Can you tell me how to get to.....

Victory is mine! Last night, I was waiting in the train station for Sean to collect my umbrella and rain coat (yes, coat in August) when an Australian lady asked me how to get to Cafe Rouge. Without hesitation I gave her directions. I think this means I have achieved level 3 of localising. (I passed level 2 as I now spell many things with an "s" instead of a "z.") Although I am not at level 4 yet because yesterday a colleague called me out for saying "zee" instead of "zed."
I know, it's all very technical. :)


We've been here over 4 months now. It has gone by so quickly! I have had some homesick moments (mostly related to missing seeing family and friends and eating Tex Mex) but I've temporarily cured them by listening to country music and saying y'all within the confines of our flat. It really does the trick.
I have also just joined "American Women of Surrey." I plan to attend my first meeting next month- so it will be interesting to see what that is like!

Last weekend, Sean and I enjoyed Saturday night in London with what I like to call "Team ExPat." Kevin, who I met at Economics Camp in high school, and Joana, who I met while studying abroad in Budapest, are both American and also currently in London- so we all met up for a fun night last weekend. I asked Sean to take this photo of us when we happened to be in China Town, but I assure you we didn't spend the night doing uber-touristy things. 

Representing Texas, California, and Florida... so all of The U.S., right?

I'm sure you are all wondering how I have gotten this far in my post without mentioning cider. I, too, am appalled. But- don't worry. The Assembly Rooms pub recently ran a Cider Festival. It was a treat! I tried numerous ciders.... but some were only 1/3 pint glasses- so it was responsible. :) Take a look:

The red one is Beetroot cider! (Tasted like beet juice with a kick.)

 While on the subject of food and drink- I am thrilled to say that a restaurant called "Bill's" recently opened in Epsom. It is a small chain, but their food is delish and they have some American-inspired things on the menu...so lots of flavour and juicy meats. The winning item, however, was the PECAN PIE! (Even if the waiter did "correct" me by saying PEE-CAN pie.)

Yum

I feel the need to update you on Chadwick. While he isn't enjoying both Sean and I being out of the flat all day during the week, he has taken to his new catnip frog toy we bought him in Wimbledon. We often find him snuggling it while napping, which is truly the cutest thing.

All together: Awwwwwww

Perhaps the greatest discovery we have made recently is that if we go up to Epsom Downs, which is a 3 minute drive or a 15 minute walk- there is the most phenomenal view of London. Sean and I are both thrilled that this is something we can see as often as we like (or when it is not a really cloudy day.) As we are used to taking the train in to London- we perceived the distance to be greater- but when we saw this- we likened it to standing on the top of the IAH parking garage (where Joe Pliszka always parks) and looking at Downtown Houston. It's crazy to think how close we are to London (and how quickly we could be there if we had the U.S. interstate highway system here.) The following photo isn't one we took (we only have our phone cameras) but it does a good job showing you the view we saw!

The view of London from Epsom Downs

I am hoping this means you are all coming to visit soon! :)
We are in the process of planning some trips, ourselves, to see other parts of England. We really have no choice, as we have more vacation time than we are used to! We have a few ideas so far, one of which is The Cotswolds, as Aunt Judy sent us an article which whet our appetite for a Cotswolds weekend! Looking forward to blogging about that!!

Before I go, I do want to leave you with a video. Three weeks ago, Sean and I were at a pub quiz on a Monday night. It wasn't a holiday or special occasion- so imagine my surprise when I looked out the window of the pub and saw this in the parking lot:

 

Yes, that is Morris Dancing. Hope that tides you over until we share another dose of England from our perspective! 

4th of July, Lucy in Sky

Wow, once again it's been over a month since our last post. We honestly would like to post more, but it seems that inspiration always strikes when we're no where near a computer. Well, here's another attempt at changing that!

So, what have we been up to... well, this weekend we went out to Portsmouth on a bit of a whim, though it was a beautiful day to have lunch and a pint by the sea (bay? harbour? channel? Whatever.)

Sunshine by the sea.

