FRIDAY !!!

It's Friday

Henman is out of Wimbledon - which means there are no British players left in the men's or women's singles now - bummer.

Looking forward to the weekend - although it will be a busy one - we have a lot to get done.

And finally...... the nursery artist of the week

Abby's drawing of her & her Mom - I thought it was cute:)

Oh and my story of the morning. I was sitting on the tube this morning reading my paper & noticed a guy standing near a suitcase pulling on his hair and pacing back and forth. Everyone was giving him 'what's that's guy DOING?' looks. He finally stopped pacing and said loudly 'excues me, has anyone seen a laptop case.' Turns out he just had realised it was missing, and it had not only his passport & money, but also three years worth of work in the form of his PHD on his laptop. After everyone looked around & saying it wasn't anywhere to be seen, he remembered leaving it on the platform a few stops before. He jumped off at the next station and a few of us yelled 'good luck' after him - I hope someone turned it in and he got it back:)

Oh and

Our roof is still leaking

We were awoken at 5am this morning by the sickening sound of 'drip, drip, drip........'

As this rain doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon, I think we may try the method of tacking a piece of string to the hole in our ceiling - so at least the water won't loudly drip and wake us up. fun fun fun

Oh AND a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my cousin Jenny who turns 15 on Sunday :)

Thursday

One day closer to Friday................... that is all I can think of to say today

:)

Wednesday

Nothing to say today really. I'm still tired and found it really hard to get out of bed and to the bus in time this morning.

It's Wimbledon time again. The only time of the year that I read the sports page in the paper! It's a bummer than Andy Murray had to pull out of the competition, and once again all of Great Britain has put their hopes on Tim Henman. We watched a bit of the replay of Henman's first round match last night, go Tim - that was a tough win! I don't think he'll ever win Wimbledon, but I'll keep cheering for him anyway! I think the crowd support really does help him to play his absolute best, let's hope it can help him to the final rounds! It will be interesting to see who wins this year - I don't even know who's ranked at the top? Will it be a Federer year - again? Time will tell!

That's about it really - bring on Friday!

Jason Mrazmerised

Brighton Concorde 2 - Sunday 24 June

The opening act - Two Spot Gobi

Adam King - the drummer

We were 3 people back from the stage!

Mr. Mraz (it was his 30th b-day the night before - kinda fun when he came on stage - the whole crowd starting singing Happy Birthday!)

Ian Sheridan - bass player

We were SO close to the stage!!!!!!!!!!!! They played lots of new stuff which was interesting!

Jason's great - but I gotta admit - we missed Toca!!

BrightOn is Right On

Overall - a nice weekend.

Saturday I saw something upsetting though! While Murray was getting a hair cut I went down to the magazine store to pick up a gossip mag. When I came out there was a huge crowd on the sidewalk. A large sign above a pastry shop had fallen onto some people. I went to cross the road and get out of there, there was no need to stand around and gawk (like SO many people did! I just don't understand that)! I was glad to overhear that there were two doctors who had been nearby and were attending to the injured. It looked like a few other people were holding up the sign which they had pulled off of the people who were knocked down. It really shook me up, since the sign was MASSIVE and I felt so bad for those poor people. Plus, I had just walked under there a few moments before!! They shut down the whole street for most of the afternoon - which I have never seen done before. I was really glad to read this morning that no one was killed, what an awful freak accident though!!

Sunday afternoon we caught a train down to Brighton with Lorraine to meet up with Heather & Jason to see Jason Mraz in concert. He played at a tiny venue called Concorde 2. It was like a small ballroom - raised stage and only big enough for a few hundred people. We got there early enough that we ended up about 3 people back from the stage. The opening act Two Spot Gobi was excellent - they had a lot of enthusiasm and their songs were catchy! Mr. Mraz was fantastic - as usual - he's SO great live!!!! After the concert we ran up to the main road to try and catch a taxi back to the train station because we knew if we missed the next one we'd have a 45 minute wait ahead of us. We luckily made it there JUST in time. The train ride felt SO long though! We didn't end up getting back to the flat until just past 1:30am. Thus I am exhausted today!!! It was worth it though! Jason is right - Bright On (Brighton) is Right On ! Shame about the rain though - yuck!

Oh and thank goodness it's only 1 more week until London goes Smoke Free! Last night I had a girl standing behind me who was blowing her smoke right at the back of my head, so it would float around into my face - awful awful awful. And of course I smelt like an ash tray when I got home - can't wait until they are forced to do that outside - 6 days and counting!!!

TGIF!!!!!!

Thank Goodness It's Friday!!!

Shame it's raining though!

