The Henley Show- English Country Fair

These are the tents at the fair. There were
also 2 rings for showing horses, 1 for showing
dogs (my favorite) and tents for produce
and livestock exhibits.


Farmer Ian taking the kids for a ride
on his cart


Here's a front view of farmer Ian's cart ride.
This cart is over 100 years old and only used
once a year for the Henley show.



Jane's adorable daughter Ava strikes a pose


Jane's older daughter Maia making gingerbread men.
Auntie Caryl was very jealous that I got to hang
out with her favorite nieces!

Aah the simple life!

Farmer Ian's house. The farmer's name really is Ian!
The kids referred to Ian as Ian #2 the rest of the day.


This is the view from Jane's cottage.


Imagine if this was your driveway-goose included.


Jane & James' cottage on the farm


The path home . . . doesn't this look like a painting?
This is my favorite picture from the weekend-
it's so peaceful. This is also where we picked
our berries (see below)


Here are some pictures from our trip to the English countryside. One of my close friends at work, Caryl, is from the UK. When I told her about our trip she agreed to loan us her family (Thank you Caryl!!). A few weekends ago her sister Jane invited us to her town for a traditional English Country Fair. She, and her family live in Henley on Thames- a small town to the west of London. We enjoyed the fair and then went back to Jane and James' cottage. They live in a cottage that is a part of a huge working farm. There are chickens and geese and horses (oh my)! We felt like we were in a movie- it was so beautiful and peaceful. Her little girls even showed us how to feed the chickens and round up the geese from the field- Ian got the pleasure of climbing under the barbed wire fence to round up the geese (for those of you who may not know- I hate geese- and most other birds too) Our favorite part of the night was when we went out to the driveway with the kids and picked fresh blackberries from the yard and brought them inside to put on top of the cheesecake. We felt like we had turned back time- it was so relaxing and wonderful.

I'll post some more pictures from the fair soon.

English is English . . . right??

I thought it would be fun to share a few tidbits about some differences in the English language that Ian and I have discovered. You would think it's all English- right?? WRONG.

Here are a few of our favorites.

Pants= trousers Pants are not pants here. Ian found this out the hard way at work. I believe he was talking about the dress code in the office and said "pants". Unfortunately here that means underwear- oops. (This is probably one of my favorite London stories so far!)

Underwear= knickers (not short plaid golfing pants). They sure do have a lot of words referring to undergarments.

Right away=Straightaway . As in- do this NOW. This is slowly becoming one of Ian's favorites.

Try= Give it a go. This is Ian's favorite new phrase. He uses it all the time- he will definitely be bringing this one back to the states

Bye/Thank you= Cheers. They say this every time they get off the phone and also commonly interchange it with Thanks. Very weird!

The letter Z= Zed. This is pretty strange- especially when someone is spelling for you and they say zed.

Zero= affectionately referred to as naught (as in 0.01 naught point naught one). I have been doing a lot of work with spreadsheets (quite a change for this sales/mktg girl) and I had to ask my co-worker to repeat himself twice. Pretty embarrassing.

Yield= Give Way. As in the street sign. We have also learned that to a pedestrian, give way means look right first or you may get run over. Apparently pedestrians do not have the right of way here!

Friend/Buddy= Mate. Not much of an explanation needed here- everyone is considered Mate- female or male- friend or foe.

We will be sure to add more as we come across them. Hope everyone is having a good Thursday and looking forward to the weekend:)

The newest resident of Debaran Lane

Meet our newest neighbor- Marco Giovanni Giancroce!
He arrived on Sept. 10th- 7lbs 10oz and 20" long


Mom and her new little man!
Doesn't she look amazing for just having a C-section?


Marco times 2 - dad is also Marco!
Let's hope he loves soccer.


Baby brother!! Simona has been anxiously
awaiting the arrival of her baby brother.
From what mom tells me, she loves him to pieces.



CONGRATULATIONS to Lucia and Marco on their beautiful baby boy!
We can't wait to meet him when we return.

We bought a new house!

We decided that our London flat was a bit small
so we upgraded. As you can see, it is slightly
larger than Debaran Lane - over 200 bedrooms!



Here we are out back- our new deck is stone.
No more pressure washing! Just think of how
many people we can fit on here for our
summer crab party.


Here I am in the back garden. We may need
a little help with the yard work- hope you
are ready Dad! We are also thinking of adding
a pond.



