London Weekend + I Grew A Monkey

Hello there blogworld! Thanks for being here today!

On that note, I never know how to start a blog. Any tips would be greatly appreciated...here goes!

Last weekend I went to London on Sunday with Marika, the Finnish au pair who drives a Fit aka Jazz. We also went out on Saturday night to Beaconsfield, to meet up with a Canadian au pair named Stephanie that we met. [This is relevant, I swear...] Saturday night we got to the train station to take the train ONE station up, and found out that there were NO TRAINS running this weekend out here. They had planned closures for repairs to the lines, so they were running buses that left once every 20 minutes, which was kind of lame.

Anyway, in the early afternoon on Sunday we trekked back to the station to take a bus out to Hillingdon, where we would be able to get on the tube to take to London.
It had been raining a LOT last week....this is what the road near my house looked like Sunday morning on the way to the station...flooded all the way across both sidewalks and the whole street:

And just for some reference, here's an extended map of the tube station, and I put a big X where GX is, just so everyone can see!

The tube system has SO many lines that go so many different ways and have different ending points/offshoots. It's going to take me a while to get this one down the way I have Muni down...I *think* that if you click on this it will get bigger...or it might just go to the site I got the map from in the first place, where you can make it bigger anyway!


Instead of a 30-45 minute ride on one train, we had a 15-20 minute ride on a bus, then a 30-45 minute train ride. Oh well. While we were on the bus, another passenger caught our attention. While we walked into the train station I told Marika that I thought she was an au pair, because I'd over heard her at the station and on the bus that she was an Australian and she wasn't sure if she was going to move to GX or not, and she wasn't familiar with the area yet. We ended up talking to her at the Hillingdon station and it turns out she was going to be an au pair in GX pretty soon. We exchanged contact information and are now Facebook friends, and I'm excited to have someone else near by who is an au pair!

So, Marika and I had plans to meet up with her friend Caroline, also an au pair, who is from Germany. Caroline wasn't/isn't happy with her house family, so she's actually leaving this weekend to work in France instead. Marika and I both wanted to go to the Tower of London since I haven't been since my People to People trip nine years ago and she's never been. It turns out Caroline had been already, so she didn't want to go, but we decided to go to Harrod's, a huge, fancier-than-Nordstrom's department store, which is a biiiiiiig deal, just to look around. We got there after a number of train changes and waiting, and also ended up eating at McDonald's. It's cheap and fast and the same in every country, what can I say! =]


Marika outside Harrod's


Me and Caroline outside Harrod's. [Hi mom, see, I am here! ;)]


Some of the sweets in Harrod's...SO MUCH CANDY EVERYWHERE!


Santa candy already!


Cupcakes!


Marika resting on a display in the store.


Olympics souvenirs...even though they're almost 2 years away...


I might have to go back and see if they make this shirt in my size...this was the kid's department. =]


What I thought was the best part about Harrod's was at one point while we were on the escalator, all of the sudden I thought the music changed a lot. It turned out there was a LIVE opera singer in one of the balconies singing. It was AMAZING. I'm crossing my fingers that this video uploads before I'm done writing this, because she was really good! [UPDATE: Okay this uploaded but I can't tell if it's working or not...someone let me know! Thanks to everyone who let me know it's working!]

My first video upload success!!!!! [I hope!]


We also went up to Notting Hill to see where the movie was filmed/set, even though I've never seen it. It was nice to see it without all the carnival madness going on! There was supposed to be a tube strike that night, so Marika and I needed to head back to GX before about 5, and we got home just fine, luckily. 


Clouds here were beautiful!


And the houses are so colorful!


Cute wellies I saw on Portobello Road!


Hi again Mom!

This week I had somewhat of an adventure with Bindi on Monday. I went to the wooded area down the street to take her for a walk. It's an enclosed area, and usually we let her off the lead when she's in there and she's pretty good about not going too far away from you...almost like she's afraid you're going to leave her there [which is a good reason to be afraid, I think!]. I was taking her lead off right outside the gate, and usually she walks right through the gate just fine, but this time she didn't, and ran off down the street. I felt like I was chasing Sparky, it was awful. Luckily she didn't go TOO far away, but it was still a nice little run I took!

This weekend both of my parents are in Texas to see Nate for his birthday...the big 2-0 for him this Sunday! My brother is living on his own for the first time this year, and he seems to be...well...he's surviving, but struggling. He hasn't had lights in his bathroom or half his kitchen since he moved in in early August because he had to flip surges and didn't know. That's my brother for you! I do miss him a lot and am excited that my parents are there for his birthday and the beginning of his baseball season. I'm looking forward to reporting highlights for everyone as Nate continues to kick butt on the diamond this season [last season he was the division record holder for doubles!]!!!

While Nate turns 20 on Sunday, I'll be going to London with Selena, who's also Ellie's tennis coach, to see a local band play a show. It turns out Selena and I have pretty similar music taste, so hopefully we find more shows to go to!

I also have dates for going to the States for Christmas. I'll be in Ohio/the east coast from December 11-January 4, and hopefully my mom and I are going to take some kind of little road trip while I'm out there. No California trips though, sorry guys!


