January 2010 - cold and snow (boring)

Did I really just title my own blog "boring"? Oh well, it's true - January was a fairly tame and boring month, I mean when you compare it to my normal ultra exciting, jet-setter lifestyle. :)

James and I had a few outings with friends here and there, went to a friend's birthday party who had hired a sommelier for the evening - it was good fun and nice to try all the different wines. While we were there I met one of James' friends from uni who is now a bankruptcy lawyer and was telling us a story about how he had to repossess a woman's Arabian horses but had to bring the police b/c she had threatened to kill herself if the horses were taken. We heard from him later that she did slit her wrists when they took the horses and they are now arresting her on contempt of court - soulless! But also quite entertaining.

We also had lunch at a Peruvian place with friends one Sunday - it was interesting and very tasty. Another weekend we spent a day in Greenwich - all-you-can-eat curry, milkshakes, and the Greenwich market as always. But it never gets old! I love the Greenwich market, but the best bit is seeing friends of course.

There was loads of snow in January in the UK, but we didn't get any snow days this time, at least not if you loved in central London. Everyone who lived outside and has to commute in had about a week's worth of snow days b/c the British can handle snow about as well as the Floridians - basically everything grinds to a halt if there's an inch of snow on the ground. But central London barely saw any - and thus I had to trudge into work everyday.

The other exciting thing that happened in January was that I got the official word that I could stay in London indefinitely! I had been working with the two firms for a few months on either giving me an extension of another year or transferring me over to a permanent contract, and in the end they let me choose, so I decided to go permanent. It makes life a little simpler for me, and also allows me a bit more freedom as I won't be tied to GT under a contract after September. It was a hard decision to make though, b/c I feel like I'm abandoning my friends and especially my family back home. I had a big sob-fest about it a few days after the official word came through. It's very weird - feeling very happy and very sad about the same thing at the same time. My boss was very kind though and got me a "staying" present when he saw that it was hard for me - a set of Legos! Yes, I love Legos even though I should have grown out of them 15 years ago. I also had a staying do - just a small get together of work friends at a bar close to the office. Usually people have leaving dos when they leave their jobs, but I decided it was appropriate to have little celebration for my staying! That was actually in February, when Denisse was here again from KC! She comes in early February every year now, which is an awesome thing to look forward to in the middle of the winter blues after Christmas. We had a good, if not short visit with her and it was awesome to hear all the gossip on all the friends back in KC. I really miss everyone so much. Honestly, when is someone going to invent a teleporter?

Well that's about it for January and a little of February, more on that month in the next entry!

Love to all, xoxo

Heather

New Year's Eve and South Dakota!

After my harrowing trip to KC I was finally back with James! Ok, it had only been two weeks but it feels like two years when you're as crazy about someone as I am about James. I know, I am a mushy romantic, I can't help it. We had an amazing time in KC though, where he met almost all of my friends and it felt like we also gained about 8 lbs each b/c all we did was eat! I had planned a load of lunches and dinners in order to see everyone and it just wasn't kind to our waistlines.

Our first day in KC I hadn't planned much as I figured James would be jet-lagged, which he was. Either that or he was just using it as an excuse to sleep till his normal 1 pm. Either way, we just spent the day running a few errands that I needed to do in KC (like, for example, spending an hour strolling around Target. Ahhh...Target) while I drove the long way in between to show James all of my favourite spots around the city. We had Chipotle for lunch and it was superb and delicious. James loved it as well and still mentions it from time to time - he just did today when we were wondering what to have for lunch! That night was Monday Night Football and James, Myers, Young, and a couple of other guys all went to the ESPN sports bar on the plaza where I introduced James to fried pickles. We all made an effort to teach James the rules to the game and he was getting a few details, but as I've said before I never realised how complicated football was until I tried to explain it to a Brit! He will learn slowly, this fall we're planning to go to Ohio for an Ohio State football game so I will try to teach him before then!

The next day we accidentally slept in ridiculously late and got to lunch 30 minutes late with the girls from GT (well, none of us actually work at GT in KC anymore!). We ate a very large amount of Italian food at Brio, James accidentally ordered the dinner size portion of lasagna and it literally came in a serving dish - he had to turn it sideways just to fit it in front of him. Even with this massive meal though he managed to have burnt ends at Jack Stack that night with Rach, Ang, Jackie and their men. Even though Jack Stack is nice, once everyone got wind that this was James' first BBQ experience they couldn't stop going on about Oklahoma Joe's being the best place in town. I ended up taking him there on our last day in KC. He marveled at the line out the door, ate the Z-man (tried to order it as the "zed-man" and the man behind the counter looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language) and posted pictures of it on facebook he loved it so much!

