The Imries in London would like to wish all of you a very happy new year, and a prosperous 2014. We hope that you all brought in the new calendar with style and flair! We managed to stay awake past midnight ourselves; we watched some good TV, a classic movie in Revenge of the Nerds, and then watched the fireworks that London does at the South bank. What a spectacle it was! It was amazing! It was not the record setting amount of fireworks that they set off from the Burj Kalifa in Dubai, but it was the first time they had ever piped in smells for the crowd with flavoured confetti! One year, Sarah and I will make down there to see it in person ... but in the meantime, you can watch it here.
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This weekend the Imrie family went out to once more take in Christmas around London. We love the lights and spirit that invade the city this time of year, and we love to see the spectacle that is put on around all the different areas of the city. We started our tour by exiting the tube at Oxford Circus and taking a stroll down Regent Street. It was crowded as ever! You could barely walk faster than one step every three seconds or so; the sidewalk was so crowded that the famous Hamley's toy store had security guards out, and they had even cordoned off a section of the road so that customers could queue without being on the sidewalk itself! How nuts is that! We saw the display of lights hanging over the street and singing the song of the Twelve Days of Christmas. We then took a slight detour and arrived at Trafalgar Square by way of Haymarket Street. At Trafalgar Square was the Christmas tree from the Norwegians, decorated as beautifully as ever and swaying in the wind. This year we arrived early enough in the evening to see and hear the Christmas carollers that are there each night, and we enjoyed some of their wonderfully genuine, festive, off-key and joyous singing.
From Trafalgar Square we headed out via Piccadilly Circus; we stopped to take in the wonderful scene that Westminster Council had created - the statue of Anteros was encircled as if in a giant snow globe! It was a great site to behold, and we were caught off guard! From there is was down the Strand and then up to Covent Garden. When we arrived we enjoyed the chance to slow down some, and we took our time revelling in the spirit of another giant tree, and another huge snow globe, this time filled with a Lego scene of London! Head to the pictures page to get an idea of Christmas in London! A quick congratulations to Matt & Liz who got married last week. Sarah and I went to the lovely St Michael's Abbey in Farnborough and watched as the two said their vows. We had a great time at the ceremony, a lovely Catholic affair performed in Latin, which was something else to behold. (It was difficult to follow along in our program, but awesome to hear) The new Mr. & Mrs. Rose then hosted us for a wonderful reception, and we want to wish them both all the best. They are now on their honeymoon, and Matt will be shortly off to Thailand with work for the next 9 months! What an adventure!
Today was really a mixed bag for the Imries. Sarah and I watched an episode of Location, Location, Location last night (it's a real estate programme) and they were focused on finding the participants a flat in London (in an area not too far from us!). During a part of the show, the people looking for a flat had a cup of coffee with the estate agent at a cafe on the Thames, with Tower Bridge in the background, and HMS Belfast in the foreground. It got us both to thinking - "Hey, we live here in London - why don't we do things like that? We can go out in a cool city and have coffee while we look at views of the Shard, the Tower of London, and such." So that is exactly what we did today. We had an easy morning and then got ourselves bundled up and out the door for an afternoon of enjoying the Capital. We went down to the Thames and walked along from Waterloo to past Blackfriers bridge, to just about Southwark bridge. It was freezing cold today in the wind near the river, and Chris was pretty cold. By the time we found somewhere suitable for our "coffee shop with a view," we were all frozen to the core. But we did have our caffeine fix near the river - even if we didn't have too much of a view. From there we took a Thames Clippper riverboat service to Canary Wharf, where they were having an Ice Sculpting festival. The boat ride was Chris's first, and he quite liked it. But once we arrived at the Wharf, it was super cold again, and we walked all over the place trying to find the poorly-signed ice sculptures. We found only one, which was so-so, and decided that was enough exploring for one day. We took the warm Tube home, and ended our adventures! While we were out having our coffee, we were sending our thoughts west-ward towards my cousin Rob and his fiancee Bronwyn - today is their wedding day! Congratulations you two lovebirds! Here's to many glorious, happy, and fun-filled years ahead! Today also gets us just one day away from my mom arriving! We are very excited for Gayle to arrive and to visit with her over the next two weeks. I'm bummed that I'm off to the Netherlands on the day she arrives, so I'll miss saying hello until the day after she gets in, but Our New Year's Eve was another good one - a quiet one, but a good one. It's quite funny how your NYE changes when you have a kid sleeping upstairs, and you really, really, don't want him to wake up! Sarah & I, Matt & Liz spent a lazy morning around the house before heading into town to do a bit of shopping at St. David's Square, and then were back at the house for the early afternoon. Matt & I walked down to the local pub for a few pints and to meet a work colleague, and then we all had dinner back at the house. Sarah and I attempted to make poutine for them, and we got everything right except for the cheese. It's really impossible to have proper poutine in this country, and no matter how hard I looked, asked, and searched the internet, I could not find anyone who sold proper cheese curds. So we went with some cheddar chunks, and it was only OK. I might have to work on the recipe some more! When midnight rolled around, we were treated to an amazing fireworks display on the TV, direct from London, once again. It really was a great show, and you can watch it here! Today is the opening of the 2012 Summer Games, the Games of the XXX Olympiad, officially begin today. We haven't been too involved in any events around the city so far (haven't taken in the Torch Relay or gone to any cultural events), but we're excited nonetheless. The majority of news stories over here so far have been about transport woes and labour relations, but I think that once that Olympic flame gets lit, once the Games are officially underway, we'll be in for a great two weeks of national pride and sport! Sarah, Chris, and I will be sure to be cheering on Canada in all our events!
