More sun...and in London!

What a wonderful surprise when I got off the plane from LA and it was sunny and warm back here in Londontown. And it stayed that way - for a whole week!

That meant lunches out on patios, drinks by the river, and a weekend of suntime funtime...

Saturday I met Helen in Hampstead Heath, an enormous park on the north side of London. It's a gorgeous park with tons of hills and meandering paths through lovely shady trees. There are also public bathing ponds - one for men, one for women and one mixed. I didn't go in any of them, but I definitely want to swim at some point this summer. The women's one is down a private path, enclosed by a fence and tons of foliage, so it's nearly impossible to see from the main pathway. Even though it was man-made at some point, it's the most natural looking little pond, with a few innertubes stationed in the water so you have something to hold onto when you're tired of paddling around. And there were women of all ages there, it was such a cool community feeling. In addition to the ponds, the Heath has everything you could ever want from a park - tennis courts, playground, a specific hill for flying kites. And it's so enormous...I was worried that since it was such a gorgeous day and I didn't get there til early afternoon that there would be no place to sit. Yeah, not really a problem. When Helen took me on a tour of the park later, we walked along some paths along huge lawns where there were maybe 6 people within sight. It's awesome.

In the "evening" (which i put in quotes b/c it's light out here until like 9pm) I went down to Clapham Common to meet up with Tim (one of my co-workers), his brother and a bunch of their friends. Clapham is almost straight east of my house and almost due south (but quite a bit) from Hamstead. The Common is a big green with a few different sections. There are a couple of ponds - but totally manmade, not all natural seeming like in Hamstead - but it's a great expanse of lawn and there were still tons of people out playing football (the non-US type), reading and lots and lots of drinking. Did I mention that yet? In all the public parks you can drink to your heart's content. In some of them (like the Heath) you can also bring your own grill and BBQ. This seems like a dangerous combo to me, but I guess it works here. So anyway, I was clearly way behind on the drinking when I met up with the Clapham group but it was still a super fun evening for me.

Sunday I went to Brighton to spend a day seaside. Not what I had pictured. I had been warned it was a pebble beach but I'd still never actually been on one. And because it was the first beautiful summer weekend, the train and the whole town were just totally insane. Streams of people on both sides of the street making their way from the train to the sea. It was odd. Also it was way more international than I was expecting from a day at the British seaside. I mean, I should have known, since London is totally international and obviously a ton of Londoners are going to head out there on the weekends, but still, took me by surprise. We did eat at this amazing vegetarian restaurant in town called Terre a Terre, which two of my co-workers had recommended. Yummy and the most creative vegetarian food I've ever eaten. Tim's roommate Kat was directing a play in Brighton for the Fringe Festival so we went to the play in the evening before the train home. It was a series of shorts about "American life", which I found really amusing. It was a really fun play and everyone did an amazing job. We rode back with Kat and her producer and a few of their friends. It's always fun for me to hang out with new people and it was a great day, even if it wasn't what i had pictured. I had wanted to go to Brighton a month or so ago and it was way more fun to go with friends than by myself (not to mention when it's sunny and 80, instead of rainy and 50). I'd definitely love to go back to Brighton when the crowds thin out a little.

It was seriously, the best non-visitor weekend I've had so far in London. This city is a totally different place when the weather is nice...everyone is so happy to be outside and it's fun to explore all these great outdoors spaces.

Home again

Most of you know by now that I got a chance to come back to LA for a few days a couple of weeks ago. It was such a wonderful trip - I got to see so many friends, had great weather and a much-needed refresher in the amazing life I have back home.

Some highlights:
-Dinner with Matt, Melanie and Carrie at my favorite tapas place, The Courtyard
-Lunch with Katey and Jason, where I got to meet their new darling girl Maia
-Another great lunch featuring a few of my fave co-workers and cheese fries
-A super fun baby bowling shower, with yet another cheese fry appearance
-My roomie's birthday party filled with fab friends
-Sunday farmer's market and beach bocce
-An extremely hospitable host at this lovely little Venice B&B (Bed and Beer) I know

Thanks to everyone who included me in their plans and went out of their ways to see me over the weekend. It was really the best visit I could have ever hoped for. Even though I miss you now even more, I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

Here are some pics from the trip...
(if any of you don't want your pics on this blog, just let me know and I'll remove)

Loop-di-Loo

So on my way back from Gatwick when I returned from Venice, I saw this sign for Chessington World of Adventure. I had no idea what it was but I thought it was a pretty amazing name. Who wouldn't want to go to a world of adventure?

