Our 2nd Thanksgiving living abroad, and we decided not to go home this year. The previous year, it was all a bit too much with trying to see both families and friends and we even threw my high school reunion in there for good measure. Not to mention that the UK doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, so it truely is just taking extra days vacation for Mike.
Mike was working on Sony on Thanksgiving Day it was going to be a late one. I headed to High Street Kensington, home to Whole Foods and Sony Music (Simon wasn't in, I checked)I went to the Whole Foods buffet where they had roast turkey and all the fixin's. So I got enough for Mike's whole team...turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing,corn bread, apple pie, pumpkin pie ,etc. etc. I was even able to get one of those handy dandy keep warm bags to put it all in. Then I called Mike and dropped it off for him. His team was much appreciative, though they didn't undertand "corn bread". LOL! Since he was working late, I decided to make myself a turkey burger and make some phone calls to the fam. My mom and brother had decided to head to AC. It was Karen's year to spend with the Rotolas and without me being home, they said it wasn't worth celebrating. Good news was they both won! I also called Aunt Mart and the gang at the Canova's and had a very nice conversation with my cousins.
On Saturday, we had the McGuigan's over for Thanksgiving dinner. Nobody else was around, and the four of us gorged ourselves on a 20lb turkey. Here's the story behind the turkey...
Growing up, my mom always got a 20+lb turkey for Thanksgiving. It didn't matter if it was just the 5 of us, or a crowd, that's just what we always had. So, I went to my butcher shop and told the guy I needed to place an order for a turkey. There are a lot of Americans in the area, so he knew it was for "American Thanksgiving". When he asked me how big I needed it to be, I just naturally came out with 20lbs. He made a comment about how large it was and that I must be feeding a crowd. I didn't pay much mind.
When Mike got home that night, I told him I'd ordered the turkey and he asked how much it was. I didn't know but told him it couldn't be more than 25GBP. ($50), right? WRONG. On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I picked up a 63 GBP turkey---yes, that's $126!
It was a really nice "Kelly Gold" turkey and even came with a thermometer, and it tasted just lovely! It was a great meal--if I do say so myself, and I did mom proud with the stuffed mushroom appetizers and sausage stuffing! The four of us had a great time gorging ourselves on all the lovely American-ness on the table.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Halloween--Dress Like a Brit
...Just don't smell like one! That was the theme of our Halloween Party. Everyone had to come dressed as their favorite British Stereotype. Mike came as a YOB (Youth of Britain). His costume was swishy pants, old school adidas shell top sneakers, a Chelsea FC Sweatshirt, a black eye, and a stuffed pit bull. A must-have accessory for all the dirtbag youths--and lets not forget the knife he carried in his sock for the late night stabbings that might occur. I, on the other hand, was just a typical English girl that you'd see on the tube. Ballet flats, black tights, green skirt, red floral shirt, grey cardigan, weird hat, messed up hair, and heavy eye makeup. Chris D. was an Oxford Professor complete with patches on the elbow of his blazer, Casie was another typical English woman, just one out for the night on the town. Then we had some famous Brits in attendance...Boris Johnson made an appearance along with his "friend" and Frank Lampard the star Chelsea footballer and his WAG (Wife & Girlfriend--at least that's what I think it means).
We spend so much time making fun of the weird Brits that we had to do this. Each of us was a parody of things we see everyday. It was such a fun evening. The Bohnert's even brought some fireworks which we set off at the park across the street. Lets just say that jell-o shots and fireworks don't always mix. We even had a burnt scarf in the midst!
We spend so much time making fun of the weird Brits that we had to do this. Each of us was a parody of things we see everyday. It was such a fun evening. The Bohnert's even brought some fireworks which we set off at the park across the street. Lets just say that jell-o shots and fireworks don't always mix. We even had a burnt scarf in the midst!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Viva Barcelona!
