turtle and mole go to england!

maybe i should change our blog tagline from “home in progress” to “life in progress”..? i know it seems like all i ever write about these days is kittens or social events, but sometimes they just make cuter photos! don’t worry, all you home DIYers, more “gritty” house stuff coming soon.

i thought i would cry saying goodbye to my kittens for a week, but they had so much fun with uncle larry, they hardly noticed us packing and leaving.

our first stop: king’s cross station to pick up train tickets. of course i had to visit platform 9 3/4. we didn’t see harry potter or the hogwarts express but it was fun anyway. (note: because the station was under construction, they had this (left) temporary fake display. (right) this is what it normally looks like.)

after an hour on the train we arrived in brighton. stella and chris were busy-busy as usual, unloading puppets from the van. we got to see darren and meet beccy and returned later that evening for indian take-away. because of the plane flight and time change i finally got some sleep after 32 hours of being awake!

(left) this is where we stayed in brighton, with stella’s 87 year old friend magda. (if you look closely at the top, right balcony, you can see magda waving.) you’d never guess she was 87, this woman has more activities and social engagements than most people half her age. (right) this is the view from our room on the 8th floor.

the day after we arrived the weather turned surprisingly sunny and warm, even hot by california standards. these are views of brighton beach. mathew visited a couple years ago but i hadn’t been here in 20 years!

(left) we wandered around brighton and found a cool graffiti cat, then took the train and arrived in london (right) and found some very unusual looking cats on a window sill. they looked like show cats, slightly creepy but still cute. my brother thinks mathew and i often meet cats when traveling, i guess that’s true.

(left) the very blue building and door of the apartment we rented in fitzrovia, near soho. (right) a very cool bridge between buildings? or is it art? this building was just to the left of the royal ballet school in covent garden.

(left) everywhere we went, people crowded the sidewalks and pubs, enjoying the warm weather. (right) priscilla queen of the desert, i’m sure it makes a good broadway show, since it was a great musical, visual movie.

(above) our night walk by the thames.

happy birthday to me! (left) on my birthday we had sushi for lunch and (right) various baked goodies around london.

(left) later in the day we wandered to hyde park where lots of people were enjoying the sunshine. (right) a chocoholic birthday pig out. various cupcakes, a whoopie pie, a brownie and a triple chocolate cake. honestly, all a bit disappointing (by san francisco standards) but a fun way to celebrate my birthday.

the next day we took the train to hassocks and stopped into a pet store beccy recommended, not for their supplies, but for their free-roaming animals. there were more cats than we could count, rabbits, guinea pigs and a parrot who could say “hello,” meow and “bock” like a chicken!

(left) sleeping kittens that reminded me of arwen and bella. (right) the largest black cat i’ve ever seen, sleeping in the scale on the counter. does mathew look concerned?

the reason we were in hassocks was to help decorate and set up the wedding reception hall. (above) mathew and his cousins, jethro and darren testing the sound system and listening to misha’s cd!

they liked it!

taking a break from the prep work.

after we finished with the hall, we met up in brighton for an indian dinner with beccy’s family and friends. (left) beccy! (right) brothers, darren and jethro, trying to demonstrate their facial similarities…

the next day was the wedding day! (left) here we are all dressed up and waiting for the bus with magda.

darren and beccy are thespians so the wedding was held in a theater and felt very much like a once in a lifetime performance. guests were asked to dress theatrically, and that was definitely open to interpretation.

darren is a puppeteer, so his friends gave a puppet show. there were poetry readings and also songs where the audience was asked to sing along.

it was a beautiful ceremony and probably the most unique and creative i’ve ever attended.

(left) darren’s mom stella with someone’s baby. (right) mathew’s mum, sue flew back from thailand to be there with everyone.

after the ceremony mathew, sue and i went out to lunch. little girls stopped and stared at me on the street. most brighton visitors don’t dress up like princesses. i definitely felt like i was wearing a costume that day.

(left) after a short train trip to hassocks, we were greeted by singing tigers at the reception. after a while darren and beccy looked like they had had enough of the singing tigers, but the singing continued as the tigers crowded in on the bride and groom. (right) dave, sylvia, mathew and i seemed to be the only ones who found this hilarious and slightly disturbing; we couldn’t help our laughing fits.

a happy bride and groom.

happy parents of the groom.

(left) darren’s brother, jethro gave a hilarious yet touching best man’s speech. (right) apparently darren found it hilarious too.

since we missed the official family group photo after the ceremony (we were catching up with relatives from sweden) we did our best to take some photos during the reception…

…but it was difficult to gather everyone together at once.

(left) mathew with his aunt karin and cousin sylvia. (right) me and sylvia.

(left) there was a really great band that played swing music. (right) and of course, it wouldn’t be a party without DJ jethro. here he is posing with cousin aaron. mathew says we wouldn’t have had music at our wedding reception if it wasn’t for jethro; he was the only one who knew how to work the professional sound system we rented.

(left) sue and jethro. (right) mathew and karin.

it was a late night followed by an early morning as the brighton marathon was starting just below us at magda’s. as many as 15,000 people were running in the race and it was amazing to see all those people warm up on the field then queue up for the start.

(left) we spent 4 nights at magda’s and every morning we sat down together to a breakfast of cereal, toast, fruit and tea. (right) here i am watching the start of the race on the balcony with magda.

we spent that afternoon with mathew’s mum, aunt karin, cousin sylvia and sylvia’s boyfriend, dave. the visit was over before it really began so i’m lacking in photos, but i got to snap a few of interesting buildings and design. (left) i love the contrast between the old and new that you see everywhere. (right) this shop window was filled with cool antique sewing machines. the display even continued around the corner on the left.

that night we had dinner with stella and chris as they were winding down and just starting to relax after all the wedding festivities.

the next day we packed up our bags, left a surprise thank you gift for magda (she was out being her busy self) and headed to london. (left) we spent the entire afternoon catching up with sylvia in a cafe. it was a really nice visit. just before we left, the rain started pouring down, signifying the break in the amazing weather we’d had. (right) we got on the tube and headed north to visit phil, a high school friend of ours who now lives in england with his wife, hannah and daughter, lily.

after a nice indian take-away dinner (did i mention how much indian food we enjoyed on our trip?) we sat around talking until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. the next morning phil left for work much too early and we got to spend a little time with hannah and lily before they rushed off to work and daycare.

next we were subjected to very grumpy flight attendants and sat uncomfortably on a plane for over 10 long hours. i’d never been so excited to get home, i couldn’t wait to see bella and arwen. and i think they were happy to see us.