Adventures in London: Issue 92

I have started the week a young and sincere 29 year old, and ended the week being a young and sincere 30 year old. Straight from a scene of sixteen candles, I went to the office on Thursday (my last day in the office as a twenty-something year old) and it was just like every other day. No mentions of birthday wishes, no big do-up - complete discreteness. As you see can see from the picture to the right, the team truly keep things quiet and were rather subtle about me turning 30. If people did not know it was my birthday (which most did not), they certain did now. I was not in the birthday mood or mood in general, but that day certainly brought a smile to my face. It was such a sweet and thoughtful idea from the team and extremely touching.

After a lovely lunch with TK, who had just arrived from NYC to run the London Marathon (more about that later), I was surprised with cupcakes and american candy from Cyber Candy the little bit of american heaven here in London.

I spent the evening with the boys drinking and catching up at Studio Six. It had been ages since I had a low-key evening with just the boys. It was nice to catch up with them. It has been an interesting couple of weeks, and during times like this whilst having your girlfriends to confide in is great, having your guys around to give you another perspective and attitude about the situation is priceless. I am lucky to have my girls of support and my guys for strength...I honestly do not know what I would have done without them (especially this week).

On Friday, I took my birthday day. I do not know if this is a UK thing or a Mindshare WW thing, but you get an extra day off for your birthday. My birthday day plans kept changing from going to the SPA to going shopping and exploring London a bit. Instead, I spent the day with Simone in Kent, where I did my nails and napped in the sun whilst they she went to her meeting. After that it was off to my favourite UK city (thus far), Whistable via the sea side. We drove through this cute little town in Herne Bay stopping every so often to take photos. It was such a beautiful drive over - so much so that I did not fall asleep once cause I was to mesmerized by scenery. Once in Whistable, the hope was to go to Wheelers, but sadly they were booked (no shocker there as they only have 4 tables).

With Wheelers out of the question (probably would have helped if I called them rather laying out in the sunshine - c'est la vie), we went exploring for option b. Option B, turned out to be Whistable Oysters Co. Located right on the beach, the restaurant was a nice find with a quaint feel and atmosphere to it. The meal started with a order of drinks - a fruit wheat beer from the Whistable brewery and a blood mary for me. The bloody mary did not compare to Timberland Lounge in West Virginia & Jacque Imos in NYC, but after I doctored it a bit it stopped tasting like tomato juice and more like a bloody mary. When the oysters arrived I knew I had order the wrong kind - need to remember the rule I only like oysters in months that end in "r". Although I love oysters, I am not a fan of large oysters (more so cause I dislike having to chew them and I find it put offing a bit).

Our next course was seared scallops in a balsamic vinaigrette sauce. This was absolutely marvelous! The meal then was topped off when our entrees arrive - half a lobster and whole crock crab. To say that I was excited for this meal is an understatement. I remember as a kid, Mom taking me to Red Lobster for the Ultimate Feast (comprised of lobster tail, steamed snow crab, and shrimp). There is nothing like steamed lobster and crab and dipping it into melted butter. I have always know shellfish to be served warm..well on Friday I learned that shellfish is also served cold...yup COLD! Imagine my surprise when I tasted that. My tongue and belly were not pleased, in fact the cold crab and lobster made me a bit queasy.

To shake off the cold shell-fish ending to our meal, we took a walk along the sea front to enjoy the sunshine and take in the fresh air. I feel in love with Whistable in the fall time. Despite the grey skies and the little rain at the time this little town captured in my heart. Now, in the sunshine with blue skies all around I am head over heels. What I need to figure out now is how to visit Whistable via train so I can come on my own for the day. If I do, I will be sure to call wheelers ahead of time so I am certain to have a seat at the table or counter to enjoy their Guinness battered oysters and crab cakes. Oh the crab cakes at Wheelers are absolutely delicious and worth the trip down there. Bams, when you come next I HAVE to take you there. You will enjoy them.

To celebrate being thirty and flirty, I threw a little birthday celebration at Salt Bar N Dinning Room. With a menu of over 200 whiskey, this lounge/ chic whiskey bar with food menu ranging from mini burgers to paneer tikka, Salt offered the ideal venue to celebrate my last night at a twenty something year old.