But rewind a few days - Tuesday night after Jack Stack we all made our way to the Cashew for a few drinks, and loads of people from the GT KC office turned up to say hello! Of course Jenni, Meisel, and Jenn were there as well. It started snowing while we were in the Cashew and James ended up having to push me out of our parking space b/c the car was stuck! Fortunately we made it home safely before the roads got too terrible.

Wednesday afternoon I took James to the only touristy thing I could think of in KC - the war memorial near Union Station. Unfortunately the tower was closed due to "weather conditions" so we couldn't go to the top, but the view from just the base is pretty fantastic, so we kind of got what we had gone for. That evening we met my friend Kelly and her bf for Mexican food on SW Blvd, it was soooo good. We didn't get there until rather late though and were the last ones in the restaurant - we kind of had to rush b/c the wait staff were giving us the evil eye! Still didn't take away from the deliciousness of the food though.

The next day was NYE, and as I mentioned before, I took James for lunch at Oklahoma Joe's with Jenn and Myers. That evening we had dinner at place downtown called 1924 Main with Young and Ashley, Myers, and another couple. The dinner was fancy and very good! I had scallops in some creamy sauce with walnuts, but most of the rest had a delicious steak. After dinner we made our way to the piano bar in Westport, where we had purchased tickets in advance but we still had to wait in the queue for a bit and it was freezing! We finally made it in though and had a blast. James had never been to a piano bar before (I've never seen or heard of one in London), and he thought it was awesome! I also ran into a very old friend from KU named Zach at the bar, it was such a weird coincidence that we were both there!

After the evening of debauchery, James and I had to rise VERY early to catch a greyhound bus to Omaha. We were on our way to South Dakota for my friend and old roommate Heather's wedding, and found that it was cheaper to get the bus to Omaha then rent a car from there than it was to rent the car in KC and drop it off in Omaha. Weird. Anyway this was my first experience on a greyhound, and I wasn't let down by the reputation they get. Let's just say that our fellow passengers were, well, unique. But the service was very good and we even arrived a little early in Omaha. We had an uneventful drive to South Dakota after stopping in Omaha for McDonald's - hangover food. The woman at the cash register had to keep asking James to repeat himself when he ordered, and when I explained that he was from England, she said, "Oh, that's why I couldn't understand a word he said!" Poor James. Anyway we made it to South Dakota and the coldest temperatures that I have ever been in. It hovered around negative 19F (neg. 28C) the whole time we were there. It was so cold that you could feel your nose hairs freeze every time you breathed in! Even if all we had to go was one block, I would get in the car and drive.

That evening was the rehearsal dinner, and unfortunately was also the Rose Bowl, in which Ohio State was playing. I was able to watch the first half, but missed the second. Gladly, Ohio State won. The rehearsal dinner was delicious and I cried when Heather gave me my gift - I'm such a sap. It was just so good to see her! After the rehearsal dinner we went back to the hotel for a small reception, and I introduced James to Sandy and Cameron, some of Heather's friends from grad school. They really hit it off, which was good b/c James had someone to hang out with the next day while I was with the wedding party. I was very impressed with Sioux Falls - the wedding was beautiful! In between the ceremony and reception Sandy, Cameron, James and I all went to this dive bar on the edge of town that Sandy and Cameron had discovered a few nights before. It was awesome and had the dodgiest people, and we got 4 beers for 5 bucks - bargain!

James and I left for Omaha that evening as we had an early flight out the next morning (Omaha was the closest commercial airport to Sioux Falls), and we ended up driving through the worst snowstorm I've ever driven through. It was so scary and didn't let up the entire way. Eventually we made it safely, thank God, and I felt like I had just run a marathon - I had been so stressed and tense. My fingers were sore from gripping the wheel so tightly! I was glad that we had gone that night though b/c I bet they wouldn't have had the roads plowed enough for us to make it back in time for our flight if we had gone that morning. As it was the flight was right on time and we made it to Chicago just fine. We then connected from Chicago to New York, and from New York to London. Except the flight from Chicago was two hours late, and then took another two hours to get us our bags (we had booked the flights separately so had to collect and re-check our bags). So we missed our flight to London but thankfully were able to be put on the last flight out. The only downside was that we didn't get to sit together, but really I just slept the entire time anyway. So we made it to work a bit late (we had planned to land at 7 am and be on time for work), but all was well in the end. We'll just never fly American airlines again - they were the airline that had a two hour delayed flight, and then took another two hours to get the bags from the plane to the baggage claim, and when they finally got there James' bag was cracked on one side! Miserable service. Oh well, as I said all's well that ends well.

