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!!!!

Fantastic weekend yet again. I spent the day on Saturday with Karen and we went to Portabello Market (it is in Notting Hill.. the real one and the movie) and then we went back to her house to start cooking for everyone. I guess you aren't really supposed to talk about a hen night but nothing really awful happened (thank goodness) There were a couple of highlights though.

1. The outfits:






In the last pic the girls don't have all their accesories on but you get the idea. To get some more see: Hen Night

2. We arrived at the bar and the bouncer wouldn't let us in. He said they didn't do hen nights (2 angels and 11 devils? What tipped him off?) So Liz, who organized the whole thing and had called ahead) asked for the manager. He came down and her argument to let them in was "We are no more debauched because we have horns on our heads. We are always roudy and tonight is no exception so there is no difference in tonight being a hen night." I don't know how that worked but it did and we got in.

3. Anuja and I had to remain handcuffed to someone, anyone the entire night. We were allowed to change around though. At one point someone asked Karen why there were guys with us and were they marrying us (I was handcuffed to Michael and Anuja was handcuffed to Sean at the time) Karen said no, that both our fiance's were in another country. The person got confused and asked why there were guys on the hen night as that is pretty much unheard of. Karen's reply was "It's ok, we're all work colleagues!"

4. Sean, Anuja, and Asha fell down some stairs... hee hee

5. Anuja and I were given wands to tap people on the head with. When they were tapped they were supposed to drink. Well for those of you that know me this was just a disaster waiting to happen. I pretty much spent the entire night whacking people (strangers and friends alike) and going Ding, Ding!!! Liz decided pretty quickly that she had created a monster.

6. The best ending to the evening was that I got thrown out of the bar!!! I hold the honor all to myself and that kind of sums up the devilish festivites. I guess I was a bit wobbly and I fell into a fence around the DJ booth and the bouncers already didn't like our group so out we went! Luckily the club closed at 1 and it was only about 12:45 so everyone came out quickly thereafter.

It was a great night but I sure am glad I'll only do it once!

HAPPY BIGGEST SHOPPING DAY OF THE YEAR!!!!

I hope you all spend a little extra money for me! I wish I could be there to shop with you!!!

Have a great weekend, I am off to my Hen night tomorrow!! The boys got some sympathy and don't have to wear dresses anymore. They are wearing matching red shirts. All the girls are wearing head to toe red and Anuja and I are wearing all white... hmmm... we'll see what this turns out like!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU!!!!!

Hope you all enjoy your turkey and families and give thanks for the many blessings in your life!

Love you and miss you all!
D~

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GEN GUESE!!!!!!!!!!

ALSO, HAPPY LAST DAY OF WORK TO MY WONDERFUL FIANCE' JAMIE!!!!!!

May I also wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! I know most of you either have today off work or are at least only working half day. Just think of me for a moment here at work... without any turkey... tomorrow....:( Excuse me while I go shed a tear....

So I have seen some pretty strange things in the subway that I walk under to get to work. A lot of vomit, chicken bones, etc. But today was something new. A mattress... hmmm... don't want to know more about that but strangely curious. I've seen them on the side of highways before, maybe having fallen off a truck or something but in an underground tunnel? How did a truck get down there?

A great weekend! Anuja invited us over to her place for a Bollywood night! She dressed us up in Saris and fed us Indian food.



The best part was that the guys were real sports about it and dressed up too even with make up!!!



Anuja's Bollywood Night

On Saturday, Liz, Michael and I all went to Karen's and she made us a fantastic Greek meal to reminisce about last week in Athens. We then went out and saw Hamlet with the Royal Shakesphere Company. A very English show to see for the end of my time here! We then went back to Karens since we had had to hurry dinner and weren't able to have dessert. We ended up staying up til 5:30 am talking. I can't remember the last time I did that. Part of it was Karen and I talking about how strange and surreal it is here. She compared it to living through the looking glass or even in another dimension! It was nice to know I'm not the only one. Liz left early (about 11:30!!!!) and then Karen and I went for lunch. That was about all I could handle as I was so tired. I made it back to Croydon and struggled to stay awake. I made it to about 8pm and then had to go to bed. I am definitely not in my young days where I could be out all night and work the next day!!!! What is this getting old stuff all about? Crazy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KAYAN TANG!!!!!

She's probably freezing her butt off in Chicago right now. One of the few people I know that actually might be colder than me!

Well 4 more weeks. For those of you getting sick of the countdown, well too bad. I'd like to see you live in another country for 13 months, 2 weeks and 1 day and miss your home, fiance, family and friends and not countdown the last 4 weeks!! Thank goodness there is so much to do! Anuja is having a Bollywood night tonight at her flat. We all get to go over and she is dressing us up Bollywood style (very glam Indian) and she is feeding us. It should all be good. Tomorrow a few of us are going to Hamlet. Probably the last show I will see so it works to be Shakesphere.

