Seconds of guilt

Brussels to Paris today.  Met some great people in both offices.

Tonight I strolled around Paris past the Louvre.   This being Paris, I ran into a Buscotheque filled with Halloween partiers.  

                                                    

                                                           I just liked this display window advertising high end jewelry (Cartier, I think).

I feel a bit guilty posting this when I know my friends and family just battled Hurricane Sandy.  Everyone is safe and we had minimal damage.  OK, I feel better saying that.  I'm going to go back to being in Paris.  xxxooo

No Nooks

I know that historically british food has gotten a bad rap.  Of course, in this age of celebrity chefs and haute cuisine, there are more delicious food options here than ever before.  And I'm happy to go on record as really liking traditional British food - the Sunday roasts, fish & chips, sausages, black pudding and even haggis!   What is better than a ploughman's lunch with cheddar and "pickle"?  You'll note that everything I've listed is pretty heavy fare -- I have no idea how people eat healthy here.  You can almost never get a salad as a meal and everything comes with chips(fries).

And yet, I still find a trip to the grocery store to be a challenge.  There are fewer brands and choices here than at home which I expected.   There are basically 2 sugary cereals for Bill at our Waitrose - Frosted Flakes and their equivalent of Honey Smacks.   I have seen Lucky Charms but that was at a novelty candy store (along with Fluff)!   They also only have 2 or 3 different brands of baked beans but they all come in tomato sauce.  I'll bet you haven't thought much about what kind of sauce your beans come in.  I love baked beans but at home they come in bean sauce.  Why is a tomato flavor being introduced to a can of baked beans??  It's not right.

Americans also do the English Muffin better than the English do.  When Thomas' created nooks & crannies, he didn't do it here.  The muffins here are just little round disks of bread.  They taste fine when toasted but they don't have the same crunch as a muffin at home.  

The British also still haven't caught on to window screens and shower curtains - two perfectly good inventions that have been needlessly ignored.   

London Weekend Day 2 - Markets and Hats

Seems like every little London neighborhood has it's own Sunday market.  Columbia Road has a flower market down the middle of the street leaving two narrow little corridors of sidewalk to go into the shops.  The shops are all independent little boutiques that are quite fun so it's worth squeezing your way through the crowd to check them out.  We really really really wish we could justify spending a few thousand pound on this little gem.  Wouldn't that look great over the TV in the living room??  

 Everyone was buying up gorgeous inexpensive flowers and plants but I had to restrain myself since I knew anything I bought would expire before I could get it home.  We did manage to get some nonperishable goodies at the shops and stop for a cuppa in a little cafe behind the stalls.

 One of my purchases of the day - a new hat!  I can't let Bill have all the headgear in the house.  I don't have a picture of the Spitalfields Market (which we need to go back to soon - too much to see and too little time) or the IMAX theater where we saw Skyfall.  The BFI (British Film Institute) has the biggest screen in London (according to the announcer before the movie) and James Bond was suited to the larger than life effect.  They showed a preview for The Hobbit (pass) and the new movie version of Les Mis which had me singing along with Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe.  That's definitely on my To See list - without Bill I suspect.  Anyone want to come to London to go to the movies with me?  Be warned that I will be quietly singing along.  "Red, the blood of angry men....Black, my world if she's not there...."

London Weekend Part 1

We might have finally found a decent pizza.  It's no Pizza Factory or Nicks but it was good.  We found it on Portobello Road for lunch on Saturday.  The market wasn't quite as packed as previous weekends but still busy enough that we could only take a few hours before wanting to escape.

 We escaped to The Elgin on Ladbrook Grove.  This picture has two elements - the nice stained glass wall and the guy at the bar.  This guy looked so British circa 1970's - longish uncombed hair that covered the collar of his lime green corduroy jacket which was worn over a green cotton turtleneck. Could this have been a Halloween costume?

 Next stop - the Victoria & Albert museum.   This is the kind of place where you go back over and over to take it in in small chunks.  Today's chunk was a photo exhibit and the cafe.  I suspect every visit will include the cafe where I had a yummy scone and we sat in opulence to sip tea.

 No day would be complete without a stroll in the park (Bill's cigar time).  This is the gate to Hyde Park. 

 We ended our day in SoHo at a tiny little restaurant in an alley.  Their whole menu was different types of meat and cheese  - all of it delicious and surprisingly filling.  We were lucky we got there when we did because the few tables filled up fast and they started to close before 10:00.  When we left the waitress ran after us with a little bag of desserts that we didn't order but I guess they didn't want to throw away.

Favorite line of the day was Bill commenting on the aroma in the tube:  "Someone has a bad vegetable".

