Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I've been in Seattle for the last two weeks for a project at MS. It was a whirlwind...literally. Most of you probably live in Seattle and know all about it, but for those that don't it was amazing. Massive trees down all over town, power out for a million people. I think some people still don't have power a week later. I stayed with Cimp and a giant 100 foot tall cedar next door to his started leaning precipitously towards his house as a result of the storm. I think it was removed yesterday as a result. Thank goodness the house next door held it down.
Other excitement in Seattle was that I got in a little fender bender in my rental car. Completely not paying attention I rear-ended the guy in front of me. Nothing major, but a nice impression of a trailer hitch in the hood of the Impala. No damage to his truck luckily. Thank goodness for Diners Club insurance.
Erin and I are taking off for our next adventure later tonight. We're headed to Rome tonight followed by Malta tomorrow until the 26th. We'll be in Rome again on the 26th and then drive up to meet my Dad, Tracey and Abby in Umbria. We leave from Venice back to London on the 5th. Should be a blast.
I hope everyone has a great holiday! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and see you next year!! More posts and pictures soon.
Ted
Photos
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Iceland
The european adventure continues. Last weekend we trekked up to Iceland! Why Iceland? As you probably know, our goal is to go travel to one country a month while we are living in London. Secondly, we want to try to get to some off the beaten path places that would be particularly hard to get to from Seattle. Iceland made the list. When researching it, we saw tons of links to the fact that it is all powered by geothermal hot springs and that there are some great pools and spas. Sounds perfect for mid-November.
It was a jam-packed weekend and here are the details. We rushed out the door on Thursday night, planning to meet Honor at the airport. She thought we were cutting it too close, which we were, as usual. The plane, of course, was late. We landed in Reykjavik at a little after midnight. Once we got our bags, minus one of Honor's that was delayed, we went out to look for a taxi. After midnight, no taxis, but we saw everyone queuing (that's standing in line for you non-euros) for a bus, we decided to as well. We huddled near the door to the bus freezing our asses off. It was probably about -10 below celcius during the day. (about 15 F) So I'm guessing it was -20 below with a howling wind that reinforced that we were in Iceland. We jammed on to the bus, and made it our hotel room by about 3am. Time for a quick nap before getting on a tour bus at 8:30am.
On friday we took the Golden Circle tour around Iceland. We learned all kinds of interesting facts. First, the entire population of Iceland is 300K and 180K in Rejkyavik. Very small. only 1% of Iceland is covered by trees. All of the buildings are heated and hot water via geothermal sources. The water in the shower smelled a little of sulfur. The cold water has been proven the purest in the world and tasted fantastic out of every tap. And everything was so expensive it made London seem cheap. Enough facts for now...We went to the first ever named geyser (named "geyser") apparently all others are named after this one. I've got a good video (which I will work on uploading) of Erin and Honor watching it explode and then posing for a picture. It's pretty funny. We also saw a beautiful, mostly frozen, waterfall. Again, we were in iceland and everything was covered in about two inches of ice, including each of the pebbles in the parking lot. It was too cold to appreciate for long, but the pictures are great. Time for another fact...Did you know that the oldest continuously standing parliament in the world is from Iceland? It is. We saw the site where it started in 930. We were also able to drive from the European geologic (techtonic?) plate to the North American plate. I thought that was cool. Great tour, other than being cold, there was not a cloud in the sky.
When we got back to the hotel, we decided that we should go check out a local swimming pool before having dinner since we may not get another chance. Since Honor lost the bag with her new swimsuit in it, we had to go on an emergency swimsuit shopping trip. I know it's bad for women to try on swimsuits, but it's worse being a man going with two women to try them on. Fortunately, the stores were closing so function sped up the process.
The pool Laugardalslaug is used by locals and has some interesting protocols. First you must not wear shoes into the locker room. We each got yelled at. You must shower before using the pool. You must clean four key areas (complete with diagram) pits, crotch, feet, head. You must not wear a swimsuit in the shower. You must bring your own towel. Which none of us did. Drip dry-ing in Iceland is not fun. After washing thoroughly you run barefoot, outside, where it is dark and about -10 to a big hot tub. Once in, very relaxing. After talking to a local we discover there are four other pools about 100 yards away, either by swimming through a colder pool, or walking. The sides of the pool have salt on them so you won't slip. But salt hurts. We ran to the pools before completely freezing to the pavement. Each additional "hot pot" hotter than the last. Each fit about 10 people and each was full. Surprising for a Friday night at the local pool. Very relaxing. After a time in the steam we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
On our way to the restaurant the cab driver talked about the Sugarcubes show that night. She was surprised we weren't going there since everyone else was. We told her that we had tickets to the saturday night show. That surprised her as she could swear there was only one show....and we could swear we had tickets for Saturday. Turned the cab around, back to the hotel to check and sure enough the tickets were for Friday. Another cab and off to the show, who needs dinner. They had $10 cans of beer at the show (and they sold them in singles or 10 packs) and $10 glasses of box wine. For those of you who don't know the Sugarcubes, they are Bjorks band. Bjork is the most famous Icelandic export ever. How cool to see her in Rejkyavik. Jealous? It was a great show. We missed the opening act, but at least we didn't miss the entire show.
We heard the nightlife in Rejkyavik started around midnight, and it was only 11:30 and we hadn't eaten yet. We found a cab and went to a place for Tapas. Good spanish food late at night is always a treat, especially in Iceland. From there we went to an Irish bar. So worldly. The highlight of the Irish bar was a local Icelandic couple we sat with. The guy was a funny drunk who acted like Borat the whole time once he found out we were Americans. We were talking about what the locals drink and she said you have to get "ljakdsfj" with "aksdjflkdsa" Needless to say I didn't understand either, so she went to the bar and ordered for us. A round of shots, but fortunately they didn't have the "hakarl"to go with them. The shots were called "Brennivin". They were pretty good though. We were lucky they didn't have shark. I read about it before we left and the local delicacy is shark that putrifies buried in the sand for six months and is then eaten. The girl corrected me when I was telling Erin and Honor what I read. She said, "no, no, no....first everyone pees on the shark, then we bury it for six months..." Whew, close one. At about 3 we wimped out and went home. Enough activity for day 1.
Day Two.
As you can imagine we were tired from Day one. Saturday we were scheduled to go to the Blue Lagoon. A giant hot springs located in the middle of a lava field about 45 minutes in the middle of nowhere. It was fantastic. Same rules as the first pool, but this time we paid for towels! Basically a massive four foot deep hot tub, probably the size of four football fields. Plus some cool silica mud that everyone put on their faces for a mask. Pretty funny site. The funniest site was the life guards who wore full space man suits with moon boots, hooded coat, goggles, gator around their neck and face, massive gloves. Still that cold. And we were just in swimsuits. Again, fantasic experience...everyone should get to do it.
After the blue lagoon and a nap we were determined to go to dinner and stay out late. We went to the same place we were supposed to go on Friday. Tvier Fiskar (two fishes). The service wasn't that great, but the food was good. I went out on a limb (much to the chagrin of Erin) and ate the only endangered species on the menu....whale. It looked and tasted mostly like beef. I don't need to have it again, and I do feel a little guilty for eating it, but I'm glad I tried it.
As we were eating dinner it started snowing. The first hint of weather after two days of beautiful cold sunshine. After dinner we walked to the central nightlife area and went to a nice looking bar for a couple of drinks. We were all tired, and didn't expect it to be a big night. We were in Reykjavik though with nightlife all night, so we decided to go to one more bar to find men to hit on Honor. It didn't take long. We were all having fun, dancing and carousing and before we knew it the lights were on and we were being told to leave...it was 5am. When we got outside there was a foot of snow on the ground. So we went with everyone else to the taxi stand. We were about 300 people deep in the line. As we stood there, the snow continued to fall, everyone in line looked like snow men with about three inches of snow on peoples coats and heads. Few people dressed for a snow storm, or even for cold for that matter. The snowmen look was almost comical (of course I forgot the camera that night). Comical until we had been standing there for 45 minutes and had only seen about 5 taxis go by. We decided to walk with the guy standing next to us, who happened to be in town to perform as a contortionist, Rubberboy, at the midget basketball tournament in town. I kid you not. So while walking the mile or two home in a foot of snow at 6am, we listed to him tell us stories about how he is the world's greatest contortionist. Ordinarily, I might find that annoying, but it was a great way to pass the time on my frigid walk. Hysterical at the time. I did just go check out his site, it's pretty amazing. He was too cold to amaze us on the walk home.
We got back to the hotel at about 6:45am. Time to sleep in until our flight at 4:30....but wait now, there's more. We arranged for massage appointments at 10am. How hard could it be to wake up just to go downstairs and sleep for another hour, maybe not the best use of our time, but I think we had all been looking forward to a massage for weeks...we weren't gonna miss it.
At 1pm we went to check out and find a ride to the airport. The people at the hotel said the buses were delayed so we should catch the next one that comes, which happened to arrive just as we were about to get some food. No rest for the weary, we can eat at the airport anyway. We pile on the bus, it gets fully loaded up and we're off. Before we get out of the parking lot the bus gets stuck in the snow....in the parking lot. My dream of getting snowed in and not being able to go home almost came true. The bus driver actually asked us all to get out of the bus to help push...a bus. When we got to the back of the bus, we found that we first needed to move a car that was six inches away from getting nailed by the bus. Eight of us lifted the car out of the way. Then he said push the bus up the hill. Needless to say that wasn't happening. We were all smart enough to know that was a bad idea. Finally a snow plow drove by and pulled the bus out of the parking lot.
We made it to the airport. Stood in line forever and were offered to get bumped in exchange for a hotel room (at our same hotel which was nice) and free flight back to Iceland to leave the next day. The one time I have a big meeting the next day I get the offer. Damn. Then since they were oversold, we couldn't sit next to each other on the plane. Erin and Honor got business class seats, while I got a middle seat in the back. Totally unfair.
Oh well, we made it home and survived Iceland. Had a great time and it was fun to remember it all again writing this. Sorry it's so long, hope you enjoyed it.
Ted
It was a jam-packed weekend and here are the details. We rushed out the door on Thursday night, planning to meet Honor at the airport. She thought we were cutting it too close, which we were, as usual. The plane, of course, was late. We landed in Reykjavik at a little after midnight. Once we got our bags, minus one of Honor's that was delayed, we went out to look for a taxi. After midnight, no taxis, but we saw everyone queuing (that's standing in line for you non-euros) for a bus, we decided to as well. We huddled near the door to the bus freezing our asses off. It was probably about -10 below celcius during the day. (about 15 F) So I'm guessing it was -20 below with a howling wind that reinforced that we were in Iceland. We jammed on to the bus, and made it our hotel room by about 3am. Time for a quick nap before getting on a tour bus at 8:30am.
On friday we took the Golden Circle tour around Iceland. We learned all kinds of interesting facts. First, the entire population of Iceland is 300K and 180K in Rejkyavik. Very small. only 1% of Iceland is covered by trees. All of the buildings are heated and hot water via geothermal sources. The water in the shower smelled a little of sulfur. The cold water has been proven the purest in the world and tasted fantastic out of every tap. And everything was so expensive it made London seem cheap. Enough facts for now...We went to the first ever named geyser (named "geyser") apparently all others are named after this one. I've got a good video (which I will work on uploading) of Erin and Honor watching it explode and then posing for a picture. It's pretty funny. We also saw a beautiful, mostly frozen, waterfall. Again, we were in iceland and everything was covered in about two inches of ice, including each of the pebbles in the parking lot. It was too cold to appreciate for long, but the pictures are great. Time for another fact...Did you know that the oldest continuously standing parliament in the world is from Iceland? It is. We saw the site where it started in 930. We were also able to drive from the European geologic (techtonic?) plate to the North American plate. I thought that was cool. Great tour, other than being cold, there was not a cloud in the sky.
When we got back to the hotel, we decided that we should go check out a local swimming pool before having dinner since we may not get another chance. Since Honor lost the bag with her new swimsuit in it, we had to go on an emergency swimsuit shopping trip. I know it's bad for women to try on swimsuits, but it's worse being a man going with two women to try them on. Fortunately, the stores were closing so function sped up the process.
The pool Laugardalslaug is used by locals and has some interesting protocols. First you must not wear shoes into the locker room. We each got yelled at. You must shower before using the pool. You must clean four key areas (complete with diagram) pits, crotch, feet, head. You must not wear a swimsuit in the shower. You must bring your own towel. Which none of us did. Drip dry-ing in Iceland is not fun. After washing thoroughly you run barefoot, outside, where it is dark and about -10 to a big hot tub. Once in, very relaxing. After talking to a local we discover there are four other pools about 100 yards away, either by swimming through a colder pool, or walking. The sides of the pool have salt on them so you won't slip. But salt hurts. We ran to the pools before completely freezing to the pavement. Each additional "hot pot" hotter than the last. Each fit about 10 people and each was full. Surprising for a Friday night at the local pool. Very relaxing. After a time in the steam we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
On our way to the restaurant the cab driver talked about the Sugarcubes show that night. She was surprised we weren't going there since everyone else was. We told her that we had tickets to the saturday night show. That surprised her as she could swear there was only one show....and we could swear we had tickets for Saturday. Turned the cab around, back to the hotel to check and sure enough the tickets were for Friday. Another cab and off to the show, who needs dinner. They had $10 cans of beer at the show (and they sold them in singles or 10 packs) and $10 glasses of box wine. For those of you who don't know the Sugarcubes, they are Bjorks band. Bjork is the most famous Icelandic export ever. How cool to see her in Rejkyavik. Jealous? It was a great show. We missed the opening act, but at least we didn't miss the entire show.
We heard the nightlife in Rejkyavik started around midnight, and it was only 11:30 and we hadn't eaten yet. We found a cab and went to a place for Tapas. Good spanish food late at night is always a treat, especially in Iceland. From there we went to an Irish bar. So worldly. The highlight of the Irish bar was a local Icelandic couple we sat with. The guy was a funny drunk who acted like Borat the whole time once he found out we were Americans. We were talking about what the locals drink and she said you have to get "ljakdsfj" with "aksdjflkdsa" Needless to say I didn't understand either, so she went to the bar and ordered for us. A round of shots, but fortunately they didn't have the "hakarl"to go with them. The shots were called "Brennivin". They were pretty good though. We were lucky they didn't have shark. I read about it before we left and the local delicacy is shark that putrifies buried in the sand for six months and is then eaten. The girl corrected me when I was telling Erin and Honor what I read. She said, "no, no, no....first everyone pees on the shark, then we bury it for six months..." Whew, close one. At about 3 we wimped out and went home. Enough activity for day 1.
Day Two.