The next day at work I mentioned it to the girls who explained that Chessington is an amusement park, but when we looked it up online it seemed aimed more towards little kids than I would have liked. Then they told me about Thorpe Park and last Saturday's event was born.

Thorpe Park is the closest thing to Six Flags in the UK - with the possible exception of Alton Towers, but that's a pretty long way out of London. Thorpe is only about 20 miles outside the city.



Anyway so Juliet, Tim, Jenni and I went on Saturday when it was supposed to be a gorgeous day, sunny, over 70 degrees...and it actually was! After a few train shenanigans - our plan to all get on at different stops but end up on the same train didn't go so well - we re-grouped at the entrance and began the most awesome day of adrenaline (second only to when I went to Six Flags for Mikey Z's bday, that was most excellent).

The lines really weren't that bad - they have 3 big coasters, and we were able to ride each of them twice, which was pretty awesome. We also rode a couple of the water rides - just not the first one for which we stood in line about 30 minutes...the line was really long and the people coming out weren't just wet, they were soaked to the bone. Plus, even though it was a nice day outside, 3 of us were wearing jeans, and it's so fun to walk around in wet jeans for a few hours. Anyway, we bailed. But the log ride and the rapids were just the right amount of liquid fun. (okay, it's possible i shrieked at the time, but i did get a line drive of water aimed at my side)

It was an fab day with an awesome foursome of friends, and I definitely went on all the rides I could in a single day. In fact, for future reference, don't try riding an entire roller coaster with your eyes closed. That's a dead lock for a good 20 minutes of queasiness.

Some shots from the day...




Here's one after the log ride (a little moist-er than five minutes before):


And here we are on the train home with all the little Zippys I "won" on the goblet toss (i actually lost every time but they give you a little charity prize):



There's now talk of going to EuroDisney at some point. I'll keep ya posted...

Coming back home to the west coast...

Hey kids, a trip I had planned to Madrid was canceled for next weekend (it's a 3 day weekend the first of May) and things are still light at work, so I'm comin' home! I'm going to be in LA from Wednesday April 30th through Monday May 5th. I'd love to see as many of you as possible. I'm already pretty psyched that I'm going to be able to attend a baby shower and a birthday party that weekend...otherwise my plans are pretty flexible. I'll be staying down in Venice with Mr. O'Connell and plan on getting in a lot of beach time, some serious shopping, and as much Mexican food and sushi as my tummy can hold.

Let me know if you're around!

For now, the best way to get ahold of me when i'm in town will be my email and my (310) vonage number. I'll probably get a pay-as-you-go mobile as soon as i get to town and i'll just forward my vonage calls to that phone. If you have Mr. O's # you can also call him and he has generously offered to be my messenger service.

(p.s. the title of this post is from the song "west coast" by Coconut Records. I highly recommend)

London weekends

For the past couple weekends, I've been in and around London, exploring a pretty big variety of activities.

A couple weeks ago, Helen and I went to the National Portrait Gallery and walked around the regular (read: free) exhibits. It was a rainy day - that's actually why we were there too...we had originally planned a walk around Hampstead Heath but the rain made that an undesirable activity - so it was really crowded. I wasn't sure if I would actually enjoy a whole gallery of just portraits, it sounded a little repetitive to me. But I loved it - especially painted portraits from the last 200 years. I mean, the artists' self-portraits are definitely the most interesting to me but most of the more modern ones have a more stylized aesthetic, no matter the subject. Your classic pose, looking seriously off into the distance, dressed in long velvet robes...not so much. The gallery also does a fantastic job with its descriptions; they give you a lot of extra background on the subjects and artists. It was fascinating to learn about the incestuous inter-relationships of painters, writers, politicians, etc.



