I am just starting to see the barest hint of yellow in the trees in Queens Gardens (yes the place where the murders happened). I bet by the time I get back from home leave the fall colors will really be starting to show!

I went out last night and played pool with Ian and Michael and miracle of miracles.... I won a game against each of them! WOW! You can imagine their surprise. (I lost quite a few too.. but ...) It was great to win a little bit!

Well today is the 4th day in a row where I woke up to darkness, not because the sun didn't rise yet, but because it is so grey out. It is starting to stay like this all day now. I went home early last night not feeling well... wonder if it's the weather?

My mom sent me this picture



Isn't it just adorable? I just had to share.

Oh Croydon!!! Sing the song of Croydon!!!

Oh how I love your sirens in the middle of the night!
The police sirens, the ambulance sirens!
The random drunk singing like a siren on the street!
I'm awake at 11:00 pm when the clocktower chimes goodnight
and the drunk sings along, and the sirens blare....
I'm awake I tell you! I'm awake!!!
The clocktower chimes in again. 6am, 6:30am, 6:45am, 7:00am!!
Already? How did the morning come so quickly?
Oh and there goes another police siren! The day starts again...

We went to Buckingham Palace this weekend. It is only open for a couple months out of the year when the Queen is gone. THis weekend was the last weekend so we got lucky. It really was wow inside. Amazing to think how long it has been used and that it is still used now. The best part was going out the back and being able to walk through the gardens. There was even a little lake. We were in the heart of London but couldn't hear any traffic. It was really pretty cool. Here is a pic of Cyril, Myriam, Greg and Roe.



Greg, Roe and I then went out for dinner and saw Wimbledon. I really enjoyed seeing it because I can now recognize all the places they were filming at. I really loved the tennis scenes too because most of them were on Court 3 which is the same court where we saw Martina play. Brought back good memories :)

As I was walking to work I tried to see my breath. Not quite there yet, just a few more degrees. I think Monday I will start wearing a scarf. Today I am wearing my pink, flowered docs. Very pleased, I have a big grin on my face. But OH MY GLORY (that one is for Angie) am I ever getting a lot of crap about these darn shoes!!! Oh well, I like them and that is all that matters!

Don't have a big weekend planned. Greg, Roe, Myriam, her boyfriend and I are going to Buckingham Palace tomorrow. I think this is the last weekend it will be open. No plans for Sunday, most people are out of town this weekend so, maybe I will just have a nice quite day at home and pack for my trip next weekend!!!!

Anyone watch the office?



Thanks Reed for this lovely contribution to the website.

I had a great last couple of evenings. Karen and Myriam are working out with me doing weight training. This keeps me really motivated and I actually go to the gym rather than just saying I am going to go. We have plans to go tonight too. Should be good. I really like walking home afterwards. Now that it is getting cooler and darker, it is nice to walk back still hot from working out. Reminds me of a good workout at home and then getting into my convertible and feeling the wind in my hair. Not quite the same sensation but both very good. Without a convertible when I get back to LA and nowhere to walk after a workout... what will I do?

YAY!!! I just got an email from my brothers girlfriend, Alisha. They are booking tickets to come out here in October for two weeks! So exciting! I just can't wait. This will really help time go even faster.... Only 12.5 more weeks til I am home for good!!!

Karen gave me some of her pictures from Cambridge. These next 2 are for Jamie so he can remember what I look like.




This was inside one of the chapels, I have the same picture of Karen.




This is me posing in front of Jesus Green with our touristy Map!!




I just love this picture. Karen took it of St. Johns when the sky was dark and cloudy and there was justa ray of sunshine on the building. It made it look like it was glowing. Just beautiful.

IT HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!!!! I saw someone wearing a scarf today.... The end is near...

Had a great weekend! The weather was mostly fantastic. It was just an overall relaxing, nice weekend. Nice not to be catching a plane and sleeping in a hotel (I know that none of you have any sympathy for that!)

We started out on Friday night with a night out on the town. We met at Karens and had an impromtu jam session from Ian and Michael.



I sat there looking around and thought how nice it was at that moment to be there. I really enjoyed it. I even joined in a little bit on the “Sweet Child of Mine” chorus!

