The London Wrap Up

Rob did a good job covering our London trip. If it seems like he didn't tell much, that's because our time in London was way too short! We were only there for a day and it went way too quickly. It was enough to get us excited about going back again to spend more time there.
One thing Rob didn't mention is that the trip to the London Eye was a really cool surprise he planned just for me. He bought us tickets for 10:00 am on Christmas Eve and the streets were really empty and quiet. Even though it was 10:00, the sun was really low in the sky--this combined with the quiet streets made it seem like we had the London morning all to ourselves.

Our quick vist with Darren and Diana was really nice. It was great to get to check out their place and to walk around their neighborhood a little bit. We've definitely missed having them around San Francisco.



And it was great to spend a couple hours with Phil--who travelled all the way to London, with a hangover, just to have lunch with us. Now that's love! The one disappointment is that his girlfriend Helen was able to come with him. Hopefully we four can arrange to meet one of these days so I can begin turning her into a football fan.




Finally, Rob failed to mention that our whirlwind London trip ended in chaos. Having what we thought was plenty of time to get to Victoria Station to catch the bus to his brother's in Bournemouth, we decided to walk through Portobello Street on the way to the underground. Portobello Street is an extremely busy street market in London and probably very interesting though we didn't really get to check it out much. As soon as we got there we realized the underground wasn't as close as we thought it would be so we immediately started racing our way down the hill to the station, wheeling our luggage through the crowds. When we finally arrived at Ladbroke Station, we learned it's on a different line then Notting Hill Station (which we walked past on our way to Portobello Street.) This meant that we had to change trains to get to Victoria. We watched the minutes ticking away as we waited for our train, constantly recalculating how much time we had left before our bus left. When we fnally got on the correct train, I asked a fellow passenger how close the buses were to the station--thinking they would be right outside the gates. To our dismay, I learned it's a good 10 minute walk to the buses. Doing one final recalculation, we realized we would only make the bus if 1) we RAN to the bus stops and 2) the bus left late. Well, we did our part and ran all the way, but the bus let us down by leaving on time. We missed it by a couple minutes. It was another 90 minutes until the next bus which, in retrospect doesn't seem so bad, but at the time felt completely heartbreaking.


Waiting for the train at Ladbroke station

The real reason we don't have more photos to show......

Here's a few more photos from our trip, to answer Mr Anon in the comments section, we are going to add a few pictures at a time so you don't get bored and to keep it exciting, thanks so much for your concern, not.
Anyway, the photos are all still in London, we met our frien Phil who lives close to Ispwich, he took the train into London on Christmas eve and we spent a few hours with him. One of the photos shows him looking extremely excited by a Coca Cola advert, let me explain, Coca Cola sponsor the league which his football team, Ipswich Town, play in, and the advert was displaying all the teams in the league for about 5 seconds each, we waited for a few minutes for Ipswich to appear and Phil nearly wet himself with joy.




Phil pulling a cracker.


Phil gets incredibly excited by the Ipswich Town FC sign.


In other words...be very careful!

Merry Christmas & a happy new year to all!

Blimey, we haven't posted in ages. Too busy, too lazy, too many people in the apartment!
The Great bathroom build is still going on it's been 3 months now, we have to update the bogblog aswell.
Anyway, we spent Christmas and new year in England, visiting Coventry, Birmingham, London, Bournemouth and Liverpool.
We always have to try and cram in as much as possible and see as many people as we can, it's very difficult and this time it was made even harder as I caught a chest infection and was out of action for a good few days, but a trip to the doctors and some antibiotics got me back in gear and off to Anfield for our final day, phew.
Well here's a selection of photos from our trip starting with London.


We stayed with Darren and Diana for a night in Notting Hill, had a great time



Diana in usual pose around 8pm



The London Eye, sort of a sightseeing big wheel.



Houses of Parliament from the London Eye, HP sauce mmmmm.



View from the top.

Come 'awn!

Our friend "Father" Creswell came across some tickets for the 49ers game vs Arizona, so it was of to my first NFL game. Iain and Pat came along and we all had a great time laughing at the male cheerleaders and the two useless teams. The 49ers are having a terrible time of it again this year and the Cardinals aren't much better. We were two rows from the front in the end zone so as close to the action as you can get. Unfortunatly the 49ers lost 17-10.



A lumberjack sandwich



No it's not a touchdown, Creston gets incredibly excited by his chocolate covered apricots



A whole lot of nothing



She's moving faster than the players!



Jumbo belly on Jumbotron



Obviously not Cardinals fans


Battle of the cheerleaders, these two......................



..........or this guy who spent the whole game shouting "COME 'AWN"

Happy Tuckey Day!

