Week 12: November 19-25
- Katie & Webster
- Nov 25, 2018
- 4 min read
Our week began like most weeks do with Webster heading to soccer on Monday night. They didn’t win the match but he had a great time. I caught up on the new season of Narcos and got some laundry done for the week.
On Tuesday we stayed home and I booked FastPasses for Disney. It was a cold and rainy night so it was nice to stay in and relax.
On Wednesday Webster worked from home and met me for lunch! We went to our usual spot at Buckingham Palace and took in the view. Since we only have 20 work days left, we are definitely making the most of our lunch time dates.
On Wednesday night we headed to Harrods to see the Christmas windows! They were all decorated for the holidays so we spent some time walking around the building. Then we ventured in to look at all the things that are WAY above our price range :) Harrods is a beautiful store, and even more beautiful at Christmas time when it is all decorated.
After we left Harrods we were walking towards the tube station. All of a sudden a man, who was walking the opposite way of us, hit Webster in the face. Webster fell and began to bleed. The man did not say a word and proceeded to walk away once Webster was on the ground. The minute he was punched, I screamed as loud as I could. Within seconds a crowd of people were around us helping and making sure Webster was okay. A Doctor was one of the witnesses and he quickly began helping Webster. The police arrived in 10 minutes and took our statements. Webster was feeling fine and stopped bleeding after about 30 minutes. He even wanted to take the tube home but I insisted we suck it up and pay for a cab. When we got home we put some ice on it. I had a good cry and then called home.
We are so thankful to have each other while on these adventures. With all the good, comes some bad, but we aren’t letting anything get in the way of our fun in London! Webster is doing fine, he has no bruising and the swelling has gone down.
On Thursday, we ventured an hour outside the city after work to visit Kew Gardens. Kew is a huge botanical garden with beautiful grounds. They put on a Christmas special each year and we were lucky enough to get opening night tickets. We arrived at 5:30 and headed on the trail. Thankfully it wasn’t raining but it was a very chilly night by London standards. They had beautiful light displays, but we expected more of a Christmas theme. There weren’t many snowmen shaped displays, or Santa Claus things, but it was fun to explore the trail. It took us about 2 hours to complete the whole display stopping along the way to see everything we could. We ventured back into the city around 8pm and made a warm dinner after a chilly night out.
On Friday we spent the night packing. We have some special guests coming to visit us next week and we are going to send most of our things home. We have done a lot of our Christmas shopping here so it was nice to clear out some of the things we have been storing in our very small flat. We treated ourselves to Chinese food and spent the night watching a Christmas movie!
On Saturday we woke up very early and got on a train to Brighton! This is something that has been on Webster’s list for a while now so we were happy to finally be able to visit. Brighton is a small city, in the south of England right on the ocean. We took a train and a bus from central London and made it to Brighton by 10:30am. We started our day at the beach, walking along the water. Brighton has a pebble beach, so we didn’t get any sand in our shoes. Webster even touched the water!
Then we headed up to the Brighton Palace Pier. It reminded us a lot of Santa Monica Pier lined with games and food, a place made for tourists in the warm weather. We spent some time walking up and down the pier looking into shops and watching people play games.
Afterwards we headed to the oldest aquarium in the world! We spent two hours looking at funky fish, sharks, jellyfish, octopus and even Nemo! We were both very brave and touched a starfish! It was fun a fun way to spend the morning/early afternoon.
Then we headed to a famous fish and chips place for lunch. Of course I had chicken🙄
Our last tourist stop of the day was at the Royal Pavilion. This old palace, now museum, was once King George's summer residence. It was cool to see the Indian influence on his vacation home and walk around the grounds.
We ended our day visiting with Madi, a friend from Laurier studying at the University of Sussex double degree program. Madi was one of my students in Conrad Hall and it was so nice to catch up and hear about all the fun she’s having in Brighton. Madi was an all star in first year so it was no surprise to hear she is doing so well!
On Sunday, we enjoyed a little sleep in and then met another friend from home for lunch! Sarah and I were dons together in Waterloo College Hall last year. She is in exchange in Slovenia and was visiting London for the weekend. We enjoyed a great few hours together catching up and sharing travel stories.
Then, Sunday afternoon we got all dressed up and headed to the X-Factor! We were lucky enough to get priority tickets for a seat in the audience at the semi final show! We were 50ft from Simon Cowell, Louis Tomlinson, Ayda Fields and Robbie Williams. It was so fun to be in the audience for the live show! (And in case you were wondering, yes, Simon is just as much of a diva off camera as he is on!)
We headed home on the last train leaving the studio back to Central London. This week we are so excited for some special guests joining us in London - stay tuned!
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