Mellor High Life - The Champagne of Blogs

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Day 6 Correction by Elizabeth

Hi all. The previous post, written by my mom, contains a very big mistake. If you noticed it, or if you thought the fact that there were only two Hogwarts scarves available at Platform 9 3/4 strange, congratulations. If not, you should really re-read the Harry Potter books.

Sorry folks, what my mom failed to mention is that, as many of you know, there are four Houses at the school of Hogwarts, and all four scarves were available at Platform 9 3/4. Along with Gryffindor and Slytherin, there is Hufflepuff, whose colors are yellow and black, and Ravenclaw, whose colors are blue and silver. The reason my mom only noticed Gryffindor and Slytherin is that they are the most popular, the best (Gryffindor) and the worst (Slytherin). Again, I apologize for this blatant mistake in the previous post and assure you I will do my best to prevent it from happening again.

-Elizabeth

Day 6 Tower of Terror

Today was another beautiful day in London so we left Shelly and Garett at home and headed to the Tower of London with the four kids. Ryan navigated us down to the Finchley Road Tube station and we took the Metropolitan and Circle lines to get to Tower Hill station. Ryan really wanted to take a more complicated route, but we convinced him to follow his mother's suggestion. After following the crowds into the tower, we let Ryan conduct the tour. The Beefeaters were too busy. We visited the Traitors' Gate, the White Tower, the Bloody Tower, and several other towers. Unfortunately, the line for the Crown Jewels was probably about 2 hours, so we had to skip that. (A good reason to return to London...)

After the Tower we headed to Eat. which is a lunch/sandwich take-away place. Unfortunately, it was about 3pm by then and the place was cleaned out. We followed another suggestion of Ryan's - we ate at Subway. It was mostly the same, except that one of the veggie options next to the lettuce and tomato was corn! None of us tried it though.

After eating we headed for the Tube again. This time we took the Circle and Northern lines to King's Cross station. We wandered around the station a bit until we found the infamous Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 and the trolley cart stuck in the brick wall. The British have taken full advantage of the popularity and have a photographer and an assistant to stage your photo. The assistant will wrap you with a Slytherin or Gryffindor scarf and hold it out in back of you so it looks like it is flying behind you as you run through the wall. Again, the line was about 20 minutes long, so we just took a person-less photo. John's going to photoshop Elizabeth into it.

It gets dark very early in London. You can see the long shadows in the pictures below. Yesterday at Hampstead Heath we noticed the sun was starting to set at 2:15.

All in all, a great day. Poor Shelly and Garett though - they missed all the fun and had to clean the flat while we were gone. In the peace and quiet...hmmm...

Love to all,
Terri

Waiting for the changing of the guard

Changing of the guard - Welsh guards

Inside the Tower of London - note the long shadows at 12:22 pm

Tower Bridge

Outside King's Cross Station at 4:46 pm

Platform 9 3/4 - somehow taken without a single person in the frame!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

A Walk in the Mud

Today we took advantage of a sunny day in London and went for a long walk. First we walked up to Spaniard's Inn for lunch. Spaniard's Inn is one of the oldest pubs in London and was built in 1585. It was written about by Charles Dickens in The Pickwick Papers and also in Bram Stoker's Dracula. The poets Byron and Keats were also said to be patrons of the pub. Apparently everyone else had the same idea today, so we were relegated to the garden to eat our lunch. Luckily there were patio heaters!

After lunch we continued our walk on the Hampstead Heath. John and Shelly went to Kenwood House to check out the recently completed renovation and the fabulous art collection. Meanwhile, the kids climbed a tree while Garett and Terri debated the pros and cons of dog ownership. From there we walked back across the Heath to our flat. Given all of the recent rain, the Heath was one giant mud pie. The kids enjoyed it, but they had to change shoes and jeans once they got back.

We also made a brief stop in junk alley. Shelly found two small silver spoons - a sugar shovel and a salt spoon. Bargain - both for 50p!

