Tristan's Visit

So this weekend my world-traveler friend Tristan made a stop in London. I believe her trip went DC -> LA -> New Zealand -> Australia -> Singapore (for 1/2 hr) -> London (for 1/2 hr) -> Geneva (where she'll be moving in Sep to work for UNICEF) -> London (Fri-Sun) -> DC. I've never actually been around the world, but it sounds very tiring. It was so terrific to see her and spend a whole weekend with such a good friend. I can't wait till she gets to Europe full time! It's funny how even spending a short time with someone from your "past life" can brighten things up (it's raining here again).

So we figured that since Wimbledon was still on, we'd head over there and see how long the line was on Saturday morning. It was very, very long. So we hoped on the tube and headed into the city. Had a nice picnic near St. Paul's (you can drink anywhere here - we went with a nice Riesling) and decided to hit up the free Museum of London. It's quite large and has a lot of interesting exhibits talking about the vast history of the places that are only blocks away.

What an amazing city. I am, however, starting to understand the Brits interest in things surrounding death. Between the Plague, the Great Fire, both World Wars, and the Troubles with Northern Ireland, overcoming death seems to be a big part of life here. That, of course, is significantly less true NOW than it was in the past (don't worry Mom). I was interested to learn that there are no rubbish bins in the city center because the Northern Irish used to put bombs in them. Hmmm.

Here's a few pics:

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAMmTlyzatWjFbA

Hope all is well,
dAn

London Slang

chav
n. s. or pl.

A derogatory term for people who have really bad taste and generally dress in a gaudy, embarrassing way. Easy ways to spot chav: fake Burberry, any kind of bling on a white person, exposed midriff that causes the viewer to cringe.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-cha2.htm

Editor's Note: This is definitely one of my favorite British slang terms. I encountered a very large number of chav when we were supposed to go on the boat trip on the Thames and there were all these teenage girls having birthday parties and generally being annoying. My friend joked that if the boat sank the only trace would be a large number of fake Burberry caps floating to the surface.

Editor's Note (2): Just remembered that before I got here I didn't know how to pronounce Thames. So some of you might not either. It's "tems". Not sure what happens to the h. Cheers!

British Softball

So last night a big group of people I work with (mostly business, not tech) headed over to Regent's Park to play softball. An interesting concept as I live in ENGLAND, but I thought it could be fun anyway. It was...but mostly because there was a lot of beer.

Regent's Park is excellent, by the way. Lots of people sitting around having picnics and generally enjoying themselves. And it's only a short tube ride from my office. I'll definitely be going there more (as long as it doesn't rain too much).

Anyway, playing softball with the pohm is an interesting experience. Obviously the rules go waaaay out the window. Most people hadn't played before, and I got fun questions like "which player wears the glove?" To which I generously replied, "I do." Clearly I was the only one who brought a glove. And a ball. And a bat (old, small wooden bat from when we were kids - remember that one Mike?). I'm starting to figure out why I was hired.

So one tip on playing softball with coworkers which I think works world-wide: Make sure you are on the boss's team. Especially when no one knows the rules. Because Maura basically played the old kids game "I win." Maura gets 15 swings. Maura's team gets 8 outs. My team gets 2 outs. Maura's foul balls are always fair (even when they roll off into the rugby pitch). You get the idea. Hence the beer for the rest of us.

Anyway, it was good fun and I'm glad I was invited to play. And though everyone either swung the bat either like a cricket bat (from the hip) or a golf club, a few of them could hit pretty well. So if we get the fielding down (ie. throw the ball to first base not to the tree), we might be looking to take on the New Yorkers.

Here's a few kinda bad pictures. I still have to figure out the best way to get my camera to work well in low light. Or maybe I wasn't holding it very steady....

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAMmTlyzatWjFCg

London Slang

pohm
abbr.

People Of Her Majesty.

Editor's Note: This was first said to me by a Kiwi (person from New Zealand for those who don't know that either) who was in charge of helping me move. Nice guy, but loved to make fun of the Brits. So he says something like, "Yeah, the pohm love their curry." Sounds like it could be a farm animal or something.

Editor's Note (2): I also heard last night that the British people would say pohm and it would mean "Prisoners Of Her Majesty." As in Australia. Hmmm. Two very contradictory meanings. Please add comments if you know more about this one......

