birthday gifts when it's not my birthday?

Andy came home with two gifts from work today......a balloon and champagne. I enjoyed both, the thought of him on the train/tube with the balloon makes me smile and the champagne will make me happy when we drink it. Both great for me!! Glad I can get enjoyment out of his gifts too ;)

Happy Birthday Andy!!

after over a week of celebrating, it's finally here!
Andy is officially 30 now and still looks great ;) - i think he still has hope of being carded when back in Seattle next week... chocolate cupcake and port to celebrate - Happy Birthday!!!!

An afternoon at the pub

Most of the group, a few hours in (Emma, Chappers, Drew, we missed you)

This may sound a little redundant but we had one last gathering to celebrate my birthday. On Saturday we gathered at The Grand Union pub - they do amazing pies (savory, English pies) and of course serve a good pint. The pub we picked is almost our local (about 10 minutes) which is nice, but required a bit of a trek for everyone else - and they still showed up :)
Katherine and I got there around 2pm, and friends starting arriving about 2:30. We ended up spending the better part of the afternoon and evening there. It was a great time with friends, the food was good, and they didn't run out of beer or wine, so a successful evening!

Thanks all for coming out!

Amazon friends

The American Couple

Drink as much as you want, we're catching public transport!

Heading home with my presents

Birthday Dinner #2 - The Warrington Pub

So we are suckers for Gordon Ramsey. Or I am. Or whatever. He's entertaining, makes good TV, and find really good chef's to make good foot at his many restaurants. I am also a sucker for hanging out with good friends and family. Put the two together, and it is a good evening.

Gordon (to his friends) has recently gotten into the pub business, buying great but maybe a bit run down pubs, renovating them, and then reopening them. We went to The Warrington which is just a hop, skip, and a jump from our flat. Alison and Rich, and Colleen and Kevin, joined for dinner. The menu looked great, and the food did not disappoint. We had snails, oysters and clams for shared appetizers, great meals all around, and then split 6 (out of 7 possible) desserts. Good stuff. The service, well, let's just say it recently opened and maybe they're working out a few kinks.

It was a great evening with good friends (and family!). And can I say that I am thoroughly enjoying this whole turning 30 experience thus far. :)

Couple of pictures:

a quick recap of the weekend away

We had a lovely weekend away in Prague. It was an absolutely beautiful city. I think my 2nd favorite place we've visited since moving to London (behind Portugal - of course). The weekend was mostly spent wandering around the city checking out the amazing architecture, eating and drinking. What more do you need? The perfect weekend for Andy and me. The pictures are a little limiting because of my deleting 2/3 of them, but they still show how pretty the city is.

I would love to go back when it's not so cold, except for the fact that the city was packed with tourists in mid February when it was below 0 so I can only imagine what it's like there in the summer. Since being in Europe I haven't heard as many American accents besides the 2 trips I've made back to the US over the summer! I'm not sure where they all came from and how they were on holiday this time of year....

We had lots of good food while here, but certainly our Saturday night dinner took the cake. We went to Maze for Andy's birthday dinner. It was great. Lots of wonderful food and wine. I would recommend to anyone wanting a really nice dinner out to celebrate. Gotta love the Gordon Ramsey!

The view from our hotel room

The G&D all the way in Prague! We went in and checked it out, but it was about twice the price as anywhere else for a pint so we decided to wait for Seattle and the real G&D!

Andy eating a yummy muffin from a great bakery we happened upon

Astronomical Clock

Me, cold on the Charles Bridge - trying not to look like I might freeze and become one of the statues along the bridge at any moment

just got home

and downloaded the pictures from our prague trip onto the blog sidebar...will post more about what we did there in the next few days. unfortunately there aren't tons of pictures i somehow managed to clear the memory card this morning, so all the pics are from today. sadness. the trip was great though, lots of fun - good food and drink!

Prague - Czech for Frozen?

