TOPAZ HORIZON

I've booked the hotel, too. For six nights! I really like the Trip Advisor site because customer reviews are honest and brutal so you know which hotels to avoid. Their tag line is "Get the truth. Then go." And so that's where I got the bulk of my research. While I booked a hotel that was GBP 20 over budget (multiply that with six nights and that's P8,000 I didn't want to spend), I'm confident I made the right choice. I was looking for a hotel that had a GBP 100/night rate but Travel Advisor reviews on those hotels were really bad so I'm going with Premier Travel Inn. Not the most cheap for what is supposed to be a budget hotel line but certainly good. Look at how clean it is. I stayed in a Premier Travel Inn in 2006, and I liked it there. Simple, no fuss, convenient. And the breakfast buffet (at a painful GBP 7++) was amazing!

I'm giddy with anticipation. I've just bought a Lonely Planet guide book and it's pretty good since the book tells us what sights are really good to see and what tourist traps we should avoid. I'm also studying travel insurance options. Right now, I'm seriously considering World Nomads. The coverage is USD 300,000 each for Vince and me, and it's quite comprehensive. The sweetest thing about it is I pay just USD 30 for both of us!

Yes, everything's ready for Vince and me! We're super duper excited!

All I worry about now is the rabbits.

*image from Premier Travel Inn website.

But I don't want her to lose that pretty devious head!

While everyone I know is losing their own heads over TV shows Gossip Girl and before that Grey's Anatomy, I've been losing myself to Rome, Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Weeds, 30 Rock, and--my super duper current favorite--Showtime's The Tudors.

With only 2 episodes left for The Tudors second season, I am really despondent. It's like a dear friend of mine is going to go on vacation and I'm really not sure if she's coming back. Well, there will definitely be a third season but the Tudor dynasty doesn't end with Henry and his wives so I wonder if there'll be enough public interest to see the series through to Edward, Mary, and finally Elizabeth. You never know with these series. For example, cult favorites sci-fi Firefly and comedy Arrested Development just quietly died, despite being two of the best written and best-acted shows on television. Sigh... It sucks to have the general public dictate their taste really.

Anyway, back to The Tudors. So last week, Anne Boleyn finally confirms that her husband, Henry VIII, is in love with another woman, that vile Jane Seymour. In contrast to the passionate and extremely intelligent Anne, Jane is virginal and submissive. But like Anne, Jane is utterly the same when it comes to stealing husbands. What makes her worse in my mind is this: Anne asked Henry to divorce Katherine; Jane mutely wanted Anne dead. She wasn't going to wait for a divorce the way Anne did (who waited seven long years); she'd rather her royal rival was conveniently dead and this was accomplished in five weeks! Murderess! In fact, she married the king 10 days after Anne was beheaded! Ooooh, I can't stand Jane Seymour!

The problem with being very familiar with English history is that you know how the story's going to play out so there's no real suspense. And since I'm a bit knowledgeable about it, I can also spot right away if the writers deviated from fact. But despite those annoying things, the brilliance with this series is the tight writing and the amazing acting. So I'm always caught up in the emotion, the very moment of it all even though I know what's going to happen next--which Vince hates since I sometimes can't help saying aloud, "Don't hug the queen, you moron, because you'll go to the Tower for that!" and he'll grumble, "Now you ruined it for me... Who's that moron anyway?" and I'd be happy to fill him in on the history. Though he hates it when I spoil episodes, Vince gave me David Starkey's very thick book, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, anyway. It was his first present to me as my husband. What an ominous first gift, I say!

I've always been interested in this part of English history not just because of everyone's reason (the story of a king who had six wives is always juicy) but because I was raised a Born-Again Christian. So Henry VIII, in breaking with the Roman Catholic Church, was a hero of the Reformation. Of course, since I was also raised a Catholic by my grandparents and I studied in a convent, I was told that Thomas More, who Henry beheaded, was the hero of the time and that Henry was the devil incarnate. Yeah, it can get confusing for a kid so the kid (that's me) hit the books and just let history decide for me.

Seeing history books now come alive in sumptuous costumes and divine acting is mesmerizing for me. I understand history even better and I have a better and deeper appreciation for politics, religion, faith, and the relationship between a man and a woman. Yes, The Tudors will show you that! As the exceedingly bewitching and talented Natalie Dormer (who plays Anne Boleyn) said on her podcast on the website, "You're looking at such a turbulent time dramatically in history. All these fiercely strong charismatic individuals, be they Henry, More, Anne... the seriousness of the situation--the Reformation for C****'s sake--that they're faced with and what it does, they all handle it differently. And some come out of it better than others."

Too bad for Anne, she came out of it headless. Though she did end up the mother of her country's greatest monarch, Elizabeth I, and, without Henry realizing it, Anne was also the mother of the English Reformation. Of course, in the show, Pope Paul III (played by a really cool Peter O'Toole) realizes this and caustically remarks, "Why doesn't someone just get rid of her?" And Henry, the great hero of schism, unwittingly obeys him.

*The Tudor images from abcnews.com and Showtime. Book image from Blackwell Bookshop.

the bullet-shaped St. Mary Axe Tower

Many museums and parks figure prominently in this great urban center. It is also known for its theaters, street markets, pubs and pigeons! Oh, and did I mention the fabulous shopping???
St. James Park

pigeons at Trafalgar Square

Harrods and Harvey Nichols at Knightbridge

Some of the world's most iconic landmarks can be found here--from an imposing clock tower, a huge ferris wheel, and a bridge that kids sing is "falling down" to the Tube, red double-decker buses and charming phone booths painted in red.

Tower Bridge

double-decker red bus

the ever-efficient Underground Tube system

Those clues should be enough! So tell me...

Where will Vince and I spend our honeymoon?

The correct answer gets a bottle of Burberry's latest fragrance, Burberry The Beat (again, that's another clue since Burberry is an iconic brand from this city!).

*How to win:
1. Winner will be the first commenter to correctly guess where we're going.
2. Winner must have a Manila address since courier services don't ship perfume bottles. They explode in flight. So the winner will be the first commenter from Manila who guesses right!
3. Please comment in this format: your answer, your first name, city where you're from, and email address.
4. Please do not put your full name and delivery address in the comment box since this blog is not secure. If you put your personal info, I will not be responsible for any identity theft and other problems that may arise from your actions.
5. I will announce the winner in a blog entry on June 5.

*All city images from FreeFoto; Burberry image from Amazon