The Brocks

Our final stop - Berlin!!

2009-11-01T12:45:00.001Z

Hello to all of you followers of kelandrewbrock (the few and the faithful)! This is our final overseas post. Our travels have been wonderful but exhausting, and now we're ready for a vacation from our vacation!! ;)

So our last stop was Berlin. Andrew and I arrived Thursday evening after a long drive from Warsaw. Apparently, Poland has no motorways, so the drive was especially difficult along two-lane highways with lots of lorries driving slower than we would have liked. We went to bed relatively early so that we could get up early the next morning and do an all-day walking tour that our friend Sharon recommended. The walking tour we took was the Best of Berlin tour on Friday morning, and I definitely recommend it to anyone going to Berlin. The guide (whose name slips my mind, unfortunately) was very thorough and well versed in Berlin's past and present. The website says the tour last "6+ hours", but I think he was going to go well past seven hours, which sounds really long, but you can skip out early if you wish though you probably won't want to because it's so interesting. Just make sure to wear comfortable shoes!

Anyway, so Andrew and I did that all day on my birthday and then rushed back to our hotel to meet the Frasers, who were flying all the way from London to celebrate my birthday with us and see us off to Atlanta! Andrew had made us reservations at a really nice restaurant on top of the Reichstag building, which houses Germany's parliament. The food was great; we ordered German champagne that was surprising good! Andrew arranged for cake with a candle, and he and the Frasers sang "Happy birthday" to me! Then the hostess at the restaurant brought me a present from the restaurant! It was a coffee cup and saucer with the Reichstag building on it! The Reichstag building is a really beautiful building, and the views from the roof (where the restaurant is located) are amazing. Here's a little video of it (sorry it's so dark and goofy, but we were having a good time after dinner).

After dinner we went to this bar that we'd walked past on our tour earlier that day. It was called Clärchens Ballhaus. We were the only tourists there; I'm sure. Hardly anyone we tried to talk to spoke any English, though we shared a table with a nice German couple and talked to them for ages with me translating everything in my very broken and limited German! Then someone gets the wild idea to tell the band that it's "meine dreizig Geburtstag" (my 30th birthday), and the announce it and call me over. Here's what happened next...

In case you can't understand the lyrics (I barely could, and I was reading them off the page!) or (like me) have never heard this song in your LIFE, here they are:

SAN FRANCISCO NIGHTS
(Burdon / Briggs / Weider / Jenkins / McCulloch)
Eric Burdon & The Animals - 1967

[This is the part that the band leader reads out loud at the beginning, when I clearly am clueless as to what's going on.]
This following program is dedicated to the city and people of
San Francisco, who may not know it but they are beautiful and so
is their city this is a very personal song, so if the viewer
cannot understand it particularly those of you who are European
residents save up all your brand and fly trans love airways to
San Francisco U.S.A., then maybe you'll understand the song, it
will be worth it, if not for the sake of this song but for the
sake of your own peace of mind.

Strobe lights beam create dreams
walls move minds to do
on a warm San Francisco night
old child young child feel alright
on a warm San Francisco night
angels sing leather wings
jeans of blue Harley Davisons too
on a warm San Francisco night
old angels young angels feel alright
on a warm San Francisco night.

I wasn't born there perhaps I'll die there
there's no place left to go, San Francisco.

[And this is the part where the band leader makes me take it over on my own for a bit!! Yikes!]
Cop's face is filled with hate
heavens above he's on a street called love
when will they even learn
old cop young cop feel alright
on a warm San Francisco night
the children are cool
they don't raise fools
it's an american dream
includes indians too.

Wow. That was some night! Thank you Andrew and the Frasers and the staff at the Reichstag building restaurant and the German couple and the band at Clärchens Ballhaus for making my 30th birthday one that I will NEVER forget!

Love to all,
Kelly

Warsaw!

2009-10-28T20:20:00.001Z

Roll Tide from Krakow!

2009-10-24T20:18:00.000+01:00

Hungary!

2009-10-23T20:17:00.000+01:00

Budapest!

2009-10-22T18:21:00.002+01:00

Having fun in Vienna

2009-10-19T18:18:00.000+01:00

More in Salzburg!

2009-10-18T18:17:00.000+01:00

Happy birthday, Daddy!!! :)

First day in Salzburg

2009-10-16T18:14:00.000+01:00

Munich: Part zwei!

2009-10-15T22:49:00.001+01:00

Munich!

2009-10-13T23:41:00.002+01:00

Zurich!

2009-10-12T23:39:00.000+01:00

Geneva!

2009-10-10T19:14:00.000+01:00

Monaco!

2009-10-09T19:11:00.000+01:00

Nice is nice!

2009-10-07T20:54:00.003+01:00

Day 6: Nice

2009-10-07T13:26:00.000+01:00

Day 3: Driving to Bordeaux

2009-10-07T13:22:00.001+01:00

We took a pit stop on the way to Bordeaux to see Mont St Michelle, a gothic cathedral atop a small mountain surrounded by mudflats.

Day 4: Bordeaux wine country

2009-10-05T13:24:00.000+01:00

Day 2: The beaches of Normandy

2009-10-02T22:15:00.001+01:00

Goodbye, London!

2009-10-01T11:53:00.000+01:00

So Andrew and I have finished our stint in London and are spending the entire month of October driving through Europe as our last hurrah. We've decided to do video updates during our trip, which we'll post when we can as we're traveling (depending on when we get hotels with good internet access).

We' hope you enjoy traveling with us as we see the world!

Sorry for the shaky camera during some of these first ones. The cab was already waiting outside, so I was kind of in a hurry!

Hampton Court Palace and Greenwich!

2009-07-30T22:13:00.002+01:00

Hampton Court Palace!

This weekend Andrew and I went on our first two of many upcoming day trips. We’ve realised that we’re about to leave the UK , and we’ve hardly even seen the UK ! Europe, yes, but not the UK . So this weekend we knocked two places in London (but very far out for us) off our list: Hampton Court Palace and Greenwich.

At Hampton Court Palace, there were loads of activities happening. They had performers dressed up as courtiers who simulated the celebrations that happened after the wedding of King Henry VIII to Kateryn Parr, his sixth wife.

We arrived mid-morning and wandered around for a bit before the festivities got underway. We explored the Base court and the Clock Court (with the beautiful clock), and then wandered on inside.

In Henry VII's apartments, they had set up a great dining hall with a full set head table (only minus the food) and tapestries from Henry's time covered the walls.

Then we met a courtier at Base Court who was led us to congratulate the King and his new bride!

Next, we wandered down to the cookery, where they were doing a special live presentation demonstrating how they prepared a lavish wedding banquet using authentic Tudor methods.

They even provided robes for everyone to wear to the festivities. (Andrew and I tried them on, but opted not to wear them.)

Afterward, we wandered around the gardens for a while before heading to the café for lunch. We ate authentic Tudor beef pies with chips (ie, fries) and seasonal vegetables.

After lunch, we headed straight for the garden maze, where we had agreed that we would race to the finish. Andrew, of course, beat me to the centre. I have no sense of direction whatsoever and get really disoriented in mazes!

Then we went to the back gardens to claim our spot ahead of time for the impending swordfight and falconry display.

We'd brought a blanket with us, so we plopped down on the grass and claimed one of the best spots. Andrew almost immediately fell asleep in the sun.

After a day full of Tudor fun, we headed home to have an icy beverage in our backyard!

Greenwich!

On Sunday we got up early again and headed to Greenwich. Greenwich houses the Royal Observatory, where the Meridian line runs (hence Greenwich Mean Time). We saw the clock, and Andrew set his watch to it.

Then there was an amazing display of Britishness in which all the tourists actually, of their own accord, formed a queue to line up and have their picture taken standing on the line in front of the sculpture. No one had specifically organised the queue; the people just did it. We were amazed. So we wanted the picture, too, and we got in line. All of a sudden, we were bombarded with a huge group of students (possibly Italian?), who either did not notice or completely ignored the queue, and they started jumping in line and breaking in front of everyone.

Andrew to the rescue! He and the guy behind us walked over and started policing the queue, making all the students respect the line of people waiting and go to the back. They were not pleased, but they obeyed! Everyone else in the queue was so thankful!

While that was going on, I was dealing with my own breaker. Some guy, who didn't speak a lick of English, came up and stood in front of me. I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he was with the two girls in front of me.

"Yes," he said (I later realised this is possibly the only English word he knows). So I stood there a minute, and then a woman came up and joined him, and she was motioning to someone else. Meanwhile, neither of them had spoken to the two girls in front of me, nor had they acknowledged his prescience, so I then realised he was not, in fact, with them.

I got right up next to him, so that I was kind of nudging him and the woman out of the line and was back behind the two girls, and I said, loudly, "I'm [pointing to myself] behind them [pointing the girls in front of me]. Y'all [pointing to they guy and the woman] need to move to the back of the queue [pointing to the end of the line]." (I hoped that with all the pointing, they would understand.)

Then the woman behind me, whose boyfriend was helping Andrew police the front of the queue, piped up and said, "Yeah. And I'm behind her [pointing to me], so don't try and nudge in here, either!" He ended up moving behind her, and the people back there either never noticed, didn't care, or were too afraid to speak up.

While we were standing in line for the picture, we got to see the Greenwich Time Ball rise and drop. The Greenwich Time Ball is a giant red ball on top of the Flamsteed House, and is one of the world's earliest public time signals. At 12:55pm every day, the ball rises half way up it's mast, and then at 12:58pm it goes up the rest of the way, and at 1pm exactly it falls to mark the hour.

Then we finally got our picture on the Meridian line!

We wandered through the Flamsteed House, the time galleries (which was basically a clock museum) and the astronomy galleries. Oddly enough, we bought a kitchen scale in the gift shop. I have no idea why they had a kitchen scale for sale in the gift shop of the Royal Observatory, but they did, and I needed one, so we bought it! The Royal Observatory sits on a great hill, and the views of London are wonderful.

After we'd seen enough of the Observatory, we wandered around Greenwich Park for a while. They were having a concert in the Park, and we eventually made our way there, but it started to rain, and we were hungry, so we went and had lunch in the café.

After lunch, we wandered into the heart of Greenwich, looking for the Tourist Information Centre so that we could get a map. The TIC was supposed to be right across the street from the Cutty Sark, the great ship that burned in 2007 and is going through major renovations now; we'd looked up the location on it's website before we left. However, when we arrived, we discovered that it had moved! You'd think it'd update its own website (apparently, now it has – I just checked).

Anyway, as we were making our way to the new location, we happened to pass Greenwich Market, so we popped in there on the way back from getting the map. It was a really great market! On a much smaller scale than most of the London markets we've visited, the Greenwich Market had all kinds of neat crafts and artwork and goods. Loads of wonderful smelling food, too; we were so disappointed that we'd lunched at that terrible café in the park!

Next we went to the Old Royal Naval College to see the Painted Hall
and the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul. Both were amazing and very impressive.

After that, we were some worn out puppies, and it was nearing five, so we headed back to the train station and home!

4th of July

2009-07-05T16:04:00.000+01:00

We were also home for our first 4th of July in three years, which was so great. It's just not the same trying to celebrate the Fourth in London!

We went to dinner in Soho (South Homewood) with our dear friends Clay, Steve, and his girlfriend Heather, and then walked around to the Horse's Tail bar where we had a "Happy birthday, America" shot compliments of Steve and then watched the Thunder on the Mountain firewords show from the car. I have to admit that I got a little teary-eyed when we heard the "Star-Spangled Banner". Happy birthday, America!

Atlanta, here we come!

2009-07-04T15:10:00.000+01:00

So just before we left for our LOOOONG trip to the US, we found out that when we move back in November, we'll be heading to the big ATL. We're getting excited. Andrew's brother, Neal, and his wife Ginny recently moved there, and we have several other friends who live in and around Atlanta, so it won't be like we're totally starting over again. We're looking forward to having a house and a yard (and our dogs back!), cars, and being close to our friends and family in Alabama (after all, Atlanta is much closer than Boston!).

So we went to Atlanta and spent a couple of nights with Neal and Ginny while were home so that we could see their new place, spend some time with them and get to know Atlanta. While Neal and Ginny were at work, Andrew and I drove around the suburbs of Atlanta, checking out about 10 different neighbourhoods to see which ones we liked best to help us along with our house hunt. We probably drove around for about four or five hours. Our favourite neighbourhoods were Ansley Park, Morningside, Piedmont, and Virginia Highlands. Later that night, we went to Turner Field and got tickets to see the Braves battle it out against the Phillies! After the game, there was a fireworks display, and when that was over, we found an English pub where some of Neal and Ginny's friends met us. Andrew and I even ran into one of our old college buddies!

We can't wait to be back in the South! See y'all soon!

Taking home the girls...

2009-06-28T21:25:00.001+01:00

So at the end of June and beginning of July, Andrew and I had two weddings to attend in Birmingham (Alabama), and since they were two weeks apart, we went home and stayed for 17 days. Because we were going to be home for so long, and because we're going to be travelling so much during our last three and a half months (!!!) in Europe, we decided it would be best to go ahead and take the dogs home with us on this trip and leave them with our parents for the remainder of our stay in Europe. Andrew booked the dogs' and our plane tickets a couple of months ago with Delta. I was in charge of making sure the dogs got all their shots and paperwork needed. I made the necessary veterinarian appointments, got their rabies vaccinations, and spoke with the Assistant Veterinarian of Georgia several times to make sure that their paperwork was okay. The week of the flight I took them to the vet for their final appointment, the one during which the vet looks them over and signs a form saying they're fit to fly. The previous week, our agent with Delta also sent us another form saying the dogs could sustain certain temperatures. The vet wouldn't sign. I cried. She still refused to sign. Andrew started working with the agent to come up with a "Plan B" while I started searching for another vet who would agree to sign the form. We ended up putting the dogs on another flight with Continental (which doesn't require that particular form). They had to fly out the day before we did, TO HOUSTON! They had to spend the night in Houston and then catch another flight the next day to Atlanta. Poor girls. When we dropped them off at the airport, we had to leave them in their crates, and as I was walking away, Hadley let out a terrified, "YELP!" and when I turned around, she put one paw up on the grate of the cage and just looked at me with those big brown eyes, and I totally lost it and cried most of the way back to the flat.

When we picked them up in Atlanta, everything was fine; their paperwork was all good, and the girls were in perfect condition though exhausted and worried. We loaded them in the rental van and drove from Atlanta to Birmingham. Savannah was so jetlagged on the way home! She refused to lay down; she wanted to see where she was going, but she kept falling asleep sitting up. Her head would slowly droop down and down until her nose was touching the seat, and then she'd do the "head bob" and jerk her head up again real fast.

Hadley, on the other hand, just laid out, taking up the entire backseat, and passed out... That is, when she wasn't hanging her head out the window, enjoying the car breeze!

The next day, we took them straight to the vet to get all their unpleasantness overwith in one go. We had them bathed, dipped, shaved and clipped. Hadley looks as though she lost 20 pounds! She now loves the pool. She chased tennis ball after tennis ball into Andrew's parents' pool. She looks positively graceful while she swims - head held so high and not making the slightest splash in the water! Savannah is so happy just laying in the sun, soaking up the rays.

We can't thank our parents enough for keeping our girls while we're away these last few months. Hadley is living it up in Cullman with my parents while Savannah lounges away her days in Birmingham with Andrew's parents...

Golf pros and tennis... What?

2009-06-22T22:53:00.000+01:00

Before (Hole 1)

After (Hole 9)

So our dear friend Kevin arranged a pub crawl for all of us because so many of us are leaving (including Kevin)! I'll let the pictures do most of the talking...

Pre-holes

Hole 1
Pub: The White Horse
Name: "Pimpin' aint easy"
Drink: Cider
Men's Tee: 1 pint
Ladies' Tee: 1/2 pint

Hole 2
Pub: Fulham Mitre
Name: "Couch patrol"
Drink: Lager
Men's Tee: 1 pint
Ladies' Tee: 1 small wine

Hole 3
Pub: Malt House (watering hole)
Name: "Down goes Fraser"
Drink: Referee's shot of choice
Men's Tee: 1 shot
Ladies' Tee: 1 shot

For the next few holes, we headed from our neighbourhood up into Central London. Yes, we invaded the tube stations and Central London dressed like idiots.

Hole 4
Pub: Waxy O'Connor's (watering hole)
Name: "Footloose - 17 Mar '08"
Drink: Guinness
Men's Tee: 1 pint
Ladies' Tee: 1 shot Bailey's

Hole 5
Pub: The Salisbury
Name: "Livin' on a prayer..."
Drink: Tequila
Men's Tee: 1 shot
Ladies' Tee: 1 vodka cran

Hole 6
Pub: Lamb & Flag (watering hole)
Name: "My hands do not burrrn... I was a waitrrr"
Drink: English pump ale
Men's Tee: 1 pint
Ladies' Tee: 1/2 pint

Hole 7
Pub: Punch & Judy
Name: "Smack-a-what?"
Drink: Stella
Men's Tee: 1 pint
Ladies' Tee: 1/2 pint

Hole 8
Pub: Not the Porterhouse (denied entry); not the Walkabout (denied entry); but the Maple Leaf (Canadian bar)
Name: "Bringin' sexy back..."
Drink: Caddy Masters' Choice
Men's Tee: 1 pint
Ladies' Tee: 1/2 pint or other

Hole 9
Pub: The Chandos (watering hole)
Name: "Who's comin' wit me?"
Drink: Cider
Men's Tee: 1 bottle
Ladies' Tee: 1 bottle

And now, without further ado, we announce the winners...

Hidden Gems Around the Corner

2009-06-21T23:02:00.000+01:00

So this past weekend, Andrew and I had nothing going on Friday night; the next morning we were gearing up for a fancy dress (ie, costume) pub crawl, so we wanted to do something low key. We walked over to Blockbuster and rented a couple of movies and dropped them off the house. We decided to explore our neighbourhood and walk up to Munster Road. When I’ve run in the area, I’ve noticed lots of cute restaurants up that way, but we never think to go there because we’re so accustomed to heading toward the tube station rather than away from it. So we found an adorable little Italian restaurant that had the strangest basil and cracked black pepper margaritas. I had one, and it was actually really good! After dinner, we went into a wine shop and bought a bottle to take home, and we decided to walk home the long way since it was a nice evening. As we were walking along, we saw an adorable little pub and decided to pop in for a pint on the way home. When we opened the door, we were blasted with very bad karaoke music. It was a pub that obviously didn’t see many people other than the locals who were there every weekend (or possibly every day). We thought it was hysterical, and Andrew ordered drinks while I ran to the loo. When I came out, we had a problem. Andrew had already started sipping his beer while the bartender poured mine, and when he started to pay her with his debit card, she told him it’s cash only. Well we had zero cash. One of us was going to have to go get money while the other stayed behind.