Looks like the last REAL travel blog I wrote was Oktoberfest! I can't believe that was a year ago at this point! What a great time! Shortly after Oktoberfest, we headed to Barcelona for Chris & Kialee's Euro Stag and Hen Parties. I'm not sure if you can call it a party with only Mike and I as attendees, but we tried to make the most of it! Duff and Larissa were supposed to come along, but Larissa came down with some nasty sickness and decided to stay put in London, and Duff decided to stay with her.
Kialee and I arrived in Barcelona on Friday morning. After a little debacle with Kialee's checked bag (we couldn't find baggage claim) we jumped in a taxi. I was really excited to use all those years of Spanish (8 including 2 semesters of college)and was even practicing what I needed to say to the taxi driver in order to get us to the hotel. "Por favor, necesitamos que ir a la Hotel Universal de Barcelona." The driver was polite, corrected my school book Spanish, and transformed it to the Castillion Spanish they speak in Barcelona. After he said it in Castillion, all I could think of was my HS Spanish teacher, Senor Fuller, overpronouncing things, and making a big deal of teaching us the castillion version too. "In Barthelona, you would say,..." If only I'd remembered! We checked into our hotel and proceeded to Las Ramblas, the main drag in the city. We didn't get very far when we saw a sign at a street-side cafe' advertising the best sangria in BCN. We looked at each other and knew we had to sample it if they were claiming to be the best! We wound up getting 2 pitchers and some cheesey snacks before Mike called and told us he was on his way to the hotel. Looking back it seems silly that we just didn't take the same flight as Mike since he only got in a couple of hours later than us!
Mike came and joined us. We walked around Las Ramblas where there were lots of street performers, artists, cafes, and pickpockets. Mike and Ki are super estute at finding the shady characters looking for your wallet, so they were always on the look-out for oblivious me!
Chris rolled in around 9PM, poor guy had to work a full day! When he finally got there he was pretty tired and we were 3 sheets to the wind, but we made it out for some paella and rioja. The paella was marginal at best, but then again, I don't think I've ever had paella before, so who's to know what's good. After dinner, we just went back to the hotel, the next day was going to be a doozy!
We're big fans of "Fat Tire Bike Tours" and knew that Fat Tire did tours of Barcelona, so we were all over it! I must admit, it wasn't as good as the Paris tour since Barcelona is a bit more spread out than gay Paris. The bike tour hit most of the major stops in BCN, the highlight being La Segrada Familia. We didn't have time to climb to the top, but that wasn't really my bag anyway. The bike tour finished at the beach. Barcelona is the only city I've ever been to that butts up to a gorgeous beach. I guess you could argue that LA has a similar effect, but downtown LA is a bit further out, I'd compare it to Hermosa Beach maybe. Anyway, we found a nice waterfront/beachfront cafe and had some beers and food and decided to walk back to town to head out for the "Stag/Hen Party" combo night. Along the way we saw a pirate looking ship in the marina that had little table on it, and decided to stop for a drink and maybe a snack. Well, one turned into several! Needless to say, we never made it out for the Stag/Hen Night! It was fun though and finding all of these niche places allowed Mike and I to really use those years and years of school Spanish (now with my Castilion accent), albeit poorly, but at least we got our point across!
Mike had been to Barcelona before when he was in college. He said there was a MUST see park at the top of Barcelona. She we started out bright and early. It was quite a hike and took us over 3 hours to get there on foot. I was EXHAUSTED and cranky. The Gaudi Park really was quite beautiful. The whole city boasts the work of Gaudi and his architectural style really comes through in the park. We climbed up the hill to get there, so we had to climb back down to get back to the hotel and catch our flight home.
It was a real whirlwind trip to Spain, but I loved it. The Spanish way of life is really a "Hasta manana"--Until Tomorrow kind of attitude. I'd love to spend some more time there and experience more of the food! So good!
