Weekend

Hi friends and family! Burr and I are having a fabulous weekend here in London....except the minor fact that Burr is working during the days - ugh.

Tonight we are headed to sushi dinner (pray its good) - we heard good things and Le Grande (French Acrobat show) with Kambry and Brian. So excited!!!!

Last night I cooked venison burgers, David would be so proud! Except while in the grocery store buying all the ingredients I got hit with this lady's cart (no joke) 3 times. She thought she owned the place you could tell 1. wearing sunglasses while shopping 2. HUGE ring 3. HUGE birkin bag to match. Finally I said OUCH! She turned looked me up and down approved of my adorable ensum with leopard flats and said "Oh, sorry." That was about the 2nd sorry I've ever gotten in London and I get hit on a daily basis so it was at least comforting:-) (Side note - But I think Burr should just buy me a birkin bag so I can act like I own the place too- hint hint).
Then we went to a pub for a drink and a walk around the neighborhood and revelled in the fact that London is really pretty and nice when its not freezing and raining. Burr ended the night with the NFL draft - apparently its "really" fun to watch...somehow I missed the whole fun part, but oh well, I learned something - Tibo and something about the Panthers with 2 quarterbacks.

Gotta go catch some Vitaman D while I can.
Adios
Anne

Cafeteria man

Today I was microwaving my lunch *

* Side note - the EY building has 1000 pple in it and there are a total of 2 microwaves, yes 2 TOTAL. They won't keep the "nasty little devices" on the floors we work on bc apparently they smell/pple are messy - whatev. So there are 2 in the basement cafeteria where only the maintence and cleaning staff are allowed. Well I figure I have just as much right to use the microwave as they do. So I do! I get funny looks but most of the workers don't speak english very well so are they going to say to me?
(Side note - my rule following husband would never consider this - oh no I'm breaking the microwaving rule- ahhhh xoxo burr)

Anyway this man points at my aparagus and says in a different accent - which later I find out is bulgarian- "waaat's tha?" I answer "Asparagus"

He says "how you cook?, take 30 minutes?"
I say "no, 2 minutes in boiling water"
He says "no fruit and veg where I'm from"

Silence from me (weird dude! And my mama taught me to not talk to strangers)

He continues "I am from bulgaria..."

"Do you know no bana in bulgaria?"

Anne - "no what?"

"Bana"

Anne -no response but pure confusion look on my face, you know it - huh?

Him "yello fruit"

Anne - "oh! Banana!"

Him "yes, bana need 4 months sunshine to grow so no banas in bulgaria, no bana"

On that note and the fact my pasta was done,I left learning that I could never ever live in bulgaria. (No sunshine for 4 months - ah!)
Hope you learned something today
X

Profanity?

So this morning when I walk in the office I see this very large PIG. Well at least I think its a piggy - like a giant piggy bank and I think it says "PROFANITY" on it. Why in the world is my company sponorsing profanity?! Is this against profantiy? This is wierd....Are we going to have to put money in a jar each time we say a bad word, and what is a "bad" word in London...are there rules? All these things go through my head.

well I get closer and its actually just PROFITUNITY, which then you think -is this an actual word? I'm not so sure. But it made me giggle!!! In the end its a huge blown up piggy bank in lobby. Its all for raising money for this charity, the Prince's Trust, but it was entertaining:-)

X

anne

PS - For those who don't know I'm now a 4 eyes, yes EY has made me blind! (Techncially only far away and in my right eye) but I wasn't wearing my glasses which could have been the reason for the mis-read.

Malta

Malta Malta Man....What commercial was that song from? You know macho macho man. Anyway...we saw the BEST mullet in Malta. Wish we could have taken a pic of the malta mullet man. Awesome.

Malta was fabulous. Sunshine (i.e. vitamin D) is a necessary component of everyone’s diet and should not be underestimated. We had a VERY late flight Friday night so we spent the day in London on Friday. We went to the Wildlife Photography exhibit at the natural history museum. It was AMAZING. We loved it...had to go through twice ;-) And Burr bought me a huge picture of a leopard (my fav from the showing)...no clue what I’m doing with it when we are home from London....for a year its going to sit in the tube it came in.