“Sadly,” Andrew told me, “I feel better about sending you out there to get cash than leaving you in here by yourself.” It was still light outside, so I ran out. Every cash machine I saw was dead. I ended up having to run about a half mile away (in heals!) before I finally found one that worked. Then, on the way back, I was going to try and just see if a cab would take me back to the pub, but none of them had their vacant lights on. I leaned in to one whose light was off, though, and asked if he could just take me down Dawes Road a little bit, and he looked at me strangely and said, “Lady, I have a passenger already.” I glanced in the back and realised there was, indeed, a man in the back seat wearing a dark suit! I was so embarrassed! So I walked on and a moment later, when the light turned, the cab pulled over and the cabbie said that the passenger had said he was going down Dawes Road anyway and wouldn’t mind if the cabbie dropped me off where I needed to go! So I hopped in (it was, after all, a registered black cap – not dangerous or anything) and thanked the man in the suit who was very awkward about the whole thing, and I hopped out again at the pub and ran inside to pay the bartender.

Andrew and I ended up meeting all the locals quickly since we were the outsiders. One of the roughest looking guys came up and told me that I was going to sing a song with him. It was a song I’d never heard, but that didn’t matter to him. Andrew was just dieing in fits of laughter about it, but I ended up getting up and singing. Later the same guy grabbed me and made me dance with him, and then he made Andrew get up and sing with him, too! He brought over more of his friends to meet us, and they all sat with us. I think we scared everyone when Andrew and I got up and sang “Chattahoochee”…

We had so much fun, though, just being goofy and singing and dancing and meeting new people. We found a real hidden gem on our own street that night, and we look forward to taking all our friends there some other night and overrunning the place with Americans!

The Brocks visit London!

2009-06-16T21:43:00.000+01:00

Thursday, 11 June
Shortly after my parents left, Andrew’s parents finally came to London, too! They stayed up near Gloucester Road tube station, near the Hereford Arms, one of our favourite pubs. It was the area where Andrew and I spent our first month in London, when we were in PwC corporate housing. The first day they arrived, there was (yet another) tube strike happening, our third in our three years in London. Andrew took the StreetCar and picked them up at the airport. We dropped off their luggage at our flat because it was still too early for them to check in to their hotel, and we gave them the dime tour of our flat before heading out for the day.

Because of the tube strike, it was going to be awful trying to get around, so we decided to get out of London see Windsor Castle for the day instead. I took the day off work that day so that I could go, too. When we got to Windsor, we met our dear friend Nigel for lunch. He lives nearby and is a walking encyclopaedia of British history. After lunch at the pub, we sauntered up to the castle and wandered around, taking our time looking at the State Rooms and the grounds.

At the end of the day, we took the train back to London and grabbed the luggage from our flat and took a cab to their hotel where they got checked in and dropped their luggage, then we walked over to the Hereford Arms for dinner and drinks. By the time we finished dinner, the tube strike thankfully had ended, and Andrew and I were able to get home easily!

Friday, 12 June
The next day, I had to work, but Andrew took off to wander around London with his parents. He took them up to the Tower of London and on over to Tower Bridge. They found a pub called the Hung, Drawn and Quartered nearby where they had lunch before heading over to Fleet Street and my old stomping grounds, the Royal Courts of Justice and the grand entrance to the City of London Square Mile. From there, they went to Covent Garden and saw the market before meeting me for drinks at the Windsor Castle pub before heading to dinner at the Churchill Arms (mmmm… Thai food…).

Saturday, 13 June
Saturday morning we got up early and met Andrew’s parents and took them to Portobello Road Market. We wandered around the market for a while; Andrew’s parents bought an antique clock, and Andrew and I bought some silver candlesticks we’d been eyeing for two years. After we made our purchases, we went to the White Horse in Parson’s Green for lunch. We had Bloody Marys and pints of beer with fresh burgers hot off the grill, and then hopped on a bus down the King’s Road, stopping at a couple of stores along the way. We showed the Brocks Sloane Square, our old tube stop, and then went and had drinks at the Oriole, a brasserie in Sloane Square. After drinks, we wandered up Sloane Street and went into Hackett and a couple of other stores before parting ways to go back to our respective places and nap before meeting for dinner later. We took them to dinner on Brick Lane; we went to my favourite Indian restaurant, the name of which I can never remember but instantly recognise by the gigantic mural of Princess Diana. After dinner, we went on a wild search for the best bagel place so that I could a bagel for the morning before heading back home.

Sunday, 14 June
Sunday morning we took another day trip outside of London. We took a train to the city of Dover, where the white cliffs loom over the sea. It was a beautiful, warm sunny day, and we really enjoyed wandering around the city before heading up to the cliffs.

The views from the cliffs were amazing…

When we were getting ready to head back down, we passed through a gate, and attached to the gate was piece of wood on which someone had written with chalk “France” and an arrow pointing to the sea, and “Fulham” with an arrow pointing the opposite direction. Andrew and I got a kick out of it since we live in Fulham.

We took a cab back to the train station, and realised that we had missed the train we wanted to catch and would have a bit of a wait before the next one, so we asked the cabbie if he could recommend a pub in which we could maybe have some lunch or just a pint. “No,” he answered. “Most of the pubs around these parts won’t be to your liking; I imagine,” he continued. We all sat in a bit of an uncomfortable silence then and giggled about it later. Despite his advice, we decided to try our luck at the sketchy looking pub directly across the street from the station. There were several men and a couple of women standing around outside, and loud music pouring out the front door. Many of the men were shirtless and had tattoos covering their arms, chests and backs. We walked quietly past them, into the pub, and Frank, Suzanne and Andrew ordered drinks for us, while I walked out the side door (away from the shady characters out front) and claimed a large picnic table for us while I reapplied some sunscreen. Apparently, while I was outside, Suzanne asked the bartender, who it turned out was the owner, if she could buy a Kronenburg 1664 pint glass from him. He told her she could just have her glass, and she introduced herself to him, and they became fast friends. Later, after they joined me at the picnic table, the owner, who was a toothless Irishman named Phinn, came out with a clean Kronenburg 1664 pint glass for Suzanne, all wrapped up. He chatted with us outside for a minute telling us all about his sister who lives in the States and how he was a boxer growing up. We finished our pints and then got on the train to head to Canterbury, our second destination of the day.

When we got to Canterbury, the first order of business was to find some lunch, and we had lunch in this adorable little square near the cathedral. Afterward, we walked over to the cathedral and all got lost in the sheer beauty of it. Andrew and I had been to the cathedral two years prior with Brad and Jill Beard, but we’d forgotten just how beautiful it was.

Later, we wandered around the city for bit and then headed back to London. When we arrived back at London Victoria station, we all bought Cornish pasties and had them for an early dinner while sitting in the station before Andrew and I headed back home to Fulham, and the Brocks went back to their hotel in Gloucester Road.

Monday, 15 June
On Monday, Andrew and I both had to head back to work, so the Brocks were on their own. They went to Buckingham Palace and saw Big Ben and Parliament and Westminster Abbey. When Andrew and I got off work, we met them at the Hereford Arms again for one last dinner and drinks. We had such a wonderful time with them while they were here, and were sorry to see them leave the next morning to head back home.

The Cookes visit London!

2009-06-01T21:54:00.002+01:00

Saturday, 23 May
Mom and Dad flew in to Gatwick Airport at 7:10am, and Andrew met them outside of customs with the StreetCar while I did some last minute cleaning back at the flat! They dropped off their luggage, took a quick tour of the flat and we headed out to breakfast at Del Aziz, a nice little restaurant in our neighbourhood. After breakfast, we too the Tube to Notting Hill Gate to go to Portobello Road Market and wander around and do some antique shopping. We lunched at the street vendors (it’s not like street meat, though; the vendors are very good) and then went to a little pub called the Earl of Lonsdale for a pint.

After wandering around the market a bit more, we headed home to clean up and get ready for mass. We took the bus to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church, a church that Mom read about in the Birmingham News ages ago. When we arrived, Andrew and I saw our friends Becky and Josef McGuigan and introduced them to Mom and Dad. After mass, Andrew walked around the church taking some pictures (though you weren’t supposed to take pictures in the church) while Mom and Dad and I stood outside chatting with the McGuigans.

We hopped in a black cab and went to dinner at the Churchill Arms, Andrew’s and my favourite Thai restaurant.

After dinner, we walked over to the Windsor Castle pub around the corner (one of our favourite pubs in London).

Sunday, 24 May
The next morning, we took the bus to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

We wandered around the museum for a while and then headed out to go to the Reject China Shop, only to realise that it was closed; I mean closed down – that’s the economy for you! We grabbed a sandwich at the grocery store and ate it on the Tube on the way to the Tower of London, where we took a Beefeater’s tour. Afterward, Mom and Dad went in to see the Crown Jewels while Andrew and I sat in the courtyard and relaxed for a bit!

Next, we walked across Tower Bridge and along the Queen's Walk on the Thames. Then we stopped by Vinopolis to have a look at the Scotch shop.

We saw Shakespeare's Globe.

We crossed Millennium Bridge and then took the Tube home to rest a bit before taking a walk around Fulham / Parson's Green / Chelsea with the dogs. Then we headed back to the flat to drop off the dogs and had dinner at Fulham Mitre.

Monday, 25 May
On Monday morning, Andrew and I had a bank holiday, so we went with Mom and Dad on an Evan Evans Tour to Windsor, Bath and Stonehenge. The first stop was Windsor Castle, where we saw the Queen’s dollhouse (wow) and took a tour of the State Rooms before wandering around the grounds. We all agreed that you really need a whole day to fully explore it. We were so rushed to get back to our bus on time!

Next stop on the tour was the Roman Baths in Bath. It was really an amazing sight. We could also go into the Pump Room, which was much smaller than I imagined it when reading all of Jane Austen’s novels! We tasted the water in the Pump Room; if you drink a full glass, it’s supposed to make you look 10 years younger! Andrew and I both got ours down, though it was tepid and tasted of sulphur. I was definitely not pleased by it, though!

The last stop on our tour was Stonehenge. There’s not much to see there, but the audio tour was interesting, and the scenery was priceless, especially on a day as beautiful as that one…

We returned to London around dinner time, and since Andrew had to work the next day, he went back to the flat to relax a bit while I took Mom and Dad to have dinner in Chinatown in Soho, and then we too the tube to Piccadilly Circus to see the lights at night.

Tuesday, 26 May
The next morning, Andrew went in to work, and Mom and Dad and I took the Tube to Green Park where I showed them my office. We walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard Ceremony, only to discover that it was blocked off. None of the police blocking off the Palace seemed to know whether the changing of the guard was happening.

After waiting nearly an hour, it didn't happen, but we walked down the Pall Mall where we watched the guard doing a parade practice instead!

The Pall Mall ends at Trafalgar Square, where we admired Nelson’s Column and the wonderful fountain display. We had lunch at the Silver Cross pub on Whitehall and then walked down to see Andrew's office at Embankment, where we actually ran into Andrew as he was grabbing lunch!

Next we took the Tube to Westminster and toured Westminster Abbey.

We saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Then we took the Tube to Sloane Square, near where Andrew and I used to live, and went to the yarn shop in Peter Jones department store. We walked up the King’s Road to the Chelsea Potter pub where we chilled out and had pints until time for our ghost tour. We went to St Paul’s Tube station where we met Sean, the tour guide for the "Ghosts of the Old City" London Walking tour. It lasted much longer than we expected, and all the nearby restaurants were closed by the time we finished, so we hopped off the Tube a Leicester Square and had lunch at post-theatre diner before heading home and crashing!

Wednesday and Thursday, 27–28 May
This was the morning that Mom and Dad planned on taking the train to Bristol and spending the night at Thornbury Castle. I had to work that day, but I took some time off that morning to make sure they made it to the train station and got their tickets squared away right. They were leaving from London Paddington and taking an overground train, which can be really overwhelming if you don’t know where you’re going! I saw them all the way to the platform and then went on to work.

They were supposed to spend the day wandering around Bristol, and then grab a cab from the train station to Thornbury Castle. However, after telling me countless times when I was younger not to talk to strangers and NEVER to get in the car with strangers, they hopped right into a car with strangers who drove them to Thornbury and dropped them off at the castle. Apparently they had started talking to this young girl at the train station, asking her about buses and taxis to Thornbury and where to eat, how to get to Bristol, etc. She answered all their questions and then wandered off to find her ride. A few moments later, Mom and Dad were apparently still wandering around and looking lost, when the young girl and her mother came up and offered them a ride. The young girl had previously lived in the US and had run out of money at a bus station when some nice Americans bought her dinner and gave her some extra money. She was paying the nice gesture forward by helping my parents!

Mom and Dad had a lovely stay at the castle. They raved about the castle, the grounds, the room, the food, to the point where I want to go stay there! The next day they made it all the way back to London Paddington, and to Fulham Broadway, and to our flat all on their own! I was so proud! They had lunch at the Fulham Mitre and went for a walk around our neighbourhood on their own (I was still working from home) and then came back and took a nap before taking the dogs on a long walk before dinner.

I cooked roast beef slow cooked in Guinness, stuffed onions, Yorkshire puddings, and a rhubarb crumble for dessert. It was a lovely dinner (though the Yorkshire puddings were more like biscuits).

Friday, 29 May
The next morning I took off work, and Mom and Dad and I had lunch at Del Aziz again before taking the Tube to St. John's Wood and walk to Abbey Road to see Abbey Road Studios and the famous crossing. After several tries, we finally got the picture!

Then we took the Tube and wandered up Oxford Street. I realised we were going to be around Chancery Lane around lunchtime and thought since we’d be there that I’d check to see if my friends at the Law Society were available for lunch or at least to pop in and meet Mom and Dad. So we went to our old haunt, the Knight’s Templar pub on Chancery Lane, and Sandra and Anika met us for lunch there. I think all four of them got a kick out of each other!

After lunch we tried to walk to St Paul's Cathedral and got a little lost. It was 1:30, and the last tour was supposed to be at 2pm, so we ended up just grabbing a cab to make sure that we weren’t late. Once we arrived, we discovered they had cancelled the 2pm tours (without deleting them from the online schedule) so we’d missed the last tour. We begged the lady to let us join in the 1:30 tour late (by this time it was 1:45), and she actually did. Not only that, she gave us each a £1 discount! We got to see the Quire and geometric staircase (both of which are closed to the general public). Then we wandered up the stairs upon stairs upon stairs to the Whispering Gallery and then up even more stairs to the Stone Gallery! Unfortunately the Golden Gallery (the highest one) was closed for refurbishing, so we headed down after that. I was proud of Dad for making it all the way up, though, despite his fear of heights!

After we finished touring St Paul’s, we headed back to Fulham and bought some beer and pretzels to enjoy while lounging in our garden. After Andrew got home, we met the Frasers for dinner at Belgo Centraal, a great Belgian restaurant famous for its huge selection of beer and mussels!

After diner, Mom and Dad and Andrew and I wandered over to Trafalgar Square where I’d read that day that they’d just added lights to the fountains. We went into Albanach, a Scotch bar, and had one last drink with Mom and Dad in London.

Saturday, 30 May
Saturday morning we took the StreetCar and dropped Mom and Dad off the airport. We really wished that they could have stayed at least one more day! We so enjoyed our time with them and were very sorry to see them go.

Split!

2009-05-05T21:31:00.000+01:00

This past weekend, the first May Bank Holiday weekend, Andrew and I accompanied Rachel and David, Joanna and David Iliff, and Tara and Nick Vuono to Split, Croatia. It was David Kent's birthday trip, and Rachel had arranged for us to stay in two "villas", which turned out to be just two small, but charming, flats in a small apartment building within walking distance to the everything in city. In our flat, there was a downstairs that had a pull-out futon-like sofa bed, a kitchen and dining area, and a bathroom, and then you walked up some rustic-looking wooden stairs to the upper bedroom, which also had a ladder going to up to a loft and a balcony off the side of the building. It was very picturesque.

Nick and Tara and Andrew and I flew in on the early flight, and when we arrived at the flat, Andrew and I immediately went exploring while Nick and Tara got cleaned up and waited for the rest of the group. We wandered around these adorable markets that seemed to blanket the entire city, saw some neat statues, churches, and ruins, and then wanted back over to the flat to before the rest of the group arrived.

Once the Kents and the Iliffs got there, we went out sightseeing again as a group, and wandered up to an adorable little café in a piazza with a view of the sea for a pizza lunch (apparently, Split is known for their pizzas).

After lunch, we wandered around some more and found another cute little café in a another piazza where we settled down for a pint and to rest our feet. Then we split up (no pun intended), and the girls went off shopping while the guys wandered around to find a cigar shop. We girls ate some gelato and bought some water for the rooms, then made a booking a restaurant that Rachel had heard about that sounded good. All in all, quite productive! The boys found a cigar shop and then went to grocery store to buy supplies (drinks and snacks) for our sailing trip the next morning. Rachel had arranged for us to rent a sailboat, complete with skipper, to take us out and spend a day on the sea, hopping around to different islands all day.

On the way to dinner that night, we wandered along the water at sunset, and I found, oddly enough, a crimson and white houndstooth hat, which Andrew bought for me to wear to Alabama games next year! What a strange thing to find in Croatia! I look forward to wearing to Bama games and seeing the looks on people's faces when they ask where I got it and I tell them I got it in Croatia!

That night we ate a fabulous restaurant called Nostramos. Rachel definitely picked a good one. (The next day, the Skipper of our sailboat claimed that it was the only good restaurant in the city, which I don't buy.) We basically ordered two seafood platters for the table and all shared family style.

The following day we rose early and put on swim suits and sunhats to go out on the sailboat. We packed plenty of drinks and snacks, and even brought some extra clothes in case we decided the water was warm enough to swim. It was NOT. That morning it was disastrously cold. I was wearing a swimsuit and a seersucker sundress with flip-flops, a cardigan, and a denim jacket, and before we even made it to the marina, I had thrown on a pair of jeans underneath my dress and put on a windproof jacket with a hood on under my denim jacket! Andrew had on khakis and a golf shirt with a sweater over it and his ski jacket (no lining, so it was more like a heavy raincoat).

When we got to the marina, we found the most amazing sailboat I've ever seen (of course, I haven't seen that many sailboats, but it was still amazing). It was a 45-foot boat and had four bedrooms (it slept eight comfortably), a kitchen area with a dining table that could seat eight, and two bathrooms. Off we went.

