Bathing Suits

So why is it the hardest thing ever to find a bathing suit in the UK. I have a couple theories.
1. No one understands me. When I ask for where the bathing suits are in the store I have to repeat “Bathing Suit?” 3 times before the salesperson looks at me like I’m in alien. I follow with little arm strokes*
*Side note 1 – I hold off holding my nose in one hand and shimming down an imaginery wall. Even though this is one of Burr’s favourite dance moves (along with the macarana of course.)
and then say “Swim” and...ahhh they know what I’m talking about. They point me in the direction of the selection of 5 suits...all sick. And I do it all over again at another store, starting with bathing suit – not SWIM suit, cause obviously I’m not smart.
2. English people refuse to where bathing suits because they may reflect the sunlight. Totally possible – its happening to me. I will be spray tanning tomorrow!*
*If you have yet to read the battle of Anne vs. Spray tan please see previous blogs and note – spray tanning wins.
3. There are no pools to go swimming in London. There are indoor pools – as I swam at my gym last night. My gym even has a little rooftop to layout –but no pool. I did see people swimming in hyde park the other day – grrroosss.
4. There is no such thing as Dillards, Nordstrom, Macy’s, etc. Where I can walk in and easily see 40 suits. Dreaming of a department store.....
Wish me luck finding one!
X
Anne

Batten in London

What happens when you give a 25 year old keys to your flat, a 1985 cell phone, and days in London to roam around? Jealousy! That is what I have. Spending mornings in hyde park people watching, taking fat tire bike tours around London, shopping in Harrods and on Oxford Street. I'm SO jealous.
Luckily, we get to hang out with Batten at night. Thus far we have taken him to our favorite pub, fabulous thai, fancy English, and tonight is Indian food that is BYOB - should be interesting!!!

Batten in front of Trafalgar Square.

Batten and I could not get away from these protesters!!!! The bikers were protesting having to pay for parking in London!

B&B at our fav pub - Thomas Cubbitt.

Here are a pics from our adventures.

At Beach Blanket Babylon in Notting Hill. Really cool atmoshpere. Batten loved his mojito! And Kambry joined us for dinner and drinks. Look at that cool chair :-)

Please leave my city (~all but B of course)

Where do they come from?! I mean all these people EVERYWHERE? Its like a virus spreading and its AWFUL. They are literally coming out of the woodwork and its exponential.

What am I talking about? PEOPLE. I mean I cannot run, walk, or even blink without touching someone....and that is just on the sidewalk.

Seriously on my Sunday run through Hyde Park I had to dodge so many people every 5 seconds I thought I was playing a game of tag football. AHHHH. (and everyone knows I would willingly play flag football but no one would play with me because I cannot catch or throw - but we are working on this*)

*Side note 1 - this weekend Burr and I purchased a soccer ball. We kicked it around and he taught me about the game where you try to hit the posts. He also had me play goalie while he kicked which only consisted of me screaming bloody murder the entire time - so basically entertainment for him. - I will not be playing goalie ever again, its hard to miss the ball. (Yes I said miss).

It gets worse...the people thing, the tube, oh the tube. For those who don't know its not air conditioned. So by the time you get to the tube and down the stairs its a lovely 90ish, no wind, and its packed with folks.

Let me paint the picture of our mornings....its 6am - Burr and Anne wake up because its been sunny for 2.5 hours now and its beating in through the blinds. Burr goes running, Anne gets her rear kicked by Jillian (yes the biggest loser trainer*)

*Side note - have you ever bought her DVD's ? Don't knock 'em - they are hard. I mean really hard. I have one that is 24 minutes, yes that is it, and EVERYTIME it gets me - dying of sweat, barely can get up off the floor...and I've had it for 2 years - probably done it 100 times, yeah I'm sure that says nothing about me or the shape I'm in - just the workout program - haha.

Anyway, so we workout. 7am rolls around and we both shower.*

*Side note 2 - Burr somehow figured out our shower now has 3 temperatures instead of 1. REALLY HOT or 2. FREEZING COLD, there is a 3. MIDLY COLD. He is a genius sometimes (esp. when it comes to him not having to be hot!)

So we each take our #3 midly colds showers - because of course we have no A/C in the flat and its 80ish degrees inside so its not like we "cooled down" after the workout. Then we attempt to get ready as slowly and efficiently as possible ( a very specific skill) so to sweat the least.

Finally we leave the flat and head to the tube...dun dun dun (can you hear the music?)

Well today this is what I was up against - yes those are all the people directly in front of me, all climbing the stairs together, all sweating on each other - taken from my Blackberry.

I thought I was going to keel over on the tube it was so hot....wall to wall people and I hear SIGNAL FAILURE*

*Side note 3 - I shall write another blog on my feelings about this because they are quite strong.

