It's glorious!!

Unfortunately I ran out of cubbies...I need to make another trip to Target when I'm home next...I need room for the new ones that are sure to come :)

I've died and gone to Chelsea

I must live in Chelsea at some point before I move back! I love, love, love it! I went after work b/c they have a Bliss spa there and I was going to buy some wax there that Kelly recommended. (Poetic Wax, amazing BTW!) When I got off the tube at Sloane Square it was like I stepped into a fairy tale! Great Shopping, cute residential streets with the most picturesque homes....my new goal is to find a way to live there! They also have Partridges, a grocery store that Andrea and Mike discovered. A grocery store you say, why be so excited about a grocery store??? Good question, I'll tell you why...it is American grocery heaven!! Although, satisfying my stomachs cravings comes at a high price. Five pounds per box of Wheat Thins high, yes, you heard me correctly...I did pay $10 for a box of Wheat Thins, and I'd do it again! Unfortunately, I just stumbled upon this grocery heaven so I didn't have all of my proper "grocery shopping gear" with me. I could only buy what I could carry home; Wheat Thins, Welches Grape Jelly, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Oh My! I can't wait to make another, more properly equipped visit! Until then I'll be rationing my $10 Wheat Thins.

Hold the Lyme please...

My beautiful, pristine park across the street apparently has it's faults, namely killer bugs carrying Lyme disease. I got an email from Janey (owner of Fit for a Princess (morning bootcamp)) letting me know that we had a morning bootcamper admitted to the hospital for a swollen infected bug bite she got at morning bootcamp, she now has Lyme disease. Several other people in the class have reported bad reactions from bites and had to go on anti-biotics. Excellent. Janey suggested bug spray, duly noted, it has been added to my shopping list.

Privacy not needed

It seems that in cheery ol' London that the privacy and decency to which I am quite accustomed is not really held with much regard. I had two quite interesting experiences this week. One I don't really even need to explain, the picture says it all....




The second came on Saturday morning when my Polish painter brought over his Polish friend to paint my flat. Well, Kris (Polish painter) explained to him (Polish friend) what needed to be painted and left him with me...do I leave, do I stay, I didn't know what to do...so I stayed and shut myself in my bedroom and read for three hours. Not before I walked down the hallway and noticed that my new painter friend didn't have his shirt on. Odd, was he going to paint topless?? Wouldn't surprise me since the movers delivered all of my stuff in flip flops, they're not to "professional" here to say the least. So I went back into the confines of my bedroom and when I came back out I had noticed, much to my relief, he had put a painters suit on and left his shirt on the edge of my couch...along with his shorts! That's right people, the man took all of his clothes off IN MY LIVING ROOM! So I quickly hurried back to my room again where I should remain until he left! Before he left he asked to use the restroom, so I pointed down the hall. He went in and DIDN'T SHUT THE DOOR! Seriously, was this guy raised in a Polish barn! Anyhow, I plugged my ears and waited for him to leave, then went out and saw my freshly painted flat! It feels so much more homey now! I will post more pics once I finish putting everything away (if that ever happens). But here is a preview!

Hayden Claire is One!

My precious little niece turned one this weekend and it just broke my heart that I couldn't be there for her first birthday party. My sister has posted all 400 pictures from the weekend on shutterfly in a very speedy manner so that I could see them (thanks Linds!) but it almost made me more sad to look at them! When my sister makes Hayden a scrapbook, I'll be missing from all of the pictures. We can just tell her I took them all! This was the first thing I really had to miss because of being in London, I'm sure it's not the last thing I'll have to miss, but it sure was the last thing in the world I wanted to miss.

I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by, it seems like just yesterday that we were up at the hospital...not once, but twice, awaiting her arrival. It's hard to believe how much you can love someone!! One things for sure, I'm not missing her second birthday for anything!

Jesus was a Carpenter....

Clearly I am not!

I screwed the legs of the desk on the wrong side, all 4 of them before I noticed!

A day in the life

So I was talking to Courtney the other night (illegally at work since I don't have internet until the 29th!) and she mentioned how she wished she could see everything over here so she could picture my new life. Well, it got me thinking that I should try and blog a day in the life in pictures. Easier said than done my friends! Basically, I just took some pictures of random things over the last week and looked like a freek taking pictures on the tube! I don't know if this will give any of you guys a better vision of "my life" but it's worth a shot. So here goes...

How I dry my clothes, even though my flat has a so called "dryer"

My commute to work, this is nothing, I was didn't have room to take a picture once it filled up!

The streets I walk on....

The entrance to my office....

My Desk (with a shout out to my blog on my computer!)

