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Today was a busy day: Santa, Greenwich and BBC. In the morning yours truly played Santa Claus at a friend's daycare, asking each child what their name is, whether they've been good this year, and what they wanted for Christmas. The girls overwhelmingly wanted Baby Born and it was Transformers for the lads. For the afternoon and evening Nigel, Georgina, Emily and I headed into London, but making a stop in Greenwich first: the home of the prime meridian, 0 degrees longitude. Then for the evening, after rummaging around used book shops (yes, please), we filled four seats of the audience at the BBC Radio 2's Drill Hall, witnessing the recording of Clive Anderson's "End of Year Chat Room" to be broadcast on December 27.
Today we've been to Stonehenge and Salisbury down in Wiltshire County, south west England (about a 2 hrs' drive from Theydon Bois). It was absolutely freezing walking around the rocks at Stonehenge. It was such an open and exposed area that you could feel the winds smacking your directly in the face. I regretfully report that while we were walking around the trail around the rocks, I looked to my right to see one youth doing the Souljah Boy Crank Dat dance while a friend filmed. Some things in life you just don't expect to see: someone cranking dat at Stonehenge.
After the self-guided tour there, we ventured into Salisbury which is just some 10 miles south of where Stonehenge lies. In this town is the famous Salisbury Cathedral which is celebrating its 750th anniversary next year. 750! The church was completed in 1257 and has the tallest steeple/spire in all the UK and the second tallest in Europe. Though Stonehenge did not strike us as a "spiritual" place as many pagans claim, Salisbury Cathedral, on the other hand, brought tears to my eyes. This was a connection to the church of the 13th century. They had raised an Ebeneezer for later generations and thanks to those who have perserved the cathedral these 750 years, we can enjoy it today and be connected in a tangible, experential way to the medieval church. That gets me fired up!
Check out the pictures in the gallery of both Stonehenge and Salisbury.
Epping Forest Community Church in the morning for church and then we headed off to Tottenham Court Road to catch the Hillsong London Christmas program. The show at Hillsong could easily rival any show that one would pay for in a proper theater as a proper "production." Lights, smoke machines, live music, video, huge screens, Santa passing out Lindt chocolates (yes, please) and Simon. Simon helps out at Hillsong and had been down there the whole day when we caught up with him.
After the program, it was off to the Hillsongers' bar for some mulled wine and good company. We (me, Emily, Sally and Simon) met people we hadn't seen in a while (shout out to Jay) and made some new friends as well (shout out to our new Austrailian friend Louise should she find our website!). Overall a cheery evening; but things really got awesome when I spotted a little to-go/take away "restaurant" across the street from the bar, called Wok in a Box. Pick two items from the wok, they throw them in a little, typical Chinese to-go box, and you pay £4.50 for a scrumptious meal. Rocked my world. I woke up this morning still thinking about it and made up motions to celebrate. Emily knows the dance now, too. Thanks, Wok in a Box!
Day one of our Christmas 2007 vacation in Theydon Bois started yesterday. Seeing as we hadn't gone to bed Tuesday night, but stayed up all night and got dropped off at the airport at 3:30am Wednesday morning by our good friend Geth, and traveled all day and finally arrived at Emily's parents' house Thursday just a hair past midnight…seeing as all that happened Wednesday, we slept in yesterday until about 2:00pm, which really turns out to be about a 12 hour snooze. Praise the Lord…that felt good. Unfortunately, we weren't adjusting to the time change by waking up so late, but Thursday night, after a scrumptious pork roast courtesy of Sir Nigel D, we headed out to E15's production of Beauty and the Beast. What a hoot that was. Singing and dancing and comedy and a beast. Great time.
Getting home last night we lounged around drinking our third quotidian cup of tea and watching the TV. Unable to sleep for the time change, we stayed up last night reading our respective books. Me: Aristotle's Children. Emily: When Crickets Cry. Still unable to sleep, we watched Donnie Darko (what a messed up/freaky movie that is in no way endorsed or recommended by this post or the author hereof). After that, sleep.
We woke up this morning to cups of tea and bagels; thanks, Nigel! After primping and showers, we headed off to Loughton (a couple little towns away) and got to shopping, or getting Christmas cheer as my dad likes to put it. =) We slipped into our usual stores and charity shops (thirft stores smell the same wordwide!), finding a couple of books and a blouse/top, as well as a bottle of Ribena, a Mars bar and a Kinder Bueno. Yummy; but this appetizer was no match for the lasagne waiting at home for us. We're also adulatory to report that the white VW Polo has been resurrected for a bazillionth time; good work, Simon. Think we had a calm evening after dinner? Think again: the Seaman's stopped by for drinks, cakes, giggles and pictures…approximately in that order. Check out neonatal pictures of that foray in the picture gallery.
We're now in bed. Emily's sleeping and I'm telling you what we've been up to. What are we doing tomorrow you ask? You'll have to check this space for that info, shawty. =)
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