That Sunday - not surprisingly another rainy day - I went to the Natural History Museum, also free, to see some dinosaurs. Or so I thought. Turns out, the dinosaur exhibit was a freaking madhouse. And once you're in there, you're pretty much trapped and can't turn around. So many prams, so many parents lollygagging with their empty prams chatting with friends and completely blocking the narrow walkway. Aaack, nightmare. Once I got out of the dinosaurs, though, I was a happy camper. It's a drop dead gorgeous building.


And the exhibits are lovely, although some of the animals are starting to look a little dusty and rough around the edges. My favorite hall was the minerals. Just rows and rows of glass cases filled with minerals, rocks, crystals, metals, etc. All labeled with their common names, elemental makeup and source locations. They also had samples as they would be found in the rough as well as their everday versions (like cut stones, or copper wire). My inner science geek definitely got her fill. But the best room of the whole museum is The Vault. It's in the back of the hall of minerals and it's where they have all the precious stones in both raw and cut form. They have one case that has over 250 different colored cut diamonds. The light changes from normal daylight to a UV light and the stones actually glow totally different colors under UV light. Super cool. And seeing a raw diamond embedded in rock made me realize that even if I came across one (you know, in all those mines I spend so much time in), there's no way I would recognize it.

Then, a week ago, my co-worker Juliet and I took a train about an hour south to visit a couple of National Trust properties. You can read more about it on their website but the National Trust is an amazing organization that owns all these old manor houses all over England, plus hundred of thousands of acres of land, and holiday cottages that are available to rent. They have events - concerts, holiday celebrations, period reenactments - through the year at all the different properties and within the houses they have extensive collections of period furniture and artwork. Visting them isn't free but it's a great day out and most properties (at least the ones in the country) have acres of gardens and land to explore. We got lucky with a gorgeous day and were able to visit two different spots in Surrey - Clandon Park and Hatchlands Park. They were about 2 miles apart, and the first (Clandon) was a mile from the train station so we planned to walk from to the other and back to the train. It was definitely lucky it didn't rain, though - that would have seriously dampened our day (literally and figuratively). Unfortunately, we started walking the wrong way towards Clandon from the train station, which we didn't know until Juliet stopped a couple pulling out of their neighborhood. They felt so badly for us, they actually dropped us off at the entrance themselves. They were driving a Saab station wagon and had a friendly black lab in the back, so it wasn't exactly scary hitchhiking. Just really generous on their part.

Clandon was a lovely estate, and that day there was a WW II re-enactment going on in the front lawn and a Napoleonic-era reenactment going on in the back, so things were definitely lively. There are room stewards all over the properties, and they can answer all kinds of questions about the homes and the families who owned them and any other random trivia you have for them. Clandon was owned by the Earls of Onslow - fyi, currently the 7th Earl of Onslow is still living - but the property is now owned by the National Trust. The 4th Earl of Onslow was made governor of New Zealand so they have an interesting collection of souvenirs from their time in NZ, including a maori hut which they purchased from a local village, brought back to England and reconstructed in their back garden. When I leave England, I'll be lucky to bring back a teapot without breaking it.

Me in back of Clandon:








The WWII reenactment:









Juliet and one of the Onslow's Kiwi souvenirs:







Then we had a little walk along the motorway to get to Hatchlands. Not the most scenic. Hatchlands has "the world's largest collection of composer-related keyboard instruments" which is odd but very true. Every room had multiple pianos, harpsichords, clavicords, organs, etc. They also have a tenant who lives in the upper floor of the house and the tenant's collection of art and his own art is up on the walls. It's an odd place to visit, that's for sure, but you're not hurting for stuff to look at. They have much more land to explore, but Juliet and I were pretty wiped at that point. We did a little walk, saw some bluebells and the house's old ice house and set off again. The walk back was on a public footpath between a golf course and a farm. We saw pheasants and bunnies...much more the lovely scenic countryside route.

But I have to admit, my walking endurance can't compete with Juliet's. We had tried to stop in at a pub on the way back but they didn't serve food between 2:30 pm and 7pm so we were s out of luck. After a little more walking, we stopped to eat Juliet's only remaining food - an orange - along the side of the rode. It was a delicious orange. It should be noted, that Juliet comes so prepared it's unbelievable. In here tiny little bag she had snacks, rain gear, an extra sweater/jumper, a swiss army/pen knife, tissues, along with all the usual stuff in a girl's bag. Plus she knows plants really well so she was able to track down wild garlic and all kinds of things. I highly recommend getting stranded in the wilderness with Juliet...if you ever get to choose such a thing. Unfortunately for her, I wouldn't be much help.