Kialee and I arrived in Barcelona on Friday morning. After a little debacle with Kialee's checked bag (we couldn't find baggage claim) we jumped in a taxi. I was really excited to use all those years of Spanish (8 including 2 semesters of college)and was even practicing what I needed to say to the taxi driver in order to get us to the hotel. "Por favor, necesitamos que ir a la Hotel Universal de Barcelona." The driver was polite, corrected my school book Spanish, and transformed it to the Castillion Spanish they speak in Barcelona. After he said it in Castillion, all I could think of was my HS Spanish teacher, Senor Fuller, overpronouncing things, and making a big deal of teaching us the castillion version too. "In Barthelona, you would say,..." If only I'd remembered! We checked into our hotel and proceeded to Las Ramblas, the main drag in the city. We didn't get very far when we saw a sign at a street-side cafe' advertising the best sangria in BCN. We looked at each other and knew we had to sample it if they were claiming to be the best! We wound up getting 2 pitchers and some cheesey snacks before Mike called and told us he was on his way to the hotel. Looking back it seems silly that we just didn't take the same flight as Mike since he only got in a couple of hours later than us!
Mike came and joined us. We walked around Las Ramblas where there were lots of street performers, artists, cafes, and pickpockets. Mike and Ki are super estute at finding the shady characters looking for your wallet, so they were always on the look-out for oblivious me!
Chris rolled in around 9PM, poor guy had to work a full day! When he finally got there he was pretty tired and we were 3 sheets to the wind, but we made it out for some paella and rioja. The paella was marginal at best, but then again, I don't think I've ever had paella before, so who's to know what's good. After dinner, we just went back to the hotel, the next day was going to be a doozy!
We're big fans of "Fat Tire Bike Tours" and knew that Fat Tire did tours of Barcelona, so we were all over it! I must admit, it wasn't as good as the Paris tour since Barcelona is a bit more spread out than gay Paris. The bike tour hit most of the major stops in BCN, the highlight being La Segrada Familia. We didn't have time to climb to the top, but that wasn't really my bag anyway. The bike tour finished at the beach. Barcelona is the only city I've ever been to that butts up to a gorgeous beach. I guess you could argue that LA has a similar effect, but downtown LA is a bit further out, I'd compare it to Hermosa Beach maybe. Anyway, we found a nice waterfront/beachfront cafe and had some beers and food and decided to walk back to town to head out for the "Stag/Hen Party" combo night. Along the way we saw a pirate looking ship in the marina that had little table on it, and decided to stop for a drink and maybe a snack. Well, one turned into several! Needless to say, we never made it out for the Stag/Hen Night! It was fun though and finding all of these niche places allowed Mike and I to really use those years and years of school Spanish (now with my Castilion accent), albeit poorly, but at least we got our point across!
Mike had been to Barcelona before when he was in college. He said there was a MUST see park at the top of Barcelona. She we started out bright and early. It was quite a hike and took us over 3 hours to get there on foot. I was EXHAUSTED and cranky. The Gaudi Park really was quite beautiful. The whole city boasts the work of Gaudi and his architectural style really comes through in the park. We climbed up the hill to get there, so we had to climb back down to get back to the hotel and catch our flight home.
It was a real whirlwind trip to Spain, but I loved it. The Spanish way of life is really a "Hasta manana"--Until Tomorrow kind of attitude. I'd love to spend some more time there and experience more of the food! So good!
It's been awhile...
We're back in the good ol' USA now, and trying to adjust back to normal life. In my new job, I have very limited access to the internet. All of my favorite sites are blocked, gmail, PerezHilton, Facebook, GAP, Ann Taylor...What's a girl to do? Blog. For some unknown reason blogger.com comes up as an available site and I was perusing the old blogs I used to write. Somewhere around last October I really gave it up, huh? So, since my job is SO boring and I literally just sit behind a desk for 8 hours a day doing NOTHING, I figured, why not catch up on some of the adventures and mis-adventures we had while we were in Londontown and around the globe. I figure I should write them down before I completely forget them all together.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Reflecting Back...
