Holidays, London Style

As of this past Wednesday I was finally feeling healthy enough to get out of my room and go explore the city a bit more. So I took my first opportunity to get back out to Hyde Park and finish walking around the enormous fields of grass. Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens are adjacent to each other, and I really wanted to explore the latter, so all I really had to do was just keep on walking. Not really much to say about this little excursion: trees have lost their leaves, skies were gray and bleak, but Kensington Palace was pretty magnificent, and it's still a huge park. Here are some pics from that day:

Bird Chillin on a Statue in Kensington Gardens

A view of Kensington Palace from the gardens

The next day I managed to get out to the Imperial War Museum, a short busride away and actually a really interesting site. There are enormous tanks in the lobby, comprehensive WWI and WWII exhibits (from a non-US perspective), a really jarring Holocaust exhibit, and an intense, 30-minute film on genocide playing on the top floor. One of the most amazing things was a scale model of part of Auschwitz. Something about seeing the camp in physical form that gave the events there a new power. It was kind of a depressing afternoon, but nevertheless educational and thought-provoking. Sorry, no good pictures from there because it's a museum.

In the midst of my exploration my friend Irfana returned from her adventures in Greece and Turkey. We had tentatively planned to make a huge Christmas dinner, and we spent Friday going shopping for the meal. Here's what we planned: salad, Southern "Soul Food" Mac and Cheese, Roast chicken stuffed with mushrooms, asparagus, green beans, and a cheesecake with strawberries and kiwis for dessert. Some pictures from the night:

Ingredients

Irf stuffing the chicken

So much food....(we had to cut out the salad before we even started eating)

Defeated Chu (half a bottle of wine, a stick of butter with some mac and cheese, lots of chicken)

Dessert (cheesecake from Borough Market...no this wasn't just me, we split this)

For my dad, we drank a Chateau Declau Bordeaux, 2002. It was a pretty smooth wine...that's really all I'm qualified to say.

On this Christmas day London is completely shut down: all public transportation, pubs, even movie theaters. So I'm sitting here digesting my X'mas eve meal, as most people do. My first holiday season away from family and friends was a little tough, but soon enough work will pile up and I'll wish for a day where I can stuff my face with food and just vegetate in a food coma. On a brighter note the Niners swept the Rams this season, although they lost the first pick in the process...

Happy Holidays!

Roger