Leaving do in Watford

Grooving in Watford

As many of you know - either actually or in the abstract - part of my work takes me to Watford on a regular basis to work with my client. This means that I ride a train up, get a taxi from the station, enter the office, and repeat in reverse order on my way home. I do not spend much (any) time out in Watford. Katherine had never even been to Watford. Friday night that changed.

One of the people that I work with at the client, Ian, is leaving to start his own business(es) and Friday night was his leaving do in Watford (Interesting side note on Ian, he is the opposite of me - American dad, British mom, grew up in the UK, dual passports. He is, mistakenly, a Bengals fan). So Katherine and I rolled up together on the train (Katherine getting to meet all these folks for the first time). It was a lot of fun - nearly everyone came out and partied down to celebrate his leaving - not sure if it was to wish him luck on the next, or just that they were excited to finally be rid of him :-) We started at a place called The Vintage Bar, and then moved onto a club - not sure the name of the club but they were playing music right to my sweet spot - G 'n R, Bon Jovi, a little Kanye - so there was much groove being got on.

Then we rolled home and and a car on the tube all to ourselves. Good times all around.

The American Couple with the man himself

The Dual Passport Crew

Lisa, another co-worker

Self Portrait on the Tube

Benefits to living north of Seattle

Tonight at 8:45pm it was still bright out. If we get a summer this year, which we didn't last year, it's going to be awesome. Light out at 11pm. Boo-yah.

China

These pictures are a few from my Dad's recent trip to China for work. It looks amazing. I want to go. If all works out, Andy and I are planning on taking some time to travel home from our adventure here through Asia, we just might have to add China to the list of places to visit...

Leaving London - No need to be scared

The Manor

On Saturday we actually left the city o' London, outside the M25. No need to panic, we made it back from the hinterlands in one piece. :)

Our target was a National Trust site with our friends Kevin and Colleen. The drive out to the site was just beautiful. It really is staggering how in a country that is so tiny with such a large population they have so much countryside, which was just gorgeous.

On to the actual destination, we were heading to a chateau named Waddesdon Manor. It is part of the Rothschild the family, and they are all very, very rich and built really impressive homes (a tapestry in the manor was dedicated to the 41 properties the family built in the 19th and 20th century). This collection - in case you don't know, and I didn't, they have several branches of was one. As you can see from the pictures, it is a beautiful building with amazing grounds and gardens. They did not allow any indoor pictures but suffice it to say, if you go this nice on the outside, you don't skimp indoors. Not to my tastes, but just amazing.
After the Manor we went to a great little country pub off the side of the road, The Crooked Billet. Good food, a nice pint (not for the driver of course), of course great company.

It was a wonderful day outside of London with good friends. We will have to try that again sometime.From the back

Grounds and Countryside

Me, Colleen, and Kevin

Entryway

Gardens and Statues

Gardens

Whole Roasted Chicken

We finally made a whole roasted chicken (WRC) - and it was delicious. There are more WRCs in our future. I can't believe it took so long to figure out what a tasty treat, and how ridiculously easy, the WRC could be. Yum.

How much would it cost...

for you to drink a full bottle of Cholula Hot Sauce?

If your answer is £100 then you too could have enjoyed a delightful glass of Cholula at our restaurant last night. A table full of drunken businessmen (maybe German?) were at the table next to us in a Mexican Restaurant. And, for the small, small sum of £100 a gentleman at said table drank a full glass of Cholula. If you've not heard of Cholula, think Tabasco or Tapatio - so pretty much nasty. This was of course followed by a shot of tequila.

I suspect that gentleman is having a tough go of it this morning.

april off

we have made a decision to take april off from traveling - our plan until this month was/is to try to go on a trip once a month (at least) but we've decided to take this month off. meaning not traveling this month, not to be confused, as it has been by some people here, with taking the month off from work to go traveling. this idea, not going somewhere for almost 2 months, as it will fall out based on when in may we're going away, really freaks our friends out here! it's unheard of to take so much time in between trips.....

polo

this is such a great commercial, it makes me smile every time it's on. i think he would be perfect for middy!

update: yesterday at work someone mentioned that they are pulling this commercial from the air because animal activists are claiming animal cruelty...

a little touch of home

when exploring Clapham on Saturday, we stopped in this pub for a snack -
mostly because the name seemed so familiar.....

sunday: snow and a flower market

We woke up, well Andy and midnight woke up, to snow Sunday morning (I was still relaxing in bed still). It was snowing and sticking enough that there were families in the park around the corner from our flat making snowmen. Our plans for the day were to check out a flower market on the east side of the city that people always rave about. It's only on Sundays and we planned to go last weekend but with day light saving kicking in it wasn't in the cards. So, even with the snow and cold, cold weather we set out for the flower market, hoping vendors would have made the journey there despite the weather. We made it to the market, and it was really good. Beautiful flowers, lots of plants and flowers for the garden (yard) - made me a little sad we don't have any outdoor space here. But, I did buy some tulips at a really good price and a rosemary plant for the kitchen. I/we will go back for sure. Summer and Christmas are supposed to be the best times with way more vendors. After the market we met up with a friend from my work for pints and lunch/dinner. A good day and a bit different with the snow in April!