Our First Visitors

My Dad and his wife, Jan, are our first official visitors. We have been eagerly anticipating their visit for months now and really looked forward to showing them some of our favorite spots in London and enjoying some sight seening together.

After a nice birthday celebration at one of our favorite spots, The Providores, we decided to check out Windsor Castle on Saturday. It was pretty cool. Apparently it's the Queen's favorite weekend spot, but lucky for us she wasn't there that weekend (according to US Weekly she was in Balmoral meeting Kate Middleton :-) ) so we were able to see some of the living quarters as well. I was watching the movie Elizabeth (great flick, if you haven't seen it, you should) this weekend and it was really cool to recognize the castle in much of the film.

Dad and Jan had already seen most of what they were interested in seeing in London already, so Sunday we spent wandering around Regents Park, Camden Town and Covent Garden with the Dood. We had a proper pub lunch in a slightly dodgy local, and then walked ourselves to the point of total exhaustion. Generally a really nice day showing off our city.

Dad and Jan flew off to Dublin on Monday morning and we will meet up withe them in Brugge, Belgium in two weeks. It was really fun to have visitors and they even were graciously enough to tell us how great they slept despite the air mattress, the 4am and 6am delivery trucks to the Starbucks below and general hassle and bustle of living in the heart of the city. Must have had some serious jet lag!

Another tragic stereotype rings true...

This article reinforces Greg's favorite statement about the UK being the most advanced 3rd world country on the globe...

English 'pull own teeth' as dental service decays
Mon Oct 15, 7:19 AM ET

Falling numbers of state dentists in England has led to some people taking extreme measures, including extracting their own teeth, according to a new study released Monday.
Falling numbers of state dentists in England has led to some people taking extreme measures, including extracting their own teeth, according to a new study released Monday.
Others have used superglue to stick crowns back on, rather than stumping up for private treatment, said the study. One person spoke of carrying out 14 separate extractions on himself with pliers.

More typically, a lack of publicly-funded dentists means that growing numbers go private: 78 percent of private patients said they were there because they could not find a National Health Service (NHS) dentist, and only 15 percent because of better treatment.
"This is an uncomfortable read for all of us, and poses serious questions to politicians from patients," said Sharon Grant of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health.
Overall, six percent of patients had resorted to self-treatment, according to the survey of 5,000 patients in England, which found that one in five had decided against dental work because of the cost.

One researcher involved in compiling the study -- carried out by members of England's Patient and Public Involvement Forums -- came across three people in one morning who had pulled out teeth themselves.

Dentists are also concerned about the trend.

Fifty-eight percent said new dentists' contracts introduced last year had made the quality of care worse, while 84 percent thought they had failed to make it easier for patients to find care.
Almost half of all dentists -- 45 percent -- said they no longer take NHS patients, while 41 percent said they had an "excessive" workload. Twenty-nine percent said their clinic had problems recruiting or retaining dentists.
"These findings indicate that the NHS dental system is letting many patients down very badly," said Grant.
"It appears many are being forced to go private because they don't want to lose their current trusted and respected dentist or because they just can't find a local NHS dentist."

Doodle Update

I think we’ve mentioned it before, but to set the stage, Oxford St. is one of the busiest shopping streets in London (probably in the world). Oxford St. divides the Marylebone (north) and Mayfair (south) neighborhoods, and we live just north of Oxford St. – technically in Marylebone. Walking on or across Oxford St. can be quite painful, so we rarely venture south into Mayfair. Anyway, I mention all of this because this weekend we took the Dood to one of our favourite lunch spots – Rocket (where they have outside seating in a hard-to-find little alley). I had a work call in the middle of the day, so we were killing some time exploring Mayfair when we stumbled upon a small off leash park that’s 3 blocks from our flat (as another side note, as bad as the summer weather was, the fall has been really nice – except for a few days of very heavy rain). Tiff omitted it from the Italy post, but we came home to find that our roof had sprung a leak (again). I guess we had torrential rain and there was even a tornado that touched down somewhere. Our current solution is buckets and towels. Tiff said the dripping is like sleeping in a rainforest – my first thought was that it was like living in the projects.

Back to the park - I was very excited, Tiff was embarrassed that it took us 10 weeks to find it. Anyway, should be life changing for us – plus it’s right next to the U.S. Embassy so we now know where to go in case of an emergency.

Morgan made fast friends with a couple of pug puppies.

You could tell she was excited because that night she was acting rather impish – flipping her ear over her head and posing.

Smile!

I said SMILE!

La Dolce Vita - Tuscany 2007

Greg and I fulfilled a key part of our ‘dream’ when we moved to London this weekend, by going to Italy for the weekend. Our timing was perfect as our friends Karen and Ernie graciously agreed to let us meet up with them while they were honeymooning in Italy for two weeks.

We flew into Pisa, which is one of those great, small airports where you are through customs and have your bag in about twenty minutes. I highly recommend it as a port of entry. We picked up our rental car and headed for the Tuscany hills to our favourite little hotel in Radda in Chianti, the Relias Vignale.

