A Wonderful Week (so far)

I spent Sunday strolling through The Borough (the area south of the River across from the Tower of London). It's a cute area, with cobble stone roads and a wonderful view of the city.

Here is a picture of The White Tower at the Tower of London (it used to be white washed to make it appear more ominous to those attempting to invade).

This is Tower Bridge as the sun begins to set (well there was no sun just rain clouds---but somewhere the sun is setting).

In 2011 New Zealand will host the World Cup of Rugby. To promote tourism they've set up a giant rugby ball that fits 150 people inside where a virtual reality video is projected 360 degrees around. They show different areas of New Zealand and different activities you can do, and since it's all 360, it looks 3D and it feels like you're doing the things (skiing, white water rafting). I've never experienced anything like it before.

I got a picture with some singers as I was waiting to go inside.

They even project images onto the exterior of the ball at night time. It's beautiful.

At night you also get a great view of Tower Bridge (though with our crappy camera you can't really see).

I visited City Hall to see an exhibit of bags made by teens about current issues.

Some of the bags.

The best part was that no one I spoke to knew where City Hall was, or even that it was in the area (and I asked at the front desk of a fancy hotel only steps away from it). In at least one way I know more about London than a Londoner.

I thought this was funny. It's a wooden escalator at an obviously old train station out in one of the west boroughs.



Wednesday's highlight was going to the movie premier of Twilight. Now understand, I did not go, but stood outside the theatre and took pictures of the actors. I really liked the book---not so much the movie--and I couldn't care less about the stars, but it was amazing to see the crowd of people (young and old, girls and not) trying to get pictures of these people. Our obsession with celebrity is amazing (more to prove this in just seconds).




This is the Vue Cinema at Leicester Square.

You really can't tell how many people are here, so just take my word for it---a lot.

This is a picture of the actress who plays Bella Swan. I had to google her to find out her name is Kristen Stewart. She constantly looked pissed off.

See our crappy camera. Oh the joy.

I did manage to get a silhouette of her.

And if you squint and peer through the heads, you can see her again.

The big call of the night in this guy, Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward Cullens, the vampire (and played Cedric in Harry Potter).

He's quite sexy, but these girls didn't care about him---just Edward the vampire biting them. It was bizarre. I've never heard so many girls screaming 'bite me!'

This is a better image of him---but it's clearly off of the jumbo tron (you have no idea how much work it was to get any picture at all).

Squint and peer once again....it's both of them together. Oh, if only I weren't behind 5 rows of people and they were actually facing us, not the press, and I had a good camera--it might actually be a good picture.

Thursday marked the 62nd time that Oslo, Norway has donated a Christmas tree to London as a thank you for the support and protection given during the Second World War. The tree stands in the middle of Trafalgar Square, surrounded by Canada House (the Canadian embassy), the National Gallery and the man on the pole, Admiral Nelson.

This is the 90 foot, 90 year old tree. It seems a shame to cut one every year. Couldn't they have just planted one 62 years ago? It would have been cool to watch it grow over the years.

Here is the tree, lit at 6:25pm. It's nice, but late, since it was supposed to be lit at 6pm (it's ok, since nothing here happens on time).

After the lighting, I wandered around and found a group of people screaming and taking pictures (some while standing on ladders---so these people were professional). Like all the other fools who had no idea what was going on, I stood there too....and guess who I saw?????

Melanie C. Sporty Spice!!! I was only 3 feet away from here and they were all screaming 'Mel, look here', so I know for sure I was correct in recognizing her. Too bad my crappy camera has turned her into an albino blob. Just so you know, she is STUNNING. and pregnant. God it makes being human so difficult when celebrities are actually beautiful in real life---but she truly is.


and yet the camera worked wonders for this person (whom I've yet to discover).

So that's all from London for now. It's been a busy week...and a decent one. I haven't talked to Mat much, because he was heading to Amsterdam, but I'm sure he's as wonderful as he always is.

xoxoxo