Weekend Update

Aloha. Apologies this is a touch late, but I was tracking the Hoos win over Cal State Fullerton in the College World Series, which zaps my effectiveness. In true UVA fashion, they waited until I was in London and unable to make the trek to Omaha before they decided to get through a Super Regional. Oh well, better now than never.

So Portugal was awesome.

We took holiday on Friday and caught an 8 AM EasyJet flight out of Gatwick headed to Faro. No need for unnecessary stamps (thank you RyanAir). Anne was so excited that she actually agreed to wake up at 5:15, which is highly unusual. We sailed through passport control and with the driver occasionally clocking 170 kms/hr (in the neighbourhood of 100 mph) while chatting on her mobile, we made it to the hotel by noon.

If there is one benefit to the weeks in Houston, San Fran and Wilmington, Delaware, it’s that frequent guests are much less common in Europe than the US (I think it has something to do with the lower reliance of franchising in the European hotel industry. You can thank Anne for editing out the other 500 words I had on the subject). Consequently, we were upgraded to a double room. As in a double-story, double-bedroom, double-bathroom suite. Being the divas we are, we almost called down to complain that we didn’t have an ocean view. The resort was called Pine Cliff and felt a lot like Sea Pines in Hilton Head, to the point that as we walked by the man-made streams, I was on the lookout for alligators (which don’t exist in Portugal).

We took the elevator down the cliff and hit the beach that afternoon under cloudless skies and in 80 – 83 degree temperatures and a slight breeze. Anne will upload pics later.
The water, on the other hand, was freezing. Like Minnesota lake cold in mid-May. I counted six people who ran from the sand into the waves, only to get three steps in, scream like schoolgirls, pivot and run straight back to the sand. Four were younger than 10 and 2 were named Farrar. I was proud of Anne though, she actually got in up to her ankle on the second try (not much of an ocean person that Anne).

Weather was perfect Friday, partly cloudy Saturday (full beach day with a bottle of wine in the pool watching the sunset) and a bit cloudier Sunday (we were on the beach in the AM). Casper and I got a fair amount of sun, but I doubt we would have made more than a three-placard jump in the Sherwin-Williams book of whites.

Needless to say, everything was going so well that we needed to add some sort of international incident to the mix.

Just when we thought we had the whole flying in Europe thing down, we almost missed our flight home and ran afoul of the Portuguese TSA and Customs officials when we somehow got through security without valid boarding passes. It’s a long story that starts with us changing our flight and ends (I am not lying) with Anne smacking herself in the head with a board. She will have to elaborate how exactly that happened. Nevertheless, we were able to get seats across the aisle from two infants that were able to drown out both the jet engines and my IPod with their wailing.

Our fortunes reversed immediately on English soil. Christmas came early for us and everyone else in Gatwick Express Car #10 on the way home when the ticket seller was unable to make it past Car #9 on the way home. About 2 minutes out, it looked like we were in the clear until the train was held for a platform to clear. The 20 or so people who had yet to buy tickets and were crammed at one end of the train nervously looked around. I counted two larger groups sending a sacrificial lamb to the halfway point to provide additional further insurance that they would not all be ticketed. Luckily, the train started up again and we were safe.

No more trips planned as of yet (at least until the next credit card cycle). On tap next weekend - the Royal Ascot races. I suppose it’s like a buttoned-down Foxfield’s, but we’ll see. Until then, have a great week.

Beautiful Weekend

Hey there – glad you could make it to this weekend’s update.

I think it’s fair to say the weekend (or at least the interesting portion of our week) started a day earlier. At the end of the week, Anne had a 36 hour trip to Copenhagen, Denmark and elected to fly at 7 AM on Thursday morning. In Charlotte, this required us to get going about 5:30 in order to make the flight. For her trip from Heathrow, we decided that 4:10 would be about right. Thanks to my parents for the intercontinental wake-up call.

So we both were dragging a bit during the day and had work-related dinners that night. Anne visited the same restaurant for dinner Thursday and lunch Friday in Denmark at the famous park there, Tivoli.

For my dinner, three colleagues and I ate at Thai Square in Bank, which led to after-dinner drinks, which led to after-dinner-clubbing at this bar called Abacus. I thought the club name was a touch ironic, given that it was four accountants. My “cool American” accent ended up getting me free shots, though I am quite certain my Friday morning would have been better had I turned them down. Clubbing led to me getting home at 1:30, after a quick stop at Maroush for a late-night chicken schwarma sandwich (the London equivalent of Waffle House or Littlejohns).