So Happy to be Out of the House!

As blog followers know - we had a quiet week due to Bill's nasty American cold.  I went back to a year ago in the blog and found that he was sick on these exact same days in 2011.  I guess we know what we have to look forward to on October 22 - 26, 2013.

Fortunately he is feeling better in time for the weekend which we kicked off with fish and chips at the pub.  It wasn't the best fish & chips ever but I was very happy to be out among the English. 

Our plan for the weekend - London!  

Also we finally added a gadget so that you can get email updates when we post - check out the side bar.  I also finally got rid of that joke list about our popular posts and I'm trying a list about what Bill and I are reading, watching etc.  We'll see if we can keep that interesting....

A terrible mistake

Jennie made the mistake of going to a discount store to buy some Eton Mess.

Feeling Tom and Dick

Little did Bill know that the special family time he was enjoying would be violated with angry little germs that traveled back to England with him.

The title of the blog is a cockney phrase for "sick".  I think I understand Ubby-Dubby more than I understand cockney.  They say a cockney phrase for face is boat race and a cockney phrase for feet is plates (feet = plates of meat = plates).  I think the whole language is a bit David Blaine, myself.  (extra credit if you know what that means)

Bill is Sick

Hi Everyone...unfortunately Bill picked up a bad cold on his trip home and so this has been a very quiet week which doesn't make for a good blog post.  So I'm going to have to go back to the archives. What were we doing 4 years ago in October??  We were having a football picnic!  For those of you who attended - here is a blast from the past.

The players:

The audience:

Was this the last time I saw Sue?!!?  Sue - come to Eton!  

Meanwhile, Liam still looks looked like a little kid back then.   Stacey and Whitney are as gorgeous as ever.  Henry looks pretty good in a fro - he might want to consider doing a Mike Brady perm some time?

The MVP Award Winner - Tres!!

 This might be my favorite - Bill being goofy and Julia not buying his rubbish.

2008 was a good year.  

Heid!! (name the movie)

Monday - back at work...boring!!  So here are pictures from the weekend.  Dunfermline vs Morton.  We were rooting for Dunfermline since it's managed by Andrea's friend Jim, but the game was a draw (2-2). Seems strange that huge sections of seats were empty when everyone here seems to live and die by football.    It was a beautiful day for it and the game was pretty exciting.  My favorite part is when the fans sing taunting songs although I can't understand a word they are saying.

 Andrea and I decided to go out for a real Scottish dinner since we'd done Moroccan and Mexican the nights before.  I had haggis with neeps and tatties as an app followed by venison for dinner.  Dee-lish!

You know you're in a Scottish restaurant when the sign says "Mind yer heid".

Back to England

I had a great weekend with the boys and Mom.

Bret, Joey and I had a nice talk on the porch to finish out the weekend.  I miss hanging with my boys.  

The first time I said goodbye to the family it was hard, but the fact that I was going on some big adventure distracted me.  This time it just feels harder some how.

Mom and I cried when she left tonight.... I've become a Momma's boy.

That being said, I can't wait to see Jennie tomorrow.  This traveling separately is getting old.

Two Days in Edinburgh

Thursday:  This is the back of Andrea's building.  She lives in Dean Village overlooking the river Leith.  The river is high so there is a constant sound of running water - it's a constant subliminal message to pee.  

This is the front door into her building - her window is there on the left. She is actually on the first floor (which in the US is the second floor) and you go over a little bridge to get to the building.  Very cute!

In the morning (before I had to start work) we took a stroll and found the beautiful Dean Cemetery.  I just googled it to see if there were any famous people buried there but none of the notables rang a bell.  We did find one really great monument to an explorer who was shipwrecked in the North West passage as part of the Franklin Expedition.  He survived for 2 years before dying in the Arctic.  A search party eventually brought his body back to Scotland.

I liked this one too.  I have no idea what the story is behind it but was impressed by the way the stone book looks like its burning...of course, who wants a burning book on their grave??

Dinner with Andrea's friend Lynn (left) at a funny little Moroccan (?) restaurant that was full of little nooks and alcoves. After plenty of good food and drinks, our night ended with this carafe of hibiscus water and the bill came in a box with penny candy.  

Friday:  A day of shopping and museums and shopping and eating and shopping.  Edinburgh is beautiful even with grey skies.

 Andrea and I took a quick trip around the art museum and then started up the steps to the Royal Mile.

My first trip to Holyrood House and the Abbey.  My pictures didn't do it justice.  Tomorrow more shopping and a football game at Dunfermline!  It's hard to compete with The Milkman.