Tea anyone?

I'm still a coffee girl. I think the test of how English I become will be if I ever choose tea over coffee. I do enjoy tea with milk every once in a while but always prefer coffee.

Tea is something Americans see as "classically British" (along with biscuits and crumpets). But when people ask you if you'd like to come over for tea, they might actually mean dinner. To some people "tea" means the evening meal.

So what is the difference between tea and tea?
Am I supposed to eat before I come or are we eating?
Is there going to be real food or just biscuits?

I always have to clarify exactly what "tea" means when someone asks. So far I haven't been able to discern the answer from context clues alone...Just another example of confusing British words.

the business of Myspace and Facebook

I'm a star

Well, I finally finished watching Season 4 of Dancing with the Stars. I'm so glad Apolo and Julianne won! I would have voted for them if my vote still counted.

Watching it has totally gotten me in the mood to dance so my friend suggested I come with her to a Ceroc dance class. Ceroc is a mix of Jive and Salsa and it's huge in London. So last night I went to my first class and had a blast! I almost felt like I was on Dancing with the Stars...I'm already a star, but give me some time and maybe I'll be a dancer.

I'm awake

I've been around, busy enjoying life in London. In my downtime I've been devouring Season 3 of The Office. I figured you were probably tired of hearing me go on about how great it is so I thought I'd take a quick break from blogging. (I can't wait for Thursday!)

It's been a blissful few weeks with no rain (not necessarily brilliant weather, but still -no rain!). But this morning I was awoken from my blogging slumber by the hurricane like weather. By the time I got to the train station this morning my shoes were sloshing, the bottom half of my trousers were soaked and my hair was blown every which way. Needless to say that wasn't a fun way to start a Monday. If someone had offered me a ride to the station, they could have been a crazy person and I would have gotten in the car anyway.

Even better news is that it will be rainy all week and the temperature is dropping. I guess it's almost October...

Yeah baby!

Shout out to my fabulous sister Melissa for sending me Season 3 of The Office! I just got it tonight and can't wait to watch. I have exactly 2 weeks to watch them all before Season 4 starts.

How I almost met Orlando Bloom

A couple weeks ago I was walking around Covent Garden and stumbled onto a theatre where a big crowd was waiting outside. I realized it was the theatre where Orlando Bloom is starring in "In Celebration." It was about the time a matinée would finish and scattered among the crowd were some bodyguards. Orlando Bloom was about to walk out the stage door after his performance!

I managed to convince the people I was with to wait around for a few minutes so I could snap a picture. So we waited...and waited. A few other people came out. They were probably also in the play but no one really seemed to care about them. (I feel kind of bad for them starring in a play with Orlando Bloom since probably he gets all the attention). We probably waited about 20 minutes and at that point I started to feel bad for the people I made stay with me since they didn't care about seeing him. I hated to leave because he could have walked out any minute! I snapped a few pictures anyway.Not sure who this guy was but he was pictured in the posters and a few people got his autograph...obviously not Orlando Bloom.Just imagine this is a real picture of Orlando Bloom in person!!

WKRP

About 50% of the time when I tell people I'm from Cincinnati they says, "WKRP in Cincinnatiiii!" I have to admit, I've never once seen the show but it was listed as one of the Top 100 shows of all time by Time Magazine*. Another 40% say, "Ohh, okay," which I think is code for "Yeah, I have no idea where that is." The remaining 10% have lived in the US or teach geography so they actually know where Cincinnati is.

*Perhaps more exciting to note is that The Office was also listed as one of the best shows of all time. (both the US and British versions)

Rugby World Cup 2007

Today I tried to watch England vs. USA in the Rugby World Cup. USA didn't have much of a chance...let's face it, rugby is not really an American sport. Oh well, at least it's the [real] football season now!

In the mind of Jamie Cullum

Last night I went to see Jamie Cullum at a record release gig at The Forum. The show was titled "In the mind of Jamie Cullum" after the album. It was not a normal show...I would say "eclectic" is the best word to describe it! There were several performers, each also featured on the CD. My favorite new discovery was Roni Size and Reprazent. It finished off with an electronic set with Jamie and Ben Cullum. Again, it was not regular Jamie Cullum music but it was awesome. We were very close to the stage and I was dancing all night! Here are a few pictures.

JamieRoni Size and ReprazentJamie and Ben CullumJamie crowd surfing!!

West End review: Lord of the Rings

I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan, but I have to admit I was skeptical about it being turned into a musical. Regardless, last weekend I went with several co-workers to see it. It wasn't my first choice but they didn't want to see Fame, Footloose or Chicago.

