Lots if food lots if fun

It's a long road to Honduras especially at 20 miles an hour so we have had some time on our hands. Luckily there is tons to do but seems that we end up in one of the restaurants more often than not.  The good news is that the food is fantastic.

 Just to relive some of our British life we had high tea too.  Might be one of my favorite things in the world.

Kristen has been hanging in the sanctuary, which is kinda like an adults only/spa sun-deck.  Gotta say I could have spent alot of time just laying there too.

In a moment of self loathing for eating too much I visited the gym today. It turns out that it is really difficult to keep your balance on a treadmill while the treadmill is on a ship that is moving in just about every direction at the same time. I came really close to becoming one of those funny videos of people falling off moving treadmills on more than one occasion.

There are a couple fancy restaurants on-board (yes more food) so we got dressed up and ventured to what was rumoured to be a 7 course Italian dinner.  It didn't dissapoint.  I tried to eat just about everything on the menu, but got sidetracked and forgot to take pictures after the first couple of courses.  Sorry.... 

  

Breadstick walrus?

The Captain hosted a champaigne reception and took pictures with everyone (except us of course).  Was interesting seeing the different people who were on the cruise.  Beginning to think that some people just live on the boat.....

Sweet leisure suit buddy

Its just bubbles....not that exciting

The Caribbean doesn't do daylight savings time so we fell back last night and got an extra hour sleep. Not sure if you can really catch up on sleep or not but I sure as hell am trying. Tomorrow morning we arrive in Roatan.  Goodnight.....

Cowboys 36 Frogs 14

It was the first football game I have seen in person since 2009, and after a slow start didn't disappoint. Thanks big Sis for the tickets. Also the first time I have been in Boone Pickens Stadium since it has been finished. Gotta say it was more impressive than our play. Can't believe the difference between the stadium today vs the one that I first frequented back in '99. Got to say really digging Pistol Pete on the helmets.

We couldn't leave Stillwater before visiting the other icon.....Joe's. Another shocker of renovation there. Rooftop patio.....that has got to be pretty sweet on Thursday nights. Cheese fries and an Elm Street, doesn't get much better than that. (if you know, you know, if you don't you need to make a trip and find out). Only thing missing was spinning the wheel and a free keg.

What makes America great

I've been home for almost a month now and have to say its been really nice. Sure there are things about London that I miss but overall I gotta give the nod to the US.

Of course there is the obvious stuff like friends and family, but for me there has been a bunch of things that have really taken me by surprise, but now not sure how we managed before.

The first thing that really struck me was appliances. The size and speed is just amazing. While lucky enough to have had a dishwasher we had to do a load probably every other day, I think that ours here could have almost washed every dish we owned in London at the same time.

Even more of a change is the washer/dryer. In London a load of towels couldn't consist of more than three, and would take at least 3 hora to wash and get almost dry. Add I'm the hanging to finish drying and your talking a full day. I can barely keep up with the washer and dryer here. He'll folding and putting things away is probably the one thing holding up the process.

When it comes down to it, it is all the things that you HAVE to do that you really see a difference. It's just so much easier to live here. I knocked out a trip the the dry cleaners, grocery store, and Home Depot in just over an hour yesterday, the same tasks likely would have taken three separate trips and at least a half a day in London. Not to mention that the grocery store is just amazing. Yeah some things are more expensive, and I am sure the fresh, fruit & veg, and meat and cheese selections don't stack up but the selection of everything else is just amazing. All the things we missed are at hand and ours for the picking.

And them there is the mornings......a cup of coffee and sitting on the back porch in the morning is just about perfect. Blue skies and peace and quite (except for Hampton and Windor's daily game of tag and wrestle) it's fantastic.

Weird food

There may be more posts about strange food than anything else on this blog.  A trip to the grocery store is always a few laughs and leaves me scratching my head alot.  Check this one out.....

Seriously?  I must be missing something because that just sounds horrible.  I had to look up burdock, it is......a biennial thistle.  I think it sounds even worse now than it did before.

Complete mindblower

After a dramatic failure on my part to cook eggplant parmesan, and then an equally dramatic failure at a London 'Italian' restaurant Kristen took pity on me and brought out the apron and proved homemade Italian is really the best.

It really wasn't a surprise that my attempt failed, seriously what was I even doing pretending that it was going to be anything but bad.  But when I ordered it at a restaurant here it wasn't even breaded.  I almost told the waiter that he had brought me the wrong meal, but since his accent said Australian or Kiwi, I figured he wouldn't know the difference anyway.

So Kristen's version was just awesome.

