Quake

No, I didn't feel the earthquake this morning, although some of my co-workers did.

But great to know that no matter where I move, it's always a hotspot for quakes.

Mmmmexican

So, amazingly, I had Mexican food for dinner twice this week in London. I was having pretty brutal cravings for tacos, tostadas, enchiladas, anything more than chips and salsa...and after numerous discussions at work about it, I got invited to TWO different Mexican restaurants.

Both were delicious and way nicer than any Mexican I normally eat in LA. More along the lines of Sonora Cafe than El Compadre's dim lighting and flaming margaritas (which you know I love dearly).

Wednesday night I went to Wahaca - I know, I can't believe that's how they spell it either, but apparently they don't have faith in Londoners being able spell Oaxaca correctly when they google it or something. Anyway, they have regular entrees but then also have classic "market" food. I got the small soft tacos and tostadas that come two or three to an order. Yum! And the margaritas were delicious - and must have been pretty strong, since I was pretty tipsy turvy by the time I got on the tube. My only complaints were that there was no guacamole to order as a starter and the salsa came in these teeeny tiiiiny little bowls that were so shallow you couldn't even get your chip in there. But then we asked for more salsa and they brought us proper big bowls. Oh and they didn't have pitchers of margaritas on the menu - but we didn't ask, so maybe it's a possibility. Next time, I'll find out for sure.

Saturday night, a bunch of us went straight after work to Mexicali, in Notting Hill. This one was even more posh than the first place and LA kids please note, no relation to the one in Studio City. They even had a Wii upstairs in the lounge that you could play...next time. The best news - they had pitchers of all kinds of margaritas and proper messy nachos. However, I was the only girl at the table and had to fight with all the guys to get my share. I almost had to stab their hands with my fork to get some guac-y cheesy deliciousness. I had some tasty chicken enchiladas suizas - which is what I order about 50% of the time back home.

Both meals were pretty expensive, even with all the drinks factored in - each meal was about $50, but it was well worth it for finding yummy Mexican in London and for the delightful company I enjoyed both nights.

Thanks for your patience with the updates. And I'm always leaving straight after work, so I'll try to remember to start bringing my camera with me, so I can actually have some pics to post.

Also, just a little congratulatory shout out to the new parents I know this week. I can't wait to meet darling Maia when I get back to the west coast* and, hopefully if our paths cross again one day, baby Anna (who shares my brother's birthday).


*cue song: Coconut Records "West Coast"

Hi Ho Hi Ho

Sorry everyone, but it looks like I'll be working 7 day weeks until March, so there probably won't be a lot of updates in the next few weeks.

However, I promise if I do go anywhere other than my darkened office and my cozy flat, I will let you know.

V-Day

We all know how I like to plan things.

For Valentine's Day, I decided that instead of going home to an empty flat after work, I would try to organize my first social event and get a big group to go out to a pub after work. Of course I had ridiculous anxiety about sending out a massive email and how lame I would look if everyone was like "yeah, no, it's Valentine's Day, cool people have other plans." Or worse yet, if no one said anything and then it was just me by myself at the pub.

Thankfully all my anxiety was for naught and a big group of us had a fantastic time eating and drinking at the Stonemasons Arms, a lovely pub just down the street from work. We had a nice big table, everyone had a place to sit, the burgers were delish and the conversation was completely entertaining.

Also, my extremely on-the-ball boyfriend mailed a very sweet card to me here in London in plenty of time (I, on the other hand, had to enlist a friend's help in order to be timely) and we got to open our cards together while we Skyped. Aww, sickeningly cute, isn't it? =)

Note: Cards designed by the lovely and talented Melinda Farrar


And of course my longest running Valentines sent me some delicious treats from Lewis & Cooper. Thanks to Mom and Dad, I had chocolately ones to shared with my appreciative co-workers and the rest went home with me. And became my dinner on Friday. There's nothing like making yourself a gourmet cheese plate for dinner, with a bottle of wine, watching "Ab Fab". Ab fab, indeed! (And if any of you ever need to send a hamper to someone in the UK, I highly recommend Lewis & Cooper - it was lovely all around)

I know, I'll be on Lipitor before I know it,if I keep up with the dairy like I am. I'll get back to salads before long. I promise.

Hope you all had good Valentine's days too!

Post Script

p.s. Two quick notes...

No, I did not win the 95 million pound Euro Millions lottery this week...even though we did do a big office pool of tickets and gave it our best effort.

Also, there was a huge fire around Camden Market last night. I mention it because I noticed that it made the home page on cnn.com today and I didn't want anyone to worry. I was nowhere near it. A couple of my co-workers live nearby and said it was an enormous blaze, but they're both fine too.

