Long. Overdue.

I know, I know, I know. We've been atrocious at blogging in a timely manner this month. We promise to improve going forward.

November has gone by incredibly quickly and we've been busy - hence, the lack of blogging. We'll go backwards again to the weekend we celebrated our friend Mike's 30th birthday. The evening started with a really, really awesome dinner at a Moroccan restaurant called Momo. We didn't have to sit on the floor, but we did sit in chairs that were shorter than the norm. I don't remember the name of my dish, but it was lamb and it was delicious. And much to our pleasant surprise, as we were enjoying our mains, the lights of the restaurant dimmed and the music became much louder and there was lots of dancing, clapping, etc from the staff - including a belly-dancer-type. It was really fun. After dinner, we had enough time for 1 drink at a nearby pub before heading to the ICEBAR for our 40 minutes time slot. Yes, 40 minutes. Prior to entering the bar, we thought 40 minutes was way too short. We were wrong. We were ready to go after about 30 minutes. Everything in the bar is made of ice - the walls, the actual bar itself, the cups you drink out of (not the floor, thankfully). You pay an entrance fee that includes a drink once inside the bar and before you walk into the bar area which is kept at a steamy 23 degrees (F), they give you a cloak/cape thing with gloves attached. If you're me, you might also bring leg warmers too (see pics for evidence). We had a wonderful time taking lots of pictures and I licked a lot of walls...because I could! It's ice!! After the ICEBAR, the night ended with drinks and dancing at another bar near Regent Street. And also possibly some yummy Chinese food in Chinatown if you're Matt and me. :)

We spent Sunday recovering from Saturday and watching Arsenal (go Arsenal!) and Chelsea (booooo) football games with Brock - and a bit of the Bears game before trying Vietnamese food for the first time. I cannot believe that it took me moving to London to try Vietnamese food, REAL Chinese food, Turkish food, Indian food...and the list goes on. I'm super in-love with the ethnic food here...I think I've mentioned that before? :) Luckily, we had the chance to frequent our favorite Indian restaurant the following Wednesday because we had visitors who wanted Indian food...

My friend Melissa (from Rush) and her fiance Matt came into London the following Wednesday morning and we took a tour of Emirates Stadium (the Arsenal stadium) - which totally rocked. Matt is a big Arsenal fan and had never taken the tour before. It allowed us a chance to sit in the fancy chairs where the directors sit, a peek at the locker room and my favorite part, an opportunity to sit in another set of fancy and very comfortable chairs down on the field where the manager, team doctor, physiotherapist, etc. sit. Very comfy. We met (my) Matt and Anas (a friend of Matt and Melissa's) at Tiger Spice (note: favorite Indian restaurant) for dinner later that evening. One of these days, we'll try another place, but it's SO GOOD there. Mmmmm.

On Thursday, my Matt headed off to work and Melissa, her Matt and I headed to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was, by far, my favorite place in London yet. We spent 2 hours wandering around and also climbed a total of 532 (ish) steps to take in not 1, but 2 panoramic views of the city. Our leg muscles were literally shaking by the time we got back to ground level. We met Anas for lunch near St. Paul's and then I sent Matt and Melissa back on the train to southeast England where Matt's family is from. Always so fun to have visitors here! For those of you considering a visit, please note you are fed well and we promise a good time.

But to back up for a second - when Matt, Melissa and I were "tubing" back to our flat before their departure, my phone beeped with a voicemail, but the phone number hadn't registered. I figured it was Matt and thought nothing of it...until I checked my voicemail after my visitors headed into the rain and it was the woman who had interviewed me for the job back in October (who told me that I was their second-choice). The gist of her message was that Cancer Research UK had gotten extra funding for a second position and they were offering me the job. AHHHHH! It was serious madness. There was lots of smiling and jumping and no one home to witness my celebration, thankfully. I calmed down enough to call my new boss back and VERY happily accept the position. They wanted me to start at the same time as first choice girl on Monday December 13 (and were fine with me leaving for the states the following week for Christmas - awesome). So as I sit here (finally) blogging, I have 2 weeks of freedom left before I am employed. My title will be Research Projects Officer and from what I know, a lot of my responsibilities will be figured out after starting (there is a laundry list of possible projects), but it will most likely include assisting with clinical trial work. In short, a perfect job for me. I couldn't be more excited. AND they just moved to a new building that happens to be located about 0.6 miles from our flat, which means I will be walking to work. Walking. To. Work. I might start jumping up and down again at any moment. Stay tuned for more details once I start in a couple weeks.

