Horseguards, back and front

Covent Garden Tree

Boxing Day Baroque

Chamber concert at St. Martins in the Field.

Ghost of Christmas Past

Former house of Charles Dickens decorated for Christmas.

Westminster Abbey Nine Lessons and Carols

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

This is my new favorite thing- condiment udders. You just squeeze the bottom to put ketchup and mustard on your hot dog. Who knew?

There was also an animatronic moose head that sang Christmas songs in German while fake snow was falling. And roller coasters with Santa. Basically amazing.

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks

Candlelight Carols

 

Royal Albert Hall. The musicians dressed up in 17th century costume.

Somerset rink revisited

 

They have adorable little penguins that the little 'uns can push around while they are learning to skate. So precious. 

The Lion in Winter

 

Trafalgar Square

Christmas tea at the Ritz

Christmas turkeys

Dressed in Holiday cheer

Oxford Street Lights

It's a Panto, Possums!

 

We saw Dame Edna help Dick Whittington rid London of rats to become Lord Mayor. Dame Edna was hilarious and positively sparkly.

Christmas Ball at King's College

Dinner dance at King's College with the Sanger folks.

Eppie Man

Meet Eppie Man, a lab-mate of mine. Someone dresses him up in costumes relating to current events. Now he is a reindeer for Christmas holding an advent calendar with a different drawing for each day- today is his face on a Christmas pudding! We don't know know who dresses him up, but I am his friend on Facebook!

Free Tree

I got this for free- someone at work was giving it away. We are working on the decorations. It is nice to have a little festive cheer.

Ate: Scotch Eggs

Scotch eggs= egg with mayonnaise wrapped in sausage meat and bread crumbs. I like it. Served with beans and Yorkshire pudding.

Team 15 Christmas lunch

Guess what Secret Santa got me.

Murray's Christmas lunch

Laundry Days

This is one of the few things that I dislike about the UK- laundry. Dryers are uncommon so you have to drip dry next to the radiator which I don't mind except my towels aren't so fluffy. But what gets me is how long it takes to wash- sometimes up to 3 hours!

American Stuff

Ice Skating at Somerset House

Melissa's birthday do.

Mill Road Streetfaire

Let the countdown begin

Italian countryside

Siena

Il Campo

Royal Guard and Paddington Bear

Regent Street lights

London from atop St. Paul's

Happy Thanksgiving

Gettin' jiggy with it

Tate Modern

Lord Mayor Show

I do like a good parade. This one was the mayor of London taking his office. He goes by the church and gets blessed and then stops by the court and goes back home. He's the guy in the bottom photo waving his hat to the crowd. There were lots of really neat uniforms and people representing different guilds from back in the day (clockmakers, furniture makers, loriners, farmers etc.). I even saw a marching band on horseback. I guess that's not really a marching band, but really impressive.

Addicted

These are a-mazin'. I first learned about Battenberg cakes from my new favorite TV show: The Great British Bake Off http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_British_Bake_Off The contestants had to make full-sized versions. Then I saw these little darlings in the store and I couldn't resist. I didn't have high hopes for a store-bought dessert and expected a twinkie-equivalent. I was delightfully surprised! They are sponge cakes wrapped in marzipan with a hint of apricot jam. The original Battenberg cake was made for a royal wedding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battenberg_cake. (Amy: I think you should get a recipe and give it a try!)

Static

My return to trapeze (albeit static and not flying)!

Remember, remember the Fifth of November

Big Brother

In the UK, they like to watch people. There are so many security cameras everywhere- my work has over 170! This is the monitor that sits above my desk so we can watch people in the Containment Level 3 room and make sure they are ok when working with nasty bugs. See Del in the bottom left panel. Don't worry, I don't have plans to go in that room anytime soon.