Rich is here!

Rich arrived early this afternoon! Andy and I are both excited to have a visitor here. After getting him a little settled with some caffeine and food the three of us headed to the V&A museum until it closed (about an hour after we got there). Neither Andy or I had been there and now that I've seen a little I can't wait to go back to see more. I'm not a big museum person, usually I could take them or leave them, but in London the majority of museums are free so seems like it would be crazy not to check them out.After the museum we ducked into a pub for a pint - trying to show Rich the true British experience :) Then headed to Notting Hill for some more to drink. We found another pub there for a pint, then back to the flat for dinner. I can't believe tomorrow is New Years Eve! As everyone says, time goes faster and faster as you get older. A year ago Andy and I, along with Rich and his kids were in Maui sitting on the beach!! Maybe we'll do that again next year, it's not that cold in London, but certainly not bikini weather...

Going to Paris!

Photo courtesy of this site.

While my brother is here visiting us, we are taking a quick trip over to Paris - 3 days for them, 2 for me (darned work!). Should be fun - it will be the first trip for Katherine and Rich - I'm a veteran, it'll be my second :)

So, any recommendations on what we should do while there? Post them in the comments, we promise to read them!

Boxing Day trip to see family

We saw family today in Southend-by-Sea, which is about 60 miles from where we are. As most of you know, my mom is English and I have some family here, my mom's cousins and their kids. I finally called Mary and Nick and they invited Katherine and I over for Boxing Day lunch. Before I get into that a quick aside:

• Today was Boxing Day. Boxing Day is awesome. It is the day after Christmas and is a national holiday. Shopping opens back up again, and there is some limited public transportation, but everyone else is enjoying a sleep in , round two on Christmas turkey and ham, and of course a drink or two. I love it. I think we may need to bring this tradition back with us to the States. Now back to lunch.
  

It was really really great to catch up with them. Also there was Hillary (their daughter), and Alistair (their son) along with his partner Claire, and their daughter Maya. She was very cute. We unfortunatly neglected to take a single picture. We will remedy that situation next time. We spent an excellent day hanging out, eating, and chatting - as well as seeing some great pictures of my mom's family.

As we chatted with Alistair we realized that we literally live about 4 blocks from him in Maida Vale. The great part is that he is right there, and we will try and get together soon. The sad part is, due to the expanded family, they recently had an offer accepted on the flat and will be moving soon. Another interesting aside - when we moved here I was convinced that we wanted to live in the Maida Vale area but besides knowing it was convenient to Paddington didn't have much to go on. Turns out, both times I came to London and stayed with Alistair, he lived right here in this current neighborhood. So apparently it was decided 10 years ago that this is where we'd be.

Finally, you may be wondering how we got to this place by the sea that is 60 miles from us. We drove! We currently have our friends car, a convertible Mini, while they are on vacation. So for the 3rd time ever I drove on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road. We made it there and back without me ever turning into the wrong lane. The big trick? SatNav - our friends also have a TomTom (with guiding voice Australian Ken) which got us right there. Awesome.

Christmas Dinner - Gordon Ramsay Style

This year we decided to do dinner out for Christmas - a bit of a different style than usual. We didn't feel like cooking up the whole feast for the two of us made a ton of sense. So since we decided to go out, we decided to do something cool and went to the Boxwood Cafe, which is one of Gordon Ramsey's restaurants. We'll get down to the food in a minute - but first, who is Gordon Ramsey? This is a link to his Wiki page. But if you don't go there, just know that he is an uber-successful chef who currently holds the world record for Michelin stars held by a chef (12). He also has several TV shows in the UK which are thoroughly entertaining.

