My birthday boys

Friday was my friend Rob's birthday


Here he is at Lincoln's Inn Fields, looking dashing and not remotely his age.


Today (Sunday) is my friend Joe's birthday


Here he is in Blackheath Village where I told him to "at least give me a semi-smile".

Rob shares a birthday with Jessica Simpson and Joe shares his with Bill Cosby. But most importantly, both of these dear friends share their birthday week with ME. And Brian Austin Green.
Their celebrations were the cookies to my weekend Oreo sandwich.

IKEA

We spent about 19 hours yesterday in IKEA, buying Pete stuff for his new place. It was kind of our first uber-domestic activity, and also our 6 'monthiversary'. I figured, 6 months was a good run. Thankfully our relationship did survive him buying things I wouldn't have bought, and hopefully that means I can deal with him putting them places I wouldn't put them. ;)



IKEA's exhausting though, and afterwards we were two such old people. But the first 17 hours or so were fun.

And yes, my boyfriend is a big dork.

New flat

Pete just bought a flat. It's a great place: brand new 2 bedrooms with a beautiful view. Can't wait till we are he is all moved in so I he can really call it home.


And yes, my boyfriend is a big dork.










Today we had our first meal together in the new place - grilled cheese. We are so classy.

Seriously?

Saw this in a McDonalds the other day.

Pete's Pancake Party Pictures

Regular old pancakes that Americans know and love are quite a novelty in England. They're the stuff of hushed whispers; Brits have seen them on Friends and hope one day to be able to experience for themselves. Pete was over yesterday and requested we make them, which we did.

I'm a pancake mix girl all the way - Bisquick itself seeming a bit too involved, what with its eggs AND oil needed. But there's no pancake mix OR Bisquick around here, and making them from scratch with, I don't know, 5 ingredients was a quite a job.


His first batch! He was super cute and excited to make them for the first time. We made plain, blueberry, and chocolate chip.


Also it's hard to find maple syrup here, but I had a little bottle that my friend Rob bought me at some "North America shop" he went to. (Note: add to shopping list for trip home in July).


Observant readers will notice that yes, that is my laptop in the kitchen and yes, I appear to be on Facebook while making the pancakes. (Oh dear.)

Anyway, overall quite a success.

Yorkshire (or Oh the Accents)

Yesterday for work I went to Wakefield in Yorkshire to visit our National Operations Centre. It was my first time up there, and it was almost all countryside out the train window all the way there. Which is bizarre.

Lots of people from the North come to the HQ in London where I work, and their accents are totally different to any in the South. I always think of Dickon from The Secret Garden, but I can't really think of that many famous people with a proper Yorkshire accent.


Watch The Four Yorkshiremen (perhaps "the" classic Monty Python* sketch).


*OK, Monty Python made it famous, but yes I do know that it was first seen on the pre-Python 'At Last the 1948 Show' starring John Cleese and Graham Chapman.

Rainbow

Out my living room window this evening.

Central London Saturday

It was about 80 degrees and sunny in Central London today. And also insane. Here's a 19 second video I took of what Oxford Street was like today.

Bournemouth

Last weekend Pete and I went to his parents' caravan in Bournemouth, which is on the south coast. It was a GORGEOUS weekend, and the caravan is immediately on the water, which was great. I have never seen so many people on a beach!






















The only thing I bought in Bournemouth was these super-cute Mr Happy bandaids. We didn't have any cuts, but I made Pete put one on then gave myself a matching one. (He's a good man, isn't he).

The Week London had 4 Cacopardos

My parents and sister came to visit the last week of May. My parents have never been to the UK before so it was a big experience for sure. They saw lots of sights, spent some quality time with my boyfriend (and his family!) and got to know about my life here. We had a great week and I'm so glad they came.