HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLYN!!!!!

Well I am very glad to be in Florida. I spoke to my grandmother yesterday and she said it had been pouring rain in LA> They had 6.5 inches at their house in 24 hours. That's quite a bit for us!!! Here in Florida it is a lovely 70 or so and no sign of rain. I am enjoying this trip much more than the last one as there are no mosquitos and it is not humid at all!!! Fantastic!!!

We had a lovely Christmas here with Jamie's parents on Tuesday night and then had another Christmas last night after Jamie's brother Dave and his fiance Kristie arrived. It's like Christmas every day!!

This is a quick one, just wanted to let the 3 of you out there reading this know that I haven't forgotten about you!!

Well MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone. I know it's a day late but I was a bit busy yesterday. What a lovely day it was!!!! We spent Christmas Eve at my aunt Shirley's and then had breakfast at my Grandma and Grandpa's house. Angie's in the afternoon and to the Pratt's house for Dinner. We then saw the movie Meet the Fockers which bordered on being terrible. I don't recommend it at all. Ther sun shined all day and I couldn't help but think of Karen freezing in Canada. I guess the snow would be pretty but....

Hey, only 8 weeks from today for the wedding!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL GILBERT!!!

Probably freezing cold in Canada, eh? Nice and warm here!!! It is in the high 60s- mid 70s here. Very nice!!! Hoping it will get a bit of a chill by Christmas though...l.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHERINE!!!!!

WIDE AWAKE! This sucks. I woke up at 5 on Saturday, Sunday and again today but at least today I was able to go back to sleep until 7. I am still sick too. During the day I feel fine it's just at night when I am coughing.... maybe because I am so tired? Oh well, it should be gone by the end of the week. So it's just after 7:30 and Bushie is on tv doing a press conference. It makes me hink of my Canadian pals... don't know why...

So I had a great weekend so far and have not missed England at all yet (except for the lovely towel heater in my old bathroom) We went car shopping Saturday and Sunday and I successfully found what I wanted. It's a 2001 Lexus RX300 with silvery green paint. It's very nice and I LOVE IT!!!! One of the best parts of the weekend though (aside from seeing everyone and my cat) was the weather. You all know how the English weather was slowly (maybe not even slowly!) killing me! It's been beautiful here. About 80 both days. Those of you that know LA are probably thinking "yeah, warm is great but what baout the smog?" Well that was absolutely missing! It was crystal clear out! I took a few pictures (can't upload yet..) The best bit was driving south on the 2 overlooking LA. Downtown was perfect and you could see all the way out to the ocean! I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have been able to see the ocean from the 2 freeway! It was so beautiful!!!!

Since it is perfectly clear that I get everything I want (hee hee, just kidding) can I please see snow on Christmas?

Well it's my last day here and it is raining. Very appropriate! I didn't sleep well last night because I am getting sick. Figures. Anyway, I am very excited about my flight home and can't believe I will wake up in LA tomorrow!!!!

I just got my keys for the rental car adn I am driving to Heathrow in style in the Mercedes. That will be the last time for a while!

I was walking by Reed's old desk and noticed that his calendar is still there turned to June.... it made me wonder if 6 months from now the office will still have Christmas decorations around since no one will be here to take them down :(

Anyways, today's topic...The absolute best part of this whole adventure has been the people. It's really amazing that you get all these A type personalities and they all get along. (Well most of them) I am so fortunate to have met them and hope I see them again someday.

I had a lovely packing day yesterday... hmmm... somehow I have accumultaed a lot of stuff. I was only allowed 250 lbs and I came up with 350. The difference is costing my $279!!!! Ouch!! I then packed up my suitcases and filled both of them, my weekend suitcase, a duffel bag, my backpack and a small carry on bag.... woo-hoo airport, here I come!

I have 2 sets of photos to share! Thank you to Farrah for being the photographer these past couple of weeks!!

First here is a great photo from the Final Weekend in London



and here is one from when we saw One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, a very touristy pic!



The other set of pics is from the RDCC Closing Party

Here is one of the best!



So the topic of today is my ugly couch! It is an atrocious couch but it has had the joy of welcoming so many wonderful people out here to visit!!



Angie and Renee



Ashley and Brittany



Dave and Kevin



Derrick and Alisha



Gen



Katherine



Laine



My mom and Grandma



Renee



Sue and Megann



Tom and Debbie

Thanks to everyone that came out!!! You helped make my time so much more enjoyable!!

So I have big news! I have been given a promotion! When I get back home I will be a Project Manager on Mark Nichta's team. I am so excited about going back to work already, this is just icing on the cake. :)

I didn't write up the weekend yet as I was waiting for Farrah's pictures. She took some great ones and since I knew she would I didn't even bother to take my camera. Well she wasn't able to finish them yesterday and she is out today having her stuff packed and moved soooo it looks like tomorrow! The weekend was fantastic though and it felt like how a final weekend should. Friday night we went to the corporate Christmas party at Addington Palace. It's a big chateau type place just outside of Croydon. Everyone was dressed up and we danced until they kicked everyone out at 1am. I was a bit disappointed that there were no Reed-like episodes at all. Everyone was very well behaved and just had a general good time.