As an overall, the service was amazing. It seemed like there were more people working than there were diners and they were all very attentive without being overbearing. We had a drink before dinner and while there the magician - oh yes that's right, the magician - came over and performed several tricks for us. They involved coins and rabbits appearing and disappearing, and also balloons. Good stuff, thoroughly entertaining. Then we settled in for dinner.
We decided to share - it was a fixed menu so we each got to choose an appetizer, dinner, and dessert. For appetizer Katherine had fried oysters and I had the foie gras. So good. Mine was so rich I could only eat half. And yes, I am now totally a fan of a goose liver (just writing that makes me cringe a bit...but so good!). Good stuff.
Main Course - We each had the same thing - suckling pig loin in a mustard sauce. It was cooked rare and had a crispy delicious skin. But before we get dinner they brought out an in-between course, not quite an amuse bouche, of smoked salmon with some spicyness and lime juice. Hit the spot.Dessert - Cheese plate for me and Cheesecake for Katherine. As you can see by the picture we couldn't even wait to dive in. It was a selection of English cheeses, chedder, goat, and something unidentified. The cheesecake came with a raspberry sorbet.
Chamapagne to cleanse the palate and we called it an evening. Not the way I'd like to spend every Christmas but spending it with Mr. Ramsey this year was a good, and tasty, experience.

Looks like I was good this year!

I got a Nespresso machine. I've been talking about a Nespresso for probably about 3 years, ever since we stayed with friends and they had one - such good espresso, so fast, so easy. What's not to love? Now that I've got one I can tell you - nothing! It's great!

In case you're wondering how it works - the pod with the coffee grounds goes into the jaws of the Nespresso (picture on the left). Then you close it up, decide if you want a long pull or a short pull - and get your cup ready. Delicious.

What's that Middy? Double Americano? Coming right up!

happy xmas eve!!

We are in Seattle in spirit...wearing our Ballard t-shirts with pride!
We hope everyone has a happy xmas!!

People read this thing!

Pretty wild. Katherine did this post just yesterday about setting up at the wedding and the X Factor runner up that was there. Well, somehow that got picked up in the blogosphere. We got over 80 hits yesterday referred by a couple of different sites about X Factor and Rhydian. Typically something like 30 hits is a good day's work.

To all the new folks - welcome :)

christmas tree in trafalgar square

flowers

I spent the day helping to set up flowers for a wedding. It was a long day, but really fun and interesting to see the finished product. We set up for the ceremony and the reception - at different locations. This was a pretty big and very expensive wedding. The reception was almost all orchids. It was very, very pretty.


We found out, from the Father of the Bride, while we were setting up the ceremony flowers that he had hired the runner up from the X Factor (an American Idol style show in the UK) to sing at the reception! I know it's just a TV show, but still - who does that? It seems so crazy to hire a "celebrity" to sing at a wedding. Clearly these people have loads of money! So, I saw Rhydian, the singer, as he was touring the venue. I do love the celebrity sighting even if just the minor celebrity!

amarylis

My favorite "Christmas" season flower. This year I bought the one that turned out to look like a candy cane. With no tree or lights or anything like that decorating our flat the amarylis is a little touch of the holidays.

Our Flat

People have been asking me for more pictures of our new-ish flat. We finally have the chairs we ordered from ikea and I did some rearranging of the furniture while Andy was gone so that everything would fit in the space better. I am enjoying our new place and our new neighborhood. It's really good. Can't wait for our visitors to start coming and staying with us here and to have our friends over from here!

Nutcracker

We went to the Nutcracker tonight at the London Coliseum with friends Neil and Catherine. It seems like Andy and I have gone to the Nutcracker for the last 3 or 4 years with my Mom so I had an expectation of what it would be like - this was a different interpretation than I was thinking...maybe it's just because I don't really remember all the other times I've seen it? I always manage to take a little nap in the middle - but this time I was awake the whole time, unlike Andy! I have to cut him some slack though, he arrived back in London around 1 this afternoon.

