Thursday, August 31, 2006

Not much to say for these few days except for BUSY! Both Beth and I have been swamped with our jobs.

Word of the day:

"Tout"

To scalp tickets

posted by Rino @ 4:11 PM 0 comments  

Monday, August 28, 2006

We're back from the Lake District. As you can see, we successfully drove and made it back in one piece... The long weekend was great. The weather - a mixed bag... sun, rain, sun, rain, etc... We stayed at a fantastic B&B: The Mylne Bridge House http://www.mylnebridgehouse.co.uk/

Me sitting the the Avis parking lot... excited but nervous. The Peugeot that we rented was brand new - only 7 miles on it... so any damage from driving on the wrong side would be clearly noticed.

Beth enjoying the highway in stride...

On Saturday, we took "one of the most hazardous" routes in the UK (though we did not know it at the time). We left Windermere for a few hours and drove toward the coast. The ride was about an hour and a half on the most steep, windy, narrow and scenic road we had ever seen. We went through two "passes." One of them is known as the "Hard Knot." You can see the narrow strip of road in the distance on the photo.

After crossing the "hard knot" and a few other minor passes, we made it to the Ravenglass and Eskdale railway - a narrow gauge steam train that took us on a 7 mile trip to the coast. http://www.ravenglass-railway.co.uk/


Town of Bowness/Windermere

Quack.


Private boat house entrance to Wray Castle

I think we found a new fashion idea... just in case: umbrellas for the hike from Wray Castle to back to the ferry landing.

Paddle hard.... rain is coming - I'm already somewhat soaked in this picture (just before the huge out of no-where deluge)

posted by Rino @ 11:12 PM 6 comments  

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Tomorrow, for the first time in 5 1/2 months, I am going to drive! And on the left side!
We're renting a car in the afternoon and driving up to the Lake District for the long Bank Holiday weekend. We'll be staying in a town called Windermere. It's about a 4-5 hour drive... but we're looking forward to it. http://www.golakes.co.uk

I just overheard a new word of the day...

a colleague was describing a girl he just met as "fit"

It does not mean she hits the gym regularly; it means she is a "fine specimen".

posted by Rino @ 10:13 AM 8 comments  

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Beth and I just met for a quick lunch in Covent Garden... As our coffee bean supply at home is getting low, we made a special trip to a Monmouth Coffee store to replenish http://www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk/default.htm

That's the excitement for the day.

Word of the day

"Motorway"

A highway

posted by Rino @ 2:36 PM 3 comments  

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Nothing much to say today except for the word of the day (actually, it's a phrase I hear a lot here):

"You Americans,"
"Those Americans"
"The Americans"

I'm not sure if it's because we're not liked at the moment... or that's just how we've always been referred to as... but I hear it a lot.

posted by Rino @ 1:33 PM 1 comments  

Monday, August 21, 2006

We took it easy this weekend... On Saturday we stayed at home and caught up on miscellaneous admin things (the small fire in the flat below us last week made me search for Tenants Insurance, which I had neglected to do before).

On Saturday night we went with some friends to a popular London night club, Cafe de Paris. Beth was able to get us on the "guest list." It was cool telling the bouncer with a slight waive of the hand... "Step aside Chief, I'm on the guest list." I really did not do that, but it was fun to think I did.

Word of the day:

"Holiday"

It means vacation

posted by Rino @ 2:02 PM 0 comments  

Saturday, August 19, 2006



Last night we decided to do something cultural... As I enjoy classical music (and Beth is beginning to discover it too), we went to a classical concert at The Royal Albert Hall. http://www.royalalberthall.com/index2.aspx

The Royal Albert Hall is part of the cluster of museums in South Kensington. As the seats were all sold out, we purchased "gallery" tickets which allowed us to go to the gallery at the top of the hall and look down on the concert. The inside of the hall is breathtaking: massive, ornate, and has amazing acoustics. We listened to a concert which is part of BBC's Proms Exhibition: 2-3 months of concerts. http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/

Rainy weekend... so we're just staying in and catching up on work, admin, etc... Hopefully there won't be anymore fires.

posted by Rino @ 12:55 PM 0 comments  

Thursday, August 17, 2006


Do I smell.... smoke?

