Last Weekend

Hey Everybody!

A little late, but wanted to give some updates on our happenings lately. We had a great weekend! On Friday night we headed down to the riverfront here in Richmond for a dinner at Gaucho Grill. It's an Argentinian steakhouse and they import their beef from Argentina. I just can't get used to British beef, so it's nice to eat a good "imported" steak every now and then. We should get them to import Texan beef...I mean, has anyone REALLY died from mad cow lately? Unfortunately, the sides were decidedly British. I've never seen a Latin eat beetroot salad or rocket with Parmesan shavings, but at least I got a decent steak.

Saturday, we meandered into London for BBQ near Oxford Street. I promise we do other things than just eat around here. Sometimes we just get homesick for familiar food. Bodeans has BBQ that is very tasty and the BBQ sauce is so good. We then walked down Oxford Street to the Marylebone area and checked out a flat we almost lived in. At the time of choosing a place to live 2 years ago, we had no idea of the layout of London and which areas would be the best. After 50 flats, they all started looking the same and most of the time, I had no idea where I was in the city. I just got out of the car when the relo agent stopped and got back in a few minutes later. Well, I have to say, now that I've been here for a while...that flat in Marylebone would have been our definite second choice. The location of Marylebone is central, but not gritty urban with buses and tourists everywhere. We would have been a short walk from literally everything London has to offer. The downfall of the flat is that it has stored heating. This means that a certain amount of heat is stored (don't ask me where) and when it's used up for the day, you have no more heat-for warmth or hot water. I don't know about you, but I cannot in anyway compromise my daily scalding hot showers. It just isn't an option for me. Imagine the horror of visitors taking a cold shower in the middle of winter...YIKES! Also, the front window looked out to a car park (that's British for parking lot) and the kitchen window looked into a conference room of the office building next door. For those of you who have seen our flat and the beautiful back garden (complete with historic horse chestnut tree), you can understand how that location would have been a bit drab for us. We decided if we were to have been here for a year or less, it would have been worth it, but in the end, we are still so happy we have made our home in Richmond. It's very nice to be in the hustle and bustle of the city and then come home to the calm of Richmond. And it's not like we are miles away...it's only 15 minutes!

Sunday...you guessed it...more eating. We met Cata and Seb (her husband) in the Elephant and Castle area. This is where most of the latin population of London live, including many Colombians. You know what this means! We had very authentic Colombian food and we were SOOOOOO happy! You just can't beat a fried sweet plantain! Cata has not been to Colombia (she went to school with Edgar there) in 2 years, so she was in heaven!

So I guess you can say a bit of homesick medicine by way of familiarity filled our weekend. It gave us a good boost and will keep us on track for another couple of months!