Oh Canada!

It's a sad week here in normally Jolly 'Ol England...Sven and Banana have officially moved to Canada. It was a tearful goodbye in the high street of Uxbridge after lunch and a little reminiscing on Tuesday afternoon as they headed off to the airport.
Here's a pic of the boys having one last pint on Tuesday afternoon. Paulster, Sven and Vik.


A couple of weeks before hand, a surprise going away party was organised and was a fitting celebration for nearly 4 great years of getting to know these two.
A quick pic of the table...


They have such a diverse group of friends here in London and given their cultural backgrounds, we decided to give Honorary Canadian Citizenship (and names) to those with a Croatian heritage/name. Those of us with non-Croatian backgrounds were given Croat names.
My name in Croatian is: Cvijeta Anđelka Pešut.
Paulster's is: Pavao Vlatko Damjanović.
Drama's is: Marija Valerija Damjanović.
Blondie's is: Iskra Marijana Damjanović.

And we all have certificates to prove it!




Borat featured into the evening's celebration...to maintain the surprise, we all held Borat faces on sticks in front of our own faces as they were led into the party area. Then...the "masks" just ended up being props for the rest of the evening.

Here's Maven looking coy with her fan.


And Budman Borat.


And Budman and Blondie "feeding" Borat some Tiramisu. Lovely, fresh Tiramisu it was!


Budman and Hachie Gal joining the party!


And Sven & Banana with the girls as the night ends.


We know having them in Toronto means one more place we can visit and a couple more reasons to get there. We've had such a great time over the years with them here in London and in several other places we've ventured together...Paris, Croatia, Brighton, Hampton Court Palace, Pizza Express, Nando's, KFC, dinner at ours, countless pubs, the coffee bar at work...every place we turn is a memory of the fun times together.


A shot of Sven and Banana one last time at Pizza Express!

And some of our outings...
Brighton Pier


The boys at Hampton Court Palace


One Hot Married Couple (you had to be there...)


Helping us paint the kitchen!


And one last cuddle wtih Kenny...


You will both be missed here in London immensely!
We wish you all the best in your new life in Canada.

Playing Hooky!

There's nothing quite like spending a lovely Tuesday afternoon in an amusement park with 3 of your favourite people on the planet. This week, Banana, Sven, Paulster and I trekked out to Thorpe Park for some crazy roller coaster action.


Part of the thrill (apart from the roller coasters) was knowing that everyone else was at work! I think the photo above (taken immediately upon entry) shows the appropriate amount of enthusiasm from the crowd.

There are quite a few really good coasters at Thorpe Park. The Colossus does 4 corkscrews in a row.


The Saw (themed for the movie series) is a zippy and quite scary ride...actually, the best roller coaster I've ever ridden.


Those were so good that we rode them twice! The first time around each ride, I screamed and laughed like a wild woman. Three days later, my throat still hurts!

The Stealth is Europe's fastest roller coaster--it goes 0-80 in less than 2 seconds and rises 205 feet in the air.

Sadly, Stealth was closed, so we didn't have to find out that Paulster would've chickened out anyway...

We rode the Nemesis--which is one that hangs you so that your legs dangle. That's the first time I've ridden one like that and it was fantastic.


And the Detonator is kind of like the Texas Cliffhanger--just a quick freefall type drop. So fast, I couldn't manage to scream!


Here we are on the bounce...


But it wasn't any of those that made us sick to our stomachs...After the first round of the park, we were walking past this pyramid-type building and decided to see what that was all about. It was a "backward, in the dark" roller coaster called X: No Way Out. It didn't do much more than bank and turn and go up some small drops...but we all got off of that thing feeling wobbly and nauseated.

It was an hour or so and some serious moaning before we could bring ourselves to ride Colossus again, and another hour before we could ride Saw for the final time. I'm quite sure that I'm just getting too old for this sort of thing, but it was some kind of fun!!!

Here's a picture of the four of us on the way out of the park.


What a great day out! I can't believe we haven't done that more often...

Part 2 - NYC Trip

More on our New York trip.
Of course, we had a list of things to see and do while we were in New York. A theme of NY sites seems to be observation decks. There was of course, the Empire State Building--86th floor and Rockefeller Centre--with great views of Central Park. And naturally, the Brooklyn Bridge.

Paulster, bravely posing atop the Brooklyn Bridge.


And me, on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Here's the Dalek on top of the Empire State Building.


And both of us from the top of the Empire State.


The thing that impressed me almost as much as much as the views from the top of the building was the building itself. The art deco features were just magnificent. I'm sure the other tourists thought I was nuts...but here are a few snaps of the building's features that I thought the most cool.









