It is absolutely beautiful outside!! Bright and sunny without a cloud in the sky. I may actually be able to drive somewhere tomorrow!

I have come to realize why American news doesn't pay attention to the rest of the world. I used to think it was that we were conceited and didn't care about the rest of the world. Well after being stuck with only CNN for the past 3 days I have seen what the news for the rest of the world is. It is nothing but war and terror. I have not seen one positive story. Even a story about all the Muslims travelling to Mecca for a holy trip is tainted with talks of terrorists attacking and how they are preparing for it. I think they should focus on teaching those of us who know nothing about Muslims about why they go there and what they do. Wouldn't the news be better if it taught the world about other people? Maybe there would be less violence for them to report on. It's all very depressing and I should stop watching it as it makes me just want to go back to cushy La Crescenta and hole up and pretend the rest of the world isn't out there fighting and killing each other.

Well I thought yesterday was cold walking here in the snow.... shows what I know. During breakfast it got so snowy that I couldn't even see across the street. So I took my time at breakfast and hoped it would slow a little. It did, but as I walked to work the wind would kick up sometimes and of course towards me. So I would get this blast of freezing air and snow!!! I still enjoyed every minute though and I did remember to bring my camera today so I have a few pictures. The room I am working in actually has windows so I am able to look outside as I work. It sure is lovely.....

It's snowing!!!! It is so beautiful! I am here in Vevey and woke up to a bit of snow on the ground... after I showered I looked out again and it was snowing. I was the only crazy fool walking to work with a huge smile on my face. I kept walking past people that looked miserable and here I am smiling away!! I only hope that it isn't snowing on the weekend. I am staying here over the weekend and am hoping to drive around. Since I am a true LA person, I admit that I can't and shouldn't drive in the snow, especially in an area that I don't know. God forbid I got stuck somewhere, could you imagine me trying to dig myself out?

Stupid me left my camera in the hotel. By the time I get home it will be dark. Hopefully it will snow tomorrow or at least the snow will stay and I can take some pictures.

My brother Derrick is back east. I am sure he is laughing at me being excited about seeing snow. I am sure he is seeing his fair share!!!

Amsterdam was fantastic! It is not all drugs and other bad things... :) It is a very beautiful city that is built around canals like Venice. We got in and immediately took a canal tour (As we walked up there was a man walking toward the boat. John said "Are you going to fire her up?" The man looked very panicked and asked "There's a FIRE on the boat?!?" This is a fine example of being aware that people might not understand you in a foreign country.)

The canal tour was wonderful. All of the houses are truly amazing and so many houseboats!! I can't imagine living in one of them but after seeing the inside of some of the canal houses, they might be about the same size inside!

The next day we went to the Van Gogh museum and then the guys decided they wanted to do another can tour. I went off on my own and wandered around until I got to the Anne Frank house. That was very cool to go through as you even get to walk through the bookcase and into the rooms where they hid. They still have some of the pictures on the wall that Anne had pasted up there of movie stars and such. I wandered so more and came across a house that had a catholic church up in the attic. The catholic church was banned at some point so someone hid one in the attic. It was very elaborate and amazing to imagine how they must have built it.

When I met up with the guys again, I was glad to know that I hadn't gone with them. The cruise ended up being exactly the same except it went backwards to the one we did. After dinner, I went to the room early adn they went out. Again I made the right decision (well for me at least) as they got in around 2:30 am and we had to wake up at 7 to catch our flight home!!!!

Once we got back, we went right back out again into London. I took them to "The Church" which is that Aussie club that I had gone to years ago with my Aussie friends. It is open on Sundays from 12-4 in the afternoon and we had a great time! We then did some nighttime sightseeing of London as Brent had never been here before.

All in all another great weekend, but the best part was when Jamie called to say he booked a trip out to see me! He is coming on Valentines day and then leaving on Monday. It will be short but so wonderful to see him!!!!

Well big news! We just had a meeting where they split up the local UK people and the mission employees. We mission people were read an announcement that is being given to the local UK people. It basically says that the RDCC (the group here that I work for) will be closing Dec 31st. This is bad news for them, they are all laid off as of then (but wow, an 11 months notice is not too bad) Good news for me and those who want to visit me in England. Bad news for those that wanted to visit me in Switzerland. Now this doesn't mean that I will 100% be staying here until December. I suppose there is always a chance that they will start transitioning us to Switzerland before then, but for now I can plan on staying here until Dec. (But I wouldn't recommend buying any plane tickets for November!!!)