We had a great time last weekend, celebrating the nation's birthday in style in Trafalgar Square! There were lots of Albertan cowboy hats, some street hockey, and plenty of Molson Canadian and poutine for all who wanted it. We enjoyed the party, although through quite a mixture of weather - cloud, rain, and sun all at various times. Even Chris was decked out with his Canadian gear, as were his mom, dad, and granny. (Rosie unfortunately was out of luck as her wardrobe is rather limited) We met Perry and Anna there, and we all took in the Canadiana surrounding us. Then, later that evening Sarah and I went out to Leicester Square and went to a club to celebrate some more. It was great to have free babysitting (i.e., Debby) at home to watch over Chris, and we danced to the wee hours of the morning. When were on our way in were taken aback by all the celebrating Spaniards in the streets. Spain had, earlier that evening, won the Euro 2012 championships, and it seemed as though half the country had relocated to London for the celebration. It was a madhouse, but they were all very well behaved and just enjoying the fact that they had won their third championship! Well, again - Happy Canada Day to you all! The first weekend in June, London played host to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. A huge party over four days to mark Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne; the fact that Queen Elizabeth is the second longest-reigning British monarch in history. The period will very likely come to be known as the Elizabethan era! Now, the entire year has celebrations and events to mark the Jubilee; in February the Queen made Greenwich a Royal Borough; in March she saluted all four branches of the armed forces at Windsor Castle; she's had the cavalry from all Commonwealth countries come over and ride past the dais; but the weekend of June 2 - 5 was the Big One. It began on the Saturday with street parties all over the city and everyone generally getting into the festival attitude. And then on Sunday the real big things began. The was a flotilla down the Thames that was made up of 1,000 boats - the largest flotilla on the Thames or anywhere, ever! The Queen, Prince Phillip, her family and close friends rode down the river waving to millions of Britons for over two hours. It was a spectacular sight to behold. We watched her from right beside Battersea Park, and saw her and the Prince get onto the Royal Barge and then set off on their tour. We also saw all the Commonwealth boats head past (there was one for each Commonwealth country), the man-powered boats, and the beginning of the Dunkirk boats. At that point Chris had had enough, and we were getting weary of the weather (in typical British fashion, it was raining), so we headed for home. It was a great celebration. There were loads of people waving their Union Jacks, and we met some people who had been down to London for her coronation 60 years ago - it was great! On Monday there was a huge concert at Buckingham Palace. They created a stage around the Victoria monument/fountain, and tens of thousands of people were lucky enough to get tickets through a free raffle. We put our names in for the draw, but weren't lucky enough in this case. No bother, we watched on the BBC. At the end of the night, we could actually hear and see some of the fireworks from our flat - amazing! They must have been really loud for those people on the Mall! Then on Tuesday morning the Queen attended a special Church service at St. Paul's to once again commemorate her 60 year's on the throne. It was a lovely service, and afterwards she hosted a lunch at the Palace of Westminster. She then took a carriage ride home to the Palace through the streets of London and hundreds of thousands were out to line her route and wish her well. She had her famous wave out in full force, and genuinely - throughout the entire weekend - looked appreciative of all the well wishes that the crowd was giving her. It was a fantastic time to be in Britain! Well, here's to a great 2012! We hope that you all had a great New Year's Eve, and rang it in in style, whether or not you stayed up to see the clock strike twelve. We enjoyed the entire weekend, and spent it in Cardiff, Wales! We went to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with Matt (one of my friends from work) and his girlfriend Liz. It was absolutely relaxing time and a great way to end 2011 and begin 2012. The trip was bit long with a train ride to just outside London where Matt picked us up his car, and then drove the rest of the way; but it confirmed for us that Chris is no different than any other baby his age: put him in a car and drive, and he'll sleep. It was Chris's first time in a car, so we weren't too sure, but given his propensity to nap as soon as a train starts moving, we thought it might work out the same in the car. Once we arrived, he immediately took to Liz, who was more than happy to keep our little on entertained. And it was great for Sarah and I to have another couple to help with Chris - it felt like we were on a mini-vacation! Our New Year's Eve was fairly subdued. We toured through the city for most of the day, and took in the outside of Cardiff Castle. Back at home for the early afternoon we played some games and then had tapas all through the night. It was bit different T.V.-wise as no one here knows about Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve (is it officially Ryan Seacrest's New Year's Rockin' Eve yet, or have the decided to keep Dick Clark's head on ice for one more year in the hopes that animatronics is what really takes off in 2012?) No, instead we watched Jools Holland's Hootenanny, which comes on at 11:45. There's a bunch of quick, rapid-fire musical guest, and then it's over to a live riverside feed of the Fireworks. The fireworks were amazing; I was a bit sad that we weren't there to see them in person! Check them out here: BBC Coverage of NYE fireworks After that, that was it for the T.V. So a new one for us.We all toasted with a glass of prosecco, and then it wasn't too long before we decided to call it a night. (Geesh, we're getting older!) Sunday was a lazy day, but we had a wonderful roast for dinner (having been preceeded by a full English breakfast!), and then Monday it was back home. Sarah and felt very refreshed. We hope that you all had a great holiday season, and that 2012 is a wonderful one! |
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