Well hello to the 3 people who are not shopping today and are reading my blog. Maybe 3 is even a bit high. Anyway here are the pics from Vevey.



I was walking home from the train station last night freezing because it was 2 degrees outside (that's about 34) and thinking "oh, grandma is basting the turkey right now..." I started thinking about the turkey and gravy and cranberry sauce and was getting sad. Not in a sad, wanna cry sort of way, but a pathetic, I want Turkey sort of way. I got my mail and went to my flat. I flipped on the TV and sorted through my mail. One envelope was from Nestlé so I opened it right away. Here is what was inside:



I almost cried. These made me laugh and made my day. Thank you Sossi, Katherine and Carolyn. These are now hanging on my wall. I also have a wall for all the cards I received here and I hung the one that I got from mom yesterday too. These things mean so much! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

I hope you are all thinking of me as you eat your turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and pie!! I will get back to my flat around 8PM, open a can of soup and curl up with my Carolyn blanket and watch some Little House on the Prairie. Thanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday so it isn't that big of a deal to not be home but it is the feeling that I CAN'T be home that makes it a bit harder. What helps is knowing that I will be home 3 weeks from tomorrow!!

Just a little Thanksgiving note.. a bit personal but I am sure you can relate. Living far away from your family and friends makes the feelings you have for them even stronger. You appreciate even more who you have (not what you have since most of it is in storage) in your life and those who were in your life in the past. Thanksgiving is the day that I take to recognize two very important people in my life. Since my father's mother died on Thanksgiving, I remember her and my grandfather by going to Forest lawn and laying flowers for them. Since I cannot do that, I will ask you all to take a moment and do something special for those around your Thanksgiving table. When you do, you can think of my Grandma Joanne and Grandpa Walden and that will be my flowers to them.

To Jamie, my mom, grandma, grandpa, Tom, Sue, Mike, Renee, Megan, Derrick, and anyone else I might normally see on Thanksgiving, along with all of the rest of my family and friends, I miss you all very much and wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving with all the trimmings!!!!

Good morning from Vevey, Switzerland!! Sorry I didn't write yesterday, had problems getting on a computer. Not much to tell though. It was very overcast yesterday so I didn't take any pics but I was able to take on this morning out my hotel window which overlooks the lake... for those of you familiar with Vevey, I am staying at the Hotel du Lac. It is a beautiful hotel and the room is very large. The only downside is that I think the bed is as old as the hotel!!!! On Monday night I did not sleep well at all!! So last night I looked around and found an extra duvet. I slept on top of that and that made all the difference in the world! I had gone to a pizza restaurant and used my handy translation manual and ordered in half french, half english. But at least I tried!! I was able to ask for the check in french and say the meal was very good! Let me tell you, I am really learning to appreciate people not knowing a language. It used to annoy me a bit in LA, but now, I will only try to be helpful as I can relate!! I am hoping to get some nice pictures today as it seems a lot clearer. Should be about 60 or so and tomorrow looks like it will be about 40 so I better get the pics today!!

Also I have looked around the staff shop. It is bigger than the one in Glendale and much nicer but since everything is in french, I don't know what to buy because I don't know if it has nuts or not!! So yesterday I bought a KitKat.

WOW! We had such a fantastic time this weekend. The only way it could have been better is if Jamie could have been with me :(

Yasu had reserved a car so we were able to drive to our hotel and check in. It was early in the evening but already very dark and all the shops were closed. We wandered around for quite a while then settled on a small German restaraunt (all of the food seemed much more German than French.) The food was alright, nothing very exciting, but the place was very charming and the owner was very friendly. When Mike didn't finish his soup, the owner came up behind him and force fed the rest to him!! After dessert, Yaso had not finished his so the owner went and got a straw and tried to force feed him that too!! It was a memorable experience. We had sucha a wonderful time looking around and I was so excited to see it all in the daytime!

The next day we did all the required tourist in Strasbourg stuff like shopping (I bought a scarf, a necklace and a birthday gift for Gen.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEN!) We climbed to the top of the cathedral and saw the astronomical clock do its thing. I had a cheese crepe.. yummy and then we had lunch. I don't know how else to describe the lunch than to say it was probably one of the worst meals we had ever had (we all agreed on this) The service was terrible, took forever and the food was just plain BAD. On top of all that, it was very overpriced! I had ordered a steak with mushroom sauce. What I got was steak with some slimy mushrooms on it. The steak itself didn't taste awful but it had a strange taste to it. Mike tried it and agreed, then he ate one of the mushrooms and said it tasted like fish!! So Marcio and Yasu tried the mushrooms too and agreed, Yasu said it tasted like sardines!!! Nasty! Mike and Yasu had ordered sausages and what they got was to Oscar Meyer hot dogs and some frend fries. Marcio had ordered turkey and he got deep fried chicken. The whole meal cost us about $100!!! When the waitress came we told her about the fishy mushrooms and said she shoudl tell the cook, she said she didn't know. (Marcio knows both French and German and he even explained to her and she just kept saying she didn't know.) We asked her if she had tried the food adn she gave us a funny look and said " I don't eat here!" So after that we decided not to eat in Strasbourg any more.

