Congrats Shannon and family!!

My Seattle co-worker Shannon had her second baby, Addison, this morning. Congrats! Can't wait to meet her when I'm home in Seattle next week!

The London Zoo

To give a bit of context, Saturday was the start of a Bank Holiday Weekend in the UK, meaning that we get Monday off here. On top of that, the sun was shining, bright blue sky's and 80 degrees, which is a little bit unusual these days. And we have a friend who, for their birthday, wanted to go to the zoo.
So we met at the front entrance to the Zoo at Regent's Park at 2:00. And holy cow, I had no idea that so many people would want to go! We had to queue up for more than 2o minutes to get in. But with the combination of the above, holiday and sun, I guess it makes sense.

I will say, I had a great time, haven't been to the zoo in something like 20 years so it was a lot of fun. Lots of cool animals. For the most part, I will let the pictures do the talking but the monkey's (of all sorts), the African dogs, and the butterflies were pretty cool. Katherine thought that the Woodland Park Zoo was better all the way around - better spaces, more natural habitat, etc.

again today...

It's days like this that make me miss having a car.
Cars work much better to keep you dry than umbrellas do.
This is why I'm convinced people in Seattle (myself included when I lived there) can be such snobs about not using umbrellas - they drive everywhere!

Umbrella

We might have to get one of these for Midnight with how much it rains here!

Pouring & Windy

The weather is awful so far today! I wish it would stop raining, I'm pretty sure it's still technically summer...

I realize I shouldn't complain too much, there's not hurricane, tornado, earthquake happening here - just rain, but at a certain point it would be nice if it let up a little. Makes going to Seattle in a few days seem great. Although, from what I hear it's raining there as well.

Why couldn't Andy have gotten transfered to somewhere that's sunny?

Beer, Chocolate, Fries & Waffles

Andy and I went to Brussels this weekend. I wanted to take one more trip before we had Middy here with us, before having to worry about getting someone to take care of her. Although now I realize we could have brought her there with us. Everyone had a dog there and you can take them anywhere. People even had little dogs sitting on their laps at restaurants. I might have to look into bringing her to Paris with us when we make it there!

So Brussels it was. We booked a trip on the Eurostar and were off Saturday morning, way too early in the morning for my liking. The trip was fast, and easy. Now I can add another country to my list! The train went through France, but I'm thinking it doesn't count since I didn't get off the train there...
Brussels is all about the food, and we tried to make the most of it. We had sugary waffles, piping hot french fries with ketchup, and lots of beer.

For some reason on this trip I got a little adventurous with what I decided to try. We ate escargot. I had never tried had it before, not sure if we had the best, it was awfully chewy. I could only eat one piece, but I would try it again given the chance. We also had foie gras at dinner. I had never had that either. It was good, I would try it again.
We got back on the train Sunday afternoon and headed back to London. It was a quick trip, not much more than 24 hours. Brussels was a nice place to go for the weekend. The buildings and architecture were beautiful. The food was good, and the beer wasn't half bad!

Family in London

My cousin Stephanie and her fiance Ben were in London tonight, with his brother and girlfriend, and we had a chance to spend some time with them. It was really great to see Stephanie and Ben, we haven't spent a ton of time with them but both times we have, once in Albuquerque and now here in London, we have had an excellent time.

Tonight we ended up doing a drink, and then dinner afterward. Dinner was good, Italian, you can't go too far wrong with that! The drink was really the big news of the evening.

The drink was at Absolute Ice Bar. Totally lives up to its name. It was -5 degrees Celsius, the whole place is made out of ice and is recarved every 6 months with a new theme. The glasses are made of ice (not washable, bad for the carbon footprint), and they give you a parka and gloves when you walk in. London never felt so balmy as walking out of Ice Bar.

It was a fun evening, wonderful to see Stephanie and Ben. We wish them the best of luck next June (I know, a long ways away still)!

Tall Americano

Are you strong enough to take what the The Oracle of Starbucks is willing to dish out? I am:

Personality type: a$$hat

You carry around philosophy books you haven't read and wear trendy wire-rimmed glasses even though you have perfect vision. You've probably added an accent to your name or changed the pronunciation to seem sophisticated. You hang out in coffee shops because you don't have a job because you got your degree in French Poetry. People who drink tall americano are notorious for spouting off angry, liberal opinions about issues they don't understand.

Also drinks: Any drink with a foreign name
Can also be found at: The other, locally owned coffee shop you claim to like better

Marylebone

Tonight we went out with one of our good friends Catherine, not to be mistaken with the co-author of this blog Katherine, in Marylebone. It is an amazing neighborhood just west of central London. Our friend Catherine lived their for a while and gave us a great tour of the neighborhood. Two pubs and then went to the best Fish n Chips we've had since we've moved here. Delicious!

We just might move there.

flower

The rose I brought home for Andy today. There's more to the story that I won't go into on the blog - and no, it's not a dirty story!

