Adventures in Austin, New York, London and Beyond

Short Haircut and Family Visitors

2008-06-24T19:17:00.001-04:00

The shortest haircut I've had in a loooong time. It brings me back to the Howie Gabe haircut I had in Austin. what's funny is I'm using the same hair cream I bought when I got that haircut many years ago. It's crazy how long ago that feels...

Also, had a few visitors last week with Aunt Sallie and Uncle Dick coming stopping into London on their way to Budapest! Here's a picture of all of us at a pub enjoying a pint with their friends Teresa and Phillip.

Daniella in the UK

2008-06-24T18:14:00.002-04:00

For the first time since I arrived in the UK, Daniella was brought out and played. It's an absolutely brilliant guitar to play!

Memories from awhile back...captured strumming away (my hair is A LOT shorter now)

Cat in the morning

2008-06-12T18:02:00.001-04:00

I had quite an interesting night/morning with a massive fright in early morning. I was half asleep most of the night but heard a noise near my window around 5am. I partially opened my eyes and didn't really see anything and started to close them but then heard more noise over by my window and opened them wider. My heart started racing and I hadn't heard these noises before which sounded like tapping on my window! My heart started racing as I thought someone was trying to reach in through my open window. I was fully awake at this point and there was just enough light coming through the window to see a pesky cat sitting on my computer desk and rustling around. Jesus it scared the living daylights out of me! I started moving out of bed and it got frightened and tried to go back outside the window but couldn't fit through this time. I went up and it tried to get out by jumping but then fell behind my computer dragging the mouse and wireless card with it. It got up and hid under my desk. As I reached down it hissed and swatted at me. I was hoping I could grab it by the collar of its neck so it wouldn't bit me or scratch me (at this point I was thinking "stray cat? Bite? Rabies? I hope not!" anyways, I had to get it out of my flat and I pinned it to the floor and tried to grab it a few times successfully nabbing it the fourth or fifth time. I opened the window as wide as I could and pushed it out and slammed it shut. Blimey, that was not a fun morning! Poor thing must've been scared to death being trapped in my flat but it scared me too!!!

Berlin by Photos

2008-05-31T16:28:00.004-04:00

Last weekend was well spent in sunny Berlin. What a great place to walk around and soak in the city while the sun was out. I had a fantastic time!

Amplemann

Reichstag

Performers near the Reichstag

Ivy Covered Library

Nikolaviertel

Meter of Beer

Pints of Georg Brau

Gendarmarkt

My idea of a heavenly shop

Interesting place to work

Checkpoint Charlie

Sony Center

Berliner Dom at night

Tiergarten Statue

Schloss Charlottenburg Palace

Tiergarten

Amplemann at the gate

Modern Architecture

Pint of Berliner Kindl

German Car

All Berlin pictures on Flickr

Saturday in Brighton

2008-05-18T17:43:00.005-04:00

The weekend before last was an absolutely gorgeous weekend in London, this weekend was half sunny half rainy but that's what I've been told to expect. Anyways, last weekend I made the most of the nice weather and headed down to the coast and arrived in Brighton 40 minutes later by train.

May 10th, 2008
It was a really cool town to explore which was fairly heavily impacted by visitors from around the country but it was still a nice city. It was quite diverse in what was available to explore. I walked through the small streets of really cool, unique shops which lead down to the small, old english like narrow streets called The Lanes. Little shops popped up around the corners of the lanes as I kept walking around each narrow turn. The lanes then opened up to a wider, main street which was home to the more upscale shops found in most cities.

That street lead down to the ocean where the Brighton Pier could be see off to the left and a massive beach covered completely in pebbles could be seen. The street wrapped closely around the edges of the beach and ocean and two to three story buildings lined the coast as it continued in each direction. Pubs lined the stone-filled beach and the stones certainly didn't stop anyone from lying out and soaking in the sun.

The pier was an odd bit of work but fun to explore and see. It's like a mini-carnival on a pier with lots of junk food, yummy doughnuts, amusement rides, games and a full arcade in the middle and of course fish and chips. It was a fun place to explore and just walk around looking at the different people and shops.

I think I'll definitely go back and explore the beach area a bit more, explore the shops as there were lots of neat ones I didn't get to go into. One place I did go was a little shop off to the side that sold mini guitars made of wood and painted in different colors. I had to get one, they were too cool to pass up even though they were £8. I bought a red Fender strat with the words "Sex Pistols - Never mind the bollocks." It makes me chuckle when I look at it which is exactly why I bought it, not because I'm a massive Sex Pistols fan because I'm not, haha.

After consuming a double chocolate cupcake from the butterfly bakery, an ice cream cone, a few doughnuts and a nice italian meal I was ready to head back. Definitely need to check out a milkshake place that advertised 150 different milkshakes!!

Perfect Weather!!

2008-05-08T07:51:00.003-04:00

This past week has been absolutely GORGEOUS in London. We've had temperatures in the mid 70's, bright, sunny blue skies and just lovely weather all around. Last weekend I went to a county fair in Morden that was close by and also explored Battersea Park which was really nice as well.

Morris Dancers at the fair

Morris Dancers at the fair

Scary Maypole lady

Iconic Battersea Power Station

Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park

Battersea park fountain

Battersea park

British Puddings are AMAZING

2008-04-30T18:08:00.004-04:00

First of all, my list of Britishisms has grown a bit so check out the new additions. One of them is one I've know of for awhile and that's "pudding" or "pudd" meaning dessert and in no way meaning the american pudding which is like a custard. Right, so one thing the brits do particularly well is their puddings, my god. I'm in chocolate heaven over here and only have to go as far as the market to get some impressively sweet and chocolately puddings. There's this brand called Gu (with the two dots over the u, whatever that's called) and they do fantastic puddings. There's one called a cheeky+saucy chocolate pot that's just pure dark chocolate mousse meant to be heated up and spread over something but yours truly is too much of a chocoholic to deal with warming it up. I plunge straight into it and look for more when the tiny pot is all gone.

