A Perfect London Weekend

This weekend was by far my favorite so far in London! Kelly's friend Jackie is visiting from the states so we had to step it up a notch and make sure she thinks we live a fabulously glamirous life every day here in London! Friday night my friend Ann had arranged a "Girls Night Out" at Movida so we joined them for the first part of the night and danced our little hearts away. I loved this club, it was very fun and I loved the way it was decorated, it was underground with exposed brick...very cool. We left Movida after a few hours and headed to Maddox, where Kelly got us in with her uber-fancy modeling connections, haha! It was fun, but we were already a little tired and our feet were killing us, so we stayed there long enough to drink our free drinks from the owner and then headed home around 3:30.

Jackie, Kel and Me at Movida

The next day we had a perfect London Saturday; a walk along the park to stop by Kelly and Simons house that is under construction and then brunch at Giraffe then the rest of the afternoon at Harrods! That night we met up with Kelly's friend Jen who got us all into Vendome, some new club here that is apparently quite hard to get into. It was another girls night out with lots of dancing...although we didn't get to bed until around 6am this night...who am I?!?!

Jackie, Kel, Me and Desi at Vendome

We rounded out our perfect london weekend with brunch at James (me and Kel's favorite!), a visit to the National Gallery and Buckingham Palace and then dinner at Ed's...greasy 50's style american diner...burgers and milkshakes! I don't think I can live this way every weekend, but it sure was a fun one!

And the award for the best series of pictures goes to......

Family in London

We did WAY too much for me to try and recap...but here are some of my favorite pictures from my families visit to London in December!

Celebrating Mom's 60th and Johns 32nd with some champagne!

Cupcakes! (too bad I got John's wrong, he is 32!)

Me and my love!

Hayden liked the bag more than the present from Africa!

Brunch at James!
Bundle up!
Hayden loves her crackers

Tower Bridge at night

Town Hall at night

National Gallery at night

Me and Dad at Wimbledon

Me with some crazy Wimbledon fans!

Train ride to Windsor, Hayden was a little unsure of it at first

Windsor Castle

Me and Linds at Windsor Castle

Family at Kensington Palace

Hayden gets her Pic with Santa at Selfridges

it's been a long day!

Me and Mom in the phone booth

The Wagners in the Phone Booth
The Queen and her husband!!!

Smile :)

Surprise..I'm Moving!!

...don't get too excited people, I'm just moving to a new flat in London! In a few short weeks I will officially become a "north of the river girl"!! For all of you non-Londoners, you probably don't know what this means and unfortunately I can't help you out. Ever since before I even moved here there is talk of, are you a "north of the river" or a "south of the river" person, you are either one or the other. I could never get anyone to explain it to me, only that one was better than the other, and that varied from conversation to converstion depending on the post code of the person you are talking to. But from my observations, north of the river is more "city living" and south of the river is more "suburban living"...I've never been a suburbs kind of girl, although I do love, love, love my flat Clapham and the area is great too, but I always felt like I was leaving to head into the city to do things so I was never enjoying the neighborhood I live in. So when I found out last week that I could break my lease after 6 months without losing anything I thought I would look around a bit on the internet to see what was out there....and here I am less than a week later signing a new lease! My new place is in Fulham which is west London. It is very near Chelsea (remember my neighborhood crush post many months ago!), Kensington and many other posh neighborhoods. Fulham is great, it is very lively with tons of bars restaurants and young people aaaaand the best part is I am going to have a two bedroom flat for all of my clothes and shoes to live in, yippee!! So as you can tell, I am very excited to start my new life as a "north of the river" girl...it's a whole new me! Here is the link if you want to check out a couple of pics of my new place, there is also a floorplan....yes, you're eyes didn't fool you, it's two stories people!

Back in Cheery Londontown

So since the new year began I have flown to Houston, flown to Austin, flown to Steamboat, flown back to Dallas and flown to London...my final destination!   Yikes! So as you can imagine, I am a bit overwhelmed with all that has been going on in my life right now.  I have been back for 4 days and yet to unpack one thing from my FOUR suitcases!  It takes a lot to go away from your home for a month...which is crazy that I was gone for that long.  I'm not going to lie, I was really sad to leave and come back. Not to say that I am not excited to be back, but being home just reminded me of how much I have back home.  I forgot how much I love living in the same city as my parents, I forgot how much I love having a multitude of friends to make plans with on any given night, I forgot how much I love knowing where I am going and how to get there, I forgot how much I love chips and salsa, I forgot how much I love having so many of my friends and family be just an hours plane ride away, I forgot how much I love curling up on my parents comfy couch and watching tv all afternoon...you get the point! But for all of those things, I keep in mind how much fun it can be to not have all of those things and not know what is around the corner is what life is all about, at least my life, for now!

