jenny & graham: New Year Weekend London 2006

The New Year Weekend - Saturday night

We finally managed to beat the dreaded lurgi and get our snot backpack off for long enough to catch a train into London.

We had booked to see 'Stomp' that night so had a few hours kip to ensure we would last the night (show started at 20h00....)

It was pouring with rain when we woke up and all dark (and wet of course) so we took the easy option of a cab to the theatre. In summer we would have walked the distance but having semi-monsoons in London is no fun.

We did enjoy the show but there were parts when I thought that if they picked up another object and started knocking it about on the floor to a beat again, I was going to throw my water bottle at them and roar 'E-N-O-U-G-H'!!! but I didn't, I sat there and politely clapped with the rest of the audience.

All that tapping must have woken us up because we weren't ready for bed, so we headed off to Leicester Square where they had constructed a temporary fairground like the ones you would see along some of the old Victorian beachfronts. A dive bomber type monstrosity dominated the skyline, all lit up in fluorescent lights and the screams of 'scared-shiteless' adolescents. In between the golden dancing horses and fragile looking swings were a number of tombola stalls which offered herds of gigantic, steely-eyed, fluffy toys if you put a ball through a hoop or a few darts through a 'hoodie's" head (not really, just wishful thinking). We saw some little boy clutching a big black bear surrounded by his grinning family (the boy's family, not the bear's) but all I could think about was when he got home and Mom and Dad switched off the lights and left this monstrous thing leering at him from across the room with its evil green staring eyes. The Horror!

We went on to see Pan's Labyrinth which started at 23h00. It is an adult fairytale but sad and fascinating at the same time. After all those fluffy toys and the creatures from the movie, I was starting to wonder how I was going to ask Graham if we could sleep with the light on as I just knew I was going to have nocturnal visitors as soon as I closed my eyes.

We decided to walk home and ambled past all the baggy pant P.Diddy wannabe boys lurking outside the clubs from which high heeled girls staggered and stuttered out into the night, clutching fags in one hand and a giggling mate or two in the other hand whilst the black coated bald bouncers stood by looking cool. Keeping our eyes down (sort of..) as we walked we passed through nearly deserted London shopping streets, it was unbelievable that somehow or other, people had actually stopped shopping! We even got to stare at the Fortnum and Mason windows, which were decorated with the amazing scenes from Alice in Wonderland. Apparently pedestrians had been crowding the pavements during the day just to look at the window displays (at least they don't charge you for looking yet). We never had the camera with us but maybe that wasn't a bad thing because I could steal them from someone else's blog and it looks like they have a steadier hand than the two of us (or have figured out how to change the 'speed' button on the camera).

We landed up walking through Green Park past the war memorials down to Buckingham Palace, which was absolutely deserted! Not even one fluttering busby in site. This time I did regret leaving the camera behind but at 02h0--03h00 in the morning, you probably don't want to hang around flashing at palaces nowadays, even if they are empty. I wondered if we tried scaling the fences if anyone would have noticed, but again, probably not a good idea.

Eventually we made it back to the hotel and went to bed knowing that we would be trying to stay awake this long again in just a few hours' time!

New Year's Eve - Sunday night

Sunday dawned and seeing we were almost next door to the Old Tate Museum, we wandered around there for a few hours, but there is just too much to see, so we managed to see some of the old painters and by the time we made it to Turner's works, we were all 'painting-ed' out! Although I think a lot of the art work is lost on me due to sheer ignorance, I was quite excited to see two paintings of which I had only ever seen pictures....my favourite Ophelia one (Millais) and The Lady Of Shallot.

Graham's approach was more focused and he spent more time reading the stories behind the artists and picking out one or two paintings that caught his fancy (whereas I was trying to see and read everything but burnt myself out too early I think).
He seemed quite taken with one that depicted the only (albeit temporary) female Pope!

We went back to the hotel for another nap (we sound like 3 year olds) and then went off to the Imperial War Museum, which again, just had too much to see and take in. We gaped at tanks, airplanes, torpedoes, rockets and submarines before ambling off into the WW1 trenches. When we came out of the trench exhibition, we just couldn't face the Blitz in the same day, so we fed our faces and trundled off to the hotel where we met up with Cobus and Wendy.

We got all spruced up (okay so we had a shower and put our same old jeans on but we did wear clean shirts and new deodorants) and took a taxi to the restaurant. Only he couldn't get anywhere near the place as the police were sealing off all roads around the London Eye and Westminster in anticipation of the crowds expected to turn up for the fireworks. The driver had amused us all by saying that he had to charge a special surcharge in terms of government regulations, which was supposed to be some sort of incentive to get taxi drivers to work on Xmas Day and NY's Eve, but we were all bemused that despite the incentive, the cabbies couldn't get their fares into London in the first place. He dropped us off further than had we walked from the hotel, but we made it in time to start our celebration.

Wends had booked a Belgian/French restaurant which happened to be a perfect spot from which we could watch the fireworks.

Here we are all nicely scrubbed up at the restaurant.

Cobus and Wendy

The Green Mambas

We had an amazing dinner in quite a relaxed atmosphere and then drifted out to watch the show begin. And boy what a show it was!!!

It was so exciting, kind of like I imagine a night time battle in small war would sound like, without the blood and bullets and of course we had cheers and whistles instead of screams and body thuds. It was worth coming out for and even the raingods kept away, it would appear they preferred the company of the possibly-soon-to-be-independent Scots! Luckily for us..and not so luckily for everyone else who went north for New year!.