And so the adventure continues...

February. I have pretty much settled in now. Found my routine(ish), met most of the faces at school and began to cover my bedroom walls with photos, posters, cutouts and the like. Now I will cast my mind over the past month and pick out some highlights for you to envy over : P

I have Monday afternoons off, so I made use of my first one and walked to Highgate Cemetery <http:></http:> home to George Eliot, Christina Rossetti and Karl Marx... But it was closed when I got there. So I wandered through Waterlow park and back through the Heath, seeing the most beautiful sunset from Parliament Hill. I then walked home via Keats House <http:></http:>

During another busy week of SHHS choirs, orchestra's, bands, and basketball teams I went to the Royal Academy of Music <http:></http:> And saw the most amazing, FREE, concert of 2nd and 4th year jazz students with Julian Segal and Oran Marshall. Pretty much changed my life.

On Saturday I went to a Travel Expo at Earls Court with one of the substitute teachers from school to get some inspiration for my holiday travel. Once I was expo-ed out, I walked through Kensington, passing lots of Watangi Day festivities, making my way to the Victoria and Albert museum. There I met Aude, a French Au Pare. We had a look around the exhibitions together which was nice and swapped deets at the end.

Beautiful lanternsSunday was Chinese New Year! The festivities started at 12, so en route to China Town I stopped at the Wellcome Collection and saw an eye opening exhibition on the history of drugs in Western Society. The day was full of presentations, parades, performances, fire crackers, lanterns and street food. And it was SO busy, but a lot of fun.

The school week started again with a Chamber Music concert in one of the local churches. I also found time during the week to have a look around the next suburb across, Kilburn and Willisden Green which was cool. The whole of this city is just dotted with amazing parks, architecture and things. Its wonderful. Tuesday night I decided to go along to a Merbecke Choir <http:></http:> rehearsal (Because no one had replied to my e-mails) and ended up singing along and having an amazing time which resulted in a new recruitment : D Yipee. It also ended in the pub (as is the natural progression in this part of the world) and I met this AMAZING bunch of people : ) Oh and I also picked up my bike this week. Yay!Portobello Road

Saturday I went to PORTOBELLO MARKET, taking my bike on her maiden voyage. My new found love. <http:></http:> I spent all day wandering through the stalls. There is absolutely everything. Vintage clothes, antiques, jewellery, watches, cameras, collectables, shoes, furniture, bicycles, food, produce... just all things lovely, glorious, inspirational and wonderful. Just wow. I also met the most charming man, Leonardo, who owned a little stall and has been a seller for over 50 years. We are basically BFFL's now : )

Sunday I left for Scotland, which I have written about already... So I'm going to skip ahead.

Saturday (after I got back) was Brett Dean Day at Wigmore Hall, and the lovely Kiki lined up a free ticket for me, so on Saturday night I headed into town and we met up. Yay! We went out to some coffee and cake for a good catch up before watching the most amazing chamber music concert I have ever seen. Just magical <http:> Afterwards we went out for some Italian. Yum.</http:>

Sunday I headed east to Islington and went to Candid Arts Gallery to look at an exhibition. After that I rode to the Museum of London which is a fantastic museum. It was absolutely packed with Half-term kids which was a bit of a bummer, but it was still good. It takes you all the way from prehistoric London to modern day values and attitudes of Londoners. An amazing insight!

Then it was time for school to recommence. Busy busy busy. I went to Choir again on Tuesday, which picked up my spirits (even though I got lost on my way there). Wednesday I had the oportunity to go to an open rehearsal of the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Simon Rattle! Talk about WOW. Best quote from one of the students - "This is what heaven would sound like". Cuuuute.

The rest of the week was quiet. Just spending my spare time in the library or on the internet planning some more holidays. It is so exciting. I think I am still recovering from my Scottish trip. Plus I have the most persistent cold in the world. 7 weeks and still going strong!

Now for another jam packed weekend before month 3 begins! Who knows where I will end up today!

I feel like I have been getting a pretty good grasp of this city now. I don't even have to agonise over the money at the checkout anymore, definitely a sign that I am finding my feet.

Scottish Experience

How naive I was about travel in the British Isles! I always considered London as the whole of Britten, so I could tick it off my list now. An hour on the plane, and I was in a different world! Different culture, history, music, accent, food... Definitely experienced some, as Leo would put it, DSL - Deep Scottish Love. Here is a selection of my daily doings...