I finally made it to the gym last night for Body Pump. It was ok - but I didn't like the songs he used - they were a bit 'early 90's' - not my cup of tea. But it was good to get back there & have a good workout.

Last night was the finale for this season of ER. And - WOW - drama - as usual! Left me in tears - but wow it was a great episode!

Oh and I forgot about the Lights out London thing - oops! But we were busy grabbing beef tacos on commercial breaks and watching ER.... oh well.

We also watched an episode of The Ghost Whisperer - that TV show starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. It really is a pretty good show! Scary & good twists!

Looking forward to Sunday!!! We're going down to Brighton with Lorraine to see Jason Mraz! It is supposed to be an acoustic show -and a small venue (i hope so)! Can't wait:)

Oh - and last night on the train I saw TONS of people in wellies (rain boots), huge backpacks, sleeping bags & pillows in plastic bags, and carrying large cases of beer..... can anyone guess where they were all going?

Oh and don't forget!

Tonight is Lights Out London night

So I promise to turn off 'non essential lights & appliances' tonight between 9-10 pm, however that does not include the TV - because I still have to watch the new episode of ER!

All downhill from here

SO apparently today is the first official day of Summer - and the longest day of the year. Sad to think that the days will only get shorter from here on out! I love summer though - I'm happy that it's warm enough now that I don't have to wear a jacket in the morning. But still cool enough that I'm not sweating like crazy on the stuffy tube. It's just perfect right now - warm - but not hot! (knock on wood)

Another beautiful day in London today - I just wish this weather would hold on for the weekend. The forecast at the moment though is rain & thunderstorms on Saturday and rain on Sunday:(

Last night we decided to take advantage of the 2 for 1 movie deal and went and saw 'Fantastic 4 - Rise of the Silver Surfer.' It was either that, or a horror, and I wasn't in the mood to see a movie about two people being tortured in a hotel room - yuck. And you know what, it wasn't all the bad! I think I'm getting used to getting dragged to these comic book based movies. The graphics were pretty cool, and the story was kinda nice, shame about Jessica Alba's hair though - blonde does NOT suit her!

We walked home along the river last night.... the rowers where EVERYWHERE! Kinda fun to see them rowing along while a man in a little boat behind yelled into a megaphone for them to 'speed up.' It looks very peaceful, rowing, but gosh are they muscly - must be a hard workout!

And some grad photos

Just for fun.... a few family photos

My sisters Megan, Mandie & Mariah - our to dinner to celebrate Mandie's graduation!
'Baby' sister Mariah (on the left) with her friend at her high school graduation
Marish posing with her senior photo - that Murray took!
And just cause I like this photo 'model pose' ha ha- cute though!

AND congrats again - to you both - Murray and I are VERY proud of both of you:)

Other than that, just the usual boring day to day stuff here for me. Last night I was yet again feeling SO lazy and just couldn't to the gym - will try again tonight.... although I did forget to bring my hair brush today which is upsetting. Last night I set down my tube pass when I got to the station - then forgot about it - and when I remembered and went back it was gone. I was NOT happy as it's a monthly pass - so to lose it would be ALL bad! I asked at the counter, and no one had turned it in. So he gave me the phone number to call to report it lost, and I bought a one way ticket to get home. Just as I got through and was reporting how I lost it, a guy walked up - he had found it - YAY! Goodness knows where - but thank goodness! Then I just had to get that ticket I had bought refunded and whew - was able to avoid the drama of getting a new one.

Is it Friday yet?

I got nothin'

After all those pictures yesterday - I just feel like I have nothing to say today!

Took it easy last night, we watched the movie 'Domino' with Keira Knightly. It was ok, but a bit 'try hard' - like it was trying to be the next Pulp Fiction - but just came across as a bit silly.

Beautiful day today in London - I hope this weather hangs on until the weekend!

TOO CUTE!

I just couldn't wait until tomorrow to post the rest of these pictures - she's just TOO CUTE! SO, the story of the weekend is in the below post - and here are some more pics!

Abby modeling the braids I put in her hair
Posing next to a dinosaur head - kinda hard to see in the photo though..... she liked the skeletons, but didn't like the giant T-Rex that was animated & growling!
LOVED this one - a little dinosaur toy
Check out my spork!
She kept handing it back to me, asking for a fork - but they only had sporks!! So we made due:)
The fish she picked out for her headdress
Coloring is fun!
Taping on some decorations! she sure loves tape!
The finished product!
The iced lolly she picked out for the bus - yummy (I had a bite too - wow it WAS so so good)!
Play, play, play - this was a great park!
Check me out - I stole Neek's sunglasses!