As our stint in the UK comes to a close, Mike and I have been reflecting on our time here in the UK. You see, for as much as the two of us bitch about living here, we do live pretty charmed lives on this side of the pond and it will be bittersweet to see our "tour of duty" end. The truth is, we live much more "normal" lives here than we do in America. Mike's home for dinner almost every night and very rarely has to work weekends. In America, if I had dinner with Mike once per week that was a lot and often was flying away on Sundays so our time together was limited. His work schedule, plus the family obligations and time with friends made it difficult for us to spend time with each other and here we've had nothing BUT each other, which has been nice!
To think of all the things we've seen and done while living here, the mind spins out of control. How many people can say they've walked with lions, been to the Eiffel Tower, Oktoberfest, Euro Disney, Dublin for St. Patty's Day, been in an ice storm in Prague, visited the Hermitage, skied the Alps, and visited EVERY Scandanavian country in a matter of 18 months? And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.
We've also made some very good friends that will be everywhere from Seattle to San Francisco to Rochester when we come home. Not being a few tube stops away from them will be tough. We've become each other's family here...acting as support when someone is homesick, celebrating life's moments with each other, etc. We see our friends here far more than we did our friends at home or even our family.
It will be nice to come home and start life over again. Right now, Mike's mom handles all of our mail and banking and I'm eager to take control of that again to get a grip on what's in our accounts, not have to send money home for the mortgage and really just let Lauren stop worrying about all of our nonsense. Our tenant has a lease that allows her to be in our home through the end of November, which is pretty difficult since it looks like we'll be home early in the summer. Living in temporary housing will be difficult, me finding a job will be difficult (although I have some feelers out already), but it will all be worth it in the end. We're (or should I say I'm) hoping to get out of the townhouse ASAP. Mike keeps telling me that the better the job I get, the quicker we're out! I'm not a big fan of Bedminster and especially the townhouse. It's so far from everything that's familiar to me and is SO Central Jersey! Bleh! I think I need to be further north with trees and hills and woods. I know, I know, pretty narrow minded of me, but in reality, it will be an easier commute for Mike to the city and closer to any job I'd consider! Christopher told my sister that I'm going to buy the house next door to them since it's up for sale. I love my nephews, and Randolph is a really nice town, but next door may be too close for comfort! Hahaha!
So what now? Well, we're kind of in Limbo. We're waiting to hear what Mike's official start date will be in America. There have been lots of dates discussed, but we're waiting to get something in writing before we get our hopes up or start making plans. We really want to take a kick ass trip at the end of this. It doesn't look like sailing the Queen Victoria is going to work our with dates, so we're thinking of going to Italy for a couple of weeks or doing a cruise so I can hit 2 of the countries I have left that I really want to see (Turkey and Greece). Actually, that's what I'm supposed to be doing now instead of writing this blog! LOL! Tomorrow I'm meeting Kialee for coffee to go over a "Bucket List" of things to do before we head home. Preliminary talks have had things like sticking an American flag in the Queens Lawn and getting kicked out of Harrods...Don't worry mom it was a joke! But seriously, I want to get to the Charles Dickens' Museum, walk across Tower Bridge, get to a cricket match, etc. We're going to make a list tomorrow and try and tackles some items every week.
I'll try and do better with keeping the blog updated, but life here is just pretty much status quo. Nothing really interesting to report at all!
To think of all the things we've seen and done while living here, the mind spins out of control. How many people can say they've walked with lions, been to the Eiffel Tower, Oktoberfest, Euro Disney, Dublin for St. Patty's Day, been in an ice storm in Prague, visited the Hermitage, skied the Alps, and visited EVERY Scandanavian country in a matter of 18 months? And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.
We've also made some very good friends that will be everywhere from Seattle to San Francisco to Rochester when we come home. Not being a few tube stops away from them will be tough. We've become each other's family here...acting as support when someone is homesick, celebrating life's moments with each other, etc. We see our friends here far more than we did our friends at home or even our family.
