Hello Kitty in London

Lots of other folks on the trip took better pictures than me so I have to have some other links soon. In the meantime, here are a few...

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellokittyinlondon/Courchavel2007MAR

When in doubt…Blog!

Good morning from the UK!!! It is Monday morning and I am at work but taking a few minutes during a meeting gear up to catch up on the blog.

Music…more music. First of all let me say how remiss I was about not mentioning Lucinda Williams in my other blog about music. I saw her back in November at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire and somehow was left off my other blog with lots of music information. Anyway, she was fantastic and I if you don’t have any experience with her music, I highly recommend it. I believe she is frequently called “country” but don’t believe that adequately covered her music style. She spent quite a lot of time talking to the audience and telling the story behind the songs she was singing. I think one reason I was keen to mention her in this blog is due to the fact that I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Willie Nelson in London a couple weeks ago. Check out “Overtime”, a lovely duet with Willie and Lucinda. I have downloaded a collection from iTunes called “the essential Lucinda Williams” which is a great collection of some of her best tunes from multiple different releases.

Willie was great and Wembley Arena was packed. I wasn’t really sure of what to expect with the UK audience but many folks not only seemed engaged with Willie but knew the words to many of the songs. The audience was a hugely diverse group including folks of all ages which was very similar to the Lucinda Williams audience. Willie played from all genres including country, folk, bluegrass, blues, and gospel. The opening band was an Irish band called the Sharron Shannon Big Band. It is quite fascinating to see the similarities between the Celtic folk music and American folk music.

In contrast to the above, I had the exceptional pleasure of seeing the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam at the Barbican Centre yesterday. The conductor was Mariss Jansons and there was a mezzo soprano, Elina Garanca, for the Berio Folk Song part of the performance. The orchestra had over 100 musicians! My seat was dead centre and the sound was fantastic!!! The program including Berlioz Overture: Le Carnaval Romain, Debussy: La mer, Berio: Folk Songs, and Ravel: La valse. We were treated with two encores as well. I totally enjoyed the soprano and found the addition of the folk songs a welcome treat. My favourite piece was the Debussy piece as I truly felt as if I could feel the waves of the ocean with the orchestra sounds. The addition of the wind instruments with all of the strings is such a nice sound experience. Is that what makes an orchestra an orchestra?

I have made my final plans for skiing as well and will head off to Courchavel on March 4th. It has been snowing quite a bit in the high French alps so the chance of good snow is quite good. I might even have the pleasure of skiing powder in Europe…how cool is that?

I have a new spot for pictures via Picasa. If you haven't tried Picasa, I recommend checking it out as it allow viewers to see a larger picture. It also allowed me to put pictures directly into my blog which is a nice ease of use feature.

Cheers!

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellokittyinlondon

Another weekend away and another country. This weekend it was Belgium (12JAN)…Brussels to be exact. Just a hop away from London and you are in the land of chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. Of course, it probably helped that Annette, my travel partner for the weekend, is a bit of a chocaholic. Our 40 minute flight from London and we were in the Siru Hotel in Brussels after a full day of work. We had very small but comfortable room in the major hotel district just outside of the centre of Brussels. We dropped off our stuff in our room and went out. The hotel desk was quite helpful with a free map and several suggestions.

We were tired and hungry and headed off towards the Grand Plas. Drug Opera, what a name for a giant pub! I had my first Chimay (blue label) in Belgium and they had 4 different types. As a bottle fermented beer, it allows other taste opportunities and higher alcohol content than is achieved in cask or barrel ale. Annette had a lovely Croquette Monsieur and I had a nice Parma ham pizza.

Saturday morning brought our hotel breakfast which was generous and adequate but nothing special. Of course for £150 for the flight, 2 nights hotel, and breakfast, we could not complain much. We didn’t have to walk too far until we started to see the chocolate shops…many, many, many Belgium chocolate shops with piles of fabulous looking chocolate in all shapes and sizes in the many windows.

As we wandered around in the city we stumbled upon an Umpa Band, probably not what it is called but what it sounded like to me, polka type music with lots of horns. We noticed everyone gathered around a statue, many with cups in their hands. The statue was the Mannequin Pis which is a small boy standing naked and peeing. It is a very famous statue and most of us have likely seen images of it at one time or another. As we learned the following day at the museum, the statue gets lots of attention in Brussels. The story goes that a young boy was lost in the city and his father was desperately searching for him. When he finally found him, he was in the position of the statue, taking a pee. In the museum we saw the hundreds of costumes that have been donated to the city for the statue and he is frequently dressed in them. On this day he was dressed similar to the folks in the band. They had set a special contraption so beer was coming out of the statue. In this case it was a red colour to which Annette and I immediately likened to hematuria or blood in the urine. Medical humour, we nurses can’t resist. Everyone certainly seemed to be enjoying the beer.

The main square is really lovely with incredibly ornate buildings, one of which is the castle where the monarchs lived at one time. We also saw the very old St. Catherine’s church which seems to be a Greek Orthodox church at the present time.

Saturday afternoon we sampled some delicious Belgium beers in an area recommended by our hotel reception. The suggestions turned out to be great and we enjoyed the less touristy areas very much. We learned that double beers are light and triples are dark and somewhat sweet. The vast amount of variation in Belgian beer is not possible to learn in a weekend and there are many varieties. