Bonds Do London

I have a lot of backtracking to do! Daniel's parents, brother, and sister came to London on June 12...Can't believe it was over a month ago! We were SO excited for them to visit and I think we woke up around 6 am that morning and waited outside for their car to drop them off. It is a red eye flight to London from the Houston and it is nearly impossible to sleep on the plane, but surprisingly, they didn't seem too jetlagged! We hooked them up with some coffee and crumpets and we were off to explore! 

Side note- these pictures are a mix of my cell phone, Nanette's (Daniel's mom) camera, and David's (father in law) camera. David is a really great photographer, so it is probably obvious which ones are his and which are ours!

Us in front of our flat. David I think took this picture right when they arrived

They were only in London for a few days, but we did SO much. It all kind of runs together! The first day, we walked around Picadilly Circus, to Trafalgar square and St Paul's Cathedral. 

First Cider! Yay for an 18 year old drinking age! 

Bad choice to break in new shoes that day. 

I had to leave to go nanny, and I came home around 6ish to everyone passed out on the floor and couch. They were running on 36 hours of no sleep! I'm really surprised that they were able to last as long as they did. Everytime I come to London from Texas, I physically cannot function for at least a day. 

I cooked dinner that night since I knew everyone would be way too tired to go out

The next day, Daniel had to work so I was the main tour guide. I cannot believe how much we did! We went to Buckingham Palace, met Daniel at Borough Market, went to Greenwich, took the boat from Greenwich to Tower Hill, and then walked to Tayaabs to meet Daniel for dinner. I'm tired just thinking about it! 

I saw the changing of the guards for the first time! Not impressive, but it was a beautiful day and fun being with family!

We needed a jumping picture. Kristen gets bonus points because she was able to manage while eating ritz crackers. 

LOLOLOL My face looks like an evil scheming child's. This is in Greenwich, overlooking the naval college and Canary Wharf

Boat ride rocked! 

Everyone loved the Indian food! Tayaabs is the bomb.com

 The next day was our last day before Rome! We went with the family to Westminster Abbey and then to Tower of London. I had never been to the Tower before and I'm really glad we went! The building is 1000 years old and there we saw old dungeons, the crown jewels, and where traitors used to get beheaded!

Parliament before the Tower

Clearly the girl behind me didn't enjoy the Tower as much as I did! Oh and Mason is photobombing

If you go to the Tower of London, you absolutely HAVE to take one of the tours with the beefeaters. It is included with your entrance fee and I think they run every 30 minutes. We learned so much about the history of the building and the tour was the highlight of our time there. 

That's all for now! Next post will hopefully be about Rome! 

Lasts

My favorite mug that I drink my coffee out of every morning. 

The sun has been shining brightly for about 18 hours of the day. It sure is hard to leave London when the weather is this perfect and the city seems to be so infectiously alive. 

It's funny comparing this time last year to this time now. The year has flown by, and we are both so thankful we made the choice to move here, even if it did end up being only for a year. All of the sacrifices (moving is very stressful, not to mention I quit a job I loved and we had to be apart from family and friends) that we had to make to spend a year in London were definitely worth it, and the idea of us saying "no" when the question to move here first arose makes me sad to think about.

What keeps coming to my mind is how everything just seems to fall into place- there is no need to worry or bust your butt to force things to happen. Last year we were so stressed out about moving- would we find renters for our house? What would it be like losing my income? Will we hate London? I see how having those worries didn't help anything and made for some unneeded anxiety. Remembering this is keeping me sane while preparing to move back to Houston, knowing that what needs to get done will get done and everything will just work out. 

So, that's where my mind has been recently. Reminiscing on this past year and legitimately excited to find out what will happen in this next chapter of our life! Also, I don't tend to be a sentimental person, but I find myself lately being one of those people that starts every activity with "This is the last time I'll ____". 

This weekend was my last weekend to be alone with Daniel in London, as his family arrives tomorrow!!! And my brother comes in a couple of weeks!!!

We were blessed with sunny 80 degree days, so on Saturday we went up to Hampstead and enjoyed some beer gardens. 

Unfortunately I forgot how to smile, and look derpy in ever single picture. We also went to a new burger place that just opened and followed that with dessert from Louis, a Hungarian Confectionery. So good! 