Pub sit

Because I had to work on Saturday, by the time I joined up with the New Zealand day circle line pub crawl, they'd been drinking and crawling for about 5 hours. While still remarkably coherent, we ended up just staying at one pub for the duration. So I feel like I'm letting you all down by having done more of a pub sit than a crawl. But I tried! I also learned that Temple - the stop I met up with them at, is actually the last normal stop on the crawl, so there.

I knew I'd gotten off at the right tube stop when I came up the stairs and turned the corner outside to see a whole lot of public intoxication, puking, and peeing against walls. Ahh, massive drunkenness. But friendly drunkenness. The place closest to the tube, the Walkabout, was ridiculously busy with a line waiting to get in and masses of people stuffed inside. Thankfully - since I had no time for queuing, I needed to be drinking - that's not the pub I needed to find. Our pub, which I don't even know the name of and probably couldn't find again if you paid me, was pretty stuffed as well, but the crowd would come and go in waves. Remarkably we managed to secure a couple of stools and half a table in no time at all. I was really pleased with the amount of time it took to get a beer - I think I waited about 15 seconds at the bar. Fantastic. There were a lot of New Zealand shirts, particularly All Blacks rugby jerseys and another team jersey that was tan and dark brown. Did you know that the official color of New Zealand is black? Just black. So in addition to the All Blacks, their cricket team is called the Black Caps. So there were a lot of black jerseys running around. There were also some homemade NZ outfits (t shirts, bed sheets, jackets with big NZs painted on). And a few random guys in cow costumes. I didn't really talk to a lot of random Kiwis, mostly because I could really only hear the people sitting right next to me. The accents and slurring (not mine) probably didn't help. So we drank and drank and drank some more and then realized some food might be a good idea, so finally abandoned our lucky stools and had some amazing Thai food before I headed home. It was still only 10:30 by the time I got home, but I'd only been out since 5:30 and was totally exhausted. I can't imagine if I had started at noon. I'd have been a puddle somewhere near South Kensington.

Sorry I don't have any pictures to post. Since I went straight from work, I spaced bringing my camera. But basically imagine me in a crowded pub, surround by people in black and tan jerseys and the occasional cow costume, holding a pint of Speight's Distinction (which was delish!).

Holidazical

I don't have anything very England-y to write about today.
However, there do seem to be a lot of new holidays I'm learning about this week, so I thought I'd share some of them with you.

Two weeks ago: Australia Day - anyone Australian or friends with Australians gets ripped.

Yesterday: Shrove Tuesday, aka Pancake Day - everyone's supposed to eat pancakes in preparation for Lent. I don't fully understand the connection but it has something to do with getting rid of your eggs. (yesterday was also Mardi Gras/Carnivale, but I'm guessing you knew that)

Today: Waitangi Day, aka New Zealand Day - New Zealanders go out and drink heavily. This is followed up by a Circle Line Pub Crawl to be held this Saturday. I'm going to try to get myself invited along, despite being neither New Zealand-bred nor of a sufficiently high tolerance to hang out with New Zealanders.

Tomorrow: Chinese New Year. Again, not British or exclusively Chinese, but worth a mention. Maybe I'll go to Chinatown for dinner tomorrow night? Hmm, I'm guessing it might be a little busy.

The only other news I have is that I learned how to make a proper gin martini last night, which was pretty cool. I also saw "No Country for Old Men", which was not so cool, but I felt the same way about the book, so it wasn't a huge surprise.

24 hours in Paris

Bon soir mon amis!

I'm back from my brief visit to Paris. I'm so glad I did it, have a renewed desire to learn French (I honestly don't think I'll ever really love being alone in Paris until I can speak passable French), and am equally happy to be back in London.

Here's a slideshow of the highlights:

And now, the details.
Thanks again to all my friends responsible for the deluxe Eurostar trip to Paris. It was a very easy process to change the ticket to this weekend, the breakfast they served was fab and until we got to the first stop in Paris, there was only one other person in the whole car! Just a few months ago, they moved the Eurostar London station from Waterloo to St. Pancras/Kings Cross and the station is really lovely.

So, as soon as I got to Paris, I made my way to the Gare du Nord Metro station and had an easy two stop ride to St. Michel/Notre Dame, in the Latin Quarter to check in to my hotel.

I stayed at the Albe Hotel, which I found online and got good reviews. It was also really reasonably priced (109 euros for a single). I think it was reduced from the normal rate because they are renovating the elevator so you have to take the stairs. But since I was only there for one day, even though I was on the 5th floor I really didn't mind the stairs. And as you can see from the slideshow, I had a pretty great view of the Seine from my little balcony. If you walk out of the hotel and go 5 feet to your right, there's a view of Notre Dame, so that was a nice perk too.