 After that, we walked around for a bit, explored the old walls and canon placements near the mouth of the bay, and even did some outlet shopping, where I scored a new watch (70% off!) We didn't end up going up to the top of the Spinnaker Tower since it was getting ready to close for the evening, but here it is anyway!

Photobombed by a Figurehead.

 

On the train journey home we were informed by a very nice railway guard that we had been buying the incorrect tickets all along, and had to pay a bit extra to get home. Fun fact, unless you request otherwise, ticket windows are required to sell you the cheapest ticket from point A to point B, even if it connects through Manchester. Basically, we'd been buying the wrong tickets for the routes we've been taking it saved us a good bit, but was apparently illegal. Oops! Oh well, now we know.

 

Anna's new job is going very well so far, and mine continues to be great as well. I got to go up to our office in Ayr (near Glasgow) a few weeks ago. The office was nice, but the stroll on the beach the night we arrived was fantastic. I'd love to go back, and this time bring Anna with me!

 

This post is apparently water-themed.



 Tomorrow I get to visit our other office in Shropshire (northern England.) I don't think it's quite as a picturesque, and it's a 4 hour drive instead of a 1 hour flight, but it still should be interesting. I mean we're staying in a pub tomorrow night, how could it be bad?

We also did our best to celebrate our independence from our new home on the 4th of July. My coworkers decorated my desk with flags and about 2 dozen copies of the Declaration of Independence, and even had the Star Spangled Banner blasting when I arrived.

So many flags... I just kept hanging up on my corkboard for good measure.

Not to be outdone, Anna found a 4th of July celebration a few towns over, filled with Americans (quite a few Texans)BBQ and country music. We dragged one of two Americans we know along with us, as well as some English friends. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, though that was probably helped along by the margaritas Anna made for everyone before we cabbed it over to the event hall. At any rate, we were pretty much best friends with the band by the end of the night.

What country are we in again?!

Well, I think that's a decent recap for July... hopefully we'll return soon!

Family, Fullers, and Fast-alseep Rosie

What a fantastic visit we had with Mum, Dad, and Rosie!
Sean and I always love spending time with everyone and, of course, taking photos of Rosie when she falls asleep in public.

This girl can fall asleep anywhere!

We had a number of adventures during the fam's visit... beginning with a trip to Portsmouth to eat some delish fish and chips and walk down Mum's memory lane! Rosie and I were glued to one another for two reasons: long overdue sister catch-up AND freezing windy rain! We took a selfie to help share the experience:

If you look closely, you can see Mum and Dad weathering the weather.

Continuing the family journeying, we all went out to Cambridge for a day to meet up with one of Mum's relatives and to see the sites.

Punting on the river Cam.

Inside the Fitzwilliam Museum

One of the Cambridge highlights for me was seeing King's College. I love the choral music recorded there so greatly, yet somehow didn't think about it being in Cambridge. As such, when we happened upon it during a walk- I was jubilant!

Me, outside of King's College- and poor Sean taking this photo in the rain!

The Cambridge trip was full of great sites, but one of the best had to be our surprise discovery of cows hanging out by the river.

Moo

Before Dad returned to the States, we had an early Birthday/Father's Day celebration for him. When I say celebration, I mean brewery-tour. That's right! We all went to The Fuller's Brewery in Chiswick and enjoyed a very informative experience!

Mum, Rosie, and Dad outside the Fuller's Brewery

Despite all of the information, however, there was no question which part Dad enjoyed the most: THE BAR WITH NO TILL!

Thirsty?

We had such a lovely visit together and it was sad to say goodbye. I threatened to cut up everyone's passports on numerous occasions, but I never had the guts to do so based on the hassle it would create for my family and the waste of perfectly-good microchipped government documents.

Before I sign off, I will leave you with one more sleeping Rosie photo; because I know that's why you read to the end of this entry! :)

Rosie asleep at a lunch party...

Even the drug-sniffing dog has a job!

I must start today's blog entry telling you about the picnic Sean and I had today! The sun is shining brightly, there is plenty of blue in the sky, and there is even a gentle breeze which meant Sean and I, picnic blanket in hand, went to Marks and Spencer's to buy ready-made sandwiches, crisps, grapes, and limeade. From there, we walked a harrowing 4 minutes to the beautiful Rosebury Park. It was glorious.

