Happy Christmas!

A few quick pictures to wish everyone happy christmas as I celebrate here in London with my parents!

Cornwall!

I spent a lovely weekend down in Cornwall, staying in St Ives.  The best way to describe Cornwall to my mind is a rustic, rugged Cape Cod.  The towns are small with lost of personality - but build into cliffs and inlets which lend a much more wild feel.

While there I took advantage of some day hikes along the coast, visited Lands Ends (the point of England closes to the US), Penzance and St Michel's Mount.

Thanksgiving Pictures!

Since I'm so horribly late in posting.  I'll just share a few pictures from the fantastic Thanksgiving dinner that was thrown in Wales (for 'the american') a few weeks ago.

Also to kick off the weekend a few of us went to the Wales v Samoa rugby game in Cardiff - here's my with my friend Ryan who jumped over from DC for the weekend!

Sunset...

Most people wouldn't say they love London for the sunsets...but I would rank them up there with my favorites in the world :-)

The little things...

I haven't had much excitement to share lately...life has been enjoyably quiet :-)  The next few weeks will provide increased entertainment so I promise more blogs soon.  In the meantime...something that have made me smile:

* The gypsies are moving in...yup, the radiator factory is now in a court battle to prevent the gypsies from settling in the park next door (doesn't this mean they're no longer gypsies then?!)  The real problem? the gypsy horses keep getting lose in the pallet yard...

* The owner of the parent company of the factory was put in jail yesterday (even longer story)...and the "townsfolk" were so upset by this fact that they've barricaded the town so no one can go to work.  Sadly this is at the Ireland location (we're still working in Wales!)...but seriously?!

* Word of the day = 'tidy': slang in Wales for "nice job" or "well done"

BubbleDogs!...and Parliament...

I know I know - I've been quite for much too long.  I should probably have more to say besides a rave review for a new London restaurant...but in reality, BubbleDogs was that much fun :-)

A new spot in London, BubbleDogs (as you can see above) is hot dogs and Champagne (yes, with veggie dogs for anyone curious why I went).  It was a fun vibe and I highly recommend if you're in the area.

I also toured Parliament last weekend - which, doesn't quite compare to BubbleDogs but was also fun and interesting ;-)  For anyone curious (and thinking there are similarities), the same architect was involved in Parliament and Highclere Castle (where they film Downtown Abbey).

Brighton

I took a lovely day trip down to Brighton yesterday - it's only an hour from London by train and sit on the southern coast of England.  It became a big beach town when (then Prince Regent) King George IV built the Royal Pavilion and traveled down to 'take the waters' - because who doesn't know that drinking sea water cures all? ;-)

The day started off quite blustery and overcast, but some bits of sun came out over the afternoon and overall it was a great day.  Brighton is a really nice little city with plenty of cute little side streets for shopping, sitting in cafes and generally wandering.

GreenMan!

I stayed in lovely Wales last weekend for a classic British experience - the festival weekend.  It seems to be a big summer tradition here (seriously, everyone I talk to attends at least one!)  It's a weekend of camping (tent or camper vans are quite big here), music, food and general merriment.  We started out with quite a bit of rain (as you can see by the picture of my friends Helen and Dave below) but by Sunday the sun decided to pay us a visit.

My favorite parts of the weekend? 1. The Tea&Toast van - which literally just served a selection of hot teas 24x7 and toast with your choice of jam, butters, marmite, nutella, etc.  2. The drive back to Cardiff - I know that's a weird one, but the weather was gorgeous and views...just spectacular as I drove through Brecon National Park.

For my Mom...

Because the minute I saw this I thought of you laughing ;-)

Richmond Park

I took a lovely trip out to Richmond over the weekend - taking advantage of the intervals of sunlight.  Richmond Park (not surprisingly in Richmond, west side of London) is the largest royal park in London and is famous for wild deer (they belong to the Queen of course).  We were lucky enough for not just great weather - but saw quite a few wild deer roaming around!

Look at the deer!

Wimbledon!