As you can imagine we were tired from Day one. Saturday we were scheduled to go to the Blue Lagoon. A giant hot springs located in the middle of a lava field about 45 minutes in the middle of nowhere. It was fantastic. Same rules as the first pool, but this time we paid for towels! Basically a massive four foot deep hot tub, probably the size of four football fields. Plus some cool silica mud that everyone put on their faces for a mask. Pretty funny site. The funniest site was the life guards who wore full space man suits with moon boots, hooded coat, goggles, gator around their neck and face, massive gloves. Still that cold. And we were just in swimsuits. Again, fantasic experience...everyone should get to do it.
After the blue lagoon and a nap we were determined to go to dinner and stay out late. We went to the same place we were supposed to go on Friday. Tvier Fiskar (two fishes). The service wasn't that great, but the food was good. I went out on a limb (much to the chagrin of Erin) and ate the only endangered species on the menu....whale. It looked and tasted mostly like beef. I don't need to have it again, and I do feel a little guilty for eating it, but I'm glad I tried it.
As we were eating dinner it started snowing. The first hint of weather after two days of beautiful cold sunshine. After dinner we walked to the central nightlife area and went to a nice looking bar for a couple of drinks. We were all tired, and didn't expect it to be a big night. We were in Reykjavik though with nightlife all night, so we decided to go to one more bar to find men to hit on Honor. It didn't take long. We were all having fun, dancing and carousing and before we knew it the lights were on and we were being told to leave...it was 5am. When we got outside there was a foot of snow on the ground. So we went with everyone else to the taxi stand. We were about 300 people deep in the line. As we stood there, the snow continued to fall, everyone in line looked like snow men with about three inches of snow on peoples coats and heads. Few people dressed for a snow storm, or even for cold for that matter. The snowmen look was almost comical (of course I forgot the camera that night). Comical until we had been standing there for 45 minutes and had only seen about 5 taxis go by. We decided to walk with the guy standing next to us, who happened to be in town to perform as a contortionist, Rubberboy, at the midget basketball tournament in town. I kid you not. So while walking the mile or two home in a foot of snow at 6am, we listed to him tell us stories about how he is the world's greatest contortionist. Ordinarily, I might find that annoying, but it was a great way to pass the time on my frigid walk. Hysterical at the time. I did just go check out his site, it's pretty amazing. He was too cold to amaze us on the walk home.
We got back to the hotel at about 6:45am. Time to sleep in until our flight at 4:30....but wait now, there's more. We arranged for massage appointments at 10am. How hard could it be to wake up just to go downstairs and sleep for another hour, maybe not the best use of our time, but I think we had all been looking forward to a massage for weeks...we weren't gonna miss it.
At 1pm we went to check out and find a ride to the airport. The people at the hotel said the buses were delayed so we should catch the next one that comes, which happened to arrive just as we were about to get some food. No rest for the weary, we can eat at the airport anyway. We pile on the bus, it gets fully loaded up and we're off. Before we get out of the parking lot the bus gets stuck in the snow....in the parking lot. My dream of getting snowed in and not being able to go home almost came true. The bus driver actually asked us all to get out of the bus to help push...a bus. When we got to the back of the bus, we found that we first needed to move a car that was six inches away from getting nailed by the bus. Eight of us lifted the car out of the way. Then he said push the bus up the hill. Needless to say that wasn't happening. We were all smart enough to know that was a bad idea. Finally a snow plow drove by and pulled the bus out of the parking lot.
We made it to the airport. Stood in line forever and were offered to get bumped in exchange for a hotel room (at our same hotel which was nice) and free flight back to Iceland to leave the next day. The one time I have a big meeting the next day I get the offer. Damn. Then since they were oversold, we couldn't sit next to each other on the plane. Erin and Honor got business class seats, while I got a middle seat in the back. Totally unfair.
Oh well, we made it home and survived Iceland. Had a great time and it was fun to remember it all again writing this. Sorry it's so long, hope you enjoyed it.
Ted
Monday, November 06, 2006
Halloween
Even though we weren't in Seattle for Halloween, we couldn't let such a great excuse for party get away from us. We hosted our annual Halloween party in London on the 28th. It is interesting here, because Halloween is not a big holiday. There aren't bags of candy on all of the shelves or costumes and decorations in all the windows. Some people balked at the idea of having to wear costumes when we proposed the event, but in the end, everyone came and loved it.
Every year we try to think of something fun and current to dress as. I don't think I'll ever top my bird flu costume from last year though. This year I decided to go as a prominent Kazahkstani journalist, Borat...high five! I talked Erin into going as Olive from Little Miss Sunshine. I think the costumes were great...Erin didn't like that not too many had seen Little Miss Sunshine yet. Other highlights included the complete cast of the Wizard of Oz, a few super heros and a guy with a scary mask. Everyone partied like rock stars until late in the night. Even Jim our COO and his wife left at 4:30am!!
The other challenge of hosting a party is getting provisions. It's challenging enough in Seattle to drive around to the grocery store, the liquor store, the costume store, but here we have to walk to each place. I know, it's good for me.
Check out the pictures...
Ted
Every year we try to think of something fun and current to dress as. I don't think I'll ever top my bird flu costume from last year though. This year I decided to go as a prominent Kazahkstani journalist, Borat...high five! I talked Erin into going as Olive from Little Miss Sunshine. I think the costumes were great...Erin didn't like that not too many had seen Little Miss Sunshine yet. Other highlights included the complete cast of the Wizard of Oz, a few super heros and a guy with a scary mask. Everyone partied like rock stars until late in the night. Even Jim our COO and his wife left at 4:30am!!
The other challenge of hosting a party is getting provisions. It's challenging enough in Seattle to drive around to the grocery store, the liquor store, the costume store, but here we have to walk to each place. I know, it's good for me.
Check out the pictures...
Ted
Monday, October 23, 2006
To Berlin or not to Berlin
After the company away day and dinner on Thursday night, Erin and I started packing our bags at 11pm to get ready for our 6:25am flight to Berlin. After 3 hours of sleep the alarm went off at 3:30 and Dick, Erin and I were off to get in a cab at 3:45am to Liverpool Station. We safely arrived at Liverpool by 4:15, plenty of time to get on the 4:25am train to Stansted airport. After arriving at Stansted, we got our boarding cards and proceeded to security. The line was one of the longest I'd ever seen...snaking throughout the airport, but we were relatively close to the front of the middle...should be fine. After waiting in security for an unbearable 60 minutes, we made it to the gate at 6:27am for our 6:25am flight. Huffing and puffing with about 12 other people who ran from the tram to the gate, we all saw the plane pulling away from the gate. Missed the flight by mere seconds, even though we did everything right to get there on time...no oversleeping, no stopping for coffee perfect early morning trip. After getting back through security the opposite way and going to "customer service" Ha! We were told that there was another flight Saturday morning at the same 6:25am and we could buy new tickets for 200 pounds each. Afterall "we cannot be responsible for the airport security...we don't have to defend our policy to give no refunds...we're Ryan Air". And, we will never be flying Ryan Air again.
Completely exhausted, angry, deflated, confused...we sat in the airport contemplating what to do next. We looked at all of the airlines and found no flights to Berlin for less than 200 pounds. We decided it would be kinda stupid to pay another $1500 for us all to go to Berlin. Rather than going home to go back to bed we figured we were already packed, so we may as well go somewhere. So we walked over to Budget car rental and rented a car. Why not take a tour of the English countryside....plus I can now learn how to drive on the left side of the road.
Our first stop was Cambridge, a mere 30 minutes from Stanted airport. We figured we could stop there and get a book on England, have breakfast and coffee and plot our course. Cambridge was certainly a beautiful town with all of the colleges of the university. We were fortunate that despite the rain on the drive up, the skies opened up and we enjoyed a beautiful mid-day in Cambridge. I even pulled my best impression of my dad by managing to get a quick nap in in the middle of the bookstore and again on the punts on the canal behind all of the buildings.
With my two short naps, I was ready to go. Next stop Stratford on Avon, home of the Bard. Erin worked the books and phones and found a new hotel for us to stay in. We arrived in Stratford aroung 5pm and all felt that if we napped before dinner we were done for the night. Instead we checked into the White Swan in, an inn since before the Americas were founded (1450), right in the middle of town. We had a hard time finding it though because it was in the center of a town carnival with rides galore. After dinner, we rode the bumper cars about five times, all three of us laughing like 5 year olds as we slammed into each other. Dick and I also went on a ride that was a small steel cage hooked to two bungy cords stretched 100 feet in the air that shot the cage straight up like a cannon. Erin took a video which I will figure out how to attach. It was a blast...
After a solid 12 hours of sleep, we toured Stratford on the common double decker tour bus, and toured the birthplace of Shakespeare. Next we were back in the car to figure out where to go next. First stop was the Warwick Castle. This was an amazing midevil castle run by the Tausaud's so the castle was filled with wax figures. I thought it was a little weird with the figures, but it was a very cool castle. One of the highlights was a giant Trebuchet set-up out on the lawn where we got to witness them shoot a flaming ball about 1/4 mile. We'll try to attach the video of that as well.
Next stop was the Cotswolds. We piled back in our right hand drive car and started cruising around the Cotswolds (english for cute little towns in idyllic settings). We stayed in the tiny town of Witney at a great little hotel. While we were checking in the restaurant looked fantastic so we all went up to rest for a minute before heading down to eat. Unfortunately, the restaurant was booked solid until 10:15p (it was about 7 now). But they gave us a few recommendations in town (english, thai and Indian). First stop english, booked. Next thai...booked. next indian...booked. There were only about 5 restaurants in town, all booked solid. Just before we were to settle on the "American Pizza/chicken/kabob" house, we went down one more street. There we found a hotel with a dining room...and a few open tables. The service was absolutely horrible, and fortunately they overheard me talking about it. Midway through we got the most attentive service and they redeemed their previously long-lost tip.
Sunday was spent touring Oxford. Another beautiful college town with very old buildings, many featured in Harry Potter books. I loved seeing the pub that has been open since 1242. We all really liked Oxford but agree with everyone who said Cambridge is nicer. It is. After Oxford we went to Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill. Unbelievable. Definitely one of the nicest palaces we've ever been to. The rooms were amazing, it was in great shape...Beautiful.
The last adventure of the weekend was figuring out how to navigate small english towns to take "backroads" to Stansted to return the car. We'd heard so many horror stories about driving back through London, that we did what we could to avoid it. Unfortunately our map was terrible, but we had a good adventure of it all.
All-in-all a fantastic weekend...but now we need to plan another trip to Berlin. And apologize to Mary Core and her friend (who we were to meet there) who did get to enjoy Berlin.
Ted
Completely exhausted, angry, deflated, confused...we sat in the airport contemplating what to do next. We looked at all of the airlines and found no flights to Berlin for less than 200 pounds. We decided it would be kinda stupid to pay another $1500 for us all to go to Berlin. Rather than going home to go back to bed we figured we were already packed, so we may as well go somewhere. So we walked over to Budget car rental and rented a car. Why not take a tour of the English countryside....plus I can now learn how to drive on the left side of the road.
Our first stop was Cambridge, a mere 30 minutes from Stanted airport. We figured we could stop there and get a book on England, have breakfast and coffee and plot our course. Cambridge was certainly a beautiful town with all of the colleges of the university. We were fortunate that despite the rain on the drive up, the skies opened up and we enjoyed a beautiful mid-day in Cambridge. I even pulled my best impression of my dad by managing to get a quick nap in in the middle of the bookstore and again on the punts on the canal behind all of the buildings.
With my two short naps, I was ready to go. Next stop Stratford on Avon, home of the Bard. Erin worked the books and phones and found a new hotel for us to stay in. We arrived in Stratford aroung 5pm and all felt that if we napped before dinner we were done for the night. Instead we checked into the White Swan in, an inn since before the Americas were founded (1450), right in the middle of town. We had a hard time finding it though because it was in the center of a town carnival with rides galore. After dinner, we rode the bumper cars about five times, all three of us laughing like 5 year olds as we slammed into each other. Dick and I also went on a ride that was a small steel cage hooked to two bungy cords stretched 100 feet in the air that shot the cage straight up like a cannon. Erin took a video which I will figure out how to attach. It was a blast...
After a solid 12 hours of sleep, we toured Stratford on the common double decker tour bus, and toured the birthplace of Shakespeare. Next we were back in the car to figure out where to go next. First stop was the Warwick Castle. This was an amazing midevil castle run by the Tausaud's so the castle was filled with wax figures. I thought it was a little weird with the figures, but it was a very cool castle. One of the highlights was a giant Trebuchet set-up out on the lawn where we got to witness them shoot a flaming ball about 1/4 mile. We'll try to attach the video of that as well.
Next stop was the Cotswolds. We piled back in our right hand drive car and started cruising around the Cotswolds (english for cute little towns in idyllic settings). We stayed in the tiny town of Witney at a great little hotel. While we were checking in the restaurant looked fantastic so we all went up to rest for a minute before heading down to eat. Unfortunately, the restaurant was booked solid until 10:15p (it was about 7 now). But they gave us a few recommendations in town (english, thai and Indian). First stop english, booked. Next thai...booked. next indian...booked. There were only about 5 restaurants in town, all booked solid. Just before we were to settle on the "American Pizza/chicken/kabob" house, we went down one more street. There we found a hotel with a dining room...and a few open tables. The service was absolutely horrible, and fortunately they overheard me talking about it. Midway through we got the most attentive service and they redeemed their previously long-lost tip.
Sunday was spent touring Oxford. Another beautiful college town with very old buildings, many featured in Harry Potter books. I loved seeing the pub that has been open since 1242. We all really liked Oxford but agree with everyone who said Cambridge is nicer. It is. After Oxford we went to Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill. Unbelievable. Definitely one of the nicest palaces we've ever been to. The rooms were amazing, it was in great shape...Beautiful.
The last adventure of the weekend was figuring out how to navigate small english towns to take "backroads" to Stansted to return the car. We'd heard so many horror stories about driving back through London, that we did what we could to avoid it. Unfortunately our map was terrible, but we had a good adventure of it all.
All-in-all a fantastic weekend...but now we need to plan another trip to Berlin. And apologize to Mary Core and her friend (who we were to meet there) who did get to enjoy Berlin.
Ted
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Lots of company
Finally Amy Faber emailed me today to demand an update to the blog...and ask what happened to the pictures. Amy, this update's for you.
We've been busy with visitors for the last few weeks. The day after Brian left Kevin and Katie Davis from Hitachi spent the night here on their return to Seattle from France. The next day my Mom and her friend Linda arrived.