The water was SO choppy that morning. The Skipper, whose name was Ringo, taught Andrew a lot of sailing techniques. Andrew has wanted to learn to sail for about as long as I've known him, so he was having a great time! We girls hung out for a long time down in the cabin of the boat, out of the wind, until we realised that the sea felt less rough up above in the wing. Then we bundled up in blankets and braved it. One of the girls got quite sea sick, but hung in there nonetheless.

We docked at an island called Brac to get our land legs back and wait to see if the sea calmed down any. By that time, the sun was out at least, and we docked in a bay where the wind was not as harsh. We had a pint at a café on the water and then wandered over to the closest restaurant for lunch.

After lunch, Andrew and I wandered behind the restaurant and found a gorgeous garden of roses and lemon trees.

By the time we finished lunch, the weather had greatly improved, and we decided that we were ready to brave the sea again. We were pleasantly surprised to find it had calmed quite a bit, and we sailed over to another bay and set anchor. We girls hung out on the front end of the boat and chatted and napped periodically (it was still a bit cold to sunbathe) while the boys hung out at the back of the boat with Ringo the Skipper having beers and smoking their cigars.

David Kent had picked up these bizarre snacks that were basically peanut butter-flavoured cheesy-poofs, and they were pretty disgusting, practically tasteless fluffs of crunchy air. Since no one was eating them, I began throwing them off the side of the boat to see if they would attract any fish. Sure enough, I started getting several bites, and giggling every time I saw one. Andrew came to see what I was doing sitting on the back of the boat by myself and started feeding them, too. We never could tell what they were; we really couldn't see them properly, but there were a lot of them by the time we got bored with it!

Later, we pulled up anchor and headed back to Split. Watching the sunset on the boat was one of the prettiest sights I've ever seen.

When we got back, it was pretty late, and we were afraid the restaurants would close early since it was Sunday (we've all lived in London too long, where things close at 4pm on Sundays!), so we dropped our stuff and headed to dinner a restaurant near the flat still wearing our swimsuits under our clothes! We ate and then hung out in the flats and then slept before heading home the next day.

Stuart and Kelsey come to visit!

2009-04-19T15:01:00.001+01:00

Over Easter weekend, Stuart and Kelsey came to visit us for a week. Unfortunately, they got true London weather the entire time there were here. It was cold and rainy the whole time (except whent they took their excursions outside the City, then it was, of course, lovely).

They arrived in town the Thursday before Easter, and Andrew and I both took the day off. We met them at Vicoria Station that morning and took them back to the flat to drop off luggage and clean up, then headed straight out.

Before they came, Stuart and Kelsey made a list of all the different places the wanted to visit, and Andrew came up with a complete itinerary for their trip so that we could be sure to fit in everything they wanted to see.

Thursday, 9 April
1. Tower of London tour

2. Cross Tower Bridge and walk along the Queen's Walk on the Thames
3. Lunch at the George pub near Borough Market
4. See Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

5. Walk to Tate Modern and wander around the modern art
6. Cross Millennium Bridge and walk along the Embankment
7. Take the tube back to flat and have dinner at the Fulham Mitre (our local pub)

Friday, 10 April
1. Go to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards
2. Walk through St. James's Park

3. See the Royal Stables (the tours were closed)
4. Walk around the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

2. See Westminster Abbey (the tours were closed)
3. Walk past 10 Downing Street
4. Head over to the Cabinet War Rooms and wander around the museum

5. Have lunch in a pub
6. See Trafalgar Square

7. Wander around Covent Garden

8. Have another pint at a pub

9. Have Indian food for dinner in Fulham
10. Meet our friends Beth and Rino Nori, who were in town from Connecticut, and Geo and Ted Wyss for drinks at the piano bar

Saturday, 11 April
1. Head up to Camden Town Market and wander around all morning

2. Come back to Fulham and get pasties for lunch before the Chelsea match
3. Watch Chelsea Blues versus Bolton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge

4. Have drinks at the Malt House (another of our local pubs)
5. Go to China Town in Soho for dinner at Superstar (a good Chinese restaurant)
6. See Piccadilly Circus at night

7. Later we met Beth and Rino Nori and friends at the Hereford Arms so that we could see them one last time before they headed back to the US

Sunday, 12 April
1. Take a guided walking tour centred on the Beatles that takes you around to different places in London that were significant to the Beatles and their popularity

2. Go home and chill out before heading over the Kent's house for a cookout for David's birthday
3. Go back to flat and pass out (by this time we were all so exhausted that we missed mass at Westminster Abbey)

Monday, 13 April
Stuart and Kelsey took a day trip to Stonehenge, Windsor and Bath, while Andrew and I chilled out at home.

Tuesday, 14 April
Stuart and Kelsey took the Eurostar to Paris. (Andrew and I went back to work!)

Wednesday, 15 April
They took a day trip from Paris to Normandy Beach and did several tours there, then went back to Paris for the night.

Thursday, 16 April
Stuart and Kelsey spent the day in Paris and then got back late that night. We went to the Mitre for a pint when they got back, and they told us all about their trip and showed us some amazing pictures.

Friday, 17 April
Andrew and I both had to work, but Stuart and Kelsey met near my office for a pub lunch. They spent the day sightseeing, and that night we had a dinner reservation at the Churchill Arms, the best Thai food restaurant in London. After dinner, we met Emmanuel at the Windsor Castle, another pub, for drinks.

Saturday, 18 April
Stuart and Kelsey got up early and caught a flight back to the US. We were so sad to see them go. It was nice having a bit of home in London for a change!

Blame Canada

Susan and Kenny come to visit

2009-03-23T14:34:00.000Z

After we got back from skiing, Andrew's fraternity brother Kenny came to visit for a weekend with his wife, Susan. They basically decided to come and planned their entire trip in only a couple of weeks. It was really nice having them in town. We took them sightseeing some and spent a lot of time just hanging out at pubs. Kenny was referring to it as "Pub Crawl 2009", but he failed. Their last night in town, he fell asleep and didn't even wake up for dinner!

Spring Break '09 – Chamonix!!

2009-03-15T11:02:00.008Z

In March we went skiing in the French Alps with a group of 15 friends. We stayed in Les Houches (pronounced Le Zoosh), France, just outside of Chamonix, at a "little" chalet called the Chalet Rocky Mountain.

It was truly amazing. The chalet has three floors, seven bedrooms and four showers, a huge living room area, a dining area and full kitchen (along with chefs), a wrap-around porch and a hot tub out back. Bridgette and Melissa, who do the upkeep of the chalet, cooked amazing meals for us every night but one and baked goodies for us to snack on when we came in from our hard days of skiing. Andrew and I had been waiting for this trip for so long, and it was amazing to finally get to do it, especially with such a fun group!

The group consisted of me and Andrew, the Frasers, the Triefenbachs and Katy's little sister, our single friend Kevin, his sister and two of his friends, Jeremy and Michelle and a couple of their friends. Some of these people are some of our closest friends in London; some of them we knew but not well, and some of them we'd never met. Amazingly, though there were 15 of us all staying in one place, sharing four bathrooms and common areas, we all managed to get along smashingly! Following is my day-to-day diary of the trip, for easier intake…

Saturday, 7 March
Day 1 - Getting the Gear

When we arrived, the resort workers bussed us out in two Land Rovers to the ski shop where we picked up our rented gear. When I got fitted for my boots, the man brought over a pair of silver and blue ones, to which I exclaimed, "Oh! How pretty!" Only afterward did I realise that practically everyone's rented boots were blue and silver. However, I think because the ski-rental guy found me so goofy, he then fit me with a pair of hot pink skis (to which I also exclaimed with delight), while all the other beginners had neon orange (YUCK).

Note the three pairs of orange skis and then see how much prettier my hot pink ones are with my silver and blue ski boots!

Sunday, 8 March
Day 2 – Lessons

Our first full day of skiing was a full day of lessons for me and those four we began lovingly referring to all week as the Jacks-hyphen-Triefenbachs (Jeremy and Katy Triefenbach and Emily Jacks, Katy's sister). Jeremy had skied before, but the rest of us were complete novices. Our instructor was very, very French. We had trouble understanding her at first, but by the end of the day we'd learned her turns of phrase and dubbed ourselves "Team Snow-Ploh" (which is how the instructor pronounced the word snow plough, a move that you learn as a beginner to help you control your speed and/or stop). I can happily brag that my instructor was very impressed that I had never skied before and said I was a natural (she should have seen me on Day 3 – Disaster). We learned on some flat slopes and then moved on the Bunny Slope, but by the end of the day, we were going down a Blue Run (which is the easiest in Les Houches), and I was so freakin' proud of myself.

Andrew, that same day, decided to take a half-day of snowboarding lessons with four others: Kevin and his sister, Jim, and Jeremy K. Although he picked it up rather quickly, he immediately started trying to go down some Red Runs (intermediate slopes) and ended up falling down a lot. Apparently, when you're on skis, it's much easier to keep your balance because your legs are separate, and when you fall, you're most likely going to fall straight forward and brace yourself with your hands (boy, did I figure that out fast). However, on a snowboard, you have to have a lot more balance using your upper body and arms, and when you fall, you can pretty much fall any which way, and you hands aren't much help because you were trying to use them to balance! He ended up at the end of the day with a sore bum, and though he hasn't given up on snowboarding completely, yet, after not having skied for 13 years, he really just wanted to strap on a pair and enjoy the rest of the week without having to try and figure out how. So he decided to turn in the snowboard at the end of the day and rent a pair of skis instead.

Monday, 9 March
Day 3 – Disaster

So, as I said, I was ecstatic and was pretty much thinking that I was a skiing queen (with a bad sun/wind burn the morning of Day 3)! I was ready to tackle the Black Runs (the most difficult) on my second day of skiing (I'm exaggerating a bit – I was confident, but not quite that confident). So I did the Bunny Slope a few times to "warm up", and then I was ready. Katy and Emily wanted to stay on the Bunny Slope a bit more, but Jeremy Trief and I went with Sharon (Shaz) and Andrew down a couple of Blue Runs. I got scared. It was so narrow and steep! How could Team Snow-Ploh go from side to side on such a narrow strip?! I got more scared. I fell. I cried. I got up. I fell again. I cried some more. I took off my skis and walked a little, then put them back on and fell again. And cried a bit more, just for good measure. I swore, as though I were a four-year-old Kelly screaming at Judy Harper after she tried teaching me to swim by jumping in the deep end and sinking down to the bottom, that I would never go skiing again and was convinced that Andrew was trying to kill me. So then we went to lunch, and after lunch, Jeremy and Andrew went off in search of more difficult slopes, while Shaz and I stayed in the restaurant a while longer and had some hot chocolate to nurse my wounded ego.

Shaz decided to ski with me because she's kind of a lackadaisical skier and pretty much gets dragged skiing by her husband, Emmanuel. Don't get me wrong, She's a really good skier; she just doesn't much care for flying down a mountainside balancing on two sticks at 100 miles per hour (as she put it). So she decided to do the Blue Runs with me. When we were just finishing up our hot chocolate and getting ready to go out and tackle the Blues again, Katy and Emily came in. Apparently, they had gotten confident on their skis and decided to do the same Blue Run we'd done with our instructor the day before, but they made a wrong turn and ended up basically rolling head over skis all the way down a Red Run. Needless to say, they were upset, and cranky, and mad at one another, and had even contemplated which of them would eat the other if they got stranded and were close to death on the side of the mountain. They decided to call it a day.

Shaz and I headed out and ran into even more trouble. I couldn't get my ski on. Try as I might, the stupid thing WOULD NOT GO ON. Understand that Sharon Fraser is an incredibly calm, down-to-earth and patient person. She very rarely loses her cool. I was getting upset again. I was holding one foot with ski (the one successfully latched on) in the air, as I jumped up and down on the other trying to get the bottom one to latch. Sharon would make me stop every few minutes to say soothing words to me and make me take a few deep breaths before trying again. My frustration levels, after having been so sure of myself the day before, just shattered. At one point I stopped, picked up the troublesome ski, raised it over my head with both arms and threw it as hard as could in front of me, screaming, "I HATE SKIING!!!!!!!!!!!!" at the top of my lungs. Mind you understand that we're right outside the main café just after lunch at this time; there are people passing by, chuckling at my misery, etc. It was appalling. Shaz calmed me down again, and we eventually got that damned ski back on. We did the Blue Slope (which then became known as The Blue Slope That I Like) over and over and over until we got tired and left the mountain.

Tuesday, 10 March
Day 4 – Me and Shaz

Sharon took me out and basically coached me and coaxed me down some new runs. She took me to another Blue Run that was about right between the Slope That I Like and the slope that Andrew took me down that I iced over with all my crying the day before. We took it easy and practiced and just had a really great day together. About mid-day, we went down to La Cha, a restaurant at the very bottom of the Slope That I Like, where we sat down with some hot drinks and called the husbands. They came, bringing along the rest of the group, and we all had a nice lunch together. Afterward, we all went out again. Sharon and I skied together for a while longer and then left the mountain to have some tomato juice in the bar at the bottom.

Wednesday, 11 March
Day 5 – The Blisters and the White Out

On the fifth day of my adventures in skiing I awakened with a gosh-awful mouthful of fever blisters to accompany the terribly sunburn I’d awakened with the day before. They were so bad that I was ashamed to walk upstairs. Then Sharon came in and had the same problem! She decided not to ski that day because we couldn’t put anything up over our faces for fear of spreading them even more. I was afraid that if I didn’t ski, then I would forget everything I’d learned the past two days. So I sucked it up and went, taking fever blister cream in tow and putting it on every hour or so. I also shoved a book in my vest, just in case I got too frustrated with Shaz to calm my nerves. I refused to ski with Andrew and friends that morning. I decided to stick to the easy stuff with Katy, who was back in the saddle (er… skis), and Jeremy T., who was patiently cheering her on as she cruised down the Bunny Slope. I did the Bunny Slope a few times and became bored, so I went out on my own to the Blue Slope That I Like. I would do it once or twice by myself (including the top part, the Part of Which I Was Deathly Afraid because it was so steep) and then would ski back down to the Bunny Slope, which was right next to the Blue Slope That I Like, to check in with Katy and Jeremy and let them know that I was A-okay. That morning, heading out on my own, I realised what a White Out is. When I got up to the top of the Blue Slope That I Like, the Part of Which I Was Deathly Afraid, I realised that I could no longer see my hot skis on my feet. The fog and snow were so heavy that I literally could not see my feet below me, much less the bottom of the slope. I couldn’t even tell where the edge was. Luckily, I’d done it so many times the day before with Shaz, that this only caused me a slight panic attack and a frenzy of scared-out-of-my-wits every time I started at the top.

So then at one point, I was about halfway down on a relatively flat bit, when I heard a child crying off to my right. This wasn’t just whimpering, the child was crying hysterically, but I couldn’t see my feet, so of course I couldn’t tell where the child was or why it was bawling. I made my way over to the sound, though, which was coming from the ski lifts, which were the kind that’s just a circular seat attached to a long pole. You just grab it and hold on for dear life with your skis on the ground as it pulls you up the mountain. I get over there and see a little girl wearing a red vest marking her as a ski student, and she’s laying in the centre of the track where the poles are coming up. If someone were to ride the next pole up, they’d run smack into her before they ever saw her with the conditions as bad as they were that day. So I made my way over to her and helped her up and out of the path of the poles… but that was as far as I could go. I didn’t know what level this girl was, and the snow was so thick on the sides of the pole path that I could barely make it through; it was above my waist. I wasn’t sure if she could get through it, and being a beginner I didn’t really think to take OFF both our skis and try wading through it. So I just held her there and waited, assuming her instructor HAD to eventually come back for her. We saw three people ride the poles past us, just staring at us while I pleaded for them to send and instructor our way if they saw one. Then we saw two instructors pass us, also staring as I begged for their help (I can only pray that they were on their way to look for other lost children and knew my little girl’s instructor was on his way). Finally he arrived. Not so much as a thank you from the instructor. And then I figured out why. Once the little girl back on the slope, she whizzed on down and left me in the dust. She was no novice and could have gotten herself up, back down the mountain and rode the ski lift up on her own! She was just being a little drama queen!

After checking in with the Triefs on the Bunny Slope again, I called Andrew and arranged to meet him and rest of the crew at the restaurant at the bottom of the Slope That I Like for lunch. I skied down there on my own because Katy was still a little shaky on her skis after her escapades with Emily the day before and wanted to stay clear at the top of the mountain. We had lunch, and then Andrew spent the rest of the day on the Blues with me. We did several Blue Slopes, and I even skied down the entire front side of the mountain at the end of the day (the Slope That I Like was on the back side, and front side was much more steep).

Thursday, 12 March
Day 5 – Meredith Gray in Chamonix

The next day the fever blisters were worse, and Sharon and I were both out of medicine for them. Emmanuel felt bad for us and decided to skip skiing to hang out with Sharon because she was really upset about the blisters (although I think mine looked much worse than hers, especially after skiing again the day before). So Sharon and I walk into the pharmacy and get the pharmacist’s attention to ask what we need. The pharmacist actually jumped back when she saw our lips. She told us that we needed something much more serious than she could sell us; we needed to see a doctor, and she made an appointment for us to see one across the street. We went in together, and the doctor reminded me of Meredith Gray on Gray’s Anatomy; she was really young, teensy-tiny and beautiful. She poked the hell out of our mouths and had absolutely no bedside manner. She finally wrote us a prescription, which we filled back at the pharmacy and then went back to the chalet to hide in misery once more.

Andrew had a blast that day, though. He went to a different slope – Mont Blanc – and risked his life several times, but had fun doing it!

That night was Bridgette and Melissa’s day off from cooking for us, so we went out to a restaurant in the city of Chamonix, but we came back early so that we could get up for a full day of skiing the next day. It would be our last day of skiing for the trip.

Friday, 13 March
Day 6 – Après Ski Delight

Despite the fever blisters and sun burn, I couldn’t pass up our last day of skiing. I came out loaded down with all my prescription medication in a backpack stored carefully on Andrew’s back, and we spent the day skiing together. By the end of that day, I was back to feeling like a natural again, though without the confidence of day one since I looked like I’d been kissing a toad. We skied and skied and skied, and it was lovely.

Then afterward, we dropped off our skis and went to the bar for what the French call après ski, which just means “after ski”.

It’s basically Happy Hour and lasts from about four or five to seven or eight in the evening. It got SO crowded that it was one-in/one-out; there was a great band playing, and we had a wonderful time.

