Me and Digitial Cameras = Blurry Pictures

i don't know why, but i just cannot take a good digital picture. i press the button and i can't stay still enough for the camera to finish its business. so. here are some blurry pictures of our thankgiving day feast.

first, is the turkey sitting in a lovely brine. you can tell how small our fridge is!

next, is a shot of the gigantic parsnips and carrots we got at the primrose hill farmers market. i have now decided that i DON'T like farmers market veggies. they are way too covered in dirt. it is very messy.

finally, the carved turkey. i forgot to get one of the turkey when it came out of the oven. too many other things going on, like taking the guinness out of the turkey, making veggies and stuffing, asking if people needed more cheese...you know how it goes.

hope y'all had lovely days

The local farmer's market

last saturday, toby and i went to the farmer's market by primrose hill. we were amazed at the size of the parsnips and carrots! we also found fresh buffalo mince. we made these lovely burgers. i made them quite big because i thought they'd shrink a bit in size...they didn't. OH! they were so tasty. the kitchen smelled of tasty burgers all evening. i think we should find a nice buffalo meat flavored candle, what do you think?

chewy makes the day brighter

i was very grumpy this morning. i didn't want to wake up and shower and go to work.

i was being crabby and hating london. i didn't want to go to the doctor's this afternoon (even though it meant the afternoon off work). the doctor's "surgeries" aren't like the states. i didn't want to get on the tube. it would be crowded and there would be smelly people. i wanted a car to drive. i was really just annoyed with everything and wanted to go back to bed.

then i left embankment station and headed through the gardens to work. that's when i smiled and my mood lifted. i didn't care about all of the grumpy things, instead i said hello to chewbacca who gave me a friendly growl. now, i don't know why he was there growling at people at 9 in the morning, but i'm glad he was because it made me happy to be in london again.

your typical sunday afternoon

i know this isn't the most flattering looking picture of a meal, but i think it shows how tasty it was. i made a roast dinner on sunday. complete with stuffing, parsnips, carrots, potatoes (i did my best to roast them), and broccoli. it was all in preparation for the big turkey i'm cooking the day after thanksgiving. i think i'll do OK.

on sunday, i also discovered a way to listen to the packers play on the radio. i was really excited about this because it reminded me of home. there's just something about listening to the packer game being interrupted every minute or so by a car dealership commercial that reminds me of home.

to make our autumn sunday complete, we took a walk in the woods up in hampstead heath. it really is nice out there. i took a lot of unnecessary shots of the trees. i like trees. they're so twisty and lovely. we also saw a lot of nice dogs. give us a couple of years and we'll have a little bulldog named george. oh yes, it'll happen. no matter how practically i think about it, we will have an english bulldog. he will slobber and love us silly.

A Very Happy Moment

i've been in the british library after-hours.

not only have i been in the great british library when it was nearly empty BUT
i've sat in a room, next to my husband, and listened to roger moore read (among other things) The Female Species by ruyard kipling.

now that's something i never though about when i sat in my high school english classes reading poems out of a book.

little, brown (the place i work) published Catching Life by the Throat. a book with poems from 8 great poets and why you should read them. the idea for the book came from the joesphine hart poetry hour at the british library. for one hour an actor will read poems to you. it's pretty cool. toby and i were lucky enough to join about 100 other folks to hear the reading and then attend a party. and because i find it weird that i was in the same room, i have to mention that bob geldof was there too. he's read some poems in the past.

and just so everyone knows....roger moore touched toby's arm.

yep. that was pretty darn cool.

Hallooooweeeeen!

guess which is toby's and which is mine....

i'm surprised with the number of kids we saw out trick-or-treating. i think it has something to do with the above-average wealth of the neighborhood. and the high number of people that hold american passports around here. i was really happy to see it. witches are the most popular costume that i saw. though there was a little spider-man.

we saw all of these trick-or-treaters on a jog. yup. we've gone 3 days in a row. and no. it isn't getting easier, it's actually making me hate running even more. good thing we've got stuff to do tomorrow and thursday. and you can't go running on friday. it's friday afterall.