Oh also, there are pictures from all of our adventures in America on facebook, if you'd like to check them out.

Heather xoxo

December 2009

December was a superb month - mainly because three of the four weeks were spent on holiday. More importantly, work just happened to be at a stage where I could really get away and not have to think about it whilst on holiday. I didn't even bring my computer with me! It was amazing.

The first week of December was really spent slacking off at work and just waiting around for my holiday to start, and picking up a few presents for folks back home. Most of the buying I saved for home as: a) I wouldn't have to haul it across an ocean, and b) it would be cheaper in the States. By the way, I can't remember if I ever mentioned this one in my earlier translations, but "dear" = "expensive" in Britain.

I left London on 12 December, with the slightest feeling of dread about my upcoming traveling. In the next few weeks I was going to be crossing all of the Midwest in the dead of winter - that's just asking for snowstorms and delayed flights. I miraculously made it to Ohio without a hitch, and woke up to my sister's homemade sign on the bedroom door saying "Welcome Home Heather!" She's so thoughtful and precious. Also on the way home I saw Sarah Jessica Parker (actress from Sex and the City) - she had been on my flight from London to JFK! I didn't even realise until I was standing right next to her at the baggage claim, so cool! I arrived home late on a Saturday night, so the first thing we did was go to church the next morning, and after church we had lunch - at a Mexican place! It was sooooo good, I savoured every bite.

James went to New Zealand for Christmas, as his parents live there for 6 months of the year the family spends alternating Christmases in England and NZ. Life of luxury! He stopped to be with me in Kansas City for a week on his way back across the world, more on that trip later....

A few evenings later my entire family plus our exchange student from Austria, Clemens, went to a medical society dinner for my dad. It was all planned to have kids there as well, and they had rented three of those bouncy castles (indoors of course). By the end of the evening we were all in the castles, acting like kids. One of them was set up as an obstacle course where you could race another person, American Gladiators style, so my brothers and I kept racing each other. It was so much fun! And good exercise too. We went to the party with my dad's partner in his medical practice and his family, but before we went they came over a little early b/c his partner had bought a new pistol and he wanted to try it out with some target practice. My parents' house is perfect since they live on some acreage so it's not dangerous. So my dad got out his pistol as well and they both put on the headphones and stood out in the backyard having target practice. This may seem like a normal thing in America, but having lived in Britain for the last year I realised how shocked a Brit would be to see such a thing happening! I told James about it on Skype that evening and he was laughing - nervously.

Luckily, I got there just in time to see my sister's band/choir concert, and also her dance recital! This is her first year in band and choir, and she sounded great. Well, they sounded great I guess b/c I could hear only her. Her dance recital was great as always too, for her performance she was the only one who turned up! Fortunately they found another girl who knew the dance so she didn't have to do it by herself.

It was pretty low key at home for the first few days, I was good and went to work out 3-4 times a week. It's amazing how nice it is to work out when you actually have time to do it! My mom and I went to a few yoga classes too. My family also found this awesome new gym that had recently opened. They have this room that is full of games that keep you active - like dance dance revolution, the Wii, a climbing wall, etc. The best bit was this giant light-up board - one on the floor, one on the wall. There were different games you could play on these boards, for example, in dodgeball a ball of light bounces around the board and everyone has to avoid it. We went there a few times and stayed for hours without even noticing. Even my brothers liked it and they never like anything except video games!

It also snowed while I was at home, big fluffy flakes. My sister, dad and I spent the morning sledding, having snowball fights and building snowmen. So fun! Of course it mostly melted by the time Christmas rolled around, so we didn't have a white Christmas. But it was fun anyway.

My brother Matt arrived from Phoenix a few days before Christmas, and mom, Grandma and I went up to Columbus a few hours before to do some shopping! I went to all the stores I had been missing in London - J Crew, Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Victoria's Secret. Matt arrived right on time with his two little dogs - Dachshund and Chihuahua mix. They were so cute! At first they were quite scared of everyone else and just followed Matt everywhere, but by the time he left they were much more independent. Matt was the last of the kids to come home, and my mom was very pleased to have all of her chicks back in the nest.

Christmas itself was great - for Christmas eve we went up to my grandma's and had a massive meal with my aunt and uncles and cousin, and some friends of the family came over to catch up. My parents overdid themselves again and everyone got gobs of presents. My favourite present was from my grandma and was a framed picture of my great great grandparents. I also got a set of legos! I will admit that I still love legos and usually I just steal whatever legos my siblings get and build them first. But they are growing up and not asking for them anymore, so this was the first year that I actually got them myself again! It was a very grown up set though - a model of the Guggenheim museum in NYC.

