So your Hungry

Okay so when you come to visit there a few things you should know about British restaurants.

First many of your favorite fast food joints are already out there so if your homesick you can get your BigMac fix. You have heard that the Brits call French Fries "Chips" The younger generation calls them fries just like us so don't worry about it. You will want to double check your favorite number. A number 10 my not be a number 10 in a British fast food place. Other then that they are the same and taste the same. KFC on the other hand does not have mashed potatoes.

Of course you did not travel all this way to pay twice the price for American fast food. If you decide to go to a real restaurant here are some tips. You don't normally tip the waitress. You also don't usually tip a bartender. Since you are not tipping they don't care about the quality of your service, so expect the worst service you have ever had.

When the waitress first comes over they will ask if you want still or sparkling water. Still is like bottled water and sparkling is with the bubbles. If you ask for still water they bring out a glass bottle of water. You may need to ask for more if you run out. They don't always automatically bring more.

The portions are much smaller. I went to a run of the mill British restaurant and ordered a steak. It was 6oz. Not 16 it was 6oz. That is about the size of a deck of cards. As your eating you will notice they don't come by to check on how you are doing or to bring you your check. When you want the check you need to ask for it.

If you manage to have enough left over to bring home don't. It is considered rude to ask for a doggy bag. honestly I could care less about offending a restaurant. I paid for it so I should get to bring it home.

If you decide to order take out like pizza or Chinese they call it take away.

Food terms
Bangers and Mash = Sausage and mashed potatoes
Rockets = a type of lettuce that has pointed ends
zucchini = courgettes
lima bean = butter bean
Eggplant = Aubergine

Scary British Food

Black Pudding is made from blood
Marmite is a spread made from the leftover yeast from brewing.

Toad in the Hole is sausages covered in batter and roasted.

Bubble & Squeak is like leftovers that have been fried in a pan.

Pie and Mash used to made with eels

Need I say more?

The First Trip

So I went over to London for a week on business to check out were I will be working and the flat were we will be staying. I did not get to actually see the flat. The company has not acquired it yet but Lucy (my english boss) told me what area it will be in. I have marked it on the google map found at the bottom of this blog. It is within easy walking distance to the office but as far as tourist attractions its in the middle of nowhere. It is near the Liverpool tube station so anyone staying with us can hop on that and get to a more exciting area of the city.

I did get a few pictures, but because I was working I could only go out at night and it rained two nights so many photo opportunities were lost. I'll have more opportunities later anyway.

Right near the flat is a cool Argentine steak house. In front of said steak house is a really radical lighted square. The lights change colors and the benches are made of glass block which glows with the changing spectrum of colors. The serving sizes of beef are measured in ML (no idea what that means mil liters perhaps) instead of ounces. I found the 400 ML to be equivalent to a normal American steak house serving. The prices seemed reasonable until you do the exchange rate, but still I feared much worse.

Notice in the picture below the word Passport is missing the P. I guess this is where they do the body cavity searches. Now that would put a damper on tourism.

Actually this sign was in the Dublin airport. I went over there for a couple hours to check out our office there and meet a few people. I would like to go back and check Dublin out some more. The people look like they came straight out of South Boston. The driver that picked us up from the airport looked and laughed just like Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Funny Stuff!

Near these classic British phone booths is Piccadilly Circus which is like Times Sq and on the opposite is a street full of brothels. Now you know where the red light district is.



In London they have a Smog tax and a Congestion Toll you have to pay when entering and leaving the city. However if you have one of these sweet rides below you don't have to pay those fines. Its an electric car for two.




Double Click on the photo to see the slideshow.

London - week 1

Townsend 275th Anniversary Parade

Today Townsend celebrated its 275th anniversary. There was what the town officials called a "Super" Parade. It was two hours long, and there were many vendors selling goods out on the town common. There was even a guy selling brisket, pulled pork, and ribs across the street from my house. Hmmmmm pork products are tasty.

Townsend 275th Anniversary Parade

Morgan's Pirate Party

Morgan's 5th birthday party went well. It was a pirate theme, and I dressed up for the occasion. We had a fun treasure map that lead the children around the house looking for clues that lead to more clues. My favorite clue told them to pop balloons to find a hidden clue inside one of the balloons. That clue lead them to the X spray painted on the ground telling them were to dig. The kids squealed with delight when they opened the treasure chest to discover all the great candy. Jay had sent up chocolate coins before the party and that really added to the look.

We played pin the parrot on Captain Morgan's shoulder. I had drawn the character from the rum bottle on poster board and colored him in. The winner of that game got to hold the key that opened the treasure chest from the previous paragraph.

Even the ants enjoyed the spoils of cotton candy left over at the end. I later burned them with starter fluid. Fire is COOL!

Morgan's Party

San Diego

I went to San Diego for two days on business. I'd never been to the west coast before, and had never felt jet lag. I woke up both days at 4am thinking it was 7. I did get to check out the Pacific and saw an air craft carrier, but I didn't have my camera then. I also saw a little of the oil lamp district but nothing note worthy.

The Boeing 757 going down to San Diego was like that crappy old bus you rode on for school field trips. The plane had duck tape holding the light fixtures together and the paint on the wings was chipping off. The old TV monitors were straight from the 80s and their plastic had yellowed and cracked. I felt really safe!

I had bought new shoes for work and they were not broken in yet and I started developing blisters so I ended up staying close to the hotel. Luckily the coolest mall I have ever been to was attached to the hotel. It was an open air mall with many ramps and stairs leading in all directions. It reminded me of the modern painting of stairs going in all directions in ways that are not logical.





Double click on the picture to view the slideshow.

San Diego

Test

I wanted to add a cool slideshow to my blog. I've been experimenting with picture websites and I really like snapfish but I could not figure out how to show my slideshow on my blog, plus people have to log in to see my pics. This slide show is done by Picasa which is not as fancy but its easy to use and I can do my slideshow.

As of Sept 17, 2007 I have three slideshows on my blog and have found that they seem to be slowing performance a bit, so I'm going to use a hyperlink that brings you to the slideshow in picasa for all my historical posts. Current posts will still show the pretty slideshow and provide the hyperlink.

Test

Photo Album Ideas

Need your Help

As we draw closer to our departure date I wanted to get opinions on what might be the best way to display all of our lovely photos. We could use this blog but it would not be good for several hundred photos. It is certainly a good place to show the best photos and make diary style entries but I think I should include hyperlinks that bring you to sites that make viewing slide shows or albums easier. I noticed sites like flickr and shutterfly seem nice. Shutterfly seems to be free and have many options that I like such as adding comments and organizing pics into groups. For example when we go to Paris I want those photos to stay separate from my Irish photos. Its also cool that you can order prints but that is not a requirement. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks

Walsh (co-worker) just sent me this link which discusses various photo sharing sites. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_45/b3958413.htm