Two things Friday were amazing: the weather and the fact I made it to work on time. It was 26 – 30 C all weekend (let’s remember our conversion equation… F = 9/5 C + 32), which is 78 – 88ish F. No clouds, no humidity, light until 10 PM or thereabouts. As for the latter, let’s just admit it wasn’t my most productive day.

Anne got home about 10 on Friday night, about the same time as house-guest Number 4. Drumroll please…… Anthony McGuinness, Burr’s Camp Lincoln buddy from 2003. Anthony is a huge Everton Football Club supporter and had come down for the FA Cup Final at Wembley. The FA Cup is the equivalent of English national championship, combining the Super Bowl (size and importance), NCAA tournament (number of teams involved), US Open golf (any team in England can enter the competition).. Everton are the NY Mets of Liverpool, often overshadowed by Liverpool FC. In the Premiership, they are more like the Oakland A’s of the late-90s – competitive second-tier squad with a lower payroll. They were playing Chelsea, a London club owned by a Russian oil csar who has outspent almost every other team in the world.

Saturday morning, we picked up my buddy Eric Carter, Greenville soccer teammate studying / working in London until mid-July, and took the tube out to Wembley Stadium. We grabbed a couple of four-packs and went quasi-tailgating with about 5,000 hammered Everton supporters on the steps of the park. See the pic. Anthony is in the middle and Eric is far right.

Anthony scalped, tricked, parachuted, and/or teleported himself into the match. (You don’t question how people from Liverpool get things done. Anne tried later to interrogate him and we got nowhere.) Eric and I went to an Everton sports-bar in time to see the place erupt when they scored the first goal just 30 seconds into the match. I don’t know if this picture quite captures the 6 or 7 pints of beer dripping from the ceiling supplied by the exuberant Everton supporters.

The atmosphere became more and more subdued as Chelsea took control of the game and won 2-1.

Anne spent Saturday at the gym (working out and enjoying the rooftop deck), at the Portobello Road market and on the couch with her new favourite chick show (Privileged). She then helped prepare a delicious stir-fry meal for the sunburned and dehydrated among us. Anthony then had to scamper off to catch his train.

Sunday, we met up with our favourite group of American ex-pats for beers and Pimms at the White Horse pub in Fulham. Pimms is a British liquor, a delightful drink on a beautiful day and a favourite of the Jervises.

Dublin next weekend. Until then, have a great week.

Weekend Re-Cap

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. I hope everyone has enjoyed Anne encroaching on my weekend recap space. I have forgiven her because (a) she is excited to have her friends in town and (b) I get to tease her that she doesn’t know who Meatloaf is …. Honey, it’s a person, not a band.

Anne has caught everyone up from Friday and hit most of the highlights from Saturday, so I will pick up from there. Sunday morning Melissa and Nicola came to the flat for breakfast before we struck out for Windsor Castle via train. What should have been an uneventful train trip was made much more interesting by the International Sevens competition.

So what is an international sevens competition, you ask? Good question. Sevens is the short name for 7 on 7 full-field rugby. The main rugby stadium in England is in Twickenham, almost directly halfway between London and Windsor. The two-day event featured 16 national champion Sevens teams and 50,000 fans (approximately 4 fans and 1 player were sober). At 10:30 AM on the train platform, we saw at least 20 cases of alcohol, 30 finished beers and a tapped Heineken mini-keg.

After the revelers departed, the rest of the train to Windsor was quiet. Weather was perfect. Castle was beautiful and as you can see in the picture, the girls dressed as a tribute to primary colors. We spent about 90 minutes in the Castle (the Queen was not in residence … she’s currently at Buckingham palace) before going to Sunday roast at The Two Brewers pub. We shopped a bit in the city before catching the train home. Apparently the tournament had finished some time ago, because the stragglers that got on the train at Twickenham looked like the guys who wake up in the pasture about 7 PM at Foxfield. One girl even had the tell-tale permanent marker tattoos to prove it.

The rest of the evening was to be a low-key affair, before Anne proposed an IKEA trip for Monday morning to redecorate our flat. At that point, the girls broke out the measuring tape and I considered calling AMEX and the bank to cancel the credit cards.

Tonight we are going to see Wicked. Anne will be sure to cover the IKEA trip and Wicked at some point in the future.

Have a good week! If you get a chance, we do want to know where you think we should go next. I really have to wonder where that Durham vote came from – thanks Barb.