Some Movie Reviews

Edgar and I love watching movies. Sometimes we'll get on a roll and watch several movies a month and other times we'll go months without seeing anything. Maybe it's the onset of the coldest winter in decades or perhaps it's just because I've been interested in several movies lately, but we've been to 3 movies in the past 3 weeks. I'll give you my reviews...

Frost/Nixon
I thought this movie was so boring. It's literally 2 hours of people just talking back and forth. They try to make it documentary style, but it just didn't work for me. It felt like a bad skit you create for high school English. The story was interesting simply because I didn't know much about this famous David Frost interview of Richard Nixon post impeachment, but the way they did it was just flat out BORING!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
We watched this one last night. It was much better than what I was expecting it to be. It's about a boy (Brad Pitt) who is born old and grows young...reverse aging. The way they created the old Brad Pitt is pretty cool because I watched a show on how they did it, but I was very happy when he finally got to his 40's and they could take the make-up off (know what I mean girls?). I did have a few issues with the storyline, but I won't discuss them here in case you want to watch it. Bottom line...Brad Pitt=eye candy, nice movie, good acting, Cate Blanchett goes a beautiful job...go see it.

Slumdog Millionaire
I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!! I'm not usually one who has a "favorite" movie. I like the classics-Grease, Pretty Woman, Top Gun, Footloose-but rarely have I watched a movie that I just love and can watch again and again. I think this movie is now my favorite movie of all time. It's about a boy from a slum in India who goes on the Indian version of Who Wants to be Millionaire. The movie examines his life based on his answers to the questions. It stars an actor from London and several Bollywood stars. It's a beautiful, colorful, heartwarming, feel good movie. You will leave the theater with a smile on your face and a tear in your eye. I just can't say enough good things about it. It has so far won SAG Awards, the Golden Globes, and many others. It has multiple nominations for the Oscars and the BAFTA's (the British equivalent of the Oscars). Please make a point to see this movie-you won't regret it!

Tenerife!!

We had so much fun in Tenerife! We were only there for 2 1/2 days, but we crammed alot of good times in a very short time frame. We didn't do anything cultural or mind enhancing. We did, however, eat some of the best food I've ever had, laugh constantly with Lilly and Aron, and succumb to total relaxation. Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands, which are owned by Spain. They are located off the western coast of Africa on about the same latitude as the southern border of Morocco.

Our 6am flight meant a very early start on Friday. We drove the car to Gatwick and treated ourselves by parking in the short-term garage. For some reason, it was only about 5GBP more expensive than the off airport long term parking. Lilly and Aron were already checked in when we arrived, so we joined them for a little breakfast coffee and sandwich. In no time, we boarded our Monarch Airline flight and anticipated the end of our 4 1/2 hour journey. We landed on the southern coastline, so it was one of those "looks like we're going to land in the water" landings. We went straight to the rental car desk and got ourselves a convertible. If you're going to do it, you might as well do it right, right?

We stayed at the Iberostar Grand Hotel Anthelia, easily the most beautiful hotel in which I have ever stayed. Their service was just as beautiful as the building, starting with our greeting of smiles and champagne. Our rooms had porches that looked directly onto the pool and allowed easy access to the entire resort. The pool in front of our room was heated, but it wasn't hot enough for me. They had two other saltwater pools that overlooked the ocean. Great view, but waaaaayyy too cold!



We spent Friday lazing by the pool trying to soak up some much needed sun. Lilly took a jog along the promenade and found a restaurant that she thought looked good, so we pried ourselves away from our chairs and headed to dinner in the evening. Was she ever right. We got the best waiter who basically ordered our entire meal for us. It was all delicious and we decided to go there again the following night...highly unusual for us since we generally like to try new things. We went for a few after dinner drinks at a bar next door and then off to a club for a little Latin inspired dancing. Our evening ended around 3am, officially putting us past the awake-for-over-24-hours mark.



We woke around 9:30am on Saturday, determined not to waste any time despite our late night. Our room rate included breakfast, thank goodness. Most half board breakfasts are your run of the mill dry bread, soggy fruit and stale coffee. Exceeding all expectations, this breakfast buffet was unrivalled. When you can have caviar and champagne with your omelet, you know you are some place special. We hopped in the car after breakfast and headed toward El Tiede, the island's volcano. I've never seen a volcano up close and the drive to it was spectacular. Fields of brown and purple lava rocks anchored bright green pine trees dotted along the skyline. The volcano was topped with snow and just begged to be climbed. Edgar and Aron decided to climb a huge mountain. We won't talk about that here, though. It's a great story and I'm glad we can now laugh at it. We returned to our favorite restaurant for dinner, and once again had the most amazing food. Esposito, our waiter, had already ordered our appetizers before we even sat down. Dinner consisted of a salt encrusted sea bass, salad, and potatoes. We finished with our favorite Catalanian desserts, coffee, and warm brandies for the boys.



