Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Ma comes to London!


Ma and I in front of Ben!
Me near my house!
Me being silly at Hairspray the musical!

The week before last my MA came to London! I picked her up on Thursday at the airport. We hugged 87 times and both started crying. We got her a clam chowder card … oops I mean an oyster card, right Pa? Ma couldn’t stop laughing as the train lady announced at every stop that our train was headed towards Cockfosters. Hehe! She stayed in the classy bit of west London near Notting Hill Gate at the Garden Court hotel. First thing I took her to my school (not because it was the best part of the city though). She met the headmaster and all my tutors. Zoe yelled at me for not sketching enough (7 pages in a week isn’t enough?!) and so Ma got on my case and made me sketch every time we sat down for more than 3 minutes. Ma and I rode a double decker bus to Trafalgar square. We walked tourist row through St. James’s Park in front of Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the houses of Parliament. We went to Wagamama’s for dinner and walked the south bank by the London Eye. I went home for the night. I met Ma at her hotel and Friday we went into my work!!! She got a visitor’s pass and we got in free to the Constable and Richter exhibits! We had to hustle to get lunch at my favorite sandwich place and run up to the British Museum to meet Zoe for sketching class. Ma got lost in Egypt for 2 hours and Zoe and I drew Greek sculptures. Zoe was flustered by people getting in her way and because mine was going better than hers! Ma and I got tea and then got tickets to HAIRSPRAY! We walked down to Covent Garden and had dinner at the cheap and delicious Tesco Expresco (it’s actually tesco express, I think it needs the extra sco though, don’t you?). OH and we saw people erging for charity! I was so excited and almost regretted not bringing my uni! We headed to the theater for a little shake and shimmy 60’s music! Ma and I sung and danced along the entire show. We were sad when it ended, so I kept it going and sang and danced all the way home! I slept on the floor in Ma’s room. Saturday morning Ma and her wattage-convert-less curling iron got in a fight and sizzled off a chunk of Ma’s hair. Ha! We tried to go to the Brick Lane, it was kind of lame and in a dodgy bit of town. So we got cream tea and just chilled. We headed to Harrods in the most anti dodgy part of town you can get. It was beautiful! We spent 2.95 on a little card, but wanted to spent thousand of pounds on feather and jewel embedded dresses, pink canopy Chitty beds and mini Hummers. We were both exhausted from walking so much! So we ended up chilling for a while at the hotel before dinner, the hallway smelled only faintly of burnt hair by then. Ma and I followed Rick’s suggestion and went to this amazing little Thai food place in the back of the Churchill Arms Pub. We talked for like 3 hours. On Sunday we found a bus that took us to Hyde Park where we caught the tube to Leicester square for the St. Patrick’s day parade. We went to the National Gallery in the afternoon and then got BLTs and ate them in the park. We went for a walk through Kensington Garden and Hyde Park. We skyped with Pa and went for a late Italian dinner. On Monday I sent Ma to Buckingham palace and I went to class for a few hours. We met up in Trafalgar square at 2. We went to the Modern Art Museum. Ma’s favorite… not. It kind of gave us headaches because it was so weird! In one word: huh? We headed up to Finchley for dinner at Ros’s house! It was so good and I ate more than Ma, Annie and Sara combined! Ha, well at least individually! I went back to Ma’s hotel with her. Ma and I packed up and went to South Kensington where she tried to find a Tesco to buy candy and cheese twists for the boys at home and I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum for class. Ma headed to the airport to go home ☹ She said she didn’t cry until she got on her plane.

We had a great time together and it was cool to be able to be an expert London tour guide! I was so happy to have a little taste of home though. It wasn’t until I saw Ma at the airport that I realized how much I miss home!!!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for being such an awesome tour guide! I loved our talks and miss you lots too. Don't worry, my hair is growing back now. Who knew?!

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  2. Good. I was worry about ma's hair!

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