The other people are all still in their meeting... wonder how it's going....

BTW.. I feel better. A day's sleep and some drugs make all the difference.

Today I am sick. I talked to Gen last night and she has the same thing, it must carry over the phone. I don't want to be sick, I have to go to Amsterdam this weekend and have fun! I am drugged up right now with Aleve and hope to make it go away. Wish me luck.

I spoke to my dear friend, the Rev. Julia Leeth (so official!!) and she will be officiating our wedding. This is so exciting. Jamie says I am so far ahead on planning that we could have gotten married this February... but then there is still the 2 seperate countries thing... We have also reserved a place for the wedding and reception and when I go home in April, I will be going to see it!! Moving right along...

John Rinaldi arrives tomorrow. Everyone think a good thought for his flight and that he finds his way to beautiful East Croydon! (If he can see in all this fog and rain....)

WOW! So sorry I wasn't able to post anything. I got several emails asking if I was alright!!! We flew in yesterday morning and I didn't go to work until about 1:30 so I actually had to do some work and couldn't update my blog. It will never happen again!!!



Barcelona-Pyrenees

About the weekend though, I had a fantastic time! When we first arrived and walked out of the airport, we saw this amazing thing in the sky, it was yellow and round and radiated some sort of heat. I vaguely remember it from something I used to see in LA.... I even was able to take off my jacket and not shiver. It was wonderful!!! Carlos took us to his apartment first so he could re-pack for the weekend. We got some lovely sunset shots there. Since his wife and friends were still at work, he drove us up this hill to a bar that overlooked Barcelona. We each had a drink and stuffed olives and just enjoyed the view. Imagine sitting in a bar at Castaways and looking over Burbank..... except it's Barcelona. Lovely. These are the kind of memories where I am just sitting and soaking it in and savouring the moment (to quote my grandma..) mmmm.....

We then went back to the apartment and met up with Rosa, Carlos' wife. They drove off and we followed (you'll see the importance of this shortly....) We met up with his friends Jose and wife Judy (Jose used to work here at the RDCC so everyone knew him except me.) at a gas station and started our journey into the Pyrenees!! We were doing well with Carlos in front, us in the middle and Jose in the back then we came upon the first toll station (there were 4) Carlos drives up does some magic and drives off, we pull up to the machine and stare at. Mike (who was driving) tried pushing buttons but nothing wouls work. There wasn't anywhere to put our money!!! Since all of it was in Catalan (a type of Spanish spoken in Barcelona) we could not figure out what to do. Finally Jose jumped out of his car and stuck a credit card in the machine and the gate went up!! It was that easy!! By this time we had lost Carlos.... we drove really slow trying to get Jose to go in front of us but he kept staying behind us! We didn't know where to go, oh the horror!!! :) Finally Jose got it and drove in front of us, we then caught up with Carlos and they were side by side with us behind Carlos.... then Carlos went in a different direction of Jose!!! Ahhhh!!! What do we do, follow Carlos or Jose? We followed Carlos, he went the wrong way... we turned around and finally got on the right track. Sometime in the next hour or so I fell asleep and the next I knew we were at our hotel. But it couldn't be.... it was all brown... no snow? Where was the snow? Carlos assured me that it was on the mountains above...

As you can see in the pictures, he was right... absolutely beautiful!! The next day Carlos, Mike and Yasu went skiing. I chose to go off with Jose, Judy and Rosa. (Jose had hurt his leg playing bassketball and couln't ski, Judy felt sorry for him and Rosa doesn't ski.) We went to another country!



Andorra. Yeah, I had never heard of it either. It is either the world's smallest country or at least one of them. It sits in the mountains between France and Spain and only has 4 towns or so. It was only about 1 hour away from us and turned out to be lovely. The town we went to sits in the crevasse of two mountains and is almost claustrophobic. A street and a river run through with buildings on the sides and that is about it. The shopping was wonderful though. No sales tax! I bought 3 shirts, 1 dress, 1 pants, 1 necklace and earrings for about $175.

We all met up for lunch around 4, ate a huge meal then went to dinner again at 10 and ate another wonderful meal. I was so full, I hardly ate the next day. While we were out it started to snow a bit.... smile!!!



When I woke up in the morning, I looked out the window and all the brown was gone. Pure white... smile again....