We forgot to bring the cord to our camera to allow us to post pics and blog in real time- as some of our friends like to do. However, I've found a picture that is mostly representative of what you will see when we do download our snaps. The high today was 1 degree. 1. Beats 0, but not by much...There's been a little bit of snow, and a ton of blue sky, and an amazingly beautiful city to explore thus far.

Tonight, we're off for an amazing meal, so long as we make it there! Fingers crossed. And never fear, you will hear more about it :)

happy valentines day - a day early!

working in a flower shop, this is a very busy time of year - and since it's mostly men placing orders, the majority have come in the past few days - nothing like waiting until the last minute ;) we have some "special" bouquets that were designed for valentines day, they have meanings like 'true love', 'everlasting love', etc. one is the eternity bouquet - 100 red roses. crazy, right? since i take a ton of the orders i asked my boss what i would get (besides my pay check) if i got someone to buy the 100 red roses. she initially said a glass of wine, then once others started asking upped it to a bottle of champagne! i've really be working it, but to no success (there's still a chance tomorrow). BUT, a guy from work did actually get someone to buy one today! and here's the kicker, it costs £ 495!!!!! and people, that's £, not $$.

Poker Night!

We had yet to have anyone over for dinner since we moved to the UK. Didn't like our first place to have people for dinner -and just hadn't gotten around to it with our new place. Yesterday that changed as we had friends Colleen and Kevin over for some food and poker!

We started with 6 Nations Rugby and pints out (Wales beat Scotland). After some drink and a bit of lunch (and a little more drink) we headed back to ours for dinner. We decided to have homemade pizza's - those of you at my birthday last year would know them - so had some work to do to get things ready. It was a very good thing that we did all the prep work before going out for rugby because otherwise we would have had a little trouble getting things together when we got home :) But it all came together quite nicely with the pizza's disappearing as quickly as we turned them out. Yum!

Then things got serious with the cards and cash coming out. The level of play was high - I think any of us could have challenged at the World Series of Poker. Unfortunately there could only be one winner on this night - it was winner take all. Katherine went out first, then Kevin. A bold bet was made (All in!), the bet was matched, and the winner was crowned - Colleen.

We wrapped up the evening with a game of, well, no idea what it's called but it combines charades and 20 questions. We were very into it as demonstrated by the visit from our upstairs neighbor came down to ask us to quiet down. Oops.

All in all a wonderful way to spend an evening.

A promising start...

but the ultimate champion Midnight looks thrilled...

When the sweat band comes out, you know the game is tough

my voice confuses people...

at work i spend a lot of the day talking to customers on the phone. because almost everyone that calls has an accent, that isn't american, it's difficult for me to understand a lot of what people are saying. and since i'm often taking down addresses for deliveries i need to make sure i'm writing down the correct information and have to ask people to spell words out for me to get them right. so, it's funny that twice in the past week when people have been spelling names out for me, they have commented that i must have already known how to spell that name because it's IRISH! both times i have been taken aback, i didn't really know what the person meant the first time it happened because i know i don't sound irish! there's an irish girl at work who will also tell anyone that asks that i don't sound irish in the slightest! she's thinks it's pretty amusing that someone would mistake my accent for an irish accent...she insists that english people are stupid and can't tell the difference between irish and american ;)

G-Wiz That's Luv

Andy and I were out and about in our neighborhood this afternoon and saw 2 G-Wiz parked next to each other. So cute! I love these little cars - it might not be obvious from the picture, but they are as long as a normal car is wide. Often you'll see them plugged in and the extension cord running across the sidewalk and into a nearby window. Seems like a good thing based on the fact that gas here is about $10.00 a gallon here!!!

way to go top pot!!!

my favorite donuts in seattle are going nation wide!! i just love, love, love top pot donuts, obviously i don't ever eat them now, and when in seattle it was a rare treat - but they are the best. it's nice to see the small local seattle company is doing so well. i'm sure some would think it's bad they are getting successful via "evil-empire" starbucks, but i think it's great. can't wait until they start doing their donuts in starbucks over here ;) although those donuts are probably part of the reason i gained so much weight while working at the law firm.....glad i've lost it all now!!

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.