Carluccio's

With the complete lack of daylight, and the long hours at work, the highlights of my week have been related to food, and dinner. Kristen has graciously spent long hours scouring the Internet for the best places. Well maybe not that much work to find dinner, but at least she is looking for bargains. It seems that just about every restaurant has some kind of deal, or daily special if you know where to look. It was a two for one special that brought us to Carluccio's.

In all reality there haven't been many restaurants here that I have been a big fan of, so when we tried this place for the first time, it went to the top of the list. Food is super expensive here, almost like they just change the $ for a £ and don't change the numbers. So essentially every meal costs 50% more than it did in the US. Kinda ruins the taste for alot of things. So since we had free meals, this place has became our standing backup plan. Just a taste for what we have been enjoying......

Might be the world's best appetizer!!

In general the food is your basic Italian, but Kristen is willing to go back so can't be all that bad!

Kristen got fried spinach balls....strange but good

Oh and by the way....they have giant meringues, what more can a guy ask for!!

London Dyanamo

So after much hmmming and haaaaing on my part, I have pulled the trigger and joined a new team. Its something like 250 members strong so it will obviously be a big difference to what I am used too. Unfortunately I waited too long....team camp is in Majorca in two weeks. Yeah Talimina eat your heart out. If anyone is so inclined you can check out the website. www.londondynamo.co.uk. Good news is no more BG for me, with new kit coming on Tuesday. (if you know what BG is you are laughing, if not well its probably best you don't. Hopefully big things to come!

Pancake Day!

Happy Pancake Day! To celebrate Bob's favorite food we attended the "Pimp Your Pancake" event at Giraffe restaurant.  You basically got to create your own pancake. The toppings came on the side so you could design your own masterpiece. We went for breakfast, but it tasted more like dessert.

Bob is contemplating the perfect pancake.

He went with Maltesers, marshmallows, chocolate syrup and caramel.

Bob's Creation

Kristen's Creation - Bananas, Maltesers, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate syrup.

# 1

It was #1 on the top 25 list, which was apparently not in any particular order, because it was not the highlight of all London's landmarks. It was a kinda strange experience, and didn't really have the historical or old feel. You wouldn't even know what you were looking at from the outside, as it looks just all the buildings around it. On the inside its strange too, since it is still used for banquets and parties, it was just a big open room. The story around it was super interesting though. The building is the only remaining component of the Palace of Whitehall, which was destroyed by fire in 1698. The story is that Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Pauls, blew up the buildings around in to keep the fire from spreading.

The most impressive piece of the building was by far the paintings on the ceiling. Crazy to think that they have been hanging there for almost 400 years. They have only come down during WWII. James I built the hall, and his son Charles I had the paintings made to honor his father. All of the pictures were supposed to tell a story about virtue and such but were more fun to look at than learn about, sorry!! Ironically, Charles I was executed for treason in front of the building in 1649.

This is the view walking into the hall

Race Repot 3/5/11

Unfortunately nothing super exciting to talk about for the race itself but a lot of other interesting things happened today. First of all after my last misadventure getting kicked off the underground I devised a new route which would require me to ride the last 7 or so miles to the race. To my surprise I stepped off of the District Line and what do I see on the other side of the platform? The central line...just looking at me and saying come on buddy hop on board. So I did and it dropped me off at Fairlop just perfectly. Who would have known!! Might even be a better journey this way, and didn't have to bother with the pesky tube workers. While I waited for the train to come I rode my bike around on the platform just to stick it to those guys who kicked me out a couple of weeks ago.
If you want to buy a sandwich and the British guy behind the counter says they have curr??? (Inaudible word) chicken, do not and I repeat do not think to yourself 'chicken....whatever that first word was probably doesn't matter, chicken is always good' and then order it. Why you ask? Because you just ordered a curried chicken sandwich. Kinda like a cross between chicken salad and a mouth full of all the spices in your pantry mixed together.

The race itself was pretty boring. Probably 40 or so guys and nothing much happened for 15 minutes or so. I rode up to the front at that point and asked the guy doing tempo and breathing like he was about to pass out, 'hey is he off the front' pointing to the loan rider 30 seconds ahead of the group. He mumbled yes, and I thought well I am already in the wind let's give it a go. Not sure how I inevitably always end up off the front solo, its a curse for sure. I cut the lead to about 10 seconds in a lap and then it just stayed the same for the next 10 or so minutes. During that time I dangled probably 20 seconds on front of the group. Finally the group got organized enough to bring me back to 10 or so seconds and I promptly pulled the plug. In retrospect probably the wrong decision, but oh well. I came back then the other guy came back and just as he did one lone rider went away never to be seen again. Everyone kinda just stared at each other for the rest of the race, and waited for the sprint. I am obviously not race fit as I had nothing in the tank after my solo, and got swamped in the finale.

As much as it pains me to say this and accept the facts, I think my tall stack of pancakes are not the best pre race food. Oh they are so good but pretty sure it can't get much worse from a nutrition standpoint. Oh well maybe they will be for recovery from now on.

As I was coming home I had a realization about why the underground is always complaining about not enough money to make upgrades, and staff stations. Normally we are packed like sardines, I and I can't help but think that they have to be make money hand over foot. Today in zone 4 I figured out why that might not be the case.

Remember a couple of weeks back when I said that the temperature determines my mood? Well the lack of spring here is really getting to me. Woke up this morning it was 34 windchill of 30. Hell I wore the same thing to race today as I did on New Year's Day. What up with that. I considered not writing this when I say that it was 30 in Tulsa with a windchill of 20, but then I saw it was going to warm up to 55 today, and I figured that Tulsa has nothing to complain about. It made it all the way up to a blistering 39 today.

Off to diner!!!

Furry Friday!!

For Valentine's Day the girls sent me these pictures while I was at work, it made me so happy, I just had to share.

Celebrity Sighting

I had my first celebrity sighting in London. Emma Watson! Poor Bob missed out. Bob's train got delayed, so I hung out at the bar before dinner. I sat right next to her. I didn't want to bother her, so I didn't say anything.  If I had anymore margaritas, I might have tried to take a picture.