Cheers

Jamie and I are sitting in the brand new Virgin Atlantic lounge desperately trying to relax as we explore everything this swanky pad has to offer. So far we think we've seen some WAGs and a guy wearing an NFL Network badge. Not too bad for early Friday Afternoon!

Quick recap of this week:
Wednesday was my leaving do for work. We reserved an area at the Oxygen Bar in Leicester Square and had a fantastic night! Loads of people came from work and even people from Jamie's shows came to see us off.

Thursday the cats left. Sadie was well-behaved, but Jovi was not having anything to do with her crate. We were sad to see them go, but we'll see them on Monday.*

*Jamie and I just jointly typed that sentence. I had the left hand, she did the right. FUN!

In the afternoon Jamie saw Swimming With Sharks starring Christian Slater. She said it was crap. *Jamie here to set the record straight: it was mostly crap due to an awful lot of shouting and TERRIBLE American accents! But Christian is still hot as ever!*

We ate dinner last night at Crispy Duck 2 with Steve. It was the perfect bon voyage meal, replete with standard Crispy Duck classics - Eponymous Crispy Duck, Salt & Pepper Squid, healthy amounts of Tsing Tao, and great company.

As sad as we are to leave London and the life we created here, we are very excited to begin this new chapter in our life, especially since we'll soon be three.

Cheers!

FIN

The Cats Are a Bit Confused

Well, the furniture is gone and the flat is nearly bare. There are a few pieces of furniture left that the new tenants are buying, six suitcases, two very confused cats and a kitchen full of food. Our internet was down most of the day today and I was frantic trying to figure out what I would do after Flo left and I was alone in the apartment without a TV. But as you can see, Pipex came through for me and all is well. I was sorry to see Flo go. She was a huge help this weekend- packing, moving things, making sure the movers washed their hands after cigarette breaks, and generally keeping my mind off the fact that we're moving AGAIN. I don't know what I would have done without her.

The coolest thing we did while Flo was here was go to dinner at Dans le Noir? last night, where we dined in complete darkness. It was an amazing experience! All the wait staff are blind and they guide you into a completely dark room, take you to your seats, explain the lay-out of the table to you and leave you to your own devices when it comes to pouring your drinks and eating your food. We didn't know what we were being served and it was a lot of fun trying to figure it out based on taste alone. All our other senses were quickly heightened. Every time they brought new groups into the room, it sounded like they were shouting and every time a dish was brought to the table, everyone could smell what it was. It was a true sensory exercise and I would strongly recommend it to anyone visiting London or Paris (where it originated.)

Tomorrow is our leaving do, Thursday the cats leave and the cleaners come and we fly out Friday afternoon. We plan on writing our final blog from the airport on Friday. Until then- adios!

Let the Packing Begin!

At 10:00 this morning, three lovely men from Expect Move arrived to begin our move. They're on their second cuppa and are thoroughly entertaining Flo and me as we sit on the sofa reading Lucky Magazine and the sports section respectively.

Will keep you posted...

Thanksgiving in Zurich

Hi All

Sorry it's been so long since we've written. I'm going to let John tell you about his Day with the Dogs another time and I'm going to give you a quick recap of our Thanksgiving and Anniversary.

We went to Zurich for Thanksgiving with Flo, Keith and Lauren (a friend who is studying in Rome this semester.) We took the first flight out Thursday morning. The problem with that is that the tube doesn't start running until 5am, so we couldn't take the tube to the airport. Had to take a cab. Oh well- not too bad. We arrived at la Casa de Flo y Keith at 11am exactly- less than five hours door-to-door. I will miss that.

As you would imagine, Flo had everything under control. The apartment looked like a page out of Martha Stewart's magazine, the turkey (which is a hilarious story all its own) had been marinading in brine for 24 hours and she was cool as a cucumber. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner and even got to watch the end of the Macy's parade and the first football game of the day thanks go their amazing Slingbox!

Friday we went exploring into the mountains. First, we bought wood for their fireplace. Then, we went to a restaurant with a gorgeous view for drinks. Finally, we went to a fabulous fondue place that puts DIP to shame. Unfortunately, this exploration was marred by the fact that a heavy fog had set in and we couldn't see ten feet in front of us. Seriously, I don't know how Keith was driving! Look-


Fog or not, we still had a great time. After dropping off the firewood, we made our way to the train station, the site of the largest indoor Christmas Market in Europe. They did have a Christmas tree decorated entirely of Swarovski crystals, but this seemed like a better place to take a photo-


It was very pretty but not as large as I thought it would be. I was also expecting very "Swiss" things but it was pretty much like any other Christmas Market- a lot of food and costume jewelry. Flo and I had mulled wine (mine was non-alcoholic) and John and I had bratwurst and bread. It was delicious!



After that, they dropped us off at the airport and we were home by 10pm our time. We would have liked to have stayed longer, but I had rehearsal the next day and John had his boys' day with the dogs...

We celebrated our 7th Anniversary in the usual way on Sunday- watched our wedding video, ate pizza and drank beer. FYI: Non-alcoholic beer is SO GROSS!!!!!!! My hormones are definitely in full effect this week. Usually, I only cry at key points during the wedding video but Sunday I started crying with the exterior of the church and didn't stop until my bridesmaids were dancing on the tables. You, hussies!

CHAMPIONE CHAMPIONE!

