Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I just love winter in London. Oh I know, it's cold, gloomy, gets dark ridiculously early and rains a lot - but there's such a charm about the city when its a cold, dark night, wandering around the brightly lit up shops, seeing the Christmas shoppers scurrying past with their purchases, anxious to get indoors and out of the cold. That's when all those old carols about 'chestnuts roasting on an open fire', or 'city sidewalks dressed in holiday style',all 'in the bleak midwinter' - that's when they make sense. And there really were street vendors roasting chestnuts - yum! Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't actually like to spend the whole of Christmas here (I mean, I have done that, but Christmas is for family, which is why I will always go home for it), however there is still a certain magic in the air when wandering the stores of London at Christmastime.

This was brought home to me tonight, as I found myself driving along the beautifully lit King's Road en route to the lovely Knightsbridge. This trip was made in honour of a certain new niece, as I was making my way up to a certain exclusive Department Store to procure that most elusive of gifts an Aunty living in London should give her gorgeous new niece - a 'My First Harrods Bear'.
Now can I just say, these things have been sold out for months! I've been trying to get one ever since I knew young Bethany was on her way - phoning up to see if they're in stock, each time being told they're still sold out. Finally, today, when I phoned up - they informed me there was ONLY ONE left. They reluctantly agreed to put it away for me on the proviso that I picked it up before close of sale today - 8pm. So, I drop everything, jump in the car (its too cold for the bus, honestly) and rush off to Harrods.

Finding a place to park in Knightsbridge is no mean feat. Normally I park at the Brompton Oratory (albeit illegally), as the Traffic Hitlers don't seem to check there - but tonight it was full. Fortunately Holy Trinity Brompton church came to the rescue, and I parked quite happily in their grounds before making the actually very pleasant short stroll in 6 degree temperatures up to Harrods. Oh my, the Christmas lights and the storefront decorations on Brompton Road just took my breath away!

But it was the decorations in Harrods itself that won the prize. Gorgeous storefront decorations, glorious Christmas scenes, expensive jewellery draped everywhere glittering like tinsel, - oh it was beautiful. Wandering around the store, with the glamorous decorations, was like walking in a winter wonderland. And the price! Way above my budget, I can tell you.... Not to mention the wonderful food in their food halls - rich Christmas puddings, chocolates to die for, and the entrancing smells of the Harrods Christmas coffee (a personal favourite of mine). Then there was their 'regular' items. Amethyst stone carvings at £900, a mammoth tusk for £2000 - an 'Armani Junior' t-shirt (T-SHIRT, I TELL YOU) for £70 - oh the lifestyles of the rich and famous... oh to have that sort of money...

About the only thing I could actually afford was my Bethany's bear... and some Wensleydale cheese for Mum... oh and some Krispy Kreme donuts coupled with a Starbucks Eggnog latte... not a bad evening's shopping after all...

If It's Summer in Australia, It Must Be....

I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! Yay, my favourite show is back! And with some weirdo "celebs" too... I put 'celebs' in inverted commas because, other than Cerys Matthews, Janice Dickinson and Katie Hopkins, I had never ever heard of ANY of them! Since when does a football pundit or a PR guru constitute a celebrity? But either way, it's the best in reality tv, so BRING IT ON! For more info, check out: I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!