Movie of the Evening

this is some cult-ish cool movie, right? well, we're watching it now and i'm really confused. i kinda of understand what's going on, but i don't get why. i'm still trying to figure out where it's set. it said LA, but it looks like tokyo or something.

harrison ford looks so young.

i made some pineapple upside-down cake again today. and we bought a pumpkin. tonight, some cake eating and tomorrow. some pumpkin (wake up, time to die...anyone know if that's a guns'n'roses lyric?) carving.

One week on...

and the flowers are dying (attracting a gnat or two) and the flat is back to its normal messy state. i really want to be sending out emails to my friends or cleaning up around here, but all i can do is drink some tea, get rid of my headache and think about taking my toby bowling in finsbury park.

it's a rainy day, maybe he'll be up for it. instead, he's sleeping. it's nearly 11 and he's still in bed. this is rare so i'll let him sleep. i was thinking of waking him up to the smell of bacon, but then i thought what kind of breakfast is that? just bacon? well, i could run to tesco and get some bread and eggs....nope. it's raining and i just made some tea. i'm going to stay here and think some more about bowling.

For your information...

...i've put up some pictures (click pictures)

these are just from toby's camera phone, so they aren't the greatest, but have a look. charlie's blog also has some and i'm waiting for the great michelle to send her's as she was snapping away while here.

today i decided that work would be best if i could work one week on and one off. that way i'd always have loads of stuff to do. i told my co-worker and she said, yep, just tell your boss that really your job is only a part-time one. ah. right. not something i should be telling my boss...

i ordered a book today that had recently (oct 12) been published by us. i've been waiting for it for quite some time. "catching life by throat: how to read poetry and why". it is a collection of poetry from 8 great poets. a little commentary and some poems. included is a cd of the poems read by people like ralph fiennes and roger moore. it was orginally a series of live poetry readings at the british library. it's a beautiful yellow and grey book and i'm very happy that i have it and had a small part (i answered a production related question so that counts!) making it.

toby just asked me "what does the word scandivian mean?" well, do you have an answer to that? neither do i.

So much more to come...

i think this is my favorite picture from the past couple of weeks.

i've had an incredible time with all of my family and friends here. friends are really like family anyway, so i should just say family. toby and i were looking around and yes, we do have a few more furnishings (thanks everyone!), but we think it looks more like a home now because we've had all of you around to hang out :)

see that pumpkin?

yep, it's about as excited as i am about seeing old friends. so excited that it's exploding with all that darn excitement

Quite the weekend

It was a good weekend. The weather was lovely and managed to stick to our guns and spend little money! Even went to a new grocery store (Morrisons) that was further away, just so we could spend less (it's supposed to be cheaper there, I think it is).

On Saturday we decided to look at some of the places open for Open House London. It's a weekend where loads of homes and businesses and historic places are open and free to the public. I was all excited for the day and thought I would cook us up a nice breakfast before going on. A fry-up. Toby said it was just as good as a caf, but less greasy. I think that's a good thing.


Then we headed out to our first home out in Hampstead. I got a little overexcited when I saw there were Henri Moore items in the house and I didn't bother to read anything else. We got there to find out that you had to pre-book to see the house. Nice one Abby. Toby laughed at me and then we decided to go somewhere else. So, we wander around take a couple of buses and get to our next house. Yep, that's right. This place was only open on Sundays. This was Saturday. So, we wandered around AGAIN, took another bus and finally saw a place. Nope, no pictures, but I can tell you there were interesting.

Sunday I decided to bake a pineapple upside-down cake. It's SOOOO good.


After restraining ourselves from eating all of the cake, we headed down to Avenue road where a neighborhood day was being held. The highlight was the classic car club. Toby got to see his most favorite car ever....the Ferrari F40. He was so happy and wouldn't (or couldn't) stop talking about it.



