Dear London Town

I have neighbors who sing. Why am I sharing? Well, I sing too, but not like they do.

Somewhere outside my window and a little above me is a girl with an amazing soprano voice who regularly practices arias. I love opening the window in our kitchen to listen to her. I only wish I had a tiny bit of her talent. WOW!

Now, the neighbors in flat 2 recently have begun singing Spring Awakening, which coincidentally I sing too, but I dont sing out where the neighbors hear. There have been two voices, male and female, who have been practicing. I wonder if they are preparing to audition? Maybe they are actually in the musical already. It’s not impossible. What if they are understudies and that’s why they are covering so many of the songs? I’m tempted to ask, but I dont want to embarrass them if they were just singing for fun and didnt realize they had an audience.

Anyhow, it’s a pleasure to hear music drifting through my window.

I met Mario of Someone Once Told Me a couple months ago to have my photo taken for his website. I had to come up with something that someone had told me that had really stuck in my head. It took me about a month from my first invitation to do the site until I had both time and something to say. In fact, I still wasnt sure what I was going to say when I got there.

As Mario and I talked, I was telling him some funny stories and some things that I had thought about saying. I had sent out and email asking some friends if they could help me, but only 1 person responded. (Gee thanks, friends!) So as I was telling him about the block in my head for coming up with just the right thing, the story of my trying to get into my MA class came up and how I had been struggling with writing something for my essay because I had this conflict about writing something I’m supposed to say versus what it really just my personality and style. My papa then said to me that… (photo response here)

Please post a comment on Mario’s site. He (and I) would love the feedback. Please feel free to pass the link on to your friends too. The site, in general, is a great idea that he came up with when traveling in India a couple of years ago. It has had a huge response by people all over the world who upload their photos and stories to Flickr, email him, or have done the site at his request.

My pic has my neck kinda funny, but there were TONS of shots and I was laughing for most of them because Camden is a crazy town with crazy people who kept walking by and saying things to me as I was posing. I think that it’s quite cute, overall.

Thanks to my papa for the inspiration!!

Restaurant review time!

Inamo is a total geek-fest! I have been here twice and both times I went with people who love tech-stuff.

Using a touchpad, you select everything from your food/drink to the ambiance projected on your table. You can play battleship with your partner, watch the chef cam, and even have a taxi called for you – all at your table by selecting with your “mouse”. So it’s totally fun.

The food is tasty and I was happy with the quality of it, but it does get pricey very quickly.

For more reviews, check out Qype.
For more photos, check out my set on Flickr.

I was invited to take a night flight on the London Eye and though I tend to stay away from the over-hyped tourist attractions, I was intrigued by the night view and hopefully less of a line out front. I’ve always admired the London Eye from the outside, but as I stepped into the pod while it kept rotating, I did feel like I was in the largest carnival ride ever – second to my experience in the Riesenrad in Vienna.

The pod had maybe 15 or so others with us inside. Since we were the first ones on, I went straight to the front to prepare myself for the big show. The location of the wheel means it has some lovely views of the South Bank and Waterloo area, as well as Westminster, Parliament and Big Ben, St Pauls and other skyline dotting buildings.

If you are planning to visit London, I suggest you go ahead and suck up the cost of the ticket if you want a great view of some of the best known landmarks in London. They keep threatening to take the Eye down, so go before it’s too late!

For the full set of London Eye pics, click here.