a week in london with my unofficially adopted british younger sister and her family minus dad and sister

i just wanted to make that title as looooooooooooooooooooooooong as possible. so i'm back from london hooray!!! it was so fun and it was sunny! yes the sky was a beautiful shade of cloudless blue but here in leeds it is again a beautful shade of cloud white and no blue... becuase we don't get cloudless skies in leeds. however i still love leeds. i still love it even though it's june and i'm leaving in two weeks and it's not warm! and it's deserted. well actually it looks sunny right now... let's hope it holds up.
get ready for photo overload and also stockholm which i havne't put up yet from easter (well that was forever ago!)
i arrived in london on sunday in the afternoon. dani met me at wembley park station and we walked back to her house. there we chatted and then watched a charlie chaplain film... somethign about the modern machine i think that was what it was called anyway i thought of yancy and laughed hysterically it was great!
then her dad left for turkey... where they have a villa (HOW COOOOOOOOOOOL IS THAT!) and we ordered a pizza and watched top gear and back to the future three.

the next day was bank holiday monday (they really love those here!) so we went to dani's friend emily's house in golder's green near the heath. and chatted and hung around there most of the day.
here is the cutest ever toilet!


dani and emily


glowing dani and maeve!


here is a view from her parents toilet of a acropolis of a graveyard


then dani's mom came and picked us up and we went to the movies and saw the da vinci code. and yes i thought it was good except for tom hanks. but i wish i had the talent of sophie neveu to drive backwards in a smart car in the busy night streets of paris ... i did however play a video car game with yancy last night at neil's house where i managed to fall into the river backwards... so close enough i guess!

the next day we stayed at home. rafi (dani's little brother) wasn't feeling well so we watched babylon 5 MIB one and played loads of backgammon and uno
uno fun!!!!






here is dani's house
aka my home in london!


i love that house. here is her street




the next day i met my aunt kate who was also in london staying in wimbledon at the complete oppsite end of london from wembley at sloane square. now go find the london tube map and look at how this worked: i got on the metropolitan line at wembley park which is faster than the jubliee but lucky (*ahem*) for me it stopped just before we got to baker street where i was going to change and sat there for 10 mins! finally we got to baker street and there were no circle line trains coming. my aunt at this point was already at sloane square. i took the hammersmith and city line one stop to edgeware road then the district line to earls court most confusing station ever then the district line again to sloane square. needless to say i was very late and not impressed with the underground. from there we went for tea and made our way to the chelsea physics garden
hello aunt kate and chelsea physic gardens!


the next phtoos are all of the gardens so this might be (probably) boring for anyone other than my mom. so you can skip this bit unless you love plants of course!

the apotocary bit (sp?)




these were from all over the world mom

unfortuneately dead lily of the valley


garden lackey


berries


not sure


poppies and garden lacky


aunt kate examining plants


walkway


foxsgloves


greenhouse but not the fern one




little fruit tree


greenhouse


the greenhouses were beautiful


more foxgloves


random stuff




this is a ginco tree look at that vine!!!


something purple




beehive men


the garden walls are to the right in this shot.


tree prop


and wee birdhouse!!!


the tad poles i was looking at when i rang you :)


pond lilies


another huge vine!!!






iris (no not iris from the art gallery!! har har!)


mossy bench


a walkway (the next few are all from the same bit... this is paralell to the thames)








this is all from the fern house




this is like the fern you had for so long (i think... the furry one in the blue pot)






















i was sitting across from this while we were talkign




the giant ginco from before


then we went to the kings store's again to have lunch and guiness becuase you have to have guiness at the kings stores


then we went to oxford street shopping and then went home. i was a little late becuase i decided to go to notting hill gate to a bookshop that had had the female eunuch the last time i was in london but it wasn't there this time. well i got a freud book and one on v.woolf anyway so hooray! and then went home and watched some films i think.

the next day dani and i went shopping at brent cross with emily
here is dani and the lovely neighbour cat jade




here we are on the bus
'THE BUS IS MOVING AH!'


