Naturally, I should pick up from where I left the catch-up process before I left in all senses -- London.
The first time I set foot in London this trip that didn't include an airplane hanger was on Hallowe'en, a holiday the British don't find worth much celebration. This whole idea was a bit of a shock to me as I've always loved Hallowe'en the best of the holidays for multiple reasons: my birthday's near it enough to warrant costume parties each year, it's a holiday that celebrates getting free sackfuls of candy from strangers, and it's a bit macabre. You can imagine my delight, then, when I found out that I was going to be able to celebrate my Hallowe'en in one of the world's best-known cities attending a reading by one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman.
A couple friends of mine, Katie and Lisa, rented a room in a hotel that night and got all dressed up to see Neil Gaiman at the UK release of his newest book, The Graveyard Book. Both Katie and I dressed up as 'characters' from his stories -- she was Coraline from the book of the same title that is currently being made into a film, and I was a babycake.
We got decent seats in the balcony in an event that sat 600 and we tucked in for a fantastic narration of Chapter 5: Danse Macabre, followed by a signing. It was an exciting moment for me for a few reasons: I got to meet the Neil Gaiman, I got my roommate's favourite Gaiman book signed (for whom I have to thank for getting me into Mr. Gaiman in the first place), and Neil ate one of the cookies I baked for him (a GF spicy chai cookie). And about my costume he said, "That… is… perfectly disturbing. I love it." It was nerd-heaven.
The night ended well enough and when we woke up the next day we ran around doing more nerdy things, seeing some sights we were looking forward to viewing in London. Admittedly, it wasn't the mainstream tourist stuff -- all three of us had been to London before and hit all the notable landmarks on walking tours. We became fast friends with the Underground system and were on our way to seeing the sights of the city.
Of course we went to Platform 9 3/4 -- what kind of proper nerds did you think we were?
We also went to the British Library, the British Museum, and Kensington Gardens, of course. It was pouring, though, and it was hard to enjoy it completely. Plus, how could it ever live up to the night before? Haha.
Soaked through, we made our way home and recovered for a couple days before decided it had been far too long since we had had frozen yoghurt. Katie and I grabbed Janine and dragged her along with us for a nice day out.
All of this was just a bit before the next holiday celebration, though -- Guy Fawkes Day!
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