And a view to the street from the top of the Empire State.


Oh...I nearly forgot... the iconic Empire State is known for being a romantic spot. And this guy was being romantic, thinking he was getting away with it...until someone shouted--Oh, he's proposing!!! Of course, I went to snap a picture... I missed the kneeling part, but got the hug and big ol' diamond ring and all. How sweet!


And the view from Rockefeller Center was an amazing view of Central Park.




And the front of the building...you'll recognise if you watch 30 Rock--as it's set here. Yes, it's on our rotation and we've even started incorporating some Tracy Jordan phrases in our daily vocabs. Sad, yes.


We got to have dinner and visit with J&J... Mrs. J used to work with Paulster and is now working in the US, near NYC with Mr. J. We had lots of fun--thanks for coming into the city to meet us!


Here are a few shots of Central Park. What a gorgeous space. We were surprised how little green space there is in the city...like it's all just concentrated in this one spot. That's certainly a difference in NYC and London.













This is the obelisk who's twin is in London. If you look closely...there's some woman who's climbed into the plinth and is doing some sort of hocus pocus chanting/blessing on the obelisk. Weird.

And on one edge of the park is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We didn't go in...but we did eat a hot dog while sitting on the steps...Paulster ate 2, actually.


One unique place we went after our amazing brunch was the High Line park. As I mentioned, there isn't much green space in the city (except Central Park), and in an effort to combat this, there is a drive to turn disused space into parks and leisure facilities. This park is built on a disused train track that is elevated above the street. Very cool use of space--and it's definitely popular--it was packed!






We were fortunate with the weather. It was a bit muggy on Sunday, and Monday was perfect--sunny and cool. It started raining again as we headed to the airport. Perfect timing.
Can't wait to go back and explore more.

A Real Vacation! Part 1

As much as we've enjoyed this year's stay-cations...it was really, really great to get away to New York City for 4 nights/5 days. I worked away from home almost every week for the first 6 months of the year, and in return for all those nights at the Holiday Inn in Norwich, I earned 4 nights free hotel to use anywhere in the world. So I chose The Barclay Hotel in New York City. And it really was FREE. Not one cent--no taxes, no nothing...

Unbeknownst to us, the timing of our trip coincided with the 64th UN General Assembly. We figured it out when we arrived at the hotel and had to put our luggage through the X-ray machine and ourselves through a metal detector to even get into the hotel. The lobby was heaving with meaty men in suits with little earpieces looking for shifty eyed guests laden with suicide bombs. I am happy to report that no one managed to blow anything up while we were there.

We do suspect that the President of Iran was staying at our hotel--given the nightly protests outside. We never caught a glimpse of him, or any other political operatives.

But in true New York style, we did spot a few celebs. Brunch on Saturday at one of the recommended restaurants had us sitting two tables away from Ugly Betty's Amanda and Marc. And Kyle MacLachlan was on our flight home! Those were definitely fun celeb spots. Before you ask...no, I did not make a fool of myself by asking for a
photo with any of them.

Part of the fun of any of our trips is eating great food. Before we left, we tapped the fountain of all NYC local knowledge--Budman's brother, M. He's just moved from the Big Apple to London and was quite the source of great restaurant recommendations. In addition to the Cookshop, we also sampled the delights of Sevilla--fantastic Spanish paella! Yum. If only we'd had more time and clothes a size larger!

For me, the highlight was seeing the Statue of Liberty in person. Unfortunately, we did not get to climb up to the crown, but wow, just the sheer size of her sandals--made me feel OK about the size of my feet! ;)


But really, here are a few shots of Lady Liberty.


This time with people in it for scale.




And a shot of Paul as we toured Ellis Island's Registry Room.


Looking from the Registry Room on Ellis Island out to Liberty Island.




Actually, we "kinda" saw a political operative...while on Liberty Island, Airforce One flew overhead. So, we're going to say that President Obama was in there flying out of New York from the UN business.


There were some amazing stories of the number of new arrivals to the American shores and the conditions that they endured trying to enter the country. Quite fascinating.

No trip to New York City is complete without a visit to Times Square.




And here's the ball--not yet hoisted into position.


And one of the best things we found in Times Square was M&M World! Wow, what a feast for the eyes.
I asked this fellow if he was still toxic--which is why I have the goofy grin on my face! OK...it's actually just delirium at the thought of an M&M that large!

P.S. Paulster says to make sure you know that I'm the one on the right.







OK--more on the trip later!