Drama Queen

*SAM UPDATE*

Thanks to everyone who helped out with Sammy. I am really sorry for the dramatics last week, it was completely uncalled for and annoying. Your emails were all so appreciated thoguh! We have found him a home with a good friend that Sam already knows and loves, I mean really loves (as in D.J.-style loves). When this dude comes over there is full on howling and yelping, he gets so excited. Our friend has already asked several times when he can go get Sam, I’d say he landed well. 

 

Touristing with B.J.

Dave's coworker B.J. was visiting last week. So over the weekend, we took him around for the Amie-and-Dave-special-1-day London tour. Man, we were efficient but exhausted by the end. We took him to all our favs: Westminster (photo to the right), Borough Market, champers at the Lanesborough Hotel, and Hawksmoore for dinner. We also went to the famous Abbey Road (a bit of a letdown there) and over to super-poshy St. John's Wood to see a lot of inflated lips and plastic surgery. That area seemed sort of like the Orange County of London. I think we sufficiently tired ourselves out and went to be on Saturday night at like 10:30 - man we know how to party.

Richmond Park

On Sunday we took a foray into Richmond Park, which is a GIANT park a few miles away from our house. We had a picnic (thanks for the idea F.B.) and hiked around. Richmond is so cutesie-cute we ended up staying there for dinner too.

The walk to the park with the Thames in the background.

So good you get to see it twice.

Bell ringing at the Richmond church at 6:00pm, cool to watch these peeps.

Muswell Hill

Not having a TV has it's advantages, in that I am always on the search for things to do. Last night we saw a production of Muswell Hill in Richmond at the Orange Tree Theater. Tickets were cheap and Time Out gave them a good review. It was a "theater in the round", so the show is in the center of the theater instead of in the front (if you can visualize that from my crappy description). Overall, it was good stuff - note to self: see more theater!

Upcoming Travel - Belgium

I just booked a train trip to Belgium for us over Easter weekend. Dave will be staying for 2 days (he has to get to the U.S. afterwards) and I will be staying for 4 days. It was a bit more expensive that I would have liked, but that is what I get for not being on top of my bank holidays over here. Dammit! As I mentioned previously, booking early saves redic amounts of cash. In any case, we are going to Brussels and then I will be going on to Ghent and Bruges (please suggest other locations if you think somewhere else might be better, I haven't done much research). 

My cousin reminded me that my Grandfather served in the army in WWII over in Belgium, as well as France. I have the old photos he took he was while there, but they are in Palo Alto - crap. I may have to get a hold of those pictures and see of I can find the places he visited 60 . PLUS, his girlfriend Josie lived over there - as in not my Grandma. Family scandal! Well not really - we all just teased him about it, including my Grandma. I think they even visited her and her family a few times in Belgium.

BRIT Awards

This is the closest to the Grammy's as I will ever get. We randomly got tickets to the Brit Awards the other night, really Dave just bought them last minute on Ticketmaster for like £60. It was completely unexpected. We had uber nose-bleed seats, but whatever. The show was a live broadcast with live performances by Coldplay, Adele, Florence and the Machine, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Olly Murs (who?), Ed Sheeran, Noel Gallagher, and Blur. Well I am pretty SURE Rihanna was lip-syncing, but whatever. You can see the acts here:

Brit Awards - Which Performance Sucked The Least

Look at me doing the Jill pose.

Coldplay and pyrotechnics.

No Light - my favorite song Florence. How did you know?

Coolness, even from our nose-bleed seats.

Adele!!!!!!!!!

Rihanna.

These peeps also have a weird obsession with Ed Sheeran that I just don't understand. OMG and Rihanna is like a goddess here, much bigger than in the U.S. She is everywhere. It is funny though, the popular songs here aren't necessarily the popular ones in the U.S. - as demonstrated by Snow Patrol at the concert we went to last week. The whole audience would sing along with songs that I had NEVER heard before.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE FLORENCE WELCH - let me make that clear. She is amazing. As we got home, I was inspired to see if we could get tickets for her current tour. Not so much...... But even better, the next morning we discovered they were starting sales for Snow Patrol/Florence and the Machine in DUBLIN in July. We got two tickets, hell yeah!

Reality Check - Break Out the World's Smallest Violin for Us

We had a bit of an upsetting weekend on several fronts. 

The blog perpetuates the idea that all is PERFECT in London and we are blissfully happy without a care in the world. While, I realize we are REALLY LUCKY AND FORTUNATE and living in another country is something not a lot of people will get to do, things are never perfect with any situation. There is definitely some loneliness and isolation here, and pressure on our marriage because we are together a lot. 