Another recent discovery is this dark chocolate molten cake that takes 30 seconds in the microwave for it to be gooey, chocolately, sinful and absolutely delicious. Another pudding I'd never heard of was banoffee pie which is a mixture of banana and toffee and it's quite a delicious treat! I made one last night, take a look :-)

I LOVE the puddings here, definitely making me one happy (and unhealthy) chap. I've also started a Chocolate quest and mapped places out on google maps. Yes, I'm a chocolately geek!

Randomisms - Brockwell Park, a Wizard and a Ciabatta Bacon Sandwich

2008-04-27T07:30:00.007-04:00

I just got back from a run in Brockwell park, which is only five minutes away. It's an absolutely gorgeous park with lots of wide open space and a cool cafe or pub at the top of the hill with tables to sit outside. I'll definitely be checking that out at some point!

As I was running, a couple of random things popped into my head that I wanted to capture somewhere and what better place than sending them to google to be stored forever? I can't think of any. A few weeks ago I was going to Argos, a catalogue store where you can pick things up as well, and as I was coming out there was a man dressed in a purple wizard's costume leaving a pub with a black cat perched on his shoulder. Very odd and I definitely chuckled at it, but not him directly of course. He probably would've cursed me if he'd seen me chuckling behind him!

Another thought that popped into my head was about the bread here. The grocery stores have excellent bread, and I've been to quite a few and they all keep a pretty good stock. They have fresh ciabatta, my favourite, and it makes an amaaaazing sandwich when mixed with the thick bacon they sell here (you could never find that in the states), some avocado, tomato and fresh mozarella cheese. Pop that into the oven and you have a nice, crispy but soft on the inside, ciabatta bacon sandwich with red pepper flakes over the top, of course. I'll have to give it a name as it's divine and I'm about to go enjoy one right now and I'm feeling a bit peckish (britishism).

Last thing was going to have carvery last weekend at a pub in Dulwich called the Crown and Greyhound. They serve a Sunday feast with pork, veggies, beef, potatoes and yorkshire puddings. Yum yum, it was a tasty way to spend a Sunday and pretty close to my flat as well. Served with a pint, it was a perfect Sunday afternoon meal!

Can you tell I'm hungry? Food has occupied my mind! Off to make my sandwich.

Oh! and I think I found the Yelp! equivalent over here which I am very excited about. It's just picking up speed but I can see it becoming just as popular as Yelp. It's called Qype, another weird name, but it has user reviews on things all over London, England and Europe! http://www.qype.co.uk.

Welcome Drinks & My Day Out In London

2008-04-26T18:58:00.006-04:00

It's been a nice weekend so far, lots of things going on some for fun, some just to distract myself. On Friday after work, I arranged to meet up a few friends from work that I met at GS training in NY. We went around the corner to a place called the Centre Page and had a pint outside and chatted a bit. It happened that the same night another guy from training was leaving the firm and sent out an invitation for drinks on Friday as well. So we merged the two events and quite a few people turned up to the pub right across from our main GS office. I now forget the name of the place but it was a cool spot and you could definitely tell that's where loads of people went after work to cool down but cooling was definitely limited. The main area was really really hot! fortunately the back room wasn't taken so we meandered our way back there and found a few bottles of wine for us to enjoy. How could we pass that up? The group that had just left didn't finished a few full bottles of wine so we happily took over where they left off. :-)

Yeah, so it was a fun night, lots of catching up and seeing faces I hadn't seen in ages. By the sounds of it, a lot of people hadn't seen each other in donkey's years (britishsm for you) so it was a great night of catching up. Some people were definitely surprised to see me there and know that i had moved over here and of course i got the question "so why have you come to London?" a gazillion times but i was expecting that and had my answer ready, haha. It was good to see everyone, lots turned out like i said before and from what i can remember i saw: tim, stew, ash, alan, ali, john, alice, melissa, darshini, chris, simon, steve, eric, vicky and i'm sure there were others but the names aren't popping into my head.

Right, so today I had a lie in and puttered around until about midday until I decided to head out and explore a bit of London. I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I looked up a few places on my list near Green Park which would be my last stops and then took the train into Blackfriar's station and started walking. It was such a beautiful day and i stupidly brought my coat with me which after about 2 minutes of walking was taken off and stuffed into my backpack. There was a cool breeze, blue sky and sun shining down on London. Lovely. I headed west through a few areas and one really cool street i found was Denmark street which is perpendicular to Charing Cross and SOHO. It was lined with guitar and music shops and I wanted to explore all of them. I'd been meaning to get new guitar strings so I headed into an acoustic guitar shop that smelled of polish. I saw the familiar elixir nanoweb's behind the counter and inquired how much they were. £12 was the answer which was crazy as that's how much they are but in dollars! I was a bit shocked so I decided not to buy strings until i really needed them (i.e. one popped off) because that price is just outrageous to me, that's about $24! I passed a pub along the way that caught my attention...see the picture below. he he.