weird face


we met at starbucks and then headed to all the lovely british chains i love! H&M, new look, top shop, miss selfridges where i finally found sunglasses i was dying to find (!) and other places oh monsoon!
here i am with my top shop sunglasses (i now have two new pairs i went a little crazy with the sunglasses!) in the H&M change room

AVIATOR TASTIC!

here i am trying on a gloriously beautiful dress at monsoon


and dani and emily and random dude in the background


when we got home rafi was home feeling better... he had come home from school early because he was feeling ill. but when we got back he was back to his usual self






dani sewing an amazing dress i mean amaeveing of course


(*minor interupption due to an annoyance* so my enrollment date/time is today at 12.30 but it's 12.30 here and of course not 12.30 IN CANADA so i can't actually enroll until 5.30 here ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOYING!)

here is the foyer of their house


weird maeve photo


later rafi had to practice piano and cello so he played the cello for me which was so beautiful. breathtaking. i just love that instrument. one day i will be able to play it.

the next day i went off on my own to the freund musuem and the V&A. here is a house with a beautiful rose bush that happens to be next to freud's house but i didn't realize it when i was taking this


and cute garage


here is freud's london house how nice!!!


i couldn't take any photos inside but OMG IT WAS AMAZING. then i hoped back on the tube and got to south kensington where i found the V&A. there i saw the modernism museum and some other random stuff which included the most interesting sculpture hall which i continued to ananlyze in feminist terms... i think that's what it was. so cool. anyway this is so britishly british oustide the V&A by the way that stands for Victoria and Albert if you ever are in London adn decide to go


the V&A


at this point i promptly got lost and couldn't find the metro but eventually i did. aftre wandering forever
then i came home :)
here is dani's front door with milk bottles.. because they get milk delivered to their house OMG


and jade again hi jade!!!

that night we saw x-men the last stand. also good TOTALLY SHOCKING! you won't ever guess what happens but it's def the last stand

the next day (sat) the day before i was leaving I sat outside in the glorious sun (becuase it was so sunny and warm) reading well of loneliness. then rafi and i played backgammon and later went to 'the open space' for a picnic and a walk in the woods.
the open space

(it's a very fitting name!)

the woods


here is the pond


and commencing is the jack russle montage... THEY WERE SO CUTE! (maybe hard to see sometimes)










here is the gloriously blue sky which we now have sort of in leeds hooray!


rafi is fascinated by photography so i let him use my camera and explained it's inner workings. i can't wait till he can get into a darkroom!
rafi taking photo


then we went walking in the woods








later we went shopping in harrow and then went home and had lamb, sweet potatoe and pineapple stew and watched doctor who and a creepy film called one hour photo

early the next morning we all rose to have a farewell english breakfast - sausages, eggs (two kinds), baked beans with toast, sauteed mushrooms and tea mmmmmmmmm

and then i had to go. i hate goodbyes. i am going to miss the colmans.. i already do. anyway here is the station... goodbye wembley park


and here is my bus home


that was never ending. anyway... stockholm anyone!!!
totally completley too long but enjoy some more photos

first my train stopped in malmo which is just across the bridge from copenhagan
malmo ...


malmo from the train station anyway!


when i got to stockholm i found my hostel which was very close to the joint bus/train station and then i found a grocery store and this cute book store


i also saw a camera store that was selling hassleblads and nearly died!
after i had a snake i walked into old town stockholm which is made up of a bunch of islands
church


main street


cute street


the port


old town

at this point i got dreadfully lost and had to resort to taking the metro which was even less (i think) extensive than copenhagan's which isn't saying much!

inside a cellar cafe where the coffee was lovely and very expensive (oh it's great fun in scandinavia!)


stockholm sunset


i had a terrible night sleep that night and got up at 5am or something to go catch my bus to the train. i found this hilarious sign in the train station... he he :)


my flight left at 11.30 i think or somethign like that... and i almost missed it even though it was the only one there... i was dreadfully confused. i also managed to sit next to a strange old man. i was the last person on the plane!

and here is kings cross in london waiting for my train back to leeds hoooooooooooome!


and that's it! hope that wasn't completely overwhelming
bye for now!