Xmas festivities in London

---

There are many joys about spending a few years in the Northern Hemisphere, and one of the best is the lead up to Christmas. Christmas in London has its own kind of magic, from the sparkling lights lining Oxford and Regent Streets, to the window displays at Harrods and the giant snow globe over the statue of Eros in Picadilly Circus.

My festive season started early with our work 'Winter Party' staged at a posh hotel in Victoria during November. We were greeted at the door with champange and mojitos and were treated to an Indian feast, some carnival dancers and an open bar all night. They had an Indian DJ for the party so there were Bollywood moves being busted out on the dance floor. I put my previous Bollywood dance lessons to good use and was 'unscrewing lightbulbs' all night.

A highlight of the lead up to Christmas was a trip to go Ice Skating outside the Natural History Museam. Fairy lights lined all of the trees and the Museum itself was lit up. A group of 10 of us tried our hand at skating. The only hard part about the whole experience was sharing with about 250 other people who also only ice skate about once a year. From the ice skating we all moved as a group to the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. There was a German Market like atmosphere down there and we were able to partake of a few mulled wines, some bratwurst and a go on some fair ground rides that shot us sky high for a freezing cold view of London. We ended the night in the Beer Hall drinking steins and singing along to the live music.

It has been a very cold winter here in the UK and all the chilli temperatures have lead to quite a lot of snowfall. It even threatened to snow for Christmas Day. One one of the major dumps of snow we managed to get out and enjoy ourselves, having a midnight snowball fight and then starting the day at work with a mini snow man build while sipping hot coconut flavoured chocolate.

Winter nights are long and gloomy, so the best way to get through them is to have something to look forward to. This includes trips to musicals like Phantom of the Opera and Ballets like the Nutcracker, but also includes Cheesy Christmas Movie Monday. Yes that is exactly what it sounds like, a gathering of friends to watch some cheesy Christmas movies like Elf, Home Alone and the Grinch. This tradition was usually accompanied by mulled wine, gingerbread and other winter delights.

Christmas wouldn't be the same without some Christmas Carols. This year I attended the free Christmas Carols at Trafalgar Square. There is a huge Christmas tree on display that gets shipped in as a gift from Norway every year. The Norweigans donate a tree to London every year as a thank you for Britains efforts in WW2 and is decorated in the traditional Norweigan style. After carol singing we took a stroll along more Christmas markets on the South Bank of the Thames.

All of this excitement was leading up to the big event itself - Christmas. On Christmas Eve all the Kiwi orphans gathered at my flat and we fired up a brasier. We all spent the night toasting marshmallows, drinking too much then ringing home and having them laugh at us. Christmas morning we woke to
a nice day in London and had a huge fry up for breakfast before opening secret Santa presents. In the afternoon we went to the park for some football, watched Christmas Day movies and played large numbers of Christmas themed games. We were all so full from lunch that we ended up having dinner at about 9pm that night, a great big roast lamb with all the trimmings. It was a great day and all of us orphans' really enjoyed our first Christmas in London.

---

Comments

[Tony Henshilwood]

Hi from Cape Town
Hi Jo - pleased to see you are having a great time in the UK - when are you coming to Cape Town!