An American Weekend in London

A little glimpse into what turned out to be an American weekend in London:

Byron Burgers
Finally an American tasting burger restaurant in London! I have been trying to find a good burger since we arrived. Now only if I could find an ice cold Amber pint to go with it...

Dale Chihuly Exhibit
We stumbled upon this while walking in Soho. It is so cool to see a piece of Seattle in London... or quite a few beautiful pieces!

Natural History Museum
We saw dinosaurs and tried to find pictures of Mount St Helens and Mount Rainier in the Earthquake and Volcano section. We found one picture where the caption below said something like "devastation from a Tokyo earthquake" but the picture had mailboxes in mud that said "Wash." on them - clearly from Mount St. Helens. I almost complained.

Dinner at Big Easy
We had a double date with our friends, Brooke and Steve. They are a couple from Seattle that got married and moved over to London around the same time we did, and we were introduced to them by one of our mutual friends. The similarities between us are uncanny, and we hang out with them quite a bit here. We went to check out an "American-themed" restaurant called Big Easy. Huge portions, lots of lobster, cold drinks and a Southern-feel atmosphere - great way to spend a Saturday night.

Ful-America

Sunday we went to the Fulham game in the sunshine. I just learned from Aaron that some people call the team Ful-America because so many Americans support them - they've typically had a lot of American players and it's pretty easy to get tickets to the games. Unfortunately, they lost the game, and they are currently in last place meaning they might be relegated out of the premier league... which has never happened in the history of Fulham Football Club.

MLB Season Pass
Aaron bought a MLB season pass meaning he can watch the any baseball game (mainly the Mariners) from his computer, phone or our apple TV.
Hmm... this could be very dangerous for me...

A Sweet Job

Since starting my job, I have been learning a lot. Everything from new English phrases and words, to UK television show drama, and fantastic lunch spots. But one thing that I've also been learning about is International, and specifically, British, snacks and treats.

We have what we call "the usual place" - an area where my coworkers put any food that they bring in to share with the office. As a team, we travel to a lot of unique and exciting places, and usually someone will bring back something to share. I've seen things like chicken feet from China (yuck!) , Japanese rice crackers and even peanut butter M&Ms from America. I've shared Icelandic chocolate-covered Kex and Padstow fudge - it just goes into the usual place for everyone to enjoy.

I sit with two event managers, Kazumi, who is Japanese and Kelda, who is British, and every time a British snack comes up that I have never had before or don't know what it is, Kelda takes it upon herself to bring it in for me to try : )

Here are a few snacks and treats I never knew existed but have tried, and on a scale of 1 (yuck) to 10 (delicious) what I thought of them:

• Bakewell Tart ~ 10
Delicious! Tastes like a marzipan tart with a cherry on top

• Marmite and Cheese Sandwich ~ 3
Similar to Vegemite. I was not a huge fan! 

• Twiglets ~ 0
A biscuit with marmite coating... yuck!

• Percy Pig Sweets ~ 7, +3 extra points for the name
I was sold with the name, as long as it wasn't made of bacon! These are gummies in the shape of pigs but are really popular here

• Lovehearts ~ 5
Like sweet tarts but much more chalky tasting. They have things written on them like Sweet Hearts

• Cadbury Chocolate ~ 10
Okay, I've had this one before... but it does taste so much better here! 

So as you can see, yes, my work is pretty sweet!

The Great UK Weekend Road Trip: Cornwall and Devon

This weekend, we rented a car and drove to the Southwest English countryside, also known as the counties of Devon and Cornwall. Driving on the right side of the road, we covered 593 miles over 3 days and stopped at these places along the way:

Day 1, Friday

A - Rental Car Pick Up
Upgraded to a Mercedes, swanky! Then we are on the road... the right hand side that is!

B - Dunster Castle
We stumbled upon a castle built in the 11th century while driving and decided to stop in and tour it. Up until 1976, it was still privately owned and a home residence! Interesting fact we learned from a museum volunteer, they used to mix plaster with beer to make it more pliable which is where the alcohol term "plastered" comes from. Who knew we'd learn that at a British castle?! After touring, we ate lunch in the small village next to it before continuing on.

C - Atlantic Coast Highway
I had read that this was one of the "best drives" in Europe. The roads that wind through small villages can at times be pretty narrow! But it was gorgeous with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and your quintessential British scenery on the other. At one point, we were driving down a steep cliff and there were sheep sleeping on the side of the road. Seems like a baaad place to take a nap...

D - Clovelly
This is where we stayed for the night. Clovelly is a small harbor village built on an extremely steep slope. The main street is all cobblestone - no cars are allowed so we had to walk down with our bags - and it descends 400 feet. Walking back up in the morning was challenging - my calves were sore! It is privately owned which is unusual and is known for it's waterfall, fishing and donkeys that used to carry goods up and down the main street.

