SATC - the movie

The 5 of us before the movie with our cosmos!

Last night I went to see the Sex and the City movie on the opening night. It was a really good time. As a follow up to the TV series, it was much better than expected - I was pleasantly surprised. Since it was opening night it was only the die hard fans there - mostly female - and based on everyone crying and laughing together I'm pretty sure it's safe to say it was enjoyed by everyone.

Stockholm baby!

Stockholm from the Water

I think that Stockholm blew all four of our minds (we traveled with our friends, keep your comments to yourself). Before this trip I had never had too much interest in heading to Scandinavia in general, and Katherine shared that sentiment. Well, having now been there I don't know why it was so low on the list. The city was just beautiful, with water running all through it creating multiple islands in the downtown area. The weather was just perfect at more than 70 and sunny every day (vs. London which was rainy all weekend). We ate amazing food (and there were plenty more restaurants we didn't make it to). And of course, the days were amazingly long, with sun rise before 4am and light staying on the horizon until midnight. Very cool - the furthest north that either of us have ever been.

We went with our friends Kevin and Colleen (see below for some awesome pictures :) and for Katherine's birthday. We flew out Saturday morning (7am flight) so had a full day that day and then flew back on Monday afternoon. Between those times we had some very good times including:
Checked out some markets, including Ostermalm Sulahall and Street Market
A tour of Gamla Stan, the original town area of Stockholm, guided by yours truly (assist to Time Out - Stockholm)
A trip to the Ice Bar - Stockholm
A birthday dinner at Operakallaren - amazing location, service, company, food and wine. Not as good for the pocket book.
A high speed Rib Boat tour of the Archipelago
A walk about Djurgarden, yet another island. Here we went to Skansen, click the link because I can't explain it, and went to the purpose built Vasa. museum. It houses a boat that was THE Swedish warship went built in 1628. Then, on it's maiden voyage it sunk after 20 minutes, in the bay!
Some relaxing enjoying the sun.

Beyond that we ate great coffee, walked through this very pedestrian friendly city (with the exception of bikers - they were really working on taking us out), and generally enjoying this city with some wonderful friends.

Definitely check out the pictures to the side and links in the post - was a very cool city.

American Couple after an amazing dinner

Colleen and Kevin in full gear for the Rib boat tour

Again in full gear, this time for the Ice Bar

View of Stockholm from Skensa

1 year

i posted a collage after 6 months of being here in london, i think it's a nice way to reflect on the time that has passed. a lot since november - we've traveled a lot and had many visitors. we've been to budapest, andy went to seattle in december, southend-on-sea, paris, portugal, brighton again, prague, seattle & san francisco, and yorkshire. we've also had a number of people through visiting us, my mom, rich, beorn and paul & gwen. more are slated to come in the upcoming months. i'm feeling much more content and settled than i was when i posted after 6 months. it's still tough at times and i long for the comfort of seattle, but i must say, as much as i hate to admit it, it is home here.

this weekend we're off to stockholm for the long weekend - gotta love being able to go to foreign countries in the time it takes to fly to los angeles or las vegas! and the adventure continues....

on a seperate note, thanks everyone that commented on the post andy did for my birthday. it really meant a lot to hear from you all!

Happy Birthday Katherine!

Looking Good in Prague

Today (by 1 minute) is Katherine's 30th birthday. It seems like hardly yesterday that she was turning a youthful 29. And today, so quickly, she's joined the rest of us golden oldies in the 30's to death club. Ah well, she thoroughly enjoyed her youth while it lasted, especially over the last year. As proof, I've put a few pictures of her over the last year.

Raise a glass, probably of coffee (damn Seattle), in helping me wish her a Happy Birthday!Seattle with Friends...is that sun??

Learning what can go in the wash, and what can't

Looking fashionable in Brighton, the sunbelt of the UK

Making public transportation look good...

enjoying the weather

for the past week and a half or so we've had amazing weather here...a better stretch than we had all last summer! andy and i, along with midnight, have tried to make the most of it. the saturday of the first bank holiday weekend we had a picnic at a local park. while andy and i relaxed midnight ran around making friends - the park has a relaxed off-lead policy which is nice since we don't have a yard at home it gives midnight a chance to really run around and to play with other dogs.