Anyway, the train is stuck it takes me 50 minutes in the hot box (i.e. tube) to get to the flat....all I can think about is lollies (those are Popsicles in the UK) so I finally get home and have my orange juice Popsicle as an appetizer for my dinner...now how to I cook chicken without turning the stove or oven on tonight...hmmmm?

XX from London

Anne

PS - Don't worry Lee and Steve I will not feed B&B raw chicken - we might just be venturing out for the evening:-)

We cannot read....

Soooooo Burr and I thought we were getting smarter with age. Well we are NOT.

Let’s say, for example, you get an email with your plane arrangements saying you will leave on Friday. So therefore, you (may) perhaps get to your destination the following day (Saturday) if you are flying from the US to the UK. Burr and I have done this I don’t know how many times, probably 10 times over the last 15 months. We know how it works.

Anyway, we receive Batten’s itinerary and it says he leaves on July 19th. So obviously Burr and I got all ready for Batten to arrive today. We left the keys out, fresh sheets, towels, London books, umbrella, we have dinner all planned, etc. Etc. Then I’m emailing Batten expecting him to arrive about 12:15 in London and I say “Are you here?!!!” and his response

“What?”

Followed by another email “Tomorrow”

My reaction = pure confusion. You should have seen my face. Did his flight get delayed? Why is he coming tomorrow? Hmmmmm. I go back to the reservation. Yes, yes it says the 19th.
Wait a minute

He leaves Atlanta at 10pm on the 19th...that means!!!! Oh geez we are stupid. Yep he arrives tomorrow!!

You would think it was our first time dealing with a time change....oh and the wonderful world of time differences continues.
Love from 5 hours ahead

PS – After this occurred and I emailed Burr – it was made funnier with our 15 second converstation where he and said “Wow we are smart” I concurred with “yep” and we both hung up...haha.

PPS - Can't wait to see you Batten. We will do it all again tomorrow :-)

spray tans

I would like to note the 2 different pics on the top of our blog are about 2 weeks apart. One with a spray tan and one without. I mean really?! Am I that pasty all the time? That is just terrible. Why do I feel like Burr is always tan? Can I change this? Is there a tan pill? I don't want to sit out in the sun and get wrinkled! And spray tanning is
1. Smelly
2. Annoying *
3. Really smelly
4. Blotchy
5. short lived

* Annoying because you have to exfoliate before you go, then remember no lotion, then remember all the "barrier" lotion on your nails before you go in, then you feel sticky the rest of the day, your clothes smell terrible, and you cannot shower for a min. of 6 hours.


All in all ...the moral of the story is spray tans win. I will probably go next week before we go to Munich and Italy - wahoo. No amount of smelliness is going to keep this girl as pale as everyone else in London.
Kiss Kiss
AF

Kacie and Chris KneidEEEEl wedding

Yes, I mis-spell my best friend's "new" last name a minimum of 10 times a week. There are no "a's" in it, but I like to mis-spell it. Therefore up here I have added the additional letters so everyone else will never forget:-)
Kacie and Kneidel's wedding was my favorite. I had so much fun. The festivities began with a luncheon shower hosted by myself and my mom, a rehersal dinner where I had to give a speech - scary!, and the most fun dance party ever the night of the wedding. Although I think Burr thought it was a "rap" party because he definately did more rap contests than dance off's.
Love you guys The wedding party and the couple below.

Kacie, Maggie, and me dancing like our life depended on it. Please see the faces we are all making. And what am I doing with my hand? I will fail miserably for So You Think You Can Dance, but I heart that show.

Wahoooo
I wear my sunglasses as night.....this was right before Kacie and Burr's 3rd rap contest of the night!

ahhhh

I love carasoul rides:-)

Bride and Matron of Honor - love ya!

Burr beer bonging (he won btw)

Right after my speech at rehersal dinner - glad that is over!

Mom and me before the shower we hosted!

All the bridesmaid, groom, and bride outside Fatso's at the crack of 2:30am - way to go team you made it out all night!

More pics -

Farrar Fam

Burr and Lee before Harvery and Greta's rehersal dinner....ahhh
We are a little behind on our pictures! We had the most amazing time first with Burr's fam in London and then back in Greenville. (Except when Burr dunked me in the pool and he got my "hair" wet). Other than that it was a great 4th. Enjoy the pics
xoxox Burr's fam outside the National Gallery

Can you see me and Burr?

Katie and I wearing the "official robes" around Hampton Court Palace Lynn, Katie, and me having tea at Kensington Palace - The Orangery.

Funniest pic of steve ever,

Burr, Lee, Lynn, Katie, and James doing macarana (sp?) - I do not know how to spell this dance, but it is a terrible terrible dance that should not be done - yet Burr loves it and continues to do it around out flat in London...really I'll take a video sometime - yikes.

Burr and Papa

At the Cliffs.

4th of July bbq. They had cotton candy and snow cones with the buffet - awesome.

Just playing at the pool.

Burr and Jimmy acting like they are back in highschool.

