December 21st - December 27th

December 21st - December 27th

Sunday

Sunday was, per usual, productive.  Laundry, rearranging furniture, more planning for Tim's visit and looking into options for places to go and things to do.  I heard gas is $1.70!?!?!?  Incredible!

Monday

I got up around 6:30am, headed to Victoria Station to get a train to Gatwick Airport.  Tim's flight was supposed to come in around 9am.  He got in around 10am.  I was SO happy to see him.  I hadn't seen him since 4th of July weekend at Aunt Rita's.  We're pretty close, so only seeing him twice a year is rough.  I think I got like...four hours of sleep I was so excited :)

  

Gatwick Airport.

  

Look who I found!

  

Early morning journey to Paul's Bakery - so worth it!  I look massively tired.

Tim took a nap until about 3pm then we went to CSSD to print off the things we need Paris (vouchers, maps, itineraries, etc)...yeah I'm a little OCD about these things.  Then we went to Me Love Sushi for dinner.

  

Me Love Sushi

  

Don't mind the orange glow.  Focus on - delicious sushi :)

When we got back we decided that because it was so nice out we'd go explore Hyde Park.  Note: I spotted the ferris wheel on Saturday when we were riding back from the movies and knew that we were going to have to go.  I love ferris wheels.  Let me also bring attention to the fact that it was like 50 degrees out.  It was like we were going to a harvest fair for crying out loud.  Note: no jackets in these pictures.

  

Tim holding the ferris wheel (my brilliant idea...haha)

  

The ferris wheel and the lake in Hyde Park.

    

They don't have snow here for Christmas time...they have fun fairs...

  

Carousel time!!!

  

  

The song that was playing was Happy Christmas by Lennon.  Yes.

  

Not as big as the London Eye, but we figured we were working our way up.  

  

Loving it.

  

The view.

  

Happy!  And the sky looked incredible.

Tuesday

We had breakfast and then headed to Oxford Street to find Tim a snazzy outfit for New Years.  Mission accomplished.  On the way we enjoyed the mass chaos that is Oxford Street at Christmas time, and went to Chinatown for lunch.  

Steel drum band on Oxford Street.

Hanging out in Chinatown.

  

Happily awaiting Thai food.  Tim and I agree that I look really French in this picture, which made me very happy.  Paris here I come.

  

Can't remember the name of this place, but it was very atmospheric.

Oh my God, deliciousness.

  

When we got home we got a call from a couple crazies from Connecticut.  Do you recognize them?

Then after we chilled out for a bit we went to Ronnie Scotts which is this jazz bar and club (they're separate).  The house was full in the club so we went to the bar, which on Tuesdays has Indie Film night followed by live music.  Done.  We saw a couple short films then this band led by a guy named Oggie played for a few hours.  

  

In Soho going to Ronnie Scotts.

  

Yes, Tim is sitting in a leopard print chair.  

  

We had a lot of wine...  What - we're on holiday!  Also, this place apparently has a roof garden...

  

Inside Ronnie Scotts.

  

Christmas lights that were moving = artsy blurry shot.  Tim and I chillin at Ronnie Scotts.

Oggie covered two really awesome songs from my childhood: Rock With You by Michael Jackson (see below) and The Best Things In Life Are Free by Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross.

Rock With You (cover).

When we got home we decided to record a song...but I have no instruments here, so it's all vocals and percussion.  And by percussion I mean - sunflower seeds in a tupperware container.  It was a very, very late night with lots of giggling and late night snacking.  We recorded No One Does It Like You by an indie band Tim introduced me to called Department of Eagles.  The next posts will have the link to our myspace music page so you can hear them.

Sunflower seeds - the snack that doubles as percussion!

Wednesday

Christmas Eve!  We slept in really late.  One of the countless joys of having Tim around is that I can sleep as late as I want and we can eat whatever whenever.  I love being on holiday too.  So I decided we could get some sightseeing in so we got on the tube and headed to the Thames.  

  

This one's for you, Adrianne.

   

What's this building again?  I can't remember ;)  Tim and I in our somewhat matching Christmas outfits.  

  

Finding a stranger to take our picture and who can also speak English is a difficult task.

  

Dali sculptures outside County Hall.

  

Crossing over the Jubilee Bridge.

  

A great trio playing some Christmas tunes.

When we got back we finished packing for Brighton and went to the grocery store to pick up a few things before heading to Tara's for dinner.  I didn't take any pictures at Tara's because we were there for only an hour or so.  We had to catch a train around 8:45pm and we got there around 7pm so we had to leave at 8pm.  Tara's family and friends were really lovely.  She and I had a nice chat about "the work" and teaching placements.  She made a non-traditional meal of Indian food and "real tortilla" (it's like a quiche but better).  

  

On the train to Brighton.  Listening to music and eating homemade mince pies.

When we got in to Nia's flat we found a note with phone numbers on it and....drum roll, please - an 8 lb turkey!  I admit, I was kind of freaking out when I saw it as I have never cooked a turkey in my life.  Luckily I came to find out that it is not a complicated task.  We watched a movie called Sunshine which I'd never seen before but enjoyed despite the suspense (not a fan of horror/suspense movies).  Nia has like - four guitars and a grand piano so we were very, very happy to be there for four days.  We recorded a song by Sufjan Stevens called Springfield or Bobby Got A Shadfly Caught In His Hair.  Also to be posted on the myspace page.   

Thursday

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  We got up and had croissants for breakfast, then we opened our presents, granted all we had was candy and cookies, but the joy of opening presents is the important part I guess.  Honestly though, having Tim here and being in Brighton on Christmas Day was present enough.  Tim's mom sent him with stockings for us (completely filled with candy.)  My parents' friends and our former neighbors who now live in Alabama mailed us cookies which we brought with us to enjoy.  