Anyway, by the time we got back to Clandon - which was still a mile away from the train station - even Juliet was hungry and maybe a little tired (i was definitely both those things). Unfortunately the next pub we tried wasn't serving either. But finally, low and behold, a pub/French restaurant just a few blocks from the train was open for business. And I had my first - and most delicious - Sunday roast. Hurrah! (angels singing)


I'm now an official paying member of the National Trust so there will be lots more days out with Juliet in the future.

Venezia

Wow, how amazing is Venice? As soon as I got on the vaporetto (water bus) from the bus station, I was in love. It's such a special city, unlike any place else and yet exactly how I'd pictured it. (mostly thanks to movies like Casino Royale and The Italian Job) Even though my co-worker noted that it's basically just a tourist city - there's no other real commerce there, I didn't care. As far as tourist cities go, it's beyond superior to Solvang, Orlando or even Vegas. Despit being dominated by non-Italians, you still feel the history of the city in your bones as you walk around the tiny alleyways and cross the canal bridges. Anyway, obviously I'm totally enamored with it.

I feel really lucky that I was able to go when I did - I've been repeatedly told that it's a sweltering zoo of people there from June-August, but going in mid-April was fantastic. The weather was lovely - no rain, one day I need a light sweater and the other a jacket but it was easy to walk around. Even though I had pre-booked a couple of museum visits, I really didn't need to and everyone else were just walk ups.

So here's my itinerary and commentary. Enjoy....

I stayed in the Dorsoduro district, which is in the south west part of Venice. I booked everything through lastminute.com and I have to say it worked out really well. The hotel, San Sebastiano Garden worked out perfectly. It's a little 16 room hotel, on a small canal within easy walking distance of the San Basilio vaporetto stop. (yes, even with luggage). Both people at the front desk were incredibly helpful and friendly. I was in the handicap room (or one of them), and it was completely lovely. The doors were all extra wide, the room and bathroom were huge and everything was neat and tidy.

Arriving Friday evening, I was nervous about figuring out how to get to my hotel from the airport but it was easy to buy the bus/vaporetto tourist pass at the airport and then it was pretty obvious that the #5 bus was the one to take you to the center of town to catch the vaporettos. The hotel's website had great directions so I knew which vaporetto to hop onto and it was a lovely evening boat ride over to the hotel's stop. Once I set my bags down, the front desk offered up 3 different choices for me for dinner and left it up to me. I really appreciated that approach because then I didn't feel like he was getting a commission or always suggested one restaurant to all the guests. To get to all 3 restaurants, I had to walk down the tiniest alleyway I've ever seen. About 15 feet in, it opened up into normal size, but I definitely never would have walked down there at night on my own if I didn't know for sure that there were all these restaurats. Anyway, in an attempt to be a little adventurous, I went to one with a lot of fresh seafood in the window, La Furatola. Along with a lovely bottle of wine, I had...wait for it...spaghetti with cuttlefish in ink sauce. It was a really nice dish, obviously very fresh. The cuttlefish in the pasta was very tasty, but I have to be honest and say I could only choke down one of the tentacle pieces. I just can't eat things with suckers on them. But the other bits were delicious. Also, I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the restaurant who didn't speak Italian, so even though they had a menu in English, I was pleased that it was good enough restaurant that actual Italians ate there.

The next morning, I went to Basilica San Marco first, before it even opened, at the guidebook's advice. There was a small queue but it moved along quickly as soon as the doors opened. It's absolutely gorgeous inside, with incredible gold mosaics covering nearly every surface. I walked around St. Mark's square for a little bit, caught the end of a random fashion shoot going on in the square and marveled at the growing crowds (although, still really not that bad). Then I went across to the campanile in the square which gives you an amazing panoramic view of Venice. It was such a gorgeous, clear day, I could have stayed up there for hours just taking it all in, but there was more to do!