My view when I come up from the Tube...my building!

The park across the street where I do my morning bootcamp

In more important news, I made a friend! Yay! I met a girl the other week on my elevator, so like a dork I wrote her, in so many words, a "will you be my friend, check yes or no" note and left it in her mailbox. She replied, the answer was "yes." Much to my relief, that could have lead to some very uncomfortable future elevator rides had it gone the other way! Anyways, it was a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders, the first one is always the hardest (or at least that is what I am telling myself!) Her name is Kelly, and she is American too, yay!



Sorry the posts haven't been too frequent lately, but without internet at home it is pretty hard to find time to write these at work. I have been very busy at work, which I am thankful for in a way since it makes the day go fast. This past weekend was a good one, on Saturday I met Amy at the Borough Market which was really neat and definitely a good local place to take my future visitors. I am just "gutted" (they really do say that here!) because I totally forgot to take pictures. It is basically a huge outdoor market where you can get fresh veggies, fruits, meats, cheeses, flowers, you get the picture! Then later I made my first of many trips to Homebase, the much smaller UK version of Home Depot. I picked out some paint which is to be painted by Kris, and only Kris...my landlady's Polish decorator. Needless to say, I don't think she is too excited about me painting her pristine, sterile white walls. But for my sanity, I decided I really don't care, I need some color. My last shipment comes tomorrow (!) and the painter on Saturday, so hopefully next week I can post some pictures of the finished product. Back to my perfect English weekend.... Sunday, I needed to do something free as I just booked a trip to Africa, that's right people, I'm going to Africa! The coolest thing about London is almost all of their museums are free, they believe the art belongs to the people, or something poetic like that. So I made my way to the National Gallery and looked at a bunch of old paintings that all looked the same after a short time. They did have one hall that had some Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Manet, I enjoyed those. After my admissionless afternoon in the National Gallery I headed to Regents Park and met Amy and Sherry for an afternoon picnic followed by an improv show at the Open-Air Theatre. It was great! I loved the theatre, and the comedy show was really funny as well, oh to be as clever as those people.

Trafalgar Square

The National Gallery

Random Church by Trafalgar Square...notice the lovely day!

Yesterday marked the first of many 6 AM work outs for me, I actually didn't mind it. I really liked the feeling of accomplishing so much before I even went to work. Although, I know that feeling will probably fade pretty fast. And I am so sore today, I couldn't believe that in just 3 weeks off that my body would return to it's natural state and defy me so quickly! I am working out in the park across the street, there is a company called Fit For A Princess who leads these workouts for women only. It is pretty funny, everything is hot pink!



I am loving my new found freedom, I have no responsibilities here, no obligations to anyone other than myself and I am loving it! No offense to anyone at home, I have loved all of the weddings, showers, birthday's more than you'll ever know, but it has been really nice to be completely in charge of my time and how I spend it. I have no obilgations to anyone here and I am loving it so far!




I have had quite a "blonde" moment this week, not surprisingly. So all of the tubes here are color coded on the maps, Circle Line is Yellow, District is Green and so forth, well somebody actually had to point out to me that the poles inside of the trains are color coded as well so you can tell which train is you are getting on! Who knew, what a smart idea...if only I'd caught on sooner!


Here is the link to the trip in Africa I am taking if you want to check it out, I'll be gone the first two weeks of November! And yes, I am aware of how ironic it is that I am taking a trip through Gecko Adventures...as long as there's no lizards on the trip I'm fine with it!


http://www.geckosadventures.com/Africa/Trip/Overview.html?trip=Backroads%20of%20Botswana&tripid=3193

The drunk irish girl that lives within my head

...please leave!  Seriously, I have found that the voice inside of my head is speaking in an English accent, unfortunately she sounds more like a drunk irish woman.  It is so weird, all of my thoughts are in an accent.  I'll catch myself doing it and I can't make it stop!

First off, I finally got my air shipment! YAY!  Although, a disaster quickly ensued in my flat.  See below...

It's still not all put together, I am still trying to figure out how to go from three closets to one, that is a tricky one.  Coolest Invention Ever...Vacuum Bags.  See below...

before... 

                                                                 after...  

They delivered my shipment on Thursday at noon, and it actually was 

a nice day amist a week of constant drizzle so I decided to go walk around the neighborhood a little.  I had been wanting to try this BBQ place I had seen, and heard was actually pretty good.  It is called Bodeans, and it was actually very yummy!  I had a pulled pork sandwich, chips (fries), and creamed corn.  I was pleasantly surprised and the BBQ sauce wasn't too bad either.  It actually reminded me of McDonalds bbq sauce, which I happen to love!

