Still smiling after all these years

Sometimes as you get older, the little things in life bring you a little less joy than they used to. Here's hoping that when I get as old as my big brother, I can still get as excited about the little things as he can (in this case, a nutella crepe).

Happy 35th Birthday Bro! :)

a special tube ride

Each time Andy and I go away on holiday I take Midnight to and from the dog sitter on the tube. I've always been alone when making this journey until my Mom was visiting, she was able to get a few good pictures of us. It's always interesting taking Midnight on the tube, people are either really into her (in a good or bad way) or barely notice her. For the most part she just sits on my lap quietly and looks out the window - most of the journey is above ground.

Haggis!

Haggis out of the oven

While in Brighton, we also had a wonderful Burns Night Supper. What is that? Well, Robert Burns is the national poet of Scotland so each year they celebrate his birthday with a traditional Burns Night meal on the 25th of January centered around a poem that he wrote - Ode Tae a Haggis. Traditional Burns night supper is Haggis, tatters (mashed potatoes) and nips (turnips/rutabaga), with a healthy shot of whisky both on the side, and on the haggis. Haggis, as you may or may not know, is composed of the leftovers of the sheep, called the pluck - lung, heart, liver minced and put into the stomach with spices and oats, and boiled for several hours. Something else you may not know - it's banned in the US and people smuggle it in - that's how good it is!

When we moved here we were committed to trying new things - and this certainly was. We both tried it - Katherine didn't do much more than that, and I went back for seconds! I don't think it'll be part of our diet moving forward but next Burns night you can sign me up for one.

A Haggis waiting to go into the oven

Haggis, tatters, and nips

Brighton Revisted

View from the boat

We went back to Brighton - and as you can see from the above picture - it was way way more successful than our first trip. This was totally different circumstance with it being an absolutely beautiful day and going down with friends - much better. We all went down to Brighton to help our friend Neil dedicate his boat - Ranger. The group (Neil, Emma, Chappers, Tim, Elvis, Catherine, and the American Couple) all got down to Brighton some time in the early afternoon and headed straight for the yacht. We spent the afternoon exploring the boat, some folks doing chores, and generally hanging out enjoying the beautiful day in an amazing setting. Also, Katherine climbed the mast! (no surprise there I guess - she has jumped from a plane).

Come evening, things got serious. There was a boat to dedicate - see the pictures below; and a Burns Night supper to be made (see the next post). Neil did what I think was an excellent job appealing to Neptune, and gave him a bottle of Veuve, so I think that he will be safe for all his sailing adventures.

It was a great evening. We were just sad that we had to leave early - a dog in London desperately needed to go to the bathroom.

A hearty group christens the Ranger

The captain and his gift to Neptune

Beautiful sunset (and a cute couple)

Climb the mast!

Warming up below deck

third times a charm? we'll see...

I started a new job this week - the third place I've worked (not counting the "work experience" aka volunteering at the flower shops I did) since moving to London. It's at a flower shop, working at the front desk. It's good so far, everyone I work with seems nice, and it's great to have more structure and some extra money. I can't wait to come home in March to go shopping!! The down side of working full time is only having 30 days of vacation (8 of them are national holidays). I know that sounds like a lot (22) but based on Andy and my travel goals while living here that might mean we can't do everything we're hoping for....I know not many people will feel sorry for me though ;)

Por-tu-gal Por-tu-gal!!

Portugal was amazing! My favorite place we visited in Europe so far...probably had something to do with the amazing blue sky and warm weather. We were able to wear short sleeves and sandals! Not the whole time, it did get chilly, but enough of the time to forget about the gray and rain in London.
The trip was great. We stayed with my Mom's friends, Joe and Martha. They live in a small town called Luz, in the Algarve region of Portugal. They were amazing tour guides, showing us all around the region, even taking a quick trip to Spain for a few hours on Friday. Joe grew up in Portugal so knows the area very well, which allowed us to see things and places we wouldn't have otherwise. We were also able to meet lots of their friends and family and really experience the culture. Everyone was so warm and welcoming and friendly, even with the language barrier everything still worked out great. We were treated to three fabulous dinners while there, tasting some fabulous new foods, lots of seafood - which the area is known for. I had the best clams I've ever tasted in my life, not to mention, all the fish, chicken and lamb that we had, as well as the pastries. After this vacation, even though it was short, I'm going to have to kick up the exercise for a little while to work off all the great food!I really want to go back, it was warm and beautiful in January, I can only imagine how much better the weather would be in the summer. And there is so much more to explore and experience. I'm so glad my Mom came to visit us in London so we were able to go to Portugal and stay with Martha and Joe and see how and where they live now. It truly was great.

trying to find some sun.....

