2015 Country of Living: England in LONDON!

Another eventful year, starting off with the sad loss of our cat Casper after a long illness then a lot of travel and other things never mind the significant update to this web site that also occurred in the summer (see Welcome to the NEW stevedrice.net).

A bit of travelling…

• January - Trip to Banff for Mel's niece's wedding and a bit of skiing
• April - Went to Guernsey for Easter long weekend. Wonderful and relaxing place.
• July - Visited Cornwall with Mel's family at a rented cottage (an old mill). We then visited Stratford for Steve's colleague's wedding reception on the 11th, and had a reunion with Steve's VSO colleagues on the 18th.
• November - The big trip of the year was our trip to Malaysia and Australia for two weeks. We visited with Steve's VSO colleague in Malaysia as well. Amazing. See the Malaysia/Australia Journal 2015

We had a few visitors that stayed with us this year:

• March - Mel's friend Victoria
• June/July, October then December - Steve's mother
• July - Mel's sister visited us for a few days
• July/August - Mel's mother visited us for a week

It was yet another eventful year. We were able to do a lot including (see my events list later in this post for more):

• 15th - Chobham (Fairoaks Airport) - Helicopter flight - This was my birthday present for last year that had to be delayed. A lot of fun.
• 21st - London (Business Design Centre) - “Spring Stampex 2015” (Stamp Show)

• 7th - London (Elstree Aerodrome) - Flying lesson - My first one and it was a lot of fun with my being at the controls for almost all of the two hours.
• 11th - London (Kensignton Vue Cinema - Now closed) - ENO “La Traviata” (Live Opera Broadcast)
• 27th - London (Olivier Theatre) - Treasure Island (Play) - Incredible staging

• 12th - London (20 Fenchurch Street) - First visit to Sky Garden - Great views of London and free too (just need to apply for free tickets)!
• 12th - London (Museum of London) - Sherlock Holmes Under the Microscope exhibit
• 15th - London (The O2) - Sting and Paul Simon (Concert) - Wow. What a night! Fantastic music and an amazing audience.
• 25th - London (London Transport Museum Acton Depot) - Acton Depot Opening of the London Transport Museum with a great display of trains, buses and other artefacts of Transport for London. Open quite infrequently so definitely worth a visit if you can get a ticket.

• 7th to 10th - Nottingham (Theatre Royal Concert Hall) - “Sweet Adelines Region 31 Convention 2015 - Attended to add my support to Mel and enjoy the performances. Mel not only directed her chorus London City Singers but also sang in her new quartet “Road Trip”.
• 16th - London (Business Design Centre) - International Philatelic Exhibition (Stamp Show)
• 23rd - London (Maida Hill Place) - Attended the inaugural dinner popup event of Maynila featuring “Le Happy Chef”. Great food and a lot of fun.
• 24th - London (Syon Park) - Foodies Festival (Food Festival)
• 30th - London (Notting Hill) - “Fragrant Thai Green Curry” (Cooking Lesson) at Jamie Oliver's Recipease (sadly, now closed) - A lot of fun.

• 3rd - London (Lyttelton Theatre) - Paul Merton talking about his life and new book “Only When I Laugh”
• 5th - London (London Zoo) - Sunset Safari - Really interesting to visit the zoo after normal hours and talk to the keepers. Lots of good food and music too.
• 27th - London (Warner Brothers Studio) - Warner Bros. Studio Tour: London - The Making of Harry Potter - Incredible and definitely a must see for fans not only of the series but also people interested in film making.
• 27th - London (London Colliseum) - “The Pirates of Penzance” (Light Opera). Quite good fun.

• 3rd - London (Trafalgar Square) - Royal Opera House Big Screens (Live Opera Broadcast) - Don Giovanni
• 8th - Porthcurno (The Minack Theatre) - “A Chorus of Disapproval” (Play). Fun play and an amazing theatre right on the ocean.
• 23rd - London (Queen Elizabeth Hall) - Midsummer Night's Dream (Play/Music). Performed by Garsington Opera and members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Interesting to see the Shakespeare play performed with the music by Mendelssohn in a modern setting. Lots of fun.

• 1st - London (BAFTA) - “Summer Explorers! Japanese Anime Screenings” (Film Festival) put on by The Japan Foundation
• 21st - London (Notting Hill) - “Mexican Street Food” (Cooking Lesson) at Jamie Oliver's Recipease (sadly, now closed) - A lot of fun.

• 1st - London (BBC Broadcasting House) - “Click” (Radio Taping) - A show that talks about technology and this show was about drones
• 16th - London (Business Design Centre) - “Stampex Fall 2015” (Stamp Show)

• 30th to November 1st - Bournemouth - LABBS Regional Convention - Mel's quartet singing!

• 18th - London (Old Truman Brewery) - Foodies Festival (Food Festival) for Christmas

Well, coming up I have a trip to Dallas for work in early February, then in March we are going skiing in France. Hoping to get to Spain for the Easter holiday weekend but we shall see.

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Visit here for my review of 2014.