But I prefer to talk about the fun stuff on the blog. So this depressing streak here is not indicative of future writing, not to worry......

Weekend Cancellation

We had to cancel our relaxing (super discount) weekend at the Four Seasons in Hampshire. Dave was all stressed out on Friday, and with an afternoon of endless conference calls, he couldn't leave to take the train we were hoping to get. Then had an 8:00am meeting on Monday scheduled - that he had to attend. This meant a late departure from London to get to the hotel on Friday and a very early return on Monday morning (like on the train at 6:30am). Given that these meetings and calls were going to make him crazy and stressed out all weekend and would shorten our "relaxing" weekend, we cancelled. 

I was actually really bummed out. I work from home, part-time so our weekends mean lots of fun stuff and actual social interaction. Oh well, such is life.

Sick

The weather changes, travel, new virus exposure in the pool locker room where I change with 100 5-year-olds, etc. means that I caught a nasty cold. I also have a minor infection on my face, which I was putting salve on ALL the time. It turns out that is exactly what you aren't supposed to do. Now I am hideous with flaking skin since it is drying out. No photos necessary......

Then, Dave was feeling bad yesterday evening. At about 5:00pm, he sprinted into the bathroom and evacuated everything he had in his stomach - I mean everything. That bastard never gets sick so this was a big deal. Our flat is so small that I went to a movie to escape the madness - I am not a total byotch, I got him chicken soup and sprite before I left......really there was nothing I could do at that point.

Next Travel

We tried to schedule a weekend away last minute for next weekend. Yeah, so bad idea. Unless you book in advance, forget it. I just cannot stomach paying $400 for a ticket to Berlin that 4 weeks ago would have been $40. Even tickets to Brighton were $80 each, for a 2 hour train ride to the coast. Depressing.

Sam 

Sam is in need of a new home. This is a bit more shattering for me than it should be, really I am an awful mess (poor Dave doesn't know what to do with me). I know we will figure something out, but I keep thinking that my abandonment of Sam is a reflection on my condition as a human being. What kind of person leaves something they love who has only loved them? I think some of the ridiculous amounts of guilt I am feeling have to do with my own feelings of being abandoned when my father died when I was young. Or, perhaps I am just a moody, unstable, over-emotional, narcissistic, generally crazy person, yup - it is probably that.

Things will be OK in the end. If things are not OK, then it isn't the end.

Sorry, a cheesy quote from a movie I saw last night but it made me feel better. After all - we rescheduled the Four Seasons weekend in March, Dave is no longer destroying the bathroom with his bodily excavations and went to work today, there will be plenty of chances to travel, and we WILL find a solution for Sam.

(Please message or email me if you know of anyone looking for a mellow, old beagle.)

Breakthrough!

It has happened without me realizing it. I had my German breakthrough. I was on the Tube and the woman next to me was reading a German magazine - not the one there on the right (I just like that picture) but something similar. Anyway, I could read the headlines and actually understand what they said. WOW! That is just what I needed to keep going, because my Deutsch class is hard and makes me feel like an ass.

Let's not get too excited here. I still sound like a 5 year old when I try to read and pronounce most words. I also take 5 years to do my homework because I have to look up every other word in each activity, but hey - at least reading a headline on the Tube is something.

I am listening to German radio right now to work on my pronunciation, but that is tough. Anyone who has been to Oktoberfest knows of the Deutschländer's strange taste in music, Dirty Dancing soundtrack anyone? I think I will be switching to a news station instead.

Lesson to take away, teach your kids a foreign language when they are young so they don't have to blast odd German music through the house while cleaning. I am probably freaking out my neighbors.

And - my FAVORITE German song. I heard it in Austria over X-mas and still cannot get it out of my head.......Mickie Krause - Schatzi schenk mir ein Foto - in all it's glory: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFd9wSSopp0

Food Porn and Other Nonsense

I have been really surprised by the quality and variety of food over here. Sure the food at most pubs is universally bad (they are almost all chains now - SAD), but overall we have been eating very well. Additionally, eating out is cheaper for us here because the wine mark-up isn't insanely/stupidly high. To the left is the pho I had for lunch for the total sum of £5, awwwww yeah. Perfect on a cold, dreary London day. Even better, the restaurant has Sriracha so I can make sure my pho is appropriately spicy. After all - it isn't real pho unless my nose is running and eyes are watering. 