Spice Girls

I went to the Spice Girls concert tonight! My friend Catherine invited me and so I went. I was pleasantly surprised! They were much better performers than I thought they would be, it was absolutely entertaining and worth the money. I was never what I would call a fan of them, back in the day, but some of their songs were catchy and I would sing along in my head when they were on the radio. I was glad to find that it was a fun night and that I could actually remember the words to some of the songs - there were quite a few they sang that I don't think I've ever heard though! The funniest part of the show was the fact that every time Posh - Victoria Beckham - would have a solo in a song people screamed so loud you couldn't even hear her trying to sing. People were by far the most into her, even though Ginger was by far the best performer and Sporty was the best singer.

Tomorrow night Andy and I and a few friends are going to the Nutcracker, somehow I think it will be quite a different type of performance.

Seattle - Family time in B-ham

On Saturday the family all got together. Rich and his kids let me hitch a ride up to Bellingham with them to hang out with the rest of the family, and to see the new family compound. It was awesome. We got there and my sister was there already with Aiden, our nephew, hanging out with my parents.

Their new house is amazing and set in such a beautiful setting in Sudden Valley. While we were there deer came visiting in their back yard. Pretty cool. We had a great afternoon just catching up. The kids were having a blast - it was really neat to see Aiden and Bennett play together, they make a pretty cool pair already (and they're only two!). It was really great to see everyone and get some quality time. I am looking forward to going back up with Katherine in a few months.

Here's a few pictures of the house and the VERY good looking family :)

Seattle - Friday night at the George and Dragon

I have been back home in Seattle for a few days for work (good meetings, thanks for asking). But Friday the meetings were done and it was time to see friends. And we really have amazing friends here - even though I was the only one home, a lot of people still showed up (would have been twice as many if Katherine was here, but so it goes :). We went to the George and Dragon, of course. Always a good place to start and in this case end, an evening.

Here are few shots of the friends that came out that night -

Boat Party

Tonight I went to a sort of house (boat) warming/going away party for a friend. He recently bought a sail boat and is moving onto the boat (actually did last weekend). This has been his dream/goal for a while - to own a boat by the time he's 30 and he's realizing his dream (he turned 29 last month). So our friend Catherine planned and threw a party for Neil in South London rather than where the boat is, Brighton - because that's too far away!!!! The party was fun, but not the same without Andy. It's strange going to events without him here - he's on a business trip to Seattle right now. I'm sad and jealous that I'm not there - we/I couldn't find someone to watch Midnight or I would be there right now too...but so it goes.

Budapest

Friday night Andy and I flew to Budapest, Hungary. We arrived at our hotel, not really sure what to expect because it was a 5* hotel that we got a SWEET deal on - we were pleasantly surprised. Our room was almost as big as our 2 bed flat, which is not saying a ton, but it was a great size hotel room. When we checked in, the man at the front desk wrote the wrong room number down for us, so when the bellman used his universal key to open the room he totally walked in on people having sex! (not really, about the sex part, but really about opening the door to a room that someone was already staying in). So because the hotel messed up we got a free bottle of champagne! I'm hoping the people that we walked in on got one too, but somehow I doubt it. So because of how Andy booked the room we were part of the Executive Club or something similar to that, which meant free breakfast, free lunch (which we didn't take part in), free drinks, etc. It was great!

On Saturday we spent the day wandering around Pest, checking out markets, bridges, pretty buildings, drinking mulled wine, eating yummy market food, etc. bridge across the danube

christmas crafts at one of the markets

sausage, chips and mulled wine

me with a GIANT pretzel

Andy taking a break after a long day of walking

On Sunday we spent the day in Buda. Andy led a great group tour (me and him) around Castle Hill. He's thinking about quitting his day job to lead tours full time ;), but said it's a lot harder to deal with the customers than he thought it would be! I kept wanting to go off the tour to check other things our and he wasn't very cool about it...it looks like it's snowing, but just a crappy camera

cute carme on castle hill - very coldat the House of Hungarian Wines, where they have 50+ wines to sample I was lucky enough to get a wink in the elevator from this handsome man!!