Hallo from Amsterdam

Just a quick one from the first day in Amsterdam.  I spent most of the time in bed in the hotel with the Dutch swine flu or something.  Nonetheless looks like a fun place so far....

Seems like the only things in the town are bicycles and canals.  Super cyclist friendly, but probably not in the way most would think about it.   I don't think you could really live here without a bike.  They were everywhere and each seem older and crappier than the last.

Anyone ever seen 2,500 bikes in the same place at the same time?

Well now you have!  This was the bicycle parking garage at the train station.  Supposed to be 2,500 spaces here and its not enough room.  Apparently on an average day there are closer to 9.000 bikes parked around the train station.

Furry Friday

Kristen thought she bought me chicken for dinner.  Hampton informed her she thought wrong!!

Oh the Horror!!

One of the cool things about living in London is all the history that you walk around and through on a regular basis.   Come to think of it maybe the coolest thing about living here.  Anyway, a part of the history is living where (and for some people in the same house) some of the most noteworthy people over the last 2000 years have been.  You get a real surreal feeling sometimes, just thinking that you are standing in the place as Henry VIII or Winston Churchill or something.

The reason I bring all this up is this morning I was walking down the road from the new flat and ran across this....

They have these little blue plaques all over the city.  Something like 850 all together.  They started putting them up in one form or another in 1867.  Its interesting to look around and think, what is it about this place that made them do or think whatever they were famous for.  So as I walked past Hitchcock's place I shuddered a little bit.  After all, I will be walking down the same street everyday as Alfred Hitchcock did.  If these posts start to become dark and scary, you all know why.

OLD

This mailbox is on the route of Hampton’s morning/evening bathroom walk.  

I am not sure what about it is more impressive:

1) the tree overgrowing nearly half of the mailbox, or

2) that the mailbox is more than 100 years old (remember the royal cypher post from last week, this has Edward VII’s initials on it so at least 102 years old)

This is a prime example of ‘they don’t make them like they used to’.

Office Space

Had a meeting yesterday in our new offices down and around London Bridge.  The new building is super nice and super modern.  Makes me a bit sad to wander back through the doors to the construction site that is my real office.  But that really isn't the point here.  What is the point is that in the lobby sits Lewis Hamilton's McLaren F1 car from last year.  Not sure how or really why it was there but none the less probably the coolest thing that I have ever seen at work in my life. 

Thinking about going into the office at like 3 in the morning one of these days and sit in it just to see how it feels.

Food???

Its been awhile since I have ran across something that was just.....well so foreign to me that I didn't even know what to think about it.  Strangely enough happened twice today at the grocery store.

I am not even going to make a comment on these, will let you all make your own!!

 This was sitting in the window of a restaurant near the flat.  Not sure what it was to begin with, but looked super unappetising.  Can't imagine that hoof adds much to the flavor!

Camden Market

Kristen and I went cross town today to visit Camden Market.  Its strange here how all of the 'markets' here are never what you expect. It always seems that they are far too fancy for my taste, or far too cheap and trashy.  This ended up being both strangely enough.  I would recommend it though, as it is pretty amazing just how big it was.  I guess its made up of five or six different markets that have morphed into one huge market.

I bet that if you looked hard enough you you could find anything you ever wanted (except for cars maybe) in the market somewhere.  As I said before the market had both extremes.  Stall after stall of trashy t-shirts, and generally just crap, to antiques and vintage clothes that had somehow seemed to increase in price from when they were originally purchased.  It also comes as no surprise that my favorite part of the market was the food.  Unfortunately we ate on out way there so really wasn't hungry (rookie mistake) but could have just eaten my way through the entire market.

They say the market is like the top 5 of visitors attractions in London, I am a bit suspect of that, but there sure were a ton of people there.  Seemed like half of the stores were weird goth clothes, and I have a hard time 

believing that you can sell enough pairs of plastic pants, or leather trench coats to make a living, but maybe I am wrong.  Probably worth an afternoon of your time if you get bored, but I wouldn't put it up toward the top of the list.

CSI

Not sure if it is a case of Hollywood, or just the difference between the US and the UK, but apparently the Crime Scene Investigation unit isn't like it is on TV.  Hampton and I were taking a walk to check out the neighborhood, and ran across this car.

So much for the Tahoes on the show, apparently in the UK you get this little, well not quite sure what this actually is.   Pretty sure that it had an infestation of some wasp or something in it too.  The laminated piece of paper didn't seem too official either.

Riches

Our old flat was right on the border between Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kennsington and Chelsea, now we are right on the border of Kennsington and Chelsea, and Westminster.  The big difference for us is that the neighbours now are the super rich vs. the not so much.  What that means is we can’t really afford much at the local stores.  We were just walking down the road and saw a store with little dog pillows in the window.  Not pillows for dogs, but dog shaped pillows. 

Anyway, we went in and looked around.  Turned out that the pillows were like £45, clearly wasn’t going to be something we add to our living room decorations.  But that isn’t the point here.  I should have known when I walked in and saw these...............

That we weren’t going to be buying anything there. 

The Royal family only buys things from certain stores and companies.  Each store then gets to put up a sign designating itself as an official supplier.  Not sure if they have to cut a special deal or not, but I can almost guarantee that the cost for everyone else goes up when they get appointed.  This store was a supplier for the Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, and Prince Charles.  By my rough calculations that means the £45 pillow Kristen wanted was originally £7.

