good weekend

neil, emma, chappers, catherine, tim & andy

andy & catherine

after having a pretty mellow week we managed to have a pretty exciting friday and saturday. friday night i went out with a co-worker for drinks and dinner then went to met up with andy and friends in (at) harlem - an american soul food resturant. they all ate dinner there, from the sounds of it, mostly consisting of fried goodies in different shapes and sizes.

tim, with his towel, on the way for a bath - the door does say Bathroom after all

saturday night andy, catherine and i went for dinner in kensington to the roof gardens - a posh resturant on top (7th floor) of a building in kensington with amazing views to the south and southwest of the city. as the name suggests there are lovely gardens on the 6th floor of the building that for a small fee can be viewed.

andy and the k/catherines

me and andy

great evenings both nights, and really lovely weather during the day, a change from the last few weeks of rain and clouds.

Tube Party!

Our new mayor, Boris Johnson, in his first act in office banned drinking on public transport - particularly on the Tube - from June 1st, 2008. Now a funny thing about this - no one actually knew it was legal to drink on the tube. However, once it was banned, and with May 31st being a Saturday night, you can guess what comes next. That's right - party on the Tube!

Katherine and I, being a little bit adventurous, and a little bit crazy, decided to buy a few beers, wander down and check it out. On the Bakerloo line, not a whole lot of activity. At Paddington we changed over to the Circle line. Yee-Haw! We missed the first train but it was absolutely jam packed. Everyone drinking, smoking, dancing, clothes off, boom boxes, whole train shaking, debauched fun. We got the next train which was actually a total let down in comparison, with just a few people on it. Not to worry, two stops down the line and now our train was party central. We only made it to Baker Street where the party moved onto the platform because they unofficially, then officially, shut down the Circle line. We hoped back on the Bakerloo and went home. Unfortunately, we didn't bring a camera with us as it was a last minute decision to head down. Above you can see the crumpled map of the tube line, normally stuck calmly inside the tube car.

And here is a link to a pretty entertaining article and video. It's of Liverpool Station but it pretty much sums up the feel of the night. Ignore the commentary though, that person is an idiot.

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.

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!