Boring weekend

Jim had a fantastic skiing trip last weekend, but unfortunately came back with no pictures due to a slight technical malfunction involving losing the camera somewhere in the snow, somewhere on some mountain in the Alps. So, I am forced to blog about our not super exciting weekend here in London instead.

The first major accomplishment of the weekend is that we got me a new camera to replace the one that is still off skiing. Then we headed for a morning walk in Hampstead Heath. It was foggy!




After a long nap, Evie drooled all over Jim's ipod.


Then the real fun started because Jim and I had a DATE! We headed off to a restaurant called Dans le Noir? All of the wait staff at the restaurant were blind and we ate our meals in the dark with the idea that not being able to see would heighten our awareness of the food and our other senses. Our ears certainly were aware of the people who were seated next to us. Apparently not being able to see made them feel that they should compensate by screaming across the table. But once they left and we could hear each other again, it was fun to talk about the experiences we were having trying to eat our food (with our hands, a lot, and not with knives) and attempting to identify what exactly we were eating (mostly we got it completely wrong). It was a relief to find out that I still like to hang out with Jim, even when I can't see him! Here are a couple of pictures from before dinner, since obviously we couldn't take pictures in the dark room.



Another cold and dreary Sunday, but we dragged ourselves out onto the town for some window shopping and a visit to the National Portrait Gallery. Evie walked.

And then gazed longingly at the balloons in the local toyshop. We are aware that we're going to have to start walking on the other side of the street once she can vocalize her toy store desires.



We saw Mary when we were waiting for the tube and Evie got some hugs:


She was very grown up and walked along without her buggy while we waited for the train. AND she was very responsible and held my hand without any protests or theatrics. She has been known to sit down in protest in the past, but I think she knows when I mean business about the hand holding.
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Riding on the tube in her own seat would have been exciting if she hadn't seen a friend eating a snack across from her. So, that distracted her a little from the experience and we had to pull out the emergency granola bar.



On Tottenham Court Road, we perused the electronics stores in search of a replacement cable for our external hard drive (they don't make them anymore) and then for a new external hard drive (TOO EXPENSIVE!). We wandered towards Regents Street for some window shopping. En route, we stumbled into Liberty, which is a famous London Department store I had heard of in my sewing class, but never visited. They are known for their prints and lots of seamstresses go there to get beautiful fabric for dress making and beyond. Besides that, they have beautiful designer bags, clothing, jewelry and fun gifts (most very out of our price range, but fun to look at) and the building, with its wood floors, exposed beams, large windows and nice lighting was a pleasure in itself. We enjoyed wandering around.



Back at home, we decided to do some headstands.





Impressive, I know. We're thinking of starting a circus once we have Finchley trained. Hopefully we'll have an early spring because I need some better blog material in the form of country walks or sunny days in warmer climates!