Going AWOL and Part I: Arrival

Whoops. Sorry for going AWOL, kids. The last three weeks have been a super intense whirlwind and I think the best way to take stock is in four parts. 

I will tackle these parts like so: 

Part I: Arrival 

Part II: The Sickening 

Part III: Christmas in France 

Part IV: Observations 

 I did actually start on several of these entries during the time they were happening, but nothing is ready, so let's go through my notes, shall we? I have photos to go with all of this, but I can't figure out how to make Blogsy cooperate with Instagram and my iPad at the moment, so I'll migrate them to Picasa and give you a very photo-heavy post tomorrow. 

Part I: ArrivalI gotta say, landing in London was pretty awesome - I've never flown into the city and the countryside looked spectacular from up above. The sprawling lawns and gardens of some of the castles/manors were fun to try and spot, even on very little sleep (yes, we were subjected to the standard crying baby for the duration of the flight). We queued in Heathrow for an eternity to get to customs and then were told by the overly good-natured customs official that in the future we can use the express UK nationals line because James is a citizen. His status trumps mine. That will come in handy. What I also hadn't expected was having to declare my occupation on my landing card. A day prior at the dentist in Canada I also had to list my occupation. Because they knew me there, I chose to write "kept woman" but I didn't think that the UK Border Agency would find this at all amusing....so I wrote "consultant" - more on that in a later post! 

 After collecting our bags we got a cab and started the journey to our hotel. I really can't say I felt like we'd moved to London at that point, but man was I happy....even without coffee. Our hotel leaves quite a bit to be desired and I have a lot to say on the subject, so let's just leave that for the time being. A quick nap and shower and we were ready to go. We stopped for food at EAT and ended up sitting in front of a stage actor of notable fame....of course, given that neither of us know much about British stage, all we could come up with is "Oh man, I've seen him before" but not his name. Regardless, he had a lovely and soothing speaking voice and I spent more time listening to him than James. 

 We hit the ground running with tickets to see Miles Kane and Kasabian at the O2. It was a huge stadium show, but we had floor tickets and were very early. I was totally in my glory two people from the front at the center of the stage. Can I just tell you right now, if you haven't heard Miles Kane's album, you ought to do so. It is easily my album of 2011. He was phenomenal - I can't think of a better way to move to London. What I wasn't prepared for, however, was the ridiculous behaviour of the crowd at the show. I should have known that a country known for hooliganism at football matches wouldn't be tame when it came to concerts. Kasabian is the biggest rock band in the UK right now, so it was going to be rowdy, but I had no idea that it was common to throw half full cups of liquid up to the front of the crowd....and god, I know some of those cups weren't beer. I got pelted right in the head and was instantly soaked along with the guy behind me. I turned to him and he immediately made smell his head to figure out if it was beer or worse. I couldn't quite tell, so I'm going to go with beer. Yeah, beer. That makes me less inclined to want to throw up. 

 Kasabian hit the stage and the entire front 60 rows of people were thrown into some sort of jumping/mashing frenzy that I seriously haven't experienced since my punk days. Three songs into Kasabian's set and I forced James to bee-line it for the edge of the crowd. Let's just say, that was a good move. We unknowingly placed ourselves on the outskirts about 40 feet from the raised platform to the side of the stage and the VIP area. My attention started to wander and I looked up to the platform to see Miles Kane enjoying the show....with Noel Fielding. That set me to smiling....a lot. Then I glanced back at the VIP area behind us and there was Rupert Grint. I thought my little jet-lagged brain was going to explode at the overall awesome of the evening. Some leggy blond model/actress tottered down from the platform and past me (can't seriously say who she was), but she smelled divine...and had toilet paper on her stiletto. I alerted her to this in a very matter-of-fact "I'm not phased by you" sort of way and was rewarded with a shoulder-squeeze thank you that left her lingering fragrance. Seriously, this woman smelled incredible. In all, if London was trying to impress me on my first day, she'd done her job. 

 With Thursday night in the bag, we slept.Friday had us unpacking and then taking care of little details like bank accounts and cell phones. At the bank I had to fill in my occupation yet again, however because she couldn't pin down an income amount for me, our account manager insisted that I be listed as a homemaker. So in three days I'd been a kept woman, a consultant and a homemaker.....identity crisis! 

The Saturday before Christmas James did something very selfless. He took me to Hamley's at a detriment to his health and sanity. I'm thankful that he did, so that I could immerse myself in the mayhem. Oxford and Regent St rounded out our afternoon before we nipped home to change and then speed off again to visit James' cousin, Jo and her husband along with a couple of their friends for a Christmas dinner. It was traditional, from what I gather, and everyone was really welcoming to us and inquisitive. 

The highlight of the weekend came on Sunday when we took the tube out to visit James' other cousin, Claire. Upon arrival in a a much more rural setting, Claire whisked us off to the yard where we got to meet Billy, her pretty little horse. The weather wasn't great, otherwise I think we'd have spent more time there, but I'm going to have plenty of time to visit with Billy in the coming years. While out in the "country" we got to eat lunch at a proper country pub. James was in heaven and I wasn't far behind! The Yorkshire puddings alone were massive and so yummy. The Cricketers Pub will be seeing us again before long.

This is pretty good place to end Part I. I promise I won't do day-by-day reports on the following three weeks, but the first week really does stand out in my mind and bears telling. Once we're all up to speed on my goings on here I'll get topical and tell you all about this zany country and what I love...along with what I miss. 

Photos to come - promise!