Saturday I went into town to do a little Christmas shopping and also to Massimo Dutti to do a little shopping for myself! I then met up with Karen, 2 friends of hers from Canada, Ian and Farrah. We went to the new production of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest with Christian Slater. It was excellant!! We all really enjoyed it. We then went to Pacifico for dinner. Some of you may recall me talking about Pacifico as the only good Mexican food in London!!! Oh my it was good.... I can't wait to get home and eat it anytime I want, it's worth giving up Doughmasters for!! There was a horrible incident in the restroom though.... I was walking in and saw a man go in ahead of me, I called out "Excuse me sir, but this is the ladies." He turned around and said "It's ok." That's when I realized he was a woman. I was mortified!

On Sunday I slept in a bit and watched "Being John Malkovich", for any of you that have not seend it, I highly recommend it. It was so creative and different and just really darn good. I met up later that night at Karen's and she, Farrah and I went out to dinner at a pub, yumm, Steak and Ale pie. We then went on the Jack the Ripper walk that I have wanted to go on for ages! Well it's about time, I can't believe I left it to the very last weekend!

Last night was our RDCC Christmas Party. We got all dressed up and went on the London Eye. It started around 7pm and we had 2 pods to ourselves. Champagne and canapes for everyone! It was such a fun atmosphere and everyone was in such a good mood. Sean even did a handstand for us! We then moseyed over to a boat that took us on a river cruise. More drinks, dinner and dancing until the wee hours... well 1am... then Sean, Dawn, Farrah and I cabbed it back to Croydon. I know a ton of people took pictures so I will try to get some up Thursday. I'm not in the office tomorrow as the movers are coming to pack up my stuff to ship back to the US, so no blog tomorrow but definitely Thursday.

Speaking of good experiences, that is my topic of the day. Just WOW experiences that I won't forget.... it's a lot... I hope your computers don't freeze up with all the pics. And to think, I tried to be selective and do a broad range!



Going to Wimbledon and seeing Martina Navartalova.... my goodness, I am sure I just ruined the spelling on her name!



Celebrating my birthday (and Liz's) at a restaraunt that had a view of St. Paul's Cathedral.



Standing on this massive bridge over a deep gorge, seeming to float in the air with this beautiful castle behind me.



Seeing snow fall in the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain, what FANTASTIC trip that was!



Seeing the same surfers in the river in Germany that I had seen on the Amazing Race.



Sitting in San Marcos Square in Venice, drinking a tea and listening to the band.



And last (well for this little bit) but not least, kissing Jamie at the top of the Eiffel Tower!

BTW, just to change subjects completely, for those of you that know Reed, check out this adorable picture of Ryan. It should get you in the Christmas spirit!

So today's theme will be food. Yes the food in Englad is generally terrible and bland, but there have been some instances of wonderful foods!! Expecially outside of England!



Like this one, drinking water from a glacier in Norway! How cool is that! Even better than Arrowhead!



The best Ice Cream on the planet is in Rome. My mom loved it so much she had to have 2 cones at once. Well not really, she is holding mine for me while I took the pic but we did have it 4 times in 3 days!



Sausage, Mash and Saurkraut in Germany. Probably the least appetizing looking meal but wow! Was it ever good!!!



Wine in Greece, food in Greece.... wine in Italy, food in Italy... well these are 2 countries that you just cannot go wrong in when it comes to wine or food. This also just happens to be one of my favorite pictures of the year. Friends toasting good food and good times. That can almost sum up my trip huh?

YAY!!! Farrah just sent out her pictures of Michael's Leaving Dinner Here is one of the best:



It just shows how happy everyone is (well at least the 3 of them but everyone was!) and not happy that Michael was leaving just happy that we were all together.

Speaking of being together... the second best part of this experience (I'll get to the best next week) was all of the travelling (and you thought that would be the best part?) I did a little bit of travelliing on my own but the best times were of course with people. I would love to show a pic from every single trip but that would bore you all to death. So here is a smattering:



Camping in the Lakes District, this was fun on so many levels... the jerryrigged cover for the fire, almost getting blown off the mountain, the beautiful hike, trying not to slide down the hill in my sleep, the wonderful breakfast that Charlotte cooked..



Athens... oh what can I say about Athens, it's too recent to erase the bad parts from my memory... oh what am I saying, there weren't any bad parts!!! Although Michael might disagree since he had to spend the whole weekend with 3 women!



Travelling with my mom and cousin Renee.. those of you that know my mom probably never expected to see a picture of her at a cafe in Paris!! I think this year was even more of an adventure for my mom and I was so very proud of her!!



I certainly couldn't forget my very first travelling partners, Mike, Marcio and Yasu! I gotta tell you that when we had Michael's leaving this week, it reminded me of how sad I was when Mike left. What a great introduction to travelling with them! They were so great and we had such a great time on that trip.

To everyone I travelled with, you are all a part of my memories and I treasure them all. I never had a bad trip or experience, a couple of flights have almost been cancelled and we even had our names paged at an airport for shopping too long and almost missing the plane but WOW, everything was so amazing. Thank you to everyone for putting up with me and sharing your weekends with me!