I was not keen to have a big celebration, in fact I was rather tempted to cancel the evening based on my mood lately. I am glad I did not as it was nice to just have a relaxing evening with friends sampling various types of scotch whiskeys. What did I sample exactly? To be honest, I cannot remember all of them and sadly their website does not contain all of them. If you come to visit, then we can go back for a tasting :-)

It was a delight to spend the evening with friends. I was rather touched by the turn out and some of the people that came to celebrate the evening. I realised just how lucky I am to have such good friends here. I also realised I am not used to staying out late anymore. I almost made it to midnight....but 12 minutes before officially turning 30, the party ended. I did ring in the 30s with a phone call from my Mom and a (late night) dinner with Silas & Brenda. I really could not have asked for a better birthday. I wish some people could have made it, but I was glad to spend the evening with those that came. I was also happy to have drama free birthday - it looks like the birthday curse may just be over. Let's see ;-)

So a bit of trivia for you all.

What day....

.... did the Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan horse in 1184 B.C?

.... was the first regular newspaper published in Boston, MA in 1704?

... in 1558 did Mary Queen of Scots marry the Dauphin of France Francois?

... in 1953 was Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II?

... did the Easter Rising in Ireland start in 1916?

On this same day we commemorate the reinstitution of the Nepal parliament, remember the Korean war and celebrate Republic day in Gambia. The day also marked the births of Cedric the Entertainer, Barbara Streissan, Jeal-Paul Galtier, Melinda Clarke, Kelly Clarkson and yours truly!

On 24 April (which is the answer to the questions above in case you could not sort that out), a bunch of us went to Hendon for a day of golf in the sunshine. It was the perfect day. Given the party the night before and the London Marathon on Sunday a relaxing day in the sun was the perfect way to spend the birthday.

Some of you may be asking or wondering when did I become a golfer. Well rest assured, you have not missed anything. I am NOT a golfer and today proved that I do not have a hidden talent for golf. I did however achieved my goal of hitting the ball up in the air, may not have been in the right direction and may have landed in the bunker, but it made a pretty sound :-)

If you view golf more like bowling, then I excelled for my first time playing. I may not have a long game and my short game certainly needs improvement, but I have to say I quite enjoyed myself. I think if I stopped answering the phone in the midst of play it would have helped my game a bit (not by much, but maybe a bit). After a long day in the sun and post golf meal at the club I did not have the energy for a dinner celebration. In fact all I wanted to do was nap and that is exactly what I did. Sunday was going to be a long day...and I needed to be ready :-)

Not only did this week mark my 30th, but it also marked the 30th running of the London Marathon (now sponsored by Virgin). Reigning Champions Sammy Wariju and Irina Mikitenko were looking to defend their titles. Irina was looking to become the second women ever to win three back-to-back London marathons. In the racing this year was Britain's Mara Yamauchi (who finished second last year), Russia's Lyudmila Petrova (who finished second at the ING NYC marathon in 2009) and our every own Deena Kastor who set her US record with the London marathon in 2006 with a time of 2:19:36.

The day was intended to be a beautiful day with an amasing race to be had on the streets of London. Instead, the day started with a lovely rain shower, which thankfully cleared in time for cheering and photographing of the elite pack. The following tweet from @LondonMarathon, "The gap between #Deena #Kastor and the lead group is growing, 33 seconds behind", had me jumping in glee thinking that I was going to get my birthday wish - Deena was going to win the London marathon by 30 seconds. Instead, it was Deena that was 33 seconds behind the lead group.

The travel chaos that developed after the Icelandic volcano eruption interrupted and stranded hundred of thousands of people. Although the airspace was open, the travel ban and back log meant that it took some of the runner days to travel to London for the race. Mara Yamauchi travelled for 6 days before arriving in the UK. Like a series of The Amasing Race, Mara started out in Albuquerque, she flew to Denver to discover that all UK bound flights were cancelled. She then flew to New Jersey in hopes to catch a flight to Ireland. Instead, they flew to Lisbon where they took a six-hour taxi ride to Madrid. Again hopeful to take the ferry to Portsmouth, they were disappoint to find there were no seats, so it was off to Paris. After a two day drive to Paris, they were unable to get a seat on the Eurostar. Running out of options, they took a taxi to the French coast where a small chartered plane (by the race organisers) flew by to Sussex. The final leg was a a drive to London in the classic Virgin limo.

