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The first time is always the most exciting 
OK, so its not my first time EVER seeing snow, just for this year. But it is still exciting. In fact, all the things I said about it last year (see the post here). Soft, quiet, peaceful – even in rush rush London. It may have been freezing, but I grinned the whole way to work this morning. And I caught many other people with stupid grins on their faces too! It is unlikely that they were natives of course, such eternal pessimists (in an affectionate kind of way)!
But I tell you something; if this snow ruins my weekend mini-break to Copenhagen, I’m joining their mummble-grummbling! You’d think in a country that receives some snow every year that the public transport system would have been built to withstand some lousy snowflakes. Apparently not.
Now here is an amazing fact-according-to-Lou: there are no bugs in London, not really even in summer.
Think about that for a second.
On one hand it’s awesome. No cockroaches lurking in the back of cupboards. No ants crawling over you (OK, actually there are still ants… but not many). No mosquitoes. In London, when I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I don’t bother turning the light on because I know there is zero possibility of a dirty big huntsman hiding behind the toilet. In fact, there is no walking through spider’s webs you never knew were there. I’ve only seen 2 moths in the last year!!! (I have an irrational fear of moths… I don’t like the way they flutter).
On the negative side, what kind of dead city to we live in that not even bug life is supported?!?? I read somewhere that cockroaches can survive a nuclear bomb… but apparently cannot handle the London ecosystem. This side of the coin makes me a little distressed about what London could be doing to my general health and wellbeing. Naturally I guess bugs don’t like cold weather, but in Canada at least they come out in summer…in fact, they get some scary looking bugs in Canada; fluorescent ones. Anyway, I digress, no bugs in London is to me an indicator that prolonged exposure to London may be damaging to your health.
Still, in the meantime, I quite enjoy my bug-free life!
PS Uh-oh, I just googled “bugs in London” and apparently London is the perfect breeding ground for one type of bug… bed bugs. EEwwwww, now I’m going to be paranoid.
OK so no news there… yes, I know Harry Potter is in the UK, but the point is so am I! Apart from a Royal Wedding, seeing a new Harry Potter movie while here in London is something I was looking forward to. My reason is that I will enjoy the books living where it’s all happening.
For people who don’t know – I’m a massive Harry Potter fan. Of the books really, the movies are OK. They usually disappoint in the end, but I can’t help getting myself all excited when a new one is coming out – and this one was no exception.
However I will say that expectations weren’t as high for this one as others, and not just because I should have learnt my lesson by now. This movie was the first half of the last book, so I wasn’t really expecting a proper ending which was lucky as there definitely wasn’t one. The other reason I was going in with low expectations was that to be frank, not much happens in the first half of the last book. It’s mostly just Harry, Hermione and Ron jumping from forest to forest in an effort to hide from Lord Voldemort – and again, that’s what we got.
But I have to admit even as a sceptic, there were flashes of genius in this movie. I loved the way they opened showing the trio preparing their families for the Voldy onslaught. Hermione obliterating her parent’s memories and her image fading from the family portraits; the Dursleys, who never took anything Harry said which much seriousness, actually moving out of Privet Drive! GAK! It really brought the seriousness of the situation home to me. (But why can’t I remember what they did with Ron?) The following scene with Voldemort at Malfoy Manor was equally chilling.
And between the seriousness there was some humour! Harry acting out Fleur/Hermione in the Seven Potters stands out, more than the usual Weasley twins comedy act. The acting from the kids was great, but the adults are even better – the brief appearance of Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour was excellent (but then he was promptly murdered which was a shame), Alan Rickman does justice to my fav character Snape as always, the Death Eaters in general really. I also really like David Yates as director and the tone he gives the movies, it now feels like a real consistency through the last 3 movies. Oh yes! And finally, I loved the animation sequence used to tell the Tale of the Three Brothers. Beautiful! Artful!
So all in all from me – low expectations lessened any of my usual disappointment with the HP movies, and the flashes of brilliance made it truly worthwhile watching. Go see it. Unless I guess, you have no HP background and then you won’t likely understand what on earth is going on. Maybe you’d be better off buying the first book.
But don’t believe me – read some reviews that kick butt over mine (not hard): Variety, The Telegraph, Roger Ebert and Newsweek (which pans the movie actually, oh well).
PS back to my original point of enjoying the movies more because I live here, well, it was true! The scene on Tottenham Court Road was pleasurably familiar (even if the road is dead dreary) J I love Harry Potter!
Well I don’t know what kind of blinders I was wearing last year, but WOW is London beautiful in autumn!
I usually find the end of summer and the coming of winter somewhat depressing. And in London I only expected that feeling to get worse. After all, autumn in London is characterised by the coming of cold, dark, rainy days. Not a lot to get warm and fuzzy about. Not to mention the knowledge that this weather change in London corresponds with an equal yet completely opposite change home in Oz.
But oh these autumn LEAVES! A stunning display of reds, yellows and oranges floating around above my head, at my feet, blowing in the wind… yes, poetic, romantic; it simply makes my heart soar.
I’ve seen 2 stages of autumn over the last month or so.
First it started with clear, crisp, blue sunny skies with beaming rays of sunshine filtering through the Technicolor leaves that are still on their branches. The kind of days that not even the most evangelists of winter-haters could hate (me), these are the rose coloured glasses, uplifting crazy happy moments that make you want to sing from mountain tops! TIP: Top spots to enjoy this fall are the paths leading to Hyde Park Corner in Hyde Park and the paths leading to Buckingham Palace from Green Park tube station in Green Park.
