A few highlights

Hello to all! Happy Monday morning.

Mom and Nana left this morning, they have been here since the 5th - so sorry for no blog writing, but trip planning and entertaining came first!!

Obvisouly, Burr did not do a weekend update - again! Here are a few highlights from Mom and Nana's Trip:

1. Tea at the Ritz - amazing!
2. Billy Elliot - The best part about this show was we had seats WAY up at the top of the theatre. I felt so sick just sitting there before the show started (because it was so steep! - seriously I could have fallen) that I got up and complained to this man and he moved us to a Private Box!!! Word to the wise - shows are WAY better with a private box.
3. Tea at the Dorcehester.
4. I heard the girls' had fun in Bath but I did not attend.
5. Portobello Market - I thought I would never get Mom and Nana out of their without buying an entire set of silver...thank goodness I did not have any cash :-)

More later.
Lots of love,
Anne and Burr

Burr's lack of Weekend Updates

I know - he is terrible...here is mine

1. Drank and sat around all day Saturday. It was super fun with our friends at White Horse...somehow we managed to gain 4 beer glasses in the process. It was an awesome 4th of July.

2. MOM and NANA arrived! And they arrived in style, they told me all about "business class" and these slippers and beds they get to sleep in on the plane. Now, I only want to fly Business Class, please Burr?

Mom and Nana are headed to the Ritz today for tea - hope its fun. Burr and I are at work - yuck.

Hope Burr survives at work, let's just say I don't think his staff are used to the "Burr-style" type of working....boy are they in for it!

Hugs and Kisses
Anne

Its Engagement Weekend!!!

A HUGE Congrats and Best Wishes to.....

Emily and Charlie

and

Greta and Harvey

We are so happy for you both!!!

Emmy - thanks for the pic of the ring, you know I was dying to see the pic:-) LOVE it.

What do we think Bachelorette party in London?!

Things I miss most

Well there are several things I really miss...of course there are benefits of being here (such as traveling and lots more visitors!)

But I think I miss Clare Bear the most. Its quite pathetic actually. Burr thinks my obsession rivals on scary... I tend to ask "What do you think Clare is doing right now?" often. To which he answer is usually "sleeping", but what should I expect??...Mr. Genius probably does not realize there is crying, changing, bathing, eating, drooling, playing, smiling, laughing, talking, etc. etc....we should let him babysit Clare for a night!!! (JK- Johnny and Meg - don't worry we won't let his UVa ways sway our little Jayhawk). Here is a picture of her, she is 5 months old now! Isn't she SO cute?! I know I know. And her little pink and white striped outfit, ahhh.



What will I do when we move back? I will need a bi-monthly trip to KC to see her. Then she will be all of 12 going "Dad could you please get Aunt Anne to stop coming over, she is so annoying!


Thanks for the pic Meg!

Oh and I will briefly rank things I miss most
Things (note: not people, do not get offended)
1. "proper cubes" - meaning a. I actually have a place to sit everyday and b. I don't have to hear every single thing my colleagues do
2. Cars - Its a little harder to put my makeup on the tube versus in my car on the way to work...so much better when Burr drove and I "got pretty" Although, I have to say I have gotten quite good at walking to the tube and putting on makeup - Burr was impressed at least.
3. Red Meat - Yes they have red meat in England. No it is not worth eating. No, not even if you pay me.
4. Yoga class - I heart Charlotte Yoga
5. Blackberry - I was stripped of my EY blackberry when I got here and I fear I am going through "BBM with drawl"
6. TRASH CANS!!!! Why are there no trash cans = bins here, anywhere! I mean you have to walk like 5 blocks to find one little trash can. Even at the cubes you don't get your own trash can.
7. Bachelorette - that is not a person, that is a TV show. And I have no idea if Jillian's season is even over, but I'm a little sad to be missing it.
8.Shopping prices - I wish I could go back and take away anything I ever said was too expensive in Charlotte b/c whatever CLT was CRAZY CHEAP compared to London.