Bottom line I guess, is that if the House of Windsor can afford it we can’t

Westminster Palace #5

The Palace of Westminster, or as everyone knows it now, the House of Parliament, was the royal residence of the Kings of England until a fire destroyed almost everything in 1512. Since then, it has been home of Parliament.  In 1530, Henry VIII acquired Whitehall Palace and used it has principal residence. Although Westminster officially remained a royal palace, it was used by the two Houses of Parliament and by the various royal law courts.  Because it was originally a royal residence, the Palace included no purpose-built chambers for the two Houses.  As such they have been smashed into two tiny rooms without enough seating for everyone at the same time.  

In 1834, a fire broke out in the Palace, and pretty much everything other than Westminster Hall was burnt to the ground.   The modern palace was built starting in 1840, and stands much as it is now.  I wish I could have taken pictures inside, because the two 'houses' are super small, I can imagine why anyone would willing campaign for Parliament knowing full well what they were getting into.  If you get really bored they broadcast live everyday what is going on in Parliament.  You should watch its pretty crazy.  

I am by no means a political know it all, but there seems to be absolutely no rhyme or reason to the way they do things.  The House of Lords really doesn’t have any power or reason for being.  And the seating of House of Commons is first come first served.  You could end up standing room only if you get stuck in traffic.  Seems to me they make up a bunch of rules just to be ridiculous. 

The only part of the of the tour we could take pictures was Westminster Hall. It is the oldest part and the building and as I said, only thing that didn’t burn down down in the fire.  Apparently Oliver Cromwell's head was staked on a pole and sat in the rafters after he was beheaded.  It stayed up there for something like 25 years.  Remember when I said that William Wallace wasn't tried at the Tower of London like in the movie.  Well, you are looking at the place where the actual trial was held. 

Also this is where the royals are laid in state.  When Princess Diana died they said the line to view the body was 13 miles long.  Even moving at normal walking speed you are talking what 4-5 hours to get there.                             

Me before the security check

Me after the security check

Look kids!!!! Big Ben.....Parliament!!!!

Don't Drink and Drive

Anyone going to and from Owasso has probably seen this already but for those of you who haven't I think its my duty to share.

As you drive by next time just think how easily it could have been me, or anyone else you know that rides a bike.  

St. Patrick's Day Parade

I am a bit behind but not as far behind as you would think.  Why?? Because for some reason the St. Patricks day parade here wasn't on St. Patricks day.  Should have been a clue as to what was to come but nonetheless we ventured out to enjoy the show.  It was not at all like I would have expected, I guess we have been spoiled by like Macy's Thanksgiving parade and whatnot, so I am still not sure what to think about the whole thing.  If we weren't confused by the Sunday parade for a Saturday holiday, we should have know early on that it was going to go south.  As soon as we arrived we asked a security guard guy where the parade was going to be, and his response was 'are you going to watch or are you going to be in the parade'.  Clearly that isn't the response you expect when showing up to a parade in jeans and a jacket.  

The best way to tell the story is through pictures so I will dive right in.  Everything started off normal enough...

 

And then went downhill real fast....pretty much everything else didn't make any sense at all.  I invite you all to double click on some of these because damn........

 

We were pretty sure these guys were just really drunk and really weren't supposed to be in the parade, check out the green bodysuit guy!

This truck was my favorite 'float' of the entire parade, let me walk you through what makes it so special.  

1. Not sure what country this was supposed to represent, but clearly not Ireland.

2. Huge speaker tied to the roof 

3. Portable generator hanging out of the back of the truck 

4. The guys walking behind it strutting in their matrix leather coats

And finally....this guy.  Strangely enough as he was dancing around I leaned over and told Kristen, I could see this guy on 'So you think you can dance' or something like that, just making a fool of himself.  Shortly thereafter one of his entourage handed us a business card with his booking details.  If you are really bored, you can check him out here. 

We ended up in Trafalgar Square, where we thought we were going to taste some food, and stuff, but all there was was beer, and lots and lots of beer.  I am not sure what the security guards were doing in the fountains.  It was by no means warm so, you couldn't have paid me enough to change places with them.

Last stop of the day was the pub just a couple of blocks from the new flat.  Turned out that it was dog friendly, so Hampton ended up getting to hang out while we had lunch.  She must have been super tired because the ended up using the rungs of a chair to keep her head up.

She made quite an impression, so maybe she will end up as a mascot, or getting us free drinks or something.  Either way I am sure we will be back alot.

Smart Cars

Smart cars are seeming to get a lot of play here lately.  Saw a new one today, well actually Kristen pointed it out, but once I saw it I had to do like a triple take before it really registered with me what was actually going on. 

See for yourself......

You would think that they would have this in the brochure and really pitch it as a selling point.  Its gotta be so much easier to perpendicular park than parallel.

Success

A couple days ago I showed everyone how to fail at making a good impression to your neighbors. See this is how you do it.  If you live in Knightsbridge and want to fit in you buy a $500k Mercedes McLaren.  If you murder that car out then you have something that makes people stop and notice, in a good way. 

Always seems strange to see super cars like these just parked out on the street.  Back in the states they would always be in the garage, and never see a drop of rain.  

But not to be outdone, on the way home we walked right past this Ferrari...

And then this Bentley.

Career opportunites

If this accounting thing doesn't work out, I am think I may turn to designing cycling clothing.  The 2012 summer collection hit the streets today!!  If you see anyone out and about in Tulsa wearing any of this tell them I said 'Hi!!'

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