I'll try and get my life caught up here so I can start catching up on my blogging soon enough and add some pictures and stories from my month long trip back to the lonestar state!  Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and is well on there way into a stellar 2009!

Authenticity

The other day I was talking with a friend and we were having a conversation about our shared affinity for travel. Although, when discussing our future travel plans and wish list of places to go, we quickly figured out we would not be good traveling buddies. I will go ahead and preface the next sentence with the phrase "At this point in my life". At this point in my life I prefer to see the world with a pack on my back, sleeping in a hostel, catching a discount airline or a train to my next destination and with an idea of where i'm going..but no real plan. While he much prefers a first class plane ticket with a stay at the Four Seasons. Now don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the luxury of first-class and the Four Seasons...and there is a time and a place for them in my life as it currently exists. I'm sure there will be a much larger place for it when I am hopefully seeing the world for a second time around in my old age! So he asked me a relatively simple question, "why..what do you enjoy about traveling that way?" It is a question I know the answer to, but had really never thought about in a way that I could verbalize. So I thought about it for a minute and the answer I came up with is Authenticity.

That pretty much sums it up, I feel like I get a more authenitic experience when traveling on the fly. He asked why can't he have that while staying a the Four Seasons. Maybe he can, but I feel like for the most part you sign up for "touristy" tours where you get to see but not touch, watch but not join in. That isn't how I want to do things, I want to touch and to join in. I also like leaving a lot of flexibility to my plans because I have also experienced that the things I have enjoyed the most while traveling were not things I had planned. You also meet so many other travelers along the way, especially when staying in hostels, and you share experiences and learn about so many things you didn't know about. So it is nice to be able to change your plans.

Traveling is about so much more than the places you see, but it is about the people you meet and the experiences you have. With all of the places I have been, the most memorable have little to do with the sites I have seen but the experiences I have had that make me feel a certain way about that place. I like to travel the way I do because I feel it creates more of an opportuntiy to find these people and form these experiences. For me it creates an authenticity that I can't get enough of.

Let Texas Fill My Soul

I've finally made it back home to Texas!  My flight home seemed to take forever, I'm not sure if it was the anticipation or the little boy kicking the back of my seat, but either way it was a long one!  On the flight I had my iPod on random and a big smile creeped across my face as Southbound 35 came across my playlist.  I've always loved that song, and felt an appreciation for Pats inspiration for the song.  I've always loved Texas as much as any good Texan should, but it's hard to really grasp until you've been gone...there really is something so special about this place.  And most would probably argue they feel the same way about their home, but I beg to differ.  But it's not their fault, they don't know, they're just not from Texas. "Let Texas Fill my Soul" that has always been my favorite line of the song, but it sure does take on a whole new meaning.  I truly do love London, but I am glad to be home!

I'm so lucky that I can work in our Dallas office while I am home so that I don't have to take vacation days to visit my family, I am able to be in the States for entire month because of this! I will be in Dallas through the New Year, then off to Houston for a few days, then on to Steamboat to ski with some friends for a week! 

Sorry I have been ignoring my blog the past few weeks, they have been a crazy few weeks! I left off at Thanksgiving with my family coming to visit me in London! We had the most amazing week, but I can't tell you how exhausting it was! We packed in anything and everything in those 6 days, and we did it with a baby!  It was such a great time, I would love to tell you guys every detail, but the thought of that is exhausting! Luckily, my sister has written all about it on her blog, so if you are interested, I will now direct you there!!  One cool tidbit I will let you in on is that we did see the Queen! What are the chances!

After my family left I only had a week before I left to come home for the holidays, so it was a week full of packing, seeing friends, Christmas parties and now here I am....off to let Texas fill my soul :) Family, friends, Mexican food, etc!

Full of Thanks

1. for my parents and what an amazing example they have been for me. for how supportive they have always been of me and my dreams no matter how outlandish they have seemed at the time.

2. for my sister who has provided me unending support (even though I know she would prefer I didn't live on a different continent!) and unfailingly shown me what it means to be a Godly woman.

3. for my precious neice, Hayden, whose never ending fits of laughter keep me smiling!

4. for my friends, both new and old, who make my life a little more fun

5. for the fact that I have a place to celebrate Thanksgiving tonight!

6. and most of all that my whole family will be in London in less than 12 hours!!