Back in business

Testing...testing? Anyone still there? I do realize it's officially been two months since my last post.  In writing this I also realize that "realize" no longer looks normal to me.  Not that the English spelling of "realise" really looks normal either.  But the "z" or "zed" has officially begun to look strange.

This weekend begins my 3rd straight weekend out of five in a row out of town.  Although there hasn't been much of a summer here weather-wise, I can't really complain because it's been really fun.  I also believe that after my trip home to Dallas next week, I'll be more than ready to return to the not quite hot, but not quite cold, London weather. A late summer is coming perhaps? Hopes remain high!

First stop of the summer. Paris.

Lucky for me, I live relatively close to the beautiful Kings Cross/St. Pancras International Station where the Eurostar zips off to Paris in 2 hours.  I was able to work the full day, run by my flat and get my bags, make it to the train station 30 minutes before the train departed (all that's required), and onto the train with a bag of food and a bottle of champagne in tow thanks to Jon.  Eurostar is the 'gentlemans' way to to travel and if I could go everywhere that way, I'd never get on a plane again.

We arrived at our hotel, pleasantly surprised, thanks to Jon's favourite - hotwire.com.  Maybe its the cheap prices, or the thrill of trying to guess from the provided clues which hotel you will get, but I have to say I've come to love the site too.  This particular time we ended up with a 4 star, beautiful little hotel, very close to the Louvre/Opera area for £87/night.  Not bad.  And even though it was <ahem> a Best Western, it was still an old French building, immaculately redone on the inside and "French" looking, and the girl at the front was French.  Works for me.

We spent the days wondering around the city and the nights eating delicious food. We were even lucky enough to meet up with a sweet American couple living in Paris who are mutual friends.  Overall lovely weekend (with the exception of the slightly uncooperative weather our last day and the disorganised French international train station which delayed our trip home).

Second stop: the famous English Cotswolds for Jon's big 3-0

Designated "an area of outstanding natural beauty," the Cotswolds are a beautiful collection of little villages full of fresh air, rolling lush greenery, sheep, 16th-17th century architecture, and people equally as old. Our favourite quote of the trip came from a little old man, in observation of his little old wife sending a text message.  After lovingly watching her attempts to send a text, he turns to the guy next to him and says..."we may be a while, the Romans carved stone faster than she can text." Genious.

We started our Tour de Cotswolds off at a little pub hotel which had won all kinds of awards for its greatness.  We got there, checked in, room was perfect (I should also say we had Cash with us on this trip and even better is that this hotel allowed dogs), and set off on a walk around the area. Two hours later we returned and had dinner in their dining room, then a short walk across the way (hallway) to the pub.  The 18 year old bar workers took a liking to us and allowed us to stay longer and hang out, while also gracing us with their presence and small town ideologies.

Day two we moved on to the fancy Lords of the Manor hotel - recommended by the Partner/head of my division for the UK at work who was probably in a better position affordability-wise for this place.  But that wasn't to stop us on Jon's big 3-0 weekend as I discovered 50% off rates apply on Sunday nights. So we stayed there one night - had a nice, but semi-stuffy dinner at the hotel's Michelin starred restaurant and a bit of sticker shock when we left. No regrets though, it was a great weekend and really nice to be out of the city for a while.

Our lovely little pub hotel

Third stop: Southampton and Bournemouth - last minute trip

As Jon was born Southampton, and is a big fan of their football (soccer) team, we bought tickets 2 days before and set off for the game. Cut it a bit close, and arrived in just enough time that me buying a Southampton t-shirt caused us to miss kick-off. Football games here slightly remind me of Aggie American football games in College Station.  There is no mandatory standing rule, but the fans do have chants and songs that they all know and it sounds pretty cool when the whole stadium is singing. Southampton won, yay! And is at the top of the league for the first time in decades.  Not a bad first game to see!

Headed out that night in Southampton to get a taste of the local flavor and that we did.  Went out to what was supposedly on of the best restaurants on trip advisor.  Not the case, but did have some amazing people watching as there were apparently four cruise ships in town that night.  You can imagine the classiness we saw after dinner when we made our way to bar down the street.  Best. people. watching. ever.

Bournemouth is where Jon's parents live and is only 30 minutes from Southampton so we made our way there when we woke up Sunday morning.  There is a nearby forest and gorgeous beaches perfect for taking long walks, and since it was one of the prettiest days we've had since I've been here we took full advantage.  More fresh air and walking - I could get used to this.  I see why people have weekend houses far, far away.

