-: August 2008

Aug 26, 2008

Bank Holiday Weekend

A 3 day weekend and we stuck around London for once. Mainly, because we are off to Spain/Portugal shortly. We had an enjoyable time around here though.

Saturday - Nikki had met an American gal at the gym and her and her husband had us over for dinner and the Olympics on Saturday night. At the point of sounding sappy, I do miss Americans. Just sitting around and talking about whatever with Angie and Jack made us both think about home a lot. A fun, relaxing night and I am sure we will see more of them in the future.

Sunday - First off Richmond Park for a bike ride. Can't say either of us had been on a bike much in the last few years. Nikki had a short stint in May, that is about all I can say for our brief biking trip at her Mom's house in May. But Sunday was a lot of fun. The park is about 2 miles from work, but I felt like I was a million miles from London. Definitely something to do again in the future. Loved seeing the deer also.

After a couple hours of riding in the park, we went back home to clean up and then off to finally see one of Nikki's favorite DJs Jeff Mills. I was very happy that she got to see him and some other good sets after all these years. Honestly, I am not positive what she did to get on stage. We'll see how closely she is reading my ramblings. A decent night all around.

Almost sunrise over probably my most photographed monument here. I want to do a collage one day of all the pictures of the Clock Tower.

Monday - Notting Hill Carnival. I can't say either of us was raring to go to this, but we wanted to see it and had a craving for Jerk Chicken. The crowds were a little much and I can't say that we experienced much of it. We did some of the parade and caught a lot of the atmosphere. It was a good time but we were beat.

All in all a good weekend and more memories. Cards also took 2 of 3 from them Bravos.

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For Sale

Over a week between posts, must be slipping. But for all of you who would like more of me, I found a place where you can purchase me for a decent price and apparently have a New Zealand brunch also. Don't fret, a better weekend post in a minute.

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Aug 15, 2008

Rachel's Visit in March

Probably the biggest highlight of being here for us has been having the 5 friends and family come and stay. I think we both enjoy showing off 'our' new city to people and exploring new places with friends. We hope that we can do more of it when we return to the States.

Our first guest, Rachel (Nicole's sister), arrived the same morning we returned from NYC, where I picked up my Visa. I can't say we had everything sorted here when she arrived, not that we do now either, but we made do. She was a good sport about it all and we really had a great time during her 10 day trip here. I think we have subjected everyone to our brand of travel while they were here, we tend to be on the move a bunch. So Nicole showed Rachel around the sites for the better part of a week while we met up at night for other excursions.

The Friday she was here was the Good Friday Holiday. We decided to take a coach tour of the western part of the country. The weather was still very chilly and quite windy in several places. Our first stop was Windsor Castle, which happened to be closed for one of the two times it was for the year. Even though it was blustery and cold, the sun was shining. Then it was off to Stonehenge. Birds were having trouble flying into the wind at this site and it didn't take us all that long to make our way around the circle. Next it was out to Bath. I wish the tour would have had more time to explore the coast here, because the town had some nice charm to it. Plus the Roman Baths were amazing. All in all we really enjoyed our first coach tour and it was a very good value to boot.

The following morning, Saturday, we headed to Paris. We had been to Paris for I guess about 4 days before, so we knew the sites we wanted to show her, plus some that we missed the first time around. It was still chilly, but we really had a great time and enjoyed our couple days around the city. We even were able to participate in Midnight Easter mass in Notre Dame. Being one of the first buildings that inspired me to be an Architect, I was definitely in a good spirits hearing the choral songs in these caverns. Crepes were probably a big highlight on Rachel's list and Nicole even found our little Patisserie from our first trip. We had a blast.

We returned to London for a couple days before she left and managed to find a few odds and ends that she had not already seen . We know how much fun we all had and it was truly great to show someone around and have someone as great as Rachel be our first guest. Maybe next time the weather will be a bit more hospitable.

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Aug 14, 2008

a slow news day

Not much going on here this week, so I thought I would post a couple random sights. We have seen quite a few oddball type things here. Usually we don't have the camera to capture them. Sometimes that is good as in Nikki's case in seeing a topless woman walking down the sidewalk in Chelsea like nothing was going on. She said only one of our friends would have enjoyed it. I'll let him remain nameless, but he knows who he is (insert a Phares' double finger point here in his general direction). The Charlotte work crew will understand the Phares reference. Anyway, from time to time I will dig through some of the archives and post a couple of the more interesting pics. And yes, that is a cat on a leash on a train.

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Aug 11, 2008

The Beach and Plenty of Sand

The chilly rain on Saturday had me reflecting on one of our sunnier trips this year. Well, that and the fact that we are in the midst of planning our first week long trip of the year. I bet it may have a few beaches and warm weather in it.