I continued on and hit Oxford street, a very busy shopping area and lots more people were out and about. I stopped in John Lewis which is a large department store over here and picked up a few kitchen items that I've been meaning to get. I continued on, stopping at Boots (pharmacy like CVS) to get some water and a few things. The odd bit is they didn't have non-spray deodorant which is the opposite of what you'd see in the states, well at least in the past. They only had stick and that was the major stock. But here, at least in Boots, they only had spray deodorant which i thought was a bit weird but I purchased a can and continued on my way.

I kept going on Oxford street, and passed by a belgian waffle shop that looked VERY tempting. I had just eaten a snack so i wasn't too hungry but was very intrigued and starting to feel hungry after seeing a chocolate covered waffle advertised. I kept going and headed towards Hyde Park. I passed another waffle place and couldn't resist this time so a VERY tasty chocolate covered waffle was purchased and carried to the park. Along the way, passerbys stared hungrily at the chocolate mess that I was holding. I tried to stop myself from chuckling as their eyes widened once they spotted my tasty treat. I would be doing the same if someone was walking down a busy street carrying a chocolate covered waffle. That would be grounds for pinching it, me thinks. I'm a chocolate addict and in times of need, drastic measures must be taken. he he.

Right, so i arrived at the park, ate my waffle and found a nice tree to rest under for a bit. I explored a few other places, stopped in at an old fashioned shaving stored called Taylor's of Old Bond Street and bought a few items as an impulse buy. They've already been tested out and approved so it was a worthy buy even though it was a bit pricey.

All around it was a nice day out in London and I liked walking around and just getting my bearings about where things are. I now can pinpoint oxford street or at least the relative direction it's in and have a better grasp about where things are and how far apart they are. Much more exploring to come, hopefully with some company along :-)

Marble Arch

Hyde Park

Hyde Park

Relaxing in Hyde Park

Wellington Arch

Sliding down a fountain in Green Park

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Settling into British Life

2008-04-24T19:56:00.000-04:00

It's been quite a busy few weeks here. After extreme hassle, hours on the phone and lots of nerves on end and frustration, I FINALLY got BT to hook up my broadband. It's wonderful to connect to the internet again, check my email, look up train times and just browse around and send email. It's amazing how much I took that for granted and being internetless for two weeks was very painful. I'm an addict, I'll admit but it doesn't take away from the annoyance that I had to go through to set this up in a new flat, nonetheless. They didn't have to even come out and hook anything up, all they needed to do was flip a switch on their end or whatever they do.

Right, enough ranting on BT (useless buggers) and on to other things! I made an IKEA trip the other weekend and stocked up on things for my flat. I've just about finished assembling them all, just a bookcase to go and I'll be set. I'm still waiting on changing out the small, dinky, and uncomfortable bed I have in my flat for a bigger one, just a few things to follow up with that. I'm all sorted with paying bills (hooray?), there's lots to pay! council tax, electricity, gas, water, bt phone, bt internet, O2 mobile and that's after a painful 40% tax and extra 9% for National Insurance taxes. I'm not looking forward to seeing how much my net salary will be, yikes...

Things at work have been good, very busy, but good. I'm still adapting to my new role, spending every other week on production support and full on with design of the new system. There's TONS to do and learn and I have a full plate and it's not getting smaller any time soon, only bigger and bigger and I learn more and more. I've been trying out the local cuisine during lunch and found a few good places. Here's my write up:
*Gourmet Burger Kitchen (went here for dinner) - massive burgers, very nice but a little pricey. they have milkshakes that are very nice but a bit too milky and not shakey enough
*Ensalada - cajun chicken wrap is really good and it's £3.40 which is just about the best one can do around there for a decent lunch
*Cafe Veloce - very tasty pre-made sandwiches on ciabatta bread. They toast them as well. This is my favourite place so far!
*Japanese Canteen - a bit more expensive but a nice meal is the chicken katsu curry. mmmm, very tasty!
*Fresh Italy - pasta in a cup. I didn't like this all that much but i'll give it another try some time as it's cheap and close.
*Carluccio's - you can get take-away but it's nice to sit down. very yummy bread tin with different sorts of bread and their pasta is quite tasty. I definitely like this place a lot!

Those are the one's I've tried so far, I'm trying a sausage and mash place tomorrow near spitalfields and hitting up Montezuma's afterwards. mmmmmmmm, dark choco mango. yum yum!

I've collected quite a list of Britishisms over the past few weeks and will have to write up an entry just about the ones I've heard. There are a lot of subtle differences that I've noticed which just really intrigues me and makes me chuckle.

Well enough typing for tonight, time to relax.

London Marathon

2008-04-24T16:27:00.005-04:00

I'll let the photos do all the talking :-)

Snow in London!!!

2008-04-06T11:19:00.002-04:00

April 6th 2008

I woke up today feeling a bit under the weather (Britishism cockney: tom and dick) with a sore throat and just a bit weak and tired. But, it was SNOWING outside so I could I not go outside, especially Brockwell Park. I got out of bed around 11:30 and made my way to the park to take some photos and enjoy the pretty whiteness all around and collecting on the trees and flowers. It was stunning, really gorgeous how the snow collects and bunches up on the different plants. Lots of people were out and playing in the snow and I was really wishing I had someone to play around in the snow with. Still haven't had a proper snow ball fight, snow angel's or snow man making since I've been in colder regions where snow is possible in the winter. It's a bit odd that snow came in April of all times, that was a bit shocking but then again I welcomed it and so did everyone else in the park :-) I passed a few people and was taking photos as they passed. Most of them commented on the scene like "it's beautiful isn't it?" or "what a gorgeous park in the snow!" It was nice to have people just chatting around, I don't think I ever had anyone speak to me when I was taking pictures in NY. It could just be because I looked like a goof with my hat and camera around my neck or it could also be that snow doesn't come all that much in England and people were just in a happy and talkative mood. Either way, it was nice.