The pre-race travel took a toll on a number of elite runner including Deena Kastor leaving them in less than optimal conditions of the race and for others forcing them to quit the race. Despite it being a less than ideal day for Mara and Deena, for the three-time silver medalist in London Liliya Shobukhova, the 2010 marathon was her race. Liliya Shobukhova became the first Russian to win the London marathon in 2:22:00. On the men's side, Tsegaye Kebede from Ethiopia won the marathon in 2:05:18 after finishing second last year. The elite race may not have been what people expected, but as we have learned in marathon running, there are no certainties. I was so concentrated in thought that I almost missed my friend TK run by the half marathon point. Thankfully, she kept her eyes peeled out for me and shouted me back into to reality with enough time for me to scream and cheer back.

I met TK nearly two years ago at the US Women's Olympic marathon team meet & greet in Central Park. Since then we have "watched" the Olympic marathon, the Boston Marathon, and the London Marathon together. After having to defer last year London Marathon due to injury, she made this year's race her mission. It was such a delight to see her dream of running London come true. Not only did she realise her dream, but she smashed it. She set out to run a sub-3:50 marathon and ended up running a 3:48:56 marathon thus setting a marathon PR by nearly 6 minutes. For any of you that run, getting a 30sec PR is an accomplishment, shaving 1 minute off your cumulative time is wonderful, but 6 minutes!!! 6 minutes - that is simply AMASING! TK - I am so very happy and proud of you. You are an inspiration and my motivation to chase after my running dreams!

To celebrate TK's marathon and visit to London, I booked a table at Palm Court at the Langham hotel for afternoon tea. Afternoon tea at the Palm Court, which has been a tradition since 1865 was named Top London Afternoon Tea for 2010. The afternoon tea here is definitely worth trying. Served in courses, afternoon tea became the second marathon of the day - taking nearly 3 hours. High tea included finger sandwiches, a crocque madame, toasted crumpets and scopes (with clotted cream and jam of course) and finished with tea cakes. It was certainly the best afternoon tea that I have had since moving here and was the best way to end an unforgettable weekend. TK - it was lovely catching up with you with the play-by-play of your experience running, the elite runner summary, life and romance.

Well it has been an interesting week. It started out with tears of despair and ended with tears of joy and hope. As my brother wished me "Welcome to the top of the hill. May your climb to the next peak be even more enjoyable". Wishing you all the same. Hope you all are well.

Miss you and love you.

xx

T

Adventures in London: Issue 91

How do I sum up this past week?

Well on the positive side, this week has marked what officially seems like the beginning of Spring weather and sunny days in London. To celebrate the lovely weather, Vic and I went out for a 3pm ice cream break to the ice cream cart around the corner. There were no jimmies (i.e. sprinkles), but it was such a delight to have a scoop of strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone (i.e. a sugar cone as it is called in the States). The sunny warm weather is also a sign that the days are thankfully getting longer. The sun no longer sets at at 5pm :-) London is such a different city when the sun is out. You very quickly forget the grey dark cold nights (and days) of the winter. It is not going to last long, so the importance is to enjoy the weather while we can.

Let's see what else happened this week? Well I suppose another positive thing is that I have started training again. In this week, I have logged in nearly 90% of the miles that I ran in January (which was my max month to date). It is hard finding the motivation and courage to run, but this week's sessions have felt nice. I just need to take it easy and avoid pushing my HR too much. As much as I wanted to this week, I kept it easy. I pushed the training sessions in regards to training time and distance, but in terms of speed, I made sure that I stayed within the "easy to intermediate" HR zone.

Today, a bunch of the girls went to Kensingston Palace for high tea. This is the second time going for afternoon tea and I must say it is starting to grow on me. I am normally not a sweet and pastry fan, but there is nothing better than scones and clotted cream. Oh dear sweet luscious clotted cream.... it is SOO much better than butter and we all know how much I love my butter. The name is not inviting, in fact it probably hinders you from wanting to try it, but trust me...once you do you will thank me :-)

So what else happened this week? Well let's just say that the floor below has just dropped, the wind has been knocked out of me. The following monologue from Grey's I think helps summarise it all "In surgery the healing process begins with a cut. An incision, the tearing of flesh. We have to damage the healthy flesh in order to expose the unhealthy. It feels cruel and against common sense, but it works. You risk exposure for the sake of healing. And when it is over, once the incision has been closed, you wait. You wait and you hope that your patient will heal...." I have been ripped open, exposed to the core and torn to pieces, but as Meredith says, now it is time to start the healing process. You hope that you will heal and that you in fact have not been made worse...