Was Thanksgiving weekend really only last week? Seems like months ago already.
Rob, I-boy and I drove to LA for the weekend and had a great time with him. It was a very relaxed weekend. We went shopping, went for a hike, watched some videos and just hung out a lot. Thanksgiving day, however, was somewhat unusual. We went out for a really great breakfast (at noon) and then went for a hike. After, we hung out with Carl's neighbors for a while. Around 8:00, I finally asked Carl if we could find a place to eat dinner. As you'll see in some follow up postings, Carl's apartment is not really set up for cooking. We headed off to Chinatown which, as a vegetarian, is one of the worst choices possible. We ate what may have been the worst chinese food I've ever tasted. But it was great to be with family--as you can see from the all the photos.

New bathroom

Work has finally started on our bathroom, our downstairs neighbour was getting his worked on and Ted, who is doing the work, noticed that our floor looked pretty bad after getting rid of the downstairs ceiling, our shower was leaking so we we're asked to use the shower in the studio across the "courtyard" (sounds like Melrose place).
Ted is a great worker and a really nice person but seems to take forever to finish the job, he has taken 6 weeks to finish the downstairs bathroom so we're expecting ours to take the same amount if not more.
We're just hoping that the rain will stay away for a bit longer as I think we're losing our toilet on Friday.
Anyway if you want to keep up with this exciting time in our lives go to our new bathroom blog at www.bogtothefuture.blogspot.com

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices

Our friend hosted a living room screening of this new documentary on Friday and it was really interesting. I won't go into all the details but I will say that it was thought provoking, surprising and really kind of sad. If you get a chance to see it, I would encourage you. You should at least check out the facts they present in the movie, many of which will make your jaw drop. What you can't get from the website though are the personal stories that unfold in the film and the ways family and individual lives are impacted from Wal-Mart coming to town.

If you can't say no to chocolate.......

....then what do you do to not turn into a chocolate moose? You up the exercise, right? That's what I decided to try last May. On a whim, at a party, I made plans to run with Agna on a Monday morning since it was a holiday from work. We made our way around Lake Merritt and deciding it really wasn't so horrible, made plans to do it again. Twice a week. Rob just laughed, and I can't say I blame him. I don't really consider myself a runner, or someone who is good at getting up early, so committing to meeting Agna twice a week at 7:00 am to go running sounded like a bit of a joke.
The next week I found out that several of the women on my soccer team were signing up for the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco in October--and since I didn't trust in my own motivation, I decided to create some by signing myself up. Agna also signed up as did my friend Kristy.
And I'll tell you what, it was no joke! We actually trained ourselves pretty well and on Friday, October 21, Agna and I went to Union Square and picked up our race packets.



Then we met up with Kristy on Sunday morning at 6:15 to line up for the race and it was fantastic. It was still dark as 15,000 runners, mostly women, were pinning on their bibs and lining up for the start. As you looked up at the hotels, you could see guests peering out their windows watching all the commotion beneath them. At 7:00 we started to move and within 10 minutes we had reached the starting line to begin the race. What an unusual way to see the place you live in a whole new light. Carving our way around runners and through the buildings and streets all the way to the Embarcadero before the sun rises, is mysterious and exhilerating. All along the route, people were clapping and cheering on the runners as we passed.

This particular race benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and lots of racers were wearing their purple "Team In Training" tops, many of them with photographs or ribbons in memory of someone they had lost to cancer. It was sobering to see how many actually.

At Mile 10, as I was approaching the Cliff House, there were Rob and Peter, Agna's husband, along with Agna's kids Luc and Esme, cheering us on with homemade signs:

Sign 1:
Kristy, Agna and Kari
ROCKSTARS!!!

Sign 2:
But it ain't pretty

These signs are only hilarious if, like us, you were watching Rockstar: INXS. Otherwise, it just seems insulting. Please, don't judge our husbands too harshly!

13.1 miles and 2hrs 26min 23sec later I came running through the finish line, greeted by smiling men in tuxedos congratulating me with a Tiffany pendant. Top quality!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone,
We've been lazy this past month with our postings, we'll have to fill you in with things later, but todays post is all about Halloween and a letter that a parent sent in with one of the kids that I work with.



It reads:

Rosie--Please keep blank back from all Halloween festivities. He doesn't need the candy etc. Plus, we celebrate the harvest of the saints. Halloween happens to be the biggest holiday on the satanic calendar when they sacrifice animals and sometimes children. It actually happens here in various parts of Calif., etc. So, we'd rather not take part.

Take me back to the ballgame

Just like trying to catch a bus in England, I waited for ever to go to a Giants game this season then another free ticket came my way straight afterwards. This time it was for their game against the LA Dodgers.
Gary's manager at work has season tickets and obviously Gazza has been a good boy this month, he managed to get 4 tickets so who else would you invite to watch "America's favo(u)rite pastime" ?
Two English people and an American who lives and breathes football (The one where the ball actually comes into contact with your foot) for those of you who don't know, Gary is English too so that made 3 of us.
Again we had great seats and again I searched for a long time looking for the veggie hot dogs, we're off to a game next month too, we'll let you know how we do then, I know the tension is unbearable but you're going to have to wait I'm afraid.
Anyway, back to the game, the Giants won in extra innings, not quite as exciting as the incredible victory of the England cricket team against Australia in the Ashes series the other week, but enjoyable all the same.