'Allo 'Allo

Last Saturday, on a not so fine day, 13 ladies from Sutton Salvation Army took the plunge, jumped in 3 cars, and ventured into the great unknown which is the Eurotunnel. Yes, it was the Sutton SA Ladies Day Trip to France... And what a day it was! Ridiculously early start (due to the proximity (or lack thereof) of Sutton to Folkestone) - we met at the Hall at 7.45am with the intention of setting off at 8.00am. And we very nearly did it too, except me being the natural born teacher I am, at the last minute announced, "Now we all have our passports, don't we?" to discover that 2 of our number did not. Fortunately they live very close to the Hall, so it was a quick dash home and then off we went. We made good time down to Folkestone too, just under an hour and a half, and we raced into the terminal for a quick cuppa. It was at this point that one of the ladies (of the forgotten passport fame) discovered that her passport had expired some 11 months earlier! Oh no... Fortunately we had a chat with the Eurotunnel people, and apparently this is a common occurence. They thought that the customs people either wouldn't notice the date in her passport, or wouldn't care about it - so we crossed our fingers and decided to go for it. Some security hey, she made it. And actually the only car that had any sort of delay with passports, well, was mine - with the only non EU passport (that would be mine too). I encountered a bit of questioning by the Pommy customs dude upon re-entry to the UK. Anyway, I digress. We got our train to Calais, but unfortunately got split up, and were all in 3 separate carriages (although Ira and I were in adjacent ones, but Vanessa was in the same carriage as us but on the underneath level). I thought this would pose problems upon exit at Calais, but amazingly, Vanessa came out of the train and pretty much the exact time we did, so we travelled in convoy to Wissant for a spot of lunch. Now I was only in Wissant a few weeks ago, but the change was amazing. There's been a lot of rain by the channel, and the beach in Wissant was practically non-existent, with the tide being right in (and quite ferocious, at that). It was extremely windy there too, so we didn't dally there long, but made our way into town for a spot of lunch. Yum! After lunch it was time to head back to Cite Europe to accomplish our main objective of the day - SHOPPING!!! Oh boy, did some of us shop, too! Me, I was a bit careful about my spending, and really only bought presents for people or a spot of cheese for me (oh and some more sephora, I mean, hey, a girl can never have too much - AND it was 20% off too!). We arranged to meet at the food court for a crepe and a coffee before getting the train back to the UK - but as we were waiting for our food, we suddenly became aware of a loud, incessant beeping noise, followed by an announcement in French. Looking around us, none of the other diners seemed too perturbed by this - nor the waiters for that matter - and so we asked one of the waiters what was going on. "Oh, it is as you say, a fire alarm. Ze are evacuating people." What? So we made our way to our cars - only to realise that we were all parked in different locations, and there was the hugest of queues exiting the car park - and our train was leaving in 20 minutes! Suffice to say that we missed our train, and in fact, 2 of us made it onto the same train, and Ira ended up on the train behind us. We waited for her in Folkestone before we all journeyed in convoy back to Sutton. What a day, hey?

Robin Hood, Maid Marian - and The Nottingham Belfry Hotel

Hi all, This won't be a blog of my usual standard, sorry, but that's for two reasons. 1. I'm very busy at the moment - more on that later. 2. I don't think anyone is actually reading this anymore. No comments have been coming through.

I wonder if I should take the hint therefore? Shut down the blog? But I really enjoy doing it...

Anyway, this week I have been in Nottingham for a 2 day Music Specialist Colleges Conference (yes, important individual that I am). I got to live in the lap of 4 star luxury for 2 days (well, 1 night - school wouldn't pay for my accommodation the night before the conference started - even though I argued it was better to go the night before and therefore not be at the mercy of British Rail very early in the morning to try to ensure being on time - and not to mention that the train ticket the night before was cheaper... so I had to foot that cost myself in a crappy hotel in downtown Nottingham!)

But the Nottingham Belfry hotel is very lovely, I had a huge room and it was really luxurious (for a lowly teacher like me) and the conference was very informative. Heard a really good choir today, Madrigalis from the Northampton School for Girls - they were quality. Learned about all sorts of wierd and wonderful web things that I didn't really know much about before but which make me sound like I'm speaking Chinese or something - wikis, nings and so on - heard some very inspirational speakers (Howard Goodall and Richard Stilgoe to name two) and some not so inspirational speakers (a lesson in how not to present a workshop to delegates paying £395 a head!). But all that being said, it was really a very enjoyable, informative two days.

Alas now its back to the rat race, with Awards evening tomorrow night, full day of teaching on Friday (alas!) and then! A lovely day trip to France with the Sutton ladies...

Meanwhile, check out my lovely room with the plasma screen TV...thank you very much....

Welcome To The World - Bethany Grace Goff

I just had to post these pictures of my new niece, Bethany Grace Goff, born 30th October 2007, weighing in at 7lbs 13 or something. What a little honey!

If You're British, Join The Queue!