We then went to a restaraunt that had these nice couches and a dance floor. We had some dinner which was good, a bit overpriced but the company made up for it!! Then later in the evening the whole restaraunt was up and dancing!! It was nice that we had dinner there so we didn't have to leave and go somewhere else and got to just enjoy the entire evening there. And here are the pics...Friday Night Out

Saturday, Seana nd I went to Henry's Rugby Game It was great fun to see an English Rugby game!!!



That's Henry in the black and white jumping up for the ball.

I truly hope I never have to watch a child of mine play it though! It must be the most dangerous sport I have ever seen! It seemed like the men playing always had painful expressions on their faces. I even saw blood!!!! Ahh!! And they like this? GOODNESS!!! Then out to Pizza Express (miss it Mike and Reed?) and then a nice quiet night in all by my lonesome. It was lovely!!!

On Sunday, Karen and I went to Cambridge.



My favorite picture of St. John's College

It was such a pretty day and such a nice, quiet, picturesque town. We both really enjoyed it. We had lunch, cream tea and a ride on a punting boat.



Just an overall lovely weekend!!!!!

Mystery solved....

Croydon Murders

We just got back from lunch. Sean took Liz, Michael and I to a proper english pub (I have never seen this place) it was really good, we sat in this little room and played a game of Yahtzee and had steak and ale pie. Best part was that I won the game!!! I got a 248, Liz got 238, Michael got 242 and Sean had 207. Pretty good lunch time. It was very hard for us to come back!

Well it should be a nice weekend. We are going out to a pub on a boat on the Thames tonight for Peter's going away, I'm going to a Rugby game tomorrow and then a group of us are going to Oxford if the weather is nice or just going to London museums if the weather is bad (chances are we're going to the museums!)

The real excitement is that we get to meet Anuja's fiance tonight!!! She is so excited as she hasn't seen him in 2 years and he arrives this afternoon! I think they are crazy to think he can go out tonight as he is flying here from Vancouver. But whatever, we will all be happy to meet him!!

I got a call yesterday from the travel department to let me know that BA is running a special that if you book a business class ticket,you get upgraded to first calss one way. They asked if I would like that and I said of course!! So I am now flying first class back home on the 1st!

Hmmmm..... Croydon. Well, this morning is beautiful, sunny, blue skies. I wore my leather jacket, defying any rain! As I walked under my little tunnel, a police woman passed me, kind of unusual for the morning... I got to my park and there was police tape around the entire park and police scattered around. I think I may have even seen some of those little tent cards that they put next to bullets and blood spots. I walked around the corner, the way I always go and was able to see down the park into the subway (those of you that have been here might know what I mean...) And there were a couple more cops and some men in white coats. Hmmm... another beautiful morning in Croydon. I got to work adn was talking about it with Farrah. She said that Linda heard it was another stabbing and Linda advised Farrah not to walk in that tunnel anymore. I've been in that tunnel and it is a bit unnerving. (Don't worry, mine is a very different tunnel) Linda told Farrah that it's not as bad as Central Park but she should avoid it nonetheless and stick to the streets. Hmm... there's some advice for living in Croydon.

Here is a picture of Jamie holding baby Quentin (His friend Jason's baby.) Isn't it sooooo cute!!!
I just had to share...

Well nothing exciting to report. Tonight is a drinks night for Connor, he is getting married this weekend, and then there is a drinks night tomorrow for Peter as he is leaving IBM and therefore leaving us. They brought in 15 SAP people though to help out for a couple of weeks on some major issues, it looked like a big suit convention when they first got here. So the floor is full of people even though they keep going away....

So I left my flat this morning and paused where my umbrella was trying to decide whether I needed it or not. I decided not as it was a sunny blue sky out and I am going to the gym tonight so it doesn't matter if I get rained on after the gym. I walked out of the building and was a bit chilly and thought to myself that I should have worn a jacket and that scarf time might be as soon as tomorrow! I walked under the little tunnel I always go under and came out the other side to rain. Well just a sprinkle.... then more.. then alot more. What is strange is I still only saw blue sky in front of me! The problem was behind me. The rain was following me!!! I walked very quickly to the park area and stood under a tree for a moment to see if the rain would stop. It didn't so I kept walking.... believe it or not it stopped raining before I got to work. Crazy Croydon.

Here are the pics from Liz's Costume Party Enjoy!!