Most of those who had skipped skiing for the day came out to the bar, and we partied till we were called home for dinner. Bridgette and Melissa had made us a Mexican fiesta, complete with tequila shooters to toast to a great trip!

We toasted and ate and drank, hung out in the hot tub and played Uno and various versions of Rummy, and drifted off to a peaceful sleep before flying home the next day.

SNOW!

2009-02-02T18:51:00.000Z

So last week Andrew looked at the weather and noticed that we were supposed to have heavy snow on Tuesday of this week. Over the weekend, they moved it up to today, but it began snowing last night. It didn't stop. When we went to bed, there were already two inches of snow on our balcony and a thin coating over everything in our back garden.

So this morning I got up at 7:45am to get ready for work. It was still snowing! We measured again. See for yourself.

Wow!! Most of the Tube lines were suspended, and all the buses were suspended, as well. Now it's after 6pm, and it is STILL snowing, believe it or not.

Heaviest snow in 20 years brings large parts of Britain to a halt
Article from the TimesOnline

The heaviest snowfall in 20 years has closed thousands of schools and caused transport chaos up the eastern side of Britain, with London and the surrounding areas the hardest hit.

Six million bus passengers were left in the lurch as all London's bus services were halted because of dangerous driving conditions, and every Tube line except the Victoria line was at least partially suspended.

Many mainline commuter rail services were also cancelled or seriously delayed, and flights at London's airports were decimated, with both of Heathrow's runways shut, Luton and London City closed, and Gatwick and Stansted flights subject to delays and short-notice cancellations.

Millions of commuters stayed at home rather than brave the conditions, as an estimated one in five people either worked from home or took the day off, costing industry hundreds of millions of pounds.

Meanwhile Westminster council in central London issued a statement that many of its schools would remain closed because too many teachers could not get to work, a message echoed by schools in Kent, East and West Sussex, Hampshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Birmingham, and West and North Yorkshire. In Surrey, every school was shut.

Many courts were closed as lawyers, witnesses and jurors were unable to turn up, and London Ambulance Service said it would only respond to “life-threatening calls” as the heavy snow and wintry weather meant it was under “severe pressure” and had received more than 650 calls between midnight and 7am today.

The South East of England and the Pennines bore the brunt of the snowfall which began yesterday afternoon, with some of the hardest-hit areas reporting up to 1ft of snow. By the morning the heavy showers had extended as far north as southern Scotland.

Forecasters are predicting that during the rest of the day and tomorrow the snow will continue to extend northwards and westwards across the UK, with a wave of even heavier falls due to reach Britain on easterly winds this afternoon.

"The South West has escaped the worst of the snow, but we could see another 10cm in Greater London over the next 24 hours, and even more than that in Yorkshire and the Pennines," said a spokeswoman for the Meteo forecasting group.

A spokesman for Transport for London said: "Heavy snowfall across the London area last night has severely disrupted transport services and further snow is forecast throughout Monday. The advice is to check before you travel, expect disruption and if your journey is necessary then allow more time for your journey.

"The biggest difficulty today is the road conditions which are extremely dangerous and drivers should take extreme care."

He added that bus services had been suspended because of fears for passenger safety.

A number of train services linking London and the south coast were also delayed or cancelled as snow drifted on to the tracks. Southern, which operates rail commuter routes from the south coast, including the Brighton line, into Victoria was forced to reduce its service on all routes to just one or two trains an hour.

Southeastern, the UK’s busiest commuter operator, was forced to cancel all services into London with no trains running into Cannon Street, Charing Cross and parts of London Bridge and Victoria stations.

South West Trains, which operates local and long distance routes into London Waterloo, suffered a much reduced service. A spokeswoman said: "We advise passengers not to travel unless their journey is absolutely necessary."

Firms in London started contacting staff this morning telling them not to even attempt to travel into the capital.

In central London cars crawled along the icy streets to avoid accidents, and in areas outside the centre there was an eerie quiet as many drivers avoided the dangerous conditions altogether, warned by roads agencies to cancel all but essential journeys.

The Highways Agency said around 500 gritters had worked through the night to clear major roads in time for the morning rush hour, but even so there had been too many minor accidents on the roads to put a number on.

"We have 600 patrols out on the motorways to help drivers caught in the snow, plus another 500 gritters working through the night. It’s certainly been a busy night," said the spokesman.

Some lanes on the M25 around London were blocked by snow and a section of the southbound A1M near Stevenage, Hertfordshire was closed between junctions 7 and 6 due to a jack-knifed truck. A junction of the London-bound M20 in Kent that was temporarily shut due to the treacherous conditions has now reopened. The London-bound M3 in Hampshire was down to one lane this morning.

Part of the M5 northbound near Tewkesbury was briefly closed after a car went into a spin and crashed into the central reservation, causing a multi-vehicle pile up.

A spokeswoman for navigation firm TomTom said that a total of 1,086 miles of traffic jams had formed around the country. The longest queue was 32 miles on the M25, between junction 19 at Watford and junction 8 at Reigate, at 7.30am, she said.

By 8am there were delays of one hour and 27 minutes between junction 11 on the M27 at Fareham, Hampshire, and the M3 interchange.

Brighton and Hove Bus Company said the heavy snow meant it was unable to operate any bus route in East Sussex, explaining: "We are doing all we can to commence services, but at present the roads are still too treacherous."

Police requested the closure of the A66 between Brough and Stainmore Summit on the Cumbria/Durham border from 1.35am today because of the weather conditions. A Highways Agency spokesperson said it was likely to remain closed throughout the day.

Slow traffic was reported on the M6 around and north of Carlisle. In Greater Manchester, two lanes of the M62 westbound between junctions 22 and 21 at Milnrow were shut overnight but reopened in time for the rush hour.

The AA have warned motorists to ensure they keep warm clothes in the car. Andy Taylor, AA Patrol of the Year, said: "If you break down on a motorway, the safety advice is to get out of the car and wait behind the barrier. Unless you have extra clothes you really are flirting with hypothermia."

Flight passengers were advised to check with their airline before leaving for the airport, after BAA reported that both Heathrow's runways were a shut, causing more than 250 flight cancellations.

A spokesman added that while Gatwick Airport had reopened, there were significant delays and cancellations. Ryanair was handing out leaflets at Stansted warning that more than 70 flights had been cancelled. Southampton airport was shut this morning, but BAA said it hoped to reopen it later.

Gatwick Airport and London City Airport were both temporarily shut last night as their runways were de-iced. BAA said the runway at Gatwick Airport reopened after several hours, while it was cleared in time for the first departures of the day.

Blue Monday (article from the Daily Mail)

2009-01-19T12:20:00.002Z

"If you are feeling a little down then you can take solace in the thought that things are unlikely to get any worse.

Today, say experts, is the unhappiest day in the entire year.

Unpaid Christmas bills, nasty weather, and failed New Year's resolutions combine to make January 22 the gloomiest in the calendar.

But if anyone can cope with 'blue Monday' it is the British, who researchers have found to be mainly optimists.

More than 85 per cent of us expect the future to be happier than it is now, according to researchers.

Dr Cliff Arnall, a Cardiff University psychologist, devised the formula that shows today is the most depressing.

His equation takes into account six factors: weather, debt, time since Christmas, time since failing our new year's resolutions, low motivational levels and the feeling of a need to take action.

Taken together they pinpoint today as 'Blue Monday'.

Dr Arnall said that by understanding the main factors for depression we can prevent becoming unhappy next year.

He said: 'Use the day as a springboard for a higher quality life. For example, keeping Christmas spending to a strict budget next year will make you less depressed in the last week of January.

'Also, decide on changing behaviour, such as giving up smoking, eating better, exercising more and getting that new job.'

It might also be a good idea to take extra care on the roads.

Research by Privilege Insurance reveals that nearly half of the UK's drivers suffer from seasonal symptoms such as depression and lethargy in January, which impact on their driving ability.

All is not doom and gloom, however, as a survey of 85 per cent of people in Britain expect to be happier in the future than they are now, a psychological study for Standard Life Bank found.

Scots were the most optimistic, followed by people in the South West, while people from London and the West Midlands had the least positive outlook on life, researchers discovered.

Taking up a new hobby is the most favoured tactic by Britons to become happier in 2007, amid a general trend for people wanting to make work less of a focus in 2007.

People responding to the survey said they hoped to make themselves happier by clearing their debts, paying off their mortgage and achieving financial security.

Those who listed things they were looking forward to were plans to reduce their working hours or retire to improve their quality of life.

The research - entitled the Freestyle Happiness Index - also found that the nation's optimism is being boosted by a falling interest in material possessions.

For the 15 per cent of pessimists and those who feel very depressed, the Samaritans urged people not to bottle it up but to get in touch.

Press spokesperson Kate Redway said: 'Sadly, one in five people in the UK experience depression and this time of year can be particularly difficult, with people in debt after Christmas and finding it hard to settle back into a work routine during dark days.'"

Copied from the Daily Mail

Ice-skating at Somerset House

2009-01-18T20:58:00.000Z

Every winter Andrew and I have carried on our dear friends the Beard's tradition of ice-skating at a different venue in London. Our first year we went with the Beards and the Triefenbachs to ice-skate at the Tower of London. Last year we went with the Noris to ice-skate at Hyde Park Corner's Winter Wonderland. This year, no one came with us, but we went and had a great time anyway at Somerset House, which is rumoured to be the most picturesque ice-skating venue in London...

St Albans!

2009-01-15T22:23:00.008Z

Last week I had a little down time while I was waiting for a proof to come in, so I decided to look into some quick day trips from London. I quickly found St Albans, which is a small village just 20 minutes outside of London, and sent out an email asking whether anyone wanted to join us. There isn't much to do in St Albans, especially on a day when it's below freezing outside (literally). However, there are a lot of dog-friendly pubs around the city, so we took the dogs and two other couples—the Frasers and the McGuigans—and took the train up there around mid-day this past Saturday.

When we arrived, the first thing we wanted to do was grab some lunch and a pint. The first dog-friendly pub I had on my list was Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, which claims to be the oldest pub in England and holds the Guinness World Record for it. We had hot chocolate with Bailey's in it and good food. The pub was a bit disappointing in that it was playing a mix of new hits and club music, which seemed weird for one that claims to be the oldest in England, and it was so cold! There were some areas that had fires, but we were apparently near an open door and were quite chilly as we ate. The food was really good, though. I think everyone was pleased.

When we walked out we discovered, to our dismay, that it was snowing. Yes, snowing. Then we walked through a gate into a field to find the remains of a Roman Wall, and walked right onto a huge frozen pond. Frozen solid!! There were people ice-skating on it!! I still can't get over that. In all my years in Alabama, I don't think I've ever seen a pond frozen completely solid enough that you could walk and ice-skate on it. We walked on the pond for a bit (I let Hadley pull me along by her lead), looked for a dead bird that was frozen into the ice somewhere in the pond about which everyone around was talking, realised that we were freezing and didn't have time to find said dead bird, and made our way across to the Roman Wall. The Roman Wall is just one small section of the two-mile long wall built between AD 265 and 270 to defend the Roman city of Verulamium. Most of the old Roman stone was "robbed out" for subsequnet building projects, principally the Cathedral. The main section of the Roman wall in Verulamium Park is enclosed by a fence.

After that we realised that it was getting dark, so the only other thing we (well, I) really wanted to see was the remains of Sopwell Nunnery. The nunnery ruins are set far enough away from the road to feel secluded and, yet, weren't hard to find. We arrived at the perfect time; the last people wandering around were just leaving, so we were free to roam around freely and take pictures unhindered by strangers. The remains have a rather mystical and eerie quality; there was a light fog that added to atmosphere. The fact that the local authorities keep the land around it naturally overgrown gives the effect of stumbling across some previously undiscovered ruins.

The original nunnery dates back to 1140 and was built by Geoffrey de Gorham, the abbot of St Albans. In the 1500s it became part of Sir Richard Lee’s Tudor mansion, but the nunnery seems to be the only surviving building. There is enough of it left to provide an idea of the size and layout.

The nunnery was by far my favourite part of our trip to St Albans.

By the time we finished at the nunnery, we were near frozen. We really couldn't feel our fingers and toes, and it was starting to grow dark, so we made our way to another pub called The Goat.

I had seen online that they had board games available to play at the bar, so I figured that would be a good place to wind down and finish the day. We ordered our pints and played Scrabble. Sharon beat the poop out of the rest of us, and when we were finished, we made our way back to the train station and headed home to London to thaw out with some hot and spicy Thai food from the Churchill Arms, our favourite Thai pub.

I know, I know. We went on a day trip and only saw two things and two pubs! We didn't arrive there until around 1pm, and it gets dark around 3:30 or 4pm, so we didn't have much time. Plus, you just don't understand how cold it was!! To be honest, I didn't even really pay attention to the weather forecast when I planned this trip; I just wanted to go somewhere that the dogs would enjoy. I should have planned a trip SOUTH of London, rather than North. Oh, well. It was a lovely day anyway.

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-03T22:01:00.001Z

As stated in the last post, I was sick before we left London, and because of our stressful time before and after we arrived in the US, we never made a booking or concrete plans for New Years Eve. Luckily, our friend Sharon (who was also getting over the flu) was on the ball and made a booking for four at the Duke of Wellington pub in Notting Hill, which is about a block away from their flat. She called us when we landed on the 30th to make sure we wanted to do that, and we were just ecstatic that we had something to do and someone to hang out with!

On New Year's Eve, I took the dogs and walked to the nearby party shop to buy some funky New Year's hats or headbands and party blowers. I arrived to picked-over disarray. They had five New Year's hats left. Five. So I bought four of them -- two black, two gold -- and four gold party blowers. Andrew and I took a bottle of champagne to the Frasers flat, and we then realised that the party hats I bought were much too small for a normal-sized heads. We wore them anyway, though, and had one of our best New Year's celebrations yet. It was relaxing, laid back, not too crowded or over priced. We couldn't have asked for better company, and it was just what we needed to ring in our last New Year in London.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-30T21:26:00.001Z

This is a picture of the girls at my friend Rachel Kent's Christmas party this year. She made a wonderful meal full of Creole classics, complete even with shrimp and imported grits!

Andrew and I went home for Christmas again this year, although we had a hell of a time getting there. First of all, I came down with the flu the Tuesday before we were supposed to leave. I was still working that week, Monday through Wednesday, and my boss, Graeme, was out of the office sick already, which meant I was by no means allowed to call in sick, especially since I was hurriedly trying to finish a huge project (which you can now see on our website) in the three days I had left before the New Year. Unfortunately, I was really sick, so I left work at lunchtime on Tuesday and worked from the rest of the day and all day (even overtime) on Wednesday to finish up.

We packed on Wednesday night to leave on Thursday morning. I was feeling awful, and we had three big suitcases and two small ones to get across Tube and train to Gatwick airport. We struggled along and finally made it, only to discover upon arrival that our flight was cancelled. We made it there two hours early, but there was already a line 200 deep of people who were supposed to be on our flight and were waiting to be redirected on the next soonest flight. So Andrew got on the internet and called the airline in hopes that we could make arrangements that way faster, while I sat in the still unmoving line. He was able to arrange a flight for us on another flight out of Heathrow for the next day. While this was good news, it meant that we were both going to miss our doctor's appointments in Birmingham on Friday (Andrew for a physical, and I because I was sick), and I was going to miss my hair appointment! :( So Mom rescheduled my hair appointment, and Andrew made me an appointment with our doctor here in London for later that day (Thursday), which was good because he prescribed an antibiotic that started getting rid of my flu quite quickly.

So we had the option of landing in Atlanta and waiting a 2.5-hour layover for the next connecting flight to Birmingham, or just renting a car from Atlanta and driving. We figured driving would get us there about an hour earlier, so we went for that option. BIG MISTAKE. Atlanta has the most messed up policies EVER. We got off the plane, went through passport control, retrieved our luggage from baggage claim, and made it through customs, but then, they made us RETURN our baggage and go through security to LEAVE the airport. We had to take off shoes, remove laptops from bags, put the liquor we bought at the London airport in the luggage and everything! Just to cross the airport to the exit. It made NO SENSE whatsoever. So then we get to the "main" baggage claim in about 15 minutes, but it takes an hour and a half for our luggage to get there. It took us a total of three hours just to leave the Atlanta airport. THEN we had a three-hour drive to Birmingham!!!

When we finally arrived and got settled, we had a really nice time while we were home, although it was far too short. We felt like we barely got to see our friends and family, although I did get to see my cousin Laura's new twin babies...

and my best friends Jackie, who I hadn't seen since my wedding, and Miriam and her family (including her new baby bump!), especially her adorably daughter Reese, who has grown into a proper young woman of two years old since we've been living over here!

We miss you all terribly and can't believe that that was the last time we'll have to juggle time trying to see all our family and friends over a short nine days...

Love to you all in the happy new year!!

Happy birthday and happy Thanksgiving!

2008-12-01T15:01:00.006Z

Andrew's official birthday fell on a Saturday this year, and since we'd already had the big party for him a couple of weeks before, we just got together with a few of the guys for dinner before heading back to our place for strawberry cake and to watch the Alabama game. Brian, David and Jeremy joined us for dinner at what Andrew and I lovingly refer to as our "Christmas Pub". Located up by Gloucester Road, this pub has a roaring fire, fantastically festive (aka tacky) Christmas decorations with fake snow in the windows and everything, and Christmas carols humming gently in the background. Being 15 November, we were a bit early for the Christmas festivities, but it was still nice and cosy inside, and the meal was outstanding. After dinner we made a pit stop in a nearby casino where the guys all gambled a bit, and I sat by and watched. Andrew and I dragged Jeremy (the only other fellow Bama fan in the group) and left David and Brian at the casino so that we could watch the game. Kickoff was at 12:45am our time, so we had plenty of time to get back to the flat and have some strawberry cake before the game. I had baked Andrew a Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake from a Paula Deen recipe and decorated it with an Alabama "A" made from slices of fresh strawberries. It was yummy.

The following week we attended yet another birthday party. This time it was for our friend Jeremy Kenyon, and he and his girlfriend Michelle had it at a posh little bar in Knightsbridge.

Andrew and I decided to go and have Mexican food first at a little place up near Victoria, and when we sat down to table we started chatting with a girl sitting alone at the table next to ours. Within about 10 minutes we had moved our tables together and invited her to come along with us to the birthday party after eating and to Thanksgiving dinner the following night. Her name was Megan; she was from Michigan and was living and studying in Aberdeen, Scotland. She had flown down to London by herself to go sightseeing for the weekend, and though she declined on coming to Thanksgiving at the Trief's because she was going on a huge, long bus tour of London starting at the crack of dawn the next morning, she did come along with us to Jeremy's birthday party and joined us for a drink!

