♫ Always Look on the Bright Side of Life ♫

We bought the tickets ages ago, but the time finally came for Tessa Daniel, a fellow Fulbrighter, and I to meet in London to see Spamalot.  Tessa and I are both fans of the illustrious Monty Python; we have both made pilgrimages to the actual castle in Scotland where much of the Holy Grail was filmed and galloped around the grounds clicking our coconut shells together.  To see this story come alive on stage was every bit as ridiculous as we had hoped.  Each moment from the Fisch Schlapping Song through those who are Not Dead Yet, the Killer Rabbit and the Knights who say "Ni" right on to finding the grail was pure Monty magic.  It was, without a shadow of a doubt, worth the wait.

 Speaking of magic, since we were in the neighborhood, Tessa and I decided to hop on the Hogwarts Express. 

After pushing Tessa out of the way,  I managed to get through Platform 9 3/4.  I thought I'd end up somewhere with Harry and Hermione, but somehow I came through the wall into a red carpet gala, so I decided to hang with some of my friends at Madame Tussaud's.  

Loved you in "Shawshank Redemption" Mr. Freeman!

Whoopi!

I know just how you feel, E.T., a stranger in a strange land!

When in London....

Let me explain this to you.

It's Michelle.  She wants to know if you can pick up some milk on the way home.

To balance out the weekend I thought I should take in a bit of culture, so I spent Sunday afternoon at the fabulous British Museum.  I was so inspired by the Greek art that when I got home I booked tickets to Greece for the February break.

By the time I left London, the snow was really coming down, and when I got home my back garden looked like this:

Below is my car 20 minutes before I had to leave for work this morning.  When I saw that I had a text from Stocks Green School, I assumed it was going to say we had a snow day, but nope, it was just confirming that there would be school as usual.   Going to school today was my first chance to 

actually teach on Martin Luther King Day, so all was not lost.  I led an assembly for Key Stage 1 classes where we watched the "Dream" speech and sang along with the guitar to lots of my favorite songs from the Civil Rights Era.  Snow, schmow!  We Shall Overcome!