London report - Day 1!

I'm lazying around until Brian wakes up - perfect time to start writing up a report on this trip. Overall it's been so cold and we've been so busy that we haven't stopped to take as many photos as last year. But there are some!
Friday (Day 1):
Well, really, our trip started on Thursday afternoon - after packing off and on for TWO days, we arrived at the airport with three giant suitcases, two rolling carry ons, one backpack and my huge purse. Scored Business Elite class seats and didn't have to pay for the extra suitcase, woo! The flight, which we dreaded before, all of a sudden became too short. We stretched out, were fed very well, had some champagne and wine, and watched a couple of movies. I had to force myself to sleep for a couple of hours instead of keep watching movies I'd been missing in Theaters lol.
We landed in London around 6:30am, and the epic journey from airport to hotel via trains began. We met Jess at Victoria Station and had some breakfast (and I downed a huge cup of coffee even though I don't drink coffee) and lugged our suitcases around what seemed like endless stairs up and down inside multiple stations for line changes. In between the rushing, I was high on caffeine and squeeing over how great it was to come back to London. I was also well prepared for the cold, with thick scarves, fur lined gloves, hat, and boots, on top of a down jacket! Ha!  Finally at around 11:30am, we made it to the hotel yaaaaaaaaaay. Prompty unpacked Carmilla and inspected it for damages. It wasn't too bad. Eventually I'll have to re-stuff the shoulder and hip pieces.
We took a nap and dressed up for the Dita Von Teese book signing, then went into the glorious city! We met with <lj user="thedreamerworld"> and a few UK friends like Jess, Nick and Tom who also wanted to come along and set out to find this Waterstone's book store. Ended up walking 20 min to the wrong one and had to circle around Regent Street (busiest shopping street in London ugh), fighting a sea of people to the big book store, which already had a long que all the way around the corner of the street. We noticed many adorable pin up girls freezing in hose and tiny dresses, and gorgeously done up hair. A couple of Dita look-a-likes, too! After a cold hour wait in the que, we finally got our books signed.
Dita's signing station was beautifully decorated, with a huge wall poster of her in a corset and top hat. But I think she was dressed down for the occasion in a nice but comparatively casual dress - and why not, it was a long signing for her. She signed every book presented in front of her and many of us had multiple ones. I got five signatures from her alone. She looked gorgeous, and exactly like in her photos. Everything from Dita's nails to hair to eyebrows were perfect. Because they rushed everyone through, we didn't get to speak to her much. I just said that I follow her on Twitter and gave her one of my card haha. She was very soft spoken that day, almost inaudible. I assume it's because she was in signing mode and pressured from her handlers to keep the line moving.
I promptly got interviewed for the experience after getting out of line lol, then we were all more than ready to get off our sore feet (heels) and get some food in us.

The city turned out to be so busy and touristy on a Friday night that we ended up in Pizza Hut. By the way, UK Pizza Huts are all sit down restaurants with a buffet station and a large menu. We inhaled some pizza and chatted for a long time, until Brian's and my jetlag started on seriously kick in and we were threatening to dose off at the table lol.

It was time to go back to the hotel and do some sleeping. 30 min train ride later and our first adventurous day in London came to an end!