The real fun started after the game though as we all tried to reenact the coke bottle pose from earlier in the blog. Iain balanced the bottle on his head.







Then Gazza heard that the first 20,000 people entering the stadium received Giants hats and although we had arrived too late, decided to use his English accent to our advantage, he headed straight for Guest services and told them we we're visiting from England and taking in our first ever baseball game (Creston was keeping very quiet), 5 minutes later we we're all proud owners of Giants baseball hats, nice one Gazza!




After that we headed off to the Billy Graham convention.

Yer jist not right fir ahr beeand--INXS

I really feel sorry for those of you who missed out on the best reality show of the summer--"Rockstar: INXS"--because it was top quality! In a nutshell, the band INXS was trying out new singers and they aired it on CBS this summer. I know, it sounds lame, but honestly it was really good. Unlike most reality tv, it didn't focus on the drama of the group but more on the rock 'n roll. Every week, INXS would give the "rockstars" a list of songs to choose from and one night a week they'd show a whole hour of people rocking out for the band. The music was fantastic, the band seemed really cool and the program was what American Idol could be if they sang cool music and didn't have half-brained judges.
We've been watching it with Peter and Agna for the past few weeks so went to their house Tuesday for the finale. Rob and I dressed as the two finalists--JD and Marty. If Peter and Agna email me the photo of the two of us, I'll post it. Until then, you can enjoy looking at Rob dressed as the ultimate winner--JD. I think the style is really working for him.

Fancy Feet and Parking Sweet

Rob and I gave Tugso a spa pedicure for her birthday so, naturally, I had to go with to make it a complete girly day. It's her first pedicure in America so she was long overdue. I only wish we had gotten our fingernails done as well because the time went by too quickly.

Any of you who have seen my toes will be pleased to know I branched out in my color choice and went with ORANGE in honor of the first day of Autumn which is this week.

After the pedicure, Greg met us at the house for tea and bickies and then off to Cactus for a burrito--but not before they had fun posing for the camera.




Finally, Rob and I had to go to Trader Joe's for cereal, rice milk and laundry quarters. One day, we will learn that by Sunday night, most of the things we want are not in stock any more requiring us to go to Trader Joe's again a couple days later. Tonight, it was the big rice milk and the Airborne. I could have used the Airborne too as I've been fighting off a cold. Have you used that stuff? It's a miracle pill.
At any rate, the trip was well worthwhile in the end, as I got to listen to Rob slag off the driver "who parked the car like an idiot." That driver carelessly parked slightly over the line dividing the spaces making for a tight squeeze in the space next to it. Not wanting to risk scratching our newly cleaned car, Rob chose to park in a different spot. When we came out, I was able to get a quick photo of what a parking job looks like by someone who is highly experienced. You may not even beleive this, but I promise you, this is exactly where he parked the car. Genius.

Top of the Table

We've only played two of ten games, so there's a lot left to go, but I thought I would celebrate Mna being top of the table for once! It's due, in large part, to the fact that many of us on my women's soccer team have signed up for the Nike Half Marathon in October and have been running through the summer. It makes a big difference to have the team show up for the season with some fitness and it's proving to be a winning formula for us. Two games and we won both 3-0. The real test is yet to come but there's no harm in acknowledging our success so far.
Here's a group shot of some of us at Fudrucker's following our game--If you go to the Fudrucker's in Daly City, you can view a similar photo posted on the wall. This will serve as proof that
1) Kari DOES hang out with the team (thank you very much, Sylvia) and
2) Sylvia wouldn't realize it because SHE'S NOT THERE (Syl, you really should try and show more commitment to hanging out with the team. We are a social club, after all.)


Would the sir in the back please move forward?

Take me out to the ball game

We headed off to SBC park on Friday thanks to a wedding present from Shelly and Aliyar,
the Giants beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1.
We had great seats at the front row on the second level and really enjoyed ourselves, the stadium really is fantastic it's a great place to be on a Friday night, baseball is a strange game and during those no so exciting times, it's nice to look out over the bay and wait for a cheer from the crowd to get your attention again. One disappointment is having to walk around the stadium trying to find the one hot dog stand that sells veggie dogs, they seem to change the location every time we go.
We also forgot to charge our camera batteries so unfortunatly we only have 2 pictures, luckily Shelly and Al bought us tickets for another game in October so we'll make sure we've got plenty of juice for that one.






Kari looking for a foul ball










It's the real thing