Farewell Mates !

Alright, so the time has come. I only have about two weeks left and have already started preparing for my return to the US. I still can't believe the time went so fast. Thanks to all of you have come to visit and kept in contact. Here are a couple of pics from the trip. 

The Prime Meridian, right outside of London

Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey and Big Ben

The London Eye

The Louvre

The Louvre

Notre Dame (duh!)

Luxembourg Gardens in Paris

Arc d' Triomphe

Oysters and Champagne

At the cemetery in Paris, on the way to see Jim Morrison's gravesite. 

At the cemetery

Sacre Cour

Outside our hotel in Amsterdam

Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam

Central station, Amsterdam. 

A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words

Check out more pics at: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=55658457&l=45533f6799&id=2342083

British Speak !!

I head off to the store to buy some crisps. Wouldn’t you know it, I didn’t have the five quid to pay the bloke at the till.  Disappointed as I was, I made my way to the train.  After all I was looking forward to a weekend with my chap.  I was further cheesed off as I got on the train and encountered a cheeky little bugger who wanted to have a bleedin' chin wag with me.

Now we know I am very sociable...but sometimes, i'd like folks to chivvy along and wish they would stop fannying around and hurry up and tell me what they want. I'd had about enough...so I got rid of the duffer

I finally met with my chap and his lady at the pub,  got myself some nosh....bangers and mash to be specific...and also ordered a few of pints of ale and got pissed. I had to get more grub to avoid honking the next day..

And now ladies and gentleman...bob's your uncle!

(If you can translate this story into American English, I will fly you out here and take you to get some bangers and mash and pimms).

Greetings Earthlings!!...

This week has been crazy busy, but I can always find enough time to post an update. I am taking the Eurostar tomorrow at 6:30 am to go to Paris. I was there back in 1996, so I don't remember a whole lot. It should be a good time.

Anyway, I will post an update and hopefully some pictures when I get back. (if someone knows how to post pictures on this thing let me know, I've yet to figure it out).

I am also working on a trip to Madrid and one to Amsterdam when my Rozelle's Landing crew comes into town. Definitely looking fwd to that.

The New Apartment

The new apartment, although smaller...is Perfect !

This place is the epitome of convenience.

Commute to work: one minute (yes, I timed it)
Trip to the gym: four minutes
Trip to the train station: 1 minute (this station connects to 5 different train lines).

and yes...all that is walking...

Although the apartment is a bit smaller, it still has the same accommodations as the old one. Still have DVD player, cable, all appliances, wireless internet, stereo (big plus?), pots, pans, phone...etc,

The maid service also continues to be exceptional. She makes the bed, takes out the trash, does the dishes, straightens up the place, and cleans. (It would be great if she could iron, but maybe that's too much to ask)...

And best of all, I also have a pub on the first floor. The place is named The Walrus and the Carpenter after a Lewis Carroll poem...The place is always jam packed after work...even on Mondays. They don't have any drink specials or anything, but they do have a good selection of local brews and your regular stuff (and when I say regular, I mean Italian, English, Scottish, German, Polish and Czech beers....I've yet to see a place that sells any of the Bud/Miller/Coors brands)

Looking fwd to all those visits so you guys can also enjoy the pleasures of corporate housing....

Nottingham

Hey everyone!!...Back by popular demand, here's an update from the other side of the pond. First entry will be specifically dedicated to my visit to Nottingham the weekend of August 30.


Let's start with the train ride. I won't spend too much time on this part of the trip since it was the only that I didn't really enjoy. I actually had to stand in the beverage car for one hour along with another 25 people who couldn't get a seat. The trip became a little longer due to the lack of A/C in the beverage car. For those of you that have not experienced domestic train travel in Europe, it's pretty much like flying US Airways from La Guardia to Charlotte...lots of delays and poor service.