We had a great visit with them including a big tour of our favorite spots in London. They learned how to use the Nespresso maker, ate shwarmas, went to the flower market, saw a play, rode the big bus around london...ate more...walked more. One of the highlights was dropping in on a little Yemeni place for dinner. You may be surprised, but that was my first Yemeni restuarant experience. The other surprise was that Erin, Ma and Linda were the only three women in the entire restaurant that was packed with Yemeni's. Linda coined it "No Womeni, Yemeni" (which sounds funny if you say it quickly). It was really great to have them here. Always great to get a little dose of home and make sure your mother knows where you live.
Not long after all of them left, Erin's dad Dick arrived in London. He arrived on Thursday last week. The highlight of the trip so far was that we all went and saw Spamalot on Saturday. For those of you who don't know, it is based on Monty Python's Holy Grail. It was fantastic from start to finish. The star of the show was Tim Curry (of Rocky Horror Picture Show fame). See it if you get the chance.
The next big adventure is this weekend when the three of us get on a 6:05am flight (from Stansted; a couple of hours by tube and train away) to Berlin. I can't wait, I've wanted to go to Berlin for a long time. It will be fun to have Dick along too who hasn't been to Berlin since 1959...I bet it's changed...
We're now planning our next big adventure as well. November's big trip is going to be to Iceland! I know what you're thinking, "Iceland in November?" Reykjavik is actually home to countless hot springs and spas. We see it as a restful place to relax, eat and drink... Admit it, it sounds nice. Here is a link to the Blue Lagoon which convinced us to go.
As you can see, I've also updated the photos. I hope you like. If you read all this, drop me a line, or add a comment. It's fun to know who's reading. I do have a site tracker and can see the city of people visiting and how they found the page. The best so far was someone who googled "Kirsten Nesholm" and found our page. Kirsten, you have a stalker!!
Look forward to talking more soon,
Ted
We've been busy with visitors for the last few weeks. The day after Brian left Kevin and Katie Davis from Hitachi spent the night here on their return to Seattle from France. The next day my Mom and her friend Linda arrived.
We had a great visit with them including a big tour of our favorite spots in London. They learned how to use the Nespresso maker, ate shwarmas, went to the flower market, saw a play, rode the big bus around london...ate more...walked more. One of the highlights was dropping in on a little Yemeni place for dinner. You may be surprised, but that was my first Yemeni restuarant experience. The other surprise was that Erin, Ma and Linda were the only three women in the entire restaurant that was packed with Yemeni's. Linda coined it "No Womeni, Yemeni" (which sounds funny if you say it quickly). It was really great to have them here. Always great to get a little dose of home and make sure your mother knows where you live.
Not long after all of them left, Erin's dad Dick arrived in London. He arrived on Thursday last week. The highlight of the trip so far was that we all went and saw Spamalot on Saturday. For those of you who don't know, it is based on Monty Python's Holy Grail. It was fantastic from start to finish. The star of the show was Tim Curry (of Rocky Horror Picture Show fame). See it if you get the chance.
The next big adventure is this weekend when the three of us get on a 6:05am flight (from Stansted; a couple of hours by tube and train away) to Berlin. I can't wait, I've wanted to go to Berlin for a long time. It will be fun to have Dick along too who hasn't been to Berlin since 1959...I bet it's changed...
We're now planning our next big adventure as well. November's big trip is going to be to Iceland! I know what you're thinking, "Iceland in November?" Reykjavik is actually home to countless hot springs and spas. We see it as a restful place to relax, eat and drink... Admit it, it sounds nice. Here is a link to the Blue Lagoon which convinced us to go.
As you can see, I've also updated the photos. I hope you like. If you read all this, drop me a line, or add a comment. It's fun to know who's reading. I do have a site tracker and can see the city of people visiting and how they found the page. The best so far was someone who googled "Kirsten Nesholm" and found our page. Kirsten, you have a stalker!!
Look forward to talking more soon,
Ted
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Scotland
This past weekend we went to Scotland and it was fantastic. Cimp, Erin and I flew out to Edinburgh on Wednesday night after work. After arriving late, we went out for a late night pint and met a bombed local who told us we needed to go to the Trussochs and Borders....at least 27 different times. It became the running joke for the rest of the trip.
On Thursday, the three of us drove to St. Andrews so that Cimp and I could get our name on the list to play golf on Friday. Unfortunately, the Old Course was closed for a tournament, but we were able to get our name down for Friday on the New Course. Turns out the new course was established in 1895! The entire time we were there on Thursday it rained. We were dedicated to playing on Friday, so we spent the afternoon looking at all of the local golf shops for rain gear. I decided to wait until Friday to buy rain gear since it was so expensive.
After leaving St. Andrews, we wanted to try to play 9 holes on Thursday to help justify why Erin and I shipped our clubs. We went to a small course about 10 miles south of St. Andrews called Anstruther. When we got out of the car in the empty parking lot that held 10 cars at most, we weren't sure what the round would be like. The course did hug the coast though, so we had high hopes. After paying our 12 pound green fee we set off. The course was simply spectacular. It hugged the coast, had a castle/turret on the second hole (that served as a backstop for my approach). It continued to go up and down near the water, one spectacular hole after another. We had amazing time. Even better, it didn't rain a drop during our two hours on the course! On the drive home the skies opened up and rained all night long.
Cimp and I decided we would get up early to play St. Andrews. We were prepared for a wet day on such a famous course. When we left the hotel, there were only high thin clouds. We were both too nervous to jinx ourselves so neither of us discussed the weather for the entire 1 1/2 hour drive...but it kept getting sunnier. As we were about 10 miles from the course, we could see the entire coast absolutely socked in by big clouds. Of course it would rain. After putting on eight layers, winter cap in the bag, a little sunscreen just in case, we set off. It didn't rain a drop! In fact it was about 75 degrees and we were mad we weren't wearing shorts. My biggest problem was what to use to wipe the sweat off of my head.
The day was absolutely fantastic. We played St. Andrews...hard, rolling fairways, littered with pot bunkers and gorse on the sides. There wasn't a range near by though, so we went off cold. At least that's what I'm attributing to my 122. Cimp shot 88. Would have been better but an eagle putt that turned into a birdie putt...then a par putt, then a.... Needless to say the next drive didn't help.
We drove back to Edinburgh to meet up with Erin and Honor (who flew in Friday for the weekend). We toured Edinburgh on Friday afternoon, went out for a great dinner and hit a couple of local pubs. On Saturday...it rained.
Saturday we toured the Edinburgh castle before loading into the rental car for our Erin-guided tour of Scotland. Cimp quickly got the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road...he only ran over the curb a few times. It was nice to have a driver and a tour guide.
We went to the town of Perth and visited the Scone Castle and grounds. We then rented a couple of rooms in a local B&B. Cimp and me in one room, Erin and Honor in the other. It was a debate about how to split them up. One had it's own bathroom, but only one bed. The other had a bed and a day-bed, but no bathroom, it was shared in the hall. Cimp and I had the no bathroom. Apparently Erin and Honor's room was 200 degrees and they didn't share a bed well...I slept great, not what they wanted to hear.
On a recommendation from the host of the B&B, Saturday night we went to a local restaurant that we think was the predecessor of Chile's or TGIF with memorabilia on the walls. OUr hopes were low, but it was great. We followed that with a couple of pubs and dancing. There was a guy at one club who looked just like Jack Black, but danced like Michael Jackson. He was amazing and created a great time.
On Sunday we got up to head for Aberdeen where Erin, Honor and I left Cimp on his own. On the way we took an amazing drive through Scottish mountains and ski areas that were gorgeous. On a stroke of luck we were near Balmoral Castle, but were running late so decided not to stop. When we were driving by though we saw a bunch of people on the side of the road with several police officers. In the middle of nowhere. So of course we parked the car and went to see what the fuss was about. The Queen was across the street in church and was about to drive down the road to the castle where she was staying. We stood there for two minutes and there she was in her Rolls Royce waving to us all. Very cool.
The next stop on the Erin tour of Scotland was the Dunottar Castle on the coast near Stonehaven, south of Aberdeen. This was an amazing castle surrounded by water on three sides. Truly breathtaking.
After Dunottar, Cimp left us at the airport in Aberdeen before heading off for a couple of more days of golfing famous Scottish courses. I've been jealous back at work this week knowing the fun he's having. He gets back in London tonight before headed home to Seattle on Saturday.
Scotland was fantastic...I look forward to going back soon.
Ted
On Thursday, the three of us drove to St. Andrews so that Cimp and I could get our name on the list to play golf on Friday. Unfortunately, the Old Course was closed for a tournament, but we were able to get our name down for Friday on the New Course. Turns out the new course was established in 1895! The entire time we were there on Thursday it rained. We were dedicated to playing on Friday, so we spent the afternoon looking at all of the local golf shops for rain gear. I decided to wait until Friday to buy rain gear since it was so expensive.
After leaving St. Andrews, we wanted to try to play 9 holes on Thursday to help justify why Erin and I shipped our clubs. We went to a small course about 10 miles south of St. Andrews called Anstruther. When we got out of the car in the empty parking lot that held 10 cars at most, we weren't sure what the round would be like. The course did hug the coast though, so we had high hopes. After paying our 12 pound green fee we set off. The course was simply spectacular. It hugged the coast, had a castle/turret on the second hole (that served as a backstop for my approach). It continued to go up and down near the water, one spectacular hole after another. We had amazing time. Even better, it didn't rain a drop during our two hours on the course! On the drive home the skies opened up and rained all night long.
Cimp and I decided we would get up early to play St. Andrews. We were prepared for a wet day on such a famous course. When we left the hotel, there were only high thin clouds. We were both too nervous to jinx ourselves so neither of us discussed the weather for the entire 1 1/2 hour drive...but it kept getting sunnier. As we were about 10 miles from the course, we could see the entire coast absolutely socked in by big clouds. Of course it would rain. After putting on eight layers, winter cap in the bag, a little sunscreen just in case, we set off. It didn't rain a drop! In fact it was about 75 degrees and we were mad we weren't wearing shorts. My biggest problem was what to use to wipe the sweat off of my head.
The day was absolutely fantastic. We played St. Andrews...hard, rolling fairways, littered with pot bunkers and gorse on the sides. There wasn't a range near by though, so we went off cold. At least that's what I'm attributing to my 122. Cimp shot 88. Would have been better but an eagle putt that turned into a birdie putt...then a par putt, then a.... Needless to say the next drive didn't help.
We drove back to Edinburgh to meet up with Erin and Honor (who flew in Friday for the weekend). We toured Edinburgh on Friday afternoon, went out for a great dinner and hit a couple of local pubs. On Saturday...it rained.
Saturday we toured the Edinburgh castle before loading into the rental car for our Erin-guided tour of Scotland. Cimp quickly got the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road...he only ran over the curb a few times. It was nice to have a driver and a tour guide.
We went to the town of Perth and visited the Scone Castle and grounds. We then rented a couple of rooms in a local B&B. Cimp and me in one room, Erin and Honor in the other. It was a debate about how to split them up. One had it's own bathroom, but only one bed. The other had a bed and a day-bed, but no bathroom, it was shared in the hall. Cimp and I had the no bathroom. Apparently Erin and Honor's room was 200 degrees and they didn't share a bed well...I slept great, not what they wanted to hear.
On a recommendation from the host of the B&B, Saturday night we went to a local restaurant that we think was the predecessor of Chile's or TGIF with memorabilia on the walls. OUr hopes were low, but it was great. We followed that with a couple of pubs and dancing. There was a guy at one club who looked just like Jack Black, but danced like Michael Jackson. He was amazing and created a great time.
On Sunday we got up to head for Aberdeen where Erin, Honor and I left Cimp on his own. On the way we took an amazing drive through Scottish mountains and ski areas that were gorgeous. On a stroke of luck we were near Balmoral Castle, but were running late so decided not to stop. When we were driving by though we saw a bunch of people on the side of the road with several police officers. In the middle of nowhere. So of course we parked the car and went to see what the fuss was about. The Queen was across the street in church and was about to drive down the road to the castle where she was staying. We stood there for two minutes and there she was in her Rolls Royce waving to us all. Very cool.
The next stop on the Erin tour of Scotland was the Dunottar Castle on the coast near Stonehaven, south of Aberdeen. This was an amazing castle surrounded by water on three sides. Truly breathtaking.
After Dunottar, Cimp left us at the airport in Aberdeen before heading off for a couple of more days of golfing famous Scottish courses. I've been jealous back at work this week knowing the fun he's having. He gets back in London tonight before headed home to Seattle on Saturday.
Scotland was fantastic...I look forward to going back soon.
Ted
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Wicked
Last night we saw something truly worth writing home about. We went to see Wicked. Anyone coming to London should consider seeing it. It was amazingly done with great costumes, creative storyline and amazing performances. The absolute highlight was the star of the show was Idina Menzel the wicked witch of the west. She won a Tony award for her performance in the show in New York. She absolutely knocked our socks off.
We were able to see the show with Cimp, Jen Bradshaw and her two friends from Seattle. Unfortunately all of our friends recently arrived from Seattle and were suffering from jet lag. Good thing the show was so good to keep them all from having an expensive nap.
Cimp, Erin and I are off to Scotland tonight for a few days of golf and touring. More to come soon.
Ted
We were able to see the show with Cimp, Jen Bradshaw and her two friends from Seattle. Unfortunately all of our friends recently arrived from Seattle and were suffering from jet lag. Good thing the show was so good to keep them all from having an expensive nap.
Cimp, Erin and I are off to Scotland tonight for a few days of golf and touring. More to come soon.
Ted
Thursday, September 07, 2006
New photo feature
Check out the cool new photo feature on the right. Fancy, huh? I'll add more there when we get them.
I'm not sure how it all works, but you can hover over a picture and get the title and then click on a photo for more options.
Let me know if there is other cool stuff I should add. I think there is a way you can subscribe to the blog so that when I post something, you get an email. I'll look into that next...
I'm not sure how it all works, but you can hover over a picture and get the title and then click on a photo for more options.
Let me know if there is other cool stuff I should add. I think there is a way you can subscribe to the blog so that when I post something, you get an email. I'll look into that next...
Bavaria
This past weekend Erin and I spent a long weekend cruising around Bavaria. Erin had to be in Munich for meetings this week, so I went along on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with her and see a little of southern Germany. It was fantastic...one of the best trips we've had.
We started in Munich on Friday. We wandered around town, ate dinner at a traditional bavarian restaurant. In an effort at being brave I ate pork knuckles. Good, tasted like pork. After that we went to the requisite Hofbrauhaus for enormous beers. Not sure if it was the knuckles or the enormous beer, but it was a bit of a rough night....had to be the knuckles.