For more good food over the weekend, we went back to the Spitalfields/Shoreditch area. We were actually TRYING and find shoes for Dave. He is the pickiest effing person you have ever met when it comes to all things fashion. We never did find him shoes, but the surrounding markets were surprisingly uncrowded - probably because it was effing freezing...... Instead of shoes, we wandered over to the street-food area and I managed to find some amazing vegetarian Ethiopian fare (who knew chickpeas could taste sooooooo good) and A SEAT, look at me sitting there and freezing instead of standing and freezing! I am almost going to be a little sad when summer rolls around again and all my favorite winter haunts become scary-crowded again.




Speaking of crowded, I went to the National Portrait Gallery today. It is the mid-term school break over here, and London is crawling with tourists - mostly families with kids. Thus, it was a bit crazy at the museums. OK who makes a 6 to 12 year old go to a PORTRAIT GALLERY!!!!!!!! That is just mean. There were so many poor, bored, whining kiddos walking around with their parents. For god's sake - just let them go climb on the giant lion statues in Trafalgar Square, while you have a beer at the pub. I think everyone would be happier that way. Extra points for the parents in the gallery that brought tissue paper and tape and their two girls made 1500's-style paper dresses and modeled nest to the portraits. That is awesome parenting! I'd have taken a picture of them, but that may have been deemed perverted or something, I never know about that stuff.

  

Also, I got accepted to be a volunteer once a week at the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home - assuming my references say nice things about me (this means you DJ and FB:)). YAYYYYYY, this was no small feat actually. Everyone volunteers over here, so there is a lot of competition to volunteer at places that are cool, do good work, and are well organized. I promise I won't go home with a dog......I hope.

Project Bucket List(s)

Well we have been here in London for 7.5 months and have been to a total of nine countries. No too bad, but we are going to have to get to work to meet our rather ambitious goal of 24 countries in 24 months - yikes. We only have 16.5 months left (which seems painfully short), so time to get to work planning some trips. Time will fly by before we know it.

In the spirit of pulling together our travel priorities, Dave and I each prepared independent Bucket Lists for our remaining time here. I didn't look at his list. I am writing my list here and will have him post his after mine so there is no cheating. We tried to come up with rules, but we just ended up arguing over it. So rules are: there are no rules.

Please offer suggestions if you have a must-see destination in mind. Also, we are posting this in case anyone wants to join us for trips in the future. Just send me an email or comment below and I will make sure to include you in our trip planning!

In no specific order, here is my Not-So-Top-Ten list, which I absolutely reserve the right to change with each new Times Sunday travel section that I read:

- Split and the greater Dalmatian coastline

- Istanbul

- Surfing in northern Spain

- Andorra/Pyrenees trip (preferably hiking or biking)

- Bike trip through Slovakia or something Eastern-Europeany like that (http://www.topbicycle.com/BicycleToursCR.htm)

- Atlas Mountains Hike (http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/XMXM#itinerary)

- Wales, maybe Snowdonia National Park

- Prague

- Barcelona

- Skiing in Zermatt - assuming the Swiss Franc weakens a touch, ouchie

Here is Dave's list:

 

- Palio - Festival in Sienna Italy (http://www.thesienapalio.com/)

- El Camino de Santiago, two weeks biking across Spain.

- Iceland (Northern Lights, Dog Sledding, etc.)

- Hike into the Sahara from Marrakesh Morocco

- Croatia, beach and adventure weekend

- Somewhere in the Middle East, United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain or Abu Dhabi

- Egypt (Luxor, the pyramids, and the Nile......Israel or Jordan would also be nice if we made it a longer trip)

- Nordics: Norway, Finland, or Sweden - Winter or Summer - Skiing or hiking?

- Russia: Moscow and/or St. Petersburg

- Swim in the Black Sea (Odessa, Varna or Istanbul)

As mentioned previously, we are going to the Four Seasons Hampshire for a little R&R next weekend. Eff yeah! It is OK to hate me a little - just remember I live in a dumpy one bedroom apartment with peeling paint, we have no car, and I cannot buy clothes or shoes because there is nowhere to put them. I am a little jealous of myself actually, except for the fact that the hotel is in the middle of nowhere and it will be freezing - hence the super cheap room rate of $160 per night. I'm sure we will figure out *something* to do, there are three bars and a spa after all. Plus, I bought the second and third Hunger Games books, I know they are considered Young Adult literature......but whatever.

And if anyone is considering ever seeing Snow Patrol in concert - DO IT! We went last night at the O2 Arena and it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. What nice Irish boys! They thanked mom and dad in the audience, got all the stodgy Brits up and dancing (they are a surprisingly subdued concert-going crowd), and generally rocked the house. We saw the Black Keys on Friday and there was just no comparison, sorry - I know we have a lot of die-hard Black Keys fans as friends.