Day 2, Saturday

E - Tintagel Castle
After our hike back up to the car, we headed to Tintagel Castle, where King Arthur was supposedly born. The island that the castle is on is incredibly scenic itself. We hiked down a huge hill across a bridge and up many stairs to reach the remains. The castle was much less intact than Dunster. The island provided for gorgeous views of the raging Atlantic water below and eerie wall structure remains of the castle.

F - Padstow
We had gotten quite a few recommendations from friends that we had to visit Padstow, a harbor village near Tintagel. We stopped for lunch and tried Cornish Pasties (meat stuffed in a pastry crust) and Cornish fudge (made with clotted cream). Just as we were finishing our lunch, a hail storm rolled through and we had to run for the car!

G - Plymouth
We tried to go to the Plymouth Gin Distillery for a tasting but the tours were all full, so we ended up just driving around and exploring. This was much more of a city than any place that we had been, and it's actually where the pilgrams left from when they founded America.

H - Ermington
I had picked a luxury bed and breakfast for our final stay. It was in a very small town called Ermington which was founded just after 700. The town location was chosen because of a natural spring which was seen as holy water for a church. Now the town is known for the church's crooked spire, so we walked to see it and through the eerie graveyard surrounding it just as the sun was setting. We had a really great dinner at the bed and breakfast and enjoyed hanging out in the family-room style bar playing cribbage, dominos and golf (typical Whamley night).

Day 3, Sunday

I - Cheddar Gorge
After an early start, we headed back north to Cheddar Gorge, a limestone gorge where Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, estimated to be over 9,000 years old, was found in 1903. They have two parts to the gorge: a "show cave" self guided walk through portion and the adventure caving experience where you climb and squeeze your way through the darkness, boulders and mud. Of course, we did this : ) It was such a cool adventure, and was actually really difficult at some points! Since we did it so early, we were the only ones on the cave diving trip which made it even better.

J - Clifton Suspension Bridge
Once we cleaned up and had wiped off most of the mud, we drove across the Clifton Suspension Bridge, which opened in 1864. We had lunch in Clifton before heading back on much larger highways towards London.


K - Rental Car Drop Off
We said goodbye to our Mercedes and the small, fast, windy roads, and headed home. The end of a fantastic road trip with a lot of Britain covered in just 3 days!

First Event and a Win Win

This week, I had my first event in London. I was nervous and excited, wanting to prove my talent and skills to my new employer!

During set up, Aaron met me for dinner and got to see a little bit of what I actually do. He's never been to an event that I've planned except for our wedding : ) so it was really fun for him to see my work life. Then because he was taking a few days off work, he headed to see Manchester United play at their home stadium with Yacine.

The event was hugely successful but very stressful. The venue was not prepared and difficult to work with which made my job much more demanding. It was long hours and I was running around all day. Tonight when I got home though, Aaron had returned from his trip, and I found a fridge full of craft beer and a bag of bath products from my favorite London store waiting for me. It was also accompanied by a note saying that he was proud of how hard I'd worked on the event and that I needed to relax tonight!

And although this may have been partially a ploy so he could watch March Madness basketball all night while I took a bath, it was a win win for both of us and it's the thought that counts! : )

Tour De Flat

Well it was four months late but we finally had a "flatwarming" party this weekend. We invited our friends over for some snacks and drinks, and it ended up being a really great night - I also think it's a good sign that we had enough friends to fill up our flat and officially call it a party!

For those that don't know, we live in Fulham which is a neighborhood in West London, just north of the Thames river. It's actually borders the river near Chelsea, Putney and Hammersmith. I'd say the neighborhood is mostly young families; it is much quieter than central London but still has a lot of nice pubs, restaurants and things to do.

Our flat is in a split level so there is unit below us and we are in the top unit. You walk into a small hallway and then head up the stairs. So here is your own sneak peek inside our home.

The main living area with dining room table

 

Our bedroom

 

 The kitchen... we had just made cookies!

Our lovely bathroom

 The guest bedroom (aka where you would stay!)

Trust me, it is much better in person : ) but until you can see it with your own eyes, we do hope you enjoyed our Tour De Flat!

The Dodgeball Results

Well, it was a pretty even match! It was also very competitive and at times got a little heated ... I'm never competitive though ; )

The winner is determined by playing three sets. Each set has five games in it, and the games last about 3-4 minutes. It goes by pretty quick and either ends when one team has no more players left on the court, or the 4 minutes are up and one team has more players left than the other.

We lost the first set, 2-3. We won the second set, 3-2. And on the last set... we won the first three games which made us the dodgeball league champions!

This pretty much sums up our team:

Check out those cool medals... you know you want one!

Dodgy Nerves

Aaron and I love playing sports so when we moved over to London, we immediately talked about joining some type of team. During winter, the wind and the rain made it unappealing to join a soccer or kickball team, so we chose an inside sport instead: dodgeball. It was also very convenient to join since Russell (Aaron's company) already had a team formed.