The next day was Thanksgiving at the Triefs. Andrew had volunteered for us to make cornbread dressing and pecan pie, so we cooked using Andrew's mom's recipes. Andrew, as usual, made the pie, and I took my first attempt at making cornbread dressing, which turned out quite successful indeed. We arrived at the Trief's to bad news. We found out that night that, because of her new job, Katy and Jeremy have decided to move to Windsor before Christmas, which means that we probably won't get to see them as much. Despite that, they're really excited about the move, and so we put on a brave face and tried to get excited for them. Thanksgiving was, as usual, a success, and the food that everyone brought was amazing. Thanks for hosting it again, Trief's; the turkey and gravy was outstanding, too! We even played the "Matt and Miriam Game", as one of our favourite Thanksgiving traditions.

For the first time since we've been married, on "real" Thanksgiving night, the following Thursday, I actually made Thanksgiving food instead of Mexican. In the past years that we've been here, the Triefs have had Thanksgiving the Saturday AFTER the real Thanksgiving, so I didn't want to spoil our Thanksgiving dinner by having the same type of food two days before. This year, the Triefs opted for it the Saturday BEFORE Thanksgiving, so Thursday night I roasted some "turkey breast steaks" and made macaroni and cheese and pecan pie, and we had stuffing that was leftover from a fresh batch I made Sunday night. We've decided that when we move back to the US next year, we're going to have our own London-style Mexican Thanksgiving fiesta each year in November either the Saturday before or after Thanksgiving. We'll call it "Brocksgiving"!

The next night Andrew and I got into the festive spirit. We had a quick dinner at our local pub and then came back to the flat and downloaded all our Christmas music to our iTunes and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (the old school cartoon, not the new movie) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

We woke up Saturday morning and cleaned house, preparing for a crowd of Alabama fans to come and join us to watch Alabama beat down Auburn in the Iron Bowl. We had some special guests this time, as my former boss from Axcan in Birmingham was in town for a conference, and she and her friend Denise joined our usual crowd to watch the game.
We were delighted with the results of the game and look forward to next week's battle against Florida.

Wish us luck!

So many parties, so little time…

2008-11-02T14:53:00.002Z

Apparently October is a popular month for birthdays, and so many of our friends wanted to celebrate as they turned The Big Three-Oh. Andrew, Chris, Kevin and Sharon all turned 30 this October/November, and all had huge, fun parties!

Sharon’s came first… Andrew and I got her a “Giant Hopper” for her birthday so that she could relive her youth. Here are the pictures…

Kevin and Chris decided to have a joint party with another one of their friends, and they had it at a club in Clapham. It was a blast! Enjoy the pictures…

Lastly, Andrew and I finally got to have our wild and wacky Halloween party, and we turned it into a birthday celebration for Andrew as he, too, crossed the big milestone age of 30. We made ours a costume party on Halloween night. Andrew and I took Friday off so that we could clean house and finish decorating before everyone arrived. We hung fake cobwebs everywhere, and turned our backyard into a “Bloody Backyard” with 100 red balloons and red streamers everywhere. Unfortunately, it was way too cold for anyone to really enjoy the backyard! We carved three pumpkins (Andrew’s was by far the best) and even had three or four Trick-or-Treaters. Andrew and dressed up as Colonel Sanders and a chicken. Here are the pictures!

Happy Halloween, everyone! We miss you and can’t wait to celebrate next Halloween with everyone back home!

Munich!

2008-10-07T19:28:00.007+01:00

To the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game":

Take me to the Oktoberfest!
Take me to the beer tent!
Buy me some pretzels and Weissbier! ["wheat beer"]
I don't care if I never leave here!
'Cause it's prost, prost prost for the Weissbier ["Prost" is German for cheers]
Because ich habe ein Tisch! ["Because I have a table!"]
And it's eine, zwei, drei Weissbieren ["And it's one, two, three wheat beers"]
At Oktoberfest!

Oktoberfest was so much more than we imagined. We went with a large group (as you can see from the pictures). Our friends Chris Miller and Lisa Graham (the Grillers for short) each had siblings and friends of siblings flying in for the occasion, so they went on over to Munich on Friday while the rest of us slaved away at the office. By the time we arrived on Saturday, they had already had a wild evening out the night before, had gotten up at the crack of dawn to get a table in one of the beer halls (or tents, as they call them), after obtaining a table had gotten kicked out (becuase of another group's booking, not their behaviour!), and had secured another table outside the beer hall. I'll let Andrew take over from here...

Well we are back from Munich and we are definately worse for wear. We had a BIG time in Munich . Kelly and I left London around 7:30 and landed in Munich at 10:30. By the time we made our way from the airport to the hotel, checked in, and walked to the festival it was close to 1:00. When we arrived we realized it is a gigantic carnival (think Birmingham fair grounds) but with everyone wearing traditional Bavarian outfits. There were big roller coasters, booth games, cotton candy and, of course the huge beer tents.

So we wandered across the whole grounds over to the Schützenfesthalle tent where we went to meet Chris and Lisa (London friends) and their guests, a group of eight people. We were immediately served half liters of beer but in tall glasses and not the cool steins. We stayed at the Schützenfesthalle tent a long time as it was so nice outside (65 and sunny), and we were very thankful to have a seat. The biggest problem there were the bathrooms. They were terribly small and took a long time to get through [Kelly add-in: They were serving that much beer, and all they had was TWO STALLS in the ladies room. Needless to say, the lines were off the charts. When a person got up to go to the loo, we said, "See you in an hour," because that's actually how long it took!!].

We all sat and chatted and sang ridiculous songs we made up for the festival (see lyrics to one of them above). Needless to say, we were having a very good time. We stayed till around 6pm, during which time our other three friends from London arrived and joined us. They arrived around 3pm, by which time the beer tent "guards" had closed the gates into the tent. People were standing in line to get in. We forced our friends in by assuring security they had seats at a table, but it was really that crowded.

After a while we got sick of the bathroom situation [Kelly add-in: We girls were sick of the bathroom situation; the guys had figured out an alternative.] and went into downtown Munich to the Hofbraeuhaus. Getting in was complete pandamonium as people were jammed against one another. We were told to wait, but when they opened the gates, we all just scattered upon entering to find seating.

We secured a table outside in the courtyard and stayed there enjoying big litres of beer from the large German steins. We met all of these random people and continuously singing our songs. We had eaten a little at the first tent but we eat a little more here. By 10pm, I was finished. I mean done! No more! Nicht mehr! I put myself in a cab to the hotel and went to bed. Kelly stayed with our group of friends from Londnon, 13 people in total, and came in an hour later. Neal called me at 4:30am (German time) with the Alabama/Georgia score, but I could barely speak to him I was so tired. Needless to say, though, I was really excited.

I woke around 8am and promptly got on the internet to check the football news, read the articles and revel in UA's dominating victory. I was even able to watch some of a replay on ESPN before Kelly got up around 10am, and we started getting ready to go out for the day. So for breakfast, we wander around until we find a cafe [Kelly add-in: to which we had a map from the hotel, which Andrew dropped somewhere along the way]. To say we loaded up on eggs, pancakes, omelettes and coffee and orange juice would be a gross understatement. We ordered more food than our table could hold! There were only five of us by then, as the Griller group hopped an early train to Prague. So after an outstanding breakfast (keep in mind it's noon), we wander over to the Oktoberfest grounds and go to the Augustiner tent.

The Augustiner tent is a huge tent and very traditional. There were lots of families there, and it seemed more low key. It was really crowded, and we were about to leave for another tent until Kelly saw some folks leaving and hopped in there and grabbed seats at an outdoor table. Again, it's 70 degrees and sunny, so we were happy to sit outside. We all took lots of sun on our faces [Kelly add-in: Some of more than others; I'm still feeling the effects].

This is exactly what I always envisioned Oktoberfest to be. Our "waitress" was missing teeth, but she could carry eight steins at once. The steins hold a litre of beer and are heavy when empty. We met all types of German folks who seemed to enjoy talking to us and are definitely having a great time.

We sat there until around 6pm when one of the guys next to us mentions as he's leaving that if we want to get a table inside and sit for the night, that would be the best time, as lots of people would be leaving shortly causing a rush of tables and people waiting to get them. So we sent the girls (Kelly and Sharon) to go scout it while we three boys sat outside to hold out outside table.

Well, me and Emanuel were sitting outside while Kevin (who is single) talked to an attractive German woman in traditional garb. The phone rang signalling that the girls got seats, so we wrench Kevin away from the Geman to find that Kelly and Sharon have gotten us seats right in the middle of all of the action [Kelly add-in: Sharon and I found a table with three young Italian guys who hardly spoke any English. The table had room for about 10, so we indicated that we had three more outside, and they said we could sit down. Was it our fault they thought we meant three more women?]. We proceeded to stay there for the remainder of the evening (until 10pm) dancing on the tables (with everyone else in the room) and singing with the band and talking to random strangers while our waitress continued to bring us more steins, which by now are completely unnecessary. We enjoyed ourselves immensely. [Kelly add-in: Andrew even got hit on by a good-looking German girl who was waving to him from a few tables away, but he, of course, behaved himself!]

We finally left and Kelly befriended a random American kid who was drinking out of a running shoe. His name was Jeff, aka Alcoholiday, and he randomly joined us while we grabbed some dinner at a random restaurant on the way towards our hotel. Kelly ate something Mexican, as she usually does when it's on the menu. I don't know when she'll ever learn that Mexican food is not good in Europe. I tripped over a fallen bicycle on the way and chipped one of the steins I smuggled out, but the fact that stein survived the fall and made the trip back is a testament to the entire weekend trip.

Waking up yesterday and travelling home may have been one of the most painful experiences of my life. Coming right back into the office today was even worse. We watched the Alabama/Georgia game last night on ESPN archive. It was a great game! I can't believe we are number two in the country. Anyway, we made it home safely. Of the six glasses we stole from Germany five are just fine. Only one glass broke on the trip home, but it was one of the ones from the Schützenfesthalle tent that weren't traditional steins anyway.

[Kelly add-in: Next time we go to Oktoberfest, I'll make Andrew wear lederhosen.]

Bama vs Kentucky

2008-10-07T19:07:00.005+01:00

17-14!

Nathan and Emily Vaughn hosted the London Alabama Alumni Association again. Thanks so much for letting us have the group over, Nathan and Emily! Your place is so much larger than ours, and when we've had as good a turnout to watch the games as we have this year, it really makes the seating arrangements much easier!

We look forward to seeing the Tide roll on in another couple of weeks!

PS I'm wearing the scarf you gave me, Aunt Burma, because, yes, IT IS THAT COLD!

Edinburgh!

2008-07-27T21:29:00.010+01:00

Our weekend in Edinburgh was absolutely lovely, despite the weather. Andrew and I just really needed a nice little trip after the recent frustrations with my job situations, and Edinburgh being so close provided an excellent getaway. We both took off on Friday and caught our plane at 6:30am to land in Edinburgh around 8:30am. We arrived at the adorable little B&B Andrew booked so early that the office wasn’t even open, yet, but the kitchen was, so we went down and a cup of coffee until we could check in and get going. The B&B, by the way, was called the Walton on Dundas Street. Check out the link; I swear the picture of the room is the same room in which we stayed, bedspreads and all!

We had done no research on the city or what we wanted to see prior to getting on the plane, but I grabbed Frommer’s Europe from $85 a Day (a tour book that Andrew recently purchased but we had yet to use) before we left the house because it had a chapter on “Edinburgh & Environs”. I looked through that on the plane and numbered everything it listed as 1) must see; 2) would like to see; 3) kind of would like to see if time permits; and no number meant I didn’t care to see it at all. There were five ones, so I mapped off the most time-saving course for us and after we checked in at the B&B, we moved along on our way!

The first thing on the list, of course, was Edinburgh Castle. We climbed the hill from our B&B, and as we neared the top of the rise, we could see the Castle looming over the cliffs above us. It is truly an amazing sight. Because it was so early on a Friday morning (it had only opened about an hour before we arrived), the line had hardly formed, so we were able to make our way inside pretty easily. It rained quite a bit that morning as we were wandering the Castle grounds, but we tried to dodge the rain whenever possible by ducking in to view some of the indoor sights while the rain came down. Inside the Castle grounds we enjoyed amazing views over Edinburgh from the lookout; we visited the National War Museum of Scotland, Scottish National War Memorial, Prisons of War Exhibition and, my personal favourite, the Honours of Scotland, or the Crown Jewels.

When we finished touring the Castle, we walked back down the hill to the city and on to the National Museum of Scotland, where, despite our map and audio tour, we managed to get incredibly lost. We wandered around for a good while and then skipped a lot to check out the roof terrace and head to lunch!

We lunched at a little pub nearby the Museum and next door to Greyfriar’s Kirkyard. It was called Greyfriars Bobby’s Bar. Here’s the story behind the bar and the statue of the little dog out front:

“In 1858, a man named John Gray was buried in old Greyfriars Churchyard. His grave levelled by the hand of time, and unmarked by any stone, became scarcely discernible; but, although no human interest seemed to attach to it.

The sacred spot was not wholly disregarded or forgotten. For fourteen years the dead man's faithful dog kept constant watch and guard over the grave until his own death in 1872.

The famous Skye Terrier, Greyfriars Bobby was so devoted to his master John Gray, even in death, for fourteen years Bobby lay on the grave only leaving for food.

It is reported that a daily occurance of people from all walks of life would stand at the entrance of the Kirkyard waiting for the one o'clock gun and the appearance of Bobby leaving the grave for his midday meal.”
[extracted from www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk]

We’ll come back to the little dog later…

After lunch we decided that we were a bit tired of museums and sightseeing (as I knew we would be when I mapped out our course for the day), so we went to the Brass Rubbing Centre to do a little artwork. We really weren’t sure what this was going to be like; the book didn’t tell a whole lot about it. Basically, they just have a lot of brass tablets with all kinds of different designs; you choose the one you want, and they’ll set it up for you with paper and show you how to do it, then you just rub the wax over the paper. It’s as simple as that! Andrew chose a king (I forget which one)...

...and I chose a Celtic cross, which I know doesn’t make sense because we were in Scotland, not Ireland, but I thought it was pretty. We did our little brass rubbings (quite cheap, too, only about £5 each) just before they closed the Centre, and we moved on to the next spot on our list!

The next spot was just across the road: the Museum of Childhood. Anyone who has ever visited a toy store with Andrew will know why I marked the Museum of Childhood, a museum full of toys for children, as a number one must see. [Andrew often gets thrown out of toy stores for playing with or even breaking the toys. Offhand I can think of two examples when toy store employees yelled at him for playing – Bruges and Rome.] The Museum was actually kind of a let-down. Most of the toys were collectables behind glass, but it was interesting nonetheless.

By the time we left, it was 5pm, so we planned to make our way back to the hotel for a quick kip before heading out for dinner and night time ghost tour! On the way back, however, we popped into the Nutcracker Christmas Shop where we ran into a college student wearing a University of Alabama Supply Store backpack and chatted with him for a moment. He’s living in London doing an internship, so we invited him to look us up and come watch some Bama games with us and the UA London Alumni Club this fall. The world really is incredibly small. What are the chances of our meeting a kid from UA in Edinburgh (and the real kicker) at a Christmas shop in the middle of July?!

Also on the way back to the B&B, we were mesmerised by juggling street performer with an odd petulance for Americans and dumped on by the sky. Andrew had realised once we arrived that he forgot his coat, rain jacket and umbrella for this cold, rainy weekend in Scotland, so when it began to rain, we ducked into a pub for a quick pint. The pub just happened to be one that I’d marked in the tour book. It was called Deacon Brodie’s Tavern, named after Deacon William Brodie, the man who inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. While we were there, we talked about what we would do the next day, made bookings for that night’s and the next night’s suppers and decided on which ghost tour to take that night.

When it stopped raining, we left to go buy Andrew a rain jacket and / or umbrella, only to discover that everything closed at 6pm, and it was about 6:05! We couldn’t find one place that was open, which we found quite strange for a Friday night. Even London shops stay open until 8 or 9pm on Fridays, though they mostly close at 6pm the rest of the evenings through the week. With no luck, we headed back to the B&B and took a quick nap before getting up and heading out to dinner. We made a booking at a place called Dubh Prais (pronounced “doo-prash”). We ordered traditional Scottish haggis as a starter. Luckily, the waiter refused to tell us what was in it until after we’d eaten (half) of it. It was so salty that neither of us could finish it; we liked it, but will probably never order it again! When we finished eating we had to run out to make it to our ghost tour!

The ghost tour we decided to take (okay – for those of you who know us – the one I decided to take) was called the City of the Dead cemetery tour and was supposed to take us through parts of the Greyfriar’s Kirkyard that aren’t open to the public. It was so much fun. Andrew and volunteered at the beginning in a Braveheartesque demonstration of Scottish warfare. Andrew was the Roman general, and was part of his army. The Scottish kicked our butts. The tour took us into the cemetery where the guide told us the REAL story behind Greyfriar’s Bobby (I told you I’d come back to this…). Apparently, the little dog had the wrong grave. The right name was on it, but it was the wrong grave of another man by the same name! Also, right next to the grave was a tombstone set up so that it kind of looked like a picnic table, so the real story is that the dog wasn’t even trying to keep watch over the grave of his master at all, but was just trying to keep dry and warm under the shelter of the table tombstone next to that grave that just happened to bear the same name as his master. Also, the dog is supposed to have been buried at the entrance to the Kirkyard, but our tourguide told us that was basically nothing other than tourist ploy, as well. The little dog was a stray after his owner died, and no one knows where or when he really died. The dog’s tombstone at the entrance is just a “memorial”. So funny and disappointing at the same time!

So that night we asked our tourguide where to go, and she told us Bar Kohl down the street. We went for a drink and left immediately after because it just wasn’t our scene. Instead, we stopped back into Deacon Brodie’s Tavern where we ran into the nicest couple of Canadians and the strangest blind (possibly faking it) homeless guy who invited himself to sit with us after we petted his adorable puppy. We ended up leaving him at the table and went out to a club with the Canadians. After a couple of pints, we were cashed and grabbed a cab back to the B&B where we crashed.