I woke up this morning to pouring rain, had to walk to work with an umbrella. I don't need gloves or a scarf yet though. I thought of taking a picture but I thought that would be cruel to those of you surrfering in the heat right now!!! Believe it or not I am ready for the rain! Bring on the cold!!!

I had a great weekend, all the elements of ensuring a good time were there. Went out to play pool on Friday night which you all know I LOVE!!! (i'm still terrible though) As a part of a team I even was a part of winning. Then before we left we played some sort of game where you take turns playing, you can go after any ball you want and you get 3 lives. This way many people can play, you just keep going until everyone dies off. Believe it or not I WON!!!!! WOW!!!! Quite shocking. Well that ended the pool part of the night. Sean, Ian and I were still wide awake (it was only 9:30) so we went to this place called the Reflex. Let me tell you, there is a reason you haven't heard me talk about this place. Up until Friday night I was successful in avoiding it in the 11 months I have been here. There have been some horror stories about this place!!!! #1 it is here in Croydon so how good can it be? #2 it is an 80's dance club. #3 It's in Croydon. #4 It's called the Relfex for goodness sakes. Well it was free before 10 so at least I didn't have to pay to get in. I sucked it up and danced a bit and actually had a good time!! It turns out all the horror stories come from people that go there late at night after lots of drinking and stay until all hours of the morning. I was home by 11 so no horror stories even had a chance to get a start!

I met up with Farrah, Anuja, Emeka, Roe and Greg. Roe was telling me about his virst sighting of Croydon vomit and a bonus... he, Greg and Farrah saw a mom letting her son pee on the road. Classic Croydon.

The party at Liz's was a blast. Every single person had a costume on. I was so amazed. People in LA are "too cool" for that which ends up being disappointing. This was fantastic in that everyone put a lot of effort into their costumes. Some were really beautiful like Anuja and Yoshi and some were very funny like Henry!! I hope to have pictures up tomorrow. I didn't take my camera but I am borrowing pics from other people. Here is one of a bunch of the girls that turned out pretty good.




Dawn, Farrah, Yoshi, Anuja, Liz, me, Caron and Myriam (can you guess who they are all dressed as?)

Everyone had a really great time. Around 11 or so we all left and went to a club near Liz's place. The club used to be an old theatre and Liz had reserved an opera box for us. My feet were killing me so I sat in the box and watched the dance floor. One of the best pictures was seeing Henry's purple head (He was dressed as Buzz Lightyear) bobbing around on the dance floor. Keep in mind it was a regular night at the club so only about 10 of us were dressed up. Ian got alot of attention dressed as Princess Leia complete with wig and buns (Someone stole the wig off his head though!!!!) Another honorable mention was Sean dressed as a gladiator complete with a skirt!!!

It really was a fun night, I sure will miss these people when I move back home. :(

Well it's Friday. I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep because I was so excited about it being Friday. Only 14 more Fridays to go....

Liz's party is tomorrow night, it is a "Movies" party and we are supposed to dress up as someone from the movies. hmmm.... I'll let you know how that goes.

HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY TO JIM AND MARIE KEENEY!!!

Mike, Reed and Suraj (and everyone else that worked here) you are missing an incredible week of weather!!! It has been beautiful blue skies the entire week and is to last until tomorrow. It can't be all perfect though, the Croydon wind is starting to pick up, but at least the sky is pretty!! The temperature is pretty nice too, in the low 70's. It's nice to walk along High Street and see the restaraunts and pubs have the outside tables set up. It's just all around nice, especially when I hear how hot LA is!!

We went and saw "The Village" last night. I know it has gotten so-so reviews so I went in with an open mind. I ended up enjoying immensly! I thought it was fantastic. A very good concept, story and well acted. I would not have changed a thing. So go out and see it!!

Good morning!! It was quite cool walking to work this morning, that it feels like it will be fall soon. I checked the weather online though and it says mid to high 70s all week. Maybe it is just a cool morning and by lunch it will be sunny. It will be nice to have a good weather weekend since I am going to be in town. Saturday night is a party at Liz's new flat. We are all to wear costumes as movie stars.... hmmmm.... this one is difficult. I don't want to pay to rent a costume and I don't want to spend money to buy something... got to figure something out from what I have here...