On Saturday we rented a car. We drove south on the autobahn to a small town called Bad Tolz. The autobahn was amazing. Our sporty little Fiat shook and rattled along at about 80 mph and we were passed like we were standing still by BMWs, Mercedes, Fords, Porsches...fun to watch. Would have been more fun to be a real car...look for the picture of the little fiat.
Bad Tolz was a very cute little town in the middle of the mountains. Bad means spa and we're never ones to turn down a spa. This one was a little different. The Alpamare spa was really a water park. It featured a few hot pools outside, but also had very fun water slides, a wave pool and a very cool surfing pool. It was fantastic running around like kids with a bunch of kids. Being in the middle of Germany no fear of running into anyone we knew. Fantastic.
The next day we did a day of castles. Both of the castles we saw were built by King Ludwig II who was quite the eccentric. He liked to model everything after Wagner operas. One was the Linderhof built in the middle of knowwhere and modeled on Versailles. The second was Neuschwanstein the model for the Disney Sleeping Beauty castle. It was amazingly nestled in the mountains and it was one castle you really need to work for. There was quite the straight uphill hike to get to it. Seemed even harder after all that work on water slides the day before.
On our way to Neuschwanstein, we got to drive through the tip of Austria, in the alps, as well. It was gorgeous. We've talked about going skiing sometime this winter, and the trip through the alps confirmed that we'll be back in the alps once the snow starts.
We started in Munich on Friday. We wandered around town, ate dinner at a traditional bavarian restaurant. In an effort at being brave I ate pork knuckles. Good, tasted like pork. After that we went to the requisite Hofbrauhaus for enormous beers. Not sure if it was the knuckles or the enormous beer, but it was a bit of a rough night....had to be the knuckles.
On Saturday we rented a car. We drove south on the autobahn to a small town called Bad Tolz. The autobahn was amazing. Our sporty little Fiat shook and rattled along at about 80 mph and we were passed like we were standing still by BMWs, Mercedes, Fords, Porsches...fun to watch. Would have been more fun to be a real car...look for the picture of the little fiat.
Bad Tolz was a very cute little town in the middle of the mountains. Bad means spa and we're never ones to turn down a spa. This one was a little different. The Alpamare spa was really a water park. It featured a few hot pools outside, but also had very fun water slides, a wave pool and a very cool surfing pool. It was fantastic running around like kids with a bunch of kids. Being in the middle of Germany no fear of running into anyone we knew. Fantastic.
The next day we did a day of castles. Both of the castles we saw were built by King Ludwig II who was quite the eccentric. He liked to model everything after Wagner operas. One was the Linderhof built in the middle of knowwhere and modeled on Versailles. The second was Neuschwanstein the model for the Disney Sleeping Beauty castle. It was amazingly nestled in the mountains and it was one castle you really need to work for. There was quite the straight uphill hike to get to it. Seemed even harder after all that work on water slides the day before.
On our way to Neuschwanstein, we got to drive through the tip of Austria, in the alps, as well. It was gorgeous. We've talked about going skiing sometime this winter, and the trip through the alps confirmed that we'll be back in the alps once the snow starts.
Notting Hill Carnival
Sorry for the delays in updates...I know, common theme. So much activity, I've been a little delayed.
Erin's cousin Scott and his girlfriend Reut were in town over the bank holiday weekend (the week before US Labor Day). We had a great time wandering through Camden Market and throughout London. Scott and Reut (pronouced Ray oot) live in Amsterdam, though Scott is getting ready to move to Palo Alto to begin his PhD program at Stanford. We are very impressed. Our only hope is that he can finish and explain to us what computational linguistics is.
While they were in town we went to the Notting Hill Carnival which was not far from our house. The carnival is carribean themed and typically attracts about a million people to the Notting Hill neighborhood. Everyone at work who's been said that it is something we should go to once... It was fun, but a million people is a zoo. One of the most amazing things is that there were no trash cans at all, but tons of trash. I know there aren't a lot of trash cans in a lot of places due to terrorism bomb fears. I'm not sure if that is the same reason as no trash cans there, but I am assuming so. The other amazing feature was the sound systems that were everywhere. Bob Marley was cranking at full volume from massive semi-trucks loaded with speakers surrounded by dancers in full costume.
Unfortunately Scott and Reut couldn't handle the noise and crowd, but Jen, Erin and I drank rum punch, ate jerk chicken and danced the night away. Tons of fun, and some great pictures to prove it.
While it was fun, I think I got my one trip in...not high on the priority list for future years.
Ted
Erin's cousin Scott and his girlfriend Reut were in town over the bank holiday weekend (the week before US Labor Day). We had a great time wandering through Camden Market and throughout London. Scott and Reut (pronouced Ray oot) live in Amsterdam, though Scott is getting ready to move to Palo Alto to begin his PhD program at Stanford. We are very impressed. Our only hope is that he can finish and explain to us what computational linguistics is.
While they were in town we went to the Notting Hill Carnival which was not far from our house. The carnival is carribean themed and typically attracts about a million people to the Notting Hill neighborhood. Everyone at work who's been said that it is something we should go to once... It was fun, but a million people is a zoo. One of the most amazing things is that there were no trash cans at all, but tons of trash. I know there aren't a lot of trash cans in a lot of places due to terrorism bomb fears. I'm not sure if that is the same reason as no trash cans there, but I am assuming so. The other amazing feature was the sound systems that were everywhere. Bob Marley was cranking at full volume from massive semi-trucks loaded with speakers surrounded by dancers in full costume.
Unfortunately Scott and Reut couldn't handle the noise and crowd, but Jen, Erin and I drank rum punch, ate jerk chicken and danced the night away. Tons of fun, and some great pictures to prove it.
While it was fun, I think I got my one trip in...not high on the priority list for future years.
Ted
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Blog upgrade
I upgraded the blog today to a new version from Blogger. I'm not sure what that means yet, except that I finally saw that I need to "approve" comments, no wonder none showed up. All of the comments are now listed.
Be on the lookout for other changes. I am trying to figure out how to make it send you updates when it is updated...I'm still learning.
Ted
Be on the lookout for other changes. I am trying to figure out how to make it send you updates when it is updated...I'm still learning.
Ted
Bath
This past weekend, we decided we need to see more of the UK, more day trips. We decided to go to Bath, which is about a 90 minute train ride west of London. It was fantastic.
The key feature of Bath is that it is the site of Roman baths from about 2000 years ago. We went on a tour of the original roman baths, and it was amazing to see something that old. The most amazing things about the site for me were the fact that original pool has a lead liner, two inches thick, to protect ground water from entering the bath. Still water tight...2000 years later. The other was a story about how they lined one pool with concrete...but that with the fall of the Roman empire, the formula for concrete was lost for 1000 years. Doesn't sound like a "hot" technology, but amazingly interesting...at least to me. The last point of interest was that the Roman bath was covered over by houses for 1300 years, to be discovered again in the 18th century. Now that it has been excavated, it looks like it could easily be converted into a working bath now. It was amazing.
Not only were the Roman baths amazing, but Bath itself was a very lovely little town. Bath is a very cute town, great restaurants and a ton of shopping. We also went to a modern day spa/steam place, Thermae Spa - a very relaxing way to start a daytrip. I highly recommend a daytrip to Bath for anyone coming to visit. Stonehenge is also near by, although we didn't make it there.
The key feature of Bath is that it is the site of Roman baths from about 2000 years ago. We went on a tour of the original roman baths, and it was amazing to see something that old. The most amazing things about the site for me were the fact that original pool has a lead liner, two inches thick, to protect ground water from entering the bath. Still water tight...2000 years later. The other was a story about how they lined one pool with concrete...but that with the fall of the Roman empire, the formula for concrete was lost for 1000 years. Doesn't sound like a "hot" technology, but amazingly interesting...at least to me. The last point of interest was that the Roman bath was covered over by houses for 1300 years, to be discovered again in the 18th century. Now that it has been excavated, it looks like it could easily be converted into a working bath now. It was amazing.
Not only were the Roman baths amazing, but Bath itself was a very lovely little town. Bath is a very cute town, great restaurants and a ton of shopping. We also went to a modern day spa/steam place, Thermae Spa - a very relaxing way to start a daytrip. I highly recommend a daytrip to Bath for anyone coming to visit. Stonehenge is also near by, although we didn't make it there.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Material Girl
Erin's dream came true last night. We went to see Madonna's concert here in London. I'll save all the details for her to retell, but it was a pretty amazing spectacle. It was actually her birthday yesterday...she's 48! She performed at a pretty high energy level for almost 2 hours.
Like any big show, there were lulls, and a big finish in the end. The best part to me was seeing all of the dancers/acrobats, they were pretty amazing. I also liked seeing how Madonna would try to shock the crowd. Is coming out on a giant crucifix with a thorn wreath controversial? I think the only thing really controversial was that someone would be surprised by anything she would do.
All in all, a great show. Not sure it was really worth the outrageous price, but good.
Like any big show, there were lulls, and a big finish in the end. The best part to me was seeing all of the dancers/acrobats, they were pretty amazing. I also liked seeing how Madonna would try to shock the crowd. Is coming out on a giant crucifix with a thorn wreath controversial? I think the only thing really controversial was that someone would be surprised by anything she would do.
All in all, a great show. Not sure it was really worth the outrageous price, but good.
Riding a bike can be dangerous
My newest pleasure in London is riding my new bike around. After shopping in the US and planning to bring one back, I finally realized they were just as cheap in the UK. I bought a new Trek commuter bike. It's pretty nice for a basic, cheap bike...all black, with a rear rack and panier bag. Very practical for riding to work, which I do almost everyday. Better to get sweaty on the bike rather than just standing in the tube. Plus, it's fun to ride through Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, around Trafalgar Square and up to work. Probably about 25 minutes each way - a little bit faster than taking the tube door to door.
I had my first minor accident yesterday though. After Erin said goodbye and told me to be careful, I pulled the door closed and pinched my finger. (If you've been to our place, you'll remember (or will see eventually) that there is no doorknob. You need to reach your hand inside the mail slot and pull.) I started riding and realized my finger was bleeding. I looked at it and realized the pinch in the mail slot cut my finger nail in half...about halfway down my nail. It's pretty gross.
But, I guess that could really be a tube injury as well. I guess I better focus my safety search on gloves rather than a helmet.
I had my first minor accident yesterday though. After Erin said goodbye and told me to be careful, I pulled the door closed and pinched my finger. (If you've been to our place, you'll remember (or will see eventually) that there is no doorknob. You need to reach your hand inside the mail slot and pull.) I started riding and realized my finger was bleeding. I looked at it and realized the pinch in the mail slot cut my finger nail in half...about halfway down my nail. It's pretty gross.
But, I guess that could really be a tube injury as well. I guess I better focus my safety search on gloves rather than a helmet.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Many visitors
We have had a ton of visitors recently. It's amazing how central London is to the rest of the world and how people find their way to our little Mew.
Kirsten Nesholm stayed with us for a weekend after she roughed it in the south of France for a couple of weeks on her summer vacation. We had a great time wandering around, eating great food, and she and Erin hit the shopping districts pretty hard. Here's a picture of her and Erin.
We also had the good fortune to have Erin's friend, Karen Nachbar, from Cornell in town on business with Morgan Stanley, and is a total foodie (though she thinks that is a derogatory term, but I don't understand why) and made reservations at quite possibly the best restaurant we've ever been to,The Fat Duck....definitely the priciest. It was phenomenal. We actually had Smoked Bacon and Egg Ice Cream ...very good and sardine sorbet...interesting... We're eating a lot of Mac and cheese to make up for the bill though.
After she left, Kirk Johnson, a former Hitachio, now a big cheese at Jobster.com, was here for work as well. We met up at a gastropub in Chelsea. More great food and a couple of Guiness to make sure he could get over the jet lag....
And last, but not least, Kurt Weber from Seattle was in town, also in for Microsoft work. We hit the town on Friday and Saturday nights. After a long week, Erin and I begged out leaving Kurt and Eddie at the bar at about 1am on Friday night (Saturday morning). We saw Kurt again on Saturday and he regaled us with stories involving Polish supermodels, after hour clubs and 6am finishes...and I actually believe him. He had to check out of his hotel early and after I left my phone off inadvertantly on Saturday he wandered over and quickly invited himself to take a nap before doing anything else.
It's been great to see everyone here. We're slow on the visitors for awhile...but feel free to look at the calendar at the bottom of the page for updates on future arrivals.
Ted
Kirsten Nesholm stayed with us for a weekend after she roughed it in the south of France for a couple of weeks on her summer vacation. We had a great time wandering around, eating great food, and she and Erin hit the shopping districts pretty hard. Here's a picture of her and Erin.
We also had the good fortune to have Erin's friend, Karen Nachbar, from Cornell in town on business with Morgan Stanley, and is a total foodie (though she thinks that is a derogatory term, but I don't understand why) and made reservations at quite possibly the best restaurant we've ever been to,The Fat Duck....definitely the priciest. It was phenomenal. We actually had Smoked Bacon and Egg Ice Cream ...very good and sardine sorbet...interesting... We're eating a lot of Mac and cheese to make up for the bill though.
After she left, Kirk Johnson, a former Hitachio, now a big cheese at Jobster.com, was here for work as well. We met up at a gastropub in Chelsea. More great food and a couple of Guiness to make sure he could get over the jet lag....
And last, but not least, Kurt Weber from Seattle was in town, also in for Microsoft work. We hit the town on Friday and Saturday nights. After a long week, Erin and I begged out leaving Kurt and Eddie at the bar at about 1am on Friday night (Saturday morning). We saw Kurt again on Saturday and he regaled us with stories involving Polish supermodels, after hour clubs and 6am finishes...and I actually believe him. He had to check out of his hotel early and after I left my phone off inadvertantly on Saturday he wandered over and quickly invited himself to take a nap before doing anything else.
It's been great to see everyone here. We're slow on the visitors for awhile...but feel free to look at the calendar at the bottom of the page for updates on future arrivals.
Ted
Monday, August 07, 2006
Praha
This weekend’s big adventure took us to Prague. I was very excited about going after all of the wonderful things I’d heard about it. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed. I definitely thought Prague had beautiful architecture; the buildings, churches, bridges were all amazing. I think the weather didn’t help my impression much because it was cool, grey and rainy all three days. I guess I thought Prague would be hipper than it turned out to be.
I spent a lot of time wandering around wondering what it is that makes a city seem cool or interesting to me. I’ve certainly thought about the contribution of architecture to coolness, but that must not be it, because there isn’t much architecture better than Prague.