Yes I do.

So we're having the outside of our 100+ year-old apartment building restored, and considering the fact that some of the banisters are now sprouting trees from the concrete, this is a good thing. However, what is not good are incompetent workers. Apparently at some point this afternoon a few workers were using smoldering tools to burn paint off of some surfaces. I've never heard of this method before, but hey, it's London, and I'm always surprised by ingenious new ways to get work done slower.

Anyhow, these smart guys (pyros) were burning away the paint and managed to set fire to the downstairs flat. (That's one way to get rid of the paint, I suppose.) Luckily, it was only minor damage to the window area and to the door that the fire brigade had to bash in. The flat was one floor down in the front of the building... so the only issue with ours is the lingering smell of smoke. It was scary though, and it forced an evacuation for about an hour, but we were lucky. I think the workmen should try a different method tomorrow. Perhaps fireworks?






posted by Beth N @ 6:07 PM 0 comments  

Tuesday, August 15, 2006



So I had some soup for lunch yesterday.........

I'm glad they give you instructions on the container.

Beth calls is "branding."

Word of the day (I'll try to continue this):

"Sack"

To fire

posted by Rino @ 1:55 PM 1 comments  

Sunday, August 13, 2006


We took a stroll around London yesterday... near my office there was a free outdoor concert. At the time we arrived, there was a hard rock band playing. The entertainment came not from the band, but from a small group of 70-80 year-olds dressed in 1970's clothing with bad toupes who were dancing in what looked like an Austin Powers rendition.

Last night we went with two other couples to The Comedy Store. http://www.thecomedystore.co.uk/

There were four comedians... all whom had a different and very funny approach to comedy.

One of the comedians went off on a heckler in the crowd. While doing this, he made reference to the Millennium Falcon's Castle Run that was done in 20 parsecs... Anyone who had seen Star Wars more than 2-3 times could not stop laughing at the reference.

posted by Rino @ 2:12 PM 0 comments  

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Scary news this morning... they planned to blow up as many as 10 planes. I'm not sure what the objective of that would have been. Maybe the US should become neutral like Switzerland...

I'm glad I was not out of town this week. I would imagine getting back to the UK for the next few days would prove to be impossible. I'm sure people out on Holiday on a beach somewhere won't mind a few extra days of it.

posted by Rino @ 2:20 PM 1 comments  

Monday, August 07, 2006


Cambridge a few weeks ago... this past weekend - Oxford. No knock to Uconn (where Beth and I attended college), but Stores, CT just does not have the "feel" that these college towns have.

Our friends Jeremy and Katy (see link to their blog to the right) picked us up on Saturday morning and we went to Oxford. Katy's job gives her a car. It's been over 5 months since we've been in a car... a real car!

As you can see... the Oxford campus is something.
Oxford is also famous for many of its well established and historic pubs. The Eagle and Child is one of them, where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to come and debate the content of their latest works.

posted by Rino @ 11:44 PM 1 comments  

Friday, August 04, 2006



Final pictures from Malta:
Standing near the summit of Mt. Etna. Beth rented a jacket and boots that were 3 times her size... I toughed it out.
Dude where's my house?
A house that got covered in lava from a past eruption.
Back in Malta, near the Blue Lagoon.
A Mr. Softee boat in the Blue Lagoon.

Boats outside of the Blue Grotto
View of Valletta

posted by Rino @ 4:40 PM 1 comments  

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

More Malta Pics (well, these are all from our 1 day trip to Sicily):

Beth enjoying some wine at lunch (no, she is not a lush... it was just hot that day)

View from our table during lunch in Taormina, Sicily.... Hard to take a bad picture.
Our 1 day trip to Sicily included an excursion to the very active Mt. Etna volcano. While lava flow is a normal occurrence there, we only saw steam that day... but it was quite a sight! We took a FUNNN-EEE-CUE-LAR (cable car) to a height of about 2,000 meters, then a land rover, then finanlly hiked up close to the summit.

posted by Rino @ 12:11 AM 1 comments