Depending on how you look at it, London has been blessed or cursed with a fair bit of snow over the past few days.  For me, I love it!  It’s just hovering around freezing which means it’s not too cold to be out for a stroll or to shoot a few shots.  If you happen to have any desire to travel to or from London itself by any of the available means then it’s more akin to an extended Freddy Krueger style nightmare with very little chance of escape.

The Canadian in me can’t help but chuckle a little bit at these catastrophic weather events that bring tens of millimeters of snow and drag the city to it’s knees.  Back home we call this sort of weather June.

Not one to be an ungrateful foreigner who moans about the country I feel I have to say I really do love living here.  But honestly, every year the snow falls and every year the government & transportation services look up into the sky and claim that Armageddon is at last upon us.  Everything shuts down for days while some department does a feasibility study on whether or not the country should invest in the infrastructure that would be able to handle such a mild dusting of snow.

The answer comes days after the snow is gone and is inevitably No, which sets us up perfectly to do it all again when the next blizzard arrives.

Anyway, the whole reason I was out on Saturday night (after consuming festive beverages the four nights prior) was to celebrate a friends birthday and enjoy some of the pre-Christmas spirit.  As a result, I felt at the time that my photos were a lot better than they actually were, hence all of the heavy processing to salvage a few of the shots.

There are a couple more in the gallery as per usual.

Over the weekend Lee, Matt and I wandered down to Regents & Oxford streets for a bit of street photography.  The city was kind enough to close the roads to traffic on Saturday in order to encourage the Christmas shoppers to come out and play.

And come out they did!

It was essentially an orgy of advertising with loads of branded freebies being handed out and big screen televisions reminding us of what products we need to buy and which musicals we should see.  I know, musicals?  I was surprised too.  Those crafty thespians are getting wise.  There were some folks who were there just for the fun of it though.

Move over Santa, this year I’m sitting on Boba Fett’s knee and telling him what I want for Christmas.

From the throngs of shoppers on Oxford street, we decided to make our way to Hyde Park to experience the Winter Wonderland and the throngs of shoppers there.  The second group of shoppers were slightly more bearable, I think due to the close proximity to mulled wine, beer and Bavarian sausages.  We managed to find a bit of beer ourselves.

The Wonderland is infinitely better this year than it has been in the past.  Previous years had a sorry showing of maybe a dozen stalls and a few standard carnival rides that had been smothered in Christmas decorations to make them seem festive.  I’m sorry, but putting your 15 foot Grim Reaper in a red jumper doesn’t automatically mean your haunted house ride becomes full of yule tide joy.

This year they pulled out all the stops.  At a guess I’d estimate there were over a hundred shops and stalls and most were fairly unique and interesting.  There was no end to the sausage stands or mulled wine vendors, you almost had to feel sorry for the lonely Chinese food stall that was set up.  Nobody comes to a German Christmas market for sweet & sour chicken balls I’m afraid.

Saturday was actually my second visit to the Winter Wonderland, and I don’t imagine it will be my last either.  Definitely worth a visit or two, even if you’ve already finished up your Christmas shopping for the year.  Yea right!

There’s a few more photos in the gallery.

A quick afternoon along the south bank which ended at Doggett’s for our annual viewing of the Lord Mayor’s Show, and a few pints to celebrate Brian’s bday.  I had to forego the pints due to my voice-box crippling sore throat, but I did manage to get a few shots of the fireworks from Blackfriars Bridge.

I managed to get set up just as the fireworks started, so not much time to get the settings right but here are a few of the shots from the evening.

It was a short display, and not very colourful but any fireworks are better than no fireworks!

I went out with Lee again for a bit of a wander around the city.  No real purpose in mind apart from a bit of street shooting (that neither of us are that comfortable with) and to just get out as I hadn’t pulled my camera out of it’s bag since the Ukraine.

There are a few more shots in the gallery.

With our nerd badges affixed firmly to our lapels, Robert and I were off to this years Film and Comic Con for a day of childlike indulgance and perhaps a brush with fame or two.

These are mostly just snaps as I was far to excited about all of the toys on offer and costumes on display to worry too much about shooting.  (this should be read as an excuse for the poor quality of the shots)

We circled the showroom floor more than a dozen times as there was always some new gadget out that we had to have or some new cosplayer on display that we had to see.  Also, we spent a fair bit of time just waiting around for our photo op with Captain Kirk.

All in all, a great day out and definitely something we’ll do again!

There are a few more shots from the day in the gallery.