Mmmm

Tell me that's not the best looking HAGGIS BURRITO you've ever seen. Tasty business.

Guy Fox

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, guy, t'was his intent 
To blow up king and parliament. 
Three score barrels were laid below 
To prove old England's overthrow. 

By God's mercy he was catch'd 
With a darkened lantern and burning match. 
So, holler boys, holler boys, Let the bells ring. 
Holler boys, holler boys, God save the king.

 - jgt

Shave?

So, I find myself on Fleet Street. Wonder if I can find a barber?

Guy Fawkes Night

Went out to our friends Steve and Dawns whose house backs up to a park where they set off fireworks in honor of Guy Fawkes night. Possibly the best fireworks display I've seen.

They have been setting off fireworks every night for the past few days. Albert no likey at all.

Harsh and Co

Had good times hanging with our Friends Harsh, Prusty and Divya this week.

Natural History Museum

Went over to the Natural History Museum last weekend
It was outstanding. Again, free. Great exhibits, as long as you can get past all the kids. C'mon, get out my way. Science isn't for kids. Go do your homework. I digress. Even more impressive than the exhibits is the building itself, the Waterhouse Building 1881.

Charles Darwin
Mo with the first dinosaur
Jon on an escalator to the space exhibit
The great hall

Hipster food blogging

I know, it's very hipster to take pictures of food that you've ordered and blog about it. And as we also know, I'm anything but hipster. But, here's the thing. It's Funded Friday, so I'm pretty excited about eating out.

Paycheck come once a month here, last Friday of the month. So, with our new found wealth we painted the town. #1 Full English breakfast, complete with Black Pudding and beans. #2 Octoberfest Sausage and Cider fest at the pub with a sausage sampler and over a dozen kinds of mustard from around the world. Stu woulda loved it.

Jack the Ripper Walking Tour

So, come to find out, my office is only blocks away from where Jack the Ripper did his dirty work.

So today we did the touristy Jack the Ripper Walking Tour on his 125th anniversary.

A lot of the spots were destroyed in the Blitz, but here are a few that remained in tact.

A back alley where he was spotted.
A park where one victim was found.
And a convent where Mary Kelly spent her last night before meeting Mr. The Ripper.

St Albans

Well, we had grand plans today. We signed up for Zipcar so we could take short trips and explore in and outside London. We drove out to the ancient Roman city of St Albans, just north west of the city. Because of traffic we got there much later than we wanted. Just enough time to snap a pic of the 15th century clock tower and the cathedral that stands where the martyr St Albans was beheaded in 324AD.

Hyde park

Got our bicycles up and running, so we took them for a lovely day out riding in the city. Rode over to Hyde Park to picnic in the sun.

Notting Hill Carnival

Morgan, Fiona and I went to Carnival in Notting Hill last weekend.  Wow.  Over a million people turned out, it was crazy!

Check out some of the pics from the parade

Just can not seem to rotate this video properly, but you get the picture.

Borough Market with Fiona

A couple of days ago, Morgans cousin Fiona moved to London, to go to school just down the road here in Islington. She's staying with us while looking for a flat in the neighborhood. This weekend we all went down to Borough Market. A huge, crowded open air market of butchers, bakers, and cheesemongers.

Fairoaks Airport

Had a lovely day out last weekend with a Steve and his partner Dawn. Steve is a pilot with the same club Mo and I belong to in CA, but lives here now. He took us around the Fairoaks Airport, let us check out one of his Pipers, and explained all the differences between flying in the US and UK. Really nice day that ended with a BBQ at the pub nearby.

A little racist walk

I had my nationality cursed 4 times by one drunk on the street one night.

Now bear with me, you'll have to do all of the accents yourself.

I'm walking Albert and a guy comes staggering up. Albert is in mid stream so I can't just walk away. He says in what I think is some vaguely european accent, "May I kiss your dog?"

me - "Excuse me?"

drunk - "May I kiss your dog. First I should say, I have had much alcohol. May I kiss your dog."

me - "Um, no, he's not really that friendly to strangers. So, I don't think it's a good idea."

drunk - "No, you don't understand. I want to kiss your dog. My only son has a dog, and I love him so much that that dog is my grandson. Do you understand??"

me - "I get it. But, I don't think its a good idea."

drunk - "I must kiss your dog." (getting agitated now) "Do you know, I will kill the man for the dog. If you beat that dog, I will kill the man that beats that dog."
drunk - "You are not English are you? I am Mongolian. Where are you from? Australia?"
drunk - "Funking Australians. Think you can come in here..."

me - "I'm not Australian."

drunk - "Fucking South Africans."
drunk - "No, not South African. You're French. Fucking French come in here and plant flowers and call the place France. Fuck France."

me - "Not French either. I'm Canadian."

drunk - "Fucking French Canadian. Fuck you."
drunk - "Still I must kiss your dog."


IT WAS AWESOME. I HAD MY AUSTRALIAN, SOUTH AFRICAN, FRENCH AND CANADIAN HERITAGE CURSED IN ONE MINUTE.

Last bit of touristing

Last bit of touristing before starting work Monday. 

Walking across the Tower Bridge and London Bridge. 

A little paella near the Southwark Cathedral, a place of worship since 606AD.

And hung at one of the great open air markets they have here where they
 sell everything under the sun.  Mmm, that's great cow foot. 

 - jgt

Hampton Court Palace

Went to Hampton Court Palace last weekend. Amazing stuff. It's all about Henry VIII. We were there, again, for three hours and still only saw half the grounds. There are gardens that go for days that we only caught a glimpse of. Including what is claimed to be the oldest grape vine, planted in the mid 1700's and still growing strong.

View of the front on the palace.

The royal wine cellar, the great hall, King Henry and the great vine.

British Museum

All the museums downtown are free. Pretty sweet deal. We took a little trip down and in 3 hours didn't see 1/2 of all there was to see. We'll have to take our first visitors from abroad to go see the 2nd 1/2. We did get to see among the antiquities, the Rosetta Stone.

Quiz night 2

They don't decide ties by just asking one more question at quiz night. They see who can eat an entire pizza while arm wrestling. These guys aren't messing around.

Quiz Night!

Quiz night at the Lord Clyde pub across the street from our apt is fantastic. Great pub. But the quiz is WAY harder than the ones we've back home. We came in dead last.

We did another quiz night at Hops And Glory. Was surprised to see the selection of California IPAs there. We came in 8th out of 10. Got some work to do.

Lets hear some chatter out there. Name all these actors and tell me what they have in common.

We are such tourists

Decided to take in some more sights today and see the Camden Town Market and Regency Park. And while we're there, stop by the offices of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

Albert on his first tube ride. He no like the two story escalator that takes you down.

Went to The Stables in Camden Town Market.  A ridiculous open market thats been there for a hundred years and takes up blocks and blocks.  Looks just like Jemaa El Fna.  

Then, of course, we stopped by 221b Baker Street to see what Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were up to.  Nerds.

Touristing

The week consisted of job interviews and trying to nail down our flat. We think we've got it all worked out now. Probably move in Monday morning and start a new job a week after that.

With all that settled, we decided to be tourists today. Here we are at the White Tower. William The Conqueror's thousand year old fortress within The Tower of London.