Well more later, time to study some German...... Auf Wiedersehen.

Taming the Hydrangea

Well, I did it. I finally trimmed the sad, diseased hydrangea in our "back yard" - which is not much more than a bit of dirt and some tile. We did a whole replanting of the garden area a few months back. It has worked out nicely. I lost some lavender this winter, but otherwise all the herbs and plants are doing really well. 

Here is what the garden used to look like, basically an overgrown nightmare. This took some work to clean up for sure.

I went to go take a picture of what it looks like now, but it is too dark...... I know, what a terrible lead in, "I cleaned up the garden and it looks great, if only you could see it". Wow, I suck. I will take photos and post since I know all five readers out there are just dying to see my replanted masterpiece.

Well the Mister comes home tomorrow. I am enjoying my last hours of aloneness. My big dilemma is whether to see Young Adult (starring the incredibly lovely and talented Charlize Theron) or go to bed early and read more Hunger Games. My life is soooooo complicated. I'm sure you are all feeling sorry for me now. Oh I also had my Battersea Dogs and Cats Home tour/interview/informational meeting. There are like 45 people for 28 positions and they had over 100 applicants. Wish me luck!

Joys of Jetlag

I don't handle jetlag well. I just feel like I have to vomit, most of the time. Then there is my sleep schedule - I am wide awake and hot at 3:00am and dead tired at 10:00am. Yuck. Dave stayed in the U.S. this week so I am left to fend for myself. Which isn't so bad, I get to eat at healthy vegetarian restaurants, read a lot, sit in the sauna at the gym for hours, and I don't drink much without my drinking partner in crime (wait - is that good or bad??). 

Actually the best part of Dave being gone, is sleeping. And don't think I am a bad wife and don't miss the hubby, I'm sure Dave is sleeping like a champ at his hotel in Palo Alto all by himself - and loving every minute. Anyway, the best thing is that I get the whole bed to myself, not that this is saying much. We have a double bed, not even a queen, just a double. This is pretty common here in Europe after all, where everything is so much smaller in general; cars, rooms, apartments, my refrigerator (I have a dorm fridge), my washing machine, etc....... While my love is gone, I generally sleep right in the middle of the bed under our giant, fluffy down comforters - yeah all of them. It is all very Princess and the Pea. I bet someone walking into the room wouldn't even see me cocooned inside all those comforters. Divine! 

 

Mmmmmm fluffiness.

Plus I am reading Hunger Games, and I cannot put it down. It is such a fun book, I highly recommend it for an easy vacation read, it isn't Goethe for sure. I wanted to read this book before the movie comes out in a few weeks here in London. I hate seeing the movie before reading the book.

I also started up German again. Man that stuff is hard and not getting easier. We are being introduced to the past tense (perfekt tense in German). Here are the FIVE PAGES of instruction on how to conjugate a verb in the past tense, yes five......

 

Five pages just to lean to say "I went".

This weekend Dave is home and we are going to see Snow Patrol and the Black Keys, plus lots of other nonsense and shenanigans, I'm sure. Next weekend we are going to the Four Seasons in Hampshire or to Eastbourne on the coast down in Sussex for some downtime. The Four Seasons has a buy 2 nights get 1 free special so it is less than $200 a night to stay there. Eff yeah!

Jess and Andy, this is for you from my German book!

 

 

Illinois in January - Don't Do It

Well it was cold, and cold.

Visiting a small town in the Midwest in January can be an exercise in frustration if you are someone like me - who cannot sit still for 5 freaking minutes. Maybe I need Valium for my next visit, or maybe I should just drink more. It was too cold to run for a few of the days I was there, furthering my can't-sit-stillness. The local pool has ridiculously limited hours, no wonder no one works out. I woke up at 6:15 to get in a swim one day - and promptly went home and got back in bed......

We did make it to the Grundy County Museum and Echo Lanes for a little bowling (it was the girls high school area championships, we would have taken photos but Dave is already sort of pervy so taking pictures of high school girls is probably not a good idea). We also saw Descendants with my momma. Oh man, I am going to Hawaii for at least 3 months when I get back from this Euro adventure.


Overall it was great to see the fam and my sweet little niece. I got to walk my sister's doggies to, but man it was stinking cold.

So back to the Bay Area, 60+ degree weather, lots of hiking and running, and friends. Not too bad, but I am feeling the need to plan the next trip. Bologna, Prague, Innsbruck (more skiing), and Brussels are all on the short list.