Twelfth Night

Shakespeare's Globe

Well the holidays are officially over and the carriage has turned back into a pumpkin!  Hmmm... maybe that's not really what I want to say, but sometimes post-holiday feels that way.  All of the decorations are down and the apartment (and the city, for that matter) feels bare.  J is back on his normal work schedule which means long days for me, which I don't mind entirely, but it can feel a bit lonely.  Guess it's time to find a job!  That is certainly on the list of things to start taking care of.  It didn't make too much sense for me to start my job search when I first got here as Londoners were already very much in the holiday mood.  Without Thanksgiving to hold them back, Christmas revelry starts VERY early here.  Now that we are well into January, I have no more excuses and it's time to pound that pavement.

Happily, many of our friends have returned from their Christmas vacations.  On Saturday night J and I went to a new Austrian restaurant for a mini-reunion with a couple of our friends who had been in Argentina and Spain for the holidays.  As we finished up dinner (around 11:30), we were not quite ready to call it a night and began discussing next steps.

In London, this can become quite the ordeal.  Most restaurants, pubs, and many bars close by midnight here.  If you want to stay out "late" you can find a few lounges that will stay open until 1:00, and then there are the clubs that stay open later.  There are, of course, a few loungy bars that stay open as late as the clubs, but they are few and (more inconveniently) far between.  In contrast to New York, where you can basically fall from one late night spot into the next, in London you need to have a game plan.  The area that we were out in on Saturday is called Fitzrovia and is a great place to go out for dinner or to meet up for happy hour.  You would think an area like this would also have a few late night spots to cater to the post-dinner crowd.  Nope.  We could have gone to Soho or even back to my neighborhood where there are late night lounges, but sometimes you don't want to have to travel-it ruins the momentum.  Not to mention that the Tube closes at 12:00 so then you are forced to take a bus or an insanely expensive cab to your next destination.  I have a feeling this is a bit of me getting "old".  I seem to remember gallivanting all over New York in my 20s; walking for blocks, hopping in cabs, grabbing a subway all in one night.  But those days are long gone my friends!  And I just cannot get over the cab prices here.  New Yorkers are SPO-I-LED when it comes to this... this and manicures... and flowers... well that's all for another post!

Not until 2015... better late than never.
Thanks, Boris.

So what happened?  We decided to go home.  I, frankly, was starting to get a bit cranky standing on a street corner in heels discussing potential destinations.  Whenever this sort of thing happens, I think to myself, 'I have friends who have 3 kids already and are so far removed from standing on a street corner in ridiculous shoes discussing where to continue their night that they may as well be on Mars.'  And you know what?  I wish I were them!  I do not want to be me at that moment.  I definitely want to be them.  I don't always feel this way, but in these instances I really do!  Anyways, J and I got home and the two late night spots near us were hopping... go figure!  We live in a much more residential area than the one that we had just come from.  These are the things that make London... special.

Nam Long-Shaker
Scene of Prince Harry sightings, home of the infamous Flaming Ferrari,
and where J refuses to ever return.

Sunday was one of the most fun days that I have had in London.  I had read, in the Time Out London, about a Twelfth Night Celebration that would be taking place outside of the Globe Theater on the South Bank.  It seemed like a lot of fun and I figured that if it rained, we could just hop next door to the Tate Modern.  Well luckily, it did NOT rain and J and I got to experience a truly entertaining tradition.  For those unfamiliar, please follow this link to read up a bit on Twelfth Night.  A group called The Lions Part performs the Twelfth Night Celebrations which consist of the arrival (by row boat) of the Holly Man from the Thames (quite the feat for the rowers if you know anything about the Thames current); wassailing; a mummers play; and a parade to The George Inn where further wassailing and general celebration occurs.  J and I beat the parade to The George, found ourselves a table and tucked into some delicious British food-and NO that is not an oxymoron!

I had such a great time and it is difficult to really explain why.  It was not a touristy event and we were surrounded by British accents which made me happy.  Where we live I generally hear more French and Italian.  Everyone was game for the audience participation and it was great to see the smiles on the youngest and oldest members of the crowd.  As the evening approached we made our way back over to the North Bank and headed home.  All in all a great way to wrap up the weekend!

Awaiting The Holly Man on the River Thames.
(St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.)

The Holly Man and St. George

Wassailing the Globe!

Pint of Cider at The George... all gone!

Our walk back to the Tube over London Bridge.
In the photo: The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast

The Shard

On Tuesday, my friend Ashley from New York came through London on her way up North for a family wedding.  I had a lot of fun catching up with her and meeting one of her best friends who, it turns out, lives right around the corner from J and I!  I am always excited to meet new people here and I am so glad that I was able to spend the day with an old friend whilst (WHILST) making a new one.

Speaking of old friends and new, I would like to give a big shout out to the Hoffman family!  A big WASSAIL to you on the announcement of a new addition expected in May.  "WASSAIL!!"

I hope everyone in the States has recovered from the Polar Vortex.    I wonder what would happen if a Polar Vortex ever met up with a Frankenstorm??  What IF a Polar Vortex joined with a Frankenstorm and encountered a Sharknado????  The possibilities are really endless.  I have a feeling the end result would be Zombie Apocalypse, because... clearly.