The conclusion I came too is that a cool city is defined by the people who live there and what they are up to. I guess it’s why I (and everyone else) love college towns. There is generally such vibrancy and youth that it infects the rest of the town. I could still feel the impacts of being a former communist state and what it must have been like to live there through the cold war and the soviet occupation. There still wasn’t a lot of new going on there, other than tourist trap restaurants and more caricature artist than the county fair. Even though we saw the castle, the gothic churches in the main square, the old jewish cemetery, I left each of them thinking, where is the soul and the culture? Did it go away with the communists? I have, however, started reading more about Prague to see what I’ve missed. I’ve been reading the Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, It is definitely helping to add another dimension to something I missed in Prague.
It could just be my own ignorance about the cool, hip, soulful and cultural things in Prague, but it made me like London a little bit more. When we got off of the train near our flat, Erin stated how boring the buildings were compared to Prague, but I noticed the hustle and bustle of the city. In that first block I found that I think I like London better than Prague. Who woulda thought?
In other travel news, Erin and I forgot to bring the camera…again. I don’t know why we can’t remember to take it places. We purchased disposable camera number two. It’s hard enough for us to download pictures from our camera when we do take it, but to develop film and then scan them into the computer, you’ll have to see Prague pictures when you come to visit.
Ted
I spent a lot of time wandering around wondering what it is that makes a city seem cool or interesting to me. I’ve certainly thought about the contribution of architecture to coolness, but that must not be it, because there isn’t much architecture better than Prague.
The conclusion I came too is that a cool city is defined by the people who live there and what they are up to. I guess it’s why I (and everyone else) love college towns. There is generally such vibrancy and youth that it infects the rest of the town. I could still feel the impacts of being a former communist state and what it must have been like to live there through the cold war and the soviet occupation. There still wasn’t a lot of new going on there, other than tourist trap restaurants and more caricature artist than the county fair. Even though we saw the castle, the gothic churches in the main square, the old jewish cemetery, I left each of them thinking, where is the soul and the culture? Did it go away with the communists? I have, however, started reading more about Prague to see what I’ve missed. I’ve been reading the Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, It is definitely helping to add another dimension to something I missed in Prague.
It could just be my own ignorance about the cool, hip, soulful and cultural things in Prague, but it made me like London a little bit more. When we got off of the train near our flat, Erin stated how boring the buildings were compared to Prague, but I noticed the hustle and bustle of the city. In that first block I found that I think I like London better than Prague. Who woulda thought?
In other travel news, Erin and I forgot to bring the camera…again. I don’t know why we can’t remember to take it places. We purchased disposable camera number two. It’s hard enough for us to download pictures from our camera when we do take it, but to develop film and then scan them into the computer, you’ll have to see Prague pictures when you come to visit.
Ted
Sunday, July 30, 2006
What we've been up to
Other than the pics I put up today, it's been awhile since we've checked in. We've been busy. We had a great trip back to the US. We had to return to get our work permits finalized. So we are no longer "on vacation" while in London - we are official workers.
We spent four days in NYC visiting Erin's college friends and celebrating the coming birth of Cindy and Shamil's first kid. It was a great time seeing everyone, meeting Laurel's boyfriend Mark and generally having fun. Mark, Shamil and I avoided most of the baby shower stuff since Shamil hooked us up with tickets to a taping of Conan O'Brian and then a trip to the Bronx for a Yankee game. We were also lucky to stay in Greenwich Village at an apartment of a friend of Cindy's who was out of town. So cool to hang out in NYC for a few days, even though it was so hot outside.
After NYC we went to Seattle for a week. It was a little weird to drive by our house and stay at Brian's house a couple of blocks away, but it was great to be back in Seattle. It definitely felt like home. We had an extremely busy week of work, meetings, dinners, catching up with friends etc. The highlights included meeting Kirk and Jen's new arrival Zoey, hanging out at Brian's house including a weekend BBQ he hosted for us, a great dinner at Jen Wells' house in the garden with other Hitachios, hanging out at the Morris house and meeting new arrivals Elle Tindall and Bailey Morris. We spent Saturday morning with Dick and went to our house to "check-in" on Heather and Atria. They are doing a phenomenal job taking care of our house. Best renters we could have possibly gotten. Atria recently made screens for the windows and asked if it would be okay to strip and refinish the doors between the dining room and sun room....absolutely! Thanks Atria. Oh, and I also bought a new suit. Now I can really fit in in London.
Now we're back in London and officially over the jet lag. While I loved being home in Seattle, it reinforced how important it is for us to take full advantage of the time we have in Europe. To take advantage of the slow business time in August we've booked plans to go to Prague next weekend for a long weekend and are nailing down plans to go to Scotland with Cimp when he is in town in September. Golf and distillery tours, plus all the historical sites Erin will make us go to :) will be a blast. I also finally bought a bike. A week back in the sweltering tube made biking to work and elsewhere seem mandatory.
Sorry for the posting delays. I know some people would prefer briefer posts more often, so I'll try.
Ted
We spent four days in NYC visiting Erin's college friends and celebrating the coming birth of Cindy and Shamil's first kid. It was a great time seeing everyone, meeting Laurel's boyfriend Mark and generally having fun. Mark, Shamil and I avoided most of the baby shower stuff since Shamil hooked us up with tickets to a taping of Conan O'Brian and then a trip to the Bronx for a Yankee game. We were also lucky to stay in Greenwich Village at an apartment of a friend of Cindy's who was out of town. So cool to hang out in NYC for a few days, even though it was so hot outside.
After NYC we went to Seattle for a week. It was a little weird to drive by our house and stay at Brian's house a couple of blocks away, but it was great to be back in Seattle. It definitely felt like home. We had an extremely busy week of work, meetings, dinners, catching up with friends etc. The highlights included meeting Kirk and Jen's new arrival Zoey, hanging out at Brian's house including a weekend BBQ he hosted for us, a great dinner at Jen Wells' house in the garden with other Hitachios, hanging out at the Morris house and meeting new arrivals Elle Tindall and Bailey Morris. We spent Saturday morning with Dick and went to our house to "check-in" on Heather and Atria. They are doing a phenomenal job taking care of our house. Best renters we could have possibly gotten. Atria recently made screens for the windows and asked if it would be okay to strip and refinish the doors between the dining room and sun room....absolutely! Thanks Atria. Oh, and I also bought a new suit. Now I can really fit in in London.
Now we're back in London and officially over the jet lag. While I loved being home in Seattle, it reinforced how important it is for us to take full advantage of the time we have in Europe. To take advantage of the slow business time in August we've booked plans to go to Prague next weekend for a long weekend and are nailing down plans to go to Scotland with Cimp when he is in town in September. Golf and distillery tours, plus all the historical sites Erin will make us go to :) will be a blast. I also finally bought a bike. A week back in the sweltering tube made biking to work and elsewhere seem mandatory.
Sorry for the posting delays. I know some people would prefer briefer posts more often, so I'll try.
Ted
How about pictures?
Well, I guess my stall post didn't work. Here are the often requested pictures.
Erin and Ted on the Isle of Wight
Erin and Honor Smith (our Hitachi friend) at the Osbourne house on the Isle of Wight
Here come the Wimbledon photos. First David Han, Erin, Ted and David's friend Stephanie with our queing cards as we enter.
This is Maria Sharapova in practice round. It was cool how close we could get to the practice rounds. I know you may think this is kind of a lame picture, but you need it for the next one. Remember the orange shirt.
Now here is the famous picture of me and Maria Sharapova! I know you're jealous. Really, that's her, see the orange shirt in the background. Thanks to Erin for indulging me with this special remembrance of Wimbledon.
Erin, David and I enjoying the time honored tradition of breakfast at Wimbledon. Actually it was at 4pm during a rain delay. I have to admit that strawberries and cream is a bit overrated.
One more of the two of us at Wimbledon.
More pics to come soon....
Erin and Ted on the Isle of Wight
Erin and Honor Smith (our Hitachi friend) at the Osbourne house on the Isle of Wight
Here come the Wimbledon photos. First David Han, Erin, Ted and David's friend Stephanie with our queing cards as we enter.
This is Maria Sharapova in practice round. It was cool how close we could get to the practice rounds. I know you may think this is kind of a lame picture, but you need it for the next one. Remember the orange shirt.
Now here is the famous picture of me and Maria Sharapova! I know you're jealous. Really, that's her, see the orange shirt in the background. Thanks to Erin for indulging me with this special remembrance of Wimbledon.
Erin, David and I enjoying the time honored tradition of breakfast at Wimbledon. Actually it was at 4pm during a rain delay. I have to admit that strawberries and cream is a bit overrated.
One more of the two of us at Wimbledon.
More pics to come soon....
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Is this thing on?
We returned yesterday from a week and a half in the US (more later). I will also attach pictures soon as I finally found a way to get them off of my camera.
I really enjoyed talking to people while in the US who said they had been reading the blog. I was sure a couple of people were, but I can't really tell. You could, however, leave me a comment in the comment section. Right below each post is a place to comment (others can read it as well). Or you could send me an email, ted_corbett@hotmail.com. It would be interesting to know who actually looks at this. So if you're looking now, take a minute to post a comment and let's see who's actually reading this. I also appreciate ideas about what I should write about too. I've been told, for example, that I'm very detailed...I think that means shorten it up. Will do.
Ted
I really enjoyed talking to people while in the US who said they had been reading the blog. I was sure a couple of people were, but I can't really tell. You could, however, leave me a comment in the comment section. Right below each post is a place to comment (others can read it as well). Or you could send me an email, ted_corbett@hotmail.com. It would be interesting to know who actually looks at this. So if you're looking now, take a minute to post a comment and let's see who's actually reading this. I also appreciate ideas about what I should write about too. I've been told, for example, that I'm very detailed...I think that means shorten it up. Will do.
Ted
Monday, June 26, 2006
Wimbledon
Our friend from Hitachi, David Han, who also house sat for us when we were in India, is in London this week. One of his primary goals is to see Wimbledon while he is here. We agreed a couple of months ago that we would go with him on opening day, the 26th, to see the matches. After doing a ton of research online as to tickets, locations and times, we talked to him last night to agree to a plan. We found out that the matches were to begin at noon, and that we would need to get there early to get a grounds pass to get in. We could have camped out all night to get a seat in center court, but Erin and I agreed a grounds pass would suffice. David, of course didn't want to miss a moment and wanted us to meet him at 7am at the gates to wait in line. We agreed that we would meet him...some time after 9am. Three hours in line is enough devotion for us.
We went to bed, excited about the idea of Wimbledon the next day. Suddenly, the phone is ringing, and ringing, and ringing...by the time we realized that the sky wasn't falling we missed the phone. I went got my cell phone, assuming it was David and saw that there were two missed calls. One at 6:15 and one at 6:16. Only the ringing phone was the house phone, not the cell...make that one more missed call at 6:17. It was now 6:18 and I called David back. He informed us that it was raining and likely to rain all day. But that we should still try to go regardless. I said that sounded good...thanks for the update... and we'd call him back in "a couple of hours" after finishing sleeping. He asked what we were doing because he was bored....at 6:18 am. Afterall he had already gone for a run and needed something to do. He said he wasn't feeling any jet lag effects either after arriving yesterday afternoon. I hung up on him and went back to sleep.
Finally we got in touch with David around 9 (apparently he fell asleep again...ha!). We agreed that we should try to go to Wimbledon, because it wasn't raining as hard anymore. So Erin and I put our shorts (her skirt) and flip-flops on. Rain be damned! As we walked to the tube, there was no rain, just umbrellas in our shorts pockets. We may be getting lucky...The four of us, with David's friend Stephanie, made it out to Wimbledon after a brief 30 minute tube ride. We walked the mile from the tube and realized we missed the queue for the non ticket holders and began our walk back up the road. We found the queue and realized there wasn't actually a queue, only a security stop. We were in.
Quickly we were able to find seats at court 19 and watched the beginning of a match. It was 4 to 4 and 30 minutes in, when play was suspended. At first the warning on the PA said 1 to 2 hours. So we walked around. Eventually we found the practice courts and were able to watch Maria Hotapova, er, Sharapova take practice swings with her coach. I even was able to get my picture taken with her. Pictures coming as soon as I find the cable to connect my camera to the computer.
Following that we went to get autographs as even the practice courts were closed due to rain. As the players went to the locker room we were able to watch Leyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal, and a few other people we had no clue who they were walk by. We just weren't quick enough to get autographs. We did get a couple though. One we had no idea who it was, the other from Andy Murray, a young Brit.
We then spent about 45 minutes waiting in line for Wimbledon gear, then went for our requisite strawberries and cream....all while still waiting out the rain. We were so excited for the strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, that it took us until about half way through eating to realize, while shivering in wet shorts, that they are very overrated. Then the PA came back on and said play was likely to resume in another couple of hours...it was almost 4 already. We threw away the remaining cream, popped open the new Wimbledon umbrella and got on the bus back home. We'll look like grizzled veterans when we return in a few days with Wimbledon hats, tshirts and umbrellas....and jeans.
Overall it was exceptionally cool and we can't wait to try to go again. We will try to go one more day this week and possibly next week when Andy and Jen are in town. Grounds passes are a mere 17 pounds...really pretty cheap for a day of entertainment in London.
We went to bed, excited about the idea of Wimbledon the next day. Suddenly, the phone is ringing, and ringing, and ringing...by the time we realized that the sky wasn't falling we missed the phone. I went got my cell phone, assuming it was David and saw that there were two missed calls. One at 6:15 and one at 6:16. Only the ringing phone was the house phone, not the cell...make that one more missed call at 6:17. It was now 6:18 and I called David back. He informed us that it was raining and likely to rain all day. But that we should still try to go regardless. I said that sounded good...thanks for the update... and we'd call him back in "a couple of hours" after finishing sleeping. He asked what we were doing because he was bored....at 6:18 am. Afterall he had already gone for a run and needed something to do. He said he wasn't feeling any jet lag effects either after arriving yesterday afternoon. I hung up on him and went back to sleep.
Finally we got in touch with David around 9 (apparently he fell asleep again...ha!). We agreed that we should try to go to Wimbledon, because it wasn't raining as hard anymore. So Erin and I put our shorts (her skirt) and flip-flops on. Rain be damned! As we walked to the tube, there was no rain, just umbrellas in our shorts pockets. We may be getting lucky...The four of us, with David's friend Stephanie, made it out to Wimbledon after a brief 30 minute tube ride. We walked the mile from the tube and realized we missed the queue for the non ticket holders and began our walk back up the road. We found the queue and realized there wasn't actually a queue, only a security stop. We were in.
Quickly we were able to find seats at court 19 and watched the beginning of a match. It was 4 to 4 and 30 minutes in, when play was suspended. At first the warning on the PA said 1 to 2 hours. So we walked around. Eventually we found the practice courts and were able to watch Maria Hotapova, er, Sharapova take practice swings with her coach. I even was able to get my picture taken with her. Pictures coming as soon as I find the cable to connect my camera to the computer.
