Catch-up Blog #1: Crossing off the final pair of to-do's...

Family,

And a good Sunday morning to you from across the Pond in the frozen tundra that is London after another GREAT DAY in the Mother Country. Seriously - the two photos below are images I just never thought I'd see in London. I mean, the Globe might be warming, but Britain somehow clearly didn't get that memo...

You'll get a recap of the (FINAL) weekend's activities tonight, but for now I'll cover off all that transpired on Wednesday and Thursday, namely the completion of the "Countdown to Exodus Checklist!!!"

So a little backstory here - As I'm sure anyone who knows us will confirm, Team Taylor is pretty serious about planning in advance (case in point - me handing GC my list of vacation days for 2006 ON JANUARY 1ST OF THAT YEAR). Once we got extended 6 months, we made a day-by-day calendar to ensure that we could fit in everything we wanted to see prior to departure. And whilst we didn't see a West Ham game (unfortunate, since they are STILL in the relegation zone), I am SUPER pleased to report that, effective 10:00 PM on Thursday, Team Taylor officially crossed off the only other remaining item on the list.

On Wednesday, Team Taylor hit a show that we had been wanting to see since AUGUST OF 2009 - "Warhorse." Seriously, this show has been sold out EVERY NIGHT since our arrival, and we had heard NOTHING but amazing things. And when you add in that a) Spielberg is about to turn it into a movie and b) they were THE MOST EXPENSIVE TICKETS WE'VE BOUGHT OF ALL OUR SHOWS, you naturally expect great things. Well, we should have lowered our standards.

Our seats were amazing, and the choreography and direction was very cool - lights, blocking, rotating stage, etc. Most impressive, of course, was the horse, which was actually a puppet controlled by 3 people. The show itself, however, was a little light on plot and somewhat disappointing. I'm really glad that we saw it, but for those of you contemplating catching it on Broadway (it opens March 2011), I would say skip it unless you a) REALLY want to see it and b) can get REALLY cheap seats.

The walk home (whilst FRIGID!) was nice, as Muffin and I walked "in a winter wonderland" along Oxford Street, enjoying the snow pouring down and the lights set up for Christmas. That part really was magical.

On Thursday, Team Taylor was BACK in the West End, this time to see the FINAL SHOW on the list - "Love Never Dies." This show, Andre Lloyd Webber's latest AND the sequel to "Phantom of the Opera," was actually pretty good. We had GREAT seats again, and we definitely enjoyed this one a lot more. That being said, the show was a bit helter skelter in places AND had a BRICK WALL ending. All the same, much like watching James Cameron's "The Abyss," the show was definitely worth the blung for the first 2 hours of it. I will tip my cap to the dude who played the Phantom, as he could flat WAIL - Michael Crawford's got nothin' on that guy. Also, Webber did score another tuly iconic song in the second act of this one - expect this to appear on his next greatest hits album.

And because it simply must be stated: U-C-F! LET'S GO KNIGHTS!!!!! Liberty Bowl bound, baby!!!!!! WOOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!!!

Okay, it's time to get out and get after it - our final Sunday in the Smoke! Chat later today!

Love,

Sam and Jenny