The second kind of autumn – which we are enjoying now, is all melancholy beauty. It’s dark and cold and wet and grey skies and sadness. It’s cuddling in coats and scarves and hats, huddling against wind and sheets of rain. The leaves have mostly all fallen now and all you can do is kick them around as you walk pass. They make the grassy fields look like a patchwork quilt; something to snuggle under if it wasn’t actually freezing mud underneath. TIP: top spots to enjoy autumn #2: anywhere in St James Park and the park next to Westminster Abbey by the Thames (steely gray water adds to the atmosphere in my opinion)
And beyond all the park vistas are the simple changes, just a perfect autumn tree as I wander through Notting Hill (see photo).
A few of you know my life-long (ok, the last year) dream of being in the UK for the wedding of William and Kate Middleton – and yesterday’s engagement announcement have made my dreams come true! And it’s in London – I’m going! (Well I guess I’ll more likely stand outside amongst another million or so diehard loyalists).
I was seriously excited at hearing the news and immediately texted all my nearest and dearest. I saw David Cameron on TV declaring a “great day for the country” and was nodding my head vigorously in agreement. I stayed up late watching the same footage of the couple over and over just because I couldn’t tear myself away.
Did you all watch the interview (If not, here’s the link)? Oh em gee. I can’t believe it hasn’t been talked about more. Poor Kate – so clearly nervous and tongue tied – still looking gorgeous of course – wonderful William! So cool and calm and collected and looking after Kate. So awkward, so restrained, but still, to me (romantic to the end) these guys seem to love each other and actually seem like nice people. What about the interviewer asking her about stepping into Diana’s shoes! Eeek – how inappropriate! (But I still wanted to hear what she said! Ha) Yes, I’m gushing.
But the cold light of this morning’s papers has left me shivering. So cautious! So nervous! So sceptical! Yes, I know there are parallels with Charles and Diana and that was a disaster and everyone was disappointed, I know the monarchy doesn’t actually do anything, I know it’s going to cost a lot but C’MON!! Who cares? We’ve known all this for ages! Let’s be happy! It’s FUN! Sheesh. Forgive and forget and better for it I say. I think Britain needs to get their act together on their opinion of the monarchy. If you don’t like them just revolt (do the peasants still do that in this day and age?) and get rid of them. If you think they should stay then shut up! Maybe because we had the Republic debate in Aus already back in the Keating days I feel much clearer about my stance on the monarchy – there’s no harm, they’re quite comforting and as good as anyone else (especially a politician) so why not? Anyway, point is Brits – Let yourselves indulge and just enjoy this for now OK? Its alright to get excited, over-the-top, in fact you might like it. And if you’re having trouble getting into the festive spirit just fake it til to you make it, no worries.
Expect much, much more from me on this topic (I haven’t even mentioned the ring!!!). But I’m off now to buy a commemorative tea towel on ebay.
I was led to believe before my arrival in London that Guy Fawkes Night was the closest holiday that the UK had in lieu of our Australia Day. Except that it’s for a guy who was trying to assassinate the king.
C’mon really? Firstly, no body seems to know exactly when Guy Fawkes day is. The best answer I’ve ever got when asking this question was from a non-English person (the English seemingly have no idea) who replied “Something about remember remember November the 5th…? I think”. Secondly, it’s not a public holiday. Thirdly, it seems to last for a week or so – I’ve been hearing fireworks going off all week.
Despite all this, somehow it works! I’ve just spent a lovely evening in the common garden of a friend’s house that put on quite the spectacular fireworks show followed by a bonfire. Everyone was milling around drinking mulled wine and they even had a hog spit roast – fantastic!
It’s the perfect holiday interpretation of the British character; rather than saying or doing anything directly you go round and round and eventually end up where you want to be. Australia Day is a formal public holiday with formal celebrations and everyone knows why we are doing it. Guy Fawkes Night is some time in the week before or after the 5th November and has dodgy fireworks and bonfires organised in backyards. But it all comes up trumps in the end.
But I still don’t really understand it.
PS I was mulling over the idea of a UK version of Australia day and decided it would be too hard. What would it celebrate – the monarchy? The Church of England? Democracy? And who would in include – England? United Kingdom? Great Britain? Nah, best just stick to this Guy Fawkes thing.
It turns out that Barcelonans are not the only ones who pronounce their native city names in an unexpected way. Many may know that Barcelona is in fact pronounced “Barthelona” in Catalonian and is not just merely a suggestive nudge at the sexual orientation of its inhabitants as I had thought – rather naively perhaps, and very “Western” of me.
I’ve just spent a charming long weekend in Hungary and it turns out that much loved Budapest suffers a similar fate to poor Barthelona and is actually pronounced “Budapesht” by Hungarians rather than the English Budapest. I don’t know many Hungarians, so I really only hear it pronounced this way by a select few who I assume had a slight speech impediment.
Now I feel much enlightened for knowing the true pronunciations of these 2 wonderful cities but I do have one niggling politically incorrect sentiment remaining… I feel like a dork saying “Barthelona” and “Budapesht”. But I feel guilty if I knowingly ignore what I’ve learnt. After all, I get mad hearing Americans massacre Australia’s “Mel-BOURNE” and “Bris-BANE” so I can only imagine that these cities inhabitants would prefer a correct intonation too.
So, should I suck it up and feel like a dork? Or forget the culture thing and stick with Enligh norm?
louashton