Carlos, Yasu and Mike went skiing again and the rest of us went to the local lake and village. The pictures turned out really nice. The snow kept lightly drifting down all day from the mountains. It was nice because the sky above us was blue and the snow seemed to come from nowhere.

When we got back to Barcelona, Carlos took us to Segrada Familia (the famous Gaudi church you see in pictures) then up a mountain to look over the city.

It was a wonderful weekend.

So I must have looked very odd last night. I left work adn went to the market to buy milk. It was starting to rain a little when I went to the market but by the time I came out, it was pouring and the wind had picked up. Walking home was fantastic. With the rain blowing all over and my coat flying around, it felt like real weather!! Not just the occasional dripping we get at home (ok, sometimes we get a bit of rain...) but in LA you are never really out in it. You run to your car or you look out the window from the comfort of your sofa. With this I had to walk home (or sleep in the produce isle...) I was completely soaked on the outside by the time I got home but my trusty raincoat protected the underneath. It was wonderful!

I know about the comments not showing anymore, I looked into it and the company that did it was bought out by another company so they are in the process of transferring the comments and everything... should be back soon!!

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm off to the Pyrnies!!! (spelling?)

YAY! I just booked a trip to Vevey for Jan 27-Feb4. It falls over a weekend so I can get a rental car and drive around a bit. It should be a great trip and I am looking forward to it! (It will be a good trip workwise too, but you all don't care about that!!)

So the big news around here and back in Glendale is that Kevin quit. Kevin is the guy that was here for a few years and ran the group I am working in. He moved back to Glendale and was instrumental in getting me this position! When my boss, Joe, moved on to working in the field, Kevin took over my old team. (This actually all happened right before I left, so technically I worked for Kevin for a week or two.) I don't know all the ins and outs of why Kevin is leaving, I do know that he is getting a pretty high up job for a smaller company. From what I know of Kevin, this sounds like it will suit him well as he is more of a hands on guy. This is a HUGE loss for Nestle though and definately for my old team. I am sad to hear about all this but of course I am happy for anyone that moves on to something that they will enjoy more. So raise a glass right now and give a big toast to Kevin!!! Kevin, I wish you well and hope you keep in touch. Thanks again for helping me achieve my dreams. I hope this helps you achieve yours. Here's a picture for you.

MMMmmmmm.... I get good food tonight! Carlos (the guy from Spain who is taking us skiing this weekend) and Yasu (the guy from Japan) are making us dinner tonight. Real Spanish and Japanese food (interesting combination...) I can't wait! It will also be nice to get out of the house on a weeknight! Considering I don't really cook, I am stuck with sandwiches and frozen food usually for dinner. Unfortunately the frozen food here pretty much sucks. What I wouldn't do for a Stouffers Lasagna right about now..... When they say that food in England isn't good, they are right. It is like searching for a diamond in the rough. There is good food but mainly only at restaraunts. You can't really get good, regular food. I suppose if I actually cooked....Yeah right, that will never happen. Thank goodness Jamie likes cooking!!!

I am excited because ER finally starts this Thursday... ah a taste of home. No, Grandpa, I didn't bring my piano.

Interesting website: NYC skyline in Legos My brother sent it to me. Very cool especially if you like legos.

YAY! I finally saw the mountains in Vevey! I had a swell time in Switzerland and think I will be going back 2-3 more times in the next month or so. Here are some more pics...Vevey2

Yesterday was odd here. I woke up and it was dark out and pouring rain. I smiled and though what a wonderful excuse to stay in all day and watch tv. About 45 minutes later it was bright and sunny. So I took a shower and got ready to go out. By the time I was done it was dark and rainy again. This kept happening every 45 minutes or so... I did finally leave my flat and go into the office so I could play on the internet for a few hours....

Wedding note... Gen and Angie have agreed to be bridesmaids!!! YAY!!!

Good morning!!! It's drizzly and cold. How's LA? Warm and sunny I assume....

I finally slept through the night last night. That is a big deal for me. I thought I had skipped the whole jet lag process from this trip when I was sleeping fine, but on Weds morning I woke up at 3am and never went back to sleep. That night is when we arrived in Switzerland and again I woke up around 3 and didn't fall back asleep until about 6 and then had to wake up at 7. But last night I went back to my room around 9 (I skipped the big Thursday night outing here) and read then watched tv. Fell asleep around 10 and slept til 7!! It was fantastic! Looking forward to tonight and not being in a hotel and sleeping in tomorrow. I think I may go catch a play in London this weekend.....

Have a fantastic weekend!