 I could have eaten it every meal for a week, but despite my hopes and dreams it didn't last that long.  The whole reason I brought it up, was that while shopping for it Kristen tells me that the main cheese isn't parmesan at all but mozzarella.  I didn't believe her until 1) she showed me the recipe on-line, and 2) she put it in front of me for dinner.  Really explains why mine was soo bad!!

Either way, it was great!!

Fruit and Veg

I know I have talked to some people about the quality of fruit and vegetables here in London vs. the US.  I really don't know why its the case, but the grocery stores here have such good quality and variety compared to what we are used to.  More than that, generally its much cheaper too.  

Close to our old flat was what I would have called a farmers market, but in all reality there is no way that all of this stuff is grown locally so I will just call it a fruit and vegetable market.  Stall after stall of pretty much anything you can think of.  Everything just sits out in big bowls and each and every one costs £1.  (like $1.50).

So here was our haul today.  Six of the biggest potatos ever, 4 oranges, 12 bananas, 4 avocados, a big bunch of grapes, 2 heads of broccoli, and 3 eggplants.  Only set us back £8 ($12), crazy cheap.  

Ahhhhhh

Oh sweet nectar of the gods, how I have missed you so!! I will never forsake you again!

I almost missed it in the grocery store.  New label confused me a bit, but welcome the new look.  Stupid yeast free diet..drinking DPZ again makes it all worth it.

Easter BBQ

In a strange celebration of Easter Kristen and I went to one of her friends for a BBQ.  In all reality everything was very similar to being at home, but it was the little things that make all the difference.  The Hot dogs were served in baguettes, hamburgers didn't have any pickles or veggies, but the strangest thing was sitting on the patio with the temp only 45.  That and the country music on the radio.  Makes me wish we were home at the lake or at least barefoot in the backyard.  There just isn't anything like home.

Hampton was a big hit, everyone loved her.  She is still super tired and is sleeping on the couch now.

Block your colanders now for a good old fashion american BBQ at our house  Oct 6.

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.

Holy Nutella!

Everyone here always talks about how fat Americans are and how much we eat and on and on and on.  Well say what you will, I have never seen at 11 pound jar of Nutella anywhere in the U.S.

We saw this today at an ice cream place.  Check it out 5 kilos.  The 'small' jar is like the economy/family size you can sometimes find in the store.  Seriously how or why would you ever need that much?  It was like a five gallon bucket!

Onion Loaf!!

I don't often say this of London restaurants, but we have found another winner. I guess I should have expected it would be good, after all it was the 'Chicago Rib Shack'. I say that, but we have been to some real bad American themed restaurants. No matter what do not go to the Texas Embassy in Trafalgar Square. So as it says the Rib Shack is a BBQ joint, the best that we have found in London. The highlight of the night however was the onion loaf. I am not sure if I want to know how they make it but it was damn good. Gonna need a coronary bypass in the next couple of days, but at the time it was magical.

The people next to us, I think ordered everything on the menu. There is a sampler meal with chicken, baby back, St. Louis, and beef ribs. This lady ordered it, and these beef ribs came out on top, looked like when Fred Flintstone orders the brontosaurus ribs and his car falls over. We left before she was more than about half way done. Add on the bottle of wine she drank by herself, and I think the night was going to end badly for her for sure.

Cotswalds

We have now visited the area of the country called the Cotswalds on two separate occasions while we have had friends visiting. Its not the most exciting adventure but there is just a general coolness to everything about it. 

This random tower was built just
recently to look ancient. It just sits
by itself in a field

The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, famous for....well...I guess just being pretty.  The area is characterised by attractive small towns and villages built of the underlying Cotswold stone, and iconic stone fences that run for miles and miles everywhere you look. And don't forget sheep, there are more sheep than people. Kinda like a little New Zealand stuffed into the middle of England. In the Middle Ages the wool trade made the Cotswolds prosperous. Some of this money was put into the building of churches so the area has a number of large handsome Cotswold stone "wool churches". The area remains affluent and has attracted wealthy people who own second homes in the area. We are not 'those people'.

The path to one of the Wool Churches

Just a really cool door

This was 'downtown' in one of the villages

This door was completely surrounded
by these two trees.  A bit hobbitish!

No question my favorite part is the sheep. I am sure they were very familiar with having people stop on the side of the road and take pictures, but nonetheless I was pretty shocked. They came right up to us and did their sheep stuff, it was great.

Did I say my favorite part was the sheep? Yeah I guess I forgot about the kitchen sink.  I don't really remember if that is what it was called, but it should have been.  Literally, every candy, candy bar, ice cream, and topping all in one.  There was actually some talk that I couldn't finish it....ha!!