I liked this one a bit more. A Ferrari California Spyder. 1961. Yummy.

tour of britain

a couple of weeks back the tour of britain rode through london. we headed over to primrose hill for a look. as they were all going uphill, it wasn't that exciting, but the motorcyles and cars that sped past to clear the way were cool. here are a couple of pictures.

The Coolest Man on Earth

this guy is seriously cool.

100 year old man

Brighton Beach Memoirs

Went to Brighton on Friday. The sea makes a lovely sound when it hits the rocks.

couple more pictures of rome

since the internet is working so gosh darn well.....



that one's for my mom as there are some sunflowers in the picture. no, really, look closely.

The Good and the Bad

We woke Saturday morning to the sound of chainsaws. Didn't really think anything of it until we got home later that day and looked out the window. The big beautiful green leafy tree was gone. This is our view now. Though, to be fair, it's better than a lot of views in London. And our internet is working better!

cute little furry things

i liked squirrels until i started classes at the university of minnesota. i thought they were cute, furry little animals until one jumped out of a trash can and scared the crap out of me. the squirrels around campus are not afraid of humans and have horrible looking sores on their mouths. they are just not nice. except for the cool albino one that lives on the west bank.

anyway. i like squirrels again. i thought you should all know. since i didn't have to hurry home from work, i decided to get off at baker street station and walk through regents park. i saw one single grey squirrel stop and look at me and then slowly scamper on. well, i had some pistachio nuts in my bag, so i thought i'd toss one out. the squirrel loved it. i watched for a little while and then carried on. as i turned my head round to get one last look at the squirrel, i noticed another lady had stopped to watch this thing eat a nut. i thought that was pretty cool. another person had a good squirrel experience.

on a sidenote. i carried on down the high street. now, if this doesn't say something about st. john's wood, i don't know what will. one of the shops had a "sale" going on. its windows were painted with the words "everything under £59.90". wow, that's some sale!

more from the weather guy

last night the weather guy said it would be "thundery" today.

thundery? you've got to be kidding me.

sunday morning

the weather has finally started to turn more to my liking. last night toby and i took a walk (we checked out a different area than we normally do, going right on abbey road rather than left) and i wore jeans AND a long sleeve shirt. toby even had on a sweatshirt. it was perfect fall feeling weather. i know we have the whole month of august to get through and i really shouldn't be wishing for cold weather, but it has been so unbearable lately. the city is really no place for heat.

today we're going to check out the movie The Break Up because we're hoping that the funny adverts lead to a funny film, though that isn't always the case. then we are going to BOOK october 7th. yes, we will finally have an actual placed booked for the big day and we're taking a chance because it'll be outside. it's a really lovely place and there will heaters and umbrellas and it'll be early october, so maybe a nice indian summer?

Free Masons Arms click this link and then chose the hampstead one.

right, i'm off to starbucks now because i want a fancy coffee and sadly, that' my only option.

rome 3

okay, so i'm posting these ones a bit differently, so bear with me.

rome 2

more pictures...


us at the colessum (heck i know i'm spelling it wrong but i just can't think right now...dinner is soon)


the stairway of our hotel (hotel aphrodite) we stayed on the 5th and top floor.


the trevi fountain. i know you can't see much of the fountain, but aren't we lovely?:


seriously, is that bus even worth it?

our first holiday together...aawwhh

let's see...to start i'll be short and sweet for all pictures. it'll be like a boring slide show :)


here we are at the roman forum. picture was taken by a very cool lady that looked like annie lennox. she had black hair that was shaved expect for a bit hanging down from her bangs.


toby ordered a liter....just wasn't thinkin'...


ah yes, the obilgatory gelato. caffe for me and menthe for the tobe...


the famous colessum. it's beautiful.

i'm warning you!