A few days after Christmas the whole fam all went up to the zoo in Columbus. They always decorate the entire place with thousands of lights - it's amazing to see. It was below freezing though, so we would just hurry from one indoor exhibit to another.

I was to leave Ohio for KC on 27 December, but of course a horrible snowstorm was blowing through the Midwest and my flight was canceled. Apparently my flight was the only one that was canceled too. But then again if I had made it to Chicago (connecting city) I probably wouldn't have made it out. They did end up booking me on a later flight, but that one was canceled in the end as well. I ended up hitching a ride with my uncle, who randomly and very conveniently happened to be driving from Ohio to KC that very night. He works as a welder and the closest work he's been able to find in the last few months is all the way in KC, working on a new power plant. So we drove all night and I got to KC at about 4 am. James was already there of course, since he had come from NZ through LA he hadn't hit any of the snow. We were staying with my friend Matt Myers, who was so kind and picked him up at the airport and entertained him while I wasn't there. He took him to Taco Bell for dinner, of all places to introduce James to American cuisine. I was not pleased. :)

Ok this is getting to be a rather long entry to I will write about Kansas City and South Dakota in another one.

Lots of love to all,
Heather xoxo

Egypt

On 21 November James and I flew to Sharm el Sheikh for a week long holiday in Egypt. The British seem to think of going to Egypt a bit like Americans think of going to Florida, it's funny. Sharm el Sheikh is a beach town on the very tip of the Sinai peninsula, about six hours drive from Cairo. When booking our trip, I noticed that there were quite a lot of hotels, and I should have taken note b/c this town has to be the most touristy place I have ever stayed, save maybe South Padre Island for one of my spring breaks in college. In spite of the garishness of some of the city, we still made the most of it and had an amazing and very relaxing time.

We arrived on Saturday evening, and immediately were met with our first bartering opportunity. We had read and been warned by former travelers to Egypt that you have to barter for everything and anything in Egypt, even in places like pharmacies, and they were right! Bartering for a taxi from the airport was something we expected, and we ended up agreeing on 100 LE (Egyptian pounds). The exchange rate is about 10 to 1, and we thought that £10 was pretty cheap for a taxi anywhere, especially considering we're used to the exorbitant prices of London taxis. Later we got a taxi from the airport for 40 LE when we were in more of a bartering mood, so clearly we overpaid but it's all about perspective, right? Anyway we made it to the hotel, which was really a very lovely resort. There were two parts, one just on the beach, and another larger portion across a rather busy four lane road, called the "mountain side" of the resort. Sometimes there were men outside who would stop traffic to allow us to cross, but usually we just had to dodge traffic to get down to the beach. It wasn't really that bad though, I'm probably making it sound worse. Of course everyone at the resort spoke English, which was nice but we felt spoiled. Just another indication of how touristy Sharm is.

After checking out our cute and cozy hotel room and changing into some lighter clothes (yay!), we headed down to the promenade on the beach in search of an Egyptian meal. When we made it down to the promenade we realised just how touristy the place was. When walking down the path, one passes nothing but resort after resort, with their restaurants front and center. I was a little shocked, but on the plus side I always felt very safe, b/c they had loads of security for all the tourists. Most of the tourists were British, Italian and Russian, but there were a few from other countries as well. The staff at resorts could generally speak at least one of these languages, and sometimes all three, as well as Arabic of course! One of the nice things about the tourists from other nations is that James and I could play dumb to the endless men hocking excursions and meals to us and pretend we didn't understand English, or whatever language they were speaking to us.

We found a restaurant that served Arabic food, and settled down on the long, low cushioned seats to an Egyptian beer called, ironically, Stella. Not Stella Artois, this was a different Egyptian Stella. It was very good though! James and I ordered enough food for a king and queen as we hadn't really eaten since the morning, and certainly did not leave hungry. We had loads of hummus and lamb dishes. The dishes we ordered were smaller, about the size of an appetizer, and we just shared all of them. My favourite was minced lamb sort of spread across a thin pita with herbs and spices, and I would spread hummus across the top before eating it too. Delicious! We had also been warned by friends that we may get sick from the food, and were told never to drink the tap water, not even to brush our teeth. It felt very luxurious and slightly wrong to brush my teeth with bottled water. But I suppose it was worth it b/c we never did get sick during the week of our stay.