Today's theme is the proud moments. I have one picture that felt like a big accomplishment at the time and since moving to a foreign country and living and working on your own for over a year kind of represents the accomplishment theme... well it all ties together.

This one is something that really meant alot to me. I never played sports in school or anything so I never knew the feeling of winning or pushing myself physically. By training for and doing the 10k (and finishing in a shorter time than I ever dreamed, 1 hour 7 minutes) I will count that as one of the proudest moments in my entire life. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done and was actually more mental than physical. It really showed me that I can make excuses for everything like when I used to whine that I couldn't run because of my athsma or I could get up off my butt and work hard and overcome the excuses.

So in honor of Michael leaving today I must put up this pic which I am sure he is most proud:



I guess with the happiness of going home a little sadness is bound to happen... I will miss alot of people here and Michael is definitely at the top of the list.

So my picture topic for today will be 4 pictures that I took that I think are absolutely lovely!



The Cliffs of Moher in Southern Ireland



The mountains of Lake Geneva, Switzerland taken from Vevey



A beach shot in Salvador, Brazil

and last but not least....



Sacre Couer in Paris

10 more days!!! Tonight we are going out to dinner in London for Michael's Farewell. Tomorrow is his last day and then he flies back to Canada!!

Vienna was fantastic!! I was a bit disappointed that it didn't snow on us and the markets were a bit commercialized (better in Prague) but it was still a very nice weekend.

Here is a good pic of Farrah and I



and here is a good one of Farrah and Karen at the Christmas Market at night. So beautiful!



The pics of Vienna are courtesy of Farrah. This will link you to her Ofoto. She combined mine and her pictures and already commented them so she saved me a lot of work!!! YAY! Farrah!!

We were a bit converned on Friday night as there was lots of fog but it turned out that we were only delayed 2.5 hours instead of cancelled altogether! That was good! How awful would that have been to have my very last trip cancelled!! Big highlights were taking a horse-drawn carriage tour at night. It was so cold we even had blankets on us.. if only it had snowed!! We also went to a concert on Saturday night and it was a lot of fun and well worth it. We had been a bit worried since we bought the tickets off a street guy in a costume. We also sampled the local cuisine, there is a great picture of me looking absolutely disgusted at the hot dog looking things I was served, luckily they turned out ok!! The shopping was pretty ok, I even managed to get a few Christmas Presents!

So my travelling days in Europe are over. When we landed in Heathrow I had to think that the next time I would be there would be to go home!

Speaking of trips... getting back to my favorite pictures/memories.. here are 2 pics from my favorite trip. It was to Italy with Karen and Michael to Sorrento and the Island of Capri. The food, the scenery, everything (except the dumb church bells at 7 am!!)





Only 11 more days!!

Sorry about not posting anything yesterday, it wasn't the best of days and well I just plain forgot. Strange to forget something you do everyday but... hmm oh well. I have 3 pictures for you today to make up for it!!!



This is one of my absolute favorites just because it strikes me as so pretty. I love the way the shadow falls below it. This was in Prague... speaking of Prague...



Prague is still my favorite memory of a city. It was so beautiful and the first time I really got cold. It was one of my first trips and is just a special memory for me. I especially loved the Christmas markets.



This was the best Christmas Market. It was in Colmar, France. Ienjoyed it so much that I planned my last trip to Vienna specifically to go to the Christmas Markets. Which brings me to my weekend plans! Vienna, Austria! Fantastic. Hard to believe my last trip is finally here. Although we don't know if we will make it! We tried to check in online but it wouldn't let us. Farrah called BA and they said that the fog is so bad at Heathrow that they are cancelling flights and for us to check back later... wish me luck please!!!

I received an email from my new boss at home, Mark Nichta, about the work I will be doing and I am just so excited about it! It's nice to have things all planned and to look forward to. I'll need something to take my mind off the wedding or I will drive Jamie crazy! Two weeks from today and I am home!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

YAY!!! First day of December!!! How wonderful!!! Only 16 days left!!!!

So here is my next picture to share with you:



Shopping in Andorra. I have had some wonderful shopping experiences here but Andorra was by far the best. No taxes and lovely clothes...what a fantastic combination!!

Today at lunch Sean, Michael and I played our last lunch time pool. Sean is out tomorrow thru the end of next week on a course and Michael leaves next Thursday. It is a little sad as these little things happen. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to have it wind down and get to go home but these little things are things I will miss. So it got me thinking about the wonderful memories I have had. I went through all of my pictures and came up with a top 30 pictures. I am going to put them on here for the next 13 postings and try to come up with a list of things I will miss. As it is all winding down.... Some of you might remember these... it was hard to narrow it down to 30 though! I tried to come up with a top ten and just couldn't do it. Some I picked for the picture and some I picked for the memory it represents to me. I hope you don't mind my little indulgence of going down memory lane!

Well let's start with a big one! Carnaval in Brazil!!!





Despite is frightening begining, I have nothing but good memories left over. This was an amazing week although I do know I would never want to do it again!!!!