Thinking and Thanking

Apologies for my terrible blogethic these past few weeks.  I have been so busy enjoying life and have had plenty of blog worthy moments, but I just haven't had it in me to get back on the horse.  With my 2nd Thanksgiving in London come and gone, I couldn't go without a Thanksgiving post to remind myself what all I have to be thankful for.  Luckily, it is a lot and I don't need a holiday as a reminder.  Although, it is a great holiday and a great reminder!  A year ago had just celebrated my first Thanksgiving in London with some new friends and I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of my family for their first visit.  A year later, yesterday, I celebrated Thanksgiving for a second time with those same people (although they are much better friends now and we had the lovely addition of Haper Rose Money celebrating her first Thanksgiving at only 3 weeks old!)  I also had the fantastic pleasure of celebrating with Cole, he gave up his Thanksgiving with his family to come and visit me in London!!  So even though I wasn't with my family on Thanksgiving this year, I was definitely in the company of my "London Family" and I had a HUGE piece of home with me since Cole was with me as well!  If I can't spend the day with my family, I can't imagine a better group of people to be with in their place. 

This year has brought me so much to be thankful for. I have really settled in here in London, I have amazing friends and I absolutely am loving my life!  I gained another neice, Ainsley Kate, who I can't wait to cuddle with in a couple of weeks!  My relationships with my family and friends back home are still strong as ever (thanks in part to modern technology!)  I have travelled to some amazing places and I have some really fun trips planned to look forward to in the coming year. I've had lots of fun visitors in this last year (Mom, Dad, Lindsay, John, Hayden, Lindsey H., Melissa, Courtney, Mom (again!), Aunt Linda, Cole!!)  and I hope to have many more next year (hint, hint to anyone who wants to come).  There is much to be thankful for :)

A Wee Bit of Fun

Well my friends, I'm not sure whether you would call this Spontaneous or just downright Irresponsible.  I'm sure it's a little of both, but either way, I am glad I did it.  It was late Sunday night a little after midnight and I am sitting on a Night Bus on my way back to my flat from Kings Cross wearing the very same outfit that I left the house in Friday evening to meet a few friends for dinner.  How, you ask, did I arrive in this situation?  Good question, lets rewind 48 hours to the beginning of this little story. 

It's Friday, I rush home from work, shower, change clothes and head out to meet friends for dinner at The Blues Kitchen in Camden and then for drinks and dancing at Proud.  I get to dinner and there are a few new faces there...Bill, just moved here from NY and is friends with my friend Kevin...and Jill, is over visiting Bill for a couple of weeks from NY.  I end up sitting next to Jill at dinner and we start chatting.  She mentions that her and Bill are leaving in the morning to go to Scotland for the night.  I mention that I haven't been to Scotland yet and I am hoping to go soon.  Soon, you say...Jill says she thinks I should go tomorrow.  I say, Oh but I can't I don't have any clothes, etc, etc.  She says you can borrow mine...I say, Okay!  We book my train ticket on Kevin's iPhone, finish dinner, go dancing at Proud, I crash on Bills couch and we are on our way to Kings Cross to catch the train at 7 am, a mere 5 hours later.  Jill has lent me a comfy sweater to throw over my outfit and given me her travel toothbrush that she acquired on her flight over, I'm set!  By 10 am we have made friends with some lovely (read rowdy) Englishmen headed to Newcastle for a football game.  They like us and share there Jack Daniels with us freely.  Did I mention it's 10 am? Sheesh!

We roll into Edinburgh around 1 head to the hotel to drop off our stuff ,what stuff you ask, oh that's right I didn't have any "stuff"  Then we head to a pub for lunch and decide to pass on the Haggis.  Google it if you don't know.  Then we are off to the Castle for some site-seeing.  The Edinburgh Castle is smack dab in the middle of town so it is easy to find.  After wandering around the castle we did some shopping on the Royal Mile...aka Tourist Trap Row.  Then we settle into another pub and meet some locals and a smattering of Norwegians...which is quite ironic since Jill is half Norwegian! After that we headed to dinner at Pizza Express (the Scottish fare didn't hold much appeal for us) and then we went to Bar Kohl a Vodka bar where I rediscovered my love of White Russians.  We tried to rally and make it a night for the books, but when we ended up at Espionage, think underground KGB-ish club, we realized that we had started way too early in the day.  So we cut our losses and headed back to the hotel before midnight.

The next morning we woke up, showered, I put on the same clothes then headed to do the Underground tour of Mary King's Close. You see, Edinburgh was built up rather than out. They built streets and buildings ontop of one another so there is a whole underground world underneath the streets from many many years ago. You can still go down there and wander around. They tell you some of the history of the town and what life was like back then, all about the Plague, etc. I'll tell you what, if I had to go back in time to live back then, my one luxury item would have been a pair of golashes! I'll spare all of the gory details, but lets just say they didn't have sewage plumbing back then! YUCK! After the tour we had a few hours to spare before we had to catch our train back to London so we did a little more touristy shopping, met William Wallace, drank in a couple more pubs then were on our way back to London around 7 pm. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but a lot of fun and I'm so glad that I went! I now how two new friends and a lot of Scottish memories! Scotland, check!

Pics from the Castle....

Because everyone needs a picture sitting on a cannon!

Just checking to see if the rumor is true...

Meet Bill and Jill

EEK...I am such a geek!

William Wallace was one chatty fellow

I'll leave you with a very Scottish image...

A Halloween Miracle

I finally recovered from the week spent on my death bed, and just in time for Halloween!  It was a true Halloween miracle!! I spent all of last week quarentined in my bedroom with a terrible sore throat and fever for 4 days straight, it was miserable!  I was so worried that I wouldn't be better in time for Halloween, I LOVED my costume that I had bought for this year and I did not want to miss my chance to wear it!  Luckily I came around on Friday with a miraculous recovery!  Ever since Britney's Circus tour this year, I knew I wanted to be a Ringmaster!! I found the Perfect costume and was so excited!! I wasn't trying to go as Britney, but so many people thought I was that I just gave in by the end of the night.  This year I had two parties to go to.  The first was at Kim and Langfords flat and was a Tube themed party...Mind the Gap!! Everyone had to come dressed as a Tube stop or a Tube line. It was really fun to see how creative everyone got!!

Christine as "Chalk Farm" Frances as "the Bakerloo line" Me as "Oxford Circus" and Kim as "Greenwich"

After the Mind the Gap party I headed into the city to a party sponsered by the Texas Exes.  It was a huge party with a bunch of Americans, so much fun!! I met up with Annie, Colby, Meg and Jackie!  Meg and Jackie are lifelong friends from Connecticut and have spent every Halloween together for as long as they can remember...aren't they cute little flappers!  It was a great Halloween, my only greivance is that I left my whip in the cab between parties..boohoo!

Meg, Me, Jackie and Annie (as Beyonce!!)

Me, Colby (as a cat) and Annie

aren't we cute!