London - Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Thursday 8 February 2007
The snow started falling at 4am this morning, and our garden was covered in a nice layer of snow. But as we headed to the office, we were just walking in slush (London produces so much heat). When I got to the office, it started snowing again. Fingers crossed that the snow is hitting the alps too...as we are heading skiing again in the next few weeks.

Pics: (1) Our backyard; (2) Snow Storm and the snow capped Imax Theatre from my office

(3) Shakespeare's Globe Theatre; (4) Millenium Bridge

After work on Thursday, Yang and I had dinner at Suzie Wong, an oriental tapas restaurant on Old Compton Street (the gay street in London's Soho) that is part of celebrity chef Ken Hom's group of restaurants. The food was great, especially given it was tapas so we had a good variety in just the right portions, and we were kept entertained by the predominantly gay waiters and the transvestite maitre d'.

After dinner, we watched Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre. The musical was a bit different from the Julie Andrews movie version, and it had a few songs which were written for the musical, but it was enjoyable. The great thing about London theatres is that productions run here for years, so they actually spend the money to put the best props and sets for the musical into the theatre and this was no exception, especially with the moving 3rd floor nursery.

Friday 9 February 2007
After work, our team headed to a colleague's leaving drinks at the Corney & Barrow in Paternoster Square. I got to take the Waterloo and City Line for the first time, so I have finally travelled on all London Underground Lines now. Slightly light-headed, I met Alli on Bow Lane and we met up with Olivia and the girls at Barcelona Tapas Bar & Restaurant in Wells Court. Warning to all Londoner's...the food is shite...avoid this place at all costs! Maybe try The Providores instead. Yang also came to drinks for a while and then headed to Georgetown, a Malaysian Restaurant at London Bridge for Ammy's birthday dinner. Apparently, this was Yang's second worst meal in London ever...

Saturday 10 February 2007
We met Richard, Linus, Tammy, L&F, Jason (Felix's work colleague), Jason (my cousin) and Peter for dim sum at Lotus. We ordered too much again, which was good for Sean who only woke up just as we were heading home. The boys spent the afternoon calibrating their computer monitors whilst I headed to Liberty for shopping. Yang joined me later and we had dinner at Katana in The International. Yang and I must have been having the worst run of luck with food this weekend as the meal here was nothing to rave about either (he rates it as his third worst meal in London ever).

Sunday 11 February 2007
We had dim sum for lunch again today, this time at Royal China on Baker Street with Cliff, Boon & Yee Von (who had only arrived a few weeks ago from Sydney and were staying with Cliff), Desiree (friend of Boon's from Curtin Uni) and her mother Annette and boyfriend Jason (a weekend of Jasons). It was interesting having lunch with people from totally different professions...interior designer, architect and a orchestral conductor (who is often mistaken for a bus conductor).

After lunch, we headed to Oxford Street for shopping. I picked up a pair of shoes (from Zara so not too much of a dent in the bank account!) and a hat from John Lewis in preparation for Royal Ascot!

Then we headed to Southbank for the London Light Show...which used some of London's most famous landmarks to demonstrate some environmentally friendly and energy efficient lighting. It was pretty disappointing...Yang brought his camera out, but there really wasn't anything worth taking pictures of...

From Southbank, we headed to Covent Garden and tried to catch a glimpse of the celebrities walking on the red carpet for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (commonly known as the 'BAFTAS') 2007 awards. Unfortunately, we were too far away to see anybody...but if you want to see some pictures then check out the BAFTAS website. After our attempt at celebrity chasing (note for next year - you can actually get a pass to be right on the red carpet, but they only start giving the passes out at 7am on the day, which means you need to be there even earlier and then you will be hanging out with career celebrity chasers...not really my ideal Sunday morning), we headed for Linh's Farewell drinks at The LongAcre in Covent Garden followed by dinner at Young Cheng's...the best meal of the weekend (and cheap too!).