PICTURES

My Move to London

2008-04-06T11:15:00.003-04:00

I'm in the cafe of the Ritzy cinema with Stew about to see a film and connected to wireless. God, it's wonderful having the internet!!!

* * *
April 5th, 2008

I left New York Thursday evening on Virgin Atlantic. I packed up all my things, had a car ready for me downstairs but the driver took one look at the 2 suitcases, 2 boxes, backpack and guitar and said "no way, that's not going to fit!." After a little pushing and shoving the boxes fit in the trunk (the boot - Britishism) and he caved and let me put the suitcases in the back seat. After shooting me a few stink eyes (hairy eyeball - Britishism) he finally went silent and after an hour we arrived at the airport. Checking my things in was no problem, even with the extra luggage. One of the attendants told me i couldn't take my guitar as a carry on but someone later told me to try and take it on, might as well give it a go. So after paying my $240 for the extra bags (might seem like a lot but it was nothing comparing to shipping them!!) I was off to the gate and boarded shortly thereafter. My flight was okay, couldn't really sleep much as every time I started to get comfortable I felt a twinge or pressure from my knees or legs pressing against the seat in front of me. No fun. But soon I arrived and was ready to move-in!

After a bit of hassle at the letting agent's office and needing to run to the nearest NatWest branch (my UK bank) for a bankers draft to pay my deposit, I got the keys to my flat and off I went! I arrived at my flat, walked up to the front door and my key wasn't unlocking the front door. I had a jangle of keys to try before I started to worry but none of them fit. One slipped in and turned but it didn't open the door. Fortunately, someone else was moving in at the same time and they opened the front door for me. I was relieved and walked in to my flat, #8. I tried the key in the door and it was the same deal...it slipped in but didn't unlock the door. Crap!! Was my immediate reaction and i tried a few more times but nothing worked. At the time I was definitely tired and not thinking straight and hungry which didn't make anything better, especially since i can't think straight on an empty stomach! I called letting agents and someone came down with a master pair of keys which worked on the first time! The guy shot me a "you're an idiot" look that made me feel completely stupid. It turned out my keys were right but I needed to turn them the other way and push the door to get it open! ahhhhhh, such a silly move on my part but then again I had somewhat of an excuse as my mind was definitely not working properly.

So I moved all my things in, did a bit of shopping and sorted things out then had a nap on the sofa as I ran through a list of things I needed to do. Sleeping seemed to be the best thing to do when I had a tangled head of todo's that I couldn't get done. That list included calling and setting up the utilities in my name, topping up my O2 mobile phone (it didn't like my credit card for over the phone payment), calling BT to setup a phone and internet, getting my train pass for work on Monday and various other tid bits. I went out later for dinner at a nice japanese noodle house that had AMAZING fried chicken for appetizers. It really reminded me of bon chon and had a delicious dipping sauce.

So here I am, Saturday night in my new flat and just trying to get my mind around living and being here. I tried to tackle some items on my shopping list today at Curry's (like Circuit City or Best Buy), the super market and Woolworths (target) but there was a fire in one of the buildings in the city centre and Woolworths was completely blocked off and closed. I was able to picked up an iron (but not an ironing board) and some new speakers (I tried plugging mine in even with an adapter and they were blown out almost instantly...yikes!). I also walked around the police line, did a bit of shopping at Marks and Spencers (clothing and food) and picked up some items to make for dinner. I made a pasta with penne and added in some sausage and made ciabatta bread on the side. It was very yummy and it gave me some more items to add to my list as I started cooking and was missing certain items.

One thing that was resolved after today's shopping trip was the doors. They have a chain built into them that pulls them closed so each door needs a stop underneath it to keep it open. I constantly hear doors slamming outside in the hallway and it's because they're all built this way, very silly and a bit annoying but I'm sure I'll get use to it. The bathroom door is a little tricky but i suppose always having it closed it okay however there is no vent (edit: I found the vent so I'm all sorted!) so any dampness collects inside unless the door is open. The shower and water pressure is REALLY nice and the reason i mention this is the Living and Working in London book I have explicitly said to check for dodgy water pressure and faucets as it's common. There's not a lot of storage in the bathroom so I will need to pick up shelf at some point but for now it's stacked around a little shelf under the sink. I'll need to pick up a proper telly (television) at some point but I've got a small one to hold me over for the time being. It looks like an IKEA run would knock out a lot of things on my ever growing list and it will probably get bigger as I've stupidly brought a lot of American appliances that I'm afraid to plugin because I don't want the speaker incident to be repeated.

I've been complaining mostly so far but they are very minor things, the flat is FANTASTIC! This place is so nice and I love that it's furnished, the space is great, I love having a separate bedroom from the lounge area and there's a big storage closet for my suitcases. The closet is massive and will definitely fit all my clothes and with enough room on the bottom to fit a small chest of drawers. I was very productive today and after a nice sleep, I was able to get out and pick up my train pass and photocard, top up my mobile at Superdrug and get groceries. There are so many others thing that happened but there's just too much to write about and I'll need to stop somewhere. I was looking forward to watching Dr. Who tonight which was the first episode of the season but for some reason this telly doesn't pick up the station which is BBC 1 and is definitely broadcasted. So maybe the antenna just isn't powerful enough or it's being blocked.