So that night we drove to Baden-Baden, Germany!!!! Can you imagine driving to Germany just for dinner! We even were on the autobahn! Baden-Baden was absolutely beautiful. All the shops were closed (which was propbably good!!) But looking in the windows, you could tell it was a very upper class area. It seemed like the Beverly Hills of Germany. We found a pub type place and I had sausages, sourkraut, mashed potatoes and german beer called Bitteburger. Everything was excellant! Probably one of the best meals I have had since moving here! The we had dessert... ice cream with a hot raspberry sauce and an order of sliced apples that were deep fried and served with cream poured over them.... oh wow.... heavenly. I would definately like to go back there sometime (during the day of course)

The next day we drove to Colmar (still in France) It is known as one of the best preserved towns in this part of Europe. Alot of the buildings are from the 1500's and it is the town where the guy who designed the Statue of Liberty was born. I guess the Germans never bombed it because it was too close to Germany and no one else did because it wasn't in Germany. Anyway it was beautiful. We were fortunate enough to be there during the Christmas Markets so it was pretty much decorated like a European Christmas Disneyland. I had a lovely eclaire and a tarte flambee... it was just wonderful all around and I couldn't wipe the smile from my face!!

The last place was Haut - Koenigsbourg Castle This was a very nice castle and very interesting too.

So that was my first official trip!!! I hope all the rest will be just as good.

I found out on Friday that I will be going to Vevey today! I am going to learn a program called LoadRunner. This should be good as it will be very nice to be responsible for something. I will be the only person here that will know the program (they assume since I was the last person to get here, I will be here longer than most people!!) So I am looking forward to it and to my first trip to Vevey!

Only 26 more days til I fly home!

It's still dark and cold outside and is a bit wet, but who cares! I am going to France today!! Since I have my camera with me, I took a few pictures!

Left to right: Suraj, Mark, Reed, Mike, Mikhael, Marcio


Left to right: Mikhael, Mike, me, Suraj, Reed, Mark


Left to right: Mark, Charlotte (my boss) and Mike


Left to right: Tien, Stephan and Suraj


Left to right: Dawn and Miriam

There, now you have seen my office and some of the people who work here. This was quite a challenge to get them to pose!!!

Well it is dark and cold today and looks like rain.... I guess it is more of what I expected London to be like. I have been so fortunate with blue skies that I almost got used to them!!! We checked the weather for Strasbourg for the weekend and it looks like it will be pouring rain on us the whole weekend!!! I am sure it will be wonderful though, rain here, rain there, the only difference is we are somewhere new. Still very strange to think that I will be in France this weekend.... because I LIVE in England and can fly there in less than an hour..... very odd....

Istanbul is (or was?) on my list of places to go....so awful...so sad.....

So it appears President Bush has arrived safely and is now having breakfast with the Queen. The big news here is all of the protests going on, but the news also points out that the people who support Bush being here don't really have a way to show it. They can't really organize a march like the protesters here. They took a poll and more British support him being here than those against it, it's just that those against him are more vocal. That's pretty much the case with everything though.

So you know how much I miss people and my cat, but I thought I would share with you a few THINGS that I miss. I desperately miss Mexican food!!! The first thing I want when I get home is a carne asada burrito and the second thing I want is a beef enchilada from Joselitos with rice and beans on the side.....oh I would pay £50 for a good Mexican meal right now! I would even pay £20 for Taco Bell!!!! I also miss Gatorade (yeah, surprised me too.) And Daphne's and Portos and even the EDC!!!! Shocking, I miss the EDC!!!!! Oh well, the 5 large jars of salsa my mom brought me are helping but... I miss going to the EDC on Friday afternoon and meeting with Carolyn and Katherine and talking about Survivor. I miss wasting half of the day sitting at Sossi's desk (well not half the day....) I miss my BBQ and sourdough bread. I miss Survivor, American Dreams, NYPD Blue and ER..... I miss walking outside and being warm!!! I miss my convertible.

You may be sitting there thinking I am miserable and that is not true at all!!!! There are things here that I am really enjoying and will eventually take the place of some of those things above (well probably not but maybe I will miss THEM when I go back home!) I love Doughmasters and Nandos! I love custard cookies (biscuits) from Safeway. I love being able to walk everywhere. I love taking the train into London and spending the day walking around and not having to mess with the 101 or the 405. I love wearing a scarf every day and going to the gym and getting all hot and then walking home in the cool, crisp air. I love sitting on the couch under my Carolyn blanket and watching Little House on the Prairie.

I remember at holidays, looking at all the people that flew home somewhere and thinking how neat that would be. That it would make Christmas even more special. So in conclusion, I love most of all looking forward to coming home in 4.5 weeks!!

WELCOME PRESIDENT BUSH!!!!!

Hello everyone! Sorry about the delay, I know you all hurry into work just to check my blog! As you may have seen in my email, we did not have access to the internet or any work related stuff except outlook all of yesterday and today. But as soon as everyone left, the internet came up!! So here I am at work instead of in a cold, dreary internet cafe! I have had a busy week and two very busy weekends.


