Sparks and Brighton

Tuesday.

This is the day that we're taking a train from London to Brighton. I've worked for the same company for over 13 years, and throughout my career here I have worked with people from our Brighton office in various departments. I used to fantasize that my employer would find a reason to send me there, but I gave up that fantasy long ago. If I'm going to go to Brighton, it will have to be on my own... and at last I have the opportunity!

As we're getting ready to leave in the morning, I decided to make my hair straight (I had been embracing the humidity and letting my hair go curly up to this point). The hotel room came equipped with an outlet for a standard american plug, but that outlet wasn't working for some reason. Luckily, Julie brought a converter plug for the european outlet. After I dried my hair, I plugged in my flatiron and ***SPARKS*** accompanied with a loud BOOM! All of our power is out. Thank goodness it was just a blown fuse and a simple flick of a switch performed by the maintenance man corrected the problem. Although I'm sad to say, my flatiron is toast. I paid $150 for this flatiron two years ago. Trust me, there is a huge difference between nice flatirons and cheap flatirons. So until I have another chunk of change to spend on a new flatiron, I'll have curly hair.

And now to Brighton!

We visited the office and I was able to meet a bunch of colleagues face to face for the first time... which was awesome! After that, a few of them took us to lunch at the Brighton Yacht Club:



Across the road is the UK version of Wal-Mart, actually owned by Wal-Mart!



[sarcasm]I had to get a picture of that since I love Wal-mart oh so much.[/sarcasm]

Unfortunately, most of the rest of our tour of Brighton was from a car, so the pictures are sketchy, and I didn't get to spend any time at all at the Brighton Pavilion.

Looking down Brighton Beach:



Brighton Pier, which we didn't visit due to the massive crowds:





An old abandoned pier:



The Brighton Bandstand, newly refurbished:


Tour guide Bob (he's a colleague, he gave us a tour of this and some of London via automobile) took us further along the coast, about 20 minutes away, to the Worthing Pier which has less of a fanfare.

Jules and I in Worthing:


Gawd I hate getting my picture taken next to skinny and tan people!

The Worthing Pier:



We walked along the pier, got ice cream cones (It's called a "99"... vanilla ice cream with Flake bars... YUMMY!)



We sat on the pier and talked about life and families and religion and politics and work and well, pretty much everything. Sitting there looking out over the ocean, enjoying ice cream and good company- what an great time! I decided that if I were to ever live there, I would spend at least an hour on that pier every week to meditate.

The town of Worthing:


Looking out into the ocean, directly west. Tour Guide Bob told us that if we swim towards the sun, eventually we'll be back in America:



Luckily we didn't have to, we still had a few days left. Next will be my Wednesday story- my favorite day of the trip!

You May Call Me Susan

A story I forgot from my previous post:

After our long day of walking walking walking, we wanted to find somewhere close to our hotel for dinner, perhaps a pub or Indian food. So we walk down the street, and all of the cafe's are overflowing with people. One cafe after another, and people out on the sidewalk in front. I leaned in to Julie and said "Is it just me, or are we the only white people around?" "It's not just you, we ARE the only white people around. And the only women." She said. Middle Eastern men surrounded the area. It was dark, we didn't know where we were going, and it was starting to feel uncomfortable. We turned a corner, I put my purse/backpack on the front of me, and I could feel someone walking very close behind me. I step towards Julie and out of the way, hoping the person would just walk right on by.

"Hello Ladies!" A young man from the middle east approached us, along with his friend. "What are you doing tonight? Going to dinner, going clubbing, out for drinks?"

"Just looking for a place to have dinner" I replied.

"Ah, two lovely ladies in London looking to have dinner. Maybe we could join you and the four of us have dinner together?"

"No, but thanks." Again, our accents were noted... "Where are you from?" Julie said "The United States, near California" (the geographic location of California is global common knowledge... unlike Utah, which was mistaken for Canada). "Oh, we're from Kuwait, our countries are very good friends. Tell me miss, did you vote for Obama?" he asked. "Yes, I did" "OH, thank you so very much!" he said, making a bowing motion. At this point I'm trying to walk away, and he keeps right up with us "Please will you reconsider, and have dinner with us tonight?" "No, but again, thank you." "Well why don't you take my number, and call me if you change your mind. Please, please just take my number." "Um, ok...." I said to get him to go away. He watched me record it in my iPhone, and made sure I had it entered correctly. "Tell me your good namew, please?" The first name that came to me... "Susan". and Julie said "Gina" "Alright Susan and Gina, we hope to hear from you later."

Finally they left us alone. And no, we didn't call.

