I came across this video some time ago. I have some friends who will be coming to London and while I’ll give them my usual 1-day in London tour suggestions, sometimes it’s fun to throw in something new and different. I think I’ll have to take myself out to see a few of these places:
Stop 1: New London Architecture on Store Street
Stop 2: Dog Cemetery inside Hyde Park (closed to the public)
Stop 3: Shunt near London Bridge Station (check website for opening times and tickets)
Stop 4: Traffic Light Tree in Canary Wharf
Stop 5: Marker by which distance to London is measured is found near Trafalgar Square
Stop 6: Miniature St. Paul’s Cathedral/Ladies Statues on Vauxhall Bridge
Stop 7: Wellcome Trust
Stop 8: Soviet T34 tank off Old Kent Road, Bermondsey
Stop 9: OXO Tower, Southbank
Stop10: Windsor, Pembroke, Dublin, Edinboro Castle pubs, Camden Town
It is the current trend in blogs to write some sort of retrospective or a ‘best of’ from 2009. Since I barely had time to blog this year, which really makes no sense as a student, I wont recall a list of links. I would rather share a few things that made life fun and interesting this year regardless of whether they made it on my blog. So here is my top 5 of 2009.
QYPE – Early on in my time here in London, I came to need a hair salon. Not having many friends who have similar hair needs, I went online and came across a recommendation. I booked at appointment, had a successful experience and returned to the website to add my own opinion. Not only did my hair salon reward me for this on my next booking by giving me a free treatment, but after I began using the website more and more, I received an email to join a guru event. I, along with some other fantastic ladies and a couple of men, had an opportunity to go on a speed boat tour of London. Meeting the lovely people of Qype, and some new friendly faces, I was hooked; thus began my relationship with Qype. They allowed me to attend master classes, wine tastings, food tastings, special shopping events and more in exchange for my opinions of the businesses online. Being a poor student, this was a great way to be treated to some of the best things London has to offer in a budget friendly way. It also brought me new friends and true understanding of the importance of peer recommendation.
Below is the video that shows that first Qype experience.
2: Social Media – Without Twitter, I would not have the social life or business connections that I have now. My first week in London I attended a social media cafe event called ‘Tuttle’ and a few weeks later I attended my first London tweet-up in Shoreditch. These events expanded my network and introduced me to other events coordinated via social media including Twestival, London Bloggers Meet-ups, Silicon Stilettos and various conferences. The list is long, but I’d like to mention some of my favorite people that I have met along the way: Mat, Darika, Josh, Mauricio, Lewis, Dom, Litman, Laura, Stuart, Melanie, Kai, Willem, Fernando, Alfie and Conor. There are many others who have been friendly faces to look forward to at each event, or even in random passing on the streets, but this list includes those people who have become friends. They are my dinner dates and drinking buddies and they are inspirational and encouraging.
3: Central Saint Martins – 2009 was also the year I returned to school for my Masters. I chose a program called Design Studies where the students from multiple disciplines come together to tackle briefs in a collaborative way. While many MA programs are based solely on research, this program also had a practical element, which I found to be more relevant to my needs. In the end, I tackled the subject of trust and how having an online/digital presence could strengthen trust in offline relationships. While my final exhibit was not a mind-blowing demonstration of my knowledge, I am perfectly comfortable with the wisdom gained from this project. While I do not have my degree in hand yet, I have completed my MA and can walk in full cap and gown glory in the summer.
4: Visits – I wouldn’t have thought I’d see my family so much this year, being abroad and all. My parents came in the spring and we set off for Paris for a few days and also had a couple days around London to visit. Then, in the summer, they flew over to Vienna for a cruise. I flew over to meet them for a quick visit. In September, I went home for a few weeks before returning just in time to have my sis and niece visit. We had such a blast! We did video-blogs for Lauren that were so cute. I loved seeing her discover London. It reminded me of why I loved this city so much after my first visit.
I also had a chance to visit with many friends who were either passing through or spending a few days in London. This list includes:
Steffi – a friend from Holland that I learned to surf with and went to school with in Australia — came to see me (twice!)
Chris – an ex-boyfriend/now friend — came to study the archives at the British Library for this PhD in Theatre (plays with absinthe!)
Megan S – a co-worker from BR — came over with her MBA class, we had dinner at Jamie Oliver restaurant Fifteen (yum!)
Megan R – one of my best friends from KC and former classmate at Oxford — here for work (please send her back for more!!)
Vince – a co-worker from BR and all-around great guy/good friend — here on holiday with his bros, it was bonus that I was here (haha)
Matty – Hendrix/Choir friend – here on holiday and was the one who set me up with a singing opportunity at Westminster Abbey (bless!)
John De- American Idol PA friend — here to photograph a wedding, and again, I was bonus (good times!!)
5: Sam – The majority of my year would not have been complete without this wonderful guy. I can say without hesitation that he is my best friend. On many occasions he was the voice of reason and encouragement, my caretaker and my ass-saver. He made me laugh until I had tears more times than I would care to admit – it seriously became a joke. We traveled together to Dublin, Brighton, the Cotswolds, Derbyshire and Vienna; played ridiculous amounts of Scrabble; and watched hours and hours of tv episodes. I have very few memories from this year that do not include him, which tells you how big of a part of it he was. While I dont know what the future holds for us, I’m glad he is in my life for now.
Finally, here it is: Lauren’s last Look at London video. I had such a great time with her here (and my sis too) and hope that she enjoyed her first big trip abroad.
I also wanted to include a few outtakes and some clips that were edited or left out. She’s funny kid.
Christmas Shoppe, Pet Stores and Toys, OH MY! We hit Harrod’s before seeing Billy Elliott and Piccadilly Circus. We had a tired trooper on our hands! The long days were catching up. (approx 5.5min)
After leaving the London Transport Museum, we went to Loch Fyne to have some fish. This is the same place where Lauren tried her first oyster. While she didnt care so much for the oyster, she did love the small bowl of peas that came with her dinner. She loved them so much that it was quite fitting, as we were about to see Oliver!, that she was asking for more. Her mother, being ever-so-happy that more green anything was wanted by her daughter, sent in the order, which arrived in a MUCH larger bowl.
See the results:
Following our sticky toffee pudding, we headed to the theatre. Thanks again to Charlotte who arranged the fabulous seats.
It’s funny to hear what Lauren thought was so awesome. Then again, I think at her age that I would have been impressed by the kid dancing too. While the music is still catchy and Fagin, played by Omid Djalili, was hilarious, there’s still some tough subject matter in there for an 8-year old to grasp.
On our walk home, we left on the Stage Door side, so we hung around and saw Bill, Fagin and Nancy (the Nancy video is not included due to bad footage).
All in all… we had a great day and an even better evening!
We left Buckingham Palace via taxi and headed to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, which was a perfect location for pre-theatre fun. I have been in the gift shop many times, but never actually in the museum. It’s an extremely kid-friendly place, with lots of interactive exhibits, but also has a lot of information that adults find interesting. Big thumbs up.
Here’s the second video diary of Lauren’s visit to London. Daily dog count was somewhere near 20 when we left Greenwich Park, but I forgot to write it down and we didn’t record the final number on video.
(approx 9min)