Last weekend (we are a little behind on the postings) we toured the state rooms of Buckingham Palace. This was a very unique experience because they only open it up to the public for 2 months in the summer while the royal family is away on vacation. This year's tour included a special exhibit celebrating the Queen's diamond (60 yrs) wedding anniversary. We got to see her wedding gown and all the jewelery she received as gifts from her mother (Queen Elizabeth) and her grandmother (Queen Mary). The diamonds were incredible- earrings, necklaces, tiaras, bracelets etc. I have never seen anything quite like it- it made Tiffany's seem like TJ Maxx.

We also got to tour 10 of the state rooms of the palace. These are the rooms that the Queen uses to entertain and host visitors from all over the world. The rooms included a ballroom, music room, several halls, the grand staircase at the entrance of the palace, the throne room and the room where the princes (William and Harry) were baptised. We were told that holy water was flown in from the river Jordan to baptise both princes- pretty amazing. Unfortunately, you were not allowed to take any photos of the inside- sorry!

Bathroom Photos

Bathroom view 1


The shower- notice the 1/2 door


There is only room for a few pictures on each posting- so here are the final 2 from our new place.

We are very confused about the 1/2 door instead of the shower curtain- it seems like a simple upgrade. We were told that these glass doors are the "in thing". . . who knows! It does not allow for much privacy. Especially in the morning when we both need to get ready for work.

Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home- London style

Ian at our front door


The view from Flat 1012


Living room


Living room view from kitchen


European kitchen- aka- tiny

Here are the much anticipated pictures of our London flat. Our building is on the west side of London and is only 4 blocks from Hyde Park and a 5 minute walk from Paddington train station. We are on the edge of the Marylebone section of London and slightly east of Notting Hill- the location is perfect. There is a tube station about 3 minutes away which allows us to get to Picadilly Circus and the theatre district within 5 minutes. We are in the ideal area for London visitors- so let us know if you would like to come to see us! The accomodations are small, but the price is right.

The great news is that we have A/C! This is a huge improvement from our last place. The bad news is that we are stuck with another washer/dryer combo unit. Tonight we are experimenting with our first load of laundry- which is equivalent to a 1/4 of a load in US standards. So far it has been in there for over an hour and the rinse cycle has just finished. At this rate it may be faster to mail our laundry home for mom to do (hope you are both up for that!).

Other interesting 1012 facts:
- fridge and freezer the size of the ones we had in college
- microwave and regular oven are the same unit (I think I got cursed after complaining about the combo washer/dryer . . . and the micro/oven combo is only convenient for cooking meals for a leprechaun)
- No shower curtain, just half of a glass door. This is hard to imagine- but look at the photos. (Let's just say that water on the floor has been a bit of a problem)
- 1 closet and no dresser in the bedroom (let't not even talk about the lack of shoe space)
- 4 plates, 4 cups, 4 wine glasses, 3 forks, 4 knives, 3 spoons . . . and a partridge in a pear tree

Our New Address


West End Quay


Balmoral Apts


Apt C- 1012


2 Praed Street


London, W2 1JL

Apt. Phone Number: 011 44 207616 9250

Miss you all lots!!!!!!

The Phantom of the Opera

Her Majestys Theatre

Outside the theatre


The stage before the show Enjoying some champagne


Tonight we made our first visit to one of London's incredible theatres, Her Majestys Theatre. As many of you know, this is one of my favorite things to do in the world. I have always wanted to see Phantom in London and Ian bought these tickets as a present for my birthday. The show was amazing and the theatre was gorgeous. I did get in trouble for taking a photo inside the theatre, but it was worth it. The picture does not do it justice- but the inside of the theatre was so beautiful. The seats were plush red velvet and the amount of gold and ornate decorations was outrageous. We felt like we had stepped back in time. To say that I loved it was an understatement . . . and if I get my way, we may have to go again!!

Our first Indian meal

As many of you know, we love Indian food. Since we found out about moving to London we have been looking forward to sampling the local indian cuisine. We actually had this meal on Sunday night after wandering around for over 45 minutes to find an restaurant. We were under the impression that Indian restaurants were on every corner- but they most certainly are not. The good news is that the food was good- but we are not sure if we really loved it or if we were weary and starving.