People say that things happen for a reason, that everything works out for the best. Right now, I wish I could see and believe that. I question it all. I question why we bother caring, why we let our guards down and why we try. I have been so naive when it comes to many things, people in particular. I want to believe them when they say they care, when they want a certain future, when they say things will get better. A part of me wishes I could put up a wall, draw my boundaries and walk away from all my relationships. May it be work or social, I wish I could just stop caring, but at the end of the day that is not just me. I suppose I wish I could just stop being me...

This week, came with some positives and some negatives, but it has ended with the realisation that there are something things worth caring and being thankful for and that is for good friends (and a Mom that you can call at 5:30am). Thank you girls! Love you dearly and thank you for keeping the sun smiling through the rain. xx

To everyone else, I hope you are enjoying your spring days outdoors. And for those of you in Boston, I wish you all a very early Patriots day! Let's go Sox and finish it strong marathoners!!

xoxo

T

Adventures in London: Issue 90

Not quite the 3 day work week like last week, but a 4 work week is not so bad. Before heading back to the work week, on Monday Biju and I went into Central London for dinner at a little sushi place called Hi Sushi. They have a £14.80 all you can eat sushi buffet. Normally these things are wasted on me, but I am safe to say that I definitely ate my money's worth. In fact I left extremely ill and unable to breathe and that is a feeling I rarely get when I go to restaurant (the whole eating in public thing). Hi Sushi is a really cool place if you get a chance to eat downstairs. The tables are floor level, but you sit normally. They have the floorboard open under the table, so it seems like you are sitting on the floor dining, but in reality you are sitting normally. Take a bit to get used to, but then it is fine.

After a lovely Easter Break and amazing 5 days off, it was sadly back to work and reality. How I wish I could have just frozen time and stayed in Easter Break mode... shame life unlike digital TV does not have a pause, rewind or fast forward button.

On Thursday I went out with the work wives for a quick drink and pate for our monthly gathering. We have all been rather busy lately so it is nice when we can keep some routine. The only thing is we all have other stuff going on, so we can never truly do a proper catch up. Just quick enough to keep one another up-to-date with things and short enough so we are home no later than 9:30 pm.

In a short two weeks, London will be filled with thousands of marathoners. On 25 April, the 30th running of the marathon will take place. In the race field will be American marathoner Deena Kastor. In 2006 she set the US record when she ran the London Marathon in 2:19:36. She will be up against Irina Mikitenko, German record holder and World Marathon champion and Romanian Olympic title holder Constantina Dita. I am excited not only to see Deena Kastor and the elite woman run the London Marathon for a second time, but also to be able to catch up with my dear friend TK who will be running the race. It is thanks to TK that I have the will still to run the NYC Marathon this year. Now all I need is some of the time and energy to actually train. I caught up on TK's running blog and am truly motivated to get back into running again. A friend on mine saw my running blog and laughed that the mileage that I was at was on 3 miles. She commented that if I was going to bother having a running journal than I should be running 10+ miles a day. I wish. I struggled to run 8K and now I am struggling to find time and energy to run. I cannot believe I am saying this. I am so scared and nervous about running... no! Cannot let those thoughts back into my head. Starting tomorrow, it is back to training and focus will be on the NYC Marathon. Training is priority one, above work, above friends and above social activities... it has to be.

On that note, I hope you all are well

xoxo

T

Adventures in London: Issues 80-89

I actually wanted a different version of this song, but I could not squeeze all the photos into a 2m34sec video, so this version was used. The song for this video is called "Defying Gravity". It is most known from its feature in the Tony award musical Wicked, and later as the first audition between Kurt & Rachel in Glee.

The song says it all -

Something has changed within me

Something is not the same

I'm through with playing by the rules

Of someone else's game

Too late for second-guessing

Too late to go back to sleep

It's time to trust my instincts

Close my eyes: and leap!

It's time to try

Defying gravity

I think I'll try

Defying gravity

And you can't pull me down!

I'm through accepting limits

''cause someone says they're so

Some things I cannot change

But till I try, I'll never know!

Too long I've been afraid of

Losing love I guess I've lost

Well, if that's love

It comes at much too high a cost!