The next day, Sunday, was my birthday and James wanted me to indulge in whatever I wanted to do. Which was easy to fulfill b/c all I wanted to do was a whole lot of nothing. We just laid by the pool drinking beers and soaking in the sun all day. I had heard that the resort we were staying in had a Japanese restaurant, so we went there for dinner. We had sushi to start and teppanyaki for the main. I was so full by the end I thought was going to have James roll me back to our room. The restaurant was very empty, we were the only table having teppanyaki that night, and there was a very nice German couple sharing the meal with us. We had some good conversations with them, as James speaks fluent German and the wife of the other couple spoke fluent English. At one point our chef called me up to cook some of the vegetables for everyone, it was good fun! I tried to flip some of the veggies into James' mouth like the chef's often do, but I always missed. Our chef was actually Arabic, which was a bit odd, but he was very entertaining and made delicious food.

The next few days were more of the same - waking up just in time to get breakfast before it was taken away at 11 am, then laying by the pool/beach for hours till we got bored or the sun went down, then eating another delicious meal somewhere along the beach side promenade. It was such a relaxing time. With all this laying out you would think that James and I would have come back to London tan, but we are both very pale and slapped on the SPF 50 everyday. Shamefully, I barely even had a tan line. On one of these days we decided to walk up to "the strip", which I decided was aptly named after I laid eyes on the thing. It looked like the Vegas strip. Neon lights everywhere, and hockers every five steps. We had come to collect some presents for friends and family, which ended up being slightly stressful for me as we had to haggle for everything. But in the end I felt like we got a decent price for everything. I'm sure we could have done better, but it was a good price to me. I ended up with a silver scarab necklace for Megan, and some red coral necklaces from the Red Sea for my girlfriends.

Thursday (which was also Thanksgiving!) we went on an excursion to Cairo. This was one of those guided tours which at first I felt a bit lame about, but once I saw Cairo I was SO glad I had a guide with us. Cairo is one of the dirtiest, poorest cities I have ever seen. I knew it was Africa, but I was expecting a little more from Cairo. I mean they have had 2000+ years to develop the thing, after all. Seriously the ancient Egyptians must be turning in their graves if they could see the city. There was trash everywhere, and the sand had created a horrible film on all of the buildings. When we were on the bus on the way to the pyramids, we were driving along a canal with a horrible amount of rubbish on the banks, and at one point the rubbish got so thick it filled up the canal, you couldn't even see the water. It was nauseating. In Cairo I also figured out where all of the 80s and 90s cars go once we sell them - Africa. Also in the bus whilst on the highway, James and I had a good laugh when we saw one of those old small pickups with a cow tethered in the back. By the end of the ride we realised this was fairly commonplace, and not only with cows but goats and donkeys as well. Speaking of donkeys, we saw several people using donkeys as transport - I didn't think this had happened seriously since Jesus days. I mean I suppose it works, but can you imagine taking a donkey to work?!

To get to Cairo, we had to be at the front desk at 4:30 am, where we were picked up and after picking up a few more travelers, were taken to the airport. After the flight we boarded a bus in Cairo and our first stop was the Egyptian Museum. This was a fairly old school museum, where at times it looked like things had just been stacked in and hadn't been moved or cleaned since its opening in 1901, and it was odd and a bit sad to think that such rare and incredible artifacts were sometimes so haphazardly displayed. Other exhibits were breathtaking. My favourite was of course everything found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen. It was nothing short of amazing to see that famous mask with the gold and turquoise that I had seen so many times in books and magazines. There was so much stuff in his tomb, and so much gold! Our guide made the interesting point that if he was only a fairly minor, un-influential pharaoh, imagine what the tombs of the important pharaohs must have contained.

After the museum we had lunch at a buffet style place, then stopped at a "Papyrus Museum" which really turned out to be a glorified sales pitch. After a short 5 minute demonstration about how papyrus is made, they tried (in vain) to sell us some of these very cheesy paintings which had been done on the papyrus. Think pyramids in the glow of sunset and your name in hieroglyphics, those kinds of awesome paintings. Finally, we made it to the pyramids. They were unbelievable, but not surprisingly they looked pretty much like they do in photographs. I still felt rather in awe of them, and Thanksgiving was a good day to be there as I had a special appreciation for how blessed I was to be able to see these in my lifetime. We drove to several different locations around the pyramids for different photo ops, the last being right in front of the sphinx. An odd juxtaposition that we couldn't help laughing at was the Pizza Hut directly across the street from the sphinx. It was really all so amazing though and I highly recommend a trip if you ever have the chance. Our last stop of the day was another loooong and annoying sales pitch in a perfumery, where they tried to sell us some "special Egyptian essential oils" or some crap like that. After a sales pitch that lasted about 30 minutes, no one bought anything and we all headed straight for the bathroom to wash off all the smelly stuff they had rubbed all over us to sample. Despite the two disguised sales opportunities, the day was one of the best parts of our entire holiday, to me. Of course the best part was being with James for 7 straight days. It was wonderful, and when we got back to London I missed him so much the first time we were apart. Mushy I know, but I can't help it.

