Adventures in London: Issue 62

Well I wish there was more to share from this week, but sadly this has not been the best week. To sum it up, I worked most of the weekend, I did not run the half marathon that was supposed to be today, and chances are I am not running the NYC marathon...

But before we get to that, how about some happy news?!?! On Saturday night, I went out with the girls for a night out of fine dining and good ole girl talk. We met up at a restaurant on the Thames called Buddha Bar. The restaurant which started in Paris has expanded to NYC and London. Similar to Spice Market in the meat packing district of NYC, Buddha Bar has a great ambiance and amasing food which is a tasting of East Asia. The sushi is absolutely to die for... the three of us had been looking for a proper sushi place since moving to London and I think we've found ourselves a place to dine. We ordered starters and a round of sushi for the table. When asked for dessert, we all looked at each other and decided to order another round of tuna tar tare and sushi rolls. Oh there is nothing like 2 dinners :-) It was a pleasure to catch up with the girls, we all have a lot going on in our lives so it was nice to get together for a "date".

So onto the other topics of the weekend. Today was supposed to be the Run to the Beat, London's music half marathon over in Greenwich. Similar to the "Rock N Roll" marathons of the USA - this half marathon had all the ingredients for an amasing race. Unfortunately, I will have to wait until next year to run this race. Rather upsetting as I had signed up for this race in Dec 08 and was rather looking forward to running it with my London brother. Nothing else to be said, there will be other races to be run. Fingers crossed, I will have the opportunity to run this race next year.

Back in April 2008, I started on the road to the 2009 NYC Marathon...on 13 Sept 08 I officially qualified for the race. It would mark my first marathon and a goal that I had been look forward to fulfilling. I once wrote that I prefer to have hopes and dreams over having goals. I had the goal of running a sub-4hr marathon...was even crazy enough to think I could run a 3h45min marathon to qualify me for the Boston & London marathon. Well both of those goals are going to have to wait as I will not be running the 2009 NYC Marathon.

This is not a complete shock to me, I had a sneaky suspicion I was not going to be able to run the marathon this year given that I have been back to seeing the cardiologist for my inner-workings of my ticker. You probably want me to go into more detail, but I am honestly in no mood. I am trying to be positive about this. It may have been the 40th NYC marathon, but it is not the 50th or the 100th (though I don't think I will be running still - who knows). The verdict is not that I won't ever run, just cannot run for the time being. So it is a big let down personally, but....well there is no follow up. It simply sucks....

B Mak, Chris, Andrea, and TK, I will be there to cheer you on. Not going to be the same as running, but photographing will definitely be a close second.

To everyone else, hope you are well.

xoxo

T

Adventures in London: Issue 61

First of all, I should start by saying that I am not in the best of moods. While trying to download my photos from Hamburg, I ended up deleting all my photos. So sadly that whole weekend has become a void of photos :-( I have borrowedthe photos from Anne (Stan, I hope you don't mind). I honestly do not know how I managed to do this, of all albums to do it with too!! First it was corrupting y 2008 photos and now my Hamburg photos. Note to self: avoid the computer and photos when you are in a mood as I end up in one way or the other messing things up.

So anyway, back to the weekend. This weekend I made my first trip to Germany to visit Stan (aka Anne), my roommate from university. It was here birthday weekend and Hamburg was the desired location to meet up. It had been nearly a year since we last saw each other - amasing how time just goes by when you are not paying attention.

I arrived in Hamburg on Friday morning, after take a (very) early morning flight. I spent the day napping, waking around the city and taking photos. It was a good "ME" day.

I did discover something rather crucial though...I DO NOT speak a word of German. From the airport, I followed Stan's directions to the metro stop for our hotel (cutely we decided to stay at the Boston Hotel). When I arrived it dawned upon me - the map to the hotel was left at the office. The panic started to sink in as I had no idea how I was going to find my way to the hotel. I asked the cafe shop, the train information, the off-license shop...finally I went to the grocery store where 2 15year old boys (who did not speak a word of English) offered to take me to the the street of my hotel. I later discovered (after walking around the block and through a park) that the hotel was just down the street from the metro station...oye.

That evening Stan and her husband arrived. Once we met up it was as if no time had past between us. We started our evening with a drink in Central Park (a faux sandypark with beach chairs and bean bag seating). I guess these sorts of "parks" are quite common in Germany....I will say it was so relaxing to be in the open air, drinking a beer (earlier in the day I enjoyed a beer while reading Harry Potter). From there we walked over to Schulterblatt S, a cute street filled with restaurants of every cuisine you can think. We decided on a Spanish place and had a collection of tapas.

The next day after enjoying a German breakfast we enjoyed a leisurely day with a walk around the city centre, a canal tour of the harbor and a 3-hr beer break at a rooftop beach bar. Similar to Central Park, this beach bar was another faux beach bar situated on the top of a car park. The three of us sat on the rooftop, soaking up the sun and watching the boats go by. It was truly the most relaxing day that I have had in a long while. There is not a lot to see in Hamburg, which allowed for the perfect weekend - catching up with a dear friend, enjoying the sunshine, getting a massage and just being away from London. Oh and did I mentioned the delicious 3-scoop banana split...let's just say YUMMMY!!! It was gone before it got to the table. I don't recall the last time I ask an ice scream sundae that quickly!!