Dinner at Chophouse - yummy!
Steve, Lee, Anne, and Burr at the Cleveland wedding!

I miss Clare

Yes, I miss everyone we saw back home, but for some reason I always miss Clare the most. Seriously one of these days I'm just not going to get back on the plane and I will officially will become her nanny! Soooo cute.
I thought I would post a tribute blog of all the pics I have since she was born (well only 1 pic per time I have seen her).
Johnny, Meg, Clare - we love you!
XX
Anne

Words from Steve

Don’t get too excited – this is not Anne posting but, instead, her very first guest author – Steve (Burr’s brighter dad for those who don’t know). The Faux Brits have been touring the States recently much like the Stones and because of this Anne has not had time to blog. Something about "work" but she could have taken part of the eleven hours she was at the Outlet Mall in Gaffney last Sunday to toss us all a tidbit or two.

Since she won’t curtail her shopping I told her today I would blog for her. This is a difficult task for several reasons – first, she is wittier than we gave her credit for when we first met her but our first impression may have been skewed because she appeared tentative. Or was that not apprehension at meeting the parents after having been given the background by Burr? Was it the fear of her oyster shooter (**side note – we ate at Chophouse Friday night and Anne actually enjoyed the shooter. Batten is skeptical because he wasn’t there).

Regardless, I’ll fill you in on their plans and why you are not hearing from them. They have abandoned public accounting and are back in the states to audition for "So You Think You Can Dance."

If you believed any part of that then you need to stop reading immediately because you are on the wrong blog.

They actually are back for two important weddings (are there any other types?). Harvey and Greta got married last Saturday in Greenville. Burr had come to Charlotte earlier that week and Anne joined him on Friday. She was a trooper because she was running on fumes from an early English morning to a late night in the States.

The wedding was fabulous and Greta was beautiful. It was fun to see all of the "kids" from high school in one place (for those not in the know, Greta and Harvey were Burr’s Christ Church classmates).

A & B headed back to Charlotte (via the aforementioned Gaffney) last Sunday and worked for a week in their respective offices. Not certain what they did but if Anne was writing this I still wouldn’t know. During the week, Batten actually took a road trip to Omaha to watch Game 2 – the deciding game – of the SC Gamecocks win the College World Series over UCLA. Now, this typically would not make a blip on Anne’s blog BUT – in the really hard to believe category – Batten and Nicola actually bumped into one another and they say there’s a photo out there somewhere to substantiate the tale!

On Friday, Burr & Anne returned to Greenville for a relaxing weekend of food, pool, shopping (will Anne ever curtail Burr’s shopping binges?), and fireworks. We went to the aforementioned Chophouse dinner on Friday – it was fantastic as usual. Nothing like a food coma to begin the weekend.

Saturday morning was futbol for the fellows (the Germany Argentina game was eye opening). We went to the mountain to be with Burr’s Nana & Papa, Lynn, Stephen, James & Katie and to go to the Cliff’s Fourth Party. We spent the afternoon in the pool. Some of us went in voluntarily and then there was Anne. Burr is very fortunate because her "I am not happy" look is not difficult to interpret. In fact, other families at the pool were contemplating whether or not they needed to apologize too. Burr took it in stride, knowing full well that the genetics of Claude, my father, had caused him to dunk Anne against her wishes.

After getting the chlorine out, we headed to the Fourth of July Party at the Cliffs Clubhouse. For those who don’t know the Cliffs seems to pick a day around the Fourth to celebrate and we actually have gone on the wrong day and, while we enjoyed the elbow room of being THE ONLY PEOPLE THERE the lack of service, food, drink, entertainment and fireworks makes it worth the trouble of actually figuring out when you should be there.

Anyway, the party was very nice. The DJ was a hit and had Anne, Lynn, Lee and Katie dancing (so long as the lawn sprinkler is still considered a dance). In addition to the steaks, ribs, etc. there was also cotton candy, popcorn and other great junk as well as face painting, balloons, a unicyclist and juggler. The evening ended with a 15 minute fireworks display over the golf course. All-in-all, a wonderful evening.

Today, the fourth, is a quiet day. Anne says she is going to go shopping for a few minutes so we don’t expect to see her again. Burr actually worked this morning. I sit in amazement at why our English friends don’t take the 4th off to celebrate with us – no, wait, that was Lester Holmes on the Today show asking some Twilight actor who is British if he enjoys the 4th in England as much as he does in the States. I am not a history expert but somehow in the back of my mind I recall something about England being involved in our Revolutionary War.

They leave us Monday to go to Kansas City and then to Kacie and Kneidel’s wedding next week. The great thing for us that we head to Munich the 23rd and will catch up with them there and the five of us will be exploring Italy first week of August. Can’t wait.

OK, this blogging thing is MUCH more difficult that I imagined. Especially if you have to blog about someone else. Now, if I was just talking about me . . .