So here are my pics of Venice

Here are a few of my favorites... oh so many to choose from!!




Me at the top of Basilica San Marco.




A random canal shot.




Sunset over Venice.....

I am sitting at Marco Polo airport in the BA lounge drinking a glass of wine. I have had an amazing weekend and even enjoyed it by myself! There were so many times I wished or imagined Jamie with me though, especially watching the couples go down the canals in gondolas.... Oh well, it just means that I must go back!!! There was so much I didn't see that I could go back for a whole week and be happy.

I arrived Friday night at about 11pm. I got lost walking 5 minutes to the vaporetto stop. Don't ask me how.... the man said go out of the airport to the left and walk 5 minutes.... yeah so I got lost.. I eventually saw a mass of lights and headed that way and lo and behold!! A dock. Well the getting lost part made me miss a vaporetto by about 3 minutes so I had to wait 40 minutes for the next one. A group of us considered pooling together and taking a taxi (very expensive...) but the man had said 20 minutes.. when we asked him 10 minutes later he said 20 minutes again. There was a lot of people in front of us so we took the vaporetto instead. A vaporetto is like a miniature barge. It's basically a water bus. It took about an hour and I got off at San Marco (my hotel was within a 5 minute walk.) It was somewhere around midnight at this point and I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. This is when I remembered that I had forgot the directions to my hotel... Venice is not exactly know for it's logically laid out streets. I tried looking at the map for my hotel and gave up pretty quickly. Taking a lesson from the fantastic gay couple on Amazing Race a few series ago, I popped into the nearest luxury hotel and asked directions. The man at the desk was so friendly!! He gave me another more detailed map and circled my hotel and his hotel and showed me how to get there!! Thank you Amazing Race! (Can I sign up now?) I was so surprised when I got there, I had only reserved it on Wednesday evening and booked it because it was so cheap and near San Marco. But wow! It was such a nice little hotel. I recommend it to everyone. La Locandiera (http://www.lalocandiera-ve.com/) The man at the front desk was named Ivan and he was very nice and helpful. But I didn't meet him until the morning. When I got there the man at the desk only spoke spanish, I kind of felt at home... ahhh... I got to my room and was so pleased to see it was pretty and clean and oh the bathtowels!! When you travel and stay at cheap hotels as much as I do, you really appreciate nice towels!

I was so excited the next morning, I hurried up and showered and ran to Piazza San Marco. The book had said to get there early before all the tourists showed up. Well I wasn't early enough, there were other people there but a lot less than later in the day. I snapped a few of my first pictures and marvelled at where I was. So very amazing.... wow. I walked back to the hotel and had my breakfast and got ready for the day. About an hour later I was back at San Marco and it was packed!! Wow what a difference an hour makes. I lined up to go into the Basilica and it started to rain. Not too much, just a little but it was still warm out so it felt nice. Inside the Basilica was beautiful just as expected. A cool thing though that makes it stand out from the million other churches I have seen were the four horses at the top. You can go up into the church museum and go out on the terrace and see the horse replicas outside. It was agreat view though as I was able to see down into the square and out into the canal. I think I got some very good pictures. Inside the museum they have the original 4 horses that were looted from Constantinople back in 1200 something. They were beautiful, unfortunately I couldn't take a picture of them. I then went into the Palazzo Ducale, this is where the important people of Venice met and had political mumbo jumbo meetings. Very swell inside to see. It never ceases to amaze me how much money politicians spent on buildings and art and monuments to themselves.

A bit of a walk down the Calle Larga 22 Mazo, which is Venices Rodeo Drive and then for some lunch. Pizza fo course!! I sat right across from a group of men selling brand name purse knock offs. It was fascinating! Not as exciting as watching the women of Amsterdam do their business in the windows but interesting nonetheless. It makes you not even want to express any interest at all or they practically chase you down the street trying to make a deal!

Most of the rest of the day is a blur of churches, buildings, canals and bridges, and most of all... walking. By around 6pm I was half dead so I went back to my room and took a nap! Around 8:30 I managed to get myself up and out and I went to San Marco and had another pizza on one of the side streets. I then treated myself to a tea in the Piazza. I sat at a table outside at the Lavana restaraunt and listened to the band play. 3 of the restaraunts in the square have bands that play on these stands outside It was so nice. The weather was warm and I had a happy tummy full of pizza and I was just so content!!

