Randomramblings

So after many complications we're finally in London. When we arrived at the ariport the car suddenly broke down and the person who drove us to the airport had problems getting back home. But at least, I thought, we were at the airport early enough. But a real shock awaited us when we got to the hotel. The receptionist said we hadn't booked a room, which we had as we also had a booking confirmation. I thought I was about to faint. Luckily he had a double room free. How on Earth we managed to recieve a booking confirmation by the hotel's manager (who is currently conviniently on vacation in Portugal) I don't know.

Another shock awaited us when we tried to unlock the room designated to us - there were people inside. Turns out the receptionist only made a mistake and we now have a room and we won't even have to switch rooms at any point.

Only when we got back to the hotel in the evening and saw the "no vacancies" sign put up did we realize just how lucky we were. No reservation and we got a room anyway.

Today we went to pick up the tickets to the Podcasting event and we're sitting in the Front area. But when we arrived at the bookshop we were stunned to see people already queuing for the release of Deathly Hallows. There are about 40 of them there right now and judging by the newspaper articles they've been there for two days. And now dare call me a real Potter fan.

Labels: Harry Potter, london, random ramblings

As some books are cheaper there and the selection is definitely bigger than in Ljubljana, I plan on doing a bit of book shopping in London. I would like you, dear readers, to write a few suggestions - books you enjoyed reading (and why?) - particularly books that are hard to come by in Ljubljana. I'm mainly interested in fiction, but open to something else too, especially if it's well written.

Labels: books, london

I applied for the Midnight Signing that JK Rowling will be doing in London's Natural History Museum in the wee hours of 21st July, but I wasn't selected to attend. Even before that boyfriend and I reserved our copies of the final Harry book at a London bookshop.

And now I find out that my favourite HP podcast are going to have a big Release Night Live Podcast right at the bookshop where we'll be. Lucky coincidence? I think not. :)

I've already sent out a couple of e-mails trying to get tickets for the event, but so far all apart from one of my e-mails got returned straight away. But the last e-mail did seem to get through. Fingers crossed.

P.S The hotel we booked has Internet access and I might be able to post a few short posts from London.

Labels: Harry Potter, london

A couple of days after we pre-ordered our copies of HP and the Deathly Hallows JK Rowling announced on her website she's planning on doing a midnight reading and then meet 1700 randomly selected fans and sign their books (which will be given to them free of charge).

You can only imagine my happiness upon reading - in my mind I was not only in London for the release of the final book, but also had the opportunity to meet JK Rowling and talk to her (needless to say have the book signed!). As she does very few book signings these days, such books are quite rare and people are prepared to pay ridiculously huge amounts of money (around $3000) for a signed copy.

The fact that you had to submit an application and then wait for a computer to randomly select 1700 fans (out of all the applicants) didn't seem to bother me. In my mind I was already a winner. I was already there, triumphant.

Then I read that you had to be a British resident and show your passport upon entering the room where signing will occur.

Now, again, what are black market prices for British passports?

Labels: Harry Potter, london

Hip, hip hooray!

Boyfriend and I are going to London AGAIN this summer. Boyfriend has been planning this for some time, but refused to tel me where he's taking me. (And I didn't even want to know, because I trust him completely.)

I cannot even begin to say how ecstatic I am. When I was there for the first time last September, I fell in love with the city. Architecture, people, tube, culture, history, museums, our hotel, everything.

I'm a city gal. I love big cities and cannot imagine how it would feel to be living in a village. This time around we're going to stay there for 5 days. We intend to see some smaller museums, more of the city and everything we didn't last time, when we ran out of time.

Also, we're going to be there at the time of the release of HP and the Deathly Hallows, so we've already pre-ordered two copies of the book (I'm getting the children's edition, while boyfriend is being snobbish reading the adult's edition) at a huge bookshop and have opted to get the book from the shop at midnight on the day of the release. So for the first and last time I'm going to be part of a midnight release queue party. (The only problem is that we're probably going bankrupt by paying for a night cab ride back to the hotel. I'm not too keen on trusting the buses.)

But I have questions as well. Do you have suggestions what we should see while up there? We've seen most of the major tourist attractions. Can you suggest something that's off the beaten track, but definitely worth seeing?

Labels: Harry Potter, life, london