First, if you haven't read the books or watched the movies I don't think you would understand what was going on. Although I suspect if you haven't seen the movies you aren't likely to go to the musical so it's probably fine. They condensed 9 hours of movie into 3 hours of a musical (thankfully!) so obviously lots of things were cut. Second, there is no way you can appreciate the characters and the story of Lord of the Rings in this production. So basically everything I liked about LOTR was lost in the musical.

It seems as the whole point of the musical was to make cool sets, effects and bring to life interesting creatures on stage. This part shouldn't be underestimated because it was very impressive. Some of the things they did with the stage I'd never seen before. Gollom's performance was also really good. But some of the scenes seemed to be chosen just to showcase stage effects while there I were others that would have been better to cut.

As I've written this I realize I didn't say much positive. I really did enjoy the "show" overall. If you want to see cool costumes and effects I'd recommend it. If you want to see Lord of the Rings then watch the movie.

Chad can't be stopped

Football season is here! I must admit it is hard to stay on top of everything and feel the excitement when you're in a city where football means soccer. But I am still excited! I've even entered into a Fantasy Football league with some colleagues in the UK through NFLUK. It's different from most leagues I've seen in that there isn't a draft where everyone picks players and you can't have the same player as someone else. Instead, there is a salary cap of $18 million and I can create a new team every week regardless of who other people have on their team. Of course the best players are the most expensive so the trick is to pick the best team given the scoring system, the cost of each player, and their match-ups in that week.

I've just picked my first team and man, it is complicated! I think it is going to be a lot of work to analyze the match ups every week, considering I know very little about all the teams and players. I know the basics like Baltimore has a good defense and Indy has a good offense. Oh well, it will be fun and I'll learn a lot. (I'm happy to accept any pointers!) If, by some stroke of luck, I win, I will get tickets to the Superbowl!

Since I didn't deem the cost of Chad Johnson to be worth it this week since because we're playing Baltimore I decided to name my team "Chad can't be stopped."

a little behind

Well, I could be blogging something interesting. Instead I'm watching "Dancing with the Stars." Yes, I'm a little behind. It was on in April in the US but they're showing it here now. I'm definitely addicted. Don't tell me who wins though.

new hair

I finally caved into my itch for short hair...

Bank Holiday weekend

This weekend was a long weekend in the UK. I'm not sure what the occasion is, since everything is just called a "bank holiday" but I enjoyed a day off work anyway! As an added bonus, these were the first sunny days in two weeks! Saturday I headed to Cambridge with a friend. We enjoyed punting on the Cam river, shopping and exploring the various colleges. You can check out some pictures here.

Sunday we went to the Notting Hill Carnival. It happens every year on this weekend and is apparently the world's second largest street party. I didn't want to go initially because I'd heard it was just a huge crowd. However, Sunday is family day so a little more tame and less crowded. It was definitely a fun experience and now I can say I've been there! Here are a few pictures from the day.

part of the paradeErin and Antonme and ErinThe public toilets had a 20 minute maximum...darn! I was hoping to spend 30 minutes in one!

sweet

For those of you addicted to The Office and who also have an iGoogle homepage you can now add a random quote from The Office to your homepage! What a good way to start the day.

milestone #3

Happy Anniversary to me! Tomorrow I will have officially been living in London for 1 year. Whoa.

More on this later when I've had time to process my thoughts.

Let's share

So I hear it is around 101 Fahrenheit in Cincinnati. Well, it's about 65, windy and rainy here. How about you share some of your sun and heat with us in rainy London??

Movie review: Bourne Ultimatum

I analyze data for a living so I don't really like to analyze my movies except to say that I know when I like one, and this one is good! It was even more action-packed than the other two- in fact I'm still catching my breath. Even more important, it completes a trilogy where you actually want to own all 3 on DVD (like LOTR, maybe like Pirates of the Caribbean and definitely not like The Matrix).

It was really cool to see the scenes they shot in London and Madrid. I could see several places in Madrid I recognized, like the famous bull fighting ring that I stayed near. In London there was a big scene shot in Waterloo station where I go almost every week. In fact, if you listen closely you can hear them announce the "Southwest trains service to Chessington South." That train stops at Wimbledon and I often take it on my way home from Central London. Pretty cool!

So that's my review - Go see it!

multiple bogeys

The weather may not be great but I learned something that helped cheer me up. When I was a kid my Dad could say "booger" a certain way and I would crack up every time. Well, it turns out that the British don't say booger, they call them "bogeys." I'm not sure how it took me a year to find this out. Probably because most normal adults don't use the word "booger" in every day conversation.

Top Gun is never going to be the same again. "[Darn] it- this bogey's all over me!"

a sign

While we were out running tonight we got caught in the rain. We stopped under a tree to get a little shelter and parked right in front of me on the street was my red Mazda3. Mazdas are not very common over here and I've never seen one exactly like mine until today. It's gotta be a sign.