Texans in London

I know I'm in trouble. Mostly because we've had a few rather momentous things happen, and I haven't posted anything about them. Worse still, I have very few pictures! *Gasp!* So I'm sorry, but in my defence, I've been enjoying life too much here to take any pictures!

We started off the year great, with our friends Jonathan and Ami from Austin moving into our house. They've been planning to come to London for a while, and as luck would have it, the other couple in our house decided not to renew their contract right when Jon and Ami needed a room! Great! (Although we do really miss Nuria and Victor...) They landed in London on New Year's Eve, at 8:30pm--just enough time to get a taxi and have dinner before the clock hit midnight. Then we spent the 1st lounging on the sofa, enjoying the utter closed-ness of London on major holidays.

And then, of course, on the 2nd, Sylvia and Risa landed, I picked them up from the airport and tried to keep them awake in order to defeat their jetlag. They were so mad at me! That Tuesday was pretty much spent just running around and getting familiarized with London.

That night was drinks and Spanish food at Nuria and Victor's new place of their own, and the girls were finally allowed to sleep.

Wednesday was museum and window-shopping day, and we ate dinner at Wagamama's.

Thursday was North London, including my shop, where Risa had her hair done.

Friday was Central London, Saville Row, and Tommy's bakery.

Saturday we laid low until we caught a matinee of The Producers on its final night in London.

Sunday was also a quiet day, with one last museum and meeting up with friends.

Then Monday, I packed them off on the train to the airport, and didn't hear from them again until 2:30 that morning, safe in Austin!

That's the short version of the trip, but I'm sure everyone has heard all about it already from Sylvia and Risa. It was really great to have them here, and hopefully they got a little taste of London life (although it was a budget life--yes, it can be done, amazingly!) I think they really got the wrong impression of London, though, since I had the whole week off, haha! Normally I don't go waltzing around London, eating out every other night and visiting museums as the whim takes me. And I hadn't seen any shows until they came over!! But I'm very glad I got to act as tour guide.

Since then, it's just back to normal life, and all the boringness of work and school. Except that we do have a fun little twist in the shape of Jon and Ami, who seem to like to cook dinner for us. Tommy mentioned last night at dinner (Jon made curry rice and golden beets, we had soy chicken with a honey-vinaigrette sauce and apricots, and haricot vert with hard-boiled eggs) that we haven't eaten as well as the last 3 weeks that they have been here, than since we lived with Byron and Melissa, and Tommy and Melissa made amazing dinner every night! All we're missing here is the Skinny Cows for dessert :( But I'm really happy to have them here for my part, because now Tommy has someone to geek out about food with, and go to the market on Saturday with to buy veggies. As long as I get to appreciate the fruit--and veggies--of their geekiness, I'm happy!

But that's life for now, just relaxing and eating great food and watching loads of bad movies on TV. The weather just turned cold today, until now it's been about 55 F outside--none of the birds have migrated, and the flowers are confused and blooming already. It's actually quite funny, but I'm worried that it means some really cold weather is yet to come. I hope everyone at home has stayed safe in your freezing temps. and I hope you got to build a few snowmen at least! So bye for now, enjoy your cold, and I'll enjoy my warm while it lasts!