The next morning, since we’d seen almost everything we wanted to see the day before, we were able to really have a more relaxed day. The only two things left on our list to see were Nelson's Monument where you’re supposed to be able to see the best views of Edinburgh, and the Scotch Whiskey Experience, to which Andrew was especially looking forward. We also, as a side note, wanted to wander through the shopping district around Princes Street to see if we could find a new dress for me to wear to my 10-year high school reunion next month.

We started out the day with a wander around the shopping district, where Andrew was hit by a “fly-by pooping” from a deranged seagull. After the pooping incident, we popped in a little deli for outrageously over-priced sandwiches and then left to do a little more wandering. Andrew found a golf shop where he could practice hitting balls for a bit, so he did (technically) get to play some golf in Scotland.

After a god deal of wandering (and no luck finding a dress, by the way), we decided to take bus to the Monument, only the busses were quite confusing… Then we looked up and realised the Monument wasn’t even that far away, just a hike up a “little hill” that felt like a mountain on the way down when Andrew made me climb an off-the-trail 85 degree drop-off in high-heeled boots. I don’t mind going up slopes like that, but going is a different story!

The Monument was amazing, though I think we had more fun exploring the hillside on the way up than we did actually up the stairs in the tower. There are what looks like Roman ruins next to the Monument that create an amazing view and a kind of forlorn, romantic atmosphere. If I could get married again, anywhere in the world, I would choose to be married on those ruins, despite the fact that they’re known as “Edinburgh’s Disgrace”.

The “ruins” actually make up Scotland’s National Monument, a memorial to those who died in the Napoleonic Wars.

It was designed by Charles Robert Cockerell and his collaborator William Henry Playfair and was intended to be a replica of the Parthenon in Athens, but they ran out of money when it was halfway finished. Apparently, Glascow City offered to help pay for its completion, but the City of Edinburgh was too proud to take them up on it! I don’t think it’s disgraceful, and I think it looks better half finished than it would have completed!

Next we thought it was time to move on to the Scotch Whiskey Experience, which ends with a tasting and therefore is not really suitable for a morning excursion. Our friends Rachel and David had warned us that the tour wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but that the first 20 minutes and the tasting at the end were both great. They advised we skip the tour and go straight to the tasting. However, Andrew and I talked it over and decided that we’d do the tour anyway because we were both interested to learn a little more about Scotch, and there wasn’t a museum that you could wander yourself before the tasting; it was the tour or nothing. So we took the tour. Big mistake in my opinion! We should have listened to the Kents! The first 20 minutes of the tour was very interesting. They taught us how to taste Scotch: how to look at it, how to smell it, and how to taste it. It was really interesting.

Then they moved us to another room where we watched a movie about Scotch. Then they moved us to another room where we watched another movie about Scotch in front of a small scale model of a distillery that moved. Then they moved us to another room where we watched another movie of ghost bartender telling us more about Scotch. Then they moved us the slowest roller coaster ride in large fake barrels of Scotch on a little ride that told us more about Scotch. It was the laziest tour on which I’ve ever been; the tour guide only really had to talk for the first 20 minutes. It was like being in school with a bad substitute teacher!

The tasting was worth it, though, and afterward we went to the giftshop where Andrew proceeded to buy so much Scotch that they threw in a free map of all the distilleries in Scotland!

After that, we walked outside and decided to try our luck getting into the Witchery, which is a very famous restaurant next to the castle where they used to burn witches at the stake (morbid, I know, but the restaurant is very posh and elegant). We’d tried making a booking the day before, to no avail, but were hoping that if we arrived early (it was 6:30ish), that they might be able to squeeze us in, and they did!

We had an amazing meal there and then wanted to make an early night of it, so we wandered back down to Princes Street and popped into a couple of pubs in that area before we headed back to the B&B.

The next morning, our cab was supposed to arrive around 6:30am, and I woke up, by chance, around 7am. Of course, the cab was gone, and the B&B office, who had called them for us the night before, was closed, so we had no number to call another! Andrew started freaking out, trying to hurriedly pack everything while simultaneously running to and fro in his underwear (including out in to the B&B lobby) trying to figure out what to do about a cab. I honestly think I was still too asleep to really be bothered at that point and was hurriedly, but calmly, packing. We found a binder of guest information in the room, and Andrew called a cab, who arrived about five minutes later to a dishevelled American couple standing outside the B&B obviously freaked out about missing a flight. We made to the airport and checked in safely with time to spare and then I lost my passport somewhere between check-in and security. So we start running back and forth, retracing our steps, dumping everything out of my bag, dumping everything out of Andrew’s bag, and on the second round of dumping, finally found that it had somehow landed folded up in a piece of paper in my bag. All was well again! We made it home in one piece and will always look fondly on weekend getaway to Edinburgh!!

Houseguests!

2008-03-17T22:43:00.005Z

Sorry for the lack in blog entries for so long! We got behind and then wanted to catch up, and then just continued to get more and more behind until now I think it’s almost pointless to try and catch up! However, I will try and upload some of the photos from our trips since November so that at least you can see them! As for text, you’re probably just going to miss out because it’s way too much to write catch up. However, I promise that we’ll be better about updating from now on, and we’ll try not to get so far behind again!

Alright, so March 2008 was full of houseguests at Casa Brock. Our friend Craig McPherson, Andrew’s fraternity brother and my former coworker from SouthTrust Bank (who, by the way, introduced us – thanks, Craig!) came to stay with us for 10 days. It was a great feeling of home for us. Craig got in town on a Friday while Andrew and I had to work, but Craig’s British friend Liam met him at the airport and made sure he made it to our place okay. Andrew worked from home so that he would be here when they arrived, and they all went to lunch at out local pub, the Fulham Mitre. That evening when I got home from work we all met Liam and his friends at another local hangout, Lloyd’s Bar in the Fulham Broadway tube station. We ended up making a late night of it after that with a quick dinner at the Elk and then we hit up the Slug @ Fulham. The next morning we got up and took Craig to Portobello Market, one of my favourite things to do on a Saturday. Craig bought some souvenirs, and we had another pub lunch while wandering. That night we met several of our friends up at High Street Kensington at our favourite little piano bar, the Live Lounge. Liam came and met us out, as well. A good time was had by all!

The next morning, I really wanted to take Craig to have a proper British Sunday roast, something Andrew and I had yet to do. Liam decided to stick around for lunch, as well, and we went up to Holborn because we were going to hit the British Museum afterward. It was then that we realized that hardly any pubs were open up there! After wandering, starving, for so long, we finally found one and had a lovely Sunday roast with steamed veggies, lots of gravy and Yorkshire pudding (which, I have to say, is not what I though it would be). After lunch Liam left us, and we went to the British Museum. Andrew and I had never been, so were looking forward to it, but I have to say that after such a heavy lunch, we all would have rather had a nap! We struggled around the British Museum for a while and then went home and took the much needed nap.

Monday morning Andrew and I had to head back to work, and Liam met up with Craig to go sightseeing around London. That night, Andrew and I took him to dinner and a show. We saw Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. It was really cute.

Tuesday Craig took a coach tour by himself to Stonehenge, Bath and Windsor. And on Wednesday Andrew took off work and took him to the National Gallery and Trafalger Square and some other places that Craig and Liam had missed on Monday. That night Andrew’s coworker Nigel, who takes us to the sports matches here, had gotten two tickets to the Chelsea match. Craig and Andrew were supposed to go together, but then Craig ended up not feeling very well and didn’t want to go, so I got to go instead. Chelsea won, and then Craig started feeling much better after a lazy night in. Yay!

So the next day, we took Craig on the Eurostar to head to Paris for the night. We took a guided tour of Paris, starting out on a freezing cold double decker sightseeing bus. They took us to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Then we took a one-hour cruise on the River Siene and then headed over to the Louvre, where we spent a couple of hours hitting the highlights.

That night we went to dinner at Chez les Anges, a chic restaurant that offered sophisticated French cuisine on the Boulevard de la Tour Maubourg between the Rues de Grenelle and St-Dominique. I ate frog legs, and guess what. They do taste like chicken! After dinner we went to see the Eiffel Tower at night.

On Friday morning, we went to breakfast at Ladurée, a turn-of-the-19th-century salon de thé par excellence. Located on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, it was posh and ultra-Parisian but not snobbish, and they served the best French toast any of us had ever tasted! The toast and pastries were very reasonably priced, but I should warn anyone who decides to go there – don’t order the fresh-squeezed orange juice! It was more expensive than our orders of toast!! We also saw Tom Bergeron filming an episode of America’s Funniest Videos just outside the café. After breakfast, we walked down the Champs-Elysées all the way to l’Arc de Triomphe and then took the Metropolitaine to Notre Dame, or the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame de Paris (Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris). We toured around inside and then stood in line for forever to go to the top of tower for a little chat with the gargoyles and Quasimodo.

After Notre Dame, I dragged the boys up to the Latin Quarter so that I could see Café Delmas (the former site of La Chope), where a young Ernest Hemingway ate and drank at this neighborhood café. We had a pint in the square and then we wandered on up the street to get a look at 74 Rue du Cardinal-Lemoine, where Ernest and Hadley Hemingway lived on the fourth floor of a working-class building from the beginning of 1922 to the summer of 1923. It was their first apartment in Paris, lovingly recalled in A Moveable Feast, one of my favourite books.

Then it was time for us to leave Paris, so we gathered our stuff from hotel and headed back to Gare du Nord station for our departing train. Our train arrived in London late Friday night at Kings Cross station, so, being the Harry Potter fans the three of us are, we wandered over to see Platform 9¾. It was actually kind of disappointing!

We had dinner in the station and then headed home. By the time we arrived back in London Friday night, we were all exhausted, and we struggled with it the rest of the weekend. On Saturday we went up to Sports Café and watched the rugby game, and then that night we wanted to take Craig out because it was his last real night, but then we were all so tired that we ended up just going to dinner and then having a couple more drinks at our one of our favourite pubs up at Gloucester (pronounced Gloster) Road. On Sunday, we were still pretty beat and did nothing all day, and Craig left for home on Monday morning before Andrew and I even got up for work.

Lauren McDonnell, one of my best friends from high school, came in town that Thursday. She lives in Manhatten and works for Yahoo, and she was in Isreal on business. While she was there, she went and saw Jerusalem, and I now I want to go, as well! It sounded amazing! When she arrived in London around lunchtime, but went straight into the Yahoo office and worked until the end of the day. Then I met her at Earl’s Court and we headed down to Fulham and dropped her stuff off at the house before heading to the Mitre for dinner. Andrew was having celebratory drinks with some of his coworkers. You may not all know this, but he recently got promoted to manager! Everyone who was promoted this time around was heading for drinks that night, so Andrew met McD and I afterward for a late dinner, which gave Lauren and I time beforehand to catch up after not having seen each other since our wedding. Friday we all three had to work, but that night we met several of our friends for dinner at Octave8, a jazz restaurant / bar and then later wandered to a couple of pubs and ended up down the street at our friends house until horribly late! Lauren and I stayed up chatting until five in the morning. Needless to say, we were pooped the next morning, but we got up and headed to Portobello Market anyway and then came home to nap before our evening festivities. I had made us a booking at Buona Sera at the Jam on King’s Road, an adorable Italian restaurant with loft seating. After dinner, we wandered in the pouring rain trying to make it to the Hollywood Arms (we got lost and went out of our way before finally hailing a cab because I forgot my umbrella; Andrew let Lauren and I use his, and he got soaked), where we meeting the Noris and friends for drinks. It was the Noris going away party. They’ll be moving back to the States soon, and we’re all so sad to see them go!

On the way home we stopped at the American Café and ordered late-night French fries and onion rings (so not on my diet!) before heading off to bed! Sunday morning we slept late and had coffee, while Andrew cooked eggs and bacon and grits and toast. Then we just laid around the house and did nothing (well, Andrew took the dogs to meet the woman who will be caring for them while we’re in Prague, but McD and I did nothing). We were going to do some touristy things, but the weather was just complete crap that day: so cold and rainy and windy. You know, your typical London winter day, so we opted to stay out of it and just hang out. Lauren didn’t really want to see Big Ben or Parliament anyway (or so she insisted). I just told her she’d have to come back before we leave for a proper visit when we’ll have time to do things like that!

Anyway, so that was March for us. We’re heading to Prague at the end of March, just Andrew and I, and we can’t wait because we hear it’s a beautiful city. I promise to post another update upon our return.

Dollar continues near record lows

2007-11-19T16:37:00.000Z

[copied from the BBC]

The US dollar has remained weak against both the euro and the yen in Monday trading as worries about the strength of the US economy continue.

The dollar fell to $1.4666 against the euro by early afternoon in Europe, and dropped to 110.30 yen.

At the start of November, the dollar hit a record low of $1.4752 against the single European currency.

The strength of the dollar had been undermined further by weak US economic data released on Friday.

Interest rate cuts

As a growing number of US banks reveal their exposure to bad US mortgage debt, data on Friday showed the biggest drop in American industrial production since January.

Taken together, analysts say this suggests further cuts in US interest rates.

"There are no fundamental reasons to buy the dollar," said Tsutomu Soma, senior manager of foreign securities at Okasan Securities.

The US Federal Reserve last cut interest rates in October to 4.5%, in an effort to kick-start the faltering housing and credit markets, as well as making borrowing cheaper to encourage consumer spending in the run-up to the key Christmas shopping period.

Despite signalling that it will adopt a wait-and-see approach to the future direction of interest rates, most economists expect a further cut in rates when Fed officials next meet in December.

"Are there inflation fears in the United states? Yes," said David Watt, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.

"But as long as housing remains a downside risk, people will think the Fed is biased to cut rates in the near term."

Barcelona, Baby!

2007-11-18T15:39:00.000Z

So we went to Barcelona, Spain from November 8-11. Actually, I was there from November 8-16 but the week of November 12 was spent at our global convention, and Kelly flew back to London on Sunday, November 11. So what is there to say about Spain? Well, I’m sure you’ve heard it from us many times, but it is truly a beautiful city in its own way. Europe is amazing like that. As you’ll note in some of our more recent trips to Prague and York, each city is very unique and is special in a different way.

Spain. Just to fill you in a bit on the geography of Barcelona, it is located in the Northeast part of Spain along the Mediterranean coast. If you think it was warm, you would be wrong. Once the calendar turns to fall, the Mediterranean becomes cold, and Barcelona was no different. It was not freezing, by any means, but when I think of Spain, I think of shorts and t-shirts, bathing suits and frozen cocktails. Instead we wore long pants, long shirts or sweaters and coats and scarves the entire time. So, what did we do while we were there?

Well upon arrival, we took a taxi to the hotel only to find out that we were staying quite a bit away from the city center. We had not really done any research prior to booking the hotel, so we got what we asked for, but the good news was that a metro station was about a 10-minute walk from our hotel. Let me give Barcelona real credit here, as their metro system is exceptionally efficient and easily zips you from one place to the next. I believe it was only a 10-15 minute ride to Las Ramblas, which is a very long boulevard with street performers, vendors, clubs, restaurants and hotels adorning the sidewalks and centre pathway. Well, we actually went to Catalunya, which is the main town square and sits at the top of Las Ramblas. Catalunya was lovely, but it was the least impressive of the town squares we have seen in Europe. In addition, the fountains were turned off, as the high season for tourism had long passed. So, Kelly and I cross the street and begin to peruse down Las Ramblas, admiring the various vendors. What we found amazing was that you would walk through districts where all of the vendors pushed similar goods. We walked through the flower vendors, pet vendors, fruit vendors and book vendors with street performers dotted along the way. Think of New Orleans in terms of the street performers, and you get the gist of it. We passed a huge market on a side street and ventured inside to be amazed by the fresh seafood prominently displayed, the butchers, wine and cheese kiosks, etc. It seemed like it never stopped. Finally, we felt like we had seen enough squid and large mouth fish staring up at us and kept moving down the street. I wish I could say we ate a fantastic lunch that afternoon, but honestly we grabbed a quick slice of pizza and a coke and kept walking. As you wind down towards the southern tip of Las Ramblas you walk up to a statue of Columbus in which he is supposed to be pointing to the US (or the new world). The ironic part of the monument is Columbus has his back to the US in a sign of disrespect and actually points toward Turkey.

After we finished walking down Las Ramblas we strolled along the water front and up into the Gothic Quarter surrounded by the old Roman walls. This is also called the medieval area, as much of the buildings are in their original form. Within the centre of the Gothic Quarter is the Barcelona Cathedral. The cathedral was nice, but it was not nearly as beautiful as many of the other churches we have seen. In addition, the cathedral was covered with scaffolding, as they were cleaning the exterior. The one good thing about it was the view from the top it provided after a short elevator ride to the roof. As you can see from the pictures, some turned out quite nice. Outside of the cathedral was a small market we browsed. We used the tour guide to do an hour long walk through the rest of the area. The pictures with the dirty water and the ducks were inside this area, and I believe inside the cathedral. The birds are not to be bothered. They are free birds, but they leave and always return to live here among the fountains in the cathedral.

As we left the Gothic area, we walked down some shopping streets before finally taking the metro to Parc de Montjuic. I’m sure you’re wondering what the significance of this park is, but it famous for the 1992 Summer Olympics and the park they built at the top of it. The Olympic stadium and many of the buildings used to host the numerous events were built specifically for the games. After walking around the buildings and the park we descended the mountain by way of the Placa Espanya where we saw the Magic Fountain and the site of the kickoff to the Olympic games, which is a large square with two towers that look much like the bell tower in the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Nevertheless, it was beautiful, and Kelly had fun running across the fountains when the police were not looking. Look at Kelly living on the edge.

Afterwards we walked up the road to the Poble Espanyol. This place is supposed to be an exact replica of historical Spanish towns prior to sky scrapers. It was really quaint, and we wish we had gone earlier in the day to give us time to enjoy the numerous shops and boutiques there. The city was walled in, and admission was required, but it was full of narrow alleys with two-story buildings complete with a town square. We did not explore it near as much as we would have liked because much of it was closing shortly after we arrived, so we settled for a few beers in the city center and a much needed rest after walking so much of the day. By now, we were some whipped puppies, so we took the metro back to the hotel for a nap.

After waking and freshening ourselves, we headed off to dinner in the port district. I seem to recall dinner being good but not great.

As you can clearly see, I made a mess of myself and, more embarrassingly, the area around me. I was ashamed when the waiter took my napkin, which I was using to hide the stains I created on the white table cloth. Oh, well. It was, nonetheless, hilarious.

The next day brought more adventures, as life always is when you put Kelly and me together. Our first stop was Sagrada Familia. Sagrada Familia is the famous church designed by Antoni Gaudi. As the pictures below show, it looks like it is dripping with wax. It is really neat, but it is incomplete. Antoni Gaudi died before its completion, and it was designed to have two major facades. The most famous façade by Gaudi is charming because of its uniqueness, even though it is eccentric to say the least. The newer façade that is still under construction is heinous.

