the next night off, but on Thursday after another stop at Harrod's we went back to try to catch the second act. After a lot of poking around the closed up entrances, a kindly usher took pity on us and let us in during intermission. It drizzled the entire act, but we made it through at last!
On Friday we had an ice cream party with Caity and Friends. The ice cream here is delicious. I probably shouldn't say how many cartons we've gone through in the last few weeks, but I will say that we bought two more tonight (2 for 3 pounds! How can we resist?). Also, Friends is on here for hours at a time, on two different channels, so we've watched quite a lot of it. Good times.
Saturday started out with a run, then our first foray into Portobello Road, which was a kind of pleasant insanity. We came out of it with just some pastries, a giant hot dog and some peaches that went bad way too soon. Also, we may not be able to complain about Walmart crowds ever again.
We had plans to go to St. Paul's and then meet some visiting friends for dinner and Phantom of the Opera. When we got back from the market, we picked up our newly-arrived theatre tickets and...realized they were for the matinee show, which started in 15 minutes. So...no St. Paul's for us as we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to contact the 24 hour customer service people (no go) and hunt for more tickets in Piccadilly. The end result is that we found four more tickets, though in two different places, and we met up with Liza and Kent no problem. Unfortunately we have not a single picture of them until they send us their pictures.
Speaking of Phantom of the Opera, we saw it from our spots in the very back row of the whole theatre, but it wasn't as bad a view as it sounds. The cast was kind of so-so, but they probably would have sounded better if the orchestra hadn't been racing for the finish line. We both agreed that the show could use a little updating in the costumes and effects. Shooting "fireballs" from a staff are just not as impressive as they were in the 80s.
On Sunday we went to Kew Gardens and explored them for about 5 hours. It was overcast the whole time, but it never rained and we saw many exciting plants and trees. We also saw this little friend:
He was just running about the greenhouse, and then he stayed put for about ten people to pet him and take pictures. He was an unexpected highlight, but there were many other lovely sights to see.
We wrapped up our weekend with pizza, more ice cream and Project Runway. We just love a good old fashioned pizza party.
And thus was our week. We are coming to the end of our to-do list, and we're steadily checking things off. Next weekend is still an enigma. Will we go to York? Or Brighton? Will we just stay in and watch Dear John? Only this weekend knows for sure!
Mr. Graham and I have a lot in common, which is a good thing for our well being(s), but there are some ways that we are pretty different. Some of these differences are super, super crucial. Like the way we dispose of our Starburst wrappers.
Mr. Graham's way: My way: We did, however, both agree that the Starbursts were delicious. Phew!
Guess what happened a year ago yesterday? This! Can you believe it's been a year already? The time really started to speed up about June and now I can't believe it's already been August 15th and all. Now we can say that this time last year we were already married!
You all know this isn't a gooey blog so I won't be gooey now. But I am going to list a few things I have been liking about Mr. Graham in particular the last few days.
His eye crinkles when he smiles.
The fact that he will drag all the heaviest luggage around, up and down hills with nary a complaint.
The way he sings Yankee Doodle Dandy in his sleep or says things like "Trouble is my middle name."
(I call this my KStew face.)
(Have you seen it yet?)