On Sunday, Daniel went to see a movie with a friend while I did some chores around the flat. Then, we did one of my favorite things- walked along the canal to Regent's Park. The Queen's Rose garden in Regent's is blooming in full force and has been something I have been wanting to walk through for awhile. It is only blooming a few months out of the year, so I'm happy we got to walk through there one more time. 

   

Speaking of blooming flowers, the Hydrangeas in our front garden are beginning to bloom! So exciting to see that some beauty has come from the past 8 months of cold, dark and rainy days. The parks are so lusciously green and it's like the streets are lined with different flowers.

 This week has been my last week to nanny for my little loves, too. I am pretty sad about that one. I have bought them each their own stationary set, complete with gel pens in every color and stickers. I also went ahead and stamped/ addressed some envelopes to myself to ensure that they'll write me!

On a lighter night, I am also counting down the days until I can say "This is my LAST TIME to have to hand wash dishes!" Cannot wait to have a dishwasher again, along with my large kitchen and oven. Because my kitchen is an overwhelmingly disaster of grimy dishes every night that I cook.

Primark

If you go to London, you will undoubtedly walk by a huge building with bright blue lettering called Primark. You might be curious to check it out, but before you do, here is my experience with it. It ain't for everyone.

What is Primark? Imagine the dingiest Ross in Tijuana, and then combine that with Walmart the day after Thanksgiving, and add 3,000 foreigners all dragging rolly carts literally packed full with random things like 13 pairs of baby shoes, 4 sets of sheets, and enough underwear to keep a small country commando-free, and you have Primark. I hate myself and everyone in it when I go, but it is dirt cheap. Bra's for £4! Shoes for £6! Dresses for £10! The two big Primarks are along Oxford street and it's inexpensive goods might be a welcomed surprise after walking through Selfridge's and Liberty.You just have to handle staying in line for 40 minutes and dodging obstacles, like women trying on clothes in the middle of the aisles or screaming children running through clothes racks.

I've successfully been twice. The first time, I bought a bra, hangers, coco butter, gummy bears, and a £24 puffer jacket. Last week, I bought another bra, towels, and pink wedge sandals that I at first thought were cute, but then later on realized they screamed "Made in a sweat shop by a 4 year old in China", so I took them back. When I took them back, I attempted to try on clothes for the first time. HA, that was fun! I nearly ripped the paper thin fabric of the first dress I tried on, and I kind of felt like I was getting closer to catching a rare but serious disease with every new garment I tried on. I nearly bought this as a joke, but then came to the realization that no amount of bleach could kill the bacteria living in it, so I passed it up.

I say, if you're curious, poke your head in, but don't waste more than 30 minutes there (which you will if you plan on buying anything. I swear I've waited longer in line at Primark than at Disney World). Going to Primark twice this past week has given me a new profound appreciation for Target. 

Lately...

Happy Summer to most of my teacher friends! Here, there are a lot of breaks during the school year, so summer is only from July 18- Sept 1 for kids. I think I prefer the longer summer and less breaks. There is something so nice about knowing you have a solid 2.5 months of watching Live with Kelly, drinking margaritas at 4 pm, and reading the day away.

I have been keeping myself very busy, and I've been bad at documenting everything with photos. These past several days, I...

--Saw 1984. I loved it. My pal Erica slept through all of it. Literally, all of it.

-Ate delicious tapas with the other Xtina and complained about terrible landlords in London.

-Ironically enough, the next day, I had a call from the realtor showing our flat. Side note, it sucks living in a rental property and having to leave for the flat to be shown to other potential renters. Daniel likes scattering ear plus around the flat in an attempt to warn them all, but I want everything to look perfect so that new tenants can be quickly found and I can stop worrying about leaving the flat at random hours for it to be shown. So, anyway, realtor calls and says, "We have found someone who is interested in moving in! I just want to make sure that you are moving out June 21st. That is what the owners listed as your moving date."

I could feel my blood boiling at this point. We have our flat until July 21, not June, although I move out a few days before then. NOT ONLY is this in our written contract, but I verbally told our landlords AND our relocation agent sent them an email reminding them of this a few weeks ago. Especially because we have a rental property, I just cannot believe their stupidity in making a pretty big mistake. So, these past couple of weeks, I have been leaving the flat for absolutely no reason, since the people seeing the flat wanted a June move in date. And if the realtor wouldn't have double checked with us, there would have been new renters trying to move in while we were out of town with Daniel's family.