Anyways, I'm off to unpack a few more things and then crash in bed. Thank god tomorrow is Sunday as I really need another day before I start work. Stew just gave me a ring and we're going to meet up tomorrow for lunch. Awesome!

Eve of my move to London

2008-04-02T20:15:00.007-04:00

less than 1 day until I move.

It's the final night here in New York and I'm pretty much packed. I'm going to meet Eliot at the Telephone Bar in the east village as he couldn't make it (he forgot!!) last night. Last night was jolly good (note the britishism :-)) fun and we had a good turn out at Ulysses after work. Thanks to everyone who made it out to bid me farewell, it was great to see everyone out there. It was really funny as we had a big table in the back and I was literally sat right in the middle of two tables: to my right were my work colleagues (John, Matt, John, Paras and Purvesh) and to my left were my GSEEC buddies (for life dude!) and my NAPA friends that came out to see me off. It was a fun evening, lots of chatting and laughs and just all around good fun.

Man o man, definitely feeling the butterflies today and hoping everything comes together smoothly. I think I've prepared pretty well but my mind can't help but think of all the "what ifs" it's just trained to do that and I have no control over it.

Moving day comes tomorrow, a very packed morning with meetings until 11, then Steph and Andrew want to see me before I leave which is really sweet and kind of them to do, I feel very honoured that they want to see me off on my departure day. I'm going to miss those two and all of our eating adventures as well.

Well time to pack last minute things up and head off to meet Eliot. I'm hoping a little social activity will help distract me from worrying about tomorrow...

Tomorrow brings me to London. Unbelievable.

IT'S OFFFICIAL!

2008-03-31T22:35:00.003-04:00

3 days until I move.

I'm very excited as I'm officially ready to enter the UK as a work permit and Visa holder. I picked up my Visa today (it's stamped inside my passport) and that means I have 60 months (5 years to do the math for you) to live and work in the UK until I need to renew it! WOOHOO!

Work permit - tick
Visa - tick
Packed up - tick
Ready for a new adventure - tick
Cannot wait any longer? - tick

I'm ready to gooooooo!

Salt Lick Delivered!

2008-03-30T18:30:00.005-04:00

4 Days to go!

Saturday afternoon was spent preparing loads of food at Andrew's place in Brooklyn. We had mashed potatoes, cole slaw, chips, fruit, collared greens, chocolate banana bread, macaroni and cheese, meatloaf and sweet tea. These were all sides though that were centered around the online ordering and delivery of Salt Lick way down in Driftwood Texas. It was a brilliant way to end my final weekend in NY and the U.S. although with celebrating Steph's birthday as well (Happy Birthday Steph!). We all had a great time preparing, chatting, eating and eating more. I was sooooooo stuffed and completely in a food coma by the end of the food-a-thon and the salt lick meat (sausage, brisket and ribs) turned out really well! It was really tasty. Now for some pictures of the Meat Feast of 2008:

Yummy sides

SALT LICK!

Group Photo

Food Coma Jones

Gabe. Out. (that chair was so comfy!)

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, so good. I must say though that after that feast my stomach was not very happy with me and woke up me throughout the night to remind me of the amount of BBQ i consumed. Nasty indigestion but totally worth it. :-)

Packing Up

2008-03-24T21:18:00.004-04:00

10 Days to go

This past weekend I knocked one more thing off my list and that was going to Zum Schneider's German biergarten in the East Village. I'd been wanting to go for some time and I finally went with steph and andrew and had an enormous and delicious beer in a proper 1L Munchen pint glass as well as some pretzel, prok shoulder and German bratwurst. Mmmmmm, yummy! Afterwards we went to BonChon for korean fried chicken and lychee soju (so good!) and then to Ginger Man for another pint. It was a fun night!

Gabe at Zum's

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and packing. I've decided to give up on the prospect of hiring a shipping company to move my things and just throw away or give away a lot of it. The rest I've managed to pack into two 20x20x20 boxes which will be going on the plane with me as extra baggage. It's a LOT cheaper that hiring a ruddy moving company to take my stuff across seas as their base estimate was somewhere around $2000. Yeah...that's not going to happen. So I spent most of the day Sunday finding things to pack away only leaving the bare minimum to pack into my two remaining suitcases, one of which is being shipped to me as I needed a bigger bag. Right, well I feel pretty good about my packing status, definitely one thing ticked off my list.

Now if I could just apparate, grab my work permit and apparate back...

*CRACK*

14 days to go

2008-03-20T21:28:00.001-04:00

It's a weird feeling to think I'll be leaving in just 14 days. I'll be leaving New York, a place I've explored and worked in over just about the last two years. I'll be leaving the country I grew up in and have known for the last 24 years and moving to a whole new environment, culture and city with new people, new views and new places to explore and discover. With that comes a great sense of excitement. But I'm not there yet, I'm half way in between as I'm completely ready to move and start what amounts to a new life in a new city but there are 14 days left of this NY life. What to do? See friends, pack up things, shop while clothes and electronics are still cheap, cross off things that are still on my NY todo list (most of which was done last weekend) and just wait. I can an awesome dinner with some colleagues and old teammates last night at ben and jacks steakhouse. We ordered two massive porter house steaks (one steak feeds four) and it was AMAZING! My god, hands down the best porter house I've ever had and definitely up there for best steak I've ever eaten. Superb!

There's one item left before I can leave and it's a fairly critical one...my visa. It's still waiting to be approved and I've been notified it will arrive in time for my April 3rd departure but it's making me VERY anxious and I'm trying not to think about it. That's nearly impossible though as it pops in my mind all the time. I've secure an apartment, I've been approved and my paperwork is all sorted but that Visa is still pending as well as my UK bank account but that's a massive rant and will not be repeated again.

