In London!

A photo of the Swiss Alps, The Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, and Ruby sleeping.




It’s been months since I’ve posted something on the blog. Mostly due to laziness and a little bit because moving to London was time consuming and stressful and I didn’t feel like writing about how much things were hard. It’s a little whiny to complain about how much it costs to live in London or how hard a move is.

Here is a the last 8.5 months in a nutshell. I took a few weeks off before we moved to London and said goodbyes to everybody in late January. We packed up and moved our stuff in February and lived in corporate housing in Central London for about a 6 weeks, which felt like forever. After that we moved to an apartment in the West Kensington area of town, just outside central London, it is a little bit cheaper, still centrally located, close to transportation, and lastly, allows pets. That’s right! We got a dog. Ruby is a Beagle who is about 4.5 months old now. She is very smart and partly devious like all Beagles are.

Jess and I have done some travelling. We’ve been to Switzerland, Munich, Brussels, Western Ireland, Iceland, Canterbury England, and a few other small places in England. Jess has also been to Montpelier France. We don’t have much in the way of trips planned out at the moment. We’re taking it easy, playing with the dog, and generally relaxing and exploring the city a little bit.

Things I miss the most include Mexican food, Mt. Dew being readily available, and being in the same time zone as friends. All American sports are on during the middle of the night except football, which I intend to watch religiously.

Things I like the most include the global nature of news, easy travel to Europe, and trying new ethnic foods. (Lebanese anyone?) I’m also finding myself getting into soccer(football) and rugby because they are the sports I mostly understand and they happen to be on TV regularly. Cricket, while I mostly understand it, is slow and hard to maintain focus around. I don’t think I can get into the 5 day international test matches. Too much wasted time for me.

I’ve driven on the left side of the road and lived. I can think in £ (British Pounds) and not covert to $$$.

Once I decide to not be lazy I may post photos from the various trips but no guarantees.

New Year, New Me

I saw Tron Legacy yesterday. It was the BEST movie I watched on New Years Day 2011. My lord that film has scarred my brain. It has some interesting special effects and a semi decent cast of actors but it's best to not spend time trying to understand the plot or the multitude of holes that permeate the whole thing. I would say it's sort of like The Dude was dropped into the Matrix 2 and 3. Give me a cool action film not some weird semi-religious / philosophical take on humanity and creation.

I'm at home watching the Sunday Night Football game (AKA the Toilet Bowl) between the 6-9 Seahawks and the 7-8 Rams to determine the final NFC West champion. It's going to be a hard game to watch. Charlie Whitehurst is starting the game and I predict the Rams win by 14.

Overall it was a quiet week with the holiday hangover. Jess and I decided to do nothing for New Years Eve which was the right move. We stayed in, drank some champagne, and watched the ball drop on TV. I think the most interesting thing we did was go over to our friend Kevin's house and have a homebrew taste test. We've been home brewing for a few months now and bought industry standards to taste test against. Stone Pale Ale vs. CDBC (Central District Brewing Collective) American Pale Ale. I'm don't think I'm going too far on a limb by saying our beer was drinkable and not a complete farce when compared to Stone. I would also say we have light years to go before our beer is as good as Stone anything.

Who is commenter AN by the way?

We have been gorging ourselves on good TV before we go since the UK will have different, interesting shows to watch. In particular I think Breaking Bad on AMC is the best show on television so Jessica and I have been watching several episodes at a time to close out Season 3 before we head out. It's fantastic!

The UK is creeping up on us slowly and really fast at the same. Some dates are hammered out and some have a ways to go but it looks like I'll be going over in early-ish February to start work and find a place to live with Jessica coming sometime after that to wrap lose ends and oversee the pack and move from Seattle.

Progress.