Our 2nd Thanksgiving living abroad, and we decided not to go home this year. The previous year, it was all a bit too much with trying to see both families and friends and we even threw my high school reunion in there for good measure. Not to mention that the UK doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, so it truely is just taking extra days vacation for Mike.
Mike was working on Sony on Thanksgiving Day it was going to be a late one. I headed to High Street Kensington, home to Whole Foods and Sony Music (Simon wasn't in, I checked)I went to the Whole Foods buffet where they had roast turkey and all the fixin's. So I got enough for Mike's whole team...turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing,corn bread, apple pie, pumpkin pie ,etc. etc. I was even able to get one of those handy dandy keep warm bags to put it all in. Then I called Mike and dropped it off for him. His team was much appreciative, though they didn't undertand "corn bread". LOL! Since he was working late, I decided to make myself a turkey burger and make some phone calls to the fam. My mom and brother had decided to head to AC. It was Karen's year to spend with the Rotolas and without me being home, they said it wasn't worth celebrating. Good news was they both won! I also called Aunt Mart and the gang at the Canova's and had a very nice conversation with my cousins.
On Saturday, we had the McGuigan's over for Thanksgiving dinner. Nobody else was around, and the four of us gorged ourselves on a 20lb turkey. Here's the story behind the turkey...
Growing up, my mom always got a 20+lb turkey for Thanksgiving. It didn't matter if it was just the 5 of us, or a crowd, that's just what we always had. So, I went to my butcher shop and told the guy I needed to place an order for a turkey. There are a lot of Americans in the area, so he knew it was for "American Thanksgiving". When he asked me how big I needed it to be, I just naturally came out with 20lbs. He made a comment about how large it was and that I must be feeding a crowd. I didn't pay much mind.
When Mike got home that night, I told him I'd ordered the turkey and he asked how much it was. I didn't know but told him it couldn't be more than 25GBP. ($50), right? WRONG. On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I picked up a 63 GBP turkey---yes, that's $126!
It was a really nice "Kelly Gold" turkey and even came with a thermometer, and it tasted just lovely! It was a great meal--if I do say so myself, and I did mom proud with the stuffed mushroom appetizers and sausage stuffing! The four of us had a great time gorging ourselves on all the lovely American-ness on the table.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Halloween--Dress Like a Brit
...Just don't smell like one! That was the theme of our Halloween Party. Everyone had to come dressed as their favorite British Stereotype. Mike came as a YOB (Youth of Britain). His costume was swishy pants, old school adidas shell top sneakers, a Chelsea FC Sweatshirt, a black eye, and a stuffed pit bull. A must-have accessory for all the dirtbag youths--and lets not forget the knife he carried in his sock for the late night stabbings that might occur. I, on the other hand, was just a typical English girl that you'd see on the tube. Ballet flats, black tights, green skirt, red floral shirt, grey cardigan, weird hat, messed up hair, and heavy eye makeup. Chris D. was an Oxford Professor complete with patches on the elbow of his blazer, Casie was another typical English woman, just one out for the night on the town. Then we had some famous Brits in attendance...Boris Johnson made an appearance along with his "friend" and Frank Lampard the star Chelsea footballer and his WAG (Wife & Girlfriend--at least that's what I think it means).
We spend so much time making fun of the weird Brits that we had to do this. Each of us was a parody of things we see everyday. It was such a fun evening. The Bohnert's even brought some fireworks which we set off at the park across the street. Lets just say that jell-o shots and fireworks don't always mix. We even had a burnt scarf in the midst!
We spend so much time making fun of the weird Brits that we had to do this. Each of us was a parody of things we see everyday. It was such a fun evening. The Bohnert's even brought some fireworks which we set off at the park across the street. Lets just say that jell-o shots and fireworks don't always mix. We even had a burnt scarf in the midst!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Viva Barcelona!
