Joe meets Pete meets Charlie Brown

My friend Joe and my boyfriend Pete hadn't met yet, and Joe agreed to share our "tradition" (ie we did it last year) with Pete, of watching Charlie Brown's Christmas.

Nobody here seems to have seen it (!) so I am slowly introducing it to the country. So far, 2 Christmases, 2 people.
The fellas meet on George Lane in South Woodford! Joe came all the way up from South London to Pete's place to meet him, watch it, and see if he could endure an afternoon North of the river.

Joe in turn made us watch to The Snowman, which I'd never seen and is so lovely. I think Christmas is all about being 8 years old.

Christmas shopping with the Grinch

Joe and I went to my most favoritist place ever last weekend, Greenwich Market. Their Christmas market is even bigger, busier and more beautiful than the normal one. It was so nice to walk around with my Gingerbread latte and find interesting gifts for people.


Joe is smiling, which is a combination of a Christmas miracle and he knows someone is about to hand him some food.

German Christmas in England

Christmas in London is really nice. The other day Rob and I went to a German Christmas Market on the South bank of the Thames. I took this weird picture of him in front of some kind of "wiener shack".



It was nice to be down by the old familiar sites in the Christmas season too. They're so pretty in the pitch black night.

Tree, Christmas, all that kind of stuff

My little 5 foot plastic tree has a new home in Pete's apartment this year. No room in my studio. It's been fun swapping Christmas chat with my Englishman and learning about the have weird traditions they have here. Santa Claus is Father Christmas! And you leave him mince pie and sherry!
Pete hasn't even seen A Charlie Brown's Christmas, and therefore has no idea what a "Charlie Brown tree" is. How sad.
















And one final pic for the Pete fans:

Another blog entry about pancakes

It's come to my attention that a disproportionate amount of my blog has been dedicated to pancakes. So, let's keep that going shall we.

Today Pete and I took a bus all the way from North East London down to South West London, to the only place I can find which claims to serve "American pancakes". The joy I had in finding this eaterie was only slightly deferred by the fact they are happy to serve them on the same plate as baked beans, stewed tomatoes (pronounced with a soft "a") and french fries. Sigh.
Anyway. We had a great time on our little adventure. Geared up with our Starbucks (my first gingerbread latte of the season, I am behind!) and seated in the front row atop a red double decker bus, we set out to see some areas unfamiliar to us and it was really fun.

Breakfast was, well just ok. But I loved being in Clapham Junction, all abuzz with Christmas. And any quality time I get to spend with this handsome man is, obviously, my fave. Can you blame me.

Thanksgiving, without the work or the family

Pete and I went to a restaurant for a similar-to-Thanksgiving meal (kind of). Then we went back to my place to talk to everybody on Skype and watch Home Alone. That's my family's traditional post-Thanksgiving meal movie, and Pete has never seen it! He loved it. How could you not.

Skype Thanksgiving

tg - Slideshow Maker

I don't think this really needs any words.

Vehicles

Saw these two recently near work.
Nice.











My friend Kristin and I used to have a thing about people who have names like "John Johnson" or "Ben Benson". What were their parents thinking. Our favorite though was a kid we went to college with named "Anders Anderson", because Anders isn't even a real name (unless you're Dutch or something).
Anyway this one is good because Evans is the dorm I was RD of for 5 years. Good old Evans.

The birds

I took this (fairly self-indulgent, but short) video when Pete and I were in Bournemouth at a park with lots of swans and birds around. The swans were huge and 'friendly' to the point of being scary.

Ten points to the first American who knows what the cute thing is he says.

Weekend away

Pete and I had a long weekend at his parents' little place near Bournemouth. Last time we went was a super hot weekend in May - this was very different! Hardly anybody was around (as opposed to the packed summer beaches last time) and it was FREEZING. But it was great to be away and we had some very clear crisp weather our first day, which is always a joy when you're in England.



We got there at 1am on Saturday so I was amazed when I woke up later that morning to this beautiful view out the front window.





It's in such a great spot, right on the water.




My sister bought us shirts when she was in Nantucket and we both wore them all day. Pete wasn't excited wearing about matching shirts, but I think they are GREAT!

Some pretty sights we got to see during the weekend..

Below is a slide show of these plus more pictures for the truly interested (or bored).