Added Londonisms although it should really be renamed to Britishisms:
*Pants - men's underwear
*Trousers - pants

I'm ready (I think) and I want to move, I want to start the many things in London that I've been waiting for.

Roll on April!!

Londonisms

2008-03-11T22:24:00.005-04:00

After reading many books, speaking with a few Brits and being in London all of last week, I've definitely picked up a few Londonisms, Britishisms and just fun things. My thought is to keep track of them on my blog but I already know it's not going to stay up-to-date. I'll still try though, so keep tuned and check my site for updated Londonisms as I dive deeper into the culture. The list is there on the right side of my blog. You can't miss it!

My official move date is April 4th, just need to wait for my work permit and visa and then buy my flight then I'll be sorted.

oh and more photos from London:

Primrose hill at dusk

view of london from primrose hill

night shot from waterloo bridge

Flat Hunting in London

2008-03-06T16:03:00.002-05:00

Hello from London!

I've been here since 1st of March and what an adventure it has been. I've walked around a lot of areas in London and have really enjoyed my time here. I love it and can't wait to move here! I've had this odd feeling all week that I actually live here now and it really feels like I do but not yet...one more month.

I've secured a flat in the south part of Brixton near the Herne Hill Thameslink station. It's a really nice area...well at least part of it. There are some seedy spots but I'll avoid those. The nice bits are that there's a beautiful, massive park called Brockwell Park not 5 minutes from my flat. It's also a really modern and new building and less than my budget so it's great in multiple aspects. I'm also less than 10 minutes from the nearest station with a 15 minute ride straight into work! it's really an ideal location for what i need and i am very excited that I was able to secure the spot. Brilliant, i say!

Here's a google maps view of where I live, it's south and a bit west.
google map of my new flat in London!

I'm at Leon's right now which is fairly close to my hotel and they have free wireless which is very nice. I haven't been able to get internet in my room since it's £15 per day which is complete codswallop! So this is the first time i've been able to type anything up about the trip. It's been wonderful so far and I can't wait to come back in April.

Here are a few pictures from the trip so far:
View of the city and the Thames from the southbank

St. Paul's Cathedral (literally right outside of where i work)

Brockwell Park

London street

Near smithfield market

My flat building

Lounge area

Outside my window

Lounge area and kitchen view

Bathroom

Kitchen

It's been a very lovely and successful trip!

A Long Overdue Entry And So Much to Tell

2008-02-22T23:15:00.005-05:00

It's certainly been quite awhile since I've typed up an entry in this here blog. There are just a few small things that have kept me busy over the past few months. Additionally, I've had this uncompleted task of typing up all my CR entries from my notebook but have just closed that out by typing up the last one and leaving it as is. I'm not going to type up any others and it's tedious and time consuming and honestly not that rewarding. Next time I'll have something to write up my entries electronically.

So where do I even begin?
Well for one, I'm going to London next week! I'm going there for a week to work from office and look for a flat.
Hang on a minute... look for a flat??
Yessir, I'm moving to London on April 4th to take on a new role which I am very excited about. The whole move is something I'm ecstatic about and it goes WAY beyond switching roles. There is just so much to look forward to and it has me smiling wide with excitement. :-)

There's lot to do until then, but it had been bugging me that my blog was missing the last CR post and also an update on the changes going on with me. I'd better crack on with my list of tasks, much to do.

Oh, and by the way, IT SNOWED TODAY! WOOHOO! Beautiful, white, powerdery snow filled the streets and sidewalks, car windshields and signs. I'm headed out tomorrow to explore the park and see if there's anything fun to photograph.

Reflections on the Trip to Costa Rica

2008-01-05T23:12:00.001-05:00

Well it's certainly a bit tardy but here is the last bit of my Costa Rica journal. I just haven't had time to write up the other detailed entries and to be completely honest i've been dreading typing those up. So they'll just stay written in pen and referenced at some later time when i plop down on the sofa and reflect on my brilliant trip to Costa Rica in Winter 07-08. Maybe one of you will be there with me to read my words.

Reflections on the trip to Costa Rica

It's quite sad to be leaving my family and heading back to NY but i've also had a wonderful, fantastic time in Costa Rica and it's about time to go home. The conclusion to our trip is bittersweet but the memories will be cherished.

This was really perfect timing for a holiday. It gave me plenty of time away from work and NY and lots of time with my family. It also gave me time to relax and think about all the decisions i needed to make, clear my mind and think of all the important things going on. If i didn't have this time to think freely and reflect on everything, it would've been a lot more stressful on me.

Some highlights of the trip
-waterfall hike and the lookout point in Monteverde
-Ziplining through the tree tops in the cloud forest
-Feeding bananas to the monkey's outside our room in Monteverde
-Our hike to Rafas's finca in the mud with amazing vistas along the way
-Watching lava roll down the side of the volcano at night
-Eco Thermales hot springs - aaaahhhhhhhhhh
-Our house in Samara and it's ocean view
-3 days at Playa Carrillo enjoying paradise on the beach and making rum smoothies with Ahna :-)

Feel free to add your own memories as a comment and I'll add them in to this entry afterwards.

Hike Through the Rain Forest

2007-12-23T23:17:00.000-05:00

I've just woken up from a nice nap which was well needed after a big day of hiking. I'm ready to recap what we've experienced today!

