What a brilliant weekend we’ve had–both planned and unplanned! Friday night was date night, so we went to a lovely dinner on The Strand and then to see “The Importance of Being Earnest,” an Oscar Wilde classic. It was performed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket near Piccadilly Circus in a beautiful old theatre. The show was brilliantly cast and we thoroughly enjoyed it. John and I both re-read the play during the last week, so we were fully prepared. Wilde is so witty, it’s easy to miss the finer points so being refreshed was absolutely necessary. Some favorite quotes of mine:
After a wonderful show!
From Gwendolen in Act 1: “And I pity any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment’s solitude.”
From a conversation between Jack and Algernon: JACK: “Well, at any rate, that is better than being always over- dressed as you are.” ALGERNON: “If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated.”
The next evening, Saturday, was a National University of Singapore Alumni Event, a Chinese New Year Celebration called a Lo Hei (Yusheng).
The higher you toss, the more prosperous you'll be!
A Lo Hei is a selection of ingredients that are mixed using chopsticks. As the items are mixed, the participants toss the food into the air–the higher the food goes the more prosperous the new year will be. We used to do this in Singapore to celebrate the Lunar New Year–so nice to be able to do it in London, as well! The evening was topped off with an Elvis impersonator from Kent.
Snow-lah!
As we were preparing to leave the dinner the host, a Singaporean man, uttered a phrase I never thought I would ever hear uttered in Singlish: “Better go-ah. Heavy snow-lah!”. He wasn’t kidding.
As soon as walked out of the restaurant, we found London coated in a layer of beautiful white snow with plenty more coming down. It was so pretty–like something out of a story book. We were really enjoying it when we got to the Tube station and realized what a pain it was going to be to get home. The transport system had gone haywire–delays and closures everywhere. This was going to be an adventure in itself.
Cheeky, but true.
We boarded the second to last train on the Central Line heading East into the city. It was only 10:45, so people were expecting the line to be running for at least another hour and a half. As we went from station to station, the car quickly filled, to the point where I had a stranger sitting in my lap, because there was literally nowhere else to go. I’ve been on a TON of crowded trains, but this, I think, was the most crowded. The stations weren’t bad, but the cars on the train–wow!
Nightmare at Holborn
Other than the crowd, the trip down the Central Line was fairly uneventful until we got to Holborn, a stop right in the middle of the city. The doors opened and people tried to cram onto a train that had ZERO room left. It was the second to last train, people had been waiting on the platform for up to half an hour, the trains were packed, and the snow was getting worse. People were yelling and screaming to get on the train, yelling at the station attendants, etc. It was quite the scene. Fortunately, we had a fairly cheeky driver. He tried to shut the doors, which wouldn’t shut because people were hanging out of the train. The first thing he said over the speaker was “I’m the only one on the train who is being paid to sit here. You all are not. I’m fine to sit here as long as you wish. If you don’t want to go anywhere, keep hanging out of the doors.” A few minutes go by and he tries to close the doors again. Apparently, he looked down the train and it was clear, except for one guy whose head was sticking out of the train. That’s how packed it was. Because of this one guy, the train couldn’t move. The conductor gets on the speaker and yells, “Hey, guy with your head out the train. WHAT IS YOUR MISSION??” Our entire car erupted in laughter. The ride was pretty miserable, but fortunately, this cheeky conductor provided some comic relief.
Snowy Platform
A few moments later we were on the DLR headed towards our house when it suddenly comes to a stop due to “an unauthorized person on the tracks.” At this point we have been trying to get home for more than an hour and a half (the journey should have taken about 45 minutes) and we are all hoping and praying that the snow wouldn’t cover the tracks so we could get home. Once they cleared the unauthorized person from the tracks we finally got to our home station.
Snowball fight!!!
The Docklands were covered in snow–it was quite pretty. I was in heels, but that didn’t stop John and me from having a snowball fight on the way back to our flat! The night ended with a cup of tea and watching the snow fall outside our window. A beautiful finish to our first snow in Londontown!!!
View from our cozy flat!
John and CB's Most Excellent Adventure 
Loved reading about your new year adventure! Especially enjoyed your train trip….we thought the trains were crowded when we were there. Cannot imagine what it will be like during the Olympics this summer! Perfect quote about being married to a man named John…. 🙂 See you soon!