 

A fine lunch indeed

And there weren't even any bugs!

I haven't submitted an entry in a while.... mostly due to being wrapped-up in applying for jobs and preparing for interviews. Oh yeah, and also a bit due to drinking cider. Have I mentioned how many ciders there are to try here? Actually, I don't know how many- but if you really do know how many- it probably means you're spending too much time studying the matter and not enough time tasting it.

I made Sean prolong his first sip in order to photograph mine...

Speaking of cider, while in search of a new one a few weeks ago, we also enjoyed the musical stylings of random people at pub-based open mic night. We chatted to a few people, one of whom even told us the secret location of another pub, The Barley Mow, in the area... just what we needed!

This was meant to be a pic of the open mic performer...but my cider insisted it be featured

Cider-drinking aside, I actually have been fairly busy preparing presentations for panel interviews... I was walking to my first interview and as it turns out- interviewing in London feels strangely similar to being a tourist.....

The unreknowned area near my job interview

I've really been enjoying my interviews, despite worrying a bit about my American-accent being off-putting. Also, in interview 2 this week, I learned that to "get one's feet wet" is NOT a British term. Thankfully, it was appreciated nonetheless.

I'm sure many of you have been worried about how we're doing without Tex Mex and BBQ.... well- thankfully, my Aunt Judy sent us a great article from The Houston Chronicle which tells us about Texan BBQ places in London. Our Summer goal is to get to each of them! Until then, we're doing fine with food we find locally. There is great variety- which is fantastic!

Our lunch at the recent "Epsom Thai Market"

A very English breakfast, complete with beans!

This week promises to be great as Mum, Dad, and Rosie are headed over for holiday! In addition to taking them to several pubs- we will also be sure they eat at our fav Indian Restaurant, Blue Mint. I'm sure we will do some things other than eating.... but you know- we are mostly Pliszkas... so dining will feature in the reunion.

Hopefully, I will be employed by the next time I blog. This week, I found myself envying a police drug-sniffing dog as he had a job. I completely get what everyone is saying about "waiting for the right opportunity" but if I don't have a job offer in the next few weeks- I'm ready to start bagging groceries. I really hate being unemployed!

I almost forgot! I have become a friend of Surrey Police Department! There was some youth after-school fight outside of the train station which I could, conveniently see from one of the windows in our flat. As I witnessed the teen testosterone fight... I called the police to report what I saw- two calls later and I was sincerely thanked as I was the only person who was not a friend of the boys to give a statement. Unrelated to this, I also communicated on FB with our local police inspector who welcomed Sean and I to the neighborhood.

Surry Police, our bff in Epsom

Something tells me I didn't mention cider enough in this post- so just in case you weren't sure if my post made you want a cider..... I'll leave you with this:

So refreshing....

Spiceworld... No, not the movie.

So this week has been eventful! Myself and a coworker headed into London Tuesday and Wednesday for Spiceworld London 2014! Sadly, to Anna's disappointment, this was not a Spice Girls reunion tour, but an I.T. conference put on by Spiceworks (an I.T. Management platform.)

Soooo many awkward nerds! All in all though, it was pretty informative, and I scored a bunch of free swag. The company is also based out of Austin, so I had a heathy dose of Texas for a couple days as well (I even called out one of the presenters on his liberal use of "y'all" at the after party.... Free drinks were involved.) Oh, and commuting into London is definitely not for me. So many people in such a small place, the rush hour underground is my own personal hell. Driving around Surrey is much nicer!

Let's see, what else. Last weekend was nice enough... We ventured into Wimbleton to buy Anna a new interview suit (she has 3 this week!) And while we were there, we found the nearest Chipotle... The menu is exactly the same, minus the huge American soda machines! Oh, and I think I had to sell a kidney to afford the guacamole, but it was worth it!

We also found a cool little market by the Wimbleton library, and Anna bought some jam (that's my jam,) and some handmade cards. Here's a semi-interesting picture of the library exterior!

Brick books!