Looks like the last REAL travel blog I wrote was Oktoberfest! I can't believe that was a year ago at this point! What a great time! Shortly after Oktoberfest, we headed to Barcelona for Chris & Kialee's Euro Stag and Hen Parties. I'm not sure if you can call it a party with only Mike and I as attendees, but we tried to make the most of it! Duff and Larissa were supposed to come along, but Larissa came down with some nasty sickness and decided to stay put in London, and Duff decided to stay with her.
Kialee and I arrived in Barcelona on Friday morning. After a little debacle with Kialee's checked bag (we couldn't find baggage claim) we jumped in a taxi. I was really excited to use all those years of Spanish (8 including 2 semesters of college)and was even practicing what I needed to say to the taxi driver in order to get us to the hotel. "Por favor, necesitamos que ir a la Hotel Universal de Barcelona." The driver was polite, corrected my school book Spanish, and transformed it to the Castillion Spanish they speak in Barcelona. After he said it in Castillion, all I could think of was my HS Spanish teacher, Senor Fuller, overpronouncing things, and making a big deal of teaching us the castillion version too. "In Barthelona, you would say,..." If only I'd remembered! We checked into our hotel and proceeded to Las Ramblas, the main drag in the city. We didn't get very far when we saw a sign at a street-side cafe' advertising the best sangria in BCN. We looked at each other and knew we had to sample it if they were claiming to be the best! We wound up getting 2 pitchers and some cheesey snacks before Mike called and told us he was on his way to the hotel. Looking back it seems silly that we just didn't take the same flight as Mike since he only got in a couple of hours later than us!
Mike came and joined us. We walked around Las Ramblas where there were lots of street performers, artists, cafes, and pickpockets. Mike and Ki are super estute at finding the shady characters looking for your wallet, so they were always on the look-out for oblivious me!
Chris rolled in around 9PM, poor guy had to work a full day! When he finally got there he was pretty tired and we were 3 sheets to the wind, but we made it out for some paella and rioja. The paella was marginal at best, but then again, I don't think I've ever had paella before, so who's to know what's good. After dinner, we just went back to the hotel, the next day was going to be a doozy!
We're big fans of "Fat Tire Bike Tours" and knew that Fat Tire did tours of Barcelona, so we were all over it! I must admit, it wasn't as good as the Paris tour since Barcelona is a bit more spread out than gay Paris. The bike tour hit most of the major stops in BCN, the highlight being La Segrada Familia. We didn't have time to climb to the top, but that wasn't really my bag anyway. The bike tour finished at the beach. Barcelona is the only city I've ever been to that butts up to a gorgeous beach. I guess you could argue that LA has a similar effect, but downtown LA is a bit further out, I'd compare it to Hermosa Beach maybe. Anyway, we found a nice waterfront/beachfront cafe and had some beers and food and decided to walk back to town to head out for the "Stag/Hen Party" combo night. Along the way we saw a pirate looking ship in the marina that had little table on it, and decided to stop for a drink and maybe a snack. Well, one turned into several! Needless to say, we never made it out for the Stag/Hen Night! It was fun though and finding all of these niche places allowed Mike and I to really use those years and years of school Spanish (now with my Castilion accent), albeit poorly, but at least we got our point across!
Mike had been to Barcelona before when he was in college. He said there was a MUST see park at the top of Barcelona. She we started out bright and early. It was quite a hike and took us over 3 hours to get there on foot. I was EXHAUSTED and cranky. The Gaudi Park really was quite beautiful. The whole city boasts the work of Gaudi and his architectural style really comes through in the park. We climbed up the hill to get there, so we had to climb back down to get back to the hotel and catch our flight home.
It was a real whirlwind trip to Spain, but I loved it. The Spanish way of life is really a "Hasta manana"--Until Tomorrow kind of attitude. I'd love to spend some more time there and experience more of the food! So good!