This version is sung by Idina Menzel. I absolutely love her voice. If you don't know who she is, she is otherwise known playing Elphaba in the original broadway casting of Wicked, Maureen Johnson in RENT (both the original broadway cast and movie), Nancy in Enchanted and has made appearances on Private Practice, Kevin Hill and Glee. Did I mention that she is also married to Taye Diggs.

I hope you enjoy the video! It has been a rather interesting 10 weeks, but what I have learned is that it is time now to try defying gravity :-)

Adventures in London: Issue 89

From the 15th to 22nd of the Hebrew month Nissan, the feast of unleavened bread is celebrated. Commonly known as Pesach or Passover, this holiday commemorates the emancipations of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt and the Angel of Death 'passing over' the homes on the eve of Exodus, sparing the first borns. The rituals of Passover relive the story and experience of the Irsaelites from over 3000 years ago. I am not going to re-tell the Haggahad....sigh of relief for many I am sure. What I will say is that whilst reading the Haggahad (may it be the abridged version on Monday night), something stayed with me. During the seder you drink 4 cups of wine at key points of the dinner symbolizing the four freedoms. I have been reading a bunch of sites and articles about Passover since then and I found one that was rather interesting. One article summarised Passover into four main themes:

1. Expanding the scope of our empathy; listening to people in need and helping those that we can
2. Questioning; Questioning signifies freedom and even if we don't like the answer we should question as much as possible
3. Liberation; Freedom cannot be gained without having obligations to others or being held accountable for our actions
4. Remembering; Dining together is a reminder of the importance of the people in our lives and recognises the importance of friendship.

After logging in nearly 45 hours in 3 days, I was happy to enjoy the extra day off for Easter break. To celebrate the "mental day" off, I joined my friend Biju to Portsmouth, the Waterfront City 90 miles south west of London. Portsmouth is an amasingly beautiful city rich with history and is the host of the Portsmouth Football Club. The docks there are the home to HMS Warrior and Lord Nelson's HMS Victory. We were unable to go up close to the ships, but I go a few glimpses from afar. These ships are just amasing to see. During the summer time, generally around 4th of July, the tall ships come to NYC for a visit. I remember seeing these ships with Mom last decade. I would love to go traveling in one....not for long, but just for a trip somewhere. The closest I have gotten to this is a trip around the NYC harbor.

It was such a pleasant day in Portsmouth. The skies were blue (with just a little cloud cover) and the sun was out! What would have made it the perfect day was if it was not so windy. I almost put rocks in my pocket so I would not blow away in the wind - rsrsrs.

We spent the afternoon walking along the harbor and later we went over to see the Spinnaker Tower and walked around the Gunwharf Quays which contains an open air designer outlet shopping centre and numerous restaurants. It was such a pleasant day sitting by the water and enjoying a nice warm meal. Would have been nice if the weather was a little less windy, but I am not going to trade the afternoon in Portsmouth for a day in London (especially since it was rain cats and dogs and apparently snowed in some areas - rsrsrs).

The Easter weekend was exactly what I wanted. It was filled with cooking everything from pancakes to bacon sandwiches, cleaning and a vampire diary marathon.

On Friday, I went over to my friend Biju's place to help her prepare a mini dinner party for friends that were visiting. It was a relaxing night of bacon dip, goat cheese and beet root canapes, a pancetta egg bake and a spinach salad. This Good Friday was drastically different from last years, but it was a really lovely and relaxing evening filled with fun stories, learning a new language, fine music and delicious food and I am not just saying that - any night with bacon dip is a good night ;-)

For Easter Sunday I had the desire to make a roast with garlic, pototoes, leeks, mashed pototoes and yorkshire pudding, but as I forgot about the whole "shops being closed on Easter", by the time I went to the grocery store the roast meet available was nothing to be desired. Instead I made the decision to make Beef Stroganoff and rice. For dessert, KV and I made carrot cake and a butter cream frosting (do not be impressed with the baking, as those of you have lived with me know that my baking skills are courtesy of the Pilsbury Dough Boy and Betty Crocker). The evening also included a Vampire Diary marathon to watch the remaining un-aired episodes of the season. This show is absolutely addicting. I miss the CW, but am patient enough to wait for the shows to be aired here in London - which they do - phew!

The evening also included a video call from Kadin in which we chatted about his Easter weekend and danced to Lady Gaga. There was even some schooling to Daddy in that Boom Boom Pow is sung by the Black Eyed Peas, not Lady Gaga. I wish I taped that conversation as it was priceless.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter Weekend.

xoxo

T