We woke up this morning to a rain filled sky and muddy roads. The wind was still banging our door open and closed ALL night which with my extremely uncomfortable bed, kept me up most of the night. Tonight I'm going to stick some magazines and paper under the crack in the door to hold it shut. That should do the trick. The wind is so strong though, it comes shooting through the door behind us and the shakes the front door with a jolt of energy. It's a loud and spontaneous noise and not fun to sleep with.

We're off to find some supper so i'll continue with the day when we return...

* * *

We had an amazing dinner at a chilean run restaurant called Restaurante Lucia. We had an incredible bottle of Pinot Noir from Chil and I ordered Mexican Steak for dinner. Yummy! Before i even ordered, i scoped out the dessert menu (it would only be proper!) and my eyes grew wide when they spotted "Tres Leches" on the menu. Mmmmmmmm! The meal was very good and the Tres Leches was DIVINE! We had a really wonderful converstion that was very heartfelt and deep. I shared everything that's been going on lately in my life and my sister shared her heartbreak which lead to some warm family discussions. I love my family dearly! At one point we were speaking about things that make you smile in the morning when you wake up and things to take the ho hum out of your day and that made me reflect and think hard and smiles erupted from me. :-) What a wonderful saying and thought, it is so important to find something(s) that make you excited to start the day and even better if you can find something or someone that makes you smile each and every morning. Definitely going to store that one away for later.

On to the days adventure! >>>

We decided to skip the morning guided tour which started at 6:45am and have a more leisurely staet to our day. We ate breakfast downstairs which was absolutely delicious and homemade. It consisted of fried eggs, fresh squeezed orange juice, pineapple, mango and tasty homemade corn tortilla's which were hand-ground! Incredible!

So around 10:30 we headed out for our walk at the Sanctuario Egologico which our guide book recommended for a nice 2.5 hour hike at a leisurely pace. We arrived and paid our 5,000 colones entrance fee each and then off we went into the rain forest

We arrived at a lookout point with MASSIVE panoramas of tree covered slopes and the nicoya peninsula in the horizon to the west. The sun was partly out but there was a constant mist in the air. The green hillsides were amazing and had us all oooh'ing and ahh'ing as we stared out into the vast valley below. The trees covered every inch of the hills and surrounding area, completely consumed by a dark green. It was a marvelous sight and could not be captured on camera, but of course i tried.

Speaking of my camera, I started to have difficulties with it and focusing on objects and horizons. It has has consistent issues with trying to take panorama's or pictures of the distance which have always been my favourite to capture...poo! it became quite irritating especially as i experience it more and more throughout the day. At first i thought it might be because the sun was reflecting off the mist but now i think it has more to do with the camera and maybe the humidity and wetness.

Right, on to the adventure! We decided to hike down the slopes to a waterfall below. The train down was steep, narrow and slippery but brought incredible vistas and closeups of plans and wildlife all around. Ultimately (after a 30-40min hike down) we emerged in a dense forest of wetness and greenery with a damp mist surrounding everything. The thundering waterfall and flow of the stream next to us was intoxicating and relaxing. We hiked up the slippery rocks to find a 30 foot waterfall pouring over the edges. The sound was extraordinary and the wind gusted from the impact of the water on the rocks at our feet. Mist consumed the air around us as we all stared at the massive spectacle of nature.

Naturally, I was trying desperately to get photo's of the waterfall but the issues with my camera continued. Fortunately, I took enough to where i came away with 2 or 3 clear shots that weren't completely blurry and out of focus.

Seeing that brilliant force of nature filled me with smiles and wonder. I was gleaming with happiness as we trekked back through the dense, damp greenery and back up the steep mountain to the lookout above.

We continued along the trail and saw many different types of flowers, trees and mushrooms and noises all around. One extremely funny event was my mom and dad literally got ants in their pants that were biting them on their legs and thighs. SO, on the platform overlooking the edge of the vally and vast greennes, my parents stripped off their pants (trousers, mind you!) and looked for the ants crawling around on them. HAHA! My sister and I were in stitches!

One really interesting aspect of the rainforest is all the different smells. Different areas had varying degrees of humid, sweet, foresty smells to animal stinks like skunk to fungal smells that didn't smell terrible but definitely...distinctive. It was hard to describe these sense as the whole forest was just one massive sensory overload. Mix that with fatigue, sweat and thirst and we have quite a combination of feelings.

I'm lying here with the wind still blowing strongly and a kitty sleeping under my folder legs. I can feel her tail twitching against my calf and her paws burying themselves into my feet. This kitty is so funny and crazy but wonderfully precious! She has been nicknamed the Christmas Kitty as she's been our little treasure to have around while we've been here. :-)

Adventure in the Rain

2007-12-22T22:47:00.000-05:00

We're back after a long walk out in the rain. I have a kitty laying on my chest and batting at my pen while i write. I think she likes the shadows that my pen makes against the backlight. Owwww! she just clawed my finger and caught on to my skin. Blimey, that hurts!

So on to the evening. We decided to take a walk in the rain down to Santa Elena tonight. we walked on the very edge of the road as cars passed us by. The rain was off and on and more like a thick, constant mist. Muddy puddles were forming on the dirt roads to the side.

We had a few incidents with the cajero (ATM or Cash Point) mostly due to our complete stupidity. we tried our luck at the first ATM but our transactions kept on getting canceled and we couldn't figure out why!
We kept on walking down the steep rainy roads and found another ATM alongside the road. This time we were able to withdraw 25,000 colones which we somehow thought was $300 at the time.