Oh, and the "Amanda Grew A Monkey" bit...Ellie likes to hang on me like a monkey some days...see?










Then she falls and can't get up because she's laughing so hard.


And finally, one more picture for mom...Proof I'm here again! [I post ONE picture on Facebook mobile and suddenly she thinks I'm not here!] This one's by Ms. Ellie!

Birthday celebration and more!

Last week was my 22nd birthday, and I spent the weekend in London with my Australian friends Mollie and Hannah.

After my last post, Penny, Kevin and the kids brought out a cake for me after tea, which was so nice and unexpected! Kari very loudly sang "Happy Birthday" [though she rarely does anything quietly...], throwing in the word "tomorrow" after "birthday," since it wasn't really my birthday yet.


Yummy cake!

For tea that night we had pasta, and Penny and Kari were making a cream sauce that was SO GOOD. Kari and I made it again last night...mmmm! I ate way too much that night and wasn't expecting cake after that, so I was REALLY full that night!


I took the train out on Saturday along with 5,000 people going to a football match. I only had one minor mishap with the trains...I thought I bought an all-day pass for all of the tube system when I left GX, but it turns out I didn't, and had to call Mollie to figure out what I DID have to buy. The trains in London [aka the Tube] are really nice inside compared to BART or Muni. The seats are reallllly padded, but nicely kept up. The biggest/most annoying difference to me was that unlike on Muni and BART, each line and direction has different platforms, so you have to make sure you know what line you're looking for, otherwise you'll never be at the right platform at the downtown stations.

We were trying to go to the Notting Hill Carnival, which was conveniently supposed to be over my birthday weekend. But, when I got there Saturday afternoon, Mollie got a call from a friend who was there and said that it wasn't on until Sunday, and Sunday was "kids day" rather than the main part of the carnival. So instead of spending that night at the carnival, we went to Leicester Square. AND WE GOT THERE ON A DOUBLE DECKER BUS. I seriously think Muni should consider these, because it's so much easier to see where you are if you're on the top section [these were all enclosed]. It was really awesome to be able to see where we were going and actually have a better view on things than if we were just at street level.


Mollie, Hannah and me waiting for the bus to Leicester Square.

Anyway, in Leicester Square we ate dinner at a Pizza Hut [my choice]. Pizza Hut is very different in England...it's a more legit restaurant than in the US. The three of us stuffed our faces with pizza, and Mollie thought they had ranch, but it turns out they stopped carrying it, much to my disappointment. Mollie and Hannah love ranch now too, apparently, so I'm glad I have some comrades in my hunt for ranch dressing in the UK.

We saw "Salt" that night, which was really good but totally left wide open for a sequel, it really didn't even have an ending.

That night we went out to this huge park behind their house, Hampstead Heath. It reminded me a lot of Dolores Park back in San Francisco, which was kind of neat. We climbed up to the top of the hill in the park and could see pretty much all of London lit up in the dark. Everything was so cool lit up!

Sunday Rey [another au pair from near where I am who was out in the city with us] made potato pancakes [I made eggs...], and the girls dipped theirs in ranch, which I never would have thought of. There are a few Australian bars in London that Mollie and Hannah go to every Sunday, so we knew we were going to one of those, Walkabout. Before we went there though we went to the Camden Markets, which are like a HUGE flea-market, but permanent. Every type of food you could imagine was there, including this crazy potato-chip stand that spiral-cut a potato and then fried it. Someday, I promise there will be a video of this.


Part of Camden Markets used to be a horse stable, and they have HUGE fake horses in there.


We got to Walkabout and it was kind of weird to be in a bar at 3pm on a Sunday, but since Monday was a Bank Holiday, there were even more people there than usual. We left for a bit to check out "kids day" at the carnival, but then came back before leaving about an hour later. When we got back, I passed out pretty fast.

Monday morning Rey had to leave to go back home, and the girls and I spent a majority of the day in bed before finally getting up to check out the carnival. There was a 12-hour parade involved, and we couldn't figure out why it was sooooo long. Well, it's because the parade moves about 1 mile an hour. We accidentally ended up in the line that was only allowed back in the tube station, but we'd gotten the feel of it, and I had my backpack with my weekend stuff in it, and since it was so crowded, we didn't want to risk anything bad happening to my stuff, so we went to the Marylebone station, got McDonald's [tastes EXACTLY like home], and then I got on the train back to GX.

Overall, I had a nice birthday weekend!

This week has been pretty low-key. I got all three of the kids playing Words with Friends now, and Kari and Ellie want to play really fast, so they like to pounce on me when it's my turn, which is funny. Ellie even BEAT me once...but I helped her play "quiz" with the q and z on double-letter spots, so she got 42 points for that word. This time I'm not helping her find words as much.

Yesterday, Ellie started teaching me how to play tennis. Yeah, start laughing! It wasn't TOO bad, nothing was broken and no one was injured. It actually wasn't too bad! 


More language differences for dad:

1. "Red Route" instead of "Red Zone" for fire lanes.
2. Things aren't for rent or for lease, they're "to let."
3. Gas stations are called petrol stations. 
4. Some houses here just have a name and no actual number. 
5. You go to the cinema, not the movies.
6. TJ Maxx is called TK Maxx, but the logo is exactly the same.