Thanksgiving night we tried to find Mexican since I knew we wouldn't find turkey and it is American like Indian food is to Britain, but couldn't find a restaurant. We went to Thai instead and I had the most awful representation of pad thai I've ever had. However, while sitting on the upper level of this restaurant, we had a good view of the strip and managed to spot a Mexican place! We went there the next night for our last dinner in Egypt, and it was surprisingly good, for Mexican food in Egypt.

We flew back Saturday evening and were welcomed with wind and rain for the next three days. We missed the sun very much. Although it hadn't been super hot there (high 70s every day, and zero humidity), it was still much better than the cold and rain. Ah well, it was a fantastic holiday and I can't wait for the next one!

xoxo,
Heather

PS - there are Egypt photos on facebook too, have a look!

November 2009

I am a bit late, I know. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would really only write once a month, the topic being the previous month. Clearly I have not been so timely with November. Not to say that I don't like writing this blog, I love it. So much in fact that every time I sit down to write an entry I tend to get carried away and two hours or more goes by before I'm done. Probably says something about my typing skills as well...

Anyway November was amazing. Work was good again as I wasn't doing audits, and it wasn't too busy so I actually was able to make it home before 7 pm on some nights. What a luxury this is when you aren't used to it! It's like back in the States when the end of busy season would come and you would spend your first Saturday at home, not working, when the past few month's worth had been spent in the office. I was able to catch up on so many things that I had been neglecting. And also yoga - hooray!

But first, Halloween! James and I went to one of his friend's (if you have noticed that I always say "his friends", it's b/c I still have very few in London. Beginning to feel like a bit of a social reject. Probably it's the accent) house party in what seemed like a very distant suburb of London after the train journey to get there. It was a costume party, and James and I procrastinated until Halloween day to get costumes. There was a line out the door of the costume shop when we got there! We tried to find things as quickly as possible since it was so crowded, so James settled on a Hannibal Lecter mask and chainsaw and I went for an alien. James would not let me be anything that wasn't "spooky Halloween", b/c in Britain they do not have as much fun with the holiday as we do in America, as I'm sure I mentioned in last year's entry. They do not understand why Americans dress up as things like ice skaters for Halloween and not just witches and goblins. Sigh...Halloween is so much more fun in the States. But the party itself was fun nonetheless, and it literally took us hours to get home b/c we left after the tube closed. Boo. There are pictures on facebook of Halloween if you'd like to look.

Just after I had written my last blog I started working for another department in the firm, and I was sent to San Francisco for a week on business! It was such a blessing, and not just the flying business class part. My dad's side of the family is mostly around the bay area, and I was able to see my grandma and one of my aunts and uncles. We had dinner at a Mexican place, of course (I had also had Mexican for lunch that day). And my grandma was very sweet and gave me an early birthday present of a fancy and beautiful tennis bracelet. Awesome!

Upon arrival in San Francisco, there was one thing I noticed which is distinctly lacking in Britain that I had not previously noticed. Toilet seat covers. I nearly audibly rejoiced when I entered a stall in a San Francisco airport bathroom and found the toilet seat covers tacked to the wall. Women everywhere will know why I feel this way. It is not nice to squat when you pee, nor is it nice to sit in someone else's urine which is covering the seat when you pee. In Britain I sometimes spend a stupid amount of time making my own cover out of toilet paper if I can be bothered. Hence, toilet seat covers are a lovely and much appreciated manifestation of American excess. Or perhaps it is just American convenience and resourcefulness. Either way, every time I walk into a stall in either America or Britain I am now usually aware of the presence or lack of toilet seat covers. Another random thing that I miss about America is Q-tips. The Q-tip brand, which I cannot find in Britain. The best they have there just doesn't cut it. It is a weird thing to notice, I know, but I am picky about how clean and dry my ears are, and Q-tips do the best job.

Speaking of American excess, when I walked into my giant hotel room I gave an appreciative sigh of recognition. Hotel rooms are generally much bigger in the States than in the UK, and I love it. Mine had a king-sized bed, a large desk, a sofa, and two TVs (yes two - so that if you were sitting on the sofa or the bed, which were on opposite sides of the room, you could have a TV in front of you), with of course the bathroom, all just for me. Brilliant. I admit the two TVs was pretty ridiculous though.

