One way to the UK?

Well, cousin Brett arrived from Melbourne last Thursday – I didn’t go all the way to Heathrow to pick him up however it was a good excuse to leave work early to meet him at Stratford Station! I was pretty stuffed from work (had a social committee meeting haha) and Brett was a bit jet-lagged so we just grabbed some food and headed home for dinner. I then watched some TV (yay, still a novelty haha) and Brett went to sleep. He’s sharing my room but it’s pretty big so not squashy or anything, and I even put his bed next to the radiator so it’s not too cold for him in the UK winter!

Umm last week at work I also organised the team Christmas get-together, which we are paying for out of our own pockets, don’t ask why as there’s a long explanation, but everyone doesn’t mind that much as it’ll give us a chance to socialise outside of work and luckily the team gets along well! Monday night (tonight) I’ve got a ‘special’ work Christmas party, where just some team leaders, mentors and the three assistants have been invited! This Wednesday night is the big London 2012 Christmas function, at the apparently very nice Leadenhall Market in the city, and we’re having ice sculptures, a champagne reception, food and drinks etc from 7pm – 1am which should be great…. apart from the fact that we still have to turn up to work on Thursday morning and be productive at the office!

Okay so now I’ve got you up to date on those things — on the weekend Brett and I headed up to Birmingham on Saturday morning with Chiltern Railways. It’s a bit slow and takes about 2.5 hours to get there, but the tickets are so much cheaper than the fast Virgin trains! Laura and Roy met us at a coffee shop in town, as the traffic was bad and our train arrived only 5 minutes late (!) and then we all walked around town a little bit and saw the German (Frankfurt) Christmas Markets. We then did a spot of shopping, mostly looking, in the shops around the Bullring; a very big shopping centre. There were SO Many people around the place! I mean Birmingham city has about 1million residents, but I always think of it as a small place, and I guess compared to London city during the week it is! After shopping, Laura and I got dropped at her mom’s house and got ready to go see the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam at the big Birmingham Symphony Hall. What a great venue – the accousics are brilliant! And lucky they are too, as we got fantastically cheap £5 tickets, and our seats were almost ‘in the roof’! We were at the ultimately last and very top row of seats! Up about 4 main flights of stairs, and then up a little side flight of stairs was our entrance! The “Grand Tier” they call it, probably because you’re sitting up with the Gods! I kept leaning foward to squint just to make sure the orchestra members were actually moving their fingers and playing! I have taken photos – once I have my laptop I’ll upload everything and show you. The orchestra looked so similar from where we were sitting to the tincy glass figurines we saw in Venice (Mara and Lis you’ll know what I’m on about!). The music was fantastic! I preferred the second half to the first, and they played one song (probably an Opus) for 45 minutes straight! Good enough reason to not have an encore as far as I’m concerned!

The first half comprised of two long songs, one with a famous soloist, but as much as I appreciate music, I don’t know the famous violinists well at all, but he was one of them. His piece was quite good, but Laura and I both preferred when the whole orchestra played together – the sound was amazing. Violins, violas, cellos, double bass’, french horns, flutes, piccolo, oboes, bassoons, clarinets, timpani drums and the conductor (with bald patch). One funny moment was when the interval had been called, and people had already walked out, but then the soloist came back on-stage to show off a bit, the skills he has on the violin, and the remaining orchestra members were just ‘plucking’ the violins like a guitar – and Laura and I were quietly chatting about how the conductor wasn’t there, but they were still playing okay etc, etc so it was probably all planned, and then we got Shusshed by the man sittnig next to us!!! hahaha Gosh that was funny! His bloody son who looked like an absolute geek was there in his addidas trackpants and trainers, and the dad was pretending to be classy and Shush us!?? Come on!

Anyway after the concert Laura and I headed to Bennetts a gorgeously decked out pub in town, and Brett went to the pub with Roy near to where Roy lives. Apparently they drunk a bit of larger because come Sunday Brett was feeling a bit under the weather!!!

Sunday morning/mid afternoon Laura and I went back into town and the rain has stopped, so we walked around a bit and then I got my hair cut, and bought some yummy shampoo (smells like caramel), and I also found the old really nice shampoo I used to used that smells like Rasberries… been looking for it for years and I was told it had been ‘limited edition’ which turns out to be bollocks because al Tigi did was change the packaging and re-name it! Uhh well, it’s for blondes and I’m more brunette now. I have a fringe too, and after having it for a month I’m nearly ready to grow it out long again!

Sunday afternoon before getting the train back to London, Brett, Roy, Laura and I went around to Great Auny Mary’s house to have a chat and get fed biscuits and drink Rose wine! Very nice afternoon and Mary’s going pretty well. She’s quite funny, and reminds both Brett and I so much of Grandma! Fair enough as they are sisters. One main difference is Mary’s very white hair and she is shorter by a few inches than Grandma.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 10:10 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.