Happy Feet

Ahhhh what a lovely weekend:)
Eva called Friday night to say Abby wasn't feeling well, so we decided we would wait until Saturday morning to see how she was feeling, and if she needed to stay home I'd come to their place for the weekend.

However, by Saturday morning she was feeling much better. By the time she got to our place her fever was pretty much gone.

So we took it easy in the morning - doing some colouring and watching dvds....

(this is a tree by the way)

Later that afternoon her temp was gone, so we decided to pop out to do some errands. We walked by the kids place 'Eddie Katz' and she kept saying 'CATS CATS' so we popped in to play for a little bit.

The cheese pizza was delicious!

And the juice!

On the way home she got upset by the light rain hitting her face - so I gave her my umbrella.

How cute is this? Walking with her pink balloon trailing her

But at times she needed help holding the umbrella up

SO CUTE!!

Abby and Murray - thankfully the rain went away quickly!

On the way to do our errands we also came across a charity book sale and picked up a few cute Disney books - she was thrilled! We got home early afternoon, and just spent the rest of the day watching dvds (Happy Feet is so cute!), colouring, and just chilling out.

Sunday we decided to go see the dinosaurs at the Natural History museum. We were lucky that it turned out to also be family day on Exhibition road - so all of the museums down there had family activities. SO, after checking out the dinosaur display, we headed over to the Victoria and Albert museum to make masks! It was bizarre - they had tons of craft supplies for us - which we collected in a little plastic tub. Then we were told to just spread out on the floor to make our mask! However, this was in the middle of an actual display.... so we had people stepping over us to look at ancient tapestries behind the glass! So strange! Abby chose to make a fish headdress / mask - we had a good time putting it together! Afterwards she decided she wanted to go to the park. So we picked up a yummy ice cream, and got on the bus.

We went to Eel Brook common - which is near Fulham station. They have a great play park for kids her size. Big enough that she could go through it again and again and not get bored, but not set up too high that I had to be worried about her falling off and hurting herself. I sat and watched her while she played for a few hours - she really had a great time!

Afterwards we headed back onto another bus (upstairs of course - for the view!) and chilled out while eating some dinner and watching Alice in Wonderful (wow I haven't seen that movie in YEARS)!

Overall it was a really great weekend. It was SO lovely to spend time with her. I was impressed by her maturity, and as always loved all her cuddles:) She is so sweet - it was wonderful to spend some quality time with her!

More pictures to follow tomorrow ! (sorry these ones today are so blurry - they are just from my mobile phone - better ones to follow tomorrow:)

FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Thank goodness it's Friday - I feel exhausted! And I'm not sure why!

Wishing a VERY Happy Fathers day to my Dad - as fathers day in the states is Sunday:)

This morning I finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Like his first book - The Kite Runner - this book was very hard to put down. Extremely well written, interesting story, great characters. I loved it and would highly recommend it - and the Kite Runner.

I'm VERY excited - as this weekend Abby is coming to stay!!!! She's coming early tomorrow morning, and Eva will pick her up Sunday night. Unfortunately it's supposed to rain all weekend - but I still have thought of lots of fun things to do!

Also - I found some old disks last night - so thought I'd go through them today & see what's on them. I came across this photo.............. SO NOT TRUE!!! ok, well - maybe :)

Friday YET???

Last night I decided to try another new class at the gym - Dance Sculpt. The brochure described it as 'A dance class with a difference, if you enjoy the rhythm of the music you will enjoy Dance Sculpt. Sculpt your body through dance.'

I though hmmmm yes I like dance - sounds good - I'll give it a try! It was - just ok! However I do think I was being a bit over critical - because I used to attend some AMAZING 'dance' classes at my old gym... so that's sort of the level I was expecting for this one.

For the first half an hour we did what I'd call low to medium impact aerobics. It was ok - but honestly kinda boring. And she didn't tell us what the next exercise would be - so we had to just constantly watch her and try to quickly switch when she did. Normally in an aerobics class they yell out 'now leg lifts' or whatever so you know when to switch and to what.

During that half an hour of aerobics I starting thinking 'they call THIS a dance class??? this is just aerobics!' Then thankfully after we had hit the half hour mark, she started teaching us a routine. She ran through it REALLY quickly - so we were all a bit lost - but it was fun! Shame we only performed it and added to it for 15 minutes:( I really would have rather done 5-10 minutes warm-up aerobics - then mostly dancing!

The last 15 minutes of the class we did toning exercises and sit-ups and then of course stretching. Would I got again? Yes I think so - but not if I'm in the mood for a great workout (body pump & attack are much better for that) but if I'm sore from exercise the day before and want a bit of a stretch and low impact working out - yes I'd go again.

Some more Istanbul pics!