Sunday brought rain. So we decided to check out the spa because we read that they had a hot tub. This was no ordinary hot tub. It was a thalassotherapy pool. It was a giant heated pool with all sorts of jets and bubbles and fountains. It also had a sauna, steamroom, cold plunge pool and a hotter hottub. Our 2 hours were over way too soon. As we had hot tea before changing out of our swimsuits, we were all overcome with a sense of complete and utter relaxation. I don't think I've ever had this feeling before, that every muscle in my body (including eyelids) were at peace. I want a thalassotherapy pool. If you ever get the chance to spend some time in one, please do it. We extended our checkout to 2pm, so we raced back to our room to change and get our bags together. It was about 2:15 when we received a call from the front desk asking if we needed help with our bags, not "Get the heck out of your room because you are way past your checkout time!" I have never been so tactfully kicked out of a room in my life! One final lunch by the ocean and we were back at the airport. Our flight was slightly delayed upon take off and we had to circle around Gatwick for half an hour while they de-iced the runway. In case you haven't heard, we had a snow storm here (that story is in another post). We finally made it home at 3:15am, tired, but relaxed and with smiles on our faces. We definitely had sweet dreams that night.



Tenerife is a very popular vacation destination for Europeans. Some parts of the island are compared to Cancun, with mass numbers of people and parties everywhere. We were there during an off-season moment, so things were pretty quiet and subdued. Very large resorts are developed along the coastline and even into the hillsides away from the beach areas. I can see how it might be very crowded and uncomfortable when it's high season and the resorts are filled to capacity. I would never go there during high season because I hate big crowds when I am trying to relax on the beach. It was perfect for us...a nice getaway, we saw some sun, and my face even got a little pink. I think I just may make it through the winter now.

It Snowed...and We Had FUN!!!

The worst winter storm in decades hit the UK yesterday, bringing us almost 10 inches snow! Our flight from Tenerife was delayed on departure and then we had to circle around Gatwick while they de-iced the runway. We zipped through customs thanks to our very James Bond-ish Iris scan (your retina is scanned in this machine and you never even have to speak to anyone or stand in line...it's brilliant!). Our bags came out with a little snow on top after their journey from the plane to the baggage claim. Thankfully, we decided to do short-term garage parking, eliminating the need for 20 minutes of scraping and defrosting. Good thing...because we were grossly unprepared for this storm. We don't have a scraper, de-icer, and neither of us had any winter clothes with us.

I felt pretty confident when thinking about driving home. After all, we lived in Columbus, Ohio for 2 years and I've driven in snow before. As we left the airport, there was plenty of snow everywhere, but it seemed that the major roads were at least being plowed....until we got about 5 miles out. The road just kept getting worse and worse. It got so bad that the only reason we were able to keep going was because we were following an SUV and borrowing the tracks it made. As we round-abouted off the major highway to get to Richmond, I was seriously beginning to doubt if we would actually make it our house. We did get stuck a few times, fish tailed most of the way, and Edgar had to push the car out of an intersection because we couldn't get any traction under our tires. Our flat sits in the middle of a hill, so I found the road that was the least steep and we gave it a go. With the pedal to the metal in first gear, we crept up the hill at 2mph, sliding the whole way. We finally crested and pulled into our driveway at 3:15am. What should have taken us 45 minutes, took us 2 hrs and 15 minutes. But we made it home safe and sound. I think that had our plane been delayed another 30 minutes, we could not have made it back.

We woke up to a beautiful blanket of white this morning. All of London transport was closed (there were a few exceptions), so Edgar got to have a snow day!! He did get some work done here at home, and then we went outside to play! We built a snowman, made snow angels, and had a snowball fight. The snow is pretty dry, so it's great for building a snowman, but kind of hurts when packed into a tight snowball!

London's been getting alot of flack for allowing itself to be shut down by 6 inches of snow. What people don't understand is that it doesn't really snow that much here. We generally get a dusting or maybe even an inch. It usually isn't freezing outside, so it melts away pretty quickly. This storm brought a ton of heavily falling snow and freezing temperatures, so it's going to stick around for awhile. They just don't have the equipment to deal with it. No problem for us...we just get to drink hot chocolate and enjoy the beauty.

Things that make you go.....

...Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The Artist Inside

I've always wanted to take a painting class of some sort to see if any talent at all resides in my hands. So, I enrolled in a beginner's water-based painting class here in Richmond. We are working with watercolors and basically anything that can be cleaned off with water instead of spirits.

I've never tried to paint and I really didn't know what my drawing abilities were. I used to get figurines around my parents' house and draw them. I thought they always turned out pretty well, so I think there may be at least a little mediocre artist inside of me. Yesterday was my second class and our objects of the day were continental breakfast items...French Press, croissant, newspaper, fruit bowl, etc. There were many items on the table, so I would only pick 3 or 4 to draw for each exercise.

