My Life in London: Chock-a-block full of fun

The past two weeks have been a bit slow but now that I look back on it, I’ve done quite a bit! So here I go….

The day mom and Madison left was a bit sad so I am glad that I made plans for that night with my friend Laura and a bunch of other Canadians. We ended up at a Venetian restaurant called 2 Veneti where the menu is distinctly regional and there were no prices. Yes my friends, it was an expensive meal. That being said, the pricing structure was neat…one course cost £16, two cost £23, and so on and so forth…so if anything, it encouraged you not to eat the mixed salad but opt for things like sea bream and pasta with lamb…but the wine…oh the wine. YUM! Too pricy though so I doubt I'll be back.

Monday night was wing night at the Maple Leaf where I (finally) met a fellow Calgarian. It was funny because she asked where I worked, and I told her, and she nodded and smiled and said oh, great. and I asked…is that an ‘oh great’ in politeness or do you actually know the company. Turns out she’s a geologist…so ya, she knows our company well. ha ha.

The Wednesday (15th) brought me to the company’s annual pub quiz where my team (Dumbing it Down so you can look good – great name no?) were complete rubbish in the knowledge department (we came 14 out of 15), but we did great in the drinking department. Lots of fun! Funnily enough, I said to the team that when it comes to sports, if the answers are ‘Chelsea or Jose Mourinho, I’ve got it’ but turns out, when shown a picture of jose as a young man…I was stumped. How could I let them down? Don’t worry, I got over it quite quickly.

Saturday was the best weather we had seen yet so Bim and I went to Regent’s Park where we had an amazing picnic with a bottle of wine, which quickly resulted into an afternoon nap in the sun. Luckily enough I woke up before the sunburn happened. But I was so glad to get some colour…the lack of sunlight here is shocking and I’ve never been this white in my life. I’m practically transparent.

On the 18th, Laura and I head over to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in celebration of Will Shakespeare’s birthday…or at least the best guess to when that date was. He was baptised on the 26th and the actual date of birth is unknown. It was real cool to be there and I got to go on stage as well (the world is a stage, and we are merely players). I picked up some tickets for A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and that Scottish play… I don’t think I’ve ever seen Macbeth on stage so it will be good to see it. We went for the ‘posh’ seats, and I plan on booking a cushion cuz I’ll be damned if my butt falls asleep during these long plays. I’m going with my friend Chris Loach who’s coming to visit in May while his lovely wife is directing a play in Edinburgh. FUN!

My friend Chris (different Chris…ya I know a lot of them) and I ignored the bad reviews and decided to check out Clash of the Titans. Wow…terrible movie and I know I’ll pass along the same bad reviews but please listen to me. I beg and plead for you not to go. The only homage paid to the original was the mechanical owl Bubo…and it was no more than an afterthought really. And well, Ralph Fiennes had to do a weak and tired Hades, and his voice…well, it was reminiscent of Voldemort, circa Goblet of Fire. Such a pity. The best part of the night came in the form of a caramel crunch from Haagen Daz for dinner. I needed 2 lactose pills for that puppy!

I got some great news the next day from my darlin’ P3…she and Ryan are tying the knot! David and I are so proud…our children…we would like to take the time to take credit for getting the two of them together. That’s one wedding I won’t miss.

I have to say though that this past weekend was by far the best in a long while. Friday morning, Hoho and I went to Smithfield Market where we bought half a cow (rib eyes), a few lambs worth of chops and about a gazillion venison/red wine and chorizo sausages. Talk about meat fest! Thing is, we had to do this really early as the market is open from 2 – 8 am…ya, you read that right…AM. So we went there bright and early and while I went on to work, Hoho brought the fixings to his house for Saturday’s use.

Later that night Chris (of clash of the titans) and I redeemed ourselves by going to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers at the Royal Albert Hall. The London Philharmonic Orchestra played the music live to the movie while it played. It was funny cuz I was so enraptured by the orchestra that most of the time, I forgot to watch the film, but I did see my fave parts (Legolas, what do your elf eyes see?). And in our glory, when we were giving the symphony the standing O (of which they whole heartedly deserved), the conductor came on for his second bow and brought Howard Shore with him…. We just about died. The composer himself! That good feeling took me through the weekend. I thought of Brandy...wished she could have been there too.

The next morning was the return of Dee – my flatmate that moved back to Ireland. She came for a visit and I was so very happy to see her. Wow do we ever miss eachother! We went to Coco Momo straight away for our fave breakfast of eggs benny and when she went shopping for clothes, I met up with the gang at Victoria Park for an afternoon in the sun. we played firsbee, walked around the park, saw the baby ducks…SO CUTE! Then we went to Hoho’s house where I got to butcher our slab of rib eye and slather it with some Montreal Steak Spice and some Diana’s Smoke BBQ sauce and believe it or not, we ate all of that meat but one tray of chops. I have a feeling we’d of eaten those too if we had remembered to cook them. We ate in rounds…amazing, but I skipped a couple of rounds because in all honestly, all I wanted was the fricking steak. De-lish!

Our dessert wasn’t ready in time unfortunately, so for dessert we opted for spray can whipped cream sprayed directly in the mouth. FUN! And Royston had the best playlist ever…for his somewhat recent 30th birthday (ok, a few years off) he had created a playlist of music from the past 30 years which quickly became everyone’s favourite play list…ever. Today, he’s burning us all a copy. Yay!

On Sunday, a very hungover Dee and I made our way to Tower Hill to watch our friend Hannah run the London Marathon (her first). We went to the Tower because you can see the 14th mile and if you cross the street, you can see the 23rd, so we saw her both times. I have to say…watching the marathon is so emotional. The runners have their names on their shirts and the crowds yell their names out in encouragement, yelling things like ‘great job, you can do it, keep going’ and the support is amazing. Its not very difficult for me to tear up continuously, and then to have someone you know run it is even more emotional. Our little Hannah, running for the British Heart foundation for her nephew Jack who had heart surgery when he was just 1. What a great gal! We saw a few celebs running too like Princess Beatrice, Chappers and Richard Branson. We thought we saw Katie Price but we’re not so sure…don’t think she’d be allowed to run with that size of breast enhancement without doing some damage!