Kelly and feel that we have been inside enough churches, so we did not venture in this one. The tour book noted the outside was the only really special thing about the building to begin with, so we left after seeing the ugly façade. After leaving the Sagrada Familia, we strolled over to the Ciutadella Parc. The park was really nice and relaxing and it has a famous fountain by Gaudi. His architecture is a large part of Barcelona and it can be stunningly beautiful, but it is very different. I imagine many would believe it to be overbearing. After meandering around the park, we adjourned to lunch around the port district again at a nice little restaurant famous for its generous lunches enjoyed with wine and tending to last quite a long time. We were the last table they let in for the day, as we were unaware they closed around 3pm. I think we walked in the door at 2:55. We were certainly not the last to leave, either. Lunch was fine. I had salted cod, which was their specialty, but I was not impressed. In fact, I disliked it so much Kelly threatens to make it at home when I’m being difficult.

After lunch we walked through the area surrounding Las Ramblas and ended up finding the Picasso Museum. We went in and spent a good bit of time inside it and were quite impressed with the museum and the manner in which it presented his works accompanied by explanations regarding the period in which it was created and the phase in his development he was currently experiencing. By the time we left the museum, it was well after dark, and off we went to dinner. Now here is where Kelly and I continue to make mistakes. You would think after the number of failed Mexican food attempts in London we would accept that Europe can not create good Mexican food but we have not. So off we went to Margarita Blue for Mexican food and drinks. I think you have to understand the clock of Spain to firmly grasp how empty this place was upon our entering for dinner at 8pm. The Spanish go to work at 9am or so, but take two hours off in the afternoon for siesta before working till about 8pm. They usually go to dinner around 10pm and then drink until 3am. Showing up for dinner at 8pm immediately identifies you as a tourist. Nevertheless, there we were. The margaritas were not bad, but they were tiny. I felt like I was taking shots of margarita at €7 per person per round. I have small hands, and look at the size of the drinks in my hands. Needless to say, I switched to beer, so I could get out of there with my shirt. The food wasn’t bad but not memorable.

After dinner Kelly thought it would be fun if we took pictures of us doing stupid things.

How she talked me into climbing 20 feet up a palm tree is beyond me, but I rightly blame it on tequila. It was not hard, so much as it was stupid.

I think the picture of me treating the large round marble as a crystal ball is amusing. After walking around for a bit we stumbled into My Bar where we befriended two couples that were in town from Scotland for the soccer match and another group there for a stag party.

I will conclude this part by saying we stayed out much too late and had too much fun. Consequently, we slept in quite late the next day.

We spent Saturday shaking off the effects of the previous evening and walking around Parc Guell. This was by far my favourite part of the trip, and I have yet to see anything in this world quite like it. Parc Guell is another Gaudi creation. Gaudi purchased the park in the early 1900s and lived there with his family. As a result, he designed and commissioned the construction of almost all but a few buildings in the park, and they are incredibly beautiful. In addition to the buildings, the park boasts some of the best scenic views of Barcelona. If you follow the link above it will take you to the Wikipedia information of the park. If you have time, I suggest you read it and look at the pictures, in addition to ours, as it is very interesting.

After leaving the park we returned to the hotel for a nap. We walked so much the prior two days we were exhausted. The night before did not help much either. After waking I coaxed Kelly into some good ole American food. There is only one place in Europe to get good American food…Hard Rock Café. Oh yes we did. So we dressed down and took the metro back to Catalunya for dinner. I’m not going to lie to you. It was by far the best thing I ate the entire time I was there, and I love trying new food. (As I found out the following week, we did not go to the right places.) Kelly ate macaroni and cheese, and I had fajita nachos that could feed a family of four coupled with Budweiser beers. So good! After waiting to eat for more than an hour and finally finishing, we went straight to the hotel to sleep again.

So that was Barcelona. Kelly and I enjoyed Barcelona but agreed that it would have been better with a group of friends in warm weather while casually strolling the city. We approached the city like Rome or Paris and wore ourselves out, when we should have taken it easy. Oh well, we had fun anyway. We wish you all had been with us. Lots of Love.

The Ray LaMontagne Fiasco

2007-11-07T21:46:00.000Z

So recently our good friends the Noris asked a bunch of us if we wanted to go to the Ray LaMontagne concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

"Ray Who?" I asked. I'd never heard of the guy. Andrew, however, replied that we'd love to attend, and Beth and Rino got tickets for us and the Tiensvolds and the Sangers (I think). This was months and months ago. After buying the tickets, Beth burned me a copy of his CD, and he's actually quite good. I still listen to the CD often.

Anyway, so the week before the show, both the Sangers and the quasi-hosts - the Noris - backed out and said they could no longer come! The Tiensvolds were still going, though, and Andrew and I had been looking forward to it, so we rushed over after work.Apparently concerts are done differently here in the UK than they are in States. We arrived early and went to the bar to have a pint before the show. Tim soon met us, and Christi arrived about the time we were moving on to our seats. Then the opening act began. She was TERRIBLE! Before she'd even finished her first song, we got up and headed back to the bar. Then there was an intermission after the opening act. Ray didn't even come on stage until about 9pm! We'd been there since about 7pm! No one stood; no one sang; no one danced. It was really strange, eerily quiet. Andrew and I stayed for a while, but we ended up leaving way early. It just wasn't that fun like it is to go to a concert back Home. Andrew and I both agreed that we may be getting older, but we still have some Rock and Roll left in us!

28 Is Great!

2007-10-31T21:29:00.000Z

So this year for my birthday, Andrew took me to my favourite restaurant, The Big Easy. It's an American New Orleans style restaurant (hence the name), where we can get two of my favourite things: margaritas and crab legs. This time, though, Andrew and I split a whole crab,and apparently I made a pirate face at it (no I hadn't yet had too many margaritas).The Triefs joined us for dinner, and Andrew even put a "K" candle in our dessert.
He's such a sweetie. Great birthday, all around.

The All-American Weekend

2007-10-29T20:51:00.000Z

So this weekend, Andrew and I celebrated Halloween and had an All-American Weekend. Our annual visitors Kip and Erica Copeland were in Birmingham (England) for training sessions before they head back to Bosnia for their missionary work. Friday night, Andrew and I had really been looking forward to taking it very low-key – renting movies, carving pumpkins, and having dinner delivered – we were happy to hear that the Copelands were quite tired from all their training courses and were happy to do the same. We decided on Chinese and finally found a take-out place with which we’re happy (in the past our Chinese delivery places have been fair at best). Andrew, Erica, and I went to Blockbuster and, finding no movies that we wanted to rent, bought eight off the cheap racks. We bought 13 Going on 30, The Goonies, Billy Madison, Almost Famous, Casino, The Godfather, and Donnie Brasko. That night we watched Monster House while we carved pumpkins and then followed it up with Donnie Brasko because Erica and I had never seen it. We ended the night by finding the giant octopus scene in The Goonies and watching the Cindy Lauper video that went with the movie (“Good Enough”).

Saturday morning we got up and went down to Clapham to a Halloween costume shop there. We were trying to find costumes for the four of us because we were planning on going to the Texas Exes (the University of Texas Alumni Association) Annual Halloween Party later that night. The costume shops were insane, though. There were so many people piled in there that we could hardly find anything. Erica bought a mask, and Kip decided to just wear his Cowboys football jersey and put the black football makeup underneath his eyes. Andrew and I had decided the night before that we would go as Brittany Spears and Kevin Federline. I went as Crazy-Shaved-Headed-Brittany-Bashing-the-SUV-with-an-Umbrella, and Andrew was K-Fed-to-the-Max.Our costumes got some laughs at the party, as you can imagine; we looked ridiculous. We met lots of nice new people and had a great time at the party. It was great actually being around all American accents for a while!

I’m going to pass the buck to Andrew now, and let him tell you about our experiences on Sunday…On Sunday, Andrew had gotten us tickets to the first American NFL game to be played on international soil – the New York Giants battling the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium here in London. Andrew was so excited! We went early to beat the tube traffic there and to “tailgate” with our friends before the game.

(Tailgating here consists of meeting at pub for ciders.) Several of Andrew’s friends from PwC had managed to get tickets, as well, and so we met them at a pub near the stadium.

Our seats were really good as they were in the end zone in the upper deck but on the front row. It was terribly cold and rainy (shocking!) for the game and the players on the field were kicking up huge chunks of sod every time they hit the ground.

England still hasn’t gotten over the damage done to the pitch. The game itself might have been one of the most boring games we have ever watched.The final was 13-10 but it was 13-0 when we left at the conclusion of the third quarter. The highlight of the game was the streaker that acted as though he was about to kick-off the second half with both teams ready to start before settling for push-ups at midfield.In addition we saw John Cusack walking around the field and waiving to fans. I’m a big fan of his so that was pretty cool. As I noted, we left at the end of the third quarter. We decided that we did not want to fight the crowd to get home so we went ahead and made to commute early. We were very glad we did as they were closing the tube station at the moment we entered. I have no idea how so many others got home that evening. I talked to one of my colleagues and he told me it took over an hour and a half to get home. It took us 40 minutes. As soon as we got in we cooked tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. That seemed a perfect way to thaw out from the cold, rainy weather and it was. In all we were really glad we got to experience the event but I hope the NFL sends a better team than the Dolphins next time. The Dolphins are embarrassing to the NFL and an even worse representative of one of our favourite sports.

The Humphries!

2007-10-22T20:46:00.000+01:00

A while back, my dear friend Leah called me to tell me that she and her husband were taking a European vacation with her parents and would be staying in London for several days. Unfortunately, when we figured out the dates they were going to be here, it coincided with the weekend that Andrew and I would be in Florence with my parents, so we decided to meet for dinner on Monday night after we returned, which was also their last night in London before heading on to Paris. Andrew had to leave for Amsterdam Monday morning, so I left work Monday evening to head to Tottenham Court Road to meet them. We wandered around and dipped into a little Japanese restaurant in the area and had a fabulous meal and wine. After dinner I brought them back to our flat where we sat around and chatted for such a long time.

By the way, Leah, my monogrammed tea towel looks so cute hung up in our kitchen – it matches the sepia-toned picture of the trees hanging up on the right when you walk in. Also, I love the cookbook you sent; I haven’t cooked anything out of it, yet, because I’ve been too busy laughing over the anecdotes alongside the recipes! It was so nice to have a bit of home here in London, and I had forgotten how much I missed you both! I hope you had a lovely time in Paris and Rome, and I’ll call you soon to see how it was and whether you were able to go to Da Pietro (Andrew’s and my favourite restaurant in the world).

Sienna!

2007-10-21T20:27:00.000+01:00

This weekend we travelled to Florence, Italy, again, but to meet my parents this time (last time we were there we met Andrew’s parents). Andrew and I took a different approach to Florence this time, and instead of staying in a hotel, Andrew found a flat for us to rent for the weekend. For the same price as it would have been for us to stay in a hotel, we got a small one-bedroom flat with a full living room, little kitchen, bathroom, and even a little balcony. It was a beautiful little place with huge windows that opened up to let in the fresh Florentine air.

We arrived in Florence late Thursday night (we’re talking midnight) and went straight to bed. Friday morning we slept late because Mom and Dad’s schedule had been changed so that they weren’t getting into Florence until Friday afternoon, and then they were supposed to go on an excursion with their group and then to dinner. Andrew and I bummed around Florence and shopped. I got a new pair of leather gloves and two new wool hats, one grey and one red (in preparation for the impending London winter). We also bought birthday presents for my parents.

Later that night we went to dinner at a little place that our tour book said was great, but we were a little overwhelmed at the menu, which was all in Italian. (I had given my Italian dictionary to my parents!) After getting the waitress to point out some entrees that weren’t intestines, stomach or liver, we ended up having a great meal and met some Auburn and Alabama fans who were celebrating their 50-year anniversary! After dinner, we met my parents at the Duomo and dipped into a little restaurant to share a bottle of wine with them.

For our birthdays, my parents had arranged for us to join their tour group for a day trip to Sienna, which Andrew and I had missed during our last visit to Florence. We met them at the crack of dawn at their hotel for breakfast and then piled into the bus for the drive to Sienna. The drive to Sienna (what parts of it we didn’t sleep through!) was beautiful: rows upon rows of olive trees and grapevines line the countryside for a breathtaking view of the wine country. We arrived in Sienna to freezing weather; apparently the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees overnight, and none of us had really come fully prepared for temperatures that low. We went to a cathedral and saw the skull of Saint Catherine of Sienna, which was a little creepy (we saw her thumb, too, but the rest of her is in Rome).

Then we went up to San Gimignano, an adorable little town with lots of towers. We had lunch there, and Andrew picked out and bought me a much-needed black and brown purse so that I never have to change purses again! Later we met back up with the group and went to Tenuta Torciano for a wine tasting with a crazy little man named Pierre Luigi, which was really fun.

After tasting several wines, olive oils, and such, we loaded back onto the bus and headed back to Florence.

It had been a great day in Sienna, and, Mom and Dad, we can’t thank you enough for making that day so special for us.

When we returned to Florence, Andrew and I had made dinner reservations for the six of us – my parents, their friends the Nassettas, and us – at a place called Il Latini, which was such a popular venue that they turn their phones off during peak hours. We were running late getting back from Sienna, so we were rushing to try and get there and couldn’t call to tell them we were running late. We took two taxis, and my parents and Mr. Nassetta ended up getting there first. Apparently, they told my dad and Pete that we were too late, but when Andrew and I walked in with Mrs. Nassetta and saw Mom, the waitress told my mom to follow her to our table. We think the waitress got confused as to who we were and gave us someone else’s table! We followed her, sat down, and were informed that there were no menus. They began bringing out plate after plate and course after course, everything to be passed around and shared. The food was outstanding, and the atmosphere was amazing. By the time we finished several bottles of the house wine and coffees and dessert, we were stuffed!

After such a long day, we all parted ways after dinner, but I have to say that it was so nice seeing my parents even for a single day. I’m so glad that they had such a great time, and I hope that they have as much fun next year when they come visit us in London!

Okay...

2007-10-16T18:06:00.000+01:00

I just wanted to share with all of you who don't live here how freakishly honest Transport for London (TFL) is about why there are delays on the tube system. I visited the TFL Live Travel News page this evening (as I do every day before leave for work in the morning and home in the evening) and discovered that the Central Line is part suspended due to a person under a train. I kid you not.

The above reads: "CENTRAL LINE: Suspended between Liverpool Street and Marble Arch due to a person under a train at Holborn. Severe delays are occurring on the rest of the line." [Ya think?!]

That's what the website live feed reads right now, and it's probably what they're announcing over the intercoms in the tube stations, as well. Is he alive? Is she dead? Why is he under the train? Did she jump? Did he fall? Was she protesting something? Did someone push him? Don't know! But I tell you, they're probably announcing those details in the stations, as well, or at least on the actual tube trains in the Central Line. They're just that honest!

I just think that's funny because in America they would never tell something like because they wouldn't want to look as though the tube stations are unsafe enough to allow people to get/fall under the tracks, regardless of the fact that they are and everyone knows it. Here, it's like they're so proud that it's actually not their fault this time (for instance, "signal failure at Ealing Broadway" or "backed up queue at Earl's Court", which happens every morning to me).

Also, just so you know, the girls at work just chastised for reading Holborn as "Hol-born". Apparently, like Gloucester is "Gloss-ter" and Leicester is "Lester", Holborn is actually pronounced "Ho-burn". Did you know that they pronounce Worcestershire sauce "Wooster" sauce?!

Congrats, Cuz!

2007-10-15T00:38:00.000+01:00

This weekend I went home for my cousin Laura’s wedding. The wedding was beautiful. They held the ceremony and reception in Laura’s parent’s backyard. There was a pretty arbor where the ceremony took place, a rented tent with paper Chinese lanterns for the dinner reception, a huge new deck for dancing, and everything was decorated with white twinkle lights and fall colors! It was a magical evening, and Laura looked breathtaking and so happy! It was so nice to be home, too, and get to see all my family, although the weekend, I have to say, was so stressful for me! Flying 20 hours for three days at home is a bit much, but it was worth it. I just wish I could have seen more people while I was there! Those of you whom I missed this trip (which was everyone except my family), I’ll catch you at Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Geo!

2007-10-07T00:16:00.000+01:00

So Geo turned 30, and her sweet hubby Ted threw her the shindig of all hullabaloos. We went to a place called the K-Box because Geo wanted to sing karaoke. Karaoke is different here than it is in Birmingham, Alabama. Instead of going to a bar where you stand up in front of a bar full of strangers, here you rent a room at a place like K-Box, and you have several TV screens posting the videos and lyrics and several microphones, and the only people in front of whom you have to stand up and sing are the friends you’ve invited. I don’t know if that’s good because you sing to friends you trust rather than embarrassing yourself in front of a roomful of strangers or if it’s bad because you have sing to friends who will make fun of you for the rest of your life instead of a roomful of strangers you’ll never see again (until the next time you visit Stars). We had a blast! Andrew sang his usuals plus some. I sang Eternal Flame badly (among others). It was so much fun. One of the highlights was hearing the birthday girl sing and dance to My Humps. Another highlight was meeting lots of new friends, including a couple named Juan Carlos and Fiorella. To show what a small world even a big city with more than seven million people in it can be, I have to tell you about our meeting them.

So we’re at Geo’s party, and we meet Fiorella and Juan Carlos (JC). They like Louisiana football, so we were talking to them about the SEC and invited them join us to watch some games. So Andrew and JC exchange phone numbers. Andrew gives JC his, and JC calls Andrew’s to put his number in Andrew’s phone. It shows up as Dave. We all look confused as we try to figure it out. Now for some background: when Andrew and I first got to London, we went to a barbeque joint to watch Bama and Florida, and ended up meeting a Florida fan named Dave. After talking to him for a few moments, we discovered that his wife works for PwC in the same group as Andrew. We thought it was a small world then. Turns out, our old friend Dave and new friends Fiorella and JC have been friends since they were little. When Dave moved back to the States, he gave JC his cell phone! How weird is that?

Roll Tide!