Following that we went to get autographs as even the practice courts were closed due to rain. As the players went to the locker room we were able to watch Leyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal, and a few other people we had no clue who they were walk by. We just weren't quick enough to get autographs. We did get a couple though. One we had no idea who it was, the other from Andy Murray, a young Brit.
We then spent about 45 minutes waiting in line for Wimbledon gear, then went for our requisite strawberries and cream....all while still waiting out the rain. We were so excited for the strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, that it took us until about half way through eating to realize, while shivering in wet shorts, that they are very overrated. Then the PA came back on and said play was likely to resume in another couple of hours...it was almost 4 already. We threw away the remaining cream, popped open the new Wimbledon umbrella and got on the bus back home. We'll look like grizzled veterans when we return in a few days with Wimbledon hats, tshirts and umbrellas....and jeans.
Overall it was exceptionally cool and we can't wait to try to go again. We will try to go one more day this week and possibly next week when Andy and Jen are in town. Grounds passes are a mere 17 pounds...really pretty cheap for a day of entertainment in London.
Isle of Wight
I'm suddenly on a roll with updates to the blog. I finally remembered to take my camera around to a couple of events we did this weekend, so it must get the blog juices flowing.
First, we went to the Isle of Wight this weekend. The IOW, as it is known apparently, is a small island off of the southern coast of England. Erin and I went with our friend from work, Honor Smith, the Director of Operations for Hitachi Consulting Europe. The trip involved a 1.5 hour train ride from London to Portsmouth, followed by a 15 minute ferry ride to Ryde on the Isle. We were able to find a nice little hotel in the coastal town of Shanklin. From the ferry we were able to take a "train" to Shanklin. The train was actually a retired London subway car. We were only there for about 24 hours, so we didn't do a ton while we were there. We did, however, have a fabulous meal at The Essex in Godshill. It was a small unassuming restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Not sure what type of food you would call it, maybe European Continental, but it was something to write home about (which is what I'm doing). Apparently Erin and Honor had this chocolate dessert that Erin actually had a dream about that night.
On Sunday we went to Queen Victoria's summer house, Osbourne House. It was a beautiful house on about 3oo acres with a great view of the sea. The most amazing room in the house was an "Indian" room that was a recreation of an Indian palace. It was intricately carved and decorated and very much reminded us of our time in India.
We were also able to watch the England-Ecuador match at a pub in Ryde before heading back to London. Another great chance to learn english chants and cheers as Beckham's penalty shot won the game.
We all really enjoyed the Isle of Wight and would recommend it to anyone.
Ted
First, we went to the Isle of Wight this weekend. The IOW, as it is known apparently, is a small island off of the southern coast of England. Erin and I went with our friend from work, Honor Smith, the Director of Operations for Hitachi Consulting Europe. The trip involved a 1.5 hour train ride from London to Portsmouth, followed by a 15 minute ferry ride to Ryde on the Isle. We were able to find a nice little hotel in the coastal town of Shanklin. From the ferry we were able to take a "train" to Shanklin. The train was actually a retired London subway car. We were only there for about 24 hours, so we didn't do a ton while we were there. We did, however, have a fabulous meal at The Essex in Godshill. It was a small unassuming restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Not sure what type of food you would call it, maybe European Continental, but it was something to write home about (which is what I'm doing). Apparently Erin and Honor had this chocolate dessert that Erin actually had a dream about that night.
On Sunday we went to Queen Victoria's summer house, Osbourne House. It was a beautiful house on about 3oo acres with a great view of the sea. The most amazing room in the house was an "Indian" room that was a recreation of an Indian palace. It was intricately carved and decorated and very much reminded us of our time in India.
We were also able to watch the England-Ecuador match at a pub in Ryde before heading back to London. Another great chance to learn english chants and cheers as Beckham's penalty shot won the game.
We all really enjoyed the Isle of Wight and would recommend it to anyone.
Ted
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Contact Info
I've heard people don't know how to contact us. Here is the summary
Address:
12 Bathurst Mews
London, W2 2SB, UK
Home Phone:
+44 (0) 207 262 3508
Ted Cell:
+44 (0) 794 603 2676
Erin Cell
+44 (0) 794 036 7337
Note on phone numbers: the + is for what you dial to get out of the country, from the US to UK it is 011, from the UK it is 00. The zero in paranthesis is only for if you are in the country. For those of you calling us from the US, don't dial the zero in parenthesis. If you come to visit and are calling from a local phone, do dial it.
Other fun note is my cool phone here. I finally broke down and bought a pda type of phone. I got the T-Mobile MDA Vario. It is so cool and fun to use. I can now check my email from anywhere. It is WiFi enabled too so it is free to use in our house or office with the WiFi, but there is a phone option for the web. It also has this cool slide out keyboard. Here's a picture for you to enjoy as well....I know, dorky, but why not...
Erin will get a cool phone soon too now that we've finally gotten a bill with her name spelled correctly so that she can get on the bank account and therefore get a phone.
Address:
12 Bathurst Mews
London, W2 2SB, UK
Home Phone:
+44 (0) 207 262 3508
Ted Cell:
+44 (0) 794 603 2676
Erin Cell
+44 (0) 794 036 7337
Note on phone numbers: the + is for what you dial to get out of the country, from the US to UK it is 011, from the UK it is 00. The zero in paranthesis is only for if you are in the country. For those of you calling us from the US, don't dial the zero in parenthesis. If you come to visit and are calling from a local phone, do dial it.
Other fun note is my cool phone here. I finally broke down and bought a pda type of phone. I got the T-Mobile MDA Vario. It is so cool and fun to use. I can now check my email from anywhere. It is WiFi enabled too so it is free to use in our house or office with the WiFi, but there is a phone option for the web. It also has this cool slide out keyboard. Here's a picture for you to enjoy as well....I know, dorky, but why not...
Erin will get a cool phone soon too now that we've finally gotten a bill with her name spelled correctly so that she can get on the bank account and therefore get a phone.
London Photos
In order to speed the rate of posts, I'm going for shorter, more targeted posts.
Fun Pictures from London
Leanne, Ted and Erin at Eddie's summer tropics party
Tara and Erin clowning in the phone booth
Erin, Ted, Tara and Sam in Chinatown
Lunch with Crystal in Camden Town, photo by Tamra
Fun Pictures from London
Leanne, Ted and Erin at Eddie's summer tropics party
Tara and Erin clowning in the phone booth
Erin, Ted, Tara and Sam in Chinatown
Lunch with Crystal in Camden Town, photo by Tamra
Friday, June 23, 2006
Work - Life Balance
Now that we’ve figured out banking and the grocery store, it’s time to figure out the consulting world. This update is on what our work life is like and what we’re working on.
First of all, Hitachi Consulting hired a few people in London to start an office about a month before we arrived. There are currently three VPs in London driving work in the Public sector (government – big here) and financial services. These three VPs and one senior manager were most recently with Unisys in London. In addition to these three VPs, the COO of Hitachi Consulting Europe and the director of Operations are also based in London. Then there are the three of us from Seattle.
Now that you know the players, the ballfield is another story. According to Charles, the managing VP, most people in London work from home. Since office space is so expensive, we don’t have a big space to house everybody. We do, however, have an office in “The City” which is the financial district of London. Since we are very much in start-up mode, we are renting what used to be a library for a law firm. Inside this library, there are shelves on all the walls but with no books anymore. In the middle is one big conference room table. Since the general theory remains that you can work at home when necessary, it’s hard to predict how many people will be in the office. Some days there are two of us. Other days it’s 12 and no one can concentrate. It’s fun listening to the different types of conversations people are having about their particular problem. Not often do you get the chance to hear the COO talk to the CFO about their meeting with the CEO. That is A.OK.
The other reason that there is a loose office policy is that most people live outside of London because it is too expensive. One of the people in our office lives near Bath, which is about a 2-3 hour train ride away. He makes the commute a few days a week. The real kicker for him is the fact that the fare is about $125 a day. Must be a good deal on rent out there to justify it.
As for work, Erin and I are primarily focused on Microsoft. Thankfully for me, we are also trying to expand the Business Intelligence practice here, which is my specialty. I’ve been lending a hand where I can. My two recent interesting activities were to help complete some due diligence on a potential acquisition and help on a proposal for the government of Northern Ireland.
All of the logistics aside, while it is fun to be in London, it is stressful being in more of a pure business development role. There is certainly far more pressure on making sure we make a sale. While the job is similar to what we would be doing in Seattle, all of the Seattle support systems are around the world. While people there help all they can, we still need to figure it out, have the conversations and close the deals. Erin and I firmly believe we are doing all of the right things, and know that it will take time, but we’re still nervous because of the trust that people in Seattle have put in us, not to mention the expense of letting us be here. It will be a lot better when we can report more on the money coming in than the money going out. It will also be a lot easier to enjoy the experience.
Thank goodness for quiz night at the pub to relax and forget for a little while. We’re also looking forward to the summer tourist season. We’re taking Monday off and going to Wimbledon with David Han from Seattle. Nothing more relaxing than strawberries and cream on the grass of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (or something like that).
First of all, Hitachi Consulting hired a few people in London to start an office about a month before we arrived. There are currently three VPs in London driving work in the Public sector (government – big here) and financial services. These three VPs and one senior manager were most recently with Unisys in London. In addition to these three VPs, the COO of Hitachi Consulting Europe and the director of Operations are also based in London. Then there are the three of us from Seattle.
Now that you know the players, the ballfield is another story. According to Charles, the managing VP, most people in London work from home. Since office space is so expensive, we don’t have a big space to house everybody. We do, however, have an office in “The City” which is the financial district of London. Since we are very much in start-up mode, we are renting what used to be a library for a law firm. Inside this library, there are shelves on all the walls but with no books anymore. In the middle is one big conference room table. Since the general theory remains that you can work at home when necessary, it’s hard to predict how many people will be in the office. Some days there are two of us. Other days it’s 12 and no one can concentrate. It’s fun listening to the different types of conversations people are having about their particular problem. Not often do you get the chance to hear the COO talk to the CFO about their meeting with the CEO. That is A.OK.
The other reason that there is a loose office policy is that most people live outside of London because it is too expensive. One of the people in our office lives near Bath, which is about a 2-3 hour train ride away. He makes the commute a few days a week. The real kicker for him is the fact that the fare is about $125 a day. Must be a good deal on rent out there to justify it.
As for work, Erin and I are primarily focused on Microsoft. Thankfully for me, we are also trying to expand the Business Intelligence practice here, which is my specialty. I’ve been lending a hand where I can. My two recent interesting activities were to help complete some due diligence on a potential acquisition and help on a proposal for the government of Northern Ireland.
All of the logistics aside, while it is fun to be in London, it is stressful being in more of a pure business development role. There is certainly far more pressure on making sure we make a sale. While the job is similar to what we would be doing in Seattle, all of the Seattle support systems are around the world. While people there help all they can, we still need to figure it out, have the conversations and close the deals. Erin and I firmly believe we are doing all of the right things, and know that it will take time, but we’re still nervous because of the trust that people in Seattle have put in us, not to mention the expense of letting us be here. It will be a lot better when we can report more on the money coming in than the money going out. It will also be a lot easier to enjoy the experience.
Thank goodness for quiz night at the pub to relax and forget for a little while. We’re also looking forward to the summer tourist season. We’re taking Monday off and going to Wimbledon with David Han from Seattle. Nothing more relaxing than strawberries and cream on the grass of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (or something like that).
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Meredith in Paris
We've started the weekend trips off in style with a weekend to Paris for the long bank holiday (no Memorial day here, but the Brits were kind enough to have a bank holiday, not sure why though) this past weekend.
We loaded on the Eurostar train on Friday afternoon. We were very lucky to be able to stay in a flat owned by a friend of Erin's who was out of town for the weekend. Two times I've made it to Paris now and both times stayed in someone else's apartment while they were out of town. It's great because there is more money then to spend on wine and foie gras, which we certainly did enjoy.
Our plan was quite simple - eat, drink and shop...not necessarily in that order for Erin. She had the greenlight to do lots of shopping after winning some extra cash at work for all of her hard work getting us here.
A friend from Hitachi, Meredith, was also in Paris and we hung out all weekend. Lucky because not only was she fun, but she provided ample opportunities for us to laugh, if not at her, very near by. To start, on Friday night we had plans to go to a party with Erin's friend. We gave Meredith detailed instructions to our neighborhood from her hotel via the Metro. After waiting over drinks, we decided to eat dinner when she still didn't show up. Finally as our meal just arrived, so did Meredith. Apparently it was a long journey. Her order of duck confit arrived shortly after I finished mine. In true Corbett fashion, I was eyeing her plate and couldn't understand why she was eating so slowly. Then she stood up real fast and ran for the bathroom...She must have had too much fun on her recent trip to South Africa. Oh, and I enjoyed the second helping of duck.
On Saturday, Erin, Delphine and Meredith took off on a long day of shopping, while I walked all over Paris. Erin did indeed live up to reputation and brought in quite a haul. As for me, I wandered around Paris. In most places, I have a great internal compass, but apparently, like me, it doesn't speak French. I did enjoy a nice, meandering walk to find the Eiffel tower. Who would have thought you couldn't see it from everywhere.
Saturday night we all went to Delphine, Christophe and Viktor's (Erin's friend from living in Paris in high school) house for dinner. So great to eat dinner in a real french household. How can it be bad when you start off with Port and then move into a steak dish with a big piece of foie gras on top with a yummy sauce and wine. It was fantastic. It was also great to see Christophe's work, as he is a cartoonist who is soon to have his first book published in the US. (you can see some of his work here http://www.bulledair.com/blain/). Of course Meredith was tired from the night before, so she showed us how to fall asleep during dinner. And we thought Meredith was supposed to be fun.
On Sunday, Meredith, Erin and I went to the local market near our apartment (per our original plan Meredith was staying with us now too to save $ for shopping herself). After looking at all kinds of great food, we decided to shop for a picnic for later in the afternoon. We bought so much food that we wound up having about three picnics around town throughout the day. We had three kinds of pate, two cheeses, fruit, bread, olives, some fancy feta dip (I guess that's three cheeses), and of course, wine. We had our first picnic outside Notre Dame and our second, with champagne (Meredith's favorite) outside the Louvre. It was extremely decadent and a ton of fun. Always great to travel with someone who loves food as much as we do. Plus, she was so embarassed by her performances on Friday and Saturday that she had to prove how much fun she was. So we had a great Sunday night wine/foie gras crawl through Paris. It was indeed fun.