Still in the square, I went to tour the Palazzo Ducale (Doges' Palace) and was able to get on one of the "Secret Itineraries" tours, which I'd read about online. I don't usually go for the extra expensive tours, but this one was SO worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat and HIGHLY recommend it for anyone going to Venice. Because I hadn't pre-booked, I had about an hour to walk around the palace before the tour. I was worried that I'd be doubling up on stuff we'd see on the tour but when they call it "secret itineraries", they're not kidding. We didn't go through any of the public rooms at all on the tour so I was glad I saw all of them first. It made the "secret" tour so much more rewarding. They take you into locked passageways where you see the chancellor's offices, in particular the chancellor in charge of secret documents and the bigger room where all of the secreteries worked handling all of the other non-secret state documents. Then you get to see the cells where Cassanova was imprisoned and are told about his crime, his attempted escape and his second, successful escape. But the best part for me was when we climbed up the stairs and were in the rafters above the massive gorgeous council room I'd seen earlier. the ceiling of the room is covered in beautiful paintings surrounded by enormous gold gilt frames. Anyway, when you're up in the rafters, the guide explains that the room was rebuilt after the first in the late 16th century but even at that time, it was rare for a room that size to have no columns, let alone with those massive paintings embedded in the ceiling. But you get to see the massive feat of engineering up in the attic that made the room possible. It's very cool. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take any pictures on the entire tour. Except of the box where citizens could anonymously denounce tax evaders, which is the slideshow picture of the stone man with the slot for notes in his mouth.

I wandered around a bit, then went to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and l'Accademia in the afternoon. Admittedly, I have a relatively low threshold for religious paintings, so after the first few galleries in the Accademia, I might have glazed over a bit. Peggy's collection is small, but wonderful and a great contrast in its modernism. I highly recommend it. The house and grounds are gorgeous enough to justify the visit and the collection is gorgeous. I just wish I could have a few of them for my house on the canal. =)

Since I'd got on out on a culinary limb the night before, I decided to try to go to this restaurant called Ai Gondolieri which (according to my guidebook) was more meat-centric. It was. And it was delicious! It was also very expensive - even by Venice standards, but I'm always happy to splurge on a good meal. Without boring with you with too much detail, there was a huge bread tray, plus veggie crudite as soon as I sat down. I had an amazing artichoke appetizer and then yummy veal in gorgonzola sauce (sigh). Now to be completely forthcoming, this restaurant was filled entirely with English speakers so it's definitely a tourist haven, but a fancy pants delicious one.

Sunday, I took the vaporetto to Lido - the island where they hold the Venice film festival, also the only island in Venice with a beach. After wandering around there, I took the vaporetto around to Murano. Wow, are there a lot of cheesy glass shops there. But I did find two gorgeous hand blown kitchen glass with a cute red, green, white and yellow swirl... Much nicer than I'm explaining right now. From there I took the vaporetto back which goes up the Grand Canal through the center of Venice and then got off near the Rialto and walked and shopped around there for a while. Then sadly, it was time to head back. The airport was kind of a disaster on the way back, but that's no one's fault...every single flight through Venice was delayed and we got off relatively easy in the end with only an hour push.

Here's my slideshow below, hope you enjoy...

Fitness then Food

Friday marked my triumphant return to the gym. I finally signed up for a gym (Fitness First) here in London and I feel so much better already. Why did it take so long? Gyms are ridiculously expensive here and I couldn't find one super close to my house, but I found one mediocre (but still outrageously overpriced) gym a block from work. So we're going to try it out and see how it goes. The good news is they have all the usual equipment, the bad news is it's all jam-packed into a teeny tiny space. Certainly no Crunch...not even the WeHo 24 Hour Fitness...and about double the cost. But the good news is because it's so freaking expensive, it's highly motivating for me to go. Also, I'm only on a 3 month contract so if I can't stand it there, at least I'm not legally bound to it for very long. Hopefully, though, I'll get used to it and enjoy being able to go straight from work.

