Phew! It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks.
I had a blast at the second week of my photo course. (Yes, I know I haven't put any photos up yet - so slack!) We spent most of the day in the Brick Lane markets area taking shots of all the action. There was a fantastic mixture of people buying, selling and just chilling - perfect for practicing our portrait skills and street scenes.
Last weekend was about birthday lunches, birthday drinks and birthday dinners. I hadn't thought much about turning 30 until everyone kept saying "oooh the big 3-0". Thanks for starting off my age-related paranoia! Actually, when I say "everyone" I mean all my friends who are under 30, so to all of you - don't worry, your time will come ;)
Phil's present is going to keep me busy for the next 30 years - an 18,000 piece jigsaw puzzle! This is what it will look like when (if ever!) I'm done:
I have no idea where I'm going to fit it in our apartment. My plan was to do each of the four sections one at a time on top of each other, but I've just discovered I don't have a board or table big enough to hold even one quarter of the puzzle! I'm sure Phil will be regretting giving it to me when he finds every available surface covered in puzzle pieces :)
As a birthday treat, I went with a friend to see the musical We Will Rock You on Wednesday. I've seen it once before but loved it so much that I jumped at the chance to see it again. It was as brilliant as I remembered - all the songs are by Queen, so the audience really gets into it and by the end everyone is on their feet singing and dancing.
The absolute highlight of the week was seeing the Guangdong Acrobatic Troupe of China performing Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House last night. I've wanted to see the ballet here in London for years, but Phil always groans when I mention ballet. I decided that this was a great opportunity for him to earn some brownie points for coming to the ballet without too much pain. This is a
really bad video, but if nothing else fast forward to the section at around 5 mins 50 secs in - no wires!!! Phenomenal! My favourite was the frogs (seen at about 2:04 in the video).
At first it was a little awkward - since we don't see ballet often (ever!), we weren't really sure when to clap. Luckily they have obvious pauses so you know when to make noise and when to keep quiet. And then there were the pauses where the whole theatre went completely silent and you could tell the performers were working up to a dangerous move - like leaping backward between poles suspended miles in the air. No-one dared even cough and even the kids knew it is time to zip it... and then the spectacular would occur and there was a collective gasp of amazement and relief from the audience as the impossible had been achieved. I absolutely loved it (not good news for Phil because it will mean more ballet!) and the opera house was jaw dropping - lavish and stylish. Love it! Love it! Love it!
Oh! Last thing... the Olympics! Phil and I are addicted already. This morning I've rowed, swum, sailed and pommel horsed ... It's exhausting! I thought the opening ceremony was so impressive. I spent the whole thing trying to figure out how you teach that many people to move in unison. The only bad thing is that the Olympics play on BBC over here so all we get is the Brits - no Aussie results. Phil's working on getting streamed versions of the Oz hockey and sailing, but without much success yet.
That's all for now - my floor routine for the gymnastics is up next ;)
Labels: entertainment
