It has been over three weeks since I last posted... much has happened. On Dec 2, my teacher friends and I went into London for the annual tree-lighting ceremony in Trafalgar Square of the 70-ft tall Norwegian pine given to London by the people of Oslo for their support during WWII. Then we celebrated Chelsea's birthday by going to a South Asian restaurant called Inamo that enabled us to order our meal off the table. That is to say, it was a touch-sensitive table with drop-down menus that displayed a picture of any selected dish on your plate. You drag and drop your menu selections into the shopping basket and they bring it to you. While you were waiting, you could play battleship with the person sitting across fro you, solve a jigsaw puzzle, look at a map of the area around the restaurant, or view a video of the chefs working in the kitchen.
On Dec 4, David and I visited his parents in Letchworth. We had a lovely visit, and they invited me to spend Christmas with them.
A week ago, we had our TimePlan Christmas social at the Christmas Market in Hyde Park. We went skating at the rink set up for one month over Christmas. It was rather rough, wet ice, and a very packed rink. Funny to watch the Londoners careen around or cling to the wall.
On Tuesday of this past week, David came out to my choir concert on Tuesday afternoon. We sang for a seniors group at a church in Romford, who were very appreciative of our efforts. We sang a variety of John Rutter carols as well as an arrangement of Auld Lang Syne and a few other seasonal pieces.
Friday I finished my tutoring work for the term, and my Bible Study group (from Chase Cross) had a Christas social. Then on Saturday, David and Esther (my housemate) and I went to Canterbury for the day. We saw the Cathedral and did some shopping. Canterbury is a gorgeous town, and was especially so after 10 c of snow fell.
With David, before snow.
Esther and I.
Entrance to Canterbury Cathedral.
This week I a enjoying a quiet week at hoe. Which is good, since the English cannot--CANNOT--deal with snow in any quantity. Trains, planes, and buses are all affected by the snow. I have several friends whose flights have been cancelled, and have heard of someone who sat on a plane for 5-6 hours on Saturday, the third plane in the queue to depart before finally being sent back home and told to return on Thursday. Heathrow has just closed the airport to any new passengers hoping to fly, as it is packed wall-to-wall with people hoping, waiting. There are massive lineups and delays and cancellations on Eurostar services too. More snow and colder weather is predicted for the rest of this week, so it sees all but certain that Britain will have a white Christmas this year. We are beginning to wonder if we might have a quiet Christmas, just the four of us here if even the local trains are shut down on Thursday and Friday this week. I am glad that I had no big travelling plans this month.
Your restaurant visit was interesting... how is one prevented from spending the whole meal inadvertently ordering multiple meals... I presume it would gently nudge one to keep one's elbows off the table??
ReplyDeleteWe have been hearing lots about the mess at Heathrow as well. Boy, are you any more informed about the likelihood of being able to head for Letchworth tomorrow? That would be unfortunate if local traffic is snarled to a stop too, and you're not able to travel for Christmas celebrations!
The "m" is still grumpy, I see!