The food portion - well, I plan on gorging myself silly on pizza, pasta and vino this weekend during my 2 day trip to Venice. I can't wait! I missed Venice on my backpacking tour post-Dartmouth, so I'm very very excited to finally see the city of canals. It's not quite the sunny beach getaway I was originally thinking of, but I think it'll be a great "city break" (as they call them here). If anyone has any favorite spots, restaurants, can't miss sights, let me know!

Modern day

I guess I've finally caught up to the present, thank goodness.

Work is still pretty light and even though my editor and our assistant were out most of the week (after I came back), it wasn't too taxing. Thursday night though, I met up with my editor and her two adorable kids and we went to the Kelly Clarkson show!!! This, of course, was my suggestion when I found out she was playing at the venue a block away from work. All the other young people in the office looked at me like I was insane but Catherine thought her daughter might want to go...anyway, tickets were purchased and yay, I got to see my K.Clark! She's so freaking talented it's ridiculous. Plus, it was fun to go with 2 kids to their very first concert.

I finally joined a gym on Friday and feel better already. It's ridiculously expensive for the quality of the gym but it's a block from work and I've learned that if I can't walk to my gym from either home or work then I won't end up going. So hopefully this will work out ok - I really want to get those endorphins kicking around again.

Saturday my dear co-worker Juliet and I went on a walk around London. She's an amazing tour guide and she showed me tons of cool little spots I never would have found on my own - blooming gardens, old churches, Borough Market (great food market, but insanely crowded), an adorable tea shop. We even walked through the British Museum really quickly. (also insanely crowded but the main lobby is so cool to see) Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera with me, but when ya'll come out to visit, I'll take you to some of these little gems, I promise. It became rainy and cold outside (surprise, i know) while we were walking so it affected our path a little bit. She and some co-workers had invited me to a house party that night but I didn't think I'd make it out. Once I got home to my warm cozy flat it was going to be tough to leave again. But - surprising myself - I went and had a great time. They're so much fun to hang out with, it would be impossible for anyone to have a bad time with those guys. I think party of my going out stemmed from running into another co-worker on the street on my way home and having him jokingly ask if I was going to spend Saturday night by a fire, petting my cats. Being likened to a sad old maid is enough to make any girl throw on a dress and some boots and get herself to a party.

Today - well, this blog has been most of my day. And a lot of TV. And I did cook myself a real dinner for a change, so that's something.

I'm trying to figure out a weekend getaway for next weekend so suggestions are welcome. I want warmth and sunshine. Today I discovered a deal to go to Gibraltar so I might do that. I also looked at the Canary Islands and Mallorca but to be honest, none of them are a guaranteed 80 degrees and if I'm going I want a lock on some sunshine.

That's all for now. Sorry I'm behind on emails and phone calls and birthday presents. I'm trying to get better, I swear.

Visitor two: Mr. Matt

Two days after my parents left, Matt arrived! Hurrah!

I took a week off work so we could hang out the whole time. It's very slow right now because we just had our screening, so I don't think anyone missed me. I certainly didn't get any flack about taking the time away, which is always nice.

So anyway, the highlights:

Thursday night we went out for a tipple with all the peeps from work. Tons of people came out which was really awesome and I think Matt was really happy to meet everyone and vice versa. We went to the standard Hop Poles, which is where we go just about every Tuesday (the normal tipple night). Then Matt, Jenni, Tim and I moved onto Distillers, just a couple blocks away, after everyone else had gone home for the evening.

Friday was gorgeous when we woke up and we headed out to the London Zoo. Matt found it in my Time Out - I didn't know where it was or anything about it. It's a fantastic zoo! A little pricey but the exhibits and habitats are so wonderful, it was well worth it. There are a lot of enclosures that you can walk through, ones with butterflies, birds, monkeys, these crazy rabbit-deer creatures I can't remember the names of, and even one with sloths...

If any of you check out Matt's artblog regularly, he actually did a frighteningly similar picture of a sloth weeks ago - kudos for accuracy m'dear.

The next day we did a big bus tour day to Windsor Castle, Bath (or as Trudy our tour guide insisted, Baaaaaaath) and Stonehenge.

