Hugs Always Welcome

Slightly crowded in Trafalgar Square

A rather relaxing weekend. Saturday had my hair trimmed and did checked out a nearby shopping centre with Josephine.
Sunday we ventured into the city for the Chinese New Year celebrations. MAYHEM - the only word to describe the masses of people all jammed into Trafalgar Square to see the performances.  We arrived and could not even get into the square.  We finally squeezed our way along the street until we could see one of the big screens and got a peek-a-boo view of the dragon dance. Then while they were preparing for the next performance the crowd shifted somewhat and we made out way down to the lower part of the square by the big fountains. Here we got a partial view - between heads and on our camera screens held above the crowd - of the lion dance. This dance was amazing with two performers in the lion costume, who then climbed on top of a series of poles and jumped and threw each other around while balancing on top of the poles. These guys were crazy! Next came the bowl dancers, who were far back on the stage, so we could mostly only see on the screen.
We eventually grabbed some not so good Chinese food and wandered around the square.  Getting tired of the crowds we headed towards Chinatown. This was a mistake, have not seen crowds like that since the Nottinghill Festival in August, which was frightening to say the least. So we made our way over towards Oxford Circus, which amazingly seemed deserted compared to the crowds we came from! We grabbed a delicious sidewalk waffle and then headed for home tired from all the bustle and bumping into people.

Bobbies in Chinatown

Sunday night I got the sad news that Zack is no longer with us. Wasn't really feeling well in the morning so I took the day off.  Worked the rest of the week. Glad I have been getting lots of work lately. Wednesday I spent the day in a year 1 class where I got lots of little hugs all day long :)

<3

Now I am getting my things organized for the weekend - in ROME!!
My flight leaves very early Saturday morning, so instead of going through the hassle of night buses and trains I am probably going to head to Gatwick tomorrow evening and hope to get some shut eye somewhere in the airport before my flight.
Then Saturday I will explore Rome while I wait for Mom and Chris to arrive! This is going to be a GREAT weekend :)