We found out a couple of days later, from the man who is in charge of the security of the shipment of our company's product for all of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, that the middle eastern culture simply doesn't have women walking on the streets alone at night. He said it has nothing to do with us, the way we carried ourselves or the way we were dressed- and not to disparage these men- but we were mistaken for prostitutes. Harrods is owned by Al Fayed, who is the father of Dodi Fayed (Princess Diana's boyfriend who died with her in the crash). Therefore, a the area surrounding Harrods has a heavy middle east influence. I will talk about this more in a later post.


***On to the next day***

When I was a kid I loved the movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks". In the movie there is a song about "Portabello Road", so I absolutely wanted to visit the Portabello Road Market:


The streets were charming and the houses were well maintained, painted different colors, and each had an interesting door and entry way. I was particularly impressed with this pale blue house and red door:



And even more impressed when I looked up at the building to discover that this was once George Orwell's house:



A view down the market road:



We stopped at a gellato shop where I got a single scoop lemon gellato- it minds me of the "Zitrone Eis" I used to get from the icecream trucks in Germany. The look on my face right here said "Julie, will you stop pointing that camera in my face and let me enjoy my gellato in peace?!?!":



After this we went to Notting Hill Gate, also influenced by a movie, but didn't do much other than browse in some cool record shops that specialise in rare, out of print albums. No pictures to share. Then we found an Indian Restaurant in Soho, which was not satisfying, to say the least. I expected of all places to get really great Indian, it would be there. The Bombay House in SLC is still the best.

After this we were strolling around the Theater District close to the Adelphi Theatre. We saw this arch that went into an alley, and we were intrigued. We were very happy to stumble up on the Nell Gwynne Pub... there's no way we would have found it otherwise. The Nell Gwynne is a 350 year old pub, and there was a very cute Irish bartender inside, who was very impressed that I could distinguish his accent. We stayed longer than we would have, and drank more beers than normal, because he was just so darn arorable. Pictures from the pub

The arch of the alley that intrigued us:



The ouside of the pub:


Not trying to be a narcissist, but Julie took this shot of me when I was looking out the window, and I like how it turned out:



The bartender offered to take a picture of us together, so here we are looking at him with slightly buzzed but starry eyes:



A cool shot of Covent Gardens:



After this we returned to our hotel room and poured ourselves into bed. Another full day with a ton of walking... loving and soaking up every single moment of our trip.

Tomorrow? We go to work. Tune in next time for the for the joy.....

London Loves Christy

Or so I was told... more on that later.

So, Julie and I wake up later than we planned. While we're getting ready, we get out the map and Frommer's guide to London and make plans. We'll take the tube up to Notting Hill Gate, walk over to the Portabello Road market, over to the Marble Arch and do whatever until the end of the day where we wanted to end up in Covent Gardens for dinner and night life.

As explained in my previous post, all tube lines were closed except for Piccadelly, which was the direction we wanted to go the day after and had loosely planned. We coulda done the bus system, sure, but we didn't want to. No problem, let's go to Piccadelly, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace.

Here I am at Piccadelly Circus:




Under the statue of Eros:



Okay, so I haven't been to London in 21 years, but this was NOT the Picadelly Circus I remembered! (I later came to realize that what I remembered was NOT Picadelly Circus). This part of London has been made famous by several films. Pretty much any movie that is takes place in London has a scene here, it reminds me of the central point of Times Square in NYC. After some souvenir shopping, we walked down the road towards Leicester Square. There was some kind of Fright attraction, seemed like a haunted house with actors, with people outside trying to get us to go in. We ended up talking to this cute bloke who looked a lot like Prince William... he was adorable, and oh so young, but we had to keep talking to him. He asked where we were from, and after telling him Salt Lake City, he asked us if that was in Canada. D'oh! So much for my ethnocentrism! We told him that we were there for the U2 concert, and he got all excited saying that he was going to go too, but his buddies backed out and now he has to go alone, and wanted to go with us. Awwww, he was cute... but no. We took his brochure for the Fright attraction, and continued on.

Leicester Square is the Theater District, or London's version of Hollywood. There a gorgeous park in the middle, and surrounded by several theaters that premier new films.



Further down the road we go, and ultimately end up in Trafalgar Square. A-HA! THIS is what I thought was Piccadelly Circus 21 years ago. It's such a huge place, it seems much more like a circus than Piccadelly Circus does! (Uh, yeah.... so the "Circus" part of the name refers to the circle that surrounds. The things you learn when you get old...)



