On Dasher, On Dancer, On Prancer, On Vixen.....where the heck is Rudolph?

Despite the frightful weather, your London correspondent has been out and about this week sipping egg nog and hot chocolate, riding the Giant Observation Wheel at the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, watching the thrills and spills of outdoor ice skating (note to self: office Christmas parties+alcohol+slippery ice rink=disaster!), snacking on Bavarian Hog Roast and Gingerbread, and slugging back copious amounts of Glühwein to try and keep warm : all in the name of research, you understand!

The photographs from this post were all taken at the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. For any of you who have been following the progress of my "100 Strangers Project"*, you might recall that the Winter Wonderland last year was the place that I took my first Strangers portrait (of the guy with the toddler on his shoulders). I can still remember the look of utter horror on Mr Messy's face when I explained to him what I was about to do!!! Ahhh dear Blog Readers, so much, yet so little has changed since then.... ;-)

*which I am still doing by the way, umm, I just haven't posted any photographs lately of my strangers. (I am rubbish, I know)

Anyway, onwards to the photos. These reindeer's (the "Reindeer Express") were one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. They moved forward with quite some force and the little kids had to hold on really tight! I love the look of "Crikey, I don't quite know if I am enjoying this....maybe I'll just do one little lap on this here Reindeer then I'll get off" on the face of the little girl (above)!

This chap (below) will be added to my 100 Strangers project. He is a born and bred Croydon lad who is shortly moving to Kent for a more "relaxed" lifestyle with his wife. He asked whether his photo would be on the internet and I said "um yeah, sort of, on my blog". He got very excited about this prospect and I felt a bit bad when I had to confess to him that my readership consists of, oh, about 3 people at the moment!

In the interests of bringing you all the fun of the fair, your blogger braved her fear of heights and rode the Observation Wheel. Best £7.50 I have spent in a long time. The view was fantastic (when my eyes were open!) and I had a whole little "pod" to myself so I could grip the sides, squeeze my eyes tight shut, and take deep calming breathes without anyone else seeing (or hearing my mutterings when my pod got stuck right at the top for what seemed like an eternity).

This was one of the photos I managed to take when I let go of the sides of the pod for a wee moment:

Big Dipper (didn't go on that one- not THAT brave):

Nor did your blogger go on this little number:

nor this one:

This is the lovely Rachel (below) from America who kindly struck some poses for me on the ice along with her equally gorgeous friend Christanna. Both are studying communications at university and are hoping to move into the fashion industry once they have finished their studies. I will post more photos of Rachel and Christanna later next week- one of which will be going in my "100 Strangers Project".

P.s. No sign of Rudolph- although I did see 4 very hairy legs and a bright red shiny nose flash past on the Giant Toboggan Snow Slide as I wandered past...lets hope Santa finds him before Christmas Eve otherwise the Sleigh might be in a wee bit of trouble this year ;-)