I woke up and promptly put on some Tchaikovsky to listen to while I got ready. One cannot listen to Tchaikovsky and resist the urge to do a bit of ballet. A porte de bras or two at the least.
So as I was curling my hair, I was simultaneously doing some balances, slipped and burned my neck with the curling rod. I suppose this is why my career in the ballet was short lived. I've always wanted to suffer for my art - so I can check that off my list.
The exhibit was filled with paintings I had never seen, and could not tear my eyes away from. There was a whole room devoted to "The Little Dancer Aged 14" which I always secretly pose next to when I see, and wonderful old panoramic photos of Paris in the 1800s. Degas was one of the first to capture movement in his art, which was the whole study of the exhibit, and something I had never really focused on before. He so perfectly captured the inside world of the ballet and the beauty of the dancing and the costumes. I could stare at his brushstroked tutus all day.
The last bit of the exhibit was a 10 second film clip of Degas walking down the street in Paris in 1912. I watched it over and over again, taking in every detail and wishing I could walk down the street captured in the film.
Can you imagine that Paris?
If Paris today is as totally breathtaking as it is, imagine it in the 1900s. Imagine a Paris with no cheesy tourist shops, without chain stores lining the Champs Elysee and Starbucks just outside the Jardin de Luxembourg. Imagine a Moulin Rouge where Toulouse Lautrec sits in the corner sketching and drinking Absinthe. Imagine lace-glove-covered hands holding a macaron, belonging to a chic Parisian woman sitting in Laudree after shopping on Avenue Montaigne, and Hemingway smoking inside Cafe de Flore while he writes.
If only I could go back in time and experience that Paris. I think I would have been better suited for that time than today. I wouldn't blog, but rather write in beautiful, twirly cursive in a fancy journal about my afternoon in rehearsal at the Opera, and Mr. Degas sketching me as I stretched. I would have been a dancer in the ballet of course. I would be friends with all the great artists and watch the Eiffel Tower slowly rise into the sky for the Worlds Fair.
When I first saw the movie "Midnight in Paris" I was convinced that Woody Allen made it solely for me. If only we could be transported to another time and experience what life was like.
After leaving the exhibit, I came about as close as one can.
I popped in Fortum and Masons, an old department store on Piccadilly Street that was founded in 1707.
Walking through the doors, I felt as though I had stepped into a place where time stopped ticking long ago. The rich carpeted floors, crystal chandeliers, and thick molding on the ceiling make you feel like your in a beautiful home. Fine wood cases holding beautiful tins filled with loose leaf teas, and glass cases filled with candied fruit and marizpan mice fill the circular footprint of the ground level. The fine double staircase leads to beautiful floor after beautiful floor of sterling silver napkin rings and lace handkerchiefs, gorgeous glass bottles of specialty perfumes and decorative soaps, and a small collection of British designed gloves, handbags, and of course - hats, is set up like art in a museum. People were even behaving like they were in a museum. Instead of shoving and bumping and shouting, everyone walked around slowly and calmly, picking up items like they were fragile as Faberge Eggs and talking softly to each other. I've never seen anything like it.
And oh, the cards! The cards in this country are out of control.They are gorgeous, incredible, and often abnormally large. Even the cheapy ones in the grocery stores are amazing. In America we often think "oh I'll just find a dumb, cheap card since they're going to throw it out anyway," assuming you're even going to send one.
Some times we skip cards all together these days, even on occasions where cards as definitely in order. But you couldn't find a crappy card here if you wanted to. Or a cheap one! So for the rare person who loves cards, and actually still sends them - like me, you've hit the jackpot. Fortum and Masons has a card selection the likes of which I have never seen.
Every year, there is a fierce competition among my siblings for who can find the best Christmas card for my mom - a very serious card lover. I have been the reining winner of the competition for the past few years now, and lets just say that today, I secured my win yet again for Best Card 2011. Victory will certainly be mine.
Each floor also has it's own restaurant, my favorites being the Afternoon Tearoom on the top, complete with the plush, pink couches and Tiffany-blue tea trays filled with miniature scones and pots of cream that looked too perfect to be real. I cannot wait to have afternoon tea there with my parents when they come to visit in the spring.I felt under dressed to be shopping there in jeans. There is no other department store I have seen that is so perfectly persevered, and really makes you feel as though you have stepped back in time. The whole thing is just simply, wonderful.
I grabbed a quick bite before I jumped on the tube towards Knightsbridge. My church had a candlelit Christmas carol service, which finally put me in the Christmas mood.
Because of the lack of family and also snow, it has not seemed at all like Christmas to me yet, and it is only a mere 2 weeks away!
The concert was lovely, but there were a fare share of carols that I had never heard of before.
Like, "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" and "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day." I couldn't exactly sing along to those! I felt like interrupting everyone during the service and saying,
"Pardon me, but are you sure that these are Christmas Carols? How about we sing a verse or two of Silent Night instead?"
We did sing my favorite one though, so I couldn't complain. Nothing puts a bigger holiday grin on my face and joy in my heart than singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" in a beautiful church with an organ accompanying and a choir leading the way. On the last note, I finally felt like Christmas was officially here.
So, I have decided that this is the Christmas Spirit week. I kicked it off with the carol service tonight, and the rest of my week includes seeing the Nutcracker at the London Colosseum, a Christmas Concert at Westminster Abbey, attending Handel's Messiah at Royal Albert Hall, A Christmas Market and Concert at the London Zoo, a Wartime Christmas 40s style party at the Royal Airforce Museum, and ending with a Carol Service at Saint Paul's Cathedral.
When I commit to an idea, I really give it my all.
So prepare for a week of mistletoe and holly, as I get very, very, jolly and experience a proper, English style Christmas!
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