Day #1: My morning began with me almost not getting there. The temperamental lock on our gate forced me to jump the spiked fence at 6:45am. I landed in Edinburgh at 11am and made my way to High St. Hostel. I started my Scottish exploration with a free walking tour, seeing: Parliament, Holyrood palace, Pubs, Flodden Wall, The Observatory, Statue of Ferguson, Historic water pumps, St. Gilled Cathedral, Guillotine sites, The Elephant House and a whole pile of other historical and interesting sites in the Old Town. I then met up with Annie and we went to the White Horse, a tiny little pub, to get some chow, attracted there by the little band playing in the front and the quirky bar man. After the music finished, we met some friends from the hostel for a pub quiz night. We went spectacularly bad. But it was fun.

Day #2: The start of our 3-day, Skye-High tour. All 22 of us piled into the yellow Haggis bus at 8:30am to start our Highland adventure led by the charismatic, geeky and hilarious Leo. Our first stop was in Sterling at the William Wallace memorial. Then we met some Highland Cows - Heather and Hamish. We drove through Callender, the oldest town (demographically) in Scotland, and saw Falkirk. Tyndrum was next, before we drove through the largest uninhabited space in Europe. A whole 58 square miles. We then stopped at Glencoe and heard some Scottish history in the shadow of the Three sisters, before seeing our first Scottish Loch - Loch Leven. Another first was in Fort William - The Ben Nevis Malt Whisky distillery. It is potent stuff. We charged through to Fort Augustus to see a presentation on the Scottish clan's and their way of life; led by a man who has climbed Everest, twice, and climbed every mountain over 3000m in Scotland with his dog. he also went to school with John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was really eyeopening. I also volunteered to dress up in traditional dress, and wore a costume which has also blessed the shoulders of Madonna and J-Lo. We also saw David get his kit off to wear a kilt. We went to Morag's Hostel and had a really good feed before hitting the sack, listening to all the party animals in the pub downstairs.

Day #3: Today was the Isle of Skye. After starting the day with some authentic Scottish porridge, we drove through the mountains and it was the most beautiful thing I think I have ever seen. Everywhere looked like a postcard. We stopped off at Loch Garrie, which is in the shape of Scotland and had some fun in the snow. Next was Eilean Donan Castle, at the meeting point of three Lochs. We then went across to the Isle of Skye; saw fairy falls, the Old Man of Storr and Kilt rock. We then went past the Cullondin Mountains and listened to Leo tell us folklore stories at the River Sleikin. The story goes that if you immerse your face in the water for 7 seconds, you will have eternal beauty. Not sure how that went... Then we climbed up some mountains and enjoyed the scenery. Absolutely breath taking. We then made our way back round the Isle of Skye to Fort Augustus for a good feed.

Day #4: We started the day with a hearty Scottish breakfast before going to the inspiration for J.M.Barrie's Never Neverland in Invermoriston. We then saw Urquhart Castle, the only castle on Loch Ness. Then we went down to the waters edge and did out Scottish Haka to summon Nessie. Ross also took the plunge and went for a dip in the famous Loch. After that was Drumnardroicht, home to Grounds Keeper Willie. On our round route back towards Edinburgh, we went through Inverness and saw the place where Macbeth killed King Duncan. Then we stopped off at Cullonden Moor, a really sombre location where the Jacobites were defeated by the English. For lunch we stopped in a little village pub and I popped my Haggis cherry. It just takes like a hamburger patty with mashed potato and gravy to be honest... We hit the road again, stopping once more at a little hermitage to see the unofficial tallest tree in the UK, before making it back to Edinburgh over the Forth Bridge. After such a massive tour, an early night was needed.

Day #5: We (Annabelle, Lucy, Georgie, Bex and I) had a slow morning, before tackling Arthur's Seat. Unfortunately the weather was against us, and the fog hadn't burnt off by 11 when we reached the peak... We can cross it off the list though. We got a bit lost in the mist on the way back down and went on a round about walk through Holyrood Park back to the Old Town before walking around the cemetery and going to the museum of Edinburgh. We then said our goodbyes to Annie. I went shopping for a while and then went to the Scottish Library to see some original works of Scotland's literature greats. I then had a night of unfortunate events and missed two Ghost Tours but ended up in a little Jazz Club for some Thursday night tunes which was cool.

Day #6: I started the day with a walk around the Botanical Gardens, admiring all the first spring blooms. Then I went up to Calton Hill, the first public park in Edinburgh and home to Nelsons Memorial and the National monument amongst others. After that I did some souvenir shopping before browsing around the Museum of Scotland which took me from prehistorical Scotland, through the Roman settlement and the Viking invasions to the Modern Day. Then came the time to day goodbye to the capital as a caught the bus to the airport for my journey back home to London.