Monday, May 11, 2009

London!!!

So...I've just taken my first English final, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. That being said, it wasn't exactly a fun experience, either. I wrote 14 pages over 3 hours and my hand is threatning to fall off. Three to go. But you're probably curious about what I did in London this weekend, and not about my Brit/Goth Lit final. Can't blame you.

I headed out Friday morning and was in London by noon, and checked into the hotel and wearing my tourist clothes by 1. First stop was iKnit, because Nadia had requested some needles...which they don't carry. I was really hoping to find some of those too, and I was so dissapointed I bought yarn instead. I've been buying stuff that I've never seen before in hopes of...having something that the other shops don't. The pink and green stuff is called Easy Knits Bamboo Mix, and it's knitting up wonderfully. The colorway, only available at iKnit, is "Enough is Enough"...which to me sounds more like various shades of screaming red, and not a springy green and pink. The pre-balled yarn is a German yarn called Schoppel Wolle Zauberball and it's so pretty it might take me years to get around to knitting it. The colours are awesome...I must get some more.
Next stop was Harrods to get some Very British Blog Prizes that I didn't pay up on over Easter Break. They're coming girlies...just a little while longer! So far I've got one for Laurie, Janet and Jaclyn, if I'm forgetting someone, let me know! They're just little presents, because let's face it, students=broke. I looked at shoes at Harrods because they're my weakness, but didn't buy any. I need to go shoe shopping today though, my excersize kick has left me in need of new tennis shoes as I wore through my Sketchers. I've started buying all my assigned reading in Audiobooks (and bought Sookie on Audiobook and will wait until the paperback comes out to read it again) and I've been able to listen and walk (or listen and knit when it's dark or cold out) and have lost nearly 8 lbs so far! Anyhoo...back to London.

Next stop was Fulham Broadway to hit up the Chelsea stadium for a graduation present for Skippy. I didn't find anything that he would like (that I was willing to pay for) so I kept walking and headed down to Socktopus in search for a US4 circular needle for my Noro Swallowtail (they only had them in Addi Turbos in iKnit and I just don't want to pay that much for a needle) and got to Socktopus and found this:
Dang. By that time my dad had arrived in London and was headed to the hotel. I decided to go back and get ready so we wouldn't miss the show, I booked us tickets to see Chicago. It was okay. I loved the movie and the soundtrack, so I guess I had expected more from the show. It was still good, but we should have gone to see something else. On the way back to the hotel, I got some quick shots of Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye. Then we got ready, had a curry for dinner and headed to the show. I hadn't slept well the night before so I was ready to call it a night, but Dad insisted we go to a proper pub for a proper pint, so we did. Then we called it a night.
The next morning we went to the World War II museum thing where Churchill and the gang did all of their planning. It was mostly underground and it had been closed off after WWII and reopened in the late 80's by Maggie Thatcher. It was really cool. I didn't get any pictures though. We had to walk back quite quickly, there was a parade or something getting ready to start and we didn't want to be stuck in the middle of it, so we nearly ran back to the hotel, but stopped for a couple photo ops on the Millenium Bridge and the road next to the County Hall (where we stayed). We saw fire eaters, sword swallowers, musicians, human statues, Captain Jack Sparrow and a mermaid knitting her own hair. This might have been the first time on record that I went anywhere without my knitting, and when we saw her I reached for the Noro Swallowtail but then, panic-sticken, remembered that I'd left it in the room! NOOOO!!!!! So she lent me one of her strands of hair to knit for the picture.


After that we got on the train at King's Cross and headed to St. Neots to visit Alex and Marylyn for the day. We ate and drank entirely too much, and I think I put on every ounce I had lost over 24 hours. Not pretty. I headed back to Colchester yesterday evening and Dad went on to Paris for work. I'm really glad he came and got me out of Colchester for the weekend. I'm really glad that the rest of the family will be coming over with him in a couple weeks. Yay!
So that's about it. I'm going to head to town with Wuthering Heights on my Ipod in search of a charity shop to drop off my too-small clothes and books from Gothic Lit and still in search of a US 4 circular needle. Then I can finally get back to work on the Swallowtail.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Looks like you had fab fun with your dad! YAY! Glad you had a great weekend! Just what you needed to re-energize yourself for the rest of your finals!