As I began an exercise in which we had 5 minutes to draw using a viewfinder, this thought crossed my mind and I laughed out loud a little: Never try to draw a banana if you are a beginner drawer. Especially when the entire class will be critiquing the drawing at the end of class. Needless to say, I flipped the page and began a new drawing, sans banana.

You Learn Something New Everyday

Having been here for almost 2 years now, I thought I had already learned most of the everyday life differences separating the US from the UK...things like vocabulary, driving, food, etc. Well today was a random new thing. We receive our bank statements on paper about 5x7 size. It's got 2 small holes on the top left side and 2 small holes on the top right side. I'm thinking there must be a special binder for this type of hole-punched paper. I bought one when we first arrived and it didn't fit the holes on the paper, so I've been forced to manually punch holes in the paper that actually fit the binder. Imagine my happiness when the binder finally filled up and I could buy a new one that actually fit! I made my way to the office supply store and perused the binder section with no luck. I asked the salesguy for help when I thought I must be overlooking it. Indeed, nothing fit the paper. I asked if they had regular 3-ring binders because all the ones on display were only 2-ring.He gave me that smirk that I have received so often over here and said, "Three ring binders are an American thing. Europe uses 2-ring binders." And before you ask, yes, even the notebook paper only has 2 holes in it.

The even bigger question is why would our bank, a bank that is based here in Europe, use hole-punched paper that doesn't fit a standard binder, or any binder, for that matter? I guess the same reason they send our PIN number through the mail with a giant logo of the bank on the front of the envelope...with our account number printed next to the PIN number. Smart.

I'm Back...

Well, it seems I've gotten myself into trouble from a number of readers for having not updated my blog. For this, I apologize. I want you to know that I am truly appreciative of your interest in our lives over here and I will try to catch up and keep up the best I can.

First, the Christmas trip! Of course, it went by way too fast! I arrived on a Tuesday evening and was picked up at the Austin airport by my best friend, Amber. I missed my original Houston-Austin connecting flight because my London flight was delayed and arrived late. Not to worry, though, there was another flight only one hour later and I didn't have to wait long at all. I made my first Sonic run in a year that night, eating a hot fudge sundae before I even had my dinner. It tasted very good and was the perfect appetizer for my chicken finger basket with tater tots. Keep in mind, the Brits don't do hot fudge, they do toffee, and they certainly don't do tater tots, only chips...which are really fries. I don't know how I keep it all straight! The next few days were filled with Christmas shopping, present wrapping, TexMex eating, and friend hugging. Edgar arrived on Friday night, only to head out again Monday morning to spend Christmas week with his family in Colombia. I was very sad to be separated during this time, but I am so happy he got to spend a fun, relaxing week with his whole family in Cali as well as Bogota. I spent Christmas at Shaila and Bill's house with my parents, Brody, and Uncle Wayne. You can imagine the fun we had with a 4 year old in the house! I think when Santa is in the area, there's nothing you can't get a 4 year old to do!

New Year's Eve was a blast. My parents opened their house to several of our friends, and we had so much fun catching up, hanging out and playing the Rockband we got for Christmas from Mom and Dad. James, Amber and Cade drove in to celebrate with us and we all toasted 2009 together, reflected on the past year, and smiled at the promise of the New Year. New Year's Day holds a special tradition for one side of my family. We all (about 25 of us) gather at my great Aunt's house in Elm Mott. We've been doing this for as long as I can remember...probably around 30 years now. The big order of the day is Chinese Christmas. It's like playing chess. There is much strategizing between families, couples, and/or siblings. Somehow, after the 3-hour battle, we all usually wind up with something we like.

Unfortunately, my fun came to a screeching halt on January 2. I was beginning to feel sick on New Year's Day, but thought it was probably just the usual allergies I get when I visit the area. However, I woke up the next morning with a very high fever that stuck around for the following 3 days. It seems that everyone either had this virus or had been struck with it sometime in the past 2 months. It is so sad, but I spent the remainder of my time laying in bed or on the couch willing myself to get better and strong enough to fly home. I don't get sick very often, and this one really knocked me out. I did feel well enough the last two days to do some shopping and finally eat that steak I had been dreaming about. The good news is that I was well enough to fly home. Mom, Dad, Shaila, and Brody accompanied me to Austin, and after many tearful hugs and goodbyes, I began my journey back to London.

I am now a week and a half post-Texas. The jetlag is gone, suitcases put away, and walking shoes back on. It's a little cold at night when the sun goes down, but, so far, the days are pleasantly crisp and cool. I look forward to keeping you updated on this, our final year, in London. There will be plenty of Tourist Days with Charlie, globetrotting (around Europe at least), and general shenanigans to report on. Thanks for reading!