I thought dodgeball was only an American sport but it turns out that it is played all over the world and has been around for much longer than you'd think. I also thought it was a kid's game, something you played on the elementary school playground. You wouldn't expect it but you can work up quite a sweat by just throwing and dodging!

We started playing at the beginning of February and have now made it to... the final match. The games are held in a local school gym, and our team meets up before and after the games at a pub nearby. The last game is tonight- the team that wins will cheers celebratory pints and the team that loses will drink their sorrows. It should be a very good match, since during the season, we beat the team we are playing once and lost to them once. I'm getting nervous even blogging about it!

Dodgeball is quick and competitive. It's easy to learn, and we have so much fun playing it. To quote the Dodgeball Movie: "If you're going to become true dodgeballers, then you've got to learn the five d's of dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge!" Let's hope we put these to use and bring home the Dodgeball title tonight!

60 Cookies, Two People and One Tiny Kitchen

I love cooking. I adore baking. But in our London flat, it is no easy challenge.

This past weekend the sun finally came out in London. Aaron and I went to the park to play catch, and we got quite a few stares... it's definitely not common to see baseball here! After a few hours, we headed home because I had volunteered to make cookies for my company's International Women's Day bake sale.

Problem #1: Using an American recipe.
Bigger is better in the US and my American recipe proved that. I just wanted to make a batch of cookies for the bake sale. The recipe I used said that it made 30 cookies but it ended up making 60 and I even froze some of the dough because I was so sick of making cookies!

Problem #2: Having American measurements with British ingredients.
Measurements and ingredients are pretty different between the two countries. The UK uses grams for measurements and Celsius or gas mark for oven temperatures. Baking soda is called bicarbonate of soda and there are no semi-sweet chocolate chips only tiny milk chocolate chips. Baking turned into a bad math problem that I was trying to solve... luckily, my math major husband was there to help : )

Problem #3: The size of our oven.
We shipped over all our new cookie sheets from the US only to find they don't fit in our oven! I also could only bake 8 cookies at a time so I had to bake 8 batches (8!!) before I finally gave up and froze the rest of the dough.

Problem #4: Aaron and I trying to cook dinner and bake cookies at the same time. 
I think this is a little self explanatory. We did this weird dance around each other while he tried to cook dinner on our stove and I put cookies in and out of the oven. I hope our neighbors were watching because I'm sure we put on a pretty good show!

We've cooked and baked in our kitchen before, so this post is just a little glimpse into our daily experience... it is always an adventure! And I think it's safe to say, that cooking and baking feels like much more of an accomplishment here... which makes the final product taste that much sweeter : )

Spring Forward (Happily)

One of the worst things about living in London is the time difference. Because we are from the best coast, London is 8 hours ahead which makes it difficult to find a good time to connect with friends and family back home. We either have to wake up pretty early to have our friends and family stay up really late or we call as late as possible our time to talk to them in the afternoon (work can make this a little difficult!).

What we usually end up doing is waiting until the weekend when schedules are a little more open. Last Saturday, we spent our entire night with a bottle of wine and FaceTime - we didn't intend to, but you don't realize how much there is to talk about until you get to talking!

Luckily, daylight savings time makes aligning schedules a little easier. London does not go through daylight savings until March 30, so for the next 21 days, time is on our side : ) We will be only 7 hours ahead which means we will have more overlap during the time that we are awake.

So yes, I am very happy that you all are springing forward... and very thankful for imessage and FaceTime!

Our Favorite British Commercial

Aaron and I both saw this separately and said to each other, "Oh my gosh, I saw the best commercial today!" That's how you know it's worth a watch. It's a fun ad for a UK cell phone carrier, that has nothing to do with cell service but will make you smile.

If the embedded video doesn't work, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXy6JElmgHU

We do all need silly stuff : ) Happy Wednesday!

Happy Pancake Day!

Yes, there is a day here dedicated to pancakes.

Today is "Shrove Tuesday" which in the states is more commonly celebrated as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. But in London, everyone associates this day with good ole' fashioned pancakes. Sounds like a good day to me!

The thought is that you are supposed to use this day to clear your cupboards of sugar, fat and eggs in preparation of lent... all ingredients that make up a British pancake, which are commonly more crepe-like than the US pancake, but still just as delicious.

To celebrate, the city held multiple events today all themed around the breakfast favorite. These included races that judged participants on how well they could run and flip a pancake in a pan (a funny sight to see if you have no idea what's going on); free pancakes being given away in different neighborhoods; and a local restaurant chain holding a 'Man vs Food' type competition - eat 10 pancakes in 15 minutes and your meal was free.

A sweet and silly celebration for everyone and anyone to enjoy! I mean, really, who doesn't love a good pancake? : )