My next great adventure was to go see the lights of Lumiere London. I did get around to seeing a great many of them, but my grand plans to see -all- of them were put off by problems with the tube. (And also it might have been really, really cold.)
This lovely color-changing bird cage actually had a swing in the middle of it that you could swing on, if you were willing to wait in line for it.
These vaguely people-shaped collections of dots moved and danced!
This was an interesting set up, across the water from a sweep of seats where people could sit or stand. It played music, and the bars moved with the music while the panels slowly turned.
One fun attraction was the circus show, broadcast on an entire building...
With all the fun and flourishes of a real circus.
Including a magician!
This one moved, too! It would light up the diver bit by bit to make him jump into the water. It was set up right beside an outdoor swimming pond, no less.
Squares!
I did wander past that suspended net again, which was much more impressive at night when lit!
And it definitely changed colors!
All of Regent street was closed to traffic, which was a pretty impressive sight all by itself.
A pretty little dress, which looked to be made of cellophane, which changed colors in the lights.
These flying fish-kite-things were pretty neat, too.
They were anchored on the street, and drifted along in the wind.
Operators below would pull on the guidelines to make them fly up or down and turn about.
And they changed colors.
This lovely animation came with elephant sounds and a puff of mist whenever the elephant stomped a foot.
I think my favorite set-up, though, was the garden of lights.
In Leicester Square, the square was covered with giant, illuminated flowers, made out of somewhat mundane items. (These white flowers were handle-less umbrellas.)
The snowbells were little cups or lampshades.
These cat-tails were clustered around the fountain in the middle.
After all that, though, food was definitely in order and I wandered over to Chinatown. I passed a little bakery, which smelled divine and was making these little pastry fish. The machine was a self-moving automated thing, which added the dough, the custard filling, and cooked the fish before popping them out at the other end.
They were ever so tasty, too.
Other than that, it's mostly been back to school.
We've been lucky enough to have some pleasant, sunny days and its warmed up a bit, which has been nice. No snow yet!
And... I think that makes me caught up. I hope all is well and everyone has started off the new year in a most fantastic way!