Andy, my Mom and I are off to Portugal in a few minutes...hoping for some warmer weather. Supposed to be in the 60s, better than 40s I suppose! I'm ready for a vacation on the beach with a mai tai - think I'm going to have to wait for that one for a while.....

Kew Gardens

One of the things my Mom wanted to do while visiting was check out a garden, I'd heard good things about Kew Gardens so seemed like a good place to check out today. I wasn't sure how interesting or exciting a garden would be in January, but there was a lot to see despite the weather and lack of flowering plants.

We went on a walking tour of Henry Moore sculptures that are scattered around the grounds. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic about his work, which was slightly annoying (if I had not been with my Mom probably would have left the tour after a few minutes) but gave us tons of information about each sculpture that was actually very interesting and fascinating.

There were also a few green houses with tropical plants that were very nice, they were warm which was a nice break from the brisk weather outside. It was an easy and quick train ride, I would love to go again in the spring or summer to see how different it all looks.

american treats

About a week ago Andy and I were at Tesco doing some grocery shopping and noticed they sell Rice Krispies there - which got me thinking about rice krispie treats (something that I love but hardly ever actually eat, let alone make). We looked at Tesco for marshmallows but they don't sell them there, so the rice krispie treat dream died.

Until today, when I decided to hunt down some marshmallows. My Mom and I headed to a store in Sloane Square that is known for it's "American" food section. (There's not much in the way of food that I miss from home, it's the things I don't use often that I'm not even aware are "American" that I guess I miss. Marshmallows being one, and another one I couldn't find recently - baking chocolate.) We got the marshmallows, then headed back to Tesco for the Rice Krispies. Since marshmallows are foreign here the recipe isn't included on the cereal box, luckily I was able to look it up on the internet!

I promptly made up a batch when we got home. I'm waiting until after dinner to actually eat one though and I can't wait!

Stomping on the Prime Meredian

Today we took a trip out to South East London. The goal was to get to Greenwich but we had a few stops along the way. First, we went to our personal favorite, the Borough Market. We love it there, always good for some cheese, fresh produce, and a good bite to eat. Today was no different, it was great to show Susan around at one of our favorite places.

Then we continued on our way down to Greenwich. First we had to go through Canary Wharf which is always a cool experience - so different from the rest of London, or Paris, or Budapest, or any of the places we've been recently - new and modern. Then we got to Greenwich, so great. You could look back across the river at all the big buildings but it had an amazing village feel.

At this point, you might be asking yourself why Greenwich sounds so familiar. There are a couple of reasons but the main one might be Greenwich Mean Time - of which the pacific northwest is 8 hours off. This little village of London somehow ended up as the is ground 0 for time and Latitude - the Prime Meridian runs right through it. So we went to the Royal Observatory on a giant hill (almost 200 feet above sea level! :) and had some fun straddling the 0 line.

The other great thing about Greenwich is the National Maritime Museum. Not somewhere that I would have ever gone but Susan was very excited about going. The museum was great, and the grounds were just amazing. The museum and the Royal Observatory are all on the grounds of Greenwich Park. We are definitely going back - drinks and dinner for sure, and then who knows but we really found it to be amazing.On the Thames

The National Maritime Museum with Canary Wharf behind

An American Couple on the 0 Longitude

Susan on the Prime Meridian

48 hour layover

Beorn came through London for about 48 hours on his way home from visiting his mom and step-dad in the UAE over xmas. It was a quick visit, and unfortunately since I wasn't feeling well for most of it, probably not the most exciting trip for him. I wasn't a very good tour guide. I did manage to walk to Kensington with him and we wandered around there. Beorn and Andy went out last night with a few of our friends here for a "proper" English evening in the pub (fish n chips and English beer), I had to stay home to work on recovering. It was great to have him here, sad to say bye today at the train station...

Paris highlights

A couple of more notes on Paris. As Katherine mentioned I was only there for 2 days but they were pretty action packed (as it sounds like the 2 days I missed were).