Windsor was gorgeous, but quick. We barely got to see all the regular tourist stuff before it was time to get back on the bus. Certainly no time to stop and really study all the amazing paintings and relics on display. The queen was apparently in residence the day we were there because it was Easter weekend. And we got super lucky because I guess that Friday was the only day the whole week that the castle was open to visitors. They have some spectacular Da Vinci sketches on display. It was just a bummer that it was so insanely crowded we were kind of pushed along past things whether we were ready to move on or not. The State Apartments were like no apartment I've ever seen. These are the rooms that are open to the public and they are lavish beyond belief. Gorgeous tapestries, paintings by the greats, entire rooms decorated with swords and armor. Very much a royal castle. We did catch a little of the changing of the guard - the odd part was when the guard band played "When the Saints Go Marching In" - it just seemed a little too Mardi Gras for the occasion. Anyway, it's gorgeous but you could easily spend a whole day there, just taking the time to stop and really admire the State Apartments as they should be.

Baaaaath was next, but while we were on our way there (it was about a 2hr drive from Windsor) it started snowing like nobody's business. Very very luckily the snow stopped about 15 minutes before we got to Bath, but that gives you a feel for the temperature outside. We went to see the Roman baths which were built around a natural hot spring which is apparently radioactive so no one is allowed to touch the water in the Roman baths. But it's really informative and, again, the history is just amazing. The town looks cute and I would definitely go back for a weekend just to relax and walk around. There's a modern day spa Thermae there, that I would LOVE to go to for a day.

Last up, Stonehenge. From the picture it looks like a gorgeous, sunny day...


but then if you look at how bundled up we are, that tells the real story. Cold, windy, and cold.


It was still awesome to see, though, and I'm so glad it was part of our tour. I just wish we could get close to the big rocks.

Sunday was Easter, so after Matt found all the little eggs I'd hid for him, well...we didn't do much. We'd been outside in the cold a lot the day before and it was snowing again on Sunday so we just relaxed and watched TV inside for most of the day. But then dinner...oh dinner. It was a phenomenal meal at Maze, one of Chef Ramsay's restaurants. It's tapas style (but not Spanish) so they recommend 3-5 dishes per person. Every single one we ordered was so amazingly tasty. So we left very full and very happy. See, here's the happy couple:


Monday we went to the Tate Modern in the afternoon. The giant spider is gone now (sadly) but the crack is still there. We went through all the public galleries and those took up the whole afternoon. It's a really wonderful museum, I noticed new favorites in the same galleries I went through before. Because it was Easter Monday, which is a bank holiday here, it was really crowded. I'm guessing museums and tourist spots were the bulk of what was open that day, so it wasn't too surprising really. After that we made our way up north to see H.Lord. Matt got a tour of her new place and then we walked over to Crouch End and pubbed it. Here are the two cuties drinking some "Old Rosey", an apparently delicious cider that I still need to try...


Sadly the next day Matt had to get back on the plane and return to that awful sunny warm LA weather. It was really great to have him here and hopefully he had enough fun to want to come back again before my time is up.

The Fam Comes to Town

Sorry for the absence, but I had a wonderful 2 week whirlwind of visitors. The good news is that I've seen lots of good stuff these past 2 weeks and now I get to share it with all of you.

My parents came first and they did even more than I'll write about here. I worked for half the days they were in London and they were great at entertaining themselves during those days with all kinds of things.

They came on a Tuesday and stayed in the Sydney House Chelsea, which they were really happy with. It's a cute boutique hotel in Chelsea which is a really nice area filled with shops and restaurants, walking distance to museums and Harrods. Plus, it was a direct, easy bus ride to my place in Fulham from there. Their first night we went to dinner at Lucio, an Italian restaurant in Chelsea, which was amazing. The website isn't much to look at but if you look up reviews online and take my word for it, it's an amazing meal.

Wednesday the 'rents came over to Fulham and we ate at my favorite Thai place, Sukho (previously blogged) and saw my flat. They were quite pleased with the safety level and really liked the neighborhood in general. And my mom was so amused by the size of my kitchen, she took pictures.

"Billy Elliot" (the musical) was Thursday night. A co-worker arranged the tickets for me and the seats we had couldn't have been more perfect. The show itself was spectacular and I highly recommend it to absolutely anyone. (*Girls might want to bring along some tissues for the end.) Even my dad, who's not really a musical kind of guy, really enjoyed it. The kids in it were all really talented and the the sets, the staging....it was all just really good.