  

The before and after.

  

Opening presents (read: candy).

  

Christmas attire: bright green shirt, bright red pants.  Well done, Tim :)

  

I introduced Tim to White Christmas, a necessity on December 25th.  Can't live without it.  Yes, we improvised the snow by having the TV on "snow" all day :)

I decided around 1pm that it was time for turkey and Tim read the directions while I prepared the food.  He also entertained while I cooked.  

  

Shock and amazement at the massive turkey.  Tim entertained while I prepared the food.

Hello 8 lb. turkey!

Tim taking a nap while I finished prepping Christmas dinner.

  

Yum!

After dinner we watched A Scanner Darkly, although not very Christmas-y, was very good.  Then we recorded song number two - Come on!  Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance! by Sufjan Stevens (our Christmas song of choice) which was a lot of fun.  We also recorded a song Tim had started writing on piano.  He taught it to me and then improvised over it.  It was a lot of fun because I can't play any instrument other than the guitar.  

  

Please note that Tim is playing a cheese grater with a spoon.  I played the sunflower seeds-in-tupperware (not shown).  We'd like to think we're inventive.  It went like this:

Me: "What's next?"

Tim: "Percussion."

Me: "Well let's go to the kitchen then."

  

I guess you could say we were jamming :)

  

Nia also has a mini accordion and an array of small guitars and ukuleles.  Tim went to town, obviously :)

He's so focused, haha.  I wasn't able to catch him saying "This is really hard" at the end.  I tried it after him and believe me, it's REALLY hard.

Friday

Boxing Day is still somewhat of a mystery to me.  Sure, we all want an extra day off around Christmas time, but really?  Boxing Day?  What's it really for?  I knew we wouldn't be able to get in a day at the lanes on Saturday because we were leaving around noon and not only could neither of us get up that early on holiday, the stores wouldn't be open til around 9am or 10am anyway.  So, knowing that some stores may not be open, we went anyway.  I wanted him to see the center of town and the lights and the pier.  All of which were just gorgeous.  

  

The lanes, well lane (singular).  Tim and I freezing on the beach.

  

We missed the actual sunset but it was gorgeous nonetheless.

     

Tim snapped a pic of me walking on the beach (note: no sand, only rocks) which came out pretty cool.  Tim also was asked to snap a picture of strangers.  We've got friendly American faces, what can we say?

  

The timer on my camera comes in handy in times like these.  I really love this picture.  And more of the sun going down.

  

All of the rides were working but it was SO cold out.  The second one is the craziest ride ever, right at the end of the pier...

  

More of the end of the pier.

  

Gotta get the funny pic in.  Walking back to catch the bus.

When we got home we recorded Sleep by Copeland, Boy With A Coin by Iron & Wine and Passing Afternoon also by Iron & Wine.  Note: you should most definitely listen to the originals of these songs first.  Tim was tinkering around with the piano, playing a song that he'd written

Then Tim started playing a familiar chord progression, and I was like, "What is that?"  He started singing it and we both laughed.  It was Your Love by The Outfield circa 1985 (read: we weren't even born then!)  If you don't recognize this song by the title then watch this video.  The video alone is hilarious.  I was so excited to do this song that we started to record the guitar parts - but it was like 2am and we weren't really conscious of this.  Knock at the door.  Shite.  Turns out we woke up the woman in the flat next to Nia's and although the lady was really super nice about it, we felt bad and decided to chill out for the rest of the night.  Haha...

  

Listening back endlessly to the recording of the untitled song and improvising on top of it.  Song writing can be exhausting, clearly.  Tim was trying to figure out the chords for some song that we didn't end up doing.

Saturday

I got up early to fetch eggs and croissants, as well as a present for Nia and Miltos.  My throat was sore which I thought was from the wine, but in the following days I come to find that I am legitimately ill.  Probably because the weather changed very quickly from nice to freezing.  

Then I made breakfast and woke Tim up.  We showered, packed and I finished cleaning up the flat, then we headed out around noon and caught a train 20 minutes later.  On the train we edited the songs (Garage Band is becoming less of a mystery to me) as we added effects on the vocals or percussion to make them sound a little more like the originals (especially the vocals on Boy with A Coin by Iron & Wine) and the "uno, dos, tres, cuatros" on Come on! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance! which has a little "elf voice" in the very beginning.  When satisfied with the tracks we listened to all six of the tracks we'd recorded, laughing at the bits where we know we messed up, then smiling and nodding at the bits that sounded really good.  We were generally pretty satisfied with the overall outcome of the recordings.  Six songs in four days - not bad :)

On the train.

When we got home we took a little nap, then got ready to go to this art house cinema in Hammersmith called Riverside Studios.  I'd gotten us tickets to see a double feature of two Coen brothers' films: The Big Lebowski and Burn After Reading.  I'd seen the former but not the latter and Tim hadn't seen either one.  We packed up some of the candy we had to munch on, and got sandwiches from Pret a Manger to eat on the way.  The trip - in total took almost an hour, but it was only two transfers on the tube and definitely worth it.  

In between the first and second film we had about 20 minutes to kill, and we both - instinctively - decided to play the piano that was sitting down front all lonely and old and unplayed.  

  

We entertained the audience with the song-in-progress and also a little Sufjan Stevens.

We got home around 11pm and watched another Coen brothers' film - No Country for Old Men which was another suspenseful movie that had me wriggling in my seat.  Tim always laughs at me when I can't keep still in suspenseful moments.  I forget it's just a movie, sometimes :)

Here are some pics of Hawaii that Dad sent me:

View from the room.

  

Oahu.  Must be nice...:)

That's all for now...much, much more to come as Paris is just days away!