We have had so many issues with our landlords this past year, and I cannot wait to be in my house again. Did I tell y'all about the time, after 4 crazy days in Madrid, we came home so excited to sleep...we walked in to our flat, and ALL of our stuff was out of our laundry room, scattered through out the flat (including my lacy underwear!) and there was a strange man painting the inside of the laundry room (because of all of the repairs that need to be done, I suppose they thought the color of a closet was the most important thing)?!? When I called the landlords, they apologized, saying that they figured we'd be gone longer, totally missing the point that it is the coming-in-to-our-flat-while-we-aren't-home-without-telling-us-and-then-moving-all-of-our-crapthat was not okay! Ok, moving on!

-Saw Fatal Attraction with Sadia. Fun sitting up close and seeing Charlotte from SATC and Karen from Californication!

I'm going to miss pubs

- Met Daniel at a pub. Also ate dim sum at Yauatcha until we felt sick.

-Went on lots of runs to calm my moving anxiety and renter rage. Plus, it has been sunny and 70 degrees. Love it!

Ok, I think that covers all of what's been going in. Have a great week, everyone!

36 Days

Hi! So, I guess it's time to announce on here that in 36 days, Daniel is moving back to Texas, and I am to follow him 10 days afterwards. It's bittersweet- I don't feel "done" with this London chapter yet. But, I am thankful to have had this time here and maybe one day we will get to have an experience like this again. And if not, well, I really don't think Houston is that bad anyway. I am excited to eat Tex Mex, be around family, and live in my old house again.

Plus, I am excited to not have 24/7 rain any more. Daniel and I had a picnic planned for yesterday, but had to cancel it due to rain. It just isn't the same having a picnic inside. 

Plus, it's hard to feel sad when we have SO much going on these next 36 days. Here's a countdown...


16 Days: Daniel's family comes to visit and we will have 6 people in our tiny one bedroom/ bathroom flat (which is hilarious, because our flat is also being shown right now...people are going to think we run a brothel with the amount of air mattresses we will have scattered around our flat).

19 Days: Back to Rome, this time with Daniel's family. And all Daniel and I are planning on doing it eating gelato and pasta.

23 Days: Athens with the family.

26 Days: Daniel's back in London, I go to Santorini with The Bond's. We are in walking distance of several wineries, so I am pretty excited for that.

27 Days: My brother comes to London from Paris. Daniel will pick him up from the train station.

29 Days: Back in London for a hot minute before...

30 Days: Prague with Gregory! It'll just be the two of us

31 Days: The Bond's return to Texas

36 Days: Daniel goes home...

40 Days: Gregory goes home...

46 Days: I go home!

And in that time, we need to pack, sell/ get rid of a bunch of random things we have bought in London but don't need back home, cancel utilities here, start utilities in Texas, etc etc. I'm not that stressed about it because I know leaving London will be much easier than leaving Texas was last year. It'll all get done!

Sick Girl

Hello all,

I had plans for a nice long post about our trip to the Cotswolds over the weekend, but I have come down with an evil flu that incorporates a nasty stomach bug with extreme lethargy and headaches. Fun! And I just don't have the energy today to do much more than drink chicken broth and lay in bed without falling asleep every 10 minutes. So, here's some random pictures and I promise I'll write a longer post once I feel better.

Last week I took the kids to Cafe Rouge (a french chain here in the UK) for dinner and we got to sit outside and enjoy the gorgeous sunny weather. They always want me to take pictures to put on my blog :-D

 Miranda wanted you readers to know that she recommends this book, called Wonder. It about a boy who has some physical deformity, but the reader never really learns what it is. Each chapter is a different character's perspective. Sounds pretty good!

 My family friends Carol and Jim came to London, along with their friends Teresa and Pat. We went to have some ciders at a cute pub by where their hotel was, and then had some delicious tapas. A great lunch!

On the way home from dining with them, I rode by Kensington Palace. Had to stop and take a picture!

Ok, sorry for the random post. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better!