Pints & Pies

Yesterday Andy and I went to The Grand Union with two other couples for pints and pies. Besides Sunday Roast, the other thing to go to a pub for on a Sunday. All six of us got a pie. A pie here is something different than a pie in the States. Here it is savory, a flaky crust filled with meat or fish and veggies with a sauce of some sort. Then topped with more crust or mash (mashed potatoes). Then this is usually served with mash or chips (fries) and salad or lentils. I had a chicken pie with veggies and a bbq béchamel sauce served with mash and lentils. It was really good, a little too rich for me to finish. Someone else got chicken, two people had beef with a Guinness sauce, someone had fish topped with mash and lastly someone ordered the Crocodile Pie! I didn't get a bite, but was told it tasted just like chicken - sort of a let down, but that's ok. It was a nice lazy Sunday afternoon at the pub - a good tradition.

walk-o-the-day

I took a walk today to Primrose Hill and Regent's Park. The pictures are from the top of the hill at Primrose Hill, it was amazing how much of the city you could see from up there! It's been beautiful here the last few days. I'm trying to make the most of the weather and not working.

Impala Steak

Coming to London was all about new experiences and this week I had one.

One of my colleagues is moving on to a new job and we had a going away dinner for her. The dinner was at a South African restaurant called Chakalaka. That is cool within it's own right, not much South African cuisine in Seattle. The menu had several unique items (Kudu Carpaccio, Springbok loin), but I decided to go for the special - Impala Steak.

As an experience, it was a great one. As cuisine, not as tasty as I was hoping. It was a little chewy, and gamier than I was lead to believe. On the plus side, much better than the Chevy. So I don't know that I'll be ordering the Impala again. The reviews on the Kudu were very good.

As a side note, one of my collegues undertook this challenge and succeeded (scroll down on current promotions).

I can't stop listening to...

Regina Spektor and Feist. My brother gave me these CDs for my birthday and I'm obsessively playing them. Our neighbors must hate me, and probably Andy hates me a little too...

Tube Map

This is the tube map as it appears when trying to navigate your way through the city. A few months ago Andy and I were at a party, chatting with a few other people about what the tube routes actually look like, where they really travel. Andy did some investigating and found this map that someone created. Pretty interesting.

Sun is shining...the weather is sweet

"Make you want to move your dancing feet
To the rescue, here I am
Want you to know ya, where I stand"
Bob Marley

The weather has been amazing this weekend! Today Andy and I set out to look at new flats, only to figure out that none of the estate agencies were open on Sundays. We made a quick change of plans and headed to Camden Town to the huge markets they have there. I had no idea what to expect and was completely blown away by the size of the market(s) in the area.

We made a quick stop to get some money then wandered through the stalls checking out all the amazing goods for sale. We didn't buy anything, but definitely want to go back at some point. We got a little lunch, some Chinese food, and a bag-o-donuts! The donuts were yummy!

Then we wandered down the canal to St. John's Wood. A great walk, very beautiful. At some point in the future I'd like to walk down the canal the other direction into the city. The parts that I've seen so far are amazing.

We stopped for a pint to cool down a bit and then to the grocery store. All in all a great day!

Mexican!

For a city the size of London with immigrants from all over the world, they have a paucity of quality Mexican food. They tend to make up for it in the breadth of good food you can get from the rest of the world (especially Indian). That said, sometimes you want Mexican food, and last night we continued our quest to find some quality Mexican food in London (here was our first attempt).

We went to check out, on a Friday night, a new restaurant right downtown in Covent Garden called Wahaca. We heard about the restaurant via a Daily Candy email which goes out to thousands (millions?) of people every day. It has also received rave reviews. On a weekend night with all that publicity, we should have stayed away, but it looked too delicious, and we needed a margarita. We went.

The food definitely met expectation. We both went for a margarita (rocks, classic for mine, hibiscus for Katherine, both very good). We ordered chips and salsa for appetizer which had great salsa (always a good sign for what's to come) and chips that tasted like corn nuts. Not bad, but a little different. For main course, Katherine had a Chicken Baja Burrito which was delicious. I went market style and ordered pork tacos, mackerel tostadas, and a black bean quesedilla (small plates people, small plates). It was all really good. The highlight for me was the pork tacos. Of my dishes, Katherine liked the quesedilla.

As for the service. It should not be surprising to note the service was not so good. Restaurant open 1 week, receiving a ton of publicity this week, their first busy night ever, there were some kinks. All told, we got some food at random times, they tried to charge for drinks twice, and dinner lasted an extra hour. But they were friendly and the fixed the drink thing, and hey, the food was great. We will definitely be back, but we'll give it a couple of months to break into their new routine.

Taj Mahal in Trafalgar Square

Last night on the way to dinner we happened upon an Indian Festival of sorts in Trafalgar Square with its very own Taj Mahal! Pretty cool.

Dave: This was the response to last weekend's festival.

Quest for a New Job

Tuesday was the 5th and last day at my new job. It wasn't for me so I decided to get out, no point in wasting my time, or the companies time, if I know it's not the right fit for me. Today I met with recruiters that will hopefully help me find another job. Wish me luck!