Then on Friday we did our big day tour of Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Warwick Castle. It was a ton to do in just one day and I was worried that it was going to be too rushed the whole time, but it was a great tour and our guide was a walking encyclopedia of English history.

Oxford was the first stop. My mom did a summer at Oxford between high school and college, and she lived in Christ Church college, so it was pretty neat that Christ Church is the college we actually got to see. Also, Oxford and Christ Church in particular have been used a lot in the Harry Potter movies. Even though the constant stream of Potter trivia was lost on my dad, I giggled with delight.

Case in point, Christ Church dining hall was used as pretty obvious reference for the Hogwarts dining hall. But there are only room for 3 tables, so according to our tour guide the one in the Potter movies is scaled about 1.5 times the size. (although to me in the movies it looks about 5 times the size and with much higher ceilings) Also, my mom ate all her meals in this exact place at the same tables 30-some years ago so that's pretty cool.

Along with all the Potter trivia, there was a fair share of Lewis Carroll/Alice in Wonderland anecdotes. For those of you who don't know, Lewis Carroll (real name: Charles Ludwig Dodgson) was actually a math (or as they say here in England, maths) professor at Oxford and Alice was one of the Christ Church dean's daughters. I've always been a huge fan of "Alice and Wonderland" and have probably owned at least 10 different copies of the book. Anyway, one of the stained glass windows in the lovely Christ Church features her:

See her in the corner of the left window?
I thought it was cool. Anyway, our tour guide was great at pointing out little details like that and providing the stories to go along with them. I'm sure if I'd just walked through the church on my own, I never would have noticed it.

We didn't really have much time to wander around Oxford because next it was onto Stratford-Upon-Avon for lunch and a visit to the birthplace. We ate in a creaky floored Tudor restaurant with the rest of the group (choice of Fish & Chips, Cottage Pie or pasta for the veggie-tarians). Did you know that Shepard's Pie means that it has lamb but Cottage Pie is with beef? You probably did, I didn't until that day. Anyway, we walked around the birthplace, it was fine. Unfortunately all the lovelienss down by the River Avon was torn up for some renovations so no swans or riverboats for us.

Last stop: Warwick Castle. The great thing about Warwick (in contrast to Windsor, which I went to with Matt the following week) is that you're free to roam around wherever you like. They had a cool exhibit with wax figures from Madame Tussaud's set up to recreate a weekend party at the Castle back in the time of Lord Warwick. Here's my dad making friends with the butler:

Then we walked around the grounds (until the rain started), saw the dungeon and did the 350 stair voyage up to the tippy tops of the castle. That's where the first picture was taken. Here's mom and dad at one of the castle view points - but not the highest...there was no room for turning around for pics up there.


They were closing up the castle when we left so we did as much as we could. Unfortunately we missed the area where the peacocks roam around, but with the rain, maybe they weren't out anyway? That's what I'd like to think. Also of note about Warwick, they used it a lot for Antiques Roadshow. I've seen two episodes shot at Warwick since the tour.

Speaking of antiuqes, Saturday we went to Portobello Road for the massive market - mostly antiques but also food and junky stuff towards the bottom. Unfortunately it was also the market featured in the opening shot of "Notting Hill", which means it's crazy ridiculously packed with more tourists than locals these days. But Mom and Dad were good sports, didn't mind the crowd, and we all had fun looking at all the different kinds of antiques on offer. I really appreciate the span of history the antiques encompass - different centuries, countries, from spoons to telescopes, china to thermometers...so cool. After that people-packed morning, we dared to go to Harrod's on a Saturday. Thankfully it was the least crowded I've seen it and we were able to shop til we dropped.

The weather Sunday was pretty junky so the parents came over to my place, we had brunch and took a short walk over the bridge to Putney, stopping briefly so I could show them a couple of the other apartments I had looked at when I first got here. They were really supportive of my choice. Then, our last dinner together was totally fabulous at Bluebird, also in Chelsea. The inside is super hip with sky high ceilings, and the food was delicioso. Here's the happy fam (minus my favorite brother) enjoying the end of the visit.