After sleeping in a bit (how wonderful to not be jet lagged and be able to hit the ground ‘running’ - really helped us maximize our trip), we headed down stairs to enjoy our cappucini and Tuscan breakfast complete with prosciutto, cheese, pastries and fruit outside on the patio overlooking the grape vines and olive trees. After a few hours by the pool we got cleaned up and waited for Karen and Ernie to arrive from Florence. They arrived a little car sick from the Tuscan curvy roads but their weariness quickly disappeared as we enjoyed a long lunch and some good wine while catching up on the behind the scenes stories at the wedding and the latest Seattle news. Ernie (of all people) was the most anxious to do some shopping, so we wrapped up lunch and set off for the outlets where all of us managed to find some good deals. It had nothing to do with the fact that Greg was driving, but both of the girls got car sick on the 30 minute (10 mile) drive down from the hills. Karen in particular was struggling, but her spirits were lifted after finding two pairs of Prada shoes and seeing Ernie is his slick new sunglasses.

After very cautiously driving back up to Radda, Karen was not feeling well, so the Huhminsens headed down to Montelpulciano and we headed back to Radda where we ate delicious pizza at the famous ‘Da Michicle’. Our days in Tuscany nearly repeat the above heavenly sequence of events everyday (sans Karen & Ernie)

To mix things up a bit, on Saturday we drove down to Montelpulciano to meet up with Karen and Ernie. Greg and I had been to Montelpulciano previously but hadn’t really explored the town – Tuscany’s tallest and largest of mid evil cities. We handed the map over to the boys and showed them the lunch spot and they lead us up and up and up and around and around and around. We were feeling pretty good about walking off lunch prior to eating it but were starting to get a bit concerned we’d miss the magical 2:30 cut off for lunch when every shop and restaurant shuts down for the Italian equivalent of a siesta. Right about this time, we round a corner and things look a bit familiar…now Greg argues you’ve seen one Tuscan mid evil town, you’ve pretty much seen them all (he’s in Tuscany for the food, wine and shopping, not the sightseeing), but this looked really familiar. Yup, the boys had walked us hungry = grumpy girls in one big circle. When we finally did find the restaurant, it was about 100 feet from the entrance of the city when we started (nearly an hour ago). All was quickly forgotten as we enjoyed a nice lunch amongst the locals at Diva e Maceo.

After circling the town a few more times, treating ourselves to gelato and purchasing some wine, we head off to find a wine bar and magically end up at Karen and Ernie's fabulous hotel. We had a really amazing night sit outside on their patio drinking too much wine enjoying the sounds of the sheep and soaking in the the countryside. Too tipsy to drive home, we crashed Karen & Ernie's dinner plans and had a another great meal at La Grotta. They graciously accommodated our "mix up" of a reservation for four instead of two and the food was delicious. It was really fun to be in our favorite part of the world enjoying great food and wine with great friends.

They next day we experienced our first football game while in Radda. It was pretty cool to sit with the locals watching two Chianti teams battle it out for victory amongst the vineyards and olive trees.

We headed to Pisa for our flight back to London. We had a few hours to kill so we decided to re-visit the tower. It never fails to impress.

Another wonderful trip to Italy...can't wait to go back!

Paris Wrap Up and Back in the USA

One of the great things about living in Europe is the ease of travel. If we take the Eurostar train through the Chunnel we can be in Paris in less than 3 hours from leaving our flat in London (includes security and the tube to get to the Chunnel station). But wait there's more - starting in mid-November the train moves to faster tracks and the travel time will be even shorter! Anyway, the point of the infomercial is that we left Paris with a list of to-do's when we return. We want to visit the catacombs, eat at Bistrot Vivienne, grab a drink at Buddha Bar (the inspiration for Tao in Midtown) and spend more time in Marais. One thing I definitely will not do is eat again at Cafe Honore. It's a little touristy spot near the Louvre that we went to out of desperation. I have no proof, but I think I ate something bad because that night I didn't feel great and the next night when I returned to London (the night before we were due to be on planes for 13 hours to Portland) I got really sick. My stomach was a mess, I had the chills, nausea, and then I woke up in a pool of sweat with a really high fever. What's my answer to such a situation - I call "me Mum." She is a pharmacist, so as usual her advice was to pop some pills. I really didn't think I could handle the flight, but the purpose of the trip was for Tiff's sister's wedding, so after 2,000 milligrams of Advil my fever was reduced to non-sweating levels and I sucked it up.

A combination of aggressiveness and luck got me a 5 seat row to myself on the flight to SFO, so I was able to lay down and sort of sleep. I was never 100% in Portland, but I attended all the required events - even got pulled over by Portland's finest with a car full of drunken bachelor party guys (including the bachelor). The reason - my tires squealed going around a corner downtown. I wasn't going over 15 mph, but I hit those Max tracks and next thing I know lights are flashing. Cop even thought he knew me "or your cousin who looks just like you" - good times. In all seriousness, the wedding was really nice - I just wish I could have fully enjoyed it. It was pretty interesting to spend time in Portland after living outside of the NW for a while. There's a history/culture of drunken stupidity and thuggishness from the English that permeates everyday life. Not so much in central London because there aren't that many English here. Portland, and I love the city, hasn't shed it's redneck/hick past. It's just a lot of little things, and I remember noticing it when we moved back to Seattle in 2001, but after 6 years you tend to forget and it just becomes normal. The things that stand out to me are the general lack of refinement. For example, people dress as if they are either going to work on their cars or play beer league softball, and I'm not just talking about walking around town during the day. As I mentioned, we went out on Thursday night for the bachelor party. First thing that was shocking - all the bars were dead. In fact the reason I got pulled over is because we were in search of a more happening bar. The club we found - Betty Ford - was actually solid - despite a bunch of dude's wearing baseball caps, basketball shoes and shorts. I found myself asking - how does the doorman let in all these guys? Then I remembered - it's Portland.

Here's a photo of Nicole and Tiff from the wedding.