Steve sent some more Istanbul pics (ONLY 2 months after the actual trip!)..... so here you go!

That's Murray, Anabela and I on the right at the Blue Mosque
Our horse cart ride
It was a LONG tiring walk uphill (but Murray looks quite excited!)

The Blue Mosque is SO stunning!
Welcome to my mosque!

I can't remember what this was called - but it's where men used to come to wash their feet before going into the mosque to pray.
Ahhhhhhhh I love this picture! Murray and I walking across the bridge in central Istanbul. (we're on the right)
This was a long tiring walk uphill too (Murray is looking a bit more tired here...)
Yes I am squinty eyed - but ohhhh the desserts were HEAVEN!
Captain Murray!

Ouch - sore

Last night my train was delayed - only by a few minutes - but that meant I got to the gym RIGHT as the class I wanted to attend (body pump) was about to start. You really can't go into that class late- because there's so much to set up (step, weights, etc etc) and you really don't want to miss the warm up. So I thought - I COULD work out on my own - but it had been a LONG Monday and I didn't have the motivation for that. So I scanned the class schedule and saw that I was just in time to make a Spinning class. I haven't done spinning (stationary bike riding in a class atmosphere) for YEARS! Mostly because last time I did it I did not enjoy it! So last night I tried to sneak quietly into the back of the room, and the instructor came up and told me to sit in the front (once I admitted that I hadn't been for years). Then she turned off the lights - turned on the disco lights and starting yelling to us to pedal fast and don't forget to breathe! Ha ha - it was fun! It was like riding a bicycle through a nightclub heated up to feel like a sauna. Absolutely exhausting (my legs AND arms were shaking when I left) but great! I will definitely do that again!

Last night we watched a few episodes of Entourage as well. Haven't seen that show before - but wow it's pretty good!

Monday - too soon - again

Why do the weekends always feel so SHORT?
Saturday Murray left early for a golf day, so I decided to try to be productive. I got to the gym by 11 and did a Body Attack class. Only thing was the air conditioners were either not working or turned off, my face was so bright red from over heating by the end of the class!!!! Not good!

Afterwards I went to High Street Kensington to check out the new Whole Foods store (U.S. grocery store chain that sells organic food). It is SO SO nice!!! I wondered around for a bit just checking out what they had. Yes, I did feel a bit sad for going all the way there just to look at a grocery store - BUT - it was good fun. It was so big they give you a map when you enter to navigate around. Eventually I ended up at the salad bar and made myself a fantastic salad of fresh veggies, tons of lettuce, chickpeas, all sorts of yummy stuff. Then I stood in line for AGES to pay (well, it was the first opening weekend - so was super busy! After I paid (WHEW that was expensive!!!) I went upstairs to find somewhere to eat (they have seats for 350 people up there). I found a great little room at the front that was kinda fancy - big comfy leather chairs, high cute tables, and a great view of the high street. I settled back into my leather lounger and read my book and ate my salad - really lovely & relaxing. To be honest, I didn't do much more that day. Went home and laid on the couch and read for most of the afternoon. I was reading Jodi Picoult's book 'Perfect Match.' Wow excellent book, shocking, engrossing and very well written. That evening The Butterfly Effect was on tv - so I watched that (since I hadn't seen it before). It did totally freak me out though, so on one commercial break I got up and turned on all the lights in the flat. Thank goodness Murray got home just before the movie was over - so I didn't have to walk into our bedroom while turning off lights behind me & running ahead to escape the dark. Ha ha:)

Sunday we got SO lucky!!! Eva and Abby popped by for a quick visit! It was SO nice to see them (and to finally give Eva her b-day present)! Wow Abby has grown SO much in just the past few months. Her hair is long and SO pretty! And she seems to be talking even more! I'm really looking forward to this upcoming weekend - she's coming to stay with us for the weekend! Will be great to spend more time with her:)

That afternoon we decided to go to a movie, but rather than get a bus or the train - we walked! Actually it's not that far to Fulham from Putney - about a 20ish minute walk. And it was nice to walk through Parsons Green - gosh I love that area. And fun to see all the cute dogs hanging out in the parks along the way. We saw Oceans 13..... hmmmm it was ok. Decent but not great story line, interesting...... casting (Ellen Barkin - really was not the person for that role.....), and it really was like I read - the 'Brad and George' show. But it was nice to sit in a cool theatre and relax with some popcorn:)

I hope this week goes quickly - counting down the days til we see Abby again!

TGIF!

Thank goodness it's Friday!

Hmmmm ok - my Wicked review.