Well I think that it is for me. I hope you all are well. Stan, I hope I get to see you before you ship back to the States.

xx

T

Adventures in London: Issue 60

This week has been a mix of catching up with old friends, working hard and enjoying new friends. As mentioned last week, we have a couple of team members from out of town (one from NYC and the other from Singapore) that are here for a 3-day training session. It was a good couple of days of long training session followed by lovely catch-ups and dinners. It had been some time since I had seen one of the team members, we used to be "Bi Bim Bap" buddies. It was out tradition for the years that we worked together in NYC. Here in London we've had to make a new tradition - curry night at my flat. Cannot wait for the next reunion of the circle of trust and chance to catch up with the "family" :-)

On Wednesday, my friend SS and I went to see Julie and Julia, a new comedy by Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seatle, etc). The movie tells the story of Julia Child and her time in France along side Julie Powell, a cooking enthusiast who takes on the challenge to cook all 524 recipes from Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in 365 days. She creates a blog to detail her experiences of cooking boeuf bourguigon, cooking lobster, and the ultimate challenge of stuffing a duck.

My friend was rather bored of the film, but I found the movie rather entertaining. Enjoying to cook myself, I was intrigued by Julie Powell's desire to cook an entire cook book from cover-to-cover. If I were to embark on a similar challenge, I think I will start with the Top Chef book my cousin gave me for my birthday :-)

What I found interesting in the movie is how they showed the two women's evolution as they discovered their passions in life and the support network they had. They depicts Julia Child's (played by Meryl Streep) life in France and how she discovered her love for cooking at the Le Cordon Bleu and the grief she dealt with trying to break into a "man's profession". Through out her journey she had her husband to supported her throughout the experiences. On the other side, you had Julie Powell, a 30-something writer, who discovers the love of cooking. She starts a blog to share her attempts in cooking Julia Child's book with the "world out there". Unlike Child, Powell had to endure a streak of misunderstanding and quarrels as the "blog was taking a life of its own". For people who don't blog, the notion of blogging seems rather pointless and unnecessary. Well you know my point of view on blogging, but I am curious to hear yours. Also, if you've seen the movie, please share your thoughts.

The rest of the week was pretty low key. A few of us went out on Friday for some happy hours drinks in Covent Gardens turned into dancing in Holborn. We decided to do something new, so rather than the same ole local pubs near work, we ventured up to Covent Gardens to a bar called Freud's. It is a little bar underground with the most delicious cocktails you will taste. There is a drink there called the "Yum Yum" which is just that. Freud's is definitely one of those secret bars that you will stumble upon via word-of-mouth....so if you are in town don't try looking Freud's up in the tour book - I will take you :-)

Well home you all are well. Miss you dearly and love you much more

xoxo

T

PS: A very happy birthday to Miss Mollly (aka my everything girl). First year in 4 years I did not spend that we did not grab a midnight drink together :-( Sorry I was not there, but hope you had a lovely weekend celebrating!!

Adventures in London: Issues 50-59

Attached is the video recap from Issues 50-59 covering the trip to Rome, the 2nd Annual Clapham Pub Crawl and a visit with Chris :-)

The song is an old song, but it still is one of my favourites. It probably doesn't go with the Italian theme, but it is for my little brother. Every time I hear this song I think of my visit to India when I was in high school. I remember hearing this song at New Year Eve's party we went to. Everyone went wild during this song...the movie is nothing out of this world, but this sound and the rest of the soundtrack is. May be over 10 years, but this is still my little brother's and mine's favourite song. 

Enjoy

xoxo

T

Adventures in London: Issue 59

I don't have much to share for this week. It has been a rather hectic week at work with various projects going on. Now that bank holiday weekend has come and gone, the summer holiday is over and it is back to work work time :-( It is going to be a busy fall...but we will get through it (hopefully).

As most of you already know, I am a "plan everything" out person. I like knowing weeks in advance what my plans are, but I am always delighted by unexpected nights. On Friday, I caught up with a friend from work. It had been a while since we caught up one-on-one, so we decided to have a low-key evening involving dinner at our favorite place - Inn Noodle. This, hole-in-the wall, Chinese restaurant is not much to look at from the outside, but if you give it a try you will be delighted with their soup dumplings and homemade lo mein.

After ordering WAY too much food, KV and I walked around the neighborhood a bit. We were not in the mood for a packed London bar so we just kept walking until we came across a Live Jazz bar. It was a quintessential NYC village experience. The venue recently opened and host live music every night of the week. The feautured band was AMASING!!! They had an upright bass, two guiatrist, a trumpet player and a girl playing the Sax who was mind-blowingly talented.

We ended up spending our "low-key" evening in a jazz club meeting new people, watching the dance floor get packed with people and listening to a band play a mixture of english, french, spanish and italian songs - - you just cannot beat that!! I've become a member of the club so I am looking forward to more Jazz nights and live music. Miss the live music venues of NYC, so I am happy that I finally found a place here in London.

That weekend, I cooked my second curry dinner for a work-friend from Singapore who was in town for a couple of weeks. I am happy to say that I learned how to cook mutter paneer (cheese and peas). I am loving this indian cooking stuff!! More dishes to discover :-)

Hope things are well with you. Miss you all dearly and love you more

xoxo

T