But anyway, so I finally made it to Nottingham and was greeted by Lisa Herty, Eddy's sister...and what a welcome that was!!...I had a delicious meal waiting for me at Le Mistral (French restaurant in Nottingham), along with a cold beer and a glass of wine.
The rest of the trip involved walking around the city, hitting a couple of pubs/bars/clubs (?) and hanging out. We watched some movies, and overall, had a really good time. I made guacamole for Lisa and her husband Marc and it actually turned out pretty good thanks to the Kenyan avocados we got at Waitrose (Basically Trader Joe's but with Harris Teeter prices).

On the way back, I was actually able to get a seat in the train and slept the whole way back. Looking fwd to my next trip up to Robin Hood's hood. (yes, he was from there).

A couple of pointers on Nottingham

1. It's a college town, so not many people were around as they follow a similar school schedule as the US. However, since every place closes around 1 am, it was pretty funny to walk around town and see people completely trashed around 10:30.

2. When you hear people say fashion hurts, just think about the women of Nottingham. Even though it was about 45 degrees (F), they were still wearing miniskirts, really tall heels and sleeveless dresses.

3. It's a nice town, but it is very hilly (I mean San Francisco hilly), so needless to say, I definitely burned the extra calories from all the pints we had.
Expect another entry pretty soon...next up...the new apartment.

Monsieur Gonzalez, at Your Service !

Having a maid feels great!!...I was pleasantly surprised when I came back on Friday to see that she basically cleaned the entire apartment including dishes, floors, tables, replaced all the sheets and towels, washed the toilet and even gave me extra pillows for the couch. It would be great if she would come over and cook every now and then and do my laundry. But then again, I can't complain.

Please Evict all of the Big Brother Cast Members Already!

For those of you who complain about Time Warner Cable having poor service, or DirectTV going out in the middle of a thunderstorm...consider yourselves lucky, at least you have decent channels. There are 300 channels in my cable line-up. Out of the 300, only about 25 actually work, out of the 25, 10 or so are all about live text messaging. I know, it's strange, but somehow they have managed to set-up a number where people who are trying to meet other people, can send a text message, and yes, you guessed it, it shows up live on the screen!...

The channels that actually work only come on during certain times of the day...some are only active between 8 and 5, 5 till midnight..etc.

Here, there is no such thing as primetime and there is one channel fully dedicated to Big Brother. Basically, the cameras in the Big Brother house are live and rolling for 24 hours and you can actually see what any of the cast members are doing at any point in time. I guess it's kind of better than the US reality shows since it is not scripted, but it does get old after a while.

The other channels are kind of lame and include things like the British QVC,  the BBC news, Sky Sports (which never actually show any sports, but commercials). I actually get very excited when I can see Friends since it's the only TV show I actually find funny.

One day I got smart and decided to log-on to USANetwork.com to catch some Burn Notice episodes. I later learned they were a step ahead of me since the error message on the screen said that I couldn't play these videos from my overseas location.

The lack of TV has actually motivated to go explore the city more, which is a good thing. I am also using my spare time to read more and to work out. (clearly not at Virgin Active...but in my apt).

Oh, and by the way, the chicken with piri piri was amazing !...it's basically a chicken breast with a spicy marinade...good stuff.

Dear Sir Richard Branson...

Hello Mates!

Here's a quick update as I am baking my chicken with piri piri marinade (don't even ask what it is, becuase I am not quite sure, I'll tell you how it tasted on the next entry).

I woke up this morning and decided to use my free pass to Virgin Active UK, Sir Richard Branson's gym. The gym (aka club) is supposed to be very nice and a place to basically go and hang out (why you would go and hang out at the gym, I am not quite sure...but anyway). I had stopped at the gym last Sunday to get "inducted", but the guy who does the inductions was already gone for the day, so I decided to swing by again today, this time with a free pass provided by one of my fellow coworkers.