Wow that theatre is HUGE! I didn't realise how big it was.
The story is very interesting.... lots of 'oh ok, I see now' moments - explaining the story behind the character is the Wizard of Oz.
The lead was fantastic - she had a great voice and stage presence.
The two supporting leads.... were ok - I wasn't all that impressed with their voices to be honest.
The songs? They were no Andrew Lloyd Webber - nothing all that memorable.
But it was funny - which I didn't expect! And quite a clever story line.
I wouldn't say it was one of the best shows I have ever seen, but I did enjoy it.

Oh and my rant.....
When you are at a theatre please do not
1. put your shoes up on the back of someone's seat - even when they aren't sitting there - that's so rude
2. do not take your shoes off and curl up your bare feet on the theatre's nice plush chairs- gross
3. do not talk during the performance - the rest of us are trying to listen to the show thanks!
4. make sure you mobile is turned OFF before the show starts so we don't have to have a ring tone blaring during a quiet important scene

thanks so much for your cooperation:)

Seriously - Murray and I were standing and talking during the interval and couldn't believe some of the things people were doing - what were they raised in a barn?

YAY the weekend - I'm doing my 'no rain dance' for tomorrow - come on !!!!!!!!!! It's been sunny all week - it can't rain on the WEEKEND! fingers crossed!

And finally, a picture of our family's dog Minnie - showing off her new summer haircut and fancy scarf:) thanks for the picture Mariah - please give her a big hug for me!

Tired so so tired

Last night was good! Although the food took FOREVER to come.... wouldn't you know I was sitting at the last table to be served! We were a bit frustrated because although there was 90 of us, they had all the menus choices ahead of time - so it really shouldn't have taken that long! Oh well! The starter was ok (avocado, tomato and mozzarella) the main was HUGE! (swordfish fillet with broccoli and potatoes) the portion was so big I actually only ate half of it! And the dessert was SO good - we ended up just sharing around... the profiteroles were HUGE and covered in so much chocolate and so so so yummy, the tiramisu was lovely and the ice cream was fantastic! I didn't end up getting home until midnight, so had a little sleep in this morning (only and hour!) gosh I could have used a few more though!

AND tonight...... we are finally going to see........ Wicked!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited! I've heard it is a great show and I have wanted to see it for AGES! YAY :)

I swear it's the sun!

I think it's the sun - it's putting me in SUCH a good mood :)
Even though last night I had to work late in order to get my reports out.... things were still rosy. I was finally able to get through to my parent's house on the phone and chat to my sister for ages which was so so nice! And I read a great book on the way home, but took a break from reading for a few moments on the train to smile while watching a drunk guy attempt to pole dance on the train (that was TOO funny)! And I even got a little Spanish study done before Murray got home and we watched the show 'The F Word.' Nice day:)

Today it's sunny again - although I think I overestimated the morning warmth. I wore my 3/4 length (CUTE) jacket this morning - and my arms were awfully chilly - oops! Running for the bus like a mad woman helped warm me up though:) Thank goodness they aren't predicting rain because I forgot my umbrella too (darn it - I know better)! Tonight is a work dinner as a thank you for 'all the hard work we have done.' YAY I love a free meal - and I chose profiteroles for dessert - I can't WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!

Tooooooooosday

Nothing much to report.
I dragged my lazy self to the gym last night for a bit of cardio, to try and get some of the lactic acid out of my very sore muscles - helped a little bit I think. Last night we watched a bit of the MTV Movie Awards - it was kinda lame! Seemed SO scripted, although I was surprised to hear Sasha Baron Cohen's (Borat) real accent - wow he's kinda posh - I had no idea!

I'm excited that tomorrow is the grand opening of the American health food grocery store Whole Foods in Kensington! It's a GIGANTIC store, and will have a huge restaurant as well. AND I'm hoping it'll have more selection of American foods - fingers crossed! I may go check it out on Saturday!

And that's about it - work & gym again today - super exciting:)

Relax............

What a lovely relaxing weekend!

Unfortunately, Murray was stuck indoors all weekend (in a Portrait photography course), but his pictures turned out really well and he learned a lot.

I made it to the gym !!!! (body pump on Saturday, body attack on Sunday) and oh WOW can I feel it today - I am SO SO SO sore! (but in a good way)

I caught up on loads of errands, cleaned, fit in a little nap (on Saturday - he he that was lovely), read, walked in the sun, and just relaxed. Was lovely:)

And for a Monday, I feel surprisingly upbeat! Thank goodness for the sun - it cheers me up!
(and the fact that I was able to wear a sleeveless top & flip flops over the weekend.... ahhhh lovely)

And now.................. a few photos of my Mother and Father-in-law's dog Emma that Murray took when he was at their place last November:)