Well have a great weekend!!

We went to see Bridget Jones Diary last night and aimed for the 7pm show. We were eating very quickly at Nando's and were intending to walk next door to the theatre at about 7:10 since we knew there would be a ton of commercials. 7 of us went up and 3 of the group bought their tickets at the automated thingymajig and the other 4 of us waited in line so we could use the buy one get one free thing from the gym. Anyways..... the line was taking forever so Yoshi, Farrah and Karrina went up to save seats. We finally get to the window at about 7:30 and the guy tells us...sold out. For those of you that have lived here, you know that is something you are never supposed to hear at a theatre in Croydon. Imagine my shock.... so I say "Well that's not possible, our friends went up to save us seats" The guy pointed out that it was possible and perhaps our friends didn't find seats for us so we go ahead and buy for the 8:40 show and Karen calls Karrina. Turns out they didn't have seats for us. :( Anuja, Karen, Asha and I went down to the bar and had some tea and coffee and talked for an hour. We decided to go in early and got into the theatre at 8:30 and had good seats. I went ahead and timed the commercials (23 minutes) and previews (10 minutes) to prove to myself that arriving 15 minutes after the starting time should be ok... and well it was. A total of 33 minutes of STUFF before the actual movie started. That is worse than home!! The only good thing was that I got to see the Star Wars preview on the big screen.... ahhh... very cool. We also enjoyed the movie but that is second to the Star Wars preview right?

ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!! ONE MORE MONTH!!!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, beautiful day in the neighborhood, oh won't you be mine? hee hee hee :) Have a great day!

What a fantastic weekend!!! It started on Thursday night. David Woo and his friend Kevin arrived in town



and we (Greg and Roe too) went out to dinner and then back to my placee to play some Phase 10. David kicked our butts and won but it was a great evening. The next morning Tom and Debbie flew back home and I made my way out to Luton airport (NEVER AGAIN!!!!) I left my flat aroun 10:45 and took the train to King's Cross, I then had to walk about 15 minutes to St. Pancras where I met up with Karen, Michael and Liz. We then rode out to Luton where we got on a shuttle bus out to the airport. The whole thing took about 2 hours. Absolutely ridiculous! I LOVE Gatwick!!!!! The flight itself was just under 4 hours. That is the longest coach flight I have been on in a long time!!! How will I ever go back to coach again?????

We arrived at the airport and were all excited to get to town and lucked out with an Indie race car driver for our taxi. Michael was in the front talking to the guy and us girls were in the back. I got lucky and sat in the middle so I had a perfect view of the road and his speed dial. Thank goodness I can't convert the thing to miles.... I would guess he did around 100 all the way there and it was a good 30 minute ride... and I mean ride.... Not only was he seeding but he kept straddling the lanes (I have noticed that lanes don't mean the same in Eurpoean countries as they do in the states. We tend to use them as something we should stay in between. They use them as a guiding line to drive on. This guy basically kept the line directly beneath the car. As cars in front of us saw us coming the moved over and straddled other lines.... what a mess. I truly was just waiting to die. Meanwhile, Michael kept talking to the drive, who kept talking back by completely turning his head and looking at Michael. I don't know if he was trying to not be rude or just didn't care about knowing where he was driving. Well you can figure out the outcome, it would be hard to be writing this from a hospital bed in Athens so obviously we came out ok. Thank goodness!

We checked into our very "Posh" hotel in the center of Athens. Very swank, it reminded me of the "W" hotels back home, all modern and trendy looking. Our rooms were on the top floor and had a view of the Parthenon. Pretty good eh? I do have to give all the credit to Liz and Karen as they found the hotel. I am sure it helped that it was off season so that we could actually afford a place like this!

We were all starving (we are from London you know... we could have come from a 5-course meal in London and would still be starving at the thought of new food that might actually taste good!!!!) The hotel recommended a place that was authentic and not geared towards tourists. It was only a 5 minute walk so we set out. We were told to go straight up and then turn right... how hard could that be? Well pretty hard. The joke goes.. how many Americans, Canadians and English does it take to find a restaraunt 3 blocks away? Well certainly not these Americans, Canadians and English! We got lost of course as we turned right on the wrong street. Michael tried out his Greek on someone on the street who didn't understand a word he was saying but he finally got across that we were going the wrong way... we turned around and well long story short got to the restaraunt that was 5 minutes away in about 20. But wow was it worth it!!! We got to sit outside (OUTSIDE!!! In November!!! At 10 at night!!!!) Liz, Karen and Michael were very amazed at this, I said it felt like home :) The food was so good, Taziki, (oh goodness, already messing up the spelling) Hummus, Lamb Gyros, Greek salad, Stuffed Vine Leaves, Broiled Peppers stuffed with Feta... it just goes on. We were stuffed after that and 3 bottles of wine! Sossi I thought of you!!! It was all so good it tasted like you make it!!!