Travel to Leeds and the Yorkshre Dales

As we entered the Dales

On Friday we took off for a long weekend with my parents - actually traveling inside of the UK, which as you know is novel for us. The plan was to head up North to the Yorkshire County, first to the Yorkshire Dales on Friday, and then head into Leeds on Saturday. My mom is from Leeds and spent a lot of time while growing up traipsing through the Dales, which is some of the most beautiful country in the UK.

So off we went Friday morning. We picked up the car, dropped off Midnight, and then tried to find the M1 (the UK equivalent to the Interstate). And since we never drive, and had veered off of our carefully printed directions, it took us about an hour and 2 separate sets of directions to get heading north.

Once we got on the road things went pretty quickly - except for the construction, which resulted in traffic delays, a permanently closed exit which again caused us to veer off the directions. We made it through that and got back on track, and then there was an accident backing up traffic. But then, finally, we were in the Dales and on our way to Burnsall. This is all to say that we really, really enjoy not having a car. Traffic is a pain that we don't really deal with at all anymore.

Anyway, back to the trip. We arrived in Burnsall and found our B&B - The Red Lion and Manor House, the same one that my parents stayed at over 37 years ago. Burnsall and the Red Lion were great. The weather was beautiful, the village (6 buildings) was so cute, the B&B was cozy, and the scenery was spectacular. We went for a short walk that evening, and then back for dinner and drinks. We then took advantage of "B" number one. The next morning we got up fairly early, enjoyed the second "B" - breakfast - and went out for a walk into the Dales along the river. Awesome.

We shoved off around noon and headed into Leeds proper to stay with my mom's cousin David, and his wife Kate. I had met them 10 years prior on travels but had not seen them since moving, so of course Katherine was meeting them for the first time. They were wonderful, as I had remembered. We had a great lunch (homemade pea and mint soup and Yorkshire cheeses, yum!), had a bit of a walk through surrounding gardens and woods, past and old mill and into a park - really spectacular and such great green space for a city. And then we enjoyed the evening. Lemon drops in the garden before dinner. A stroll down to an amazing Thai dinner. A nice walk back to the house, pushing 11pm, and it wasn't dark yet. Sambuca in the garden to settle the meal down. And finally, good conversation, at midnight, in short sleeves, outdoors. The combination of great company, food, and weather made it a truly memorable evening. The weather was nicer over this weekend than it was all last summer.

On Sunday we headed off to the train station back to London. What a civilized way to travel.

All in all, another excellent trip outside of London. We really should do this a bit more often...

The Dales, view from Burnsall

My parents in the B&B

View from the B&B

The American Couple crossing a stile

My (Andrew's) parents are here!

This is just a quick post, a few days delayed, to state that, um, well, my parent's are here as noted in the title. I'll be doing a bit more comprehensive post this evening about our recent travel with them which has been great.

My parent's arrived on Tuesday and really have done remarkably well with the jet lag. They stayed up until 10pm on Tuesday, and then I woke them at 10am the next morning. By Thursday they were totally on cycle.

They explored the city on their own Wednesday and Thursday - Oxford Street, The City, the Thames, Kew Gardens. On Friday we all took off for some travel outside the city, to my mom's home county, Yorkshire (more to follow).

They are now off out and about in the countryside to see some friends and then will be back to London on Friday through the rest of their trip. It has been good so far, and will be great to have them back through London for a few more days.

work bonding time

Last night I went roller skating with everyone from work! I was home sick from work earlier in the week and still not feeling 100% yesterday so not really looking forward to the work outing, but it turned out to be lots of fun. I really can't remember the last time I went roller skating. Probably Middle School, but the only real memory from that is my Dad picking me up at the roller rink with a migrane - not sure that I even actually put the skates on!
When we got to the place last night and got our skates on I didn't know how I was going to stand up at first, it's such a strange feeling, and most people were the same way. But once I was finally able to stand and got out there it all came back. It was good fun, not something I need to do again anytime soon. It gets boring after a while going round and round over and over again. But, it was nice to be with my co-workers outside the flower shop and it was a new experience.