Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Walk to work

Sometimes when I walk to work, stressed out about what lies ahead of me that day, I think to myself...just enjoy this, you walk past this every morning and you won't be able to sometime in the near future.







Not mention that I also pass arguably the oldest pub in London as well....

the Old Cheshire Cheese!






Sometimes it's good to be reminded that I live in an awesome city and work is just work. :D


Also, even though I don't have a picture of it, I also walk right past (da duh da!) DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON'S HOUSE WITH HIS CAT HODGE!!!

(if you don't know who that is...best to look him up in the dictionary ;) )

Monday, 28 November 2011

Why I'm not a Newcastle fan

After a lovely English thanksgiving m at one of our fellow expats' flat ak and I headed back home via tube, leftovers in tow. This is where AK met Gavin. A delightful chap of about 40 who thought AK was oh so cute. So cute in fact that he asked her to go out with him. That's when AK informed him that I was her husband (not just boyfriend as he had suspected). In a moment of embarrassment he began shouting

"Newcastle Newcastle Newcastle"

And that is why I am not a Newcastle fan.

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

Weekend in Windsor

One weekend, we woke up early and decided that it would be great to take a random day trip to Windsor. Unfortunately, we decided to clean our apartment first, so we didn't end up leaving until around noon, but i digress. We strolled out the apartment and a whole 6 minutes later were at Paddington, hopping on a train to Windsor! I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the city, but it is a charming city (if you can afford shopping on the high street). We now have annual passes to Windsor castle, so visitors beware!

When you arrive at the castle, the first thing you get is an audio guide and map. I must say that I sport them rather well.



We were there at the same time that the queen was so that was kind of cool. It was getting close to dinner time, and I thought it sort of rude of her not to invite us in for some mince meat pie. Alas. It's okay though because my lady's beauty made up for meeting the queen, although, I think she wishes I was royalty so that we could have loads of fine china.As we were strolling the grounds, we walked past this little sign.



I'm guessing this room is to deter kids might from asking their mums or pops why there was no water in the moat, but instead there was just a flower bed. I can appreciate how that might be confusing to a young boy dreaming of knighthood.


Also, what kind of trip to a castle would it be without a canon picture? So...here you go.


One of these days, I'll have to get a picture of AK blasting a canon, but she's just so attached to her camera!! (It's a Canon...dum dum tssh!)

Because we had a late start, we were getting shooed off the premises when it started getting dusky, but that didn't stop me from taking this dynamite shot!
Okay, so you might not have thought it was that cool, but I like it because it shows the Queen's flag and the lighting (in a non-pro-photographer's eyes) was pretty good. It's the best i can do.


As we were leaving, I noticed that there is actually a person that lives in the castle! How cool. You can see his mailbox, Christmas tree, and the outline of his door. I'm guessing it is the guard's quarters or something like that. Pretty awesome though to live in Windsor castle!

Even though it wasn't, I like to pretend that this was the guy leaving from the private house through his massive gated residence.


After exploring a bit of Windsor, we headed back to the Castle for an Evensong. It was pretty cool, although, there was one guy who was hitting way too high of notes for his size. Kind of awkward, but still very enjoyable.

We headed into town and went out to eat at a place recommended by Rick Steves (who else)! You may ask, how do you know it was recommended by the tour guide great? I'm glad you asked. They had a sign out front that said, "#1 recommended restaurant in Rick Steves". Despite the cheesy advertising, the food was quite delicious. We spoiled ourselves because we can, and got the full gammot: appetizers, wine, fish, soup, salad, and dessert.

We hopped on the train, took a short nap, and walked home from Paddington. What a great day!

Monday, 31 January 2011

Long Overdue

Well, I'll be the first to admit that this post is long overdue. Apologies to our faithful reader(s) out there.

A lot has happened since the last post, so we'll cover them off one by one starting with...Snow!!!

The week before we were to leave for Christmas, we got a massive amount of snow! 5 whole inches! Bostonians and Pennsylvanites, please don't scough. Britains aren't exactly great at snow though, so it managed to shut down the whole city, most notably Heathrow.
Here is the view down our street.
Right before it started snowing the hardest (about 3" in an hour), I decided to go for a run through Hyde Park. I saw a swan just standing on the Serpentine water since it was frozen through. I wish I had my camera. True to form, i got a bloody nose running. I don't understand how dumb my nose can be. So i popped into the princess diana cafe, grabbed some napkins and kept on. I was a man on a mission. I had to get to the theater to get tickets to.....
A-K and I got all fancied up and went to see the show. It was a great show, although not one to go to if you are hungry since the first full song goes..."Food, glorious food!" Ergo, i now say that everytime I want dinner. :)

This is me leaving our flat. Notice how just a few hours reduced the snow to minimal amounts:

We walked around Covent Garden before going to the theater, and could resist the "here i am in front of the theatre!" picture: A-K sports the picture well.

Once we got into the theatre, we walked into the atrium to see the Christmas decorations put up in the middle of the theater. Michael would have been pumped to see the massive Christmas Tree Marble run.

After a great show, we went to Regent Street right by Picadilly Circus. During the holidays, it was all lit up with Christmas lights. We strolled down the street to Cafe Concerto for some delicious cappucinos and perfiteroles. (i know that's spelled wrong, but it's my blog!) Here's a view of Regent Street.

Later that night, we met up with some friends to watch Love Actually (since we're in London). All in all, it was a fantastic snow day. I don't know why people don't like snow?!