Sunburnt in London

When Daniel and I moved her in July, it seemed like the sun had absolutely no effect on our skin here. The weeks leading up to the move, we were at the pool, beach, or river and our skin had a healthy amount of color. In London, we could be outside all day long in the sun and our skin color wouldn't even get a shade darker (or redder). 

Well, fast forward through months of virtually no sun to about 4 hours of sunshine, and you get this:

Sighhhhhhhh. It was 55 degrees. I had to wear a sweater, for God's sake. We were outside for probably 4 hours. And now my neck and face are redder than a lobster.

Ironically, we had been making fun of all of the beet-faced English people outside getting burnt so easily. And little did we know, our skin was just as burnt as theirs.

I almost wish my arms and chest got burnt, too, just to even the color out a bit. I currently look ridiculous in anything other than a turtleneck.

The best part is, I wasn't wearing any make-up other than a dab of concealer on a pimple I was trying to hide. No hiding it any more- there is a pale ring proudly highlighting my lovely zit now!

And now I am terrified at the prospect of what will happen to my skin once we move back to Texas. EEK!

Pissed as a Pirate

I'm writing to you with my tail between my legs and sad, sad puppy dog eyes. I'm sorry I've been such a bad blogger. I really don't have any excuses other than I just haven't felt like writing. I hope this post will make up for it!

Since I don't really have any pictures to go along with the story I'm about to share, I hope these random pics of my stroll in Golders Green Park will do. Imagine me basking in the sunshine, slurping down a cone full of dark and mint chocolate gelato (as opposed to going for the run I was prepared to do) all whilst telling myself that I'll be a healthier person after _______ (it keeps changing. I think I'll just settle on being a healthier person once we move back).

OK, on to my story that has nothing to do with the previously shown pictures.

On Tuesdays, I take Michael to Tae Kwon Doh and have an hour to kill while he's kicking, punching, and hiy-ahing. There's a cute, trendy little boutique nearby called One Seven One. Picture old wood floors, exquisite Parisian silk tops, and snooty, skinny sales ladies.

Despite fearing a Pretty Woman type moment happening to me at the shop (I'm a hot, just-biked-up-hill-and-no-my-hair-is-wet-with-sweat-not-rain mess), I go in and try on some overpriced, flowy tops and try not to do the pound to dollar conversion in my head.

These sale girls put a whole new meaning to the word snooty. Dressed in head-to-toe black, hair perfectly straightened and in place, wearing 4 inch heals. They don't even bother to look up from their cell phones when I walk in (I am now thinking that they probably thought I was homeless or something). When I do ask for help, they look up from their phone and in a barely audible, upper class London accent, give me a one worded answer.

Here's the thing about the English. Despite being sometimes snooty, they are always quietly polite. They simply ignore weird behavior. It's an unspoken rule. You don't make conversation with strangers. Someone could be threatening to kill everyone on the tube, and still a British person will quietly mind their own business and pretend like they hear nothing.

SO, my arms are full of impulse buys that I'll regret the next day when this bear of a woman come stumbling into the shop.

She's wearing oversized, highwater green pants with a too tight shirt that is also green, but not the same shade as the pants, but also not enough of a contrast to really go together. Her hair is all over the place and smells to high heaven. She makes me look like I could own this hoity toity shop. And actually confuses me with sales girl.

"Ex...ex....exchuse me, Ay need...ay need...some shoes," the lady slurs to me, leaning her sweaty body on a rack full of $100 tops.

I just stare at her. The sales lady just stares at her. Finally, because it is simply against their DNA to be outright rude, the sales lady walks up to her and asks, "What kind of shoes?"

"Nah, nah, not shoes. AY need...ay need....(she looks around store and spots the jewelery case) some jewels!"

So the sales lady walks her to the jewelry case. And this is the conversation that continues, as the drunk tries on random baubles.

"But...but....ish it shtretchy?"

"Yes, it stretches to fit your wrist."

"But....can I shhhhh stretch is?"

"Yes"

"But...but...how...how ishhhh it shhtretchy?"

"The material."

"Oh. Will....wiillll....will I be...alllllergic to the shttretchy?"

"I'm not sure. Other people react to jewelry in different ways. Are you sensitive to different metals?"

"Yeshhhhh! Yesh I'm sensitive! I'm very sensitive!"

"To  certain metals?"