Nelson's Column:



Awesome view from Tafalgar Square:



The Admirality Arch:



This is where the Royalty enters The Mall. The middle gate opens only for the Queen.


It didn't open for me. Fer rude!

Approaching Buckingham Palace:


I *DESPISE* this picture of me, but it is the best picture I have of the Palace.

After walking the grounds around the palace, we realized we had been walking all day and hadn't eaten a thing and we were starving, and oh so thirsty! The original Hard Rock Cafe is not too far from here, and I've been there the other two times I've gone to London, so let's go!

The original Hard Rock Cafe, in the same location for 38 years:



I had to get a picture of the John Lennon duds:



Julie and I inside:


I sat at this exact same booth with my dad, back in 1987:

The ladies thought I was weird and wondering WTH I would be taking their pictures for.

The waitress at the HRC spent some time talking to us, and she summed the vibe of London up perfectly: London is a place where anything goes. Everyone is welcome, everyone is accepted. No one cares who you are or what you wear, just enjoy the city and all that it has to offer. At St. James Park by Buckingham Palace there was an opera singer in a pavilion, and people brought chairs and blankets and they were all lying around talking, reading, listening to the singer, playing with their kids, walking their dogs, riding their bikes, relaxing... that spot is the epitome of London, and if there IS a heaven, this is what I want it to be like.



After eating at the Hard Rock Cafe, we went across the street to the Hard Rock shop. It was full and so we had to wait behind the velvet rope in the "VIP Line" outside. We were talking to the "Bouncer", who asked us where we were from. At this point it's apparently clear that our accents are in no way British... not that we tried. After we told him he said, "How do you like London?" I replied "I LOVE London!"



"London loves YOU." he said, smiling and full of sincerity.

Say Cheese!

Yesterday was picture day at my girls school. This is a picture I took of them from my iPhone in the morning, to show what their hair looked like BEFORE recess.

Yeah, freakin' adorable. I know!

Gone and Done It

A couple of posts ago, I said I needed a new haircut, or get back into therapy. I opted for the new haircut!



This is an A-line haircut; shorter in the back, gradually longer in the front. Plus the dye has a bit more red in it.

I love it! If for no other reason, than it's HEALTHY!! Bye-Bye split ends!

Hopefully this will do the trick!

I wanna rock!

Nothing better than beating a week of blues by partying with a Diez De Mayo party, hosted by some of my most amazing friends.

Not only are they and their ideas awesome, but their FOOD. OH. MY. GOD.

G&T are the best cooks I know. Anything they do, and I mean ANYTHING, is gourmet. They spoil me.

They made taco's.

Not just taco's. But steak, with onions and tasty hot peppers. And Chicken. And a choice of warmed corn or flour tortilla's. And homemade salsa, medium or hot. And homemade guacamole. And homemade corn/mango/onion/jicama/cilantro salad. Not to mention the homemade tres-de-leches cupcakes with sliced straweberries on top. Or the plentitude of high-end-tequila's.

Wow!! My friends ROCK!!!

Not just figuratively, but literally!

Here are some of us, getting ready for our jam session:



And jus' me, doing somethingIdunno:



Hopefully we'll have several more sessions of real life jamming. I'm amazed by their talent. Even more amazed that they asked me to sing!

It's true!!! A dream really IS a wish your heart makes!

Sometime last fall, I had a dream that I went to a movie theater to see a U2 movie, and I knew that Bono would be there. I sat in the front row, all the way on the right. He introduced the movie, but went away soon after. He didn't acknowledge me, like I hoped he would. But, he was there, and I saw him. Still an awesome dream.

Fast forward to recent times.

I found out a few weeks ago that U2 has a new 3D concert movie permiering at THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL!!!! Just a half hour away from where I live. I really wanted to go, but damn, tickets to these things sell out fast! Especially a U2 thing? No way in HELL am I going to get to go!

So, I talked to a friend of mine with connections. He basically said that the chances are slim. I'll have to call around to the box office and see if I can get tickets, or go stand in the wait list line. But still, he'd check his sources and see if he could find anything out.

A week later, he came up empty. The showing was two weeks away, so I wasn't expecting anything.

He sent me a text message on the 11th, that his source came through, I would have two tickets for the midnight showing. Anyone who knows me, know's that I'm a diehard. Midnight would be no problem!

So who do I take? I wanted to make sure I brought some one who really appreciated the band, and someone who I would have A LOT of fun with! Who else, other than my BFF Shiree?

Some of these pictures are taken with my iPhone, the rest are taken with Shiree's nice camera.

Here we are, FIRST IN LINE:

Total MILF's, or what??