We went back to the hotel bar and were up until about 2 am (only 12 London time!) What a great first night. Only problem was that none of us wanted to get up in the morning. We finally rolled out of the hotel around 11ish and found a cafe. We sat around and ate some more until about 1:30. Realizing the day was passing us by and all we had done so far was eat and drink, we made our way through the back streets to the Acropolis. It was all so beautiful , the walkways were lined with trees and it was like walking through a big park. We hired our own personal tour guide and did the tourist thing. Here are the pictures: Athens




We were making our way back to the hotel as we all agreed a nap was in order and did a little shopping on the way (what is a trip without shopping?) I even was able to pick up 2 Christmas presents! We stopped off for a little snack and then ended with our naps.

Liz had pre-arranged reservations at a very nice restaraunt so we dressed up a bit and headed over. It was in a really nice area with people everywhere. The restaraunt itself was in a beautiful tunr of the century mansion. It was all about service and class, definately a treat for us! We were there for about 4 hours and at the end we were able to get a few shots of the Acroplis all lit up from the rooftop terrace. Back to the hotel and in bed by 2am again.

Sunday was overcast and windy but still not cold. We did some more sightseeing and then hid out under a cafe canopy for about 2 hours waiting out a rainstorm (of course more eating!) We then wandered the flea market and went to a wine bar for some cheesecake and ambiance. What a lovely ending!

I very much enjoyed Athens but wish I had had a week at least. There was so much more to see and so much more food to eat!

David Woo comes in today! We are set to have dinner tonight, I am looking forward to that!

We leave for Athens tomorrow so no blog. Will have pics and all on Monday, so have a good weekend!

....and hello Canada! Ken Wong and friends...

So Tom and Debbie saw snow yesterday when they were at the Prague airport waiting to leave. They said it was very cold and they got very wet!

It's already starting to get really quiet here. People that are part of the layoff and people that are going to Vevey are taking SAP classes adn stuff like that so it is really quiet here. I guess this is how it will be until the end. I am starting to really think about the end, not just in the way of excitement that I have been thinking about it the past few months but the reality of the few things I will miss. I will really miss pool and Guinness at lunchtime. That's what I was thinking about at lunch today.. oh and Doughmasters. I know I will miss that because Mike and Reed email me all the time about it.... Sean and I tried a new Doughmasters item, it was the brad with banana, sugar and cinnamon in it. Not very good... need ot stick to the standard Mexican Chicken. Like I always say, Why try something new when there is something you already know you like?

In case you haven't seen it yet, here is the new Star Wars preview:
Star Wars III

It looks pretty amazing (if you get past about 2/3 of the preview is scenes from Episode IV) It reminds me of the movie treatment I read when I was about 10 years old. I had gotten it at a Science Fiction convention (yes I was a bit of a sci-fi nerd... but that doesn't really surprise you now does it?) I remember the treatment clearly because I thought the idea of an Episode III was so amazing. In it Anakin ended up in a volcanoe and was rescued by the Emperor (and his minions of course) Well the preview looks like it might reflect that bit of storyline.... hmmmm... I just cannot wait.

We had a great time at Liz and Diana's Birthday Night First we met at Michael's where he and Ian performed a song that they wrote for Liz and me. We had dinner at the Riviera on the Thames. It was really nice and we had a lovely view of the river and St. Paul's. Out for some dancing and home in bed by 4am. I was pretty much ready for sleep by atbout 1am though. I am definately getting too old to be out til 4am!!!

Tom and Debbie are in Prague now and will be back tomorrow night. They went to Bath on Saturday so I haven't seen them since Friday night. That was a really good night too! I met them in London and we went to dinner at Waxy's (the bar with the tree in it) and then went and saw the Mousetrap. It's an Agatha Christie play that has been running here for 52 years. It was really good although the seats in the theatre felt about 200 years old.

So all in all I had a really good birthday weekend! But I have a little feeling next year will be even better!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO VIVIAN WONG!!!

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!



I have received several cards but that has to be one of the cutest! I look forward to being home for my birthday next year. I do have a good weekend planned though. Tom and Debbie are taking me to a show in London tonight, not 100% sure which one yet. Tomorrow night a group of us are having dinner at a restaraunt on the Thames and then going out dancing.

WOW, I will be home in 6 weeks!! It just keeps going faster and faster!

Well have a wonderful weekend!

