Happy Birthday to ME!

So, after a great week with five days of full day teaching came the hands-down, best day of the entire year: MY BIRTHDAY! As of Friday, I am officially 25 years old, a quarter century, twenty-and-five. Let's all take a moment here to let that sink in.

How did I spend this once-in-a-lifetime milestone? After work, I came back to the house and, with my mom's help via Skype, picked out an outfit. I grabbed the Tube over to Victoria and there I met up with Christa and we walked over to the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Why you ask? Well, because for my birthday Christa had bought us tickets to see...

Yup. Wicked. I saw WICKED (the 7.30PM showing, to be exact) and it was incredible. Well, okay, the first song that Glenda/Galinda sang must've had a mic issue because she sounded like bad opera, but everything else about it was terrific. I loved the acting - it was just the right blend of seriousness, comedy, romance, and fourth-wall skirting. I loved the story - which had a surprising twist ending I did not see coming. I loved the actors, especially the ones play Elphaba, G(a)linda and Fiyero. I loved the stage and watching all the set changes. I mean, hell, check it out:

It was just an all around awesome experience and I can't thank Christa enough for the gift! (Although I can repay, of course, when her birthday comes around in November.) Oh, and also? I ended up buying myself a Wicked hoodie - officially called "Color Block Logo Hoodie" - and it's so soft and warm! Got it oversized, of course, for extra cuddly value.

Afterward, since it was so late, most of the restaurants we tried were either closed or not serving food, so we ended up grabbing Burger King and heading back to my place where Christa slept over after a failed attempt to watch the original Wizard of Oz flick.

Saturday, we grabbed brunch at Giraffe by Big Ben, then headed over to haunt Shepherd's Bush for a spell before catching supper at Nando's and seeing Django Unchained. It was a phenomenal weekend! Definitely set itself as the birthday celebration to beat, LOL.

Oh, and as a final extra special something, I already know that I'll be teaching the full of next week at the super-casual school I mentioned and what can be better than having your whole week booked before it even begins? Let me hear you say BOOYAH! Happy Saint Patty's Day, peeps.

Uneventful Events

So, last week was pretty uneventful; with GPS void, I pretty much had an entire week of TA work (well, four of the five days at any rate). On the weekend, Christa came over and we booked our trip to Paris for the next break coming up in April and then went to the cinema to catch Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. It was a pretty good movie and I loved Jeremy Renner as a diabetic, kickass Hansel.

This week went a heck of a lot more exciting. TA work on Monday, but my consultant agreed to pay me my full teacher's rate. I had a half-day of teaching on Tuesday in south-west London; the commute was brutal but afterward I met up with Christa for supper at Nando's near London Bridge on the Thames. Wednesday's teaching was at a school in Hackney, probably the only school in London that doesn't have uniforms and has students calling their teachers by their first names. There was a new school on Thursday near Wembley stadium and a great good year three class that, according to the TA, could have been even better. I ended my week with a trip to Slough and Nursery.

Today is Jeeves' birthday so yesterday he came to town and we went to the National Portrait Gallery (which has portraits of bunches and bunches of historical figures from the last five hundred years or so, most of them noble). We grabbed a meal at T.G.I.Friday's then walked over to Big Ben and Westminster station where we parted ways. I went on to meet up with Christa and head over to the theatre to see Oz, the Great and Powerful. I was so excited - I am such a huge Oz fangirl - and the movie didn't disappoint. Now it's just five more days until my own birthday...can you say impatient much?

Like I said, not all that much going on - especially when you can't take photos of the museum exhibits and you're trying to completely bore your readers with play-by-plays of the movies you see. Given that next week's my birthday, though, I'm sure I'll have more exciting news then.

Until next time, my dears!