Anyway, things continue to be pretty great here. We (eventually) managed to Skype with my mom and brother on Saturday, and Anna's mum on Sunday, so that was nice... To honor Mother's Day, we even had a double rainbow!

Leprechauns must live on The Ashley Center.

Yeah, the weather here changes. A lot. Still, this results in many amazing rainbows appearing directly out of our living room windows, which is awesome.

Tomorrow we get to celebrate Combat Stress' 95th anniversary by having a pig roast and casual Friday at the office. Yeah, I have no idea what to expect, but I bet it will be interesting, no matter what!

Anna has an interview with the Ramblers tomorrow, so wish her luck! She founded the Ramblers Group at her college, and as we all know she kicks large amounts of butt, so really they'd be crazy not to offer her a position! :-)

Updates to follow!

Time keeps on slipplin, slippin...

Whoa, it's been nearly a month since our last post? Sorry about that folks, we hate do disappoint our faithful readers (all three of you.)

A lot has been happening. I'm driving now, and at this point, I'm pretty comfortable with it all. Car parks still confuse me for some reason, but I think I've done ok. Here's our new (to us) car, named Jeff, at my brother's request.

I don't know what happened to the bottom of this picture. I blame Anna's phone.

Our Honda Jazz has taken us on many adventures now, we've driven to Box Hill, Penshurst Place, Bromley, and Esher... all without killing ourselves or anyone else on the road!

Speaking of Box Hill, here's some pictures from our hike. The views were pretty fantastic.

 

 



Penshurst place was also amazing, though we didn't really take any pictures. We met up with the Longhursts though for an excellent picnic after touring the grounds and garden, so if they send some pictures our way we'll be sure to post them.

 

Lets see, what else have we missed... we went to see a ridiculously amazing play called The Drowned Man near Paddington Station in London a couple weeks ago. It wasn't a play in the traditional sense though. The production is spread out over a number of floors of an old postal sorting facility, and you're free to wander and follow particular cast members throughout the performance. Audience members wear a mast to distinguish audience from cast, though it has the added benefit of making you feel very anonymous. The lighting, sound, and acting were all phenomenal, and I managed to have a one-on-one experience with one of the cast members. This was the result:

 

I got a bit of red on me.

Other than all of that, things continue to go well for us here. I'm really loving my job (despite us having to fire someone for literally drinking whiskey at his desk,) and Anna's job search continues to progress with more and more interesting opportunities (I'll let her touch on that.) We've continued to discover local pubs, the most recent being The Cricketers, where we met up with one of my coworkers and his girlfriend on Friday night. The night ended with a cab ride home at 2am, and a promise of Bushmills delivered directly from Belfast. All in all, a great night.

 

I suppose that's enough for now... we'll try to be a bit more regular in our updates, promise!





Office pools are weird here.

Hmm, I tried to post this last week... Oh well, better late than never!

Just a short one, because it's really Anna's turn to write... On Friday I joined my first English office pool. I paid my pound and drew a horse out of a hat for The Grand National.

I had no idea what the Grand National was, but it's actually a pretty crazy horse race with like 40 riders, covering 5 miles with something like 30 jumps. It was crazy to watch, about half of the jockeys get thrown from their horses (including mine, on like the 4th jump.) So yeah, I didn't win, but it was interesting to say the least.

Other than that, work continues to go well... I think I'm getting a good grasp on things now, and my staff will double in size (to 2) starting tomorrow. I'm really loving this new job so far, and I hope it continues.

Oh, and we bought a car this weekend! Can't pick it up until Thursday, but it's a Honda Jazz (or a Fit in the US.) I managed the test drive without harming persons or property, so I think I'm ready for my first expedition to the office on Friday. I did make the sales guy nervous at one point for being too close to the curb, but it's good to keep car salesmen on their toes, right? I'm sure I'll get the hang of it... Though I do plan on taking the "quiet route" to the office as directed by Sandie, at least until I get comfortable. It takes a bit longer, but just seems easier in general.

Full week ahead... New employee tomorrow, new car on Thursday, and Friday I get interviewed to obtain a national insurance number! Exciting!