Kialee and I arrived in Barcelona on Friday morning. After a little debacle with Kialee's checked bag (we couldn't find baggage claim) we jumped in a taxi. I was really excited to use all those years of Spanish (8 including 2 semesters of college)and was even practicing what I needed to say to the taxi driver in order to get us to the hotel. "Por favor, necesitamos que ir a la Hotel Universal de Barcelona." The driver was polite, corrected my school book Spanish, and transformed it to the Castillion Spanish they speak in Barcelona. After he said it in Castillion, all I could think of was my HS Spanish teacher, Senor Fuller, overpronouncing things, and making a big deal of teaching us the castillion version too. "In Barthelona, you would say,..." If only I'd remembered! We checked into our hotel and proceeded to Las Ramblas, the main drag in the city. We didn't get very far when we saw a sign at a street-side cafe' advertising the best sangria in BCN. We looked at each other and knew we had to sample it if they were claiming to be the best! We wound up getting 2 pitchers and some cheesey snacks before Mike called and told us he was on his way to the hotel. Looking back it seems silly that we just didn't take the same flight as Mike since he only got in a couple of hours later than us!
Mike came and joined us. We walked around Las Ramblas where there were lots of street performers, artists, cafes, and pickpockets. Mike and Ki are super estute at finding the shady characters looking for your wallet, so they were always on the look-out for oblivious me!
Chris rolled in around 9PM, poor guy had to work a full day! When he finally got there he was pretty tired and we were 3 sheets to the wind, but we made it out for some paella and rioja. The paella was marginal at best, but then again, I don't think I've ever had paella before, so who's to know what's good. After dinner, we just went back to the hotel, the next day was going to be a doozy!
We're big fans of "Fat Tire Bike Tours" and knew that Fat Tire did tours of Barcelona, so we were all over it! I must admit, it wasn't as good as the Paris tour since Barcelona is a bit more spread out than gay Paris. The bike tour hit most of the major stops in BCN, the highlight being La Segrada Familia. We didn't have time to climb to the top, but that wasn't really my bag anyway. The bike tour finished at the beach. Barcelona is the only city I've ever been to that butts up to a gorgeous beach. I guess you could argue that LA has a similar effect, but downtown LA is a bit further out, I'd compare it to Hermosa Beach maybe. Anyway, we found a nice waterfront/beachfront cafe and had some beers and food and decided to walk back to town to head out for the "Stag/Hen Party" combo night. Along the way we saw a pirate looking ship in the marina that had little table on it, and decided to stop for a drink and maybe a snack. Well, one turned into several! Needless to say, we never made it out for the Stag/Hen Night! It was fun though and finding all of these niche places allowed Mike and I to really use those years and years of school Spanish (now with my Castilion accent), albeit poorly, but at least we got our point across!
Mike had been to Barcelona before when he was in college. He said there was a MUST see park at the top of Barcelona. She we started out bright and early. It was quite a hike and took us over 3 hours to get there on foot. I was EXHAUSTED and cranky. The Gaudi Park really was quite beautiful. The whole city boasts the work of Gaudi and his architectural style really comes through in the park. We climbed up the hill to get there, so we had to climb back down to get back to the hotel and catch our flight home.
It was a real whirlwind trip to Spain, but I loved it. The Spanish way of life is really a "Hasta manana"--Until Tomorrow kind of attitude. I'd love to spend some more time there and experience more of the food! So good!
It's been awhile...
We're back in the good ol' USA now, and trying to adjust back to normal life. In my new job, I have very limited access to the internet. All of my favorite sites are blocked, gmail, PerezHilton, Facebook, GAP, Ann Taylor...What's a girl to do? Blog. For some unknown reason blogger.com comes up as an available site and I was perusing the old blogs I used to write. Somewhere around last October I really gave it up, huh? So, since my job is SO boring and I literally just sit behind a desk for 8 hours a day doing NOTHING, I figured, why not catch up on some of the adventures and mis-adventures we had while we were in Londontown and around the globe. I figure I should write them down before I completely forget them all together.
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