"Ohhh....(falls over jewelry case). That one. I like that one. Give me that one."

The high class sales lady pulls out this ugly, fake gold ring displaying a massive, knuckle covering green crystal. And she actually proceeds to let this crazy lady try it on.

At this point, I'm just sitting on a chair, watching the show, holding my purse close to my side. I think the lady is going to drunkenly run out with the ring on her finger, but no, she stumbles to a mirror and admires her newly adorned finger.

"I like thishhh ring. I'm buying thishhh ring."

Then, her eyes fall on me, and to the other staring sales ladies, and she says, "I'm so sorry, girls. I'm simply pissed as a pirate right now", starts to gag, recovers without puking all over the store, buys the ring, and stumbles out to the next high end boutique.

I look at the sales ladies with huge eyes, just waiting for something to be said. But nope, they act like nothing out of the ordinary has just happened, just ask me if that'll be all, and ring up my blouse. Because the English can never be anything other than polite.

I laugh thinking about the pissed as a pirate woman waking up the next day to an itchy finger, confusedly staring at the green rock weighing her hand down, wondering if it is simply a figment of her alcohol-induced imagination, and then going back to bed, all while wondering where in the hell did she find this bauble at?

The people of London will never stop being entertaining.

Ramblings

1. Happy almost Easter! In the UK, we get both Good Friday AND Easter Monday off. Score!

2. Going to Amsterdam tomorrow....pretty excited. Daniel has been before and is really looking forward to being my tour guide. I have my heart set on seeing the tulip gardens, but they are going to be crazy crowded and a pain to get to, so we'll see!

3. So I had this whole long story written on here about the yelp elite event I was invited to and blogger made it funky. Just know copious amounts of cava were involved and we had a fun night!


4. It has been gorgeous out, and I have gotten more and more confident with riding my bike further outside of my little 3 mile zone. It's just difficult because it's a bit hard to find your way in London (with there being no grid pattern for streets and what not), so I've been looking on a map first before making my journeys. Fun stuff and a great way to explore the city!

Okay, so not a picture I took while cycling. But, yay London!!!

Sunny Skies and Full Bellies

Hi! I know I'm a day late....I babysat all day yesterday and was too tired to blog once I finished. 

This weekend was great. I feel like we were all over London. Side note: I've been playing around with Retro Camera on my phone. It makes some of the photos cool, others lame. Sorry!

On Friday, I met my pal ToniAnne on the South Bank for some celebratory prosecco to start off our weekend. It was a gorgeous day with perfect weather, but we couldn't hang out for too long, since we both had plans with our husbands for later.

Daniel and I had a date night to eat loads of pizza at our favorite neighborhood joint, and then go for a couple of beers at our pub. Nothing too exciting!

Lame. Hate the frame around this picture. 

Saturday was our day of nothingness. The highlight of it was homemade enchiladas! My friend Erica gave me a can of verde enchilada sauce (that stuff is a rare commodity here). I paired that with some hard-to-find corn tortillas (no, really. tortillas aren't sold here like they are in America. I had to go to a speciality store) and presto, pure greatness. We ended up with the most delicious enchiladas ever, and ate 'em all up in one sitting. Oops!


Sorry for the hipster frame. Ugh. But I still want to share these pictures. On Sunday, we went to Shoreditch, a neighborhood in east London. I'd been wanting to explore the area for some time now, and I really enjoyed it! It is the cool place to be for the young, urban crowd.

 A little grittier than our 'hood, but that just made it more exciting. It was a great place to people watch- an ecclectic assortment of folks roam around Shoreditch. We went to the Columbia flower market (fail- way too crowded) and then explored the Spitafields market and Brick Lane market (both wins, but I wish I brought more cash).

We went back to our neck of the woods to enjoy the rest of our beautiful Sunday. We explored the nursery in Little Venice- much less crowded than the Columbia Flower Market! And I could relax on this cool TeePee swing. 

Lastly, we went to one of the surprisingly few restaurants on the canal to enjoy a couple of drinks, along with the rest of Northwest London. We wanted to eat there, too, but after waiting nearly 2 hours, we gave up...bought a baguette and some stinky cheese from our local delicatessen shop, and called it an early night!

This is a short week, but I hope to write another post before we go to Amsterdam for Easter!