After the exhibit came the part where we couldn’t WAIT to go to Malta. We walked from the museum to lunch at whole foods. (For sushi – yes there is no good sushi in London. Whole foods is serviceable). And we got rained and rained on. It was truly terrible. We had my mini-polka dot umbrella and lots of wind interfering. So by the end of the walk we were a) both sopping wet b) cold and c) whiny (well maybe just me)....but we certainly couldn’t wait to get on the plane.
Takinga 10:30pm flight has its advantages. All the airline workers want to be done so everything is VERY speedy, flight was 45 min early! A quick taxi to our hotel and VIOLA. Burr’s Starwood status earned us another 3x-the-size-of-our-flat hotel room. Seriously this thing was 1000 square feet – 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 closets, etc. Etc. Soooo great. After sleeping in Saturday we walked a while then took the bus to Valetta. Buses are crazy there – they look like those fake buses in the movies...see below

They are very rickety and I worried we might breakdown, but they the island is only 32 km long, we would have been fine. We say the sites of the town - St. Paul’s, St. John’s, St. Elmo’s and had a fabulous lunch.

Saturday night we had a late dinner off the town square. The town is really cute. Some of it ritzy, some really dirty, but all feels very safe. The air was clean and crisp. Perfect.
Sunday there was church (not in English),

Easter lunch, more walking around...and...getting LOST!!! There are several pictures to document this as it was 100% Burr’s fault....

This is me pointing to where Burr PROMISED there was a road. REALLY?! It looks like a giant field! And this is my reaction


And then when we are winding our way back the way we came (as I suggested a mere 45 minutes prior) we are naming all the items I have in my bag such as 2 pairs of sunglasses, 50 spf, chapstick, no money, credit cards, etc. Etc. When Burr says “And NO map” ...and I respond “Oh, no I have a map – I have 2 maps”.....errrrr...you can hear the brakes. Burr says “What are you talking about?” and I respond “You said I didn’t have a map in my bag, but see I have 2, you’re wrong!” To which Burr says “Anne, you had a map this whole time and you didn’t feel like telling me.” And I say “Well you didn’t ask until just now” And this is the picture of the map.....


Which if we would have looked at 2 hours before we probably would have seen a large valley instead of the mystery road Burr was imagining in his mind. *
(side note – for a guy that lived in a state where roads weren’t on a grid system he was positive that Malta was definitely on a grid system. Now, of course I’m off the belief that ALL roads need to be on a mandated grid system. Promise – everyone will be happier this way with less of my tears, whining, and honking when lost*) – (See previous blog about horns only being used for arude purposes and not being an actual “safety” tool as the NC annual car exams claims – liars!)
We ended up at a pub watching the football match (Burr’s choice) for some of the afternoon followed by a yummy dinner of octopus and red snapper (Note – Anne really coming out of her Barnards’ shell here...yum Barnards.)

Monday morning it was back to London, where Burr immediately got the flu (sad I know)...but he makes a cute sick guy. (Also, I feel it is my duty to mention that Burr wins the award for the first male to ever get his wife through security and in the airport 2.5 hours before take-off!) Side note - there is not enough airport shopping to be done in Malta for 2.5 hours...please someone do something about this should you end up in my situation.

All in all, fab trip and still in deep depression I am back at work.

XOXO

Anne

PS - Why does my blackberry spell check think XOXO is "socks" - does that look like "socks" to anyone? Maybe its a sign...if I loved more I would actually match the socks...which I NEVER EVER do....terrible chore. Adios for now.

I married such an accountant!

Hello everyone! In case you are wondering yes its still freezing here. I was a 3 minute walk home today and all of the sudden freezing cold sleet started to come down from the sky...just like Chicken Little "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" - needless to say I stepped up my pace but was still pretty wet when I got inside. I heart London weather.

Anyway, to the point. Burr and I are eating our Wheetabix for breakfast (cereal - check it out - its delicious). And I look at his suit and notice there are 3 pens in his "trouser" pocket - all these specific type "signos" pens one blue, red, and black each lined up perfectly clipped to his pocket. AHHHHHHHHH....I started laughing SO hard. I mean WOW! You have these in your pocket like you are in the military and they are guns ready to fire...except Burr is an auditor so in his case they are "Pens ready to sign for review approval!" - watch out everyone - Burr is armed and ready to review....hahahaha. What other job do you covet your "colored pencils" more? I wanted to take a picture SO badly....

But, ge wouldn't let me get the camera/blackberry fast enough ....so I ended up chasing him out the door and took this adorable pic of him.

Although once he was gone I did "re-create" the pants. I did not have the same pens in 3 coordinated colors, but you get the gist of it.....(um yeah, I'm married to someone who does this!)

Oh my

Oh my

I am worried for our children....please don't let them be dorks....

Hope you have a nice day

Love

Anne