U2 2

Ah, so U2 was quite fun (of course). A very entertaining band who has a good collection of songs. I did have my hopes WAY up, so I think they had a hard time living up to that, but Bono came up to me after the show and told me that it wasn't his best night because he was thinking about the kids in Africa so much that he forgot how to be a rock star. I guess it's hard to juggle the two sides of the coin.

Um, sorry about that. I do applaud all the good work Bono has done for Africa and really do hope that he makes poverty history.

So the opening bands were Idlewild (who I didn't know but were pretty good in an REM sorta way) and Ash (who I know and like a lot and was happy about). Twickenham is a massive rugby stadium and was really a great place to see a big band. We were in the standing area around the stage so you could see really well. Not sure I'd want the ones way high up though.

Ok, tip for any apartment living people: Don't lock yourself out of your flat when your roommate, landlord (her sister), and owner (her dad) are all on a plane to Italy. Makes for a tough (and expensive) Saturday waiting for the locksmith to show up.

Cheers!
dAn

U2

Sooooo, going to see U2 this Sunday. Rad! A nice American boy (Stephen) that works near me has kindly offered me a ticket. Apparently they sold more last week after they figured out the exact size of the stage. Good for me! It's outside at a huge place called Twickenham Stadium (pronounced Twickem or something apparently). Check it out at:

http://www.rfu.com/microsites/twickenham/index.cfm

London Slang

double glazing
n. s.

Storm windows.

Editor's note: I didn't realize, but apparently this is a big selling point for London apartments. I just kept wondering why every apartment I was looking at was sugar coated.

Off to Cork

So yer man (me) went to Cork this weekend. Perhaps shouldn't have gone because I was feeling quite sick Thursday and Friday, but I had bought the tickets and really didn't want to bail. Luckily I started feeling better on Saturday and by Monday was doing quite well. I went to see my friend Susie who lives there now. Some of you may have met her when she was in New York visiting while living in Boston about a year ago.

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAMmTlyzatWjEsA&notag=1

Anyway, had a really nice time. On Friday night I met Susie at the reception for her friend's wedding at a great hotel called the Maryborough House Hotel (http://www.maryborough.com). Lucky for me it was a black tie event, so I got to look good in my tux for a few hours. Had a nice time and met a lot of her fun Irish friends, but had to take off early-ish due to illness. Darn.

Saturday we went to a barbeque at the groom's house and I got to see a bit of "behind the scenes" Irish life. It was such fun to sit with all these people who went to high school together and hear them tell stories from growing up. Sounded a lot like Connecticut!

Sunday Susie and I headed over down to the southern shore of Ireland to a small town called Kinsale. It was really nice and I took a load of pictures. Had lunch at a great pub called Bulmans and then sat outside with what felt like the whole town and had a few beers by the water. A few boats came in and people would have a pint while the kids played in the water. Seemed like a pretty good way to spend a Sunday.

So went back to London on Monday morning and spent the rest of the day lounging in the sun in my hammock. A pretty good way to spend a Monday....

Cheers!
dAn

Longer Pub Hours!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRITAIN_PUB_HOURS?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

(thanks Chris ;)

London Slang

hundreds and thousands
n. pl.

Sprinkles that go on ice cream.

Editors note: I know this one is a bit cheeky, but I've been assigned to organize a "Friday afternoon" food activity for my floor of about 75 people (it rotates between groups). I'm going with ice cream (of course) and I asked if people wanted sprinkles and got a lot of blank stares. Then one guy said, "oh, you mean hundreds and thousands." Blimey!

Low-cost Eruopean airline search

Here's some more good links for searching low-budget European airlines that Tom has discovered. I think most of these are for travel within Europe, not from the US to London. I'll see if I can find some good ones for that too. If anyone has some, please email me or post them in the comments for this post. Thanks!

http://www.whichbudget.com

http://www.lowcostairlines.org

http://www.cheapflights.co.uk

http://www.openjet.com

http://www.skyscanner.net

London Slang (hopefully weekly)

minger
n. s. ming·er

Something unattractive, dirty, or gross. Often a person. In this case, me.

Other uses: "This flat is minging." "That French man really mings."