We won the PR Football league on Wednesday night! We believed we would only take away second place, but the team in first place didn't win a single match on Wednesday and we won all three of ours. Therefore we won on goal difference since we had the same number of points in the league.

I won't lie, the first match was a hard fought win and the second match looked grim as we were down 2 - nill at the half way mark. But showing our mark as true champions, we dug deep and overcame adversity to win 4-2! We then destroyed the final team 7-1. I personally had the best match of my career - I was like a ninja cat as I humiliated the opposing strikers.

That's enough bragging - except for this one fact - we forfeited 4 games due to player unavailability, and we still won the league!

We have a cup knock-out competition on the 28th and then the award ceremony. In other sporting news, we're rooting for Israel to win against Russia today.

A Very English Weekend

Hi there

While John was loving it up in the Madrid office, I was experiencing a truly English weekend.At 9:27am Saturday morning, Steve and Penny picked me up in a gun metal VW Golf courtesy of Streetcar and we began our trip to Essex. I should mention two key points. One- Steve was EARLY! Two- We had no directions. Steve was planning on using Emily, his Sat Nav, but she decided to be fickle for most of the trip. So, he pulled up a map of London on Google Maps and we zig-zagged our way through the city, up and out to wonderful Essex. And we managed to only make two wrong turns! It's amazing how little traffic there is in London at 10am on a Saturday morning. We even made it across the Tower Bridge with no wait. See?



The whole trip to Essex was scheduled because a friend of ours read an article about The Company Shed, a wonderful fish restaurant on the coast of Mersea Island that serves fresh fish at its finest without the trimmings. You bring your own beverages, sauces and bread/butter. It sounded like a good excuse for a weekend away and the trip was born.

The thing about Mersea Island is that it isn't always an island. It is connected to the mainland by a causeway, which floods every day at high tide. If you don't make it to the causeway by hightide, you have to wait an hour or so until the tide starts to recede before you can go across. This made our meeting time very important. We arranged to meet on the island at noon. Let's just say our car made it but the other two didn't.

Don't worry- we didn't enjoy the seafood without them. We waited at a cool 15th century pub and all went in together after the tide receded. As a pregnant woman, I was limited as to what I could eat, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching the rest of the gang chow down on what was described over and over again as the best seafood/oysters/etc. they had ever eaten. Here's what the table and the gang looked like after several seafood platters, dozens of oysters, a few lobsters and a couple of bottles of champagne.


After lunch, we checked into our B&B, which looked like something out of the Brady Bunch. We had a great night. Played some Jenga, ate yummy pub food and enjoyed magic tricks by our two youngest companions. I retired early (11:30,) but there was apparently a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit into the not-so-wee hours of the morning.

The next morning, after a wonderful breakfast, we ventured to a park where we flew kites and took in the awesome English coast. We experienced true English weather on Sunday. It was rainy, windy and chilly when we ventured out to the park. The rain would stop and start, as is common. Then, the sun came out! It was wonderful. The sun reflected off the sea. It was truly magical.

And just as we were heading to the cars to find lunch, the sky opened up! There's nothing like crossing a large open area of grass with the English sky pouring down on you. I was at a strong disadvantage, not being able to run to the cars like everyone else, but it was okay, because I was the only one with an umbrella.

The trip finished with a great pub lunch and a three-hour drive back to London, which saw Penny, Steve and me finding our own alternate route through the streets of Hackney and miraculously getting Emily to work just as we found our way to Tower Bridge again.


It was a great weekend. I only wish John could have joined us.

For those of you who are wondering, we didn't do too shabby last night at Quiz Night. We were bang-on average. But we were up against some stiff competition. This pub has a Quiz Night League with standings and everything! So, I was quite impressed with our team. We might try it again before we leave.

Tonight is John's last batch of football matches. Hopefully, his extremely swollen fingers won't hinder his goal-keeping abilities.

My Mom says I'm cool!

Jamie is on her way back from a weekend trip to Essex with Steve and some other friends. I was supposed to go with them, but Madrid rescheduled their office move for Friday & Saturday instead of Thursday & Friday.

The Madrid move marked my last official duties as European IT Manager. I honored the occasion by purchasing two cans of San Miguel Especial from the airport cafeteria (with some Tex Mex Doritos so I didn't look weird). I enjoyed my cerveca especial and regarded the magnificent view of the Madrid landscape from the panoramic windows of Terminal 4 of the Madrid Barajas Airport. I noted the sunset over the sparsely treed hills surrounding the airport was a metaphor for my era as European IT Manager. A simple metaphor, a device so frequently used (I'm a SYMBOL! *CRASH*) that my brother Mike's graduate writing class would sooner carve out their eyeballs with their fancy graduate school pens than be forced to read about it. But still, it was very special to me (*CRASH*) .

I have been promoted in preparation for our return to the US (in 4 weeks?!) and we have hired a new IT Manager who started last week. The upshot is that I shouldn't be called in to work at 3 AM if someone unplugs the servers, which will be a welcome change!

Quiz night didn't happen - our friends were sick last week, so we're trying to reschedule for this week. I know you are on the edge of your seats, so we'll let you know if we get to go!

In a desperate measure to be as cool as our gimptastic friend "Noelle", I jammed my fingers so badly while making a save in my Wednesday night football (soccer) league that I can't wear my wedding ring and my middle finger is as thick as a big fat sausage. However, I lacked the resolve "Noelle" showed and stopped short of breaking my fingers. Which I'm OK with.