Brrrrr.....

Ric and I leave tonight for Bologna. We're spending New Year's Eve there, although we don't land until 10:30pm. No big party plans, but we're hoping to find a nice little cafe or restaurant where we can enjoy some Italian wine while welcoming in the New Year.

The weather forecast looks pretty intimidating... the BBC is calling for heavy snow tomorrow, with the highs in the 20's!!!! Oh my.

After a couple days of trying to stay warm in Bologna (by eating as much as possible and sticking strictly to red wine), we head to Florence for a night before going home. I'm so glad that we've been able to visit a couple times since moving to London... While a lot has changed since we lived there 8 (!!!) years ago, like no more Sketchy Bar, it still feels like a home away from home and it's always such a great feeling to go back. This time I'm especially excited about dinner at Trattoria dei Quattro Leoni. A great restaurant that we found out about on our last trip but only had time to eat lunch there.

It's hard to believe that 2008 is already over, but what a year. Full of new countries, weddings, babies, new work challenges, new friends, lots of visitors, a little homesickness, and great food. We are so lucky to have such good friends and family in our lives, and we wish you all a wonderful New Year. Have fun and be safe!

Can't believe Christmas has already come and gone...

I hope everyone had a very merry holiday, with lots of family, food and laughter. We certainly did. Especially the food part (see proof below). As some of you know, London pretty much shuts down starting Christmas Eve, so there isn't much else to do other than relax, read a book or two, eat, visit the pub, and watch movies. We did all of those thing in abundance with the company of the Bremer's from Raleigh who flew over to celebrate with us. Here's a quick recap:

Movies watched: 3 (Holiday and Love Actually... of course... then Ric and I saw Australia yesterday at the new movie theater in Belsize Park. Highly recommend!)

Pubs visited: 4 (The Flask in Hampstead, The Flask in Highgate, Holly Bush, Spaniard's Inn)

Books read: at least 3 (I finally finished The Tipping Point, yay!!)

Meals eaten: too many to count, but they include Christmas Eve dinner at Boxwood Cafe (one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants), Christmas breakfast (traditional grits casserole) and dinner (beef roast) at home, and Boxing Day dinner at the Holly Bush

Christmas fairs visited: 1 (in Hyde Park... appropriately called the Winter Wonderland)

Here are a few pictures from the week as well...

The London tube has a sense of humor!



Ric and I had lunch at a pub in Mayfair on Tuesday and I wanted to start singing "One of these things is not like the other..." There were 40+ people and I was the only female!



The beautiful Mandarin Oriental hotel



Enjoying the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park





The traditional Christmas Day stroll through the Heath to Spaniard's Inn











And Christmas Dinner, cooked perfectly (although it took about an hour longer than planned)



Beef roast, sweet potato casserole, roasted root vegetables (very British), and green beans... with Butterscotch Blondies for dessert. Yum!

Misc pics

Happy Sunday everyone. Have a few miscellaneous snapshots that we wanted to share ... We hope you're all getting ready for a wonderful Christmas. Hard to believe it's right around the corner.

Here's a little Christmas band that popped up on Flask Walk:



This is one of the best types of bistros we could possibly imagine... what goes together better than Polish food and Mexican?



And in case you were curious, here are the daily specials:



It's Christmas at 4 Lutton Terrace:




And it's hard to see, but here are a couple shots of the fake snow that was showered on us at a Christmas party on Friday night in St. James'

Christmas funny

An advertising agency here in the UK put together a brilliant video that includes a sock puppet monkey getting increasingly inebriated while giving a spoof holiday toast. You really can't miss this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkHwhz-3yJg

Rwanda

Ric and I are obviously following this situation closely and the only thing we know for sure is that it's complicated, like almost everything in Africa. Wanted to share an informative article from the New York Times in case anyone else is interested in reading more about what's happening:

Rwanda Stirs Deadline Brew of Troubles in Congo
By Jefferey Gettleman
December 3, 2008

KIGALI, Rwanda — There is a general rule in Africa, if not across the world: Behind any rebellion with legs is usually a meddling neighbor. And whether the rebellion in eastern Congo explodes into another full-fledged war, and drags a large chunk of central Africa with it, seems likely to depend on the involvement of Rwanda, Congo’s tiny but disproportionately mighty neighbor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/world/africa/04congo.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss

Fun websites

I was scanning through TIME Magazine's list of top 50 websites and came across a few that looked particularly interesting:

FreeRice.com - quizzes your vocabulary and donates 20 grains of rice to the UN's world food program for every answer you get right!

ProFootballTalk.com - for the football lovers out there... a combination of breaking news, rumors, and funny opinions

Afrigadget.com - great site that chronicles innovation and new inventions coming out of Africa

Someecards.com - always my favorite site for hilarious (although typically off-color) eCards

Omiru.com - a cool fashion/style site that I had never seen before

SeriousEats.com - a blog and community for "serious food lovers"... this site has recipes, travel food articles, and great food pictures (my personal favorite)



And here's the whole list if you have more time to browse! http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/0,28757,1809858,00.html