Saturday, December 13, 2008

once again...

So....Josh and I just had the great privilege to spend a few days away from our kiddos....in London. The whole thing started, really, because I asked Josh this question back in late August: "Would you take me to see Coldplay.....in London?" He told me I was crazy, but I pursued it until he decided it was a good thing for us to do. So we went. It was an awesome whirlwind trip, but totally worth it. I'm not at all complaining, but it's super hard to some back from a trip like that and ease back into my real life. It's kind of a shocker. Not to mention that I have major jet lag, a severe chest cold (which is probably from that one guy on the Tube who sounded like he had pleurisy), and a child with lice. That's right. Lice. Rhymes with rice. If the Lord isn't trying to cultivate patience and humility in my life, then I'm not sure what this is all about.

Anyways, here are a few images from our trip this past week. When I say whirlwind, I really mean whirlwind. We really packed it in....hence the pleurisy, I suppose. The jet lag exhaustion is just normal.

This is the heart of Mayfair, the section of London where our hotel was located. This was the first of our [window only] shopping for the week. Josh is my shoe man, and so he was almost more excited than I was when we happened upon....


...this Christian Louboutin store where I tried on a pair of crocodile heels. "It's real crocodile" said the girl who brought them out to me, "just in case you have an issue with that." (At first I thought she was referring to some sort of allergic reaction.) 4 inches. Gorgeous. $3,900. It was fun to pretend to be fancy. We put them on hold and said we would come back on Monday after we "thought about it." We didn't go back.


For my roots, yo!


Josh ascending from the Tube...which is (not so) surprisingly A LOT like the MTR in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997 (we lived there 5 years after the hand off, from 2002-2004). It was so fascinating to be back in London having the perspective we do of our life in Hong Kong. These things would bore you, though, so I will save thoughts for those who are interested in asking.


Marks & Spencer dressed up for Christmas. Notice the umbrellas. It could be easy to get one's eye poked out if not being careful to keep your head down.


This was one of the highlights of our trip: an English Premiere League football match. We went to Tottenham to see the Hotspurs play Manchester United. Man U is one of Josh's favorite teams (which he said is a bit like loving the Yankees or the Red Sox because it's trendy) but he can't help himself. The game was a tie. It was awesome and a life goal of Josh's, which I'm thankful we were able to accomplish. Our cabbie actually described Tottenham as the "boondocks" (which it wasn't really), and as "not the safest place in London" (which we did find to be kind of true). The security at the game was kind of crazy. Being a soccer fan in England is not at all like being a Cardinals fan. They actually do not even sell alcohol in the stadium because of all the potential for the fans to break out in fights. It's intense. Let's just say this: the bald guy in front of us was missing several of his teeth and one of the five gold rings on his fingers said "DAD." If I had put a lighter underneath the guy's nostrils on my right, I could have burnt the entire stadium down, that's how strongly he smelled of vodka. (He disappeared for a long portion of the game, which I can only imagine was so that he could drink.) And the guy on the left side of Josh was from Ireland who had come for a quick weekend trip to see this game...he was afraid to even say out loud that he was a Liverpool fan. He was just pretending to cheer for the Spurs. When I got excited because I thought Man U had scored, there were two older men in front of us to the left who turned around and gunned me down with their eyes. (Josh told me I had to keep my mouth shut from there on out.) It was great game, though. Well worth everything.




When we got back to London that night, we were greeted by this scene:


....and ended up at the Audley, a most welcoming pub, with this even more welcoming pint of Guinness. A perfect end to an exciting evening.

5 comments:

Julianne said...

I'm still trying to decide which picture is my favorite from your trip! HOW FUN! I love the picture of Josh coming up from the Tube. And the one towards the end...are those star lights over the street or fireworks? But a very cool picture. I'm so glad yall had fun. I'm extremely jealous of your trip away with the husband. Where can we sign up for one of those????

Alyssa said...

AWESOME pics!! I'm glad you guys had such a great trip!

Audrey Woita said...

Loved the pix of London...am so glad for you both! your smiles are wonderful and came a long, hard year.

Julie said...

Oh my goodness ... I canNOT believe you went to London to see Coldplay! Amazing! London is one of my fave places ever. How was the concert?

Lori said...

How awesome that you guys got to do this!