Beautiful Bournemouth

Southampton game!

Next stop: Geneva and the Alps

Heading out now and promise to update!

Must stop posting so much on facebook

It kind of ruins the fun when I go to post pictures on here and realize I've already put most of the good stuff on facebook so it's already been seen.  But not everyone in the family has facebook (Peter and G&G) so for everyone else you will just have to see some things twice. This one is still my favorite and was taken from the 6th floor terrace in my office building.

Tower Bridge from Mercer

People at work keep asking me what has been the weirdest thing I've come across here so far and what the biggest adjustment has been.  So I've decided to come up with a list of things that are interesting and new/things that I've had to learn how to do since I've been here. (Note that a lot of things revolve around the kitchen...maybe I just wasn't very domestic before)

1. Use an electric kettle: this has turned out to be the best and most convenient thing ever.  Why did I ever wait for water to boil on the stove? Is this something that everyone already knew and never shared this wonderful secret, or is this a British thing?

2. Reheat everything by stove top or in the oven (no microwave). This doesn't sound too difficult, but you have to get a little creative with things like pasta.  Takes a little longer but things actually end up tasting better.  We could buy a microwave I guess but it makes me feel kind of earthy or something not to have one. On the same note I learned how to use a gas stove - not strange I know, but new to me.

3. Plan. You can't leave your flat without a plan of when you're planning to come home, how you will get home, how you will get to your destination, how long it will take, and a plan B in case your first choice is a fail (and an umbrella).  The tubes typically stop running around 12:30am (midnight-thirty as is said here) so there is no going out late without thinking things through. I still carry a tube map around with me and look at it probably daily.  Is anyone ever not a tourist here?

My cute, but not practical, soaking wet toms

4. Restaurant style tortilla chips are very difficult to come by.  So even if you manage to find a cheese that will actually melt into a liquidy, delicious dip, you are likely to not have anything to dip into it.  Chips (crisps) are flavored by nature and are not made to be dipped.  Here is another fun treat I found at the store..

I'm not sold on the delicious part

5. Tennis shoes and backpacks with nice suits.  It hasn't gotten any less funny to see the 60ish year old CEO of Mercer UK get in the elevator at 6pm with a suit that probably costs $4000, a school-boy looking backpack and tennis shoes.  I'm not judging, I probably walk 2 miles each day in my work clothes and it just can't be done in heels.

I leave you with a few photos from this week and last...just roaming around, taking pictures at random, using my iphone instead of the expensive camera I have that would be much better for this.

Walking along the Thames after work

I love the mixture of old and new here

The living room: almost done

My lovely flatmate

All settled in (almost)

Post one. Three weeks into my move across the pond.  It's already been a huge adventure.. but due to the fact that getting internet to work in our flat took AGES (which is part of the adventure I guess), I haven't been able to get this thing going.

So here's where it all began....I found the cheapest, climate-controlled, 10x10 storage unit I could find and genuinely thought I wouldn't get close to filling it up.  Turns out that wasn't quite the case. (And this doesn't even include the stuff that Mercer shipped over for me)

Just a few small items

That picture makes me a little sad for all of my furniture that would have had a wonderful home here.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the flat that we got, however it turned out to be "semi-furnished" instead of furnished. For those who don't know, this literally means a bed and a side table, a couch(ette), a tv stand and a kitchen table. The lovely fireplace that was advertised also does not work, and our "parking spot" that doesn't actually fit a car is shared with our passionate (angry) downstairs Serbian neighbor named Dragan. I would love to share the wonderful things our other neighbors have said about him, but it is not appropriate for all audiences.  On the bright side, Nan and I had a lot of fun and spent a ton of money filling in the holes (with a lot of Jon's help as well!).  We're still getting there. Will post some pictures when it's all done! 

More to come later, but I'll quickly explain the blog title.  I figured I'd be taking the tube (subway) to work in the morning with the rest of the suit-wearing, newspaper-reading people.  But sadly nope, I am on the completely un-glamourous bus.  The 21 is my transportation of choice, due to its stopping point about 100 feet from my front door vs a 10 minute walk to the tube stop.  I don't mind it actually, it's easy and if I get a seat I can zone out for 20 minutes.  I'll leave you with an image so you can picture me riding along. 

My actual stop (and my flat in the back right!)