Meredith added one more bit of excitement on Monday morning when Erin went to see why she hadn't gotten up yet for her early flight to London. She found out that her alarm, which was our cell phone that I set...oops, was set for an hour later. She should have plenty of time, except that she realized when she woke up that she left her passport in the room safe of the hotel she was staying in on Friday night. After a chaotic race to get ready and catch a cab, she missed her flight...fortunately for her she was able to get on a later flight.
We returned to London on Monday along with Meredith as she was making one more stop here. We got to spend a couple of more nights with her, including one night at quiz night at the local pub. It was a great time...though we came in around 10th...out of 13. We need a brit on our team in the future. We had five people from Seattle. One of our new friends is a neighbor, Eddie, who is from Seattle and is the marketing director for Cranium (one of our favorite games). In a small world, he brought a friend who was visiting from Seattle, who works with our friend from Denver, Patrick Combs....or as she called him, Dr. P Diddy. We had a good team name though, "Seattle: Where the weather is better".
We'll get pictures posted soon.
Thanks for the fun Meredith.
Ted
We loaded on the Eurostar train on Friday afternoon. We were very lucky to be able to stay in a flat owned by a friend of Erin's who was out of town for the weekend. Two times I've made it to Paris now and both times stayed in someone else's apartment while they were out of town. It's great because there is more money then to spend on wine and foie gras, which we certainly did enjoy.
Our plan was quite simple - eat, drink and shop...not necessarily in that order for Erin. She had the greenlight to do lots of shopping after winning some extra cash at work for all of her hard work getting us here.
A friend from Hitachi, Meredith, was also in Paris and we hung out all weekend. Lucky because not only was she fun, but she provided ample opportunities for us to laugh, if not at her, very near by. To start, on Friday night we had plans to go to a party with Erin's friend. We gave Meredith detailed instructions to our neighborhood from her hotel via the Metro. After waiting over drinks, we decided to eat dinner when she still didn't show up. Finally as our meal just arrived, so did Meredith. Apparently it was a long journey. Her order of duck confit arrived shortly after I finished mine. In true Corbett fashion, I was eyeing her plate and couldn't understand why she was eating so slowly. Then she stood up real fast and ran for the bathroom...She must have had too much fun on her recent trip to South Africa. Oh, and I enjoyed the second helping of duck.
On Saturday, Erin, Delphine and Meredith took off on a long day of shopping, while I walked all over Paris. Erin did indeed live up to reputation and brought in quite a haul. As for me, I wandered around Paris. In most places, I have a great internal compass, but apparently, like me, it doesn't speak French. I did enjoy a nice, meandering walk to find the Eiffel tower. Who would have thought you couldn't see it from everywhere.
Saturday night we all went to Delphine, Christophe and Viktor's (Erin's friend from living in Paris in high school) house for dinner. So great to eat dinner in a real french household. How can it be bad when you start off with Port and then move into a steak dish with a big piece of foie gras on top with a yummy sauce and wine. It was fantastic. It was also great to see Christophe's work, as he is a cartoonist who is soon to have his first book published in the US. (you can see some of his work here http://www.bulledair.com/blain/). Of course Meredith was tired from the night before, so she showed us how to fall asleep during dinner. And we thought Meredith was supposed to be fun.
On Sunday, Meredith, Erin and I went to the local market near our apartment (per our original plan Meredith was staying with us now too to save $ for shopping herself). After looking at all kinds of great food, we decided to shop for a picnic for later in the afternoon. We bought so much food that we wound up having about three picnics around town throughout the day. We had three kinds of pate, two cheeses, fruit, bread, olives, some fancy feta dip (I guess that's three cheeses), and of course, wine. We had our first picnic outside Notre Dame and our second, with champagne (Meredith's favorite) outside the Louvre. It was extremely decadent and a ton of fun. Always great to travel with someone who loves food as much as we do. Plus, she was so embarassed by her performances on Friday and Saturday that she had to prove how much fun she was. So we had a great Sunday night wine/foie gras crawl through Paris. It was indeed fun.
Meredith added one more bit of excitement on Monday morning when Erin went to see why she hadn't gotten up yet for her early flight to London. She found out that her alarm, which was our cell phone that I set...oops, was set for an hour later. She should have plenty of time, except that she realized when she woke up that she left her passport in the room safe of the hotel she was staying in on Friday night. After a chaotic race to get ready and catch a cab, she missed her flight...fortunately for her she was able to get on a later flight.
We returned to London on Monday along with Meredith as she was making one more stop here. We got to spend a couple of more nights with her, including one night at quiz night at the local pub. It was a great time...though we came in around 10th...out of 13. We need a brit on our team in the future. We had five people from Seattle. One of our new friends is a neighbor, Eddie, who is from Seattle and is the marketing director for Cranium (one of our favorite games). In a small world, he brought a friend who was visiting from Seattle, who works with our friend from Denver, Patrick Combs....or as she called him, Dr. P Diddy. We had a good team name though, "Seattle: Where the weather is better".
We'll get pictures posted soon.
Thanks for the fun Meredith.
Ted
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
The wind in my face...
Sorry for the delayed update, I've been trying to think of wity things to say, but that might prevent another update. Things are still going well. We've had a horrific week of rain and cold though. We even had to turn the heat on yesterday.
We've also had our first visitor. Ian Stakiw, a former colleague of ours from Arthur Andersen and Hitachi was finishing up a month long tour of Europe and stayed with us. I think he liked the accomodations because he came for a night and stayed for four. He was a big fan of the new espresso machine.
It has been interesting moving to a foreign country, but not in any one really big way, but rather in a million small ones. Differences and challenges we've found to date:
We've also had our first visitor. Ian Stakiw, a former colleague of ours from Arthur Andersen and Hitachi was finishing up a month long tour of Europe and stayed with us. I think he liked the accomodations because he came for a night and stayed for four. He was a big fan of the new espresso machine.
It has been interesting moving to a foreign country, but not in any one really big way, but rather in a million small ones. Differences and challenges we've found to date:
- Dress for work - Suits. It became pretty clear pretty early that my look isn't going to work in London for long. In my never ending effort at conforming I went out and bought a sport coat, started wearing a tie and shaved my beard. I feel so much more British now...
- Money. Many challenges in this department. First is the simple fact that the exchange rate is not in our favor. The prices are really the same on the face; a $3 latte is 3 pounds. The problem is that 1 pound is approaching $2. So everything is really double. Fortunately uncle Hitachi helps us there, but it is still a shock when a movie is close to $20...each.
The other challenge with money is just how hard it is to pay for things. For example, one of our early goals was to get a cell phone. The problem is that in order to have a cell phone, you need to pay with a direct debit from your bank. To get a bank account, you require a utility bill (with your name spelled correctly, which apparently takes an extra ten days), to get a utility bill you need a lease, and for a lease you need money. Fortunately, we again had the help of uncle Hitachi here. Without their help, it would be near impossible to sign a lease unless you have the amount for a deposit and rent in advance in cash. Of course a landlord wouldn't take cash so you'd have to write a check....but you can't get an account. Fortunately, we now have an account...just no pin number, so we can't use it...that takes a few more days. - Television - as most know we love television, so we had to go buy one. Only we can't take a TV home with us because it is a different signal and voltage. So we decided to buy a "cheap" one. It's cool and widescreen though. Now we find that if we own a tv, we have to buy a TV license to pay for the BBC and other channels, a mere 130 pounds a year. But we trying to find a loophole. We've recently discovered the beauty of downloading US tv shows from iTunes and learned how to play them on our new TV. Plus, we've signed up for the NetFlix equivalent. Now we wonder if we can avoid the TV license...but who are we kidding, we'll probably get the license anyway. But, at least we still have The Apprentice, Top Chef and Desperate Housewives. Heaven forbid we actually see London while we're here.
- Electrical supplies - everything needs to be replaced since new electronics are cheaper than buying voltage converters....see money above.
- Sayings are different too. I don't have much problem understanding english accents, I just don't understand the words they are using. Not that they're particularly challenging, but it just takes another minute of looking at them like a dumb American.
- Lunch time, and work hours in general - The day generally starts later, around 9ish, and ends later around 6:30 or 7 and lunch is at 1. I've found that my lunch hunger is triggered by the clock as much as anything and that hour between 12 and 1 waiting for lunch is finally getting easier.
- Transportation - public transportation is fantastic. I've really enjoyed not having a car. The only problems are carrying groceries and other large purchases home. We actually walked a mile carrying our new espresso machine. Of course most places deliver, but we haven't figure all of that out yet. The other problem relates again to money. Apparently taxis are more expensive at night. A short 4 to 5 mile cab ride late on Saturday night was a mere 30 pounds....$60. We're looking into night bus options now.
I'm sure there are a million other things that are escaping me now, but I wanted to get another post up. We're going to Paris this weekend for the long weekend, a delayed birthday present for Erin. I have no doubt that it will be a blast.
We're also planning all the trips we want to take while we're here, along with all of the people who are planning to come visit. The next confirmed visitors are brother Andy and his girlfriend Jen the first week of July and David Han from Hitachi who is coming for Wimbledon around the same time, but staying mostly with another friend of his.
Hope everyone is well. More soon.
Ted
Monday, May 08, 2006
Our Flat
Finally some pictures of our new apartment. We engaged in a frantic weekend of unpacking and buying things we forgot we would need, or need just because we're in London. Most of them are electronics. Since the place is still largely a disaster area, we've limited the pictures to the areas that are relatively presentable - like the outside. We'll add more later as we continue to settle in.
First is a picture of the outside of the flat. Really does look like a converted stable.
Next are two pictures of the Mew we live on. You can see our green doorways in both of them. Just a mere three doors down is an actual stable. There is a working stable/riding school in our Mew for Hyde park. Most days we see about 20 horses out and about. It may be a stinky summer of horse poo....but quaint right?
Now for the inside. The first is of the downstairs. It is one long room with the big barn doors on one end down to the kitchen on the other end.
There are two sofas, a huge table and a bathroom under the stairs.
Then there is the upstairs.
Just above the barn doors is an open room with two doors that open onto the Mew. This picture was taken from that room down the hallway to the two bedrooms and bathroom. The highlight is the giant skylight over the stairs. There are also skylights in both the bathroom and second bedroom. The upstairs is flooded in light. It's great.
We'll send more pictures as we get more set-up.
Ted
First is a picture of the outside of the flat. Really does look like a converted stable.
Next are two pictures of the Mew we live on. You can see our green doorways in both of them. Just a mere three doors down is an actual stable. There is a working stable/riding school in our Mew for Hyde park. Most days we see about 20 horses out and about. It may be a stinky summer of horse poo....but quaint right?
Now for the inside. The first is of the downstairs. It is one long room with the big barn doors on one end down to the kitchen on the other end.
There are two sofas, a huge table and a bathroom under the stairs.Then there is the upstairs.
Just above the barn doors is an open room with two doors that open onto the Mew. This picture was taken from that room down the hallway to the two bedrooms and bathroom. The highlight is the giant skylight over the stairs. There are also skylights in both the bathroom and second bedroom. The upstairs is flooded in light. It's great.We'll send more pictures as we get more set-up.
Ted
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Mmm Iberian meat products
We had a great time touring around Spain. Our trip was through Andalusia which is in southern Spain.
Day 1, 2 - Malaga
We flew into Malaga, a Mediterranean seaside town. Since we were so busy getting ready to get out of town and look for an apartment in London, we only had a general plan for Spain, but had made no reservations at any hotels. We were lucky to find a nice hotel in the center of town. The first night in Spain we went out for dinner at about 10pm and I think we were early. As everyone knows, Tapas are a fantastic way to eat. We lived almost entirely on the assortment of Iberian meats (chorizo, procuitto-like serrano ham, etc), wine and sangria.
Day two, we shopped. Apparently a lot of shoes are made in Spain -- we looked at a lot of shoes. Erin became a complete shopaholic in Spain beginning in Malaga.
Following shopping we loaded up the rental car and started driving toward our next seaside destination of Nerja. We had a bit of a hard time figuring out the roads and directions, especially since neither of us speak spanish. But we were on the road. In one town along the way we were driving slowly through a parking lot looking for a bathroom. Suddenly Erin shrieked "lookout...LOOKOUT!" and out of nothing a kid on a bike shot out between two cars right in front of us. Fortunately, we stopped in time, but it was one of the closest calls I've ever had. Needless to say I was a little unnerved as we got back on the road. As I was driving slowly down a small road about 20 minutes later. Just starting to get more comfortable after the near miss and was looking at the sites and suddenly SLAM. I looked around and realized I didn't hit anyone, nothing in front of us. Look in my rear view mirror and as soon as I saw the car that hit us, we felt another SLAM. I couldn't believe it, we were being rammed. We pulled over to the side and the driver pulled up next to us and started screaming at us in Spanish. The driver was very drunk, and apparently we weren't going fast enough so he slammed into us like bumper cars to get us moving. We were completely shocked and didn't know what to do. Fortunately there were some people on the street who looked as shocked as we did. As we got out of the car to inspect the damage, he thankfully sped off. There wasn't much damage, just a dented bumper if you looked closely. We decided to forget about it because of our terrible spanish and decided to move on. I was getting nervous about our decision to rent a car and drive through Spain. Most of the rest of the trip was uneventful, except for after the third night when I went to get the car and found out someone had hit our car in the parking lot and put a three inch ding near the front tire. We'll find out how good the insurance on Diners Club is soon I guess.
Back to vacation. We spent three nights on a horribly uncomfortable bed at a stunningly beautiful town called Nerja. Our hotel was on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. The first day the whether was hot and fantastic and we got our share of sun. The next few days were cooler, but great and we were able to wander all over the small town and down on the beach.
Days 5, 6 - Granada
Drove north to the town of Granada, site of the Alhambra. The Alhambra was an amazing fortress built about a thousand years ago. It is quite famous and we were lucky to be able to see it. Words can't really do the Alhambra justice, so here's a picture of me looking at enjoying some spanish wine.
Day 7 - Cordoba
Cordoba is former Roman town founded in 152 BC. It was amazing to see Roman ruins, including a bridge that old. There was also an amazing mosque. Another highlight of Cordoba was visiting a Arab Hammam, which was really a series of a pool, a hot tub and a cold plunge, with a mediocre massage, but in a stunning building.
Day 8, 9, 10 - Seville
Seville was amazing. We were there for an annual festival called Feria. Feria is a weeklong festival following easter that celebrates the Spanish Flamenco culture. All over town we saw women all day wearing full flamenco dresses, men in suits and kids dressed to match their parents. All-day we saw people being driven to the fair in horse-drawn carriages, cars, mopeds, buses, you name it. Like everyone else we headed for the fair as well. After about a 2 mile walk, we found the fairgrounds. Amazing...the fairgrounds probably stretched two miles. I would guess that there were 200,000 people there...at 3am. One night we were leaving the fair at about 2am and there were far more people heading in than heading out.