It will be nice to come home and start life over again. Right now, Mike's mom handles all of our mail and banking and I'm eager to take control of that again to get a grip on what's in our accounts, not have to send money home for the mortgage and really just let Lauren stop worrying about all of our nonsense. Our tenant has a lease that allows her to be in our home through the end of November, which is pretty difficult since it looks like we'll be home early in the summer. Living in temporary housing will be difficult, me finding a job will be difficult (although I have some feelers out already), but it will all be worth it in the end. We're (or should I say I'm) hoping to get out of the townhouse ASAP. Mike keeps telling me that the better the job I get, the quicker we're out! I'm not a big fan of Bedminster and especially the townhouse. It's so far from everything that's familiar to me and is SO Central Jersey! Bleh! I think I need to be further north with trees and hills and woods. I know, I know, pretty narrow minded of me, but in reality, it will be an easier commute for Mike to the city and closer to any job I'd consider! Christopher told my sister that I'm going to buy the house next door to them since it's up for sale. I love my nephews, and Randolph is a really nice town, but next door may be too close for comfort! Hahaha!
So what now? Well, we're kind of in Limbo. We're waiting to hear what Mike's official start date will be in America. There have been lots of dates discussed, but we're waiting to get something in writing before we get our hopes up or start making plans. We really want to take a kick ass trip at the end of this. It doesn't look like sailing the Queen Victoria is going to work our with dates, so we're thinking of going to Italy for a couple of weeks or doing a cruise so I can hit 2 of the countries I have left that I really want to see (Turkey and Greece). Actually, that's what I'm supposed to be doing now instead of writing this blog! LOL! Tomorrow I'm meeting Kialee for coffee to go over a "Bucket List" of things to do before we head home. Preliminary talks have had things like sticking an American flag in the Queens Lawn and getting kicked out of Harrods...Don't worry mom it was a joke! But seriously, I want to get to the Charles Dickens' Museum, walk across Tower Bridge, get to a cricket match, etc. We're going to make a list tomorrow and try and tackles some items every week.
I'll try and do better with keeping the blog updated, but life here is just pretty much status quo. Nothing really interesting to report at all!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
WELCOME BABY THOMAS!
I know I've been really lax with posting here, but this post is a little overdue! A few months ago, I expressed congratulations to Scott and Christel on being pregnant with their first baby, and here he is! Thomas Alexander DiPippo (TAD) was born on November 11, 2008. He was 7lbs 14oz and 19" long. Little TAD had a rough start with a staph infection, but luckily, he's aces now! Congrats to Scott & Christel and welcome to the world TAD!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
PROST!---Really LONG!
We're back from Oktoberfest and I think Mike and I can both agree that it's something everyone should do once...and I'm sure we'll be back!
We left for Munich first thing Friday morning and arrived around 11. We were hoping to catch a 12:30 bike tour, but after taking the train to the city from the airport and figuring out our hotel and getting to the meeting point, we missed the tour. Fortunately, the meeting point was around the corner from the Hofbrau house, so we decided to grab a beer and a quick lunch. We wound up staying for 6 hours or something like that. We sat down at a table with a couple from Fairfax, VA. They were there on their 20th Anniversary. After they left, there was a couple from London...He was fine, but she didn't like beer. How to you go to a BEER FESTIVAL in a city where they drink beer in lieu of coffee with breakfast if you don't like beer??? Finally, a group of about 6 or 7 German guys sat down.
They really just wanted to practice their English so I obliged. At the other end of the table two guys from Italy sat...Sadly between my lack of Italian and their lack of English, I think somehow me trying to discuss Italian soccer with them led them to believe I was part of a crime family...They left shortly after! 6 Hours and 3 Liters each later, we made our way back to our hotel, but not before I got lost in the bathroom. So much for touring the city!
The next day, Saturday, all of our friends were coming--Chris & Kialee, Chris & Casie, and Duff & Larissa! They were scheduled on a flight that got in around 11AM, so Mike and I headed to the parade. It was the first day of the festival and they bring all of the kegs in with a lot of pomp & circumstance. I think the best part of the parade was all of the women in their drindls and men in their lederhosen.