But before I start talking about me, I have some wonderful news to share. I know this will break hearts at Nestlé but my trainer, Luke, has gotten engaged to his girlfriend Vicki!!! YAY for them! It was a very romantic proposal from what I heard and involved a very swell car as you can see in the picture. So congrats to Luke and Vicki!!!

Now back to me... The weekend before last I opened up my book of 25 London walks and chose one that looked nice. It ended up being in the area called Chelsea. I spent about 4 hours and followed the route. It was probably one of the best days I have had so far on my own. It was not full of tourists and a bit of an overcast day so I found myself on the streets alone most of the time. I was mainly walking through neighborhoods and just got to see some lovely streets. Here is my favorite picture of the area and the link to more pics.
Chelsea
I then saw the Matrix and called it a night. I spent Sunday wandering around Croydon and doing some shopping. The week of class was also pretty uneventful and I am sure you don't want me to go on about Business Warehouse so other than saying I am SO VERY GLAD I don't have to take 2 trains and a bus for 1.5 hours every morning and night I don't have much else to say about the week!!!

This past weekend was also very good! I was very daring on Saturday and made an appointment with a guy in SOHO to color my hair. I was very nervous and scared and thank goodness he did a good job. That was one of my biggest worries before I left!! What would I do about my hair?!?!? I then walked through an area called Carnaby street and made my day by finding these:

Oh you can only imagine how happy I was!!!! Wearing my new pink, flowered docs, I travelled back home with a smile on my face. :)
On Sunday I went to the famous Camden Town Market. It is basically a big hippie swap meet that is along the canal in Camden. Instead of being in a big field or a warehouse like a swapmeet though, it is in all these windy alley ways and buildings, so you just wander around like you are in a maze. You are completely surrounded by hippie clothes, silk-screened t-shirts and incense assaults your nose whenever you turn around. I wouldn't say it was my favorite place but I might like it better if I were with someone and could laugh at stuff with someone else. I decided to go a bit mor upscale and hopped back on the tube and made my way to Oxford Street.
Christmas in London
So I went from £2 t-shirts to £80 t-shirts at Selfridges!!!! I couldn't believe it! Once I saw a dress I liked and saw that it was £890, I decided I was way out of my league and stopped looking at price tags. Needless to say, the only thing I bought was a £1.50 7-up(lemonade).
Yesterday and today we spent our time betting on when the computers would come up and tossing around a balloon...It was actually very boring! But it looks like tomorrow will be back to normal!

6 weeks from now I am on a plane home!!!

Mom and grandma are in a taxi to the airport. Amazing that they leave at 12PM and will be in LA at 3PM, but then they have 6 hours of traffic to get home!!! It was a good week with them here and I think they enjoyed it too.

I am out of the office all next week at a training class for SAP BW near Heathrow airport so I won't have access to a computer. So my next Blog update will be Nov 17th. Have a good week everyone and go see the Matrix!

George is on the left and Big Snowman and Little Snowman are on the right. They came to say Happy Birthday to me! Thanks to everyone for your warm wishes on my birthday yesterday. I started to get a little sad but it helped tremendously having mom and grandma here, but it just wasn't the same without having plans with you to look forward to!!! Since I don't come back until Feb 2005, you will all just have to come out here (or Switzerland) for my birthday next year!

Mom and Grandma had a fantastic time at Hampton Court yesterday, they even took the train there by themselves! They are really world travellers now! Today is Leeds Castle and tomorrow they fly back home. Please keep them and their flight in your prayers for tomorrow. Thanks!

Hello from London!! Can you imagine mom and grandma waving? Here they are near Buckingham Palace on Friday. This was before getting all worn out! We crammed a lot into Friday... Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Liecester Square, had dinner at All Bar One, went to a show "Wait Until Dark" then wen home. Whew!! Saturday was a bit more if you can believe it!! Grandma opted to stay home and recoop, so mom and I set off on our own; however, we didn't get to leave until 12 as they both slept in until 11am!!! Mom and I went to London Bridge station, then walked...... to Tower Bridge, Tower of London, the Monument (everyone keeps asking me what this is, it is a tall round monument that has gold flames at the top. It is 202 feet high and if you lay it on end, it will touch the place where the bakery was that started the Great London Fire. Anyway, you can climb all 311 steps to the top and then you have a wonderful view. I highly recommend this!)... we then took the tube to Covent Gardens. There was a huge food fair going on so we had a lot of fun trying all the different breads, cheeses, jams, etc... we were than just in time to catch the beginning of a street performers act. Mom and I then went to Picadilly Circus and then walked to Oxford Street. (On the way to Oxford street we accidentally took the long route and went through Soho and some rather unsavory alleys.....)

Sunday was all about St Pauls and Harrods, what else goes together like religion and shopping? Isn't shopping a form of religion?

Monday and Tuesday were Bath and they were wonderful. The weather tried very hard to be good for us and only really rained as we were driving home (Yay, my second time driving and still no deaths!!)

Anyways, here are all the pictures, I hope you enjoy them!

Bath
Stonehenge
London for Tourists

Last but not least, for those of you that know Vivian, here is a picture of her and the family at her birthday celebration :)