When we realized we were headed back to Europe, one of the first things we said was "hey we get to go to Greece again". We really enjoyed our day on Santorini last fall. Our cruise through the Greek Isles was canceled and by the time I knew of its canceling, I had already arranged a surprise to the end of the trip for Nicole's birthday. So I scrambled a bit and found a beach resort outside of Athens for us. Vouliagmeni is a lovely, little seaside town with perfect beach access and several restaurants. We really enjoyed the tranquility of the place.

So the surprise portion of the trip was that I had arranged for a weekend trip to Cairo after the short stay at the resort. Cairo was definitely something to remember. I believe it made us even more sympathetic to certain situations in the world. The city was overcrowded, poor, run down, heavily polluted and quite hectic, but there were several bits of charm to the city and steeped in so much history. We took in the sights around the town such as Memphis, Sakkara, and Giza. The Egyptian Museum was also a huge highlight of our world travels. We thoroughly enjoyed this short trip and I believe it reminded to be thankful for our upbringing.

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News and Notes

A decent weekend. Almost late fall weather on Saturday, not sure if I am ready for round 2 of the cold stuff here, especially since it is August. So I guess London had about 2 weeks of summer. Ha. Seriously, most of time it is comfortable weather in August.

It was a Cards/Cubs weekend. I actually watched the 2 loses for my first tv games of the year. Good games to pick to watch. Nicole is a good patient partner. First, 3 hours at a just ok sports bar on Friday and then she had to deal with my expletives directed at Adam Kennedy at 3.00 AM Monday morning. Lost track of where I was at and the fact that she was asleep. Oops. Is it me or are Cubs fans extra obnoxious this year? I don't think it is their year to break the 100 year streak by the way I have noticed them play. I think their down turn is coming in September when they have to leave their Little League ballpark. Also, what was up with Ryan Dempster flicking his glove to disguise his pitches? Not sure I had ever seen that one. Enough of this soapbox.

Beside the ballgames, we entertained ourselves with the Olympics a bit. Funny, hearing it all from the UK perspective instead of US. We took in the Transport Museum, a good time. I must confess again how much I love the quality of museums here. Also a stroll through Covent Garden Market, crowded as always, but we managed to find some good trinkets for people.

All in all a good weekend. I think I really needed to vent about the Cubs for a bit. Good thing MLB has a long season.

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Aug 7, 2008

Hard to Post One w/o the Other

So what does a good uncle get a nephew while on a trip with his parents to Dublin? I can't say our (yes I am bringing Nikki down also) gifts to Dekan have been the most educational, but they are entertaining for a bit. Amanda said he didn't want to take the hat off for a trip to town one day. I probably would have had to let him wear it. See why I don't have kids? I guess I watched Big Daddy too much.

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Aug 6, 2008

Kaylie's Day

Happy 1st Kaylie! Last year we were in Venice, this year London. Maybe by next year we'll at least be stateside for your day. Looks like you enjoyed the cake.

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Aug 4, 2008

A year ago...

... we were starting to wind down our big trip to Europe. The cruise portion was coming to a close by entering Venice. The entry into the city and port was dramatically over the top. As you can tell, our ship towered over the squares and canals below. If that wasn't enough, the PA system played nice big anthems like the theme from Jurassic Park and the Ride of the Valkyries. We said it was the "tourists are coming", call to post songs. Little did we realize that we would be able to spend some more time in Europe so soon. More to come from that month long adventure some time in the future. I was just reminiscing for a bit, while it rained some more in London today.

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Aug 3, 2008

Mixed Bag of a Weekend

We try to get out a bit over the weekends here since the weather is fairly nice now and there is tons to do. Usually we hit a park, a market, a museum or just stroll through some neighborhoods. We decided to have varying experiences this weekend.

The first part was a brief excursion to Hyde Park to see the yearly Pavilion project at the Serpentine Gallery. This year's project was designed by Frank Gehry. I have now seen at least 5 of his projects in person and I have to say the use of wood reminded me of some of his earlier work that I enjoyed so much. London embraces architecture and the design community which is a pleasant environment to live in.

The second part was going to see Batman the Dark Knight. Not sure that I bubbled over as much as some of the reviews I have read, but it was a very enjoyable movie. It will be interesting to see what happens during award season with Heath Ledger. I will reserve my vote until I can see the rest of the year shape up. But overall the movie is definitely something to see.

The third part was a trip out to the O2 - Millennium Dome to catch some of the Red Bull Air Race. (Do a general web search for it in order to see some real pictures). I knew this event was going to overshadow other forms of racing I had seen, but this was incredible. It was almost a fantasy meet reality type moment. We could not believe some of the tricks and speeds that the planes were taking around the course.

The final part was to head up to Greenwich Observatory where the Prime Meridian Line occurs. This place is so steeped in history. All the sailors used to set their clocks and such by the big red ball that drops at 1.00. There is a decent Observatory here and museums related to time keeping and Maritime history.

We do realize that we are living a big dream this year. Really this was just a normal weekend for us. The real cool thing is that we only spent money on the movie. Its good to have such a fulfilling weekend at a good price.