A couple of highlights from my point of view:
-Food court and chocolate at Fauchon. Even the sandwiches were packaged in such an amazing way in these little zip lock bags. Let alone the smoke salmon, fois gras, and the amazing pastries. I wish I had a picture, the presentation was just amazing.
-Hediard food court and wine cellar. Pretty awesome, amazingly presented fruit, a wine cave with wines ranging from 9 to 2000 euro, and again a great selection of fois gras (didn't buy any but thought about it!).
-Two great Jewish bakeries in The Marias (a district in Paris) which were delicious. We had little meat pies at the first (Sacha Finkelsztajn) and another just a couple doors down that we had pain au chocolat, croissant, ruglah, and something appley and delicious.
-Dinner at Le Fumoir. The food was very good with one exception (a pork dish was not so great). Interesting deserts, and good wine. A very pleasant evening right by the Louvre.
-The Pampadou. A crazy building, and an amazing Modern Art museum. We saw a great exhibit of the architect Richard Rogers who designed the Pampadou 30 years ago and actually designed the current headquarters of M&S in London. He also did a proposal for the 1st Methodist church in Seattle back in the 80's but was rejected. Another great one was Giacometti exhibit.
-We unfortunately did not make it to Disneyland Paris (maybe next time Gavin!)

Credit to Bob and Kathleen for a few of the great spots we hit.

Paris!

Andy, Aimee and Rich

latin quarter

Rich and me - check out my cool beret ;)

me with the cutest little espresso cup!

Rich, me, Andy and Aimee

When Rich was thinking about coming to London to visit me and Andy he mentioned wanting to take a side trip as well...and decided on Paris. I had never been, Andy went for a few days when he was visiting Europe when he was 18 - so doesn't remember much, probably because of all the red wine consumed while he was there.

So, Wednesday morning Rich and I headed to the airport (Andy joined Thursday evening). We met up with Rich's friend and co-worker, Aimee when we got into Paris. Most of the four days we were there were spent walking around the city, eating, drinking, shopping and checking out the sites. We saw a lot of the main "tourist" sites, I'm sure there are more and if we/I had done a little pre-planning would have seen more...Andy and I will have to go back, since we are so close, to see more. Next time I would like to go when it's spring or fall and hopefully a little warmer. It was probably under 5 degrees (Celsius) the whole time we were there.

I enjoyed the city, but quite honestly had insane expectations of what it would be like. I know so many people that just love Paris, some that I would go as far as to say are slightly obsessed and because of that thought it would be more, better, lovelier, romantic and so was slightly disappointed. That's why I want to go back, armed with an agenda of things I missed this time and some nicer weather - I want to LOVE Paris and it didn't happen with this trip. Don't get me wrong - I had a great time, it's a nice city, just didn't fall in love with it like I was thinking I would.

notre dame

eiffel tower

fountain at the louvre

the louvre

metro sign

New Year London Style

First blog post of the new year. Crazy. Before I begin, let me say thanks for coming and reading about us and our lives in London over the last six months or so. Wish you all a happy and healthy 2008.

Our second year in a row celebrating New Years in a non-Seattle location. Last year was Hawaii on vacation - 80 degrees, mai tai's, sunshine. This year, London - 40 degrees, drizzle, champagne (lots of champagne).

The three of us (Rich, not Midnight) went to our friend Alison's for dinner, drinks, and fireworks. The plan was to have dinner then walk down to the river to see the fireworks from the London Eye, and then see where the night took us. The dinner part was executed flawlessly. It was a great group of people and we had the most amazing Southern Indian food (not the kind of stuff you find at your typical Curry house). Delicious. Also, plenty of champagne.


















Then half of us walked down to the Thames to find the fireworks. The Thames is very bendy so we hit the river and then walked toward The City - but ran out of time to really work our way all the way around. We made collective decision to stop on a bridge (the Prince Albert I believe) along with several hundred other people, and quite a few cars, and celebrated the incoming year. We had more champagne.

We then treked back to the flat with the help of a timely taxi for dessert, good conversation...and more champagne.

Once we decided to call it an evening we had intention to take the free public transport back to the house (sponsored by NatWest, free buses and tubes from 1145-430), but we saw a taxi and and went for it. Hey, it's a new year, we kicked it off in style.