Even though I had eaten a lovely b-fast on the train, by the time I got to the hotel and settled, I thought I could fit some more food in, so I went to this fantastic little crepe place my editor had recommended. It was just down the street from my hotel, adorable, delicious and I never would have found it if she hadn't told me about it. Creperie des Arts at 27 rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts in the 5th. They don't have a website but I took pics of my crepe and inside the restaurant in the slideshow. It was a mushroom and gruyere crepe with a dash of tomato sauce throw in - mmm.

After the crepe, I walked down the Seine to Musee d'Orsay, which I love for its huge collection of Impressionsits. Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, whoever you like. And I like them all. Chagall's "Le Cirque" in the post-impressionist gallery is also one of my favorites. Pointilism at its finest...in my opinion. They also have fantastic sculpture galleries and special exhibits, but I go for the impressionists. I also love the building which used to be the Gare d'Orsay - a train station, so it has a wonderful open airy feeling, and obviously still looks very much like a train station.

Post Orsay, I walked across the river and over to Musee de L'Orangerie, which is small by comparison but they house Monet's Waterlillies murals. I love sitting in the two circular galleries surrounded by the Waterlillies.

Have I mentioned what a beautiful day it was outside? Sunny, not a cloud in the sky and - considering it's winter - pretty warm out. I was thrilled because I was hoping to just spend the whole day walking around and that's exactly what I was able to do.

After finishing visits to my two favorite museums, I walked down the Champs d'Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. It was massively crowded and pretty unpleasant the closer I got to the arch. Also, there was some kind of demonstration about to happen as tons of older men holding French flags embroidered with WWII dates were lining up, along with a bunch of younger people in navy uniforms with red helmets. I never quite figured out what was going on.

Next stop, was my one effort at some shopping. I wanted to go to the Christian Louboutin home store, just to look. We all know I'm not buying at $1000 shoes, but I wanted to visit them in their homeland. They were supposed to stay open til 7pm but sadly, when I got there at 6, there was a note on the door that they had closed at 4pm. At least that's what I think it said. At any rate, it was closed.

So, a food reward was once again in order! This time to Angelina's (sadly, no website but it's on Rue de Ravoli facing Jardin de Tuileries) for some of their famous hot chocolate. A co-worker had told me about it and I knew I'd come to the right place when I got there and there was a line out the door. They have a full menu but everyone was there for the same thing. You get a small pitcher of liquid chocolate which is as thick as a melted chocolate bar (and we're not talking Hershey's), and a side dish of whipped cream. Combine both and drink up. So delicious!

My next two stops were less successful. I tried to go to Harry's Bar near the Opera. It looked awesome inside but it was super crowded and when I go to a bar by myself, if I can't get a seat, I don't stay. I'm awkward that way. So after walking around near the opera then back along the Louvre, past Notre Dame and into the Latin Quarter, it was time for another meal. I tried going to a couple of the hot spots in the Time Out Paris but I didn't have a booking and they were full. (Note: I did dress nicely for the evening so I don't think they were refusing me just because I looked like a scrubby American, but who knows) So I ended up just going to a bistro that looked decent and had onion soup on the menu. I don't even remember the name. But I know I had onion soup, coq au vin and chocolate mousse - so a pretty quintessential French meal, aside from the lack of frog's legs or snails. Everything was just ok, nothing earth shattering. Stopped and had a glass of wine at another place on the way back to the hotel and that was it. That was my Paris in a day.

The next time I go to Paris, I'm going to forget about trying to hit any tourist spots and just shop or walk around the gardens or drink in a cafe somewhere. Try to really understand living in Paris. But before that can happen, I will learn some French. I know I would be more comfortable there if I just felt like I could understand my surroundings a little better. No one was super mean or ignored me - aside from Angelina's, there was definitely a little distaste there - but when I'm traveling by myself I think I'd enjoy it more if I knew I could say a few words to absolutely anyone. All I know is I was really happy to come back to London today, just as happy as I felt about leaving for Paris. And if this job had gone to Paris for the second half instead of Canada, I think I would have been right not to consider it. It would have been a really rough adjustment and I'm not sure I would have been able to prepare enough. Like how I would have found time to learn a new language while working 60-70 hour weeks in London. This was a long one. Thanks for reading!!!

Two more things. A poster pic for Matt and Mike:


And a poster for my Dartmouth friends:


I'm thinking maybe France needs a little political correctness lesson.