After my lunch, I walked around a little more and discovered my new favorite store...go figure!  It is Oliver Bonas, www.oliverbonas.co.uk  they have the cutest things ever!  I also took some time to learn the bus system around my neighborhood so I could take another trip to TK Maxx to try and find some sheets and a mattress cover.  So I hopped on the double decker red bus, and I did it right! I actually ended up in the place I meant to go!  I got both a new set of sheets and a fluffy mattress cover and then decided to hop on another bus to get home...and again, i did it right!  On my ride home there were the two cutest little kids with their nanny.  Sky and Aiden, they were perfectly tan with perfect blonde curly hair.  Well, little Aiden decided to stick his hands down his pants, for which his nanny quickly corrected him, to which he responded in his perfect little english accent "I had my hand on my willy!"  I about died laughing!

So here are some more things I've observed this week...

I need to bring an Employees must wash hands before returning to work sign with me to the office, as everytime I've gone to the "loo" at work the other people in there just flush and leave...whhhaaat, gross

Apparently, they don't really sensor the newspapers here,  there was a shooting in Istanbul and they showed a picture in the paper of the dead guy lying on the cement with blood running down the sidewalk...

manhole covers are square here...that one is for you Robert!

their sheets don't even fit their own beds...there was an extreme amount of man power and sweat involved, i don't know if i'll take them off again...kidding

WARNING: MOM DO NOT READ- there is at least one stabbing a day, yesterday there were 4 within 6 hours of each other...awesome 

Traveling on the tube to work every morning is more like a huge cattle herd, and a severe invasion of my personal space.  

They do try to make the commute more bearable by handing out free newspapers outside of the stations, although they give you NO place to throw them away, so I have resorted to a sinister life of littering.  Although they magically disappear by the ride home.

Oh, and the other day I saw an old man on the tube that looked like he stepped straight out of the 1800's... coattails,  saber and all...John, you would have loved it! 

I'll leave you with a picture of the view from my window, on a "nice" day!

A little about Mii

Meet my new best friend, we share the same name, hair color, eye color and cute button nose...ok maybe I've gone too far, but anyways, here she is...meet my Mii

Seriously, the only new additions to my flat in the week I've been here are my new flat screen tv and a wii.  Upon their much awaited Saturday delivery (yes, stores deliver just about anything right to your doorstep!) I immediately put on my "handy" hat and assembled my tv and wii and they actually worked!  Unfortunately, as soon as I had created my Mii it was time to go meet Mike and Andrea (co-worker, wife and the two wheels to my third) to go to a good 'ol American Independence Day picnic.  We all had high hopes, I think I somehow thought I would walk up and there would be a big flashing lightbulb sign above my head saying "I've just arrived from America" and all of the people there would flock to get to know me...so not the case! This meeting people thing is going to be tougher than I thought!  Anyways, we quickly decided the picnic (if you can call bringing your own aluminum foil "grill" setting it on top of two empty beer cans and lighting a fire under it a picnic) was a bust.  So we decided to head back to our restaurant of choice from the previous night and see if there was less than a two hour wait this time around.  So there we were, at Wahaca...think Mexico City street tacos and to all of our much needed surprise the margarita's were good, no, they actually were some of the best I've had...ever!  Don't worry, i'll take anyone who visits me there...tempting, I know.

Well, so much has happened in the past week...yet, I still somehow feel like I've accomplished nothing at all!  So I'll just highlight a few tidbits below...

• UK beds are NOT the same size as American beds...3 sets of yummy, soft sheets wasted!
• i have seen a grotesque amount of popped collars...seriously guys??
• the milk tastes different, not bad,  just different
• not only do Brits drive on the left they also walk on the left....i keep running into people
• i have had my first and last mojito here...dark rum people, try again.
• they have TJ Maxx! well it is TK Maxx here, same thing although more cluttered and even less organized, if you can believe it
• movie theatres have assigned seating. interesting concept, makes sense i guess
• apparently "UK Lauren" is environmentally conscious...i am now the proud owner of a big reusable grocery bag
• they don't have plugs in the bathroom so i dry my hair in the hallway...where was the common sense inspector on that one
• did i mention you can order just about anything online and they'll deliver it to your door next day!
• MTV is just now getting around to playing Newlyweds and the Hills...two tragic endings I don't know if I can keep to myself much longer!
• and finally, news from the other side of the pond...a hooker named Foxy Lady wanted to buy my car, but apparently my ride wasn't suitable for her to turn her tricks in so it's still on the market people...tell your friends, but not your hooker friends

I'll report back soon with more observations, that's all I can offer right now!