The North Pole

We knew we were going to be exploring the UK- but who knew we were going to get to visit The North Pole!! I guess we can cross that one off the list of places to see. These photos were taken at the local pub- actually it is so local we can be home in about 50 steps. The pub is everything you would expect an English pub to be- dark wood inside, red leather stools and chairs and heavy gold curtains. The bartender is a curly haired chap (we actually heard a local patron call him that tonight) named James. (Jen- I bet that rings a bell). The local beer must be a little stronger because after 2 pints Ian and I came home and cooked burgers. As many of you know, this is a ritual usually saved for nights when way more than 2 beers were consumed.

Enjoy the pics!!

4 Manilla Street- Flat 32

Here are some photos of our first apartment in London. This will be our home until Sept 6th.

A few observations about London living:

- A/C not included- but the floors are heated- strange

- Although there are windows- there are no screens. Makes for an interesting bug situation

- The light switches are outside the room- which makes for an excellent prank while Ian is in the bathroom and I can turn the lights off from the hall

- There is a reason we bought a king bed- unfortunately there are only queen beds here

- The washer and dryer is the same machine- don't ask- I am not planning on doing any laundry until we get to Apt #2- and I am hoping there will be 1 washer and 1 dryer

- They do not use wash cloths in the UK- or potholders- which made for interesting problem solving when we made a pizza in the oven last night

Enjoy the photos and we'll write again soon!

Day 1 Adventure on The Tube

Today is day 1 of our London adventure. Yesterday we broke the first rule of international travel (Don't fall asleep during the day and try to get on the local time) so today we got a late start. We decided that today we would take care of buying our travelcards for the trains and subway (AKA the Tube). This turned out to be quite a process- 1 1/2 hours to be exact. The line was long, we didn't know our postal code, etc. The good news is that we are now the proud owners of 2 Oyster travel cards for unlimited monthly travel.

After all that work, we were determined to put the new travel cards to use. We took the tube over to Baker Street on the West side of London to check our our next apt. The building looks great and the location is really convenient- only 10 min walk from Hyde Park. We move in on Thursday.

Above are some pictures of us in Green Park. This is the park next to Buckingham Palace. All of London's parks have those green and white stripe lounge chairs for rent. It seemed very British- so we paid to sit . . . and after 2 miles of walking and hours of exploring it was exactly what we needed. This is a must for anyone visiting London- visit one of the fantastic parks and relax in a green chair.

Arrived at Heathrow

We have finally arrived at Heathrow Int'l Airport. As you can see from the photo, we did not pack lightly- are you surprised??

The plane ride went pretty quickly, but the ride from the airport with all of our luggage packed into the Volvo was torture. Seeing our name on the chauffeur sign was pretty funny-and of course we had to document it with a photo. After a stop at the rental agency to collect our keys we arrived at Canary South, our residence until next Thursday. The flat (apt.) is very modern and looks like an ikea catalog. Everything is smaller than in the US- except for the step up into the bathtub- I practically need a ladder. We also realized- after thinking our thermostat was broken- that we have no AC- great!!

We spent some time in the afternoon exploring the Canary Wharf area. The area is very new and modern- in fact it looks very much like Manhattan- with tall office buildings complete with shops and restaurants. We enjoyed our first english meal at The Slug and Lettuce- I could not think of a more repulsive name for a restaurant- but it seems to be a chain here in the UK. I doubt that would be popular in the US.

We also ventured into our first UK grocery store- The Waitrose. Now this was an experience!! Everything was different, and much smaller. There was no skim milk and we bought wheatgerm bread by mistake (looking for whole wheat). We ended up spending 29 pounds (about $60) and only got water, milk, juice,bread, spaghetti, cheese, bananas, soup, potatoes, green beans, burgers and some lamb. Now we know why the Brits are so skinny- they can't afford to eat. Ian and I should come back a little lighter- or much poorer!

We wanted to give everyone our first address and phone number- (good till Sept 6th)

Canary South Phone- 011 44 207 531 6679

4 Manilla Street- Apt 32

London E14 8GD

We also bought a UK cell phone where you can reach Lindsay. Ian's US cell phone still works.

Cell number- 011 44 796 431 8550 (wow that's a lot of numbers)

Email addresses

Ian- ian.petropoulos@kmpg.co.uk

Lindsay- lindsay.petropoulos@yahoo.com

Until tomorrow . . .