Harry Potter tour and afternoon tea

Halloooooo !!

Boem, week 7 has come and gone. Jees, I can't believe that I'll be leaving in a little over 6 weeks. I am not sure how I'm going to feel about it then, but at this point, right now, I really do not want to leave this wonderful city...

But, enough of that, because I have an exciting blogpost for you today. Well, for the Harry Potter lovers out there at least.

As usual, here is my weekly video. This one was extra difficult to edit because my editing program gave me a hard time. I guess it couldn't handle the awesomness of th HP WB studio tour... I was seconds away from smaching my laptop against the wall... So frustrating... Anyway, here it and make sure you give some exra love!

But before I get along with the post, I'd like to say something: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MUM!

My folks were in town
Before I jump to Sunday's activities, my parents stopped by on Saterday. It was very lovely to see them again 'live' after seeing them every week on a screen.

We agreed to meet at the Big Ben. As romantic as it sounds, for us it was because it it was a central point for u to meet.

Big Ben

It was an easy day. Walked around a bit, visited the Whitehall banquetting house and I saw real Rubens paintings. Yes, I know, awesome. And I got some English history with it, so that was lovely as wel.

We did some shopping, because you know, you are in London. You can't not do some shopping. And I discovered all these little streets next to Oxford street. It was super cute and cosy.

But most of all, we had some very lovely chats. I am a very lucky that I can talk about basically everything with my parents (and yes, I know you are reading this, but you already know this, so, nothing new for you). It was just a very quiet and easy day. No hassle, stress or anything.

Harry Potter WB tour

Door to the Great Hall

Sunday was d-day. Molly and I were going to go to Watford. Most important day of our lives. A dream come true (yes, on my bucket list you can find: visit HP WB studio tour). Our tour started at 17h30, so we had more than enough time to get from Lee to Watford. Well thank god we left on time, because it appeared that the trains were not riding, so we had to take a bus, which meant our traveling time would be longer... Anyway, we arrived at the studio a head of time, so we nosed around in the shop. Excitement all over the place. It seems lame, you know, all the goodies, all the toys, all the candy, etc. You know very well that a wand has no value to your day-to-day life, but at that point, you just really really really want one. Thank god Molly and I are in our early 20 and well aware what is useful and what not (at least most of the time we are). But most of all, thank god we are 'trained' in retail communication. We know the tricks the store holders use on us poor clients, so we didn't gave in to our enthousiasm. I actually do still think about the cardigans. They looked really soft, warm and comfy... Yeah, now I'll have to go back, don't I?

When our tour started, you could feel the excitement running through our group. It was kind of reassuring that I am not the only one who really likes the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling. Everyone is there because they like that world as much as I do. It is always nice to be surrounded with people who like the same things you do.

Words of wisdom by J.K. Rowling

I'm not going to tell you too much about the tour. You have to go and see it for yourself, but you can see bits and pieces in my video and here are some photos. To get the general idea.

To me, it was an unbelievable experience. I literally walked into my childhood. I could get lost in that world for hours and hours. The books and the movies. And now, to be able to see everything with my own eyes... It was a bit like time traveling.

Mirror of Erised

Privet Drive 4, where the story began

Diagon Alley

Great Hall

Hogwarts bigature

Life's greatest mystery: solved

After the tour, like, 2h30min later, we began our journey back to Lee. Thank god everything went smoothly. But as Molly said: it is an adventure :)

Afternoon tea
After the excitement on Sunday, Monday was a bit 'meh, what should we do today?' It was a bank holiday after all. So Molly called a hotel in Blackheath to make reservations for a proper English afternoon tea (another 'thing to do in london' we can check off our list). By 2p.m. we sat at a table next to a table with 3 elderly women who were happily chatting away the afternoon. Molly and I had a lovely afternoon tea at a decent price. Afterwards we sat on the blackheath enjoyed the weather, as long as there was no wind. And we went back home at a decent hour, because on Tuesday we had to go back to work. Oh, hard reality.

Work
Eventhough work is not as evenful every day, there is still a lot of laughter going on. And sometimes really funny things do happen. Like on Thursday... We work with a lot of products and we are involved with the development part as well, not just the selling part. So when new goods are designed and developed, they send a prototype to the office so we can check it. Sometimes that involves in actually product testing, which can be very hilarious. Here are two colleagues testing some suites in the office... 

Home sickness: none
London city: still big love. But since I heard that my housemate has been mugged, I feel a bit betrayed. It is really sad what people do for an iPhone.
New people: on Friday after work, I went yet again to Leicester square and I sat on a bench. All of the sudden this older man starts talking to me. Those who know me well, know that I usually do not appreciate things like that, especially when I have my iPod on. But, you know, I felt chatty that afternoon, so I ended up having a 20min conversation with Luka. He was there to visit his brother and his little daughter. He lives in Stockholm and has met apparently a lot of other people around the world. But if you have the courage to start a conversation with a complete stranger on Leicester square, I am not surprised about that. We talked about house pricing in London, art and fashion.
New word: customs= douane
Music: Last week I added a link to a song that was on repeat on my iPod that week, here is the song for this week: 'Til kingdom comes - Coldplay  

I'll leave it here. If you made it to the end of the blog: congratulations and thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it.

xo - Sara