The weekend following the job offer was spent visiting the Tower of London during the day on Saturday - finally saw the crown jewels, wowsa - and then celebrating our friend Nick's birthday at a visually uninspiring, but super-delicious (and authentic!) Italian restaurant down the road, ending the night at this...well...pub/dance club also close to home. They have a normal pub scene in the front of the space and a dance floor with a DJ in the back room...with a floor that has squares that light up. It's a great place for people-watching and one of Nick's fav places - which is why we continued his birthday celebration there. With him donning a spectacular "birthday boy" sash (courtesy of yours truly). Another great night with great friends.

Matt and I slept in the following day and then happily wandered across the street from our flat for a Sunday roast - the best we've had yet. We really are spoiled by our location. It is literally surrounded by good restaurants and fun shopping. And pubs, of course. Anyway, the roast was followed by some Christmas shopping in Covent Garden and yet another amazing dinner in Chinatown. Upon our return to Chicago, I hope I can count on some of you to trek down to Chinatown with me so I can eat proper Chinese food.

I spent the next week literally running around London finding Thanksgiving supplies. I did have time for a quick shopping/lunch date with my friends Theresa and Gemma (and Gemma's adorable 6-month old, Fiona) to wander Northcote Road. But yes, the remainder was filled with turkey-related errands. Because everyone was working Thursday, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday. Sandy came over early Saturday morning so we could start cooking. We stuffed our British turkey and just barely crammed him into the oven. I couldn't find turkey bags, which my family uses to keep the turkey moist, so at my dad's suggestion, we soaked a cloth in butter and covered the turkey. Unfortunately, despite our efforts, the cloth dried out and started to produce this awful burning, non-Thanksgiving-smelling smell so the t-shirt was ditched and we used foil instead. And basted the bird. A lot. While the turkey hung out in the oven, Sandy prepared a broccoli dish and I made my family's traditional carrot casserole. We made mashed potatoes and heated gravy. I had made homemade cranberry sauce earlier in the week and we served it both hot and cold. Given our limited space and supplies, dinner was fantastic. Sandy and I might still be patting ourselves on the back. I also baked a pumpkin pie from scratch (and made pie crust from scratch for the first time!!) which we enjoyed for dessert, along with Belgian chocolates that Brock brought along from his very recent visit to Brussels and Bruges. And we enjoyed a lot of wine. The evening was capped with games of Bananagrams and Trains. While we all missed our families, it was awesome to spend the holiday celebrating with our London gang.

It's hard to believe that Matt and I are headed back to the states in less than 4 weeks. And that we're going on 5 months of residing in London. Crazy. Time has FLOWN. And we still have a lot going on before we head home! We're going to an Arsenal game (my first, Matt's second) on Tuesday. We leave for a weekend trip to Brussels on Saturday (staying through Monday), planning to hit up the Christmas markets, eat frites, mussels, chocolate, waffles and drink Belgian beer. And hoping to head to Bruges for a quick day trip. Cannot wait!! And the best excitement to look forward to? We recently learned that our favorite Josh Johnson is heading to Italy for work for the next 2 weeks and has made the effort to fly back through London so we could spend a few days together here. YEAH!

I think that's about it. I know I promised updated pics last post. Epic fail. Look for updated pics - again, both October and November albums before Wednesday.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Remember, Remember the 5th of November.

We got to celebrate our first Bonfire night/Guy Fawkes' day this weekend. It's a holiday that Matt could certainly shed more historic detail on, but basically, it's a celebration of the failure of a man named Guy Fawkes in his quest to blow up Parliament back in 1605. And they celebrate with fireworks and bonfires...and more fireworks. After I enjoyed a lovely day of shopping on King's Road with Sandy, we met up with friends and headed to Battersea Park for a bonfire and fireworks. We all enjoyed mulled wine and Dutch beer until they lit the bonfire, which was HUGE, and wonderfully warm. Soon after, we watched 20 minutes of fireworks set to music and then joined the masses of people as we tried to exit the park through "single-file" type gates. It was a bit challenging to say the least. Our group of 10 got a bit separated as we made our way across the Thames into Chelsea to a gastropub called the Pig's Ear. But all successfully arrived at the restaurant and we enjoyed an extremely cozy meal complete with 6 bottles of a yummy South African Shiraz (note: I am currently obsessed with South African wines - they are the best!). The night continued with a pint at a pub in Chelsea (who may or may not now be short of 1 Staropramen pint glass) and then those of us from Islington piled into a cab and headed back home.

