Alright I guess it's time to write about London. I went back again for another wedding. Although the wedding wasn't in London, but I did spend time in London before and after. I had an overnight flight in, so landed in the morning and went to spend the day with my friend Flavia. She's one of the few university friends I've stayed in touch with, and she's currently in London doing PhD research for a few months. Which was perfect, because it means her schedule is pretty flexible and self-regulated, so she was able to just hang out and let me come over and shower, and then spend the day wandering with me. So we headed downtown and had a lovely lunch at Leadenhall Market, this beautiful old covered shopping arcade that is mostly restaurants and pubs now. And of course I had an inaugural vacation glass of wine. Then we had a quick walk down to the Tate Modern for a short visit. We didn't have much time, so only made it into one gallery and had a nice coffee up in the cafe, which has amazing views of the river. It was pretty overcast, but still clear enough that you could get some good views. And luckily it's a free museum, so we had no problem just stopping by for an hour. After coffee, we met up with my friend Sophie for a happy hour drink, and then the most exciting part of the day: Nando's!! And it was Flavia's first ever! So happy I could introduce her.
Friday night I actually spent outside London. My friend Sophie and her boyfriend Olivier bought a house in Sevenoaks, just outside the London city limit, and we were all going to the wedding on Saturday, so I spent the night with them on Friday. They have a beautiful old house, in what used to be like the granary of this country home complex. I think this might have actually been the first time I've been in a house that belonged to a friend. Believe it or not, most people I know don't have many permanent belongings, let alone real estate. So yeah, might have been a first. And it was definitely the nicest and most grown up house out of any of my friends.
Saturday morning we drove up to the wedding and we actually barely made it. We had a bit of traffic, and a quick stop off at the hotel to change, and we made it to the church right as the bride was arriving. Like, we had to run past her to get inside. (By the way, the bride was Emma. She was marrying Rob. Emma was in Japan with Sophie and I). But then the wind blew her veil away so she still took a few more minutes to make it in. It was held in this little old church in their hometown, which was super cute. England has so much cute old stuff, like houses and churches. And barns, but that's later. It was maybe the 3rd church wedding I've ever been to, and it was definitely the most Jesus happy. Neither of the couple are actually very religious, but Emma likes the tradition of getting married in a church, and I guess at this church that also means a lot of singing about Jesus. So everyone did, as I (and actually also Sophie and Olivier) listened awkwardly.
The wedding was followed by the party, which was not in the church. It was in a barn (another old, English thing I liked very much), so we had to drive, which meant pit stop at the hotel to drop off the car (and get a snack) before getting a cab so we wouldn't have to drive. We did make it to this one on time, which was good because there was open bar at the beginning. Emma had hand-made a lot of the decorations (including 1000 paper cranes that hung behind her and Rob. Pretty amazing. And all in my university colors!), and the barn was really beautiful. It was a bit of a tough wedding, in that Sophie and Olivier and I only knew each other, but both the bride and groom were from the town so all of their childhood friends were there. They're both teachers, though, so they sat us with some of their teacher friends, which was great. But it sadly didn't have the same openness as other weddings I've been to. I also spent quite a while chatting to Emma's family, cause I'd met a bunch of them on my first trip to the UK a few years ago. One of her cousins in now a cop, so I got to learn a lot about cops in the UK. But also I drank a lot so I don't remember much. And I danced a lot. And ate way too much, as I usually do. So all in all, a really fun wedding, even though we only ended up meeting a couple of their friends. But getting to spend time with Sophie and Olivier is good enough for me!
Before heading back down to Sevenoaks the next day, we had brunch with Emma and Rob, which was wonderful since we didn't really get to spend much time with them at the wedding. Which is always the case, so I'm happy it worked out for a bit. Then it was the drive back, and then I just headed back into London and went to stay with my friend Carol and her husband Kevin. Carol is my friend from South Africa, who's now in London. She and her husband live a bit far out, but I wanted to spend some quality time with them, so went over and just chilled at their house and passed out at like 8:30. I'd done so well up until then, staying awake until normal hours (or even later), but Sunday night did me in. I slept like 10 hours that night.
Monday was more exploring in London. My friend Becky is a teacher and was still on summer holiday, so she and I spent the day exploring record shops and bagel shops and museums and just catching up. We spent a few hours at the V&A, which I'd never been to. It's basically a massive museum with a bit of everything, but they had an awesome ceramics exhibit that I loved. Monday night was the best, though. It seemed to be the only night most of my friends were free, so we had a bit of a cross-section of my life going on at happy hour. In chronological order, we had Miguel (my oldest friend, whose husband surprised him with a trip to London which social media taught me about so I got him to come have drinks), Flavia (from university), Appolonia (from Study abroad in Shanghai), Becky (from JET), Kevin and Carol (from South Africa), and Joyce (from current China life), all in one place, more or less at the same time. I absolutely loved it. So much fun. None of them knew each other going into it, and it was wonderful. I hope that one day when I head back home I can have more fun times like that.
So that was pretty much the trip. On Tuesday morning, I had lunch with Joyce and a couple other friends before heading to the airport to come back to China. Super quick trip. I did also manage to buy (and finish) the new Harry Potter book, so that was an added bonus. And since then, I've mostly just been here in China. Which I'll tell you about later.
And a quick listen to some music. I heard Lucien by Young Magic earlier this year and totally loved it. It's off of Still Life, which is apparently Young Magic's 3rd album, but I'd never heard them (and have yet to listen to their older stuff), but hopefully you can see why I was into this.