Shiree and I were so clueless about Sundance, we were total virgins to this ordeal! Thanks to some good advice from co-workers, I knew to drive as if I'm going to Heber City, not Park City, and take the back-road exit. Somehow we managed to find immediate parking, close to the venue!!

We get to the venue thinking that we'll find a way to catch a shuttle to Main Street and walk around. The first show was seating (9:45), and we found out that they'll be lining up for the midnight show soon. They told us we could wait in the heated tent. (HEAT?!?! THANK YOU!!!!) So off to the heated tent we go.

People behind us say "Hey, we have tickets for the midnight show. Can we line up behind you?" We officially, yet un-officiallly start the line for the midnight show. WE'RE #1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Screw Main Street!

The line next to us is for Adreneline pass holders (they go to shows before 10AM and after 10PM. Cost is $400!), and people in the film industry. I started to talk to the guy next to us, who looks like Ryan Seacrest. We have HOURS to wait in line, why not start making friends around us? I asked him where the best place in the theater to sit would be, and he says "As close as the front as you can get, to the left. That's where the podium is. If the band happens to be there(chances are they won't because it's the second screening), You'll be closer to them."

Shiree and I stand there for 3 hours. We're ahead of all of these people:

Finally we get in. We get to wear these totally groovy glasses!






Again, MILF's, right??


The Boys were there!!! (Minus Larry, poor guy got sick)



I paid A LOT Of money to see them in arena's with 20,000 + people. Last night (early this morning) I saw them in an arena with 1400 people. No, they didn't perform live. But they were THERE. In PERSON. And I was 5 feet away from them!!





Shiree was there, too!!



This woman, with this camera, took my picture!!!



After the band left the stage, my whole body was shaking. I couldn't believe that something like this happened for me. I'll have a perma-smile on my face for a long time to come!

And now it's time for some random thoughts by Christy.....

Hello to everyone in blogland!

I can't think of one specific topic to blog about... I have a few ideas in my mind, but none of them warrant an entire post. So here goes. In no specific order.

Celebrity look alikes. There are now three different celebrities that I've been told that I look like. Two of them I can see some minor resemblence in, they are:

Julia Stiles:



Or:



More than one person from different walks of life have told me that I remind them of Julia Stiles. Perhaps... it's a huge compliment, but I also think it's a stretch.

I've also been told that I look like Renee Zellwegger:



Or a brunette Renee?:



I can see this one. We both have the same cheekbones.

I went to a bar on saturday night and some drunk chick in the bathroom freaked out and told me that I look like Maggie Gyllenhaal. This was the first time I had ever been told that I look like her:



Before anyone gets all self righteous on me, I'm just sayin' that this is what I've been told, and I don't have a professional hair dresser or beautician every day. I am not going to post any pictures of me right now, but you can go through my photo label archives and see me there. My question, to my readers, who do you think I look like other than Christy? Any of these three? Anyone else?

Next random thoughts:

I know I shouldn't, but I can't help but giggle knowing that Switzerland unintentionally invaded Lichtenstein. Perhaps my dear friend Wry Catcher can chime in on this. I've been to Switzerland more often than I've been to Idaho, and living in SLC most of my life, that's saying something. I love and adore Switzerland more than just about any other country. To think they could unintentionally do something like this, and the fact that Lichtenstein downplayed the incident, restores my faith in peace and humanity. I think I should move to one of these countries.

Even though I've had colleagues in the United Kingdom for more than a decade and work with them often, I still have a thing for a British accent. I'm just sayin'....

I met a guy last weekend that had "coelitus mihi vires" tattooed on his left arm. (Although I think his Coelitus was spelled Caelitus, is that possible? Who knows... I was drunk!). He told me that it meant "Heaven is my Strength". He lost his mother at 26, and got this tattoo in memory of her. Even though I don't believe in heaven or hell, I somehow found this touching and comforting. I still like the idea that even though some of our loved ones have passed on, they are watching over us or still somehow there within us. Even if they're not in heaven. I don't like the idea that a person dies and that's it, end of story.

It's no secret that I love and worship U2, and think that Bono is an amazing poet and philosopher. Sometimes when I feel lost in life, I listen to or read some U2 lyrics for guidance. May sound cheesy, but it's what I do, and it helps me through some rough times.

One of my favorite lyric moments is from the song "Mysterious Ways":

One day you'll look back, and you'll see
Where you were held now by this love.
While you could stand there,
You could move on this moment
Follow this feeling.

From "City of Blinding Lights":

The more you see the less you know
The less you find out as you go
I knew much more then than I do now

And now you know what's been on my mind.