We kept on going and finally arrived in Santa Elena, a small little town with lots of touristy shops and cafes. We walked around a bit and decided to pick up from fruit and other bits and bobs at the Mercado. We walked in and found mangos and bananasin the back. We had finished off my dark chocolate toblerone bar a bit earlier so I was on the hunt for some tasty chocolate. I searched the aisles and found bags and bags of dark chocolate covered sweets: banana bits, passion fruit, guava, coffee beans and more! Bingo!! We made our way to the front and checked out but something was off. We spent 10,000 colones at the market which to us at the time was over $100. No way! Something was wrong. Either they severely overcharged us and took advantage of the turistas or our math was wrong. It turned out to be the latter.
We stood outside scratching our heads and tried to settle this difficult money matter which turned out to just be a matter of multiplication, whoops! It turns out all along $1 = 495 colones so 10,000 would be just about $20. MUCH better! Wow, we were WAY off thinking it was $100! After correcting our currency calculation issue, we figure out 150,000 colones would hold us for awhile.

We stopped at the Jimenez Bakery on our way out of town and purchased a guava stroodle, pineapple stroodle and cinnamon twist as well as two cups of hot chocolate that were hardly chocolately at all! All of the chocolate was resting on the bottom so we were basically sipping warm waters with a hint of chocolate flavouring.

The rain really started to come down after that and right as we were heading back up the steep hills to Montverde too, in the dark mind you! We stopped off at the ATM to withdraw that sum of cash we came up with earlier and settled on climbing back up the rest of the way. We didn’t really have much of a choice, did we?

On the way back, we stopped at a small cafe and ordered two platos tipicos which were essentially casado (which is what we had for lunch) but just a tad different. It was white rice, black beans, salad, chicken with seasoning.

While waiting for our food, two small dogs came into the open outside area to investigate the gringos. My parents had doggy treats in their pockets from when they walk Callie in the morning so the dogs were quite attached by the end of the second treat. Friends for life now! One of the even hopped up on my mom’s lap and stared out at all of us. We just shook our heads at it’s pathetic little sad face. Very cute!

After our meal, the perritos (little dogs) followed us back to our lodge and are currently waiting outside our door. Our new feline companion is curled up on my lap and we just feel such an amazing animal presence right now! :-)

Traveling to Monteverde

2007-12-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

22-December 2007 : Monteverde, Costa Rica
We left bright and early from San Jose this morning after a mere four hours of sleep. We had breakfast downstairs and then met our CRT (Costa Rica Temptations) travel guide and off to went to Monteverde along with a Spaniard from Madrid who spoke very little English.

The first half of the trip was mostly city driving with some hills and slopes and the van remained quite quiet. We passed vendors selling fruit and sunglasses in the middle of the highway during a traffic jam and hand painted signs along the side of the road mostly for "Repuestos" which we later found out means "parts."

We stopped two hours into our four and a half hour drive for a short break. The humidity was intense at this little shack/soda and the air felt very warm, close to 80 or 85 degrees i'd estimate. We continued on through lush greenery and every so often would catch a glimpse of the mountains ahead. This was where we were going but we didn't quite realize that yet.

We drove up into the hills and then down steep descents which lead us to our first view of the bast pacific: Punta Arenas. We merely had time to look out into the sea of blue until we were right back on a road headed into the hills. With a sharp right hand turn, we headed away from the ocean and up and up the mountain.

A short ways into the "new" road, the cement stopped and the rugged terrain began. Deep rooted dirt roads carved out by the wet season were ahead of us with daunting pot holes and ruts to navigate through. Brutal bobbing and juggling around in the van was had by all of us as we felt like bits of popcorn in a metal box. The driver swerved and swayed across the road looking for the safest path to take over this tumultuously road. Miraculously, we were actually passing other cars on the road although very safely compared to other drives were saw maneuvering on our journey.

As we climbed into the mountains, my sister started to chat away with the Spaniard in what seemed like fluent Spanish. He was very excited to chat and my mom added a few sentences and words here and there as she's been recently trying to learn the language.

The roads, while completely miserable, lead us up into gorgeous mountains. Higher and higher we went with vistas emerging off to the side. I pulled out my camera for my first photo opportunity of the trip. The lush green mountains, pillowing clouds and mist settling among the peaks distracted us from the rugged terrain. My camera held up quite well with all the bumpiness and shaking and i think i took a few nice shots.

At certain times, around particular corners, vista open up to the west and sparkling blue water could be seen far in the distance down through the valley's of verde.

After about an hour of extremely, bumpy, rough, popcorny travel, the road smoothed out and we were greeted by Monteverde, "Bienvenidos a Monteverde!"

We arrived at our lodge, the Mannakin Lodge, and spoke with a young, teenage girl there helping out her parents with translating English and taking care of the rooms and arrangements. We were shown t our room, only one of about 12 or so, and were treated with a rustic, quaint cabin on the second floor with two connected rooms. The walls smelled of fresh wood which reminded me of our cabin in Julian when we had it and I absolutely love it!

As i am writing, the rain is dribbling down off the rood, tip tapping above me and steadily streaming down out of the sky. We have been greeted by an absolutely adorable kitty that has snuggled with all od us and is currently laying on my mom's chest. So cute!

We ate lunch at a spot called Flora de Vida and each of us ordered our first plate of Casado - a traditional white rice and black bean costa rican dish. We also had fried plantains, a savoury chicken alongside the rice and a cinnamon, pineapple, coconut and ginger flavoured smoothie! yum! it was absolutely delicious!

It's the middle of the afternoon and we are deciding what to do this evening. We've heard that monkey's come up to the balcony looking for banana's and i am really hoping the rain doesn't keep them away!