When I got home last night Tom was feeling much better. We went out to Nando's for dinner (stopped by Il Ponte but we didn't really feel like it) Nando's is the chicken place that is a bit spicy! :) We then did our standard walk around Croydon and went back home. I got to watch them fighting back the sleep. They said they had a wild ride in the taxi on the way here. It's fun to hear people talk about their first time on a different side of the road. I said if they want a real adventure they should drive with me this weekend! Derrick seemed to enjoy it last week after he got the hang of it.



You may have noticed the change in the blog appearance. I hope everyone can read it all right. Please let me know if you have any difficulties. The old one blew up and stopped working the other day so I had to redo it. I decided to go ahead and change the whole thing. I hope it's ok.

I just got a call from Debbie, she and Tom have arrived at my flat! YAY! She said that Tom wasn't feeling 100% so he is laying down. I'll try to leave here about 5:30 so we can go out to dinner, hopefully Tom will feel better by then.

They have also lucked out on the weather. It is beautiful!!! I need to have visitors more often as they bring the weather with them.

Look at the pretty flowers I got today!!!



They came in this big huge box...



They sure send flowers differently over here! Jamie's parents sent them to me for my birthday and had a heck of a time doing it! Let's just say they experienced true English customer service!

So I promised to write about the weekend, well it started off pretty good.. We left on Saturday morning and all was well. We got about 5 minutes away from Salisbury and could see the steeple in the distance. I had paused at a roundabout and then started to accelerate but... didn't... Luckily I was in the left hand lane and was able to pull over really quick (really lucky! Any of you that have driven over here know that there is not an abundance of emergency lanes!) We tried starting the car and it was just dead. Derrick popped the hood and did a bit of checking and saw nothing obvious. Again luckily, I had my cell phone. We called the 800 number and they said they would send someone right away. An hour later the tow guy called and said it would be another hour. I told him we were sick of sitting in the car and could see the steeple so we asked if we should walk into town. He said it was only about 10 minutes away and that was fine. He told me to leave the keys on the front tire, embarrassing but my response was "What if someone finds them?" He and Derrick laughed at the same time and said well "More power to them if they can get the car started!!!"

So we emptied our stuff out of the car and started to walk. It actually only took us about 10-15 minutes and was a quite nice walk. We just headed for the steeple. They day was lovely too, the best weather I have seen since June or so. I actually took off my jacket and was walking in short sleeves!!! WOW!!! We dropped our stuff at the hotel (Here are Derrick and I in the courtyard)



and then went to a tea roon and Alisha and I had a proper Cream Tea. Here are Derrick and Alisha in the back garden at the house we went to (Some scenes in Sense and Sensibility were filmed there!)



We did the touristy stuff, and even sat in on a EvenSong at the Cathedral. Interestingly, the pastor prayed for the elections and all world leaders. Derrick was very impressed by that! We then had dinner in a pub (Beef and Guiness pie no less!) and then went back to the hotel and played some cards in the lobby by the fire. In the meantime we had a few back and forth calls about the car. It seems the car rental place was upset that we had left the car... blah blah blah... long story that no one wants to hear.

In the morning we had a proper English breakfast, I am sure my last one as I will not have a chance to travel around England again.. and then we did more touristy stuff. At the last hour they came through with a car and delivered it in time to the hotel so that we could drive to Stonehenge and then go home! It all worked out with the car as we even saved on having to pay for parking over the weekend!!! Silver lining to everything!

Here are the pictures from the weekend:
Salisbury, England

I know the blog site is a bit screwy, I am working on getting it fixed....

YAY! November! I have some wonderful memories coming up this month! Derrick and Alisha are here til tomorrow and then Tom and Debbie come in on Wednesday. THis Saturday night a big group of us is going out to celebrate my birthday and Liz's (hers is on Sunday) Next weekend is Athen, the weekend after is a karaoke party at Seans (I made him promise me that I wouldn't have to sing!) Then the next weekend (Thanksgiving weekend) is my Hen Party. Here is the invite that Liz sent out:

Girls - the night you have all been waiting for. As Diana is tying the knot next year, we need to send her from singledom into wedded bliss in style! There will be games, drinking, dancing, fancy dress and much more... so it is a night not to miss!

Guys - as you know, it is not traditional to invite men to a hen party, but we don't want you to miss out on all the fun, so here is your invitation. "Is there a catch?" I hear you ask - well, to attend a hen night you have to wear women's clothes, so dust off your best frocks and we'll get this party started!

It should be a lot of fun!!!! What a great month this will be with so much to look forward to!

We had a good weekend too, this was my last driving, overnight trip in England. We went to Salisbury as it is somewhere I haven't been and it is near Stonehenge which Derrick and Alisha very much wanted to see. Salisbury is know for it's Cathedral which has the highest steeple in England. It also has one of the 4 reamaining Magna Carta's (that was very cool to see, especially knowing it is about 800 years old and is a piece of vellum that is still in one piece. Fascinating!)

I will write all about it tomorrow and get the pictures posted too.