So that song totally got me, then I listened to Still Life, and the whole thing totally got me, so I bought it. I've since learned that this duo apparently wanders around and records ambient sounds that they mix into their songs. Which is pretty awesome. Here's another awesome song by them, Homage.
I feel like when I write such a long blog, I write so much less about music. But my opinion about the music doesn't matter, it's just gotta sound good, right? And here's another song that sounds good. It's Molasses, the new single from Kan Wakan. Sounds pretty different to the last album, but I really dig it.
Friday night I actually spent outside London. My friend Sophie and her boyfriend Olivier bought a house in Sevenoaks, just outside the London city limit, and we were all going to the wedding on Saturday, so I spent the night with them on Friday. They have a beautiful old house, in what used to be like the granary of this country home complex. I think this might have actually been the first time I've been in a house that belonged to a friend. Believe it or not, most people I know don't have many permanent belongings, let alone real estate. So yeah, might have been a first. And it was definitely the nicest and most grown up house out of any of my friends.
Saturday morning we drove up to the wedding and we actually barely made it. We had a bit of traffic, and a quick stop off at the hotel to change, and we made it to the church right as the bride was arriving. Like, we had to run past her to get inside. (By the way, the bride was Emma. She was marrying Rob. Emma was in Japan with Sophie and I). But then the wind blew her veil away so she still took a few more minutes to make it in. It was held in this little old church in their hometown, which was super cute. England has so much cute old stuff, like houses and churches. And barns, but that's later. It was maybe the 3rd church wedding I've ever been to, and it was definitely the most Jesus happy. Neither of the couple are actually very religious, but Emma likes the tradition of getting married in a church, and I guess at this church that also means a lot of singing about Jesus. So everyone did, as I (and actually also Sophie and Olivier) listened awkwardly.
The wedding was followed by the party, which was not in the church. It was in a barn (another old, English thing I liked very much), so we had to drive, which meant pit stop at the hotel to drop off the car (and get a snack) before getting a cab so we wouldn't have to drive. We did make it to this one on time, which was good because there was open bar at the beginning. Emma had hand-made a lot of the decorations (including 1000 paper cranes that hung behind her and Rob. Pretty amazing. And all in my university colors!), and the barn was really beautiful. It was a bit of a tough wedding, in that Sophie and Olivier and I only knew each other, but both the bride and groom were from the town so all of their childhood friends were there. They're both teachers, though, so they sat us with some of their teacher friends, which was great. But it sadly didn't have the same openness as other weddings I've been to. I also spent quite a while chatting to Emma's family, cause I'd met a bunch of them on my first trip to the UK a few years ago. One of her cousins in now a cop, so I got to learn a lot about cops in the UK. But also I drank a lot so I don't remember much. And I danced a lot. And ate way too much, as I usually do. So all in all, a really fun wedding, even though we only ended up meeting a couple of their friends. But getting to spend time with Sophie and Olivier is good enough for me!
Before heading back down to Sevenoaks the next day, we had brunch with Emma and Rob, which was wonderful since we didn't really get to spend much time with them at the wedding. Which is always the case, so I'm happy it worked out for a bit. Then it was the drive back, and then I just headed back into London and went to stay with my friend Carol and her husband Kevin. Carol is my friend from South Africa, who's now in London. She and her husband live a bit far out, but I wanted to spend some quality time with them, so went over and just chilled at their house and passed out at like 8:30. I'd done so well up until then, staying awake until normal hours (or even later), but Sunday night did me in. I slept like 10 hours that night.
Monday was more exploring in London. My friend Becky is a teacher and was still on summer holiday, so she and I spent the day exploring record shops and bagel shops and museums and just catching up. We spent a few hours at the V&A, which I'd never been to. It's basically a massive museum with a bit of everything, but they had an awesome ceramics exhibit that I loved. Monday night was the best, though. It seemed to be the only night most of my friends were free, so we had a bit of a cross-section of my life going on at happy hour. In chronological order, we had Miguel (my oldest friend, whose husband surprised him with a trip to London which social media taught me about so I got him to come have drinks), Flavia (from university), Appolonia (from Study abroad in Shanghai), Becky (from JET), Kevin and Carol (from South Africa), and Joyce (from current China life), all in one place, more or less at the same time. I absolutely loved it. So much fun. None of them knew each other going into it, and it was wonderful. I hope that one day when I head back home I can have more fun times like that.
So that was pretty much the trip. On Tuesday morning, I had lunch with Joyce and a couple other friends before heading to the airport to come back to China. Super quick trip. I did also manage to buy (and finish) the new Harry Potter book, so that was an added bonus. And since then, I've mostly just been here in China. Which I'll tell you about later.
And a quick listen to some music. I heard Lucien by Young Magic earlier this year and totally loved it. It's off of Still Life, which is apparently Young Magic's 3rd album, but I'd never heard them (and have yet to listen to their older stuff), but hopefully you can see why I was into this.
So that song totally got me, then I listened to Still Life, and the whole thing totally got me, so I bought it. I've since learned that this duo apparently wanders around and records ambient sounds that they mix into their songs. Which is pretty awesome. Here's another awesome song by them, Homage.
I feel like when I write such a long blog, I write so much less about music. But my opinion about the music doesn't matter, it's just gotta sound good, right? And here's another song that sounds good. It's Molasses, the new single from Kan Wakan. Sounds pretty different to the last album, but I really dig it.
No comments:
Post a Comment