Back In London...Madness ensues

We are back in London, I won't say gloomy London though, as its actually been gloriously sunny the last couple of weeks - though certainly not the day we arrived back, what a yucky day that was. Though I think that was our being punished for enjoying a serious overdose of Adelaide sunshine. Also all the trees lost their leaves whilst we were away too, which made it seem more wintery and yucky on first impressions.

It's finally starting to get proper cold and by that I mean its actually now below 5 degrees and you can see your breath when you are outside. It also means I can now walk to the station and to work in a jacket with work clothes underneath and not be practically melting by the time I actually get to work. Tonight it was severely foggy and about 1 degree coming home, and it still is really foggy, and its really quite strange as I don't remember there ever being much fog in Adelaide.

I actually love the cold now, hated it in Adelaide, but love it here. Weird, but I reckon its to do with the fact that it never was really really cold and when it was you were totally unprepared (I have not forgotten the 2 weeks of winter we had last year in Adelaide without the central heating - ugh yucky).

There is something totally lovely about being all really chilly, with your breath misting up in front of you, whilst being all rugged up with a scarf, beanie and gloves, and knowing there is toasty warmth behind the door of absolutely everywhere you go. Of course this means you practically dress and undress yourself (external gear only) about 10 times a day!!! I also face the problem of walking in from the cold to the warmth and having to take my glasses off to de-mist each time too.

Christmas is nearly here now and despite the fact that we have no tree, no decorations, no tinsel, nothing Christmassy what-so-ever (we have a few cards up - but I doubt they count), it does REALLY feel like Christmas. It could be that the shops are madly busy and highly decorated (Harrods was lovely), our local street has Xmas lights shapped like Xmas trees up on the lamp posts, we have a huge Xmas tree up in the park next to our flat with pretty blue fairy lights and Stratford has Xmas lights up that look like candy canes.
Oxford Street ...I know I posted these before but they actually should go in this post!
Regent Street
One of the highly decorated trees in Harrods (oh and you should see their amazingly massive toy department...we spent ages in there)















Though I think its mainly to do with the fact that this is how I imagine Xmas should be, even without the snow, though a spot of snow on Xmas day would totally make it for me. We have been iceskating twice now, which I love (especially as I am better than Mark at it and he is always better at everything sporty (and in general)) and neither of us fell over at all.

Tower of London rink













First we went at the Tower of London, which has the pretty background of the Tower in the background with lots of blue fairy lights around all the now bear trees.
Lisa at the Parliament Hill rink













The second time we went on Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath during the day on Sunday and it was really chilled out, no stressed out staff members frantically matching ill fitting boots to ill tempered people, and we had our full hour there. I will do it again before the season is out, maybe at Sommerset House or down at the Natural History museum...

Anyways will post more later...time for bed for me