One more funny side note about the trip to SF - the building that we worked in was used for medical research, and the sign on the door that we walked through everyday read as follows: "Warning: This area contains one or more chemicals which are known by the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm." Awesome.

On the way back across the States I stopped in Ohio for a nice three day weekend with the family. It was very good to see them so unexpectedly and they managed to throw together my birthday in just a week (this is how much notice they had - I had two days notice, but any trip to the States is good news to me), and had a delicious home-cooked meal (as well as my fill of cheez-its!) and birthday cake and presents. My grandma had made her famous made-from-scratch noodles with chicken in her brand new kitchen. All summer she had been renovating her kitchen - torn down a wall and re-done everything new. It looks amazing, like something that was designed by a professional interior designer and that belongs in a magazine. There were a lot of candles on this cake - 28! I am now officially in my late twenties, but looking forward to the rest of life, it's been pretty swell so far. Especially now that James is in my life, it will be a fantastic adventure.

I was also able to meet Clemens, my family's foreign exchange student from Austria, while I was home. He's just a few months younger than David and very sweet and talkative. He fits in just perfectly with my family.

As I mentioned in my last entry James and I had a joint birthday party on the 14th, Top Gun theme. James' was the best costume, as he randomly had a proper flight suit and aviators. He looked smashing! I ended up wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, aviators, and dog tags and a pilot's hat I found at a costume shop (the same one with the queue out the door on Halloween, fortunately not so crowded this time). A few other people made the effort as well and did leather jackets or Top Gun t-shirts. We started with curry on Brick Lane just down the street from me, then moved on to drinks at a pub close by. The highlight of the night for me was when I got James to stand up on his chair and we all sang happy birthday to him. Afterwards we started chanting "speech, speech, speech", and one of his friends next to him whispered, "do the joke!". So James said, "What kind of bees produce milk? Boo-bies!" and sat down. Hilarious!! Obviously he had had quite a bit to drink at this point. It was a very fun evening and I spent most of the following day recovering from all of that fun. Pictures on facebook as well (not of the recovery, of the birthday party).

The following weekend we went to Egypt, and spent the final week of November soaking up the sun and doing a lot of nothing. But I will write more about the nothing that we did in the next entry...it has only taken me an hour and a half to write this time, but it is still late and I want to sleep. The Egypt entry will be soon though, I promise! Oh, and pictures are on facebook if you'd like to look.

Love to all and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Heather xoxo

September and October 2009

For the most part, September and October were quieter months both at work and at home, but it was very welcome. The horrible audit that I had been tortured with since March finally - somehow - ended, and I was able to return to the consulting work that I had done when I first arrived in London, and enjoy much more. Half of our consulting group left though - one on a four month sabbatical, and the other was made redundant ("fired" in 'American'), so now there are just two of us and the partner who heads the group.

The first weekend in September James and I went back to Harrogate (the smallish town in Yorkshire (Northern England) where he grew up) for one of his friends' birthdays. We stayed at a hotel that looked rather swanky from the outside but inside was boring and, well, not swanky. But it was fairly cheap, which was all we were going for really. We went up on the Saturday morning, had dinner with the friends at a new Chinese restaurant that had been built within the old royal baths, then went out to a few bars/clubs. The best bit about our hotel was that it ended up being super close to where we went out so we could stumble back at the end of the night. There are photos from the weekend on facebook if you're so inclined...

The next weekend we went back up north, this time to a town just outside of Manchester, for another of James' friends weddings. My first English wedding! I was keen to know what/if there were any differences, but it turns out not many really. Apparently it is quite the tradition in England for women to wear hats at weddings, but mostly it's the older women who wear the full-blown hat (think of a color-matches-the-outfit, maybe some feathers and flowers monstrosity), and the young-ish women wear head pieces, which really don't look any better. Let's just say I'm happy this is NOT a tradition in America.

The wedding parties are not as big as they are in the States, there are generally just the best man, 1-2 ushers, and 1-2 bridesmaids, including the 'chief bridesmaid'. I showed James a picture of one of my friends' American wedding parties and his eyes almost popped out of his head. The last thing that I noticed as different was that the people who give speeches at the reception is a bit different. At an English wedding, it is always the best man, the bride's father, and the groom. Nothing less, nothing more. And none of the girls get to give a speech, how lame! Other than those few things the whole thing seemed very similar, the ceremony was just like other ceremonies, the dress was similar, etc. Oh, but the men in the wedding party do wear morning suits, which have a longer jacket and top hats. Definitely not the same as the States. Also pics from the wedding on facebook...