2007-10-01T15:46:00.000+01:00

This weekend we had our first meeting of the London Chapter of the University of Alabama Alumni Association. With the help of Brad and Jill Beard, who designed the UALondon website, and Heather Campbell, who lives here in London but worked for the Alumni Association back when she lived in Tuscaloosa, Andrew and I started the club, which is apparently the first international chapter. We contacted the University to get the names and contact information of any alumni over here in London, and then we sent out letters introducing ourselves. With Heather’s help, we got the UALondon website listed on the University’s alumni page, and since then we’ve been contacted by a lot more people who are living, moving, or visiting London this football season and want to get together to watch some games. Unfortunately, none of the games had come on North American Sports Network (NASN), the only channel over here that would be likely to broadcast the games, and the game times have been really inconvenient for us, as well, with the six-hour time difference. This weekend, though, it had been too long; we felt like we kept promising the UALondon people that we would watch the games, but we just never delivered. So we decided that we would hold a meet-and-greet event anyway, and those who wanted to brave the late night game with us would be welcome. We met at the Fulham Mitre, our local pub, at nine, and we were only expecting Heather and her husband, Ian to show up because they were the only ones who RSVPed definitely, though we also had one maybe. We were pleasantly surprised, however, when the maybe, Brooke, and her husband showed up, followed by another girl, Anna, and separately a guy named Peter, and then Heather and Ian also showed up. We had six people! It really felt like a great accomplishment for Andrew and me.

Our Slingbox is on the fritz, but our buddy Kip had told us that we could use his to watch the game live because he was using someone else’s with a better connection. NASN was playing the game at 12:30, but it was going to be on an hour and a half delay; baseball was being played live at 10pm kickoff (our time), which is why we needed the Slingbox, so that we could watch the game at a decent hour! So at 10pm, we left the Mitre and walked everyone down to our house to watch the game. Unfortunately for us, something had happened with Kip’s other Slingbox, and he was having to use the one that he was going to loan to us, so we had no game at 10. We invited everyone to stay until 12:30am to watch it on NASN, though, and most people did; we even had some join even later, and one actually spent the night! Apparently, we were being a little too enthusiastic about the game, though, causing our poor neighbor to come down and ask us to keep it down. Sadly, Alabama lost that night, but we’re hoping the next meeting of the club, next weekend, will have as good a turnout with a better outcome at the end of the game!

The Most Terrifying Live Theatre Experience in the World!

2007-09-29T16:04:00.000+01:00

Last night Andrew and I went to see the a play called The Woman in Black. I had seen ads for it when I was buying out tickets to Fiddler on the Roof for last weekend, and I thought it looked interesting. I had never heard of, though. So then I got an email from lastminute.com saying that tickets for it were on sale, and I cracked up at the ad, which called the play, “the most terrifying live theatre experience in the world...” On an off-chance, though, my co-worker Babs (a guy from Nigeria), mentioned the play and that I should go see it because it was really good. Then I mentioned it to some other co-workers, who all said it was really scary and really good and to definitely go and see it. I was sceptical; I couldn’t see how a play could be that frightening, but I asked Andrew if he wanted to go, to which he of course replied yes because he loves theatre. I bought the tickets, and we headed to the Fortune Theatre in the West End theatre district Friday night for the production.It started off rather slow, but the second half was much better. The story is your typical English ghost story. It sounds just like an M.R. James story, though the play was adapted from a novel by Susan Hill. I wouldn’t be surprised if it really were the most terrifying live theatre experience in the world; as I said before, I just don’t think the stage is capable of producing proper horror stories, and there aren’t that many scary plays out there. I have to admit, though, that I jumped more than a few times! Ghosts walked down the aisles from behind us and caught me by surprise. However, at other times I think it was other audience members’ screams that startled me more than anything that was going on the play!

One year!

2007-09-25T21:18:00.000+01:00

I cannot believe that it has been one year already. One year ago today, Andrew and I got off the plane and stepped onto British soil (or concrete, rather) for the first time. It’s really gone by so quickly.

To celebrate, I’m going to give you a quick recap over our first year in London…

Homes: two
Chelsea Bridge Wharf (six months)
Fulham (six months)

Trips: eight (counting Italy as one trip)
Dublin – October 2006 (one week)
Birmingham / Cullman, Alabama – December 2006 and January 2007
Bruges, Belgium – January 2007 (weekend with the Beards and the Noris)
Amsterdam, Netherlands – March 2007 (weekend with the Triefenbachs and Kevin Mitchell and friends)
Venice, Italy – May 2007 (three days with Andrew’s parents)
Florence, Italy – May 2007 (two days with Andrew’s parents)
Rome, Italy – June 2007 (four days with Andrew’s parents)
Paris, France – July 2007 (weekend)
Birmingham / Cullman, Alabama – August 2007 (Andrew, one week; Kel, weekend)
Cairo, Egypt – August 2007 (weekend)
Birmingham, Alabama – September 2007 (just Andrew, weekend)

Andrew’s business travels: eight countries, countless trips…
Paris, France
Düsseldorf, Germany
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Miami, Florida
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Cairo, Egypt
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Nairobi, Kenya
Atlanta, Georgia

New friends: Too many to name!
At least fifty

Shows we've seen: four (McD, you'll kill me because we really haven't taken enough advantage of this!)
Les Miserables (with Copelands from Dothan, Alabama)
Comedy show in Clapham (with Noris, Wysss, and Katy)
Comedy show in Camden (Kel with the Wysss and friends and Noris)
Fiddler on the Roof

Clubs started: two
London Ladies Bookclub
London Chapter of the University of Alabama Alumni Association

Doctors visits: approximately six, but none serious (knock on wood!)
Andrew’s hand from playing football – November 2006
I cut my finger slicing cheese – January 2007
Hadley’s sickness after eating snow – February 2007
Andrew’s cold – March 2007
Kelly’s hay fever – May and June 2007
Andrew’s travelers' sickness – September 2007

Mom's birthdays missed: TWO!
Yes, we both missed our mothers' birthdays this year... :(

Special day trips: seven (I’m probably forgetting some.)
Chelsea football game – November 2007 (with Andrew’s coworker, Nigel)
High tea with the girls in London – January 2007 (Kel with Beth Nori, Katy Triefenbach, and Jill Beard)
Canterbury, England – February 2007 (with the Beards)
“I’m not a plastic bag!” hunt – March 2007 (Kel with Beth Nori and Geo Wyss)
England cricket game – July 2007 (with Andrew’s coworker, Nigel)
Bomb threatened day at the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf – August 2007 (Kel with the Triefenbachs) NEVER GO THERE!!!
Hever Castle in Kent – September 2007 (Kel with the Bookclub)

Job interviews: too many!
Willis Insurance (2)
VMA Group (recruitment agency)
Nestlé (2)
Hudson (recruitment agency (2)
JFL (recruitment agency)
Inspired Selection (recruitment agency)
ITV
British Airways Authorities
Direct Line Insurance
The Law Society of England and Wales

Visitors: four (not counting those who didn’t come to London) PLEASE COME SEE US SOON!
Kip and Erica Copeland from Dothan, Alabama – October 2006
Kip and Erica Copeland from Dothan, Alabama – December 2006
Jodi Caughron from Birmingham, Alabama in Amsterdam, Netherlands – March 2007
Michelle Kiel from Birmingham, Alabama – April 2007
Andrew’s parents from Birmingham, Alabama in Venice, Florence, and Rome, Italy – May and June 2007
Tommy Cotton and Adelle from Birmingham, Alabama – June 2007
Misty and Mark Sable from Houston, Texas – July 2007

Transport for London tube strikes: one (MISERABLE!)
September 2007

I just want to let everyone know how much we’ve appreciated everyone’s love, support, and understanding throughout the past year. Being here has been a truly amazing experience. Almost every day, as I’m riding the tube to work and walking past Temple Church and Dickens’s Essex Street and the Royal Courts of Justice, I still look around in awe, wondering how a little girl from Cullman, Alabama, ended up here. Andrew and I, while wandering together on one of our weekend trips or doing something really fun here in London, will still stop and say to one another, “What an amazing life we lead!” It’s still a little unbelievable to us that we’ve ended up here and are doing what we’re doing and seeing what we’re seeing.

I do hope that in the next year, many of you will come to London and experience it with us!

And on that note, our plans:

Trips: five on the agenda through the end of the year!
Birmingham, Alabama – October 2007 (just Kel, weekend)
Florence, Italy – October 2007 (weekend with Kel’s parents)
Amsterdam, Netherlands – October and November 2007 (Andrew for work every week)
Barcelona, Spain – November 2007 (Andrew, week for work; Kel, weekend)
Birmingham, Alabama – December 2007 (Merry Christmas!!)

Shows: three that we know of so far!The Woman in Black (play) - September 2007
Ray La Montagne (concert) - November 2007
Mary Poppins (musical) - November 2007

Cheers, y'all!

Our First Wedding Anniversary

2007-09-22T22:00:00.000+01:00

For our first anniversary, Andrew flew in from the States on Friday, and he managed to bring back both halves of the top tier of our wedding cake. Although slightly grossed out by the fact that the cake is an entire year old, he and I wanted to carry out the tradition. Our cake has been chilling out for the year in Andrew's brother Neal's freezer back in Birmingham. It just happened that Andrew was sent to training in Atlanta, Georgia, the week before our anniversary, so he was able to stop by Birmingham while he was in the States and pick it up. During his week of training, he had the Hilton keep in their freezer for him, and the day before he left to come back to London, he had them open it up, cut it in half, and wrap up each half separately. He put one on his checked baggage and the other in his carry-on in hopes that one would make it with all the restrictions. He had no trouble, however, and both pieces made it!

Once we found out that Bama wouldn't be kicking off until 12:45am our time, I went to lastminute.com and got us tickets to Fiddler on the Roof at the Savoy Theatre. Our seats ended up being third row center! The play was amazing.

Afterward, we came home and ate our year-old cake, which actually tasted okay, then we put on our jammies and stayed up to watch the game. Well, okay, I barely make it past kickoff before falling asleep, but Andrew woke me up when we tied, and I saw the overtime. So disappointing!

For our anniversary, we had decided not to get each other gifts, but to instead buy a TomTom satellite navigation system together so that we can use it to get around London and to rent the StreetCar for day trips! Andrew, however, went behind my back and got me "just a little something", which ended up being a brand new ipod nano! It's so cute; it looks like a little green frog, and I love it. For those of you who don't know, he got me an ipod for Christmas last year, but by the end of May, it had gotten swiped from my purse at some point riding the tube. I am much more careful with my stuff now, needless to say!

After one year, Andrew and I are still going strong. I love you, Andrew, and I couldn't be happier!

Some recent tidbits...

2007-09-21T22:54:00.000+01:00

Watching the Bama games

Andrew and I can’t get most of the Bama games over here, so we have to settle for watching them online. Now Andrew has bought the cables, and we can hook up our computer to play on the television. He also set up a Slingbox for us at his parent’s house in the States, so we can watch the games that are on TV in the States over here, as well. ROLL TIDE, BABY!

Belly-dancing, again

I don’t know what it is about me, but for some reason the belly-dancers at restaurants here in London like to call me out and make me dance. We went to Cous Cous Darma on Fulham Road with the Frasers, Kevin Mitchell, Lisa, and the Triefenbachs recently, and there was a belly-dancer there. She made me get up and dance twice, and Jeremy and Kevin got up and broke it down with her, as well!

Spook huntin’ with Katy

So Katy found this old abandoned hospital near her house, and she I went and checked it out. It was so cool: all boarded up, so we couldn’t see what was inside, but wandering around the site, we ran across another building that didn’t have fencing all around it. We were able to look in some of the windows and through the keyhole in the front. We discovered that, although the building is disused and boarded up, the electricity is on! Through the keyhole, all you can see is a long corridor with red carpeting, just like in a horror movie, and the lights were on! We’re convinced it’s being used for shady purposes. We also wandered over into Putney Green, where Katy and Jeremy ran across an old, overgrown cemetery.

Jeremy’s birthday

Jeremy is our oldest friend, and I don’t mean that we’ve known him the longest! Katy cooked a wonderful dinner and an amazing cake that was so moist and delicious! Unfortunately, it didn’t look as good as it tasted…

The great kitten hunt

After one of the recent bookclub meetings, Katy took me to a bad section of London without telling me where we were going or why. I thought we were going to a book store or something. We got lost, and Katy kept calling someone to get directions. Since it was starting to get a little late in the evening, and everything closes early on Sundays, I finally made Katy tell me where we were going. To pick out a kitten! When we arrived at this dark flat, we waited in a room with no lights but a television on. We were taken downstairs and directed into the dining room where there were kittens scattered all about underneath the table. Katy picked up the first one that came to her, while I crawled around and picked up the other seven kittens – all at one time. After choosing a new family member, Katy and I headed back to her house to introduce her to Katy’s husband Jeremy and Abby, the cat they already owned, who apparently had no idea they were getting a new kitten! I can attest that Jeremy was less than pleased initially, but who could resist this face for long?

Hever Castle

Our bookclub recently read Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl, and we took a day trip to Hever Castle, the Boleyn’s summer home. Unfortunately, the timing was bad, and the only ones of us who could go were Katy, Heather Sanger, and me. Because there were so few of us, Katy offered to drive, and it was really a nice, perfect day. We picnicked in the gardens and just enjoyed the crisp, autumn weather. It was really beautiful. The gardens were gorgeous! Grandma would have loved them…

These are some photos from the garden maze. Unfortunately, what we saw when we arrived at the center was kind of disappointing (as you can see...)!

These are some pictures of a doll house they had set up in the museum.

And this is the actual castle...

Andrew's travels

Finally, Andrew is rolling off the GM project. At first, he enjoyed getting to go to exotic, out-of-the-ordinary places like the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt, but after a while it really wore on us: on him being all alone out there and feeling like he was missing out on all the fun stuff (mentioned above), and on me, not getting to see the one person I really wanted to see! I think the GM project has been good for his career, and it did get us a relatively free trip Cairo, which has been one of my favorite trips so far, but I am so glad that he's finally coming home! Granted, he will still be travelling, as soon as he gets back, in fact, but he'll be heading back to Amsterdam to work on Tommy Hilfiger again. Amsterdam is only a 45-minute plane ride away, so he can leave out early Monday morning and gets back Thursday evening for the whole weekend. Also, I can easily go see him in Amsterdam on the weekend, on the company, without missing any work.

Singing at the piano bar

We love going to the piano bar at High Street Kensington. It's always so much fun!

This picture’s for you, Jeremy. When you’re out of town, Katy wears this sign to keep guys from hitting on her!

(The sign reads, "Reserved.")

Union agrees to end Tube strike

2007-09-05T10:22:00.000+01:00

[copied from the BBC]

Union leaders have agreed to end the crippling Tube strike which caused misery for commuters in London.

Officials accepted an offer, after peace talks with management, that has ended the current stoppage, which had been planned to last 72 hours.

Millions were left facing chaos after 2,300 Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) members walked out on Monday.

Although the strike has been suspended, commuters were warned there will still be delays on Wednesday morning.

Transport for London (TfL) said it had clarified assurances on jobs and pensions during nine hours of talks, which broke up at about 2300 BST on Tuesday.

The union said it was waiting for the outcome of a meeting with pension trustees on Wednesday but the strike would be suspended.

Union officials will meet again on Friday before deciding whether to press ahead with a second 72-hour strike next Monday.

A spokesman for TfL said: "We are pleased the RMT has suspended its strike action at Metronet following the clarification of all jobs and pensions issues.

"We will now work to provide the best possible Tube service on Wednesday.

"However as the strike was suspended so late this evening it will take time for us to restore a full service on all Underground lines tomorrow (Wednesday).

"Passengers should check before they travel to see how Tube services are running.

"Our staff will be available to provide travel advice and assistance on Wednesday."

The strike, sparked in the wake of the collapse of maintenance firm Metronet, had closed two-thirds of the Tube network and affected 10 lines.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the walkout as "wholly unjustifiable."

The union launched the strike amid fears jobs could be lost and pensions affected by Metronet's collapse.

Nine lines were shut by the walkout, which began at 1800 BST on Monday.

They are the Bakerloo, Central, Victoria, Circle, District, East London, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, and Waterloo & City.

The Piccadilly line has been suspended between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge.

Only the Jubilee and Northern lines are operating a full service.

They are maintained by another firm along with the Piccadilly line.

Tube strike causes travel chaos

2007-09-04T14:12:00.000+01:00

[copied from the BBC]

Millions of commuters in London faced rush-hour misery as Tube workers continued a 72-hour walkout over pensions and jobs.

The strike by the RMT union, in a row following the collapse of maintenance firm Metronet, has closed two-thirds of the Tube network and affected 10 lines.

London Underground managers said services may not return to normal before Friday morning.

Talks aimed at ending the strike will be held later, the RMT announced.

The 10 lines affected by the industrial walk out, which began at 1800 BST on Monday, are the Bakerloo, Central, Victoria, Circle, District, East London, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Waterloo & City and Piccadilly.

Only the Jubilee and Northern lines are operating a full service.

They are maintained by another firm along with the Piccadilly line, which is partly suspended due to the strike.

At Victoria station metal gates blocked the entrance to the Tube, and posters informed passengers that the Victoria, District and Circle lines were closed.

Severe disruption

Long queues built up at the stands and some people were forced to let two full buses go past before they could get a seat.

Adrian Wells, 57, an accountant from Sutton, Surrey, said: "I've had to get three trains and two buses this morning to get to work - it's ludicrous, I'm already tired.

"I'm not surprised at this strike - they're such a militant union, it's what you'd expect."

He added: "I suppose I might understand if they were doing this because something had been imposed on them but this is about taking pre-emptive action, which ultimately is mucking up people's lives across London."

Unions have been seeking guarantees there will be no job losses, forced transfers or cuts in pensions as a result of Metronet's collapse in July, when it went into administration.

A spokesman for Transport for London (TfL) said: "The disruption across the network last night was severe and totally unacceptable.

"We share Londoners' view that this disruption is intolerable, as it serves no purpose."

He added: "The RMT have been given cast iron guarantees that no staff will lose jobs, pensions or be transferred as a result of Metronet's collapse.

"The other unions have accepted these guarantees. The RMT have ignored them, harming Londoners and their union."

The strike went ahead despite appeals by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, who branded it one of the most "purposeless" ever called.

Two other unions, Unite and the TSSA, decided not to walk out after being given assurances.

But the TSSA said its 360 members would take part in a second 72-hour stoppage planned for next Monday if a matter concerning pensions was not resolved.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said he had received only "qualified assurances" covering the period of administration.

A TfL spokesman said all three Tube unions had received all the assurances they were seeking. TfL released a letter it sent to Mr Crow which outlines those promises.

Striking RMT members will lobby the Department for Transport on Tuesday as part of the union's campaign for Tube maintenance work to be brought back in house.

See pictures