Thames Festival

Guy on stilts.

On the way home.

The parade.

In the field before lunch.

At the parade.

View of London from Waterloo Bridge on the way home.

Today we went to the Thames Festival. This is an end of summer festival put on by the mayor of London Mr. Boris Johnson. It was a lot of fun, full of food booths and cultural exhibits. Tonight there was a finale with a Carnival style parade. Here are some pics of what it was like.

Other Pics From Our Walk

Entry to our flat

A Bridge

Dali exhibit in London

Everyone else was doing this picture so we thought it was necessary

mmm...no comment

Big Green Couch

So we went for a walk the other day and encountered a very big green couch. I was telling Kristin that surely there is some way we could fit it into out flat. I have not been able to stop thinking about this couch...so big....so green. 

The couch that we have in our flat is something akin to the seating arrangements at the child social services office in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico (Just trust me, I've been there and it isn't even as nice as it sounds). So as we go through our day touring the city, trying to get acquainted with our new home, the only thing I can think of is the lack of lumbar support that little pink "couch" of ours has. I mean really, at what point in the design and furnishing of this building did the University of London decide that there were going to be an inordinate amount of pygmies attending postgraduate programs? You know how you feel after a long day on your feet? As you're finally on your way home all you can think about is turning on that episode of Desperate Housewives you tivo'd last week, and then, falling effortlessly onto that big (possibly even green) soft couch with soft cushions and endless amounts of lumbar support. When I head home all I can think about is the number of surgeries it will take to correct the damage done after a year of sitting on this couch. I think about sitting on this ridiculous piece of furniture, watching a four year old episode of  East Enders (a poor quality mix between Days of our Lives & Melrose Place). 

There are a lot of pubs in England, and now I know why. If this is any gauge of what the British call a couch then it is no wonder everyone gets fall-over drunk before returning home from work. It's the only way to be even somewhat comfortable while sitting through an episode of bad English tv. Come to think of it, maybe that's why the tv is so bad over here, when you're really drunk you'll watch anything. Last night alone I needed five pints of good British ale to coax me into going home to face my small pink nemesis. When I got here I turned on an episode of East Enders and fell comfortably asleep...dreaming of that big green couch.

My Birthday in London

Lunch before the museum.

The REAL Rosetta Stone

Gate keepers of Nineveh

Outside Frankie's

At the pub after dinner

So last year I spent my birthday relaxing on the beach in Mexico, drinking about a million Pacificos, and a nice dinner at La Fonda (Langosta, Patron, the works). I really didn't think it could get much better than that. I was wrong. Those of you who know me well know that I do enjoy relaxing, and God knows I enjoy drinking good beer. But as I get older I feel that I need something a bit more cerebral. Well I think I've found the perfect combination. We live about 4 blocks from the British Museum, and the British Museum is surrounded by some really good pubs. So I challenge you to find a better combination than a leisurely stroll through the gates of the ancient assyrian capital of Nineveh followed up with a quick viewing of the Rosetta Stone (no, not the videos that will help you learn to speak Urdu in under a month) all after a couple pints of Fuller's London Pride and fish and chips with some mushy peas. This has become my ultimate vice. This is how I spent my birthday yesterday. After that Kristin and I went to Frankie's (Marco Pierre White's interpretation of Italian cuisine) near Oxford Circle for dinner. The service was terrible... the food was fantastic. After dinner we went to our new local, The Friend in Hand, for a couple pints. This was a highlight, we got to watch Andy Murray lose to Roger Federer in the U.S. Open final with plenty of British moans and groans as he lost in straight sets. So here are some pics for you to enjoy. Hope to hear from you soon.

Cruising the London Scene

Russell Square - Our local park

A nice summer trip on the River Thames

London Eye with ominous sky

Look Kids... Big Ben, Parliament!

So we went to London today to check out the sights and see what our new home has to offer. It was a beautiful summer day as you can see with high's around 55 degrees Fahrenheit and the occasional torrential downpour. We did the 'Big Bus Tour' so we could try and pack in a little of everything at once and decide what we want to do later in detail. Well, here are some of the highlights.

From Our Surrogate-Mother Land

We just wanted to say hello from our new place in London. This is our second day here and we have just been checking out the neighborhood and trying to get organized. So far we love the area and the flat was surprisingly bigger than we thought. The area is filled with a ton of little restaurants (mostly Italian) and a park about every 200 meters (You like that... we're already metric). The tube stop (Russell Square) is only about 100 meters away so we have the city at our fingertips. Over the weekend we are going to try and do as many tourist things as possible so we know where to take all of our visitors when they (you) arrive. We have updated our blog to show our new address and telephone number so if you need to get a hold of us or send packages containing British currency or valuable electronics that we can sell on the streets along with our ex-pat brothers and sisters, you have the means to do so. Please see the video of our flat below. You can credit the meaningless banter to a sleepless plane trip and aimless wandering around an unknown city. Hope to hear from all of you soon.

Brit Week 2008

In order to prepare for our trip to England I elicited the help of some of my close friends. We were trying to culture ourselves at a pub in Fullerton called The Old Ship (by "culture" I mean drink beer) when we caught wind of the upcoming Brit Week to be celebrated in the southland. One of the events was a catered bus trip to the Home Depot Center to watch David Beckham's LA Galaxy battle the New York Red Bulls. Being avid football/soccer fan's Sam, Zach and Matt volunteered to sacrifice an entire weekend (Saturday for the actual event, Sunday for the subsequent recovery) to assist in my preparation for Premier League Football.

Now let me make a few suggestions before we move on:

1. When kegs of Guinness and Stella are provided free of charge on the bus it is not exactly necessary to consume large amounts of Pacifico, Miller Lite, Old Speckled Hen, and/or Bass before noon on the day of the event.

2. If you are already borderline inoxicated before you board the bus, there is no need to compensate for the beer that you have already paid for by drinking as much of the free beer as possible. This always ends badly. Just because the beer is now free your body will still react based on the TOTAL alcohol you have consumed. The tabula rasa principle does not apply in the event that you move from 'paid' alcohol to 'free' alcohol.

OK, that being said we boarded the bus after eating a massive meal that started with fish and chips and ended with sticky toffee pudding. The crowd that boarded the bus from The Old Ship was as you can imagine, filled with drunk Manchester United fans. We fit in well.

Once we were on the bus we were given a bag lunch which we all promptly ate (alcohol makes people act irrationally, sometimes that means eating ungodly amounts of food. This can be demonstrated in the fish and chips, sticky toffee pudding, bagged lunch, KFC snackers, stadium hot dogs, nachos, and eventually an extra large pizza from Big Slice that we managed to eat that day). At the stadium we continued to consume alcohol. As for the game itself, I will say this, it was possibly one of the most poorly played MLS games in years. I know this not because I watched it while I was there, but because I recorded it and saw it the following Monday. No, I spent most of my time looking for Zach, heckling the Red Bulls fans, and sneaking into the luxury box behind us.

I realize that this entry is getting a bit winded so I will try and wrap it up. The bus ride home ended with the entire bus of drunk British football hooligans calling us the crazy Americans, and saying that we need to calm down. The evening ended with one of us (to remain nameless) screaming and chasing a fire engine only to be stopped by a brave and selfless concrete light post. Only the scar on his forehead will identify the culprit. Needless to say, I believe that the outing was an overall success. The four of us made valid contributions to Brit Week, and Brit Week taught us some valuable lessons as well. Mainly that we are not allowed to go back to The Old Ship, and the British Consulate recently announced that this was the first and last Brit Week due to the "Glorification and over consumption of alcohol".