The end of September was completely dominated by looking for a new flat. Our lease was up at the old place on 18 September, but we had til the 10th of October to find a new place and move. Dasha had decided to go traveling for a few months from November, so Andrea and I started to look for a place together. Finding a flat is so stressful in London! The market moves so quickly that places will literally go on and off the market in a day, and then flats are either in a nice neighbourhood but are not nice themselves, or vice versa. It's very frustrating. But, we finally ended up finding one in an area called Shoreditch in east London. It's a very different area than St. John's Wood as it's edgy and fun and - ok I'll admit it - a bit dodgy, but we love it. St John's Wood was nice and posh but very boring, and Shoreditch has loads of shops (that I can actually afford) and bars and restaurants. I really really like it. I live just off a street called Brick Lane which is kind of the mecca for curry houses, so James loves it as it's his favourite food. So far we've discovered vintage shops, a fantastic music store, a bowling alley (awesome!), and loads of little independent art galleries. My favourite has been this jewelry shop called @Work which only has collections from local artists and they are all AMAZING. I could have stayed in the store for hours. There are also several street markets around, including a big one on Sunday which actually isn't that cool - a lot of it looks like people literally just dumped out their rubbish bin on a sheet and are trying to peddle it. Crazy, although I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure, right? I have yet to consider someone's used shoes from Aldo treasure though.

We moved in on the 10th of October, so have been here about two weeks so far. It's been hectic though, trying to get settled, finding a new way to get to work and the closest grocery store and all that. But it's getting more comfortable by the day. My new room is very small, much smaller than the old place, but I let Andrea have the bigger room since he's in law school and needs a place for his desk and somewhere to shut himself away to study sometimes. But he did let me have some space in him closet for my off-season clothes (obviously a necessity for an American girl!), so it works out.

A few weekends ago James and I went to Oxford for lunch at his sister's to celebrate his mum's and his birthdays (they left last Thursday for their "summer home" in New Zealand and won't return til April). And they were so sweet - they had brought a present for me too! It was a lovely scarf. James and I got his mum a necklace from the place called @Work that I mentioned above, a little gold butterfly, it was so pretty I wanted it for myself! I think James' mum liked it though, so mission accomplished.

James and my birthdays are in November, nine days apart, so we have decided to do a joint bday party. The theme is going to be Top Gun and we're dressing the part (along with the guests), as much as we can at least. I wish I could throw a rope over the States and pull it next to Britain so all of you could come along! I've really been missing all of my friends in the States lately. :( Anyway James and I also planned a trip to Egypt for our birthdays, we'll be there a week in November when the weather should be about 80 all week! I'm so excited to get away for a little sun and sand in the middle of the dreary British winter. And Egypt sounds so exotic, it's one of those places I've only ever dreamed of going! To everyone here it's like going to Florida though...they're so jaded. Weirdly enough, I think going to Florida is slightly exotic to them. Not how I would describe it myself, but hey, to each his own.

Last week I participated in my very first pub quiz. This is a rather odd but quite fun British tradition in which a large group of people take a quiz...in a pub. The first time I witnessed this I had only been in London for a few weeks and I was very confused to say the least. The questions are usually general information like music and films and history, but can also be pictures or questions about the participants, or anything really. For this one there were ten rounds, and one of them was a picture of the States with arrows to ten of the states that we had to name - I was all over it! Was glad to make a contribution to my team b/c I'm still pretty rubbish at the British culture, and especially the British history. In the end, my team won! Probably just beginner's luck, but I'll take it.

Hmm...have noticed that this entry is really rather boring. Oh well, maybe that just means I'm really starting to settle in and become a sloth. :)

Love to all,
Heather

Photos from the Family Holiday

Hey all, I forgot to add some pictures from the trip that my family and I took in August, so here's a little selection...
The family on the streets of Rome - David had a broken arm and had chosen a bright pink cast - it is conspicuous throughout the photos

The family in the Pantheon, looking very American - guidebook out, McDonald's drinks in hand.

Megan very much enjoying the Vatican Museum

The family in front of - can you guess? - the Colosseum

Some flowers and some ruins - me trying to be arty with photography

The ruins of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius in the background

The kids at a Pompeiian fast food restaurant (no joke) right outside the baths

David and Megan exploring Pompeii - the roots show how deep it was buried for so long

In an ancient Pompeiian bakery - they're on one of the grindstones

Riomaggiore

Boats in the cove at Riomaggiore

Bored in the Heathrow baggage claim after the airline lost Dad's bag...for the second time

The family in Bath, as photographed by Meg. The boys are very excited at this point.

The Roman baths in Bath

Stonehenge