A bit of British Spirit

This week I celebrated my first birthday away from my family. I received lots of lovely presents in the post and many messages on Facebook. We went to dinner with Lee and Melissa to a lovely Moroccan  restaurant in Covent Garden and had three courses of great food. My new work spoilt me with gifts and afternoon tea with champagne. We kept our fingers crossed all week praying for good weather this weekend.

After constantly checking the weather app we decided on Thursday to risk it and buy tickets to the Proms in Hyde Park. This event is a must do while staying in London. It was so much fun. It is an open-air concert with high-profile British artists and presenters.

The night was amazing, nothing like anything we have at home. You are encouraged to bring picnic blankets, food and drink into Hyde Park. Everyone lines up in a very orderly fashion to enter the gates. There were over 44,000 people at the event. People were carrying round flags of their home countries and lots of POMs dressed in festive dress.

The night was split into two parts first was entertainment at the Hyde Park stage by acts such as BBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as Japanese drumming band from Scotland, The Overtones (Motown band), West Life, Katherine Jenkins and our very own Aussie Rolf Harris. All the Brits love Rolf Harris, he has been living in London since he was 19 years old.  His Aussie accent is still very strong and he played wobble board and sung 'Tie me Kangaroo Down Sport'. The second part was a live cross to the Proms in Royal Albert Hall. 

The second part was sort of like a Somerville House Choral festival and a Carols in the Domain. Everyone sang lots of national songs, they had the lyrics up on a screen like a karaoke night so no one had an excuse not to sing. Benny and our friend Cam sang 'Never Walk Alone' so proudly. It is the Liverpool football song so Benny sang it very passionately despite Liverpool loosing that day to a very ordinary team. We waved British flags and felt like a real POM for one night only. 

This night was a night to remember for a very long time. It was so lovely seeing people so proud of their country songs like 'God Save the Queen'. I had shivers every so often not from the cold but just how proud everyone was of their country. There were people of all ages sitting with family and friends sharing glasses of wine and food they had cooked at home. You can see from the pictures that we all had a lot of fun singing and dancing and getting to experience all the weather London can throw at you. 

Today we slept in recovering from singing our hearts out and ventured to a big Westfield. We had to buy all the final things before moving in next weekend to Putney. So everyone book your tickets as we have room for people to visit us. It is days like today that you love being a car owner. It was not fun traveling on the tube with a doonah, doonah cover, two pillows, blow-dryer and the groceries for tonight's dinner. Next weekend we are hiring a car and driving to the other side of London to our new little home. No way would I attempt moving using the tube. Sorry Benny!