Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hope everyone enjoys all the yummy food and the long weekend!!

18 months

where does the time go? we've lived in london 18 months, it's almost december, i'm into my second trimester...it's amazing how fast time seems to go the older you get. people try to tell you that when you're young, but you don't believe them until it's too late!

another great six months living here, exploring the continent alone and with friends and good times showing visitors around the lovely city that is our home. since may we've been to stockholm with col and kev, went to nice, visited clay in dublin, rich and clara visted, went to helsinki & tallin, peter and christina visited, went to loire valley with my uncle and aunt and next weekend are off to celebrate thanksgiving with friends in luxembourg.

sadly (not all sad news, good news really) because of new developments in our life, i.e. baby coming, we won't be here for another six months. we will be back earlier than originally planned, depending on job developments, so that i can have the baby there. as you can imagine our lives are a bit crazy at the moment thinking about baby, moving, leaving london, coming back to seattle, happy and sad emotions all at the same time. it's very exciting, don't get me wrong, nothing but good things, but there's a bit of sadness about leaving. so far it's been such a great experience for us both. even the bad times ultimetly have been good. an amazing experience for andy and me on a number of different levels.

28th May 2009

Champagne Tasting, part II

You may remember that last year around this time there was a champagne tasting that was attended by about 1/2 the original members. Well, we bought our tickets 3 months ago, give or take, to this years event at Harrod's. And of course, about 1/2 the original members of the group were able to attend. But Alison, Hayder, and Sima made it, so we had a good crowd!

The space was about twice as big as last year, the number of champagne vendors was about the same (maybe a few more), and way more food. So, more space, better food, and a ton of space - good stuff.

Some of the favorites were:
Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 1998
Sir Winston Churchill 1998 (a Pol Roger)
Piper Heidsieck Rare 1998 (no one else liked it, starting to taste kind of musty, delicious I think)
Harrods Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 2002 (a reasonable 334.50!)
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rose 2003 (delicious, also £235/bottle)

Last year we were all loving the Salon. They were back this year with a 1997 and was not as good as the memories - but still cost £270/bottle. Also, the Dom Perignon 2000 soemwhat disappointing.

Any way you slice it, a great way to spend an evening, especially a school night! And, in case you're curious, no, there were no bottles purchased this evening :)

Arty Couple in London

Our new Art

Over the last couple of weekends, inspired by who knows what, we've done a few art-like things. First, we went to the Annie Leibovitz exhibit a the portrait gallery. It was really cool - it was a collection of pictures from 1990-2004 split between her professional photography (magazine shoots, etc - Demi Moore anyone?) and personal photography of her family - imagine the pressure of being in her family! Along the way we learned some interesting things, such as she had her first child at 51, which we all agree is quite an achievement.

The next art like activity resulted in the painting you see above. A friend of ours mentioned the Affordable Art Fair was in town. We have been hemming and hawing about buying some art for quite some time, and actually Katherine owed me an anniversary present that was supposed to be an art piece. So we thought, Affordable, seems good!

We headed down to Battersea to the exhibition centre where the fair was taking place. It was crazy! Tons of people, over 110 gallaries, and a definition of affordable that was less than £3,000 (which given the current exchange rate is only like $4500 but still!) (Editors Note - We did NOT spend $4500 on art - that was just the highest pricepoint they had on display! :). Anywho, we had a great wander around, eliminated a ton of stuff as not so nice, a few other things as too expensive, and narrowed down to a couple of things we were fans of. We circled back around and made our decision. It was cool - the artist was actually at the fair so we were able to chat with him for a while - he lives and works in Brighton, it's inspired by the coast down there, this piece took about 6 months. Very cool.

And now, love it or hate it, you will all get to see plenty of this over the years hanging over our fireplace!

Election rocks London

The above says it all, courtesy of the Seattle PI. By the looks of things people were quite excited all across the US yesterday, and Seattle looked to be one giant party. London had a similar vibe going on, just a few hours later.

Over the last month or so there have been a ton of questions about the election - how does it work, who will you vote for, is Palin an alien, etc. There was huge anticipation. And it was also a hot topic of conversation with our American friends as well here in the UK.

So last night, hundreds, probably thousands, of mostly ex-pats piled into a pub to watch coverage into the night. Things kicked off at 9pm, but didn't really get rolling until midnight. But once things got going you would have thought you were watching the Super Bowl from the winning team's sports bar. It was good times. Unfortunately, with everything on an 8 hour delay, it was also late times.

So, I am quite tired this morning, but also quite pleased. This seemed like a unique time for the world, and certainly for us, watching from across the pond. That said, next time, I'm looking forward to the polls still being open in Washington when they call the election for Obama.