The Brits, well, they love their queues. I don't mean in a plutonic sort of way, no, seriously man, they LOVE their queues. Anywhere, anyhow they can get them, they'll get in a queue. Wanna buy a chocolate? Join the queue. Wanna get on the bus? Join the queue. Wanna get on the tube? Join the queue... So today, still being half term, I decided to go up town to the Natural History Museum. I've never been there, and I have to say, it was really good. Actually I need to go again, because I really didn't see all of it the first time. Why? Because of the queues... There was a queue to go in. A queue to buy tickets to the special displays (one showing the winners and runners up in the Wildlife Photography of the Year, one about Antarctica). A queue to get coffee. A queue for the loo. And the biggest, hugest, longest (45 minute!) queue to see the Dinosaurs... no wonder I didn't get to see it all! I did see the Wildlife Photography display, this was incredible. There were some absolutely amazing photos - like the one of a cheetah in the Serengeti - where you could see the car the photographer was in reflected in the eyes of the cheetah - or the one of the penguin jumping out of the water, or the shark jumping out of the water... the pictures were incredible. I also went to the "Antarctic" special display, but was rather disappointed in this, as although the woman selling me the ticket assured me it was for adults too, alas, it was mostly a child's thing. Lot's of interactive displays that you had no chance of looking at for the minions of kids already on them. Oh well. After this, I headed into Oxford Street, because today they were launching the new Mac OS - Leopard. I found out yesterday I'm eligible for the upgrade for free (well, nearly free - I have to pay p&p on the disk as I have to buy it online) because my Mac arrived after 1st October. So, I thought I would go up and have a bit of a look at the Launch, as I would like to see what the changes are in the OS. Seriously, that was a stupid thing to do. First of all, I got the tube from South Kensington to Oxford St, and upon arrival, discovered that I couldn't leave the tube - because they were holding people back on the pavement due to congestion. So we had to queue to leave the tube... and fight the crowds on Oxford St... just to leave the station. I then made my way around the corner towards the Apple shop - to be confronted by the longest queue I have seen in a while (barring the Wimbledon queue, of course!) - it was snaking right around the block and almost back double on itself! I should've given up then, but decided, as I didn't have anything else to do today, I would stay and see what it's all about. I'm glad I did, it was very interesting and can't wait for my copy of Leopard to arrive - although with the ongoing postal strikes, goodness only knows when that will be...

Swimming With Sharks!

No, this isn't going to be a post about swimming with the Wobbegong at the Tangalooma wrecks, sorry to disappoint. Instead, its a post about the recent play I went to see, "Swimming with Sharks", starring Christian Slater, and currently playing at the Vaudeville Theatre, Strand. Also starring Helen Baxendale, a.k.a Ross' British wife "Emily" from Friends.

I managed to get cheap tickets to the Thursday matinee for this from lastminute.com, for £18.75. I thought that was pretty good because they're normally £30+. I decided though to go by myself as its half term holiday and many of my friends have gone away, plus I really wanted to see this play. The play is about a movie producer called Buddy Ackerman (played by Christian Slater, who was absolutely excellent) who is basically the boss from hell. He has a new assistant, Guy, who is an aspiring screenwriter, and the play centres around Guy's rise up the career ladder. It has a dark twist at the end, and the script is really captivating and enthralling.

As I said, I went to see this one by myself, and when I arrived at the theatre I discovered that all holders of 'Upper Circle' tickets were immediately upgraded to the 'Dress Circle' - and could choose a seat in rows F or G. I sat down and not long after, a Kiwi girl sat down a few seats away from me, also on her own. She was quite a talkative sort, and I enjoyed a very pleasant chat with her, although I was very peeved to find that she couldn't pick my accent (aw - come on - seriously!) although I could pick hers straightaway (like that's hard with Kiwi accents) and also she had rather an unfortunate laugh, and insisted on laughing throughout the whole play. Now I might just add at this point - it's not a comedy...

Anyway, it was a very enjoyable afternoon and a very pleasant play. Both Christian Slater and Helen Baxendale were absolutely amazing, and the set was incredible too - very versatile. A lovely afternoon, after all...

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life!

This week is half term from school, and surprisingly, I haven't gone away anywhere. This is not for want of trying, mind, but I wasn't really able to get my 'a' into gear, and so my various plans fell thorough. Originally I wanted to go to the Yorkshire Dales and hike the Dales Way - a 6 or 9 day 100 mile hike (depending on how hard you wanted to go each day) - but I didn't manage to sort out my accommodation or transport properly, and so that trip didn't happen. This puts me in the unusual position of being on holiday but still in London. What am I to do?

Well, rather than be depressed about it, I decided I would 'always look on the bright side of life' and make the most of it, so yesterday I started my Christmas shopping. Took myself off to Knightsbridge and had a wander around the shops. I have discovered the 137 bus takes me direct there, from the end of my road - pretty good eh, when you consider Mayor Ken has just recently put down the cost of a bus ride if you use your Oyster card - from £1.00 to £0.90 - if you don't have an Oyster it costs you an exhorbitant £2.00!