Today I went down and talked to my new friend Ivan. He arranged for taxi to come pick me and another couple up and take us over to Murano to a glass factory. The taxi was so much fun! It is a speed boat that is specially fitted as a taxi. It picked us up in a canal and drove through them a bit until we got out of Venice then we were out in the sea. It is interesting. They have all these bouys set up to create roads and they drive the boats on the right. I absolutely loved it! And it was free!! It turns out it is paid for by the factory. We got dropped off at their door and they ushered us in and showed us how the glass makers work and then hustled me into the showroom. Right off the bat I made it clear to the guy that I wasn't interested... well after about the 3rd vase he showed me that was over €2000!! Jamie would be proud of me, I didn't buy anything. I left and had lunch and started to wander around. I did actually want to buy something but I knew €2000 was a bit out of my price range. I found that the further I walked from the maid area, the better the prices got. I saw the same things as the first place but at half and sometimes 1/3 the price!! I did finally find a couple of things and left the island as there wasn't much else to do there but spend money.

I took the vaporetto back to Venice and walked back to the hotel to drop off my purchases. Then the best part. I put away the map and the book and just started walking. I try to do this on every trip. See all the touristy stuff that I must see and then spend part of the second day just taking my time and walking around. This is when I get a feel for the city and really enjoy it. I was able to just wander into shops and sit and eat gelatti (mmm... mom!) It was a lovely end. And now here I am in the airport waiting to go back to London. Only 4 more trips left! Home in 4 weeks, then Budapest, Athens and Vienna. It's down to the countdown now! I'll work on getting the pics up sometime tomorrow. Hope you all have a great day off work tomorrow!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ISABELLA MARDAROSSIAN ON SUNDAY!!!!

Karen, Michael and I booked a trip to Athens in November. I think that is going to be the last trip I book. Wow, it really is getting to the end isn't it. This weekend I will have been here 11 months, only 3.5 to go. It iwll go so fast. I remember back when Mike Melville only had 3 months and I thought that it seemed so short and I would never get to that point.... well here I am and the past 11 months have been so short.

One of the biggest things I have noticed is my change on my perception of reality. Bear with me... this might sound really stupid. When I first got here, my reality was home in LA with Jamie and my family and my friends. I would think of home before I went to bed and throughout the day. Being here felt very temporary and like a strange sort of vacation. Not really real. Well in the past few months my reality has started to change. This is my reality here now and home seems far away and kind of dream like. When I went home in August it changed back really quickly and I didn't want to come back here to London because I liked keeping my reality in LA. Now that I am back here it only took about a week for home to seem kind of dreamlike. I don't know if it has to do with getting married and not knowing what that will be like so it's hard to imagine my future without it being kind of dreamy or if I have just been here long enough to get comfortable... Does this all make sense? Anyways, when people ask me if I am ready to go home, I say yes, not just because of the excitement of my future but to have a sense of normalcy again. All of this reality switching was not something I expected or realized would happen. It's a bit strange.

Michael sent me pictures that he took from our trip, some of them are different than mine so here they are Michael's Pics of Amalfi Coast. At the beginning are some pics from a dinner at Karen's and some office shots.

Here are a couple that I really like:












Anyways, I hope you all have a fantastic 3 day weekend!!! I am off to Venice!

Last night I had an amazing dinner at Yoshi's house. She invited Stephan and I over for a proper Japanes meal complete with a menu she emailed us beforehand!!
Here was our menu:

Starter - Shimeji Soba with radish / cucumber dip
Main - Chicken & Shiitake with black bean sauce
Soup - Miso Soup
Rice - Chirashi zushi (family type sushi)
Desert - ice cream with Figs
Drink - Tea / Still & Sparkling water

OH it was sooooo good!!!! I never knew I liked Shitake mushrooms! She is going to give me the recipes for the Miso Soup and the rice. I thought of Jamie and Gen the whole time and how much they would have loved it!

Regarding weather... we have crossed a bridge. I woke up cold in the middle of the night a couple nights ago and have put the tick comforter back on my bed. I have turned on the timers for the heaters and have started wearing a jacket to work.... when I get back from Venice this weekend I will pack up all my tanks and sandals and pull out all my turtle necks and sweaters!!!