Spent a great day at Wimbledon on Saturday with friends Chris and Margaret.  They release a number of grounds tickets each day for those that queue early - so we arrived at 5:30am and waited in line (in the frequent rain) until we finally made it in around 10:15.

We didn't have any tickets to the main events - but watched Serena Williams and Andy Roddick warm-up from quite close...and caught a bunch of great doubles and junior singles matches.  What a great venue and fabulous day spent in the rare London sunshine!

Catching up!

I have been appallingly lax in my blogging duties - a few weeks along here seem to have gotten away from me!

Since a fantastic visit with my friend Keri, I've been laying low.  Weekly trips to Wales have kept me plenty busy during the weeks - but my weekends have been delightfully much quieter so far this summer (if what we can call the UK weather lately summertime).

I had a great visit from my friend Ian for a night - and we spent the day in Camden Market.  You might remember it from an earlier post as a delicious area to wander and snack your way through - we only indulged in falafel this time, but delicious none the less!

Last weekend - I was able to see my dear friend Bethan here in London for a night (which included a trip to Shakespeare's Globe for see Henry V) and a trip to her family home in Portland (south England coast).

While in Portland we drove (with her parents) to a swannery in nearby Abbotsbury - which was so much fun as we walked through fields of sheep to feed the almost 200 swans (and some teenage signets)!

Off to the Races!

Keri's in town and we had a great day at the races this week...the races being Royal Ascot of course ;-)

She was a lucky winner with her patented "pick a horse with a fun name" betting strategy - but my hand-made (by me!) hat got some pretty nice compliments!

Kristen!

Kristen was in town a few weeks ago!  I'm dreadfully late in posting some pictures - but we had a great time at tea (Gluten Free option for Kristen!), wandering the city, some shopping and general merriment!

Watch your language!

I got myself in trouble yesterday.  It's probably a true blessing that it's really the first time that language has given me grief...but oh man, this was an awkward one.

I went rebel and wore a dress to work yesterday.  Previously we were working in the factory and pants were required for women (and I kid you not, the reason being "so the men don't get distracted").  However, our office for the project has moved to the admin building and I noticed that the few women here often wore skirts or dresses - so i decided to break out more of my wardrobe and take a day off from pants.

As we're walking into the building my female colleague makes the comment "I was thinking of wearing a skirt one day too, such a nice change" to which I respond "yes, it's lovely, I was just getting so tired of pants!"

...awkward pause all around...

Colleague: "errr, Sarah do you realize that 'pants' here is the term used for underwear?..."

...awkward pause as everyone stares at my dress...

Me: "oh! nope - i LOVE those pants - big fan - errr, trousers! nice break from trousers...."

Everyone just got a laugh and I turned an attractive shade of red - happy to provide entertainment.  But I promise Mom/Dad - I'm still wearing "those" pants :-)

For the Queen...

One more note - they really tried to use the motto "for the Queen..." to talk people into things over the weekend. My favorite was at Whole Foods today - they were pushing these crisps "for Queen and country"...well done Tyrrell's - tasty crisps and I felt patriotic ;-)

Jubilation!

In case you've been under a rock lately (i'm positive it got plenty of press even in the states) - you might have hear that this past weekend was the celebration of Queen Elizabeth's 60 year anniversary on the throne - The Diamond Jubilee.

My friend Amanda arrived in London on Thursday morning and I joined her Friday afternoon after my work week in Wales.  We set-off for Zoo Lates - where the London Zoo stays open late for much merriment on Friday nights in June/July.  We raised a toast, tried some PIMMs, played with monkeys and boogied at the silent disco.

 

Saturday we enjoyed a lovely Jubilee tea at Fortnum & Mason in Picadilly before heading out to root England onto a win of Belgium in a pre-Euro friendly.  Sunday we camped out, with a jubilatory picnic of course, to watch the impressive River Pageant.  The best picture of Brenda (as those close to the Queen know her) is when she's on the launch (that tiny person in white, with Phillip beside her).

We capped the lovely weekend off with more flag waving, a great Coldplay concert and general merriment.  I wouldn't mind if Brenda wanted to celebrate every year :-)