Chris & Casie were in first and gave us a call. We told them we'd meet them for lunch near the city center. Chris & Kialee called a few minutes later...They were already in a tent having a liter! We all met for lunch at a Schnedier Wiesen Beer Hall which was cool since Casie's last name is Schneider. They had tablecloths on the tables with Schneider Wiesen all over them. Casie asked to purchase one, but unfortunately they weren't for sale. Not to fear...Chris has the thing off the table and in Kialee's purse before the waitress could say "Auf Wiedersein"!
From the Schneider Beer Hall, we went back to the Hofbrau House for a few liters in the beer garden....The night was just beginning though...We also hit up the tents. It was really hard to get in the big tents on the first night, but we got into a little Paulaner tent for dinner and .... You guessed it, MORE LITERS. Duff, Larissa, Mike and I got separated from the other 4 and wound up sitting with a couple of Bratislavan guys who insisted that we dance on the table with them. We were only too happy to take part. Who would have thought that table dancing is one of Mike's favorite things to do! After they left, the other 4 came and joined us at our table. Lucky for us, the tents all close at 10PM so we had a nice early night. We had a tent reservation at Hofbrau for 11:30AM the next day, so we had to be up and running early.
Mike and I got up bright and early to meet Casie in the city center. She and I had this bright idea to buy drindls (Beer Wench Outfits) for our day at the tents (It seemed like the thing to do!). Unfortunately, Munich completely shuts down on Sundays and we were out of luck. Lucky for us, all was not lost, we ran into another parade. After we watched the parade for a little while we went to the Hofbrau tent to meet up with everyone else. When we got inside it was like heaven! Our table was on the balcony and we could overlook all the goings on below. We ordered our first round of liters and our beer wench arrived with them. It was wonderful...the hall was decorated with hops and in the center was the "Hofbrau Guy" a huge paper mache' looking head that rotated...people were throwing their bras and underwear on him.
4 hours, 40 liters, 10 half chickens (hendels), 2 necklace cookies, and 5 pretzels later our reservation was over and we were kicked out. At this point we lost 4 of our group of 10 (they just couldn't hang) and we headed to an outdoor beer garden to ...you guessed it...have another liter. Oktoberfest is an extremely friendly place, and at the beer garden I noticed a group of younger boys all wearing NY Yankees hats so I decided to go and make conversation. They were actually very nice boys, wanting to talk to me about American rock music and telling me how much they liked Mike Piazza. When I went back to sit with our group, Kialee and Chris were trying to tell me that they were neo-Nazis but I didn't believe them--they were so nice. It was only when they started to sing Nazi songs that I realized what I'd walked into. I have to say though, they were very nice, and polite, I suppose it could have been different if I wasn't white with blue eyes.
After another 6 liters and 2 hendels, it was getting kind of chilly so we decided to go into the Lowenbrau tent. We actually sneaked our way into a side door exit. Chris pushed all the girls ahead and insisted that they'd let us in and then we could sweet talk the security into letting the boys in. No need. The bouncer just didn't care. It was REALLY crowded and as I mentioned before you have to be seated in order to be served. I took it upon myself to get us seated. I'd already managed with the neo-Nazis so how bad could I do, right? I first sat down next to a guy in liederhosen, in my VERY poor German I asked if he spoke English. He was having none of my little game. Then, I went to another table, they spoke English and told me that I could sit and order beer for our group. I had NO money on me so I flagged Chris over to take my spot and get our beer. I moved on to find us a place to sit. There was a whole table with only 4 people sitting at it. When I tried to speak to them, again in my piss poor German, they were more than welcoming! They told us that 4 of us could sit there which was fine. The were two older German couples who were concerned we hadn't eaten and kept trying to get us food! There was a language barrier...they spoke very little English and with Kialee and Chris our only (high school) German speakers being 3 sheets to the wind, communication was limited. We had a great time though!Mike became obsessed with the Lowenbrau lion. I even took some video of it. I think it's more than possible that it's more interesting when you've had a few liters.
On our final day in Munich, we tried to do a bike tour but it was absolutely pouring! We wound up taking a bus tour of the city which really was kind of disappointing! There really wasn't much to the city, so we were happy we came during Oktoberfest!
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