So forgive me as I wipe the tears from my eyes.... Here is an example of a language barrier. They provided us with pizza for lunch so myself and the guy that I came here with (Andrew) decided we wanted a coke with it. We go to the coke machine and put in the money and push the coke button. Nothing happens. We start pushing buttons trying to get the money out so that we can try again but it give the money back!!! No money and no Coke!!! Unfortunately the instructions (Have you ever needed instructions for a coke machine?) are in french. So we just keep pushing buttons. After about 5 minutes a coke finally pops out and the change form the 5 we had put in!!! Well we still needed one more! So Andrew puts to money in again and we go through the whole thing. We finally called someone over and she couldn't figure it out either! Eventually another coke and some change came out. Total time about 10 minutes to get 2 cokes... (actually 3 because a third one popped out for no reason) We later found out that the machine doesn't like it when you don't use exact change and it takes it's time. So we were just being extremely impatient..... Excuse me while I stop writing so I can go back to drinking my hard earned Coke.

We're on a quick break with our 2 day meeting here in Swityerland. No SNOW :( Oh well, I am sure I will see some soon! :) It sure is cold though but a nice crisp cold, not a moist, windy cold like in Croydon. The building we are in is kind of coold, like a big atrium. To get to it, we walked through some residential streets so I got to see more of the small town feel, which was nice. (Nestle has a ton of buildings all over Vevey, kind of a hassle if you are new!!!) Anyway, gotta cut this short today as we are starting back up!!!

So the weather in Vevey should be quite cold. I am taking my camera again hoping for some good mountain pictures. I don't know what I will get though, just hope it isn't as overcast as it was last time.

When we got into the office on Monday, we were all freezing. (Reed said that while he was in here last week, he almost could see his breath!!) We assumed the cold was because of everyone being gone for 2 weeks and that maybe they even had turned the heat off. Our admin was talking to someone about it and got the maint guys to come up. They discovered that someone had turned the system to permanant cooling. So it never even turned off!!! Just kept spitting out cold air! So they adjusted it and it got warmer. Well yesterday when we got into the office, it was like a sauna. Felt like 110! We got the maint guy to adjust it again and it was better in the afternoon but this morning we are cooking again!!! Stephan summed it up best by saying that it felt like a sweaty teanagers bedroom.

Things on the wedding are already moving along. We have decided to get married at home instead of on a ski slope in Switzerland. We decided it was too much of a risk to ski down a mountain after saying our vows. Crappy way to start a honeymoon with 4 broken legs! We have already found a place that Jamie might go see this weekend and Renee has agreed to be my maid of honour! At the rate we're going we'll be done planning by March!!!

Thank you all for the wonderful emails. It is all a bit overwhelming!! I am so excited about getting married but am glad I have a year to plan it!! I keep looking through bridal magazines and seeing all the choices for all the different things and don't know how anyone does it!!! I've even started looking on the internet for a place to have it, looks like that will be harder than I expected, but I guess that is all a part of the experience! I do promise you that I will try not to make this a wedding website!! I know most of you log on to hear about me living in Europe!

Well I leave tomorrow for another meeting in Vevey, Switzerland. Then next weekend we go to Barcelona to go skiing for the weekend! I will have lots to write about that!!!!!

What a wonderful 2 weeks at HOME . It was almost impossible to imagine coming back here to England! But here I am... only 3 months til I am back home again!!!

The time at home was fantastic but the best part came in the last 2 days. We had gone out on New Years Eve and got home around 1:30am. I was sooooo tired! I told Jamie that and he asked me if I was too tired to look at something. "What?" I said in a very exasperated tone. He pulled out a ring box and asked me to marry him. I was so shocked that my response was "What?!?!?!" He asked again and again I said "What?!?!?!", then he opened the box and I saw the ring!!!! Then I started with the "OH my gawd's!!!!!" and he had to ask me a few more times. He then finally asked if I was going to say yes and I finally did. (It took my so long because I was so shocked!!!)



I am so excited and can't wait until Feb 2005 (that's when we have set the date for.) You are all probably happy that I am not at home or I would be driving you insane talking about it! This way, you only have to read about it every now and then...

Other than getting engaged (wow! engaged!) I spent the 2 weeks in a whirlwind of holidays and seeing people. I never even really sat down for my favourite pasttime, watching tv. Oh well, I can watch tv next year. This next year should end up going by very fast!!!

Speaking of home, Carolyn gave me pics from my Farewell at Sossi's .