today i was watching the bbc morning weather report, which is always useless. today it gave me a bit of a laugh. the weather chick said "there is a high pollen count today, so, i'm warning you" then she went on to mention it'll be warm in belfast too. i've never had a weather person WARN me before. what am i supposed to do? hide indoors?

the disco dudes and the mayor

judge dredd's on tv right now. quality film, don't you think? the other day they had on demolition man. now that's a movie i love. taco bell is mentioned throughout and i like the taco bell, though i haven't had it for awhile. i think it's stallone week or something.

anyway.

last weekend we had another saturday. in the morning we cheered on our friend, linda, during her race for the cure. toby took a picture as she went by, but the the darn digital camera had a "memorystick error". now, you wouldnt' get that with a normal camera would you? oh well.

then we headed over to the rise festival in finsbury park. it's a festival against racism. so, of course there were carnival rides and overpriced food. free entry though and if we would have put some thought into it, we would have brought a blanket, food, and beer of our own. lots of others did (so there was trash everywhere as we left). the main stage had varied acts. the duke spirit were good. i'd like to hear them in a club or something, as the sound system at this place wasn't the greatest. sway was next. some crap rapper who shouted things like "hey london say yeah, etc, etc..." then common, another rapper, but apparently this one spoke the "truth" as the presenter told us. then graham coxon formerly of blur. i wasn't impressed. later on in the evening the wailers, as in bob marley and the wailers were going to come on, but we left right after one of coxon's songs.

the highlights of the day. there was an open-top doubledecker with a guy rockin' out on the turntable. a crowd of people waited around for some breakdancing. i was a-hoping for a dance off, but, alas, no one was served.


then we saw two old guys all dressed up for no particular reason. clearly wearing wigs and everything. i just HAD to get a picture and not just a shy, let's quickly get a picture of them and run away, but instead i walked right up to them and got in on the action.


the other highlight involves the mayor of london, ken livingston, and no pictures. we were waiting in line at the ice cream van and toby points to my immediate left. ken's standing there wiping a very grassy popsicle on his shorts. one of the two little kids he was with must have dropped it. i just thought that was absolutely wonderful. then later on, ken was back onstage introducing graham coxon and saying how great he thought graham was. well, he must not of thought he was too great. remember how i said we left after the first coxon song? we headed to the tube station right after and who do we see? ken and the kids again! weird, huh? i thought we lost him for a bit when we changed trains, but nope, he followed us right on to the jubilee. and that was the last we saw of ken for the day. still a bit odd though to never see the mayor of london and he's right there following you.

last saturday or was it the other saturday?

so, i'm finally writing about last saturday, although i think it is actually the saturday before last saturday. anyway...

it started out with a nice walk around hampstead.


we walked around kenwood house which has a lot of lovely painting and, to my surprise, a rembrandt self-portrait. it's not even in glass or anything you can just walk right on up and touch it, though we didn't. toby did touch the velvet-like carpet wall though!

then we got hungry and needed a hot dog. so we wandered on over to soho to try and find bodeans. a bbq restaurant that has BIG hotdogs.


there was a lot of activity in soho. we weren't postive what was going on, but by the time we got to regent's street we had it figured out. gay pride parade! it just puts a smile on the face :)



then we headed back home for the england quarter final match. well, we all know how that went. i suggested we go do some kiteflying to cheer the tobe up.



and aren't those the dirtiest shoes you've ever seen? they used to be red. crazy

holiday for me!

i just really like that picture. anyway,

i wanted to write about the lovely saturday we had LAST weekend, but i haven't uploaded the pictures yet, so that can't happen right away.

i CAN report that we are going to ROME! hurrah, yippee, wahooo. i'm very excited and can barely concentrate on anything else. we're leaving on the 20th of july for 3 nights. toby's never been, so we'll get to do all the fun touristy stuff AND i'm going to buy some REAL film for my camera and get to taking some lovely photos. yes, i've got rolls and rolls of film from rome already, but none with toby pictures, so i'm looking forward to it even more.

hope your summers are all going to according to plan!