Garett took this picture of everyone in front of Spaniard's Inn pub on the edge of Hampstead Heath

The Indiana Mellors tried their first Scotch eggs (it's the heat lamp making everything look red)

Eating lunch in the garden at Spaniard's Inn pub - Paul, Grace, Elizabeth and Ryan

Shelly & John (to the left) in front of Kenwood House - Hampstead Heath

The kids walking up the hill towards Kenwood House - blue skies!

Grace, Ryan, Elizabeth and Paul on Hampstead Heath

Grace, Paul, Ryan and Elizabeth climb on a fallen tree in Hampstead Heath - out of the mud

Paul sitting outside of Paul Bakery in Hampstead

Elizabeth waiting in queue for the phone

Friday, December 27, 2013

Let's Try Day Three Again

Today was "Let's Try Day Three Again" so we took the Tube to head for the British Museum. This time it was open. We spent several hours admiring the Egyptian and Greek treasures that were "rescued" or "liberated" by the British. After our visit we walked to Regent Street to Hamleys, the famous toy store. Five stories of chaos to purchase. Grace had a gift card to burn and found a few things. Hamleys was quite crowded, but we managed to get a photo of the royal family.

In Front of the British Museum

A Caryatid from the Acropolis

A column from the Acropolis

Paul eyeing an Egyptian bird

Metope from the Parthenon.

Tomb in style of the Greeks. John was appalled at the obvious mistakes in proportion and intercolumniation. Clearly not Greek. Seriously...

The Royal Family made out of LEGO bricks in the famous London toy store, Hamleys. Notice Harry off to the right.

We finished off the day by catching the #13 double decker bus to ride back to Hampstead.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Boxing Day

The day after Christmas is Boxing Day in the UK. We thought we would check out the British Museum today, but found out it was closed because of the national holiday. So we took a quick walking tour past some of the other major London sites: Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square. Then we came back to the flat for turkey sandwiches and Garett's homemade goodies - fudge, truffles, sugar cookies and the last of the mince pies. The kids were banned from using all Apple products - so it's been an electronics-free afternoon. The good old days...

Indiana Mellors (Paul, Terri, John, Elizabeth, Grace) and Ryan in front of Big Ben ("Giganto clock" according to Grace)

Paul, Elizabeth and Ryan in front of the Houses of Parliament - London

Seeing a black cab - one of the things to check off the bucket list

Grace showing us how big Westminster Abbey is

Grace is ready to post a letter in the red pillar box

Trafalgar Square - standing at the base of Lord Nelson

Posing with one of the four lions in Trafalgar Square (Elizabeth, Paul, Grace, Ryan)

And the requisite silly pose...

Giant blue cockerel on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square

(Terri here.) I had to add the photo of the guys.
Notice the giant blue cockerel is roosting on Paul's head.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas Dinner 2013 - London Style

Merry Christmas!!

Ryan and Grace were the first ones up today at 7:00 a.m. They ripped open a pile of gifts while the rest of the Mellors were still in bed...still a little jet lagged. Garett has been in "his office" all day. He brined a turkey, made sausage and apple stuffing, cranberry and orange sauce, fondant potatoes ("hockey puck potatoes" according to Terri) and roasted brussels sprouts with pancetta and pistachios. He also made a lemon meringue pie, which is delicious but very tart!

We enjoyed a couple of British traditions, such as mince pies and Christmas crackers. Everyone wore their Christmas crown for dinner.

The kids are starting to slow down. I will have to have a word with Santa about putting loud clacking toys in Ryan's stocking. Somehow they mysteriously disappeared this afternoon. We've Skyped a lot today and we still have a couple more calls to make. We hope you are having a wonderful Christmas wherever you are. We miss all of you!

love,

Shelly

Elizabeth and Ryan discussing the best strategy to open a Christmas cracker

A classic Grandpa Voecks photo op of everyone around the dinner table (that's Terrance the bull on the wall above the mirror wearing a festive Santa hat)