Anyway, wandered around the shops, had a lovely afternoon tea (yummy New York cheesecake and Cafe Latte) at Harrods, then moseyed on back to Chateau La Streatham.

Today I messed around doing some housey type stuff in the morning, then got my favourite 159 bus up to town to meet friends for coffee and to go to the National Portrait Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery really was quite interesting, they have portraits of so many different famous people, but my favourites were:

• The Tudor gallery - really liked the pics of Walsingham, Sir Frances Drake and of course Elizabeth I.
• The pics of Joseph Banks and Captain Cook (hey what Aussie wouldn't be interested in those) - oh and of Governor Philips too
• The pics of Diana, Princess of Wales
• The Warhols - especially Elizabeth II.

Anyway, after this we went for dinner at Satsumas before heading off to see a show. We'd been to the half price booths and managed to get tickets to "Spamalot" for £18 - much reduced from the £30 so-called 'half price' tickets that were being offered by the 'official' half price booth!

The show was amazing! The special effects were really quite spectacular considering they were being done live on a stage, the singing was very good (the Woman in the Lake though was the best, just amazing - such a tonal range she had!), the story captivating - but for me the best part was that the actor playing "King Arthur" was none other than Peter Davidson. Ok, now I'm sure you're sitting there going - who? But if I tell you that he was one of the old Doctor Who's - you might get it - but if you're from my family and I tell you that he was Tristan in "All Creatures Great and Small" - ah, there you go! His singing, to be fair, was pretty pov, but his comic timing and general performance was excellent.

I had a bit of a look on you tube for some clips, but all I could find was one from the Tony Awards, and one about the World Record attempt they did recently for the largest coconut orchestra, where they packed out Trafalgar Square on St George's day with people playing coconuts to "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life". Here they are:





Shame the dudes around the camera person are rubbish singers!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the evening, it was awesome, such an enjoyable show, such clever music, such a funny script. Quality...

Rendition

Tonight Jane, Nic and I went to see "Rendition". We decided to brave the local Odeon here in Streatham, despite our better judgement (remember last time I went to the Odeon with Jane she had to get a woman chucked out because her child wouldn't be quiet). Suffice to say the Streatham population again didn't disappoint, and although they weren't bad enough to warrant calling for the manager, they were disruptive. I just don't get it. Why pay £7 to 'not see' a movie, and be disruptive and noisy? Can't you do that at home for free? Anyway, I thought the film was very good, much better than "The Kingdom" (although to be honest, that wouldn't be hard). The plot was excellent, there was a bit of a twist to it all (always a good thing I think) and the acting pretty good - I particularly liked Reese Witherspoon's and Meryl Streep's performances, although I thought Jake Gyllenhaal was pretty ordinary. I have never seen any of his films and I don't really know, judging from this one, what all the fuss is about. He was watchable, I guess. At least there was enough in the plot to keep you going, rather than focussing on his average performance. So on the kmuki 'film-o-metre', I'd give this one about a 7, and "The Kingdom" about a 3. If you're wanting a film about Islamic extremists, go for "Rendition" - steer well clear of "The Kingdom" unless you want headaches and a bit of a snooze.

The Kingdom

So on Friday night I went to see "The Kingdom" starring Jamie Foxx. Now to be honest, I haven't actually seen any films of his, so I wasn't really sure what to expect, but hey, it's half term and I haven't been to the movies for a while, and the synopis looked kind of interesting. Yeah, in a back of the eyelids sort of way. Don't go see this film if you are susceptible to epileptic fits. Ok, I know epileptics are affected by flashing lights, and there weren't any in this film, so I'm being facetious, but seriously, the whole film was shot by some guy using a handheld on the back of a moving vehicle who had never heard of a tripod. I mean, really! I had a major headache by the end. I don't know how they think that style of shooting is acceptable, I'm surprised that they haven't been sued by migraine sufferers or something! And as for Jamie Foxx? Well I don't get what all the fuss is about, actually. Cute factor = 0, acting ability = maybe 4 or 5... and there is really not much else to say about him. Jason Bateman was alright, I guess, but that was about it. Do yourself a favour, give this one a miss!