Matt and I lazy-ed around on Sunday until Sandy, Mike and Nick joined us for the Bears/Bills game (Bears win!!). We enjoyed libations and pizza and capped the night with a mini youtube marathon (they had never seen Handsome Men's Club - my fav!). All in all, another successful weekend.

I know I need to update pictures, which I promise to do this week - look for new pics to be added to the October link and a soon-to-be-added November link. Also on the agenda for the week is a local art/craft fair and hopefully a trip to the Natural History Museum to see an exhibit of wildlife photography. Today is another one of those insanely gray, rainy days in London - I don't know if I'll ever get used to these, but they make me appreciate sunshine more than I ever have before.

Anyway, we're looking forward to a wonderful weekend ahead celebrating Mike's 30th birthday - complete with a visit to the ICEBAR in London. Oh I am just so stoked. Stay tuned for details next week. Oh and my friend Melissa and her fiance Matt are visiting next week as well - hooray for visitors!!!

Hope everyone is well! Cheers!

November already??

We cannot BELIEVE it's November already. We've been here for nearly 11 weeks and it's flown by. Makes me think that February 2012 will be here tomorrow so we continue to make the most of our time here...

Last weekend was a bit of a drinking fest and while we had a really great time, Matt and I both agree that our post-college bodies cannot handle 3 solid days of drinking in a row. Friday night was a KPMG happy hour for other secondees - we didn't do much mingling so much as chatting up our Buffalo friends, oh well. Afterward, Matt, Sandy, Mike and myself headed to Chinatown for dinner - to the Friendly Inn where, according to NFT, Londoners go for Chinese - and it was SO good, the best Chinese we've had since we've been here (with the exception of dim sum - but that's a whole different category). Our dinner was further enhanced by a hilarious old Chinese woman that repeatedly told the boys how to treat women. Awesome. By the time we left, the waffle man had packed up for the day, but fear not, we got waffles the next day. And the waffle man officially recognized us. Score.

Saturday, Matt and I got up and headed back to Chinatown for a dim sum lunch. We went back to the same place where Scottie, Sarah and I ate dim sum a few weeks ago because I knew what to order (they don't have pictures on the menu and the descriptions are quite short, which makes it more difficult to have any clue what you're ordering). Mmmmm, it was so good. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit obsessed with Chinatown. It's my favorite place to go in the city. But back to the meal, Matt enjoyed dim sum quite a bit and we topped the meal off with the above-mentioned waffles. We spent the afternoon FINALLY getting Matt an Arsenal jersey and wandering up Regent Street.

Saturday night, we headed to a Halloween party that we were invited to by a friend of mine from yoga. The party is the only social gathering her husband's company puts on during the year so they foot the bill. For SIX HOURS OF OPEN BAR (9pm-3am). You can guess how great we felt come Sunday morning. The party was really fun and we made some friends from Canada, Australia and the states. We dressed as an outlet and plug - pictures to be posted soon.

Side note: I often update the pics but forget to mention it in a post so you'll just have to check the folders on the right side of the blog from time to time.

People LOVED our costumes, which made Matt very happy because the costume was his idea, and all night, we had to show people how you could actually insert the plug into the outlet. Yup. Most people in Britain only dress up as "scary" things for Halloween, but our party was full of funny costumes like a character from Fraggle Rock, a shark with human legs coming out of its mouth and a giant weird pink monster thing. We called it a night around 1am and may or may not have grabbed a PJ pizza on the way home.

Sunday morning was rough, but we dragged ourselves out of bed to meet friends for a roast on Baker Street. For those unfamiliar, it's quite common for many pubs to have a "roast" on Sundays, meaning they'll serve beef, chicken, pork and vegetarian roast dishes with lots of yummy roasted vegetables. So 10 of us met up to enjoy delicious food and then we all headed to Wembley Stadium, where the Broncos and 49ers game was. We had a great time enjoying real football...or whatever game the Broncos and 49ers were pretending to play. All in all, one of the best weekends we've had since we've arrived.

Day-to-day life is going well too. Matt's doing well at work and is staying very busy. I had an interview last week for a position with a group called Cancer Research UK, but did not get the job. I got feedback this week and found out I was their second choice. Bah. Oh well, I continue to apply and stay positive. Matt is considering running a half marathon in the spring with Sandy and Mike - it's in Paris! - but is deciding if training can fit into his schedule. I wouldn't argue with another trip to Paris. :)

That's it for now. Hope all is going well back at home. Oh and I'd like to congratulate Lisa and Kevin on the birth of their adorable son, Lucas Ervin!

Cheers!