Feria was unlike any fair I've ever been to. There are thousands of tents set-up each hosted by a family or a business, or luckily for us a public tent for a district of town. Each tent is more elaborate than the next and all feature chandeliers, speaker systems, bars, kitchens, lots of people dancing and eating iberian cured meats. The kicker of all of it for us was the drink of choice....Sherry. Every tent serves Manzanilla, a chilled, dry sherry served by the bottle or in a giant pepsi cup containing a bottle of sherry and some 7-up. The first night the sherry was great. The third night it was gross...we were thankful for the 7-up...but we still drank it.
One great night at a bar following Feria, we went to a bar and had the bartender give us a sampling of different kinds of sherry's. They were quite good. Neither of us had ever had sherry before, but no doubt we will again. Most were much like Port. I've been meaning to look up the difference between sherry and port, but I haven't yet.
(note the sherry bottles and more meat products)
The other highlight of Seville as attending a bull fight. The bullring in Seville was built in 1758 and holds about 14 thousand people. We showed up about 2 minutes before the first bull and were directed to our seats about 10 rows above the entrance. I tried to ask which aisle we should go up and the guy didn't understand my question, just kept pointing up while pushing us forward because the bull was coming. So we had to walk straight up the seats and ask everyone to stand up to let us by. There were no aisles. Of course the seats were also directly in the sun and we had no hats, but fortunately plenty of sunscreen.
Bullfights are pretty amazing. Certainly not for the squeamish. It's amazing that 14K people show up every night to watch the gallantry in 6 bulls getting killed. Starting with knives in the bulls shoulders, ultimately leading to the matador finally stabbing it in the heart. Then the bull wobbles around and dies. Only to be triumphantly dragged off by horses.
Day 11
Back to Malaga
There are probably a million details I'm missing, but here's a start...
More soon.
Day 1, 2 - Malaga
We flew into Malaga, a Mediterranean seaside town. Since we were so busy getting ready to get out of town and look for an apartment in London, we only had a general plan for Spain, but had made no reservations at any hotels. We were lucky to find a nice hotel in the center of town. The first night in Spain we went out for dinner at about 10pm and I think we were early. As everyone knows, Tapas are a fantastic way to eat. We lived almost entirely on the assortment of Iberian meats (chorizo, procuitto-like serrano ham, etc), wine and sangria.
Day two, we shopped. Apparently a lot of shoes are made in Spain -- we looked at a lot of shoes. Erin became a complete shopaholic in Spain beginning in Malaga.
Following shopping we loaded up the rental car and started driving toward our next seaside destination of Nerja. We had a bit of a hard time figuring out the roads and directions, especially since neither of us speak spanish. But we were on the road. In one town along the way we were driving slowly through a parking lot looking for a bathroom. Suddenly Erin shrieked "lookout...LOOKOUT!" and out of nothing a kid on a bike shot out between two cars right in front of us. Fortunately, we stopped in time, but it was one of the closest calls I've ever had. Needless to say I was a little unnerved as we got back on the road. As I was driving slowly down a small road about 20 minutes later. Just starting to get more comfortable after the near miss and was looking at the sites and suddenly SLAM. I looked around and realized I didn't hit anyone, nothing in front of us. Look in my rear view mirror and as soon as I saw the car that hit us, we felt another SLAM. I couldn't believe it, we were being rammed. We pulled over to the side and the driver pulled up next to us and started screaming at us in Spanish. The driver was very drunk, and apparently we weren't going fast enough so he slammed into us like bumper cars to get us moving. We were completely shocked and didn't know what to do. Fortunately there were some people on the street who looked as shocked as we did. As we got out of the car to inspect the damage, he thankfully sped off. There wasn't much damage, just a dented bumper if you looked closely. We decided to forget about it because of our terrible spanish and decided to move on. I was getting nervous about our decision to rent a car and drive through Spain. Most of the rest of the trip was uneventful, except for after the third night when I went to get the car and found out someone had hit our car in the parking lot and put a three inch ding near the front tire. We'll find out how good the insurance on Diners Club is soon I guess.
Back to vacation. We spent three nights on a horribly uncomfortable bed at a stunningly beautiful town called Nerja. Our hotel was on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. The first day the whether was hot and fantastic and we got our share of sun. The next few days were cooler, but great and we were able to wander all over the small town and down on the beach.
Days 5, 6 - Granada
Drove north to the town of Granada, site of the Alhambra. The Alhambra was an amazing fortress built about a thousand years ago. It is quite famous and we were lucky to be able to see it. Words can't really do the Alhambra justice, so here's a picture of me looking at enjoying some spanish wine.
Day 7 - Cordoba
Cordoba is former Roman town founded in 152 BC. It was amazing to see Roman ruins, including a bridge that old. There was also an amazing mosque. Another highlight of Cordoba was visiting a Arab Hammam, which was really a series of a pool, a hot tub and a cold plunge, with a mediocre massage, but in a stunning building.
Day 8, 9, 10 - Seville
Seville was amazing. We were there for an annual festival called Feria. Feria is a weeklong festival following easter that celebrates the Spanish Flamenco culture. All over town we saw women all day wearing full flamenco dresses, men in suits and kids dressed to match their parents. All-day we saw people being driven to the fair in horse-drawn carriages, cars, mopeds, buses, you name it. Like everyone else we headed for the fair as well. After about a 2 mile walk, we found the fairgrounds. Amazing...the fairgrounds probably stretched two miles. I would guess that there were 200,000 people there...at 3am. One night we were leaving the fair at about 2am and there were far more people heading in than heading out.
Feria was unlike any fair I've ever been to. There are thousands of tents set-up each hosted by a family or a business, or luckily for us a public tent for a district of town. Each tent is more elaborate than the next and all feature chandeliers, speaker systems, bars, kitchens, lots of people dancing and eating iberian cured meats. The kicker of all of it for us was the drink of choice....Sherry. Every tent serves Manzanilla, a chilled, dry sherry served by the bottle or in a giant pepsi cup containing a bottle of sherry and some 7-up. The first night the sherry was great. The third night it was gross...we were thankful for the 7-up...but we still drank it.
One great night at a bar following Feria, we went to a bar and had the bartender give us a sampling of different kinds of sherry's. They were quite good. Neither of us had ever had sherry before, but no doubt we will again. Most were much like Port. I've been meaning to look up the difference between sherry and port, but I haven't yet.
(note the sherry bottles and more meat products)
The other highlight of Seville as attending a bull fight. The bullring in Seville was built in 1758 and holds about 14 thousand people. We showed up about 2 minutes before the first bull and were directed to our seats about 10 rows above the entrance. I tried to ask which aisle we should go up and the guy didn't understand my question, just kept pointing up while pushing us forward because the bull was coming. So we had to walk straight up the seats and ask everyone to stand up to let us by. There were no aisles. Of course the seats were also directly in the sun and we had no hats, but fortunately plenty of sunscreen.
Bullfights are pretty amazing. Certainly not for the squeamish. It's amazing that 14K people show up every night to watch the gallantry in 6 bulls getting killed. Starting with knives in the bulls shoulders, ultimately leading to the matador finally stabbing it in the heart. Then the bull wobbles around and dies. Only to be triumphantly dragged off by horses.
Day 11
Back to Malaga
There are probably a million details I'm missing, but here's a start...
More soon.
Monday, May 01, 2006
London arrival
After a crazy month we are starting to settle in to life in London. We left Seattle on April 12th, spent about five days in London, then went on vacation in Spain for 11 days. Now we're back in London and ready to get down to business. We really enjoyed having this blog during our trip to India, so we'll try it again in this big adventure. Since so much has happened in the last couple of weeks, I expect there will be several different updates to the blog over the next couple of days to bring you up to speed. Here's the start.
Arrival in London
We planned our arrival in London for April 12th which would give us five days to look for an apartment before heading to Spain for a much needed vacation. What we didn't know was that was Easter weekend and most of London was shut down on Good Friday and Easter Monday (and of course the two days in between). Our five day house hunting trip turned into a five hour tour on Tuesday. After investigating different areas of London, we wanted to live near the Paddington train station because that's where we will need to get the train to Reading for Microsoft. We had a relocation person help us out and she picked us up at 9:30am with a plan to find a flat and drop us off for the train trip to the airport at 3. No problem.
We saw about 15 different apartments, all charming in their own way. Some had 20 foot ceilings and were 400 years old, others had five flights of stairs. We settled on a converted horse stable in a small alley about a block off of Hyde Park (the Lancaster Gate Tube station) and three to four blocks from Paddington Station. It has two floors, recently remodeled and a big sky light that makes the upstairs very bright during the day. At night it appears to have a bunch of halogen type lights that will make it very sophisticated and "euro". They call it a two bedroom, but the second bedroom is perfectly sized for someone no bigger than my mom. (but Ma, there's a guest room for you). It also has stable doors that open up onto the alley which will be great in the summer. I'll post pictures after we move in tomorrow.
Next we went to Spain. I'll save the summary of spain for another post.
Ted
Arrival in London
We planned our arrival in London for April 12th which would give us five days to look for an apartment before heading to Spain for a much needed vacation. What we didn't know was that was Easter weekend and most of London was shut down on Good Friday and Easter Monday (and of course the two days in between). Our five day house hunting trip turned into a five hour tour on Tuesday. After investigating different areas of London, we wanted to live near the Paddington train station because that's where we will need to get the train to Reading for Microsoft. We had a relocation person help us out and she picked us up at 9:30am with a plan to find a flat and drop us off for the train trip to the airport at 3. No problem.
We saw about 15 different apartments, all charming in their own way. Some had 20 foot ceilings and were 400 years old, others had five flights of stairs. We settled on a converted horse stable in a small alley about a block off of Hyde Park (the Lancaster Gate Tube station) and three to four blocks from Paddington Station. It has two floors, recently remodeled and a big sky light that makes the upstairs very bright during the day. At night it appears to have a bunch of halogen type lights that will make it very sophisticated and "euro". They call it a two bedroom, but the second bedroom is perfectly sized for someone no bigger than my mom. (but Ma, there's a guest room for you). It also has stable doors that open up onto the alley which will be great in the summer. I'll post pictures after we move in tomorrow.
Next we went to Spain. I'll save the summary of spain for another post.
Ted
Thursday, March 16, 2006
London Here we come
As most of you probably know, Erin and I are heading off for another big adventure. We are moving to London for a year to help expand Hitachi Consulting in Europe (where we both work). Our goal is to leave Seattle around April 10th, 2006. Before we go, we need to rent our house and sell our cars. We're using the blog from our last big adventure to show some pictures below. If you are interested or know someone who might be, please forward this on.
House for Rent $1500/month - RENTED!!!
We need someone to rent our house in Seattle while we're away. We're asking for $1500 per month, beginning April 15th. We can negotiate the terms for the right situation. Ideally we want to find a friend or friend of a friend who will treat the house as their own.
Our house is located in the Leschi neighborhood of Seattle (502 29th Avenue), about 10 minutes from Downtown, close to both I-90 and 520. We're about 6 blocks away from the Madrona restaurants and shops and two blocks from about 5 Ethiopian restaurants.
The house is 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, large living room and dining room. Total size is about 2800 sq. ft (including basement). Both the kitchen and the bathroom have been remodeled in the last three years. We also have a large yard with lots of gardening/landscaping opportunities if you're so inclined. We would like to leave the house partially furnished including couches, beds, dressers, dining room table with 10 chairs (definitely stays, too heavy to move), tv, Tivo, wireless internet. We will also be storing some stuff in the basement and could move anything you don't want to use down there.
Below are a bunch of pictures of the house.
Back of the house
View from the living room
Kitchen
Living Room
Dining Room
Here are a few pictures of our bathroom. As you can see it is quite large with a big soaking tub, separate shower with two shower heads, vessel style sink.
We love the bathroom and know you will too.
2. Sell our cars
We also have two cars that we need to sell before we leave.
2003 VW GTI VR6 - 2 door hatchback, 6speed, moonroof, premium sound, CD, power doors/windows, black exterior with grey leather interior, heated front seats. 22k miles. $15,500.
2001 Audi A4 2.8 Quattro - 4 door sedan, midnight blue exterior, black leather interior. 5 speed, power doors, windows, seats; premium Bose sound; sports package; heated front seats; moonroof. 55K Miles. $14,500
Both cars are in excellent condition. We're sad to see them go.
If you're interested the house or the cars, or know someone who might be, please send them this link or have them get in touch with us. Contact me, Ted Corbett, at 206.276.4018 or ted_corbett@hotmail.com if interested. Let me know if you have any questions.
If you keep reading the blog, you can see details from our last big adventure to India in 2004.
House for Rent $1500/month - RENTED!!!
We need someone to rent our house in Seattle while we're away. We're asking for $1500 per month, beginning April 15th. We can negotiate the terms for the right situation. Ideally we want to find a friend or friend of a friend who will treat the house as their own.
Our house is located in the Leschi neighborhood of Seattle (502 29th Avenue), about 10 minutes from Downtown, close to both I-90 and 520. We're about 6 blocks away from the Madrona restaurants and shops and two blocks from about 5 Ethiopian restaurants.
The house is 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, large living room and dining room. Total size is about 2800 sq. ft (including basement). Both the kitchen and the bathroom have been remodeled in the last three years. We also have a large yard with lots of gardening/landscaping opportunities if you're so inclined. We would like to leave the house partially furnished including couches, beds, dressers, dining room table with 10 chairs (definitely stays, too heavy to move), tv, Tivo, wireless internet. We will also be storing some stuff in the basement and could move anything you don't want to use down there.
Below are a bunch of pictures of the house.
Back of the house
View from the living room
Kitchen
Living Room
Dining Room
Here are a few pictures of our bathroom. As you can see it is quite large with a big soaking tub, separate shower with two shower heads, vessel style sink.
We love the bathroom and know you will too.
2. Sell our cars
We also have two cars that we need to sell before we leave.
2003 VW GTI VR6 - 2 door hatchback, 6speed, moonroof, premium sound, CD, power doors/windows, black exterior with grey leather interior, heated front seats. 22k miles. $15,500.
2001 Audi A4 2.8 Quattro - 4 door sedan, midnight blue exterior, black leather interior. 5 speed, power doors, windows, seats; premium Bose sound; sports package; heated front seats; moonroof. 55K Miles. $14,500
Both cars are in excellent condition. We're sad to see them go.
If you're interested the house or the cars, or know someone who might be, please send them this link or have them get in touch with us. Contact me, Ted Corbett, at 206.276.4018 or ted_corbett@hotmail.com if interested. Let me know if you have any questions.
If you keep reading the blog, you can see details from our last big adventure to India in 2004.
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