So, I show up to the front desk and show the guy the pass, and he says that my induction won't be possible since (as he starts poiting his finger, as if reading from the pass) that I was supposed to set an appointment prior to showing up (editor's note: the pass did not say you had to set-up an appointment and it also did not have an expiration date...you will need this info later). So he walks over to the manager's office and closes the door (big meeting you know, trying to decide the future of the gym), they sit in there for like 3 minutes and then the desk clerk comes out and asks me to hold on. He goes back in and a couple of minutes later comes out with the manager. The manager greets me and says he can't do anything for me!...which I couldn't understand. So, putting my customer service skills into practice, I very politely ask why. He says that the pass expired last month. (and like I mentioned before, the pass had no expiration date)...so we proceed to stand there in silence (akward for him really, becuase, to be honest, I really didn't care...I had already walked over about 1.5 miles to work out at this gym). So then I break the silence and just ask him to show me around.

The gym itself was actually pretty dumpy. Not a lot of room for stretching and the weight training area looked like an apartment gym. As we were walking up and down the different floors, the manager kept checking himself out on the mirror (yes, he did). After that , i decided that this gym was for jokers and not serious bodybuilders like me. Once we got back to the lobby, I told him that I may actually join the Reebok Sports Club instead. (Their induction was actually much better, but I just couldn't get myself to pay $165 USD a month).

So there you have it. Sir Richard Branson, if you are reading this blog...your gym sucks !

A Tribute to USeless Airways

So, here I am with my silver preferred US Airways status thinking I am all slick and cool skipping to the front of the check-in line. As I am walking up, I am thinking I am going to be at my gate in less than 15 minutes, maybe relax, grab a bite, and send some e-mails. My dreams were crushed the moment I bumped into Betty Lou from Gastonia...shift manager for US Airways counter. Needless to say, it all went downhill from there.


Betty Lou walks up and starts processing my docs and after she scans my passport, she realizes it has expired. So, as a good citizen, I point her to page 46 for the extension, but for some reason, she cannot understand why the extension is not on the front page of the passport. Once we finally crossed that bridge, she proceeds to tell me that what has been renewed is my visa and not my passport. (Editor's note: Nicaraguan passports have the word "visa" printed on every page...just something that they printed on the booklet). At this point, I am about to lose it, and just ask her..."Can you please explain to me why I would need to obtain a renewal for a Nicaraguan visa?" (Oh wait, last time I checked I was actually born in Nicaragua and carry a Nicaraguan passport...so why would I need a visa for my own country? never quite figured out how she made that conclusion). So Betty proceeds to call another 2 USeless Airways employees for verification. Turns out none of them could decipher that it was a passport extension. Eventually they came around after I showed them some visas (which were granted in the previous 2 weeks, with an apparently expired passport).

Once I survived the passport episode and finally make it to my seat...me and 199 of my closest friends sat on the runway for 1.5 hrs thanks to a broken falange. We finally depart around 8 pm, get fed some gourmet chicken, and, as everyone starts falling asleep, all 200 of us decided to hop on the Tower of Terror (aka Flight 762 to London's Gatwick airport). This thing came up and down, left and right, did some back flips, made babies cry...it was a ride!

We finally landed around 7:45 in the morning, was picked up at the airport and landed in my apartment at around 10:00. The apartment is nice and a bit secluded. I am within walking distance to Canary Wharf where JP Morgan, KPMG, Credit Suisse, HSBC and other institutions are located. I may actually end up moving within the next couple of week since I don't particularly care for the commute.

I walked around for a couple of hours and decided to walk into the Reebok Sports Club for "an induction" (sales pitch). The club is very nice, new equipment, pool, basically the YMCA but with new carpet. Nice place overall, except for the $103 GPB monthly fee (USD $165).

So that's it for now. jet lag is starting to kick-in, so I am going to go ahead and do something to try to stay awake. Keep in touch and check in next week for another update.

Alright...so here it is. I decided to create a blog to broadcast the whole London adventure. Feel free to stop by here anytime to check-up on the latest updates and make comments. Right now I am still in the US trying to finalize things...taking off in less than 4 days. Temperatures in London are expected to be in the 70s and rainy (shocker!) during the next couple of weeks, so I need to get my galoshes ready (Thanks JEWM for the term...here's a link for those of you still in the dark...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galoshes). Be prepared for another post later on this week discussing the plane ride and my SWEEEEET apartment (crossing fingers).