Well wanted to make a 10 item list, but it turns out I keep thinking about things I love about London instead, so maybe I am doing well.
In the future when its not 11:30 on Thursday night maybe I will write my new London top list...only if you're lucky.

Aunt Anne misses you Clare.
MUAH MUAH MUAH MMMMMUUUUAAAHHH

What I like to call "The HOT BOX"

Do you know what a hot box is? Well its this really large public transportation system in London called....wait for it.....

THE TUBE!!! (aka - the London underground). The headline in the papers today was 45 degrees in the tubE?! *

*Side note 1 - if you want to know how to convert 45 Celsius to Fahrenheit go read one of burr's blog's - I think he wrote that in there somewhere - I'm not sure, I think I was taking a little "snooze" through that one.
Side note 2 -Or you could do it anne's way 45*2 = 90 plus whatever you think sounds right...so about 120! WOW that is hot!

Seriously though it is getting so hot here in the London and the tube is sticky and gross and full of hot sweaty SMELLY people - YUCK. I think I will just get a bike. HA - ok not really, but a car service perhaps?! I really dislike it.

I wish you could see Burr's "Serious Face" when he is getting on the tube. Its like "Don't talk to me, I'm trying to not move so I sweat the least amount possible in the next 20 minutes" - its hysterical. But I do have to say on the tube this morning I was wearing a dress without sleeves (sweater added at work) and flip-flops (again heels added at work) to Burr's full suit attire. Aren't you glad you read this useless blog?!

Well I had to document somewhere the feeling I get 2 times a day (minimum) to people who care about us....please send money for private driver with Mercedes asap:-)

PS - I have now been in London too long and have gotten my @ sign and " sign all confused on the key boards - so difficult to type. (See previous blog)

Portugal Pics Re-Uploaded

Sorry - I uploaded them but they were tired....they are up now....see below.

XOXO

The DRESS

I know, I know! I'm behind on blogging, but there is a good reason for it. I call it EY! They are so time consuming, seriously I have barely had time to sleep a reasonable amount * so no whining about the blogging

*Side Note 1 - I am a "Jones" girl - meaning I take after my Mother and Grandmother who both think that taking a 2 hour nap a day is just as essential as eating 3 meals a day, so I seriously like my sleep ok peeps.

*Side Note 2- Sleep is extremely difficult to come by here when the sun goes down at 11pm and comes up at 4am - I need darkness!

On to the good stuff... I still have not written about the horrendous to fabulous clothes I witnessed at the Ascot Races. My first question to 90% of the women at the races is "WHY DO YOU THINK THAT FITS YOU?" I mean I'm not even joking when I say that every girl was wearing a dress that was ridiculously tight. And sad to say not every girl was Jessica Biel and thus, should not be wearing said "ridiculously tight" clothing. I have this picture in my head of an English girl going shopping for her Ascot ensemble....She walks into a store and sees this adorable dress, its about 1 foot above the knee and comes down low in the front, maybe even low in the back, and its fairly straight. She thinks that dress is perfect! I must have it for the races. She knows she usually is a size 8 maybe even a 10 on a bad day but since it is the races after all, she will try on the 2. She goes to the dressing room and VIOLA! The dress zips up....it may be down like a tiny little centimeter, but most of it zips up...I mean she can't breath but its a 2!!! - SOLD! She buys the dress accompanied by a hat that looks like this....

and she has her outfit. I am not joking 90%, 90% of the girls there were wearing a dress that was so tight you could not sit down in it. I was absolutely amazed - everywhere I looked - ahhhhh!!! More and more girls with body parts I did not need to see * Needless to say next time I will (a) not wear a flowy dress and (b) buy a hat with much more feathers and do-dad's on it! See the little black things hanging off the left hand side of the hat picture - these are like chopsticks with a fake mini-kite shape attached to the end of it that stick out of all hats. Please note this if you ever move to include "Hat must include chopsticks with mini-kites" - WHAT? This was so not in the 6 books I read on Moving to London and Culture Shock - London.

*Side note 3- I actually don't think they meant said parts to be seen either, since it was covered by material technially, but when you wear skin-tight clothing that is what happens!

Other interesting things about hats is they are not actually hats, they are really headbands that just have a hat with feathers and stuff on top - so it is like a "pseudo-hat" Anyway, I definitely had the wrong thing on the top of my head! See - and you thought this blog will be all about hats!

Missed you too!

Lots of love

A

PS - Johnny and Meg if you don't send more pics of Clare soon you are going to have an Angry Aunt Anne - mUAh

Burr's Weekend Re-Cap (Ascot)

Hey again – back for another week. While Friday night (drinks/dinner with Anne’s colleagues) was fun and Sunday (working out, errands and naps) was relaxing, I think it’s best that I use the remaining space on our Saturday trip to the Royal Ascot races.

I guess that I was so overwhelmed by Anne’s beauty at our wedding, that among the “love, cherish, honor and obey” our vows included a requirement to “attend one horserace a year.” I don’t remember it happening, but Anne swears it did. As a result, we needed to get to a race and heard that the only races worth going to are the Royal Ascot races.

Sure enough, we heard right. But first, some background.

Ascot is a suburb about an hour southwest of London. There is a track there that has races all summer. However, the Royal Ascot week (well, technically five days) takes place in June and generally sees certain members of the Royal family attend. Saturday was day five, the crescendo of the British horseracing calendar.

We caught up with some of Anne’s Dutch colleagues at the Waterloo station after some very necessary sausage McMuffins and made like sardines to get on the train. You know its going to be an awesome Saturday when you are stuck in the middle of a train, standing the whole way, wearing a coat and tie and not having to hold a handrail because you are prevented from moving by the 26 other people touching you.

I new it was going to be good people-watching when on Wednesday, the BBC website started featuring galleries of the absurd women’s hats. I was not disappointed. The Royal Ascot races have convinced me that almost every woman there (my wife being one of the exceptions) got dressed looking at the wrong side of a one-way mirror. Anne was unable to contain her shock and it’s too bad we weren’t able to record the running diary of her fashion critiques. This will be its own blog later this week, I have no doubt.

Having made our way to the grandstands (past the fancy dress snots going up the Royal Enclosures), we realised that we had 2 and a half hours until the first of the six races. So naturally, we grabbed a pitcher of Pimms and hung out in the sun. At 2 PM we made our way to the parade ground to watch the arrival of the Queen, or Mum as I like to call her. Mum was looking very stately as she arrived in horse-drawn carriage and passed within about 30 feet of Anne and me a short time after the photos were taken.

We made our way back trackside after stopping by one of the 300 licensed sports books on site. Race 1 was literally won by a nose, with our horse’s nose not among those competing. Better luck in Race 2, when 17-2 Bronze Cannon (USA! USA!) chased down the leader in the last two furlongs for a decent return. Race 3 was uneventful and we decided at that point that we had all of the horseracing / people-watching fun needed for one day. To beat the crowd and the weather, we returned home and were back in the flat by 6:30.

Ok, Happy Father’s Day to everyone out there and we will catch up with you next week (Wimbleton perhaps?!?!), Until then….

Anne and Burr meet the Queen

Here comes the Queen....Yes Burr and I to see the Queen when we went to Ascot, isn't that cool? see pics below...

Party in the Farrar Flat!

That’s right there is reason to celebrate!! For UK purposes, Steven Burrell Farrar is officially a manager with PwC. He called this morning saying “Where are we going to dinner tonight?” I said “ Remember we have my work outing until 10, what dinner?, come on I told you” and he replied “No dinner, we have to celebrate!” to which he told me about his promotion.

YEAH FOR BURR!!!

Unfortunately, only 1 Farrar is going to be a manager for I am going to stay a senior seeing as I new to the tax world. He beat me! But its cool.

Hip Hip Hooray for my Hubby!

(OMG – I sound like cheerleader)

Burr will gladly accept all gifts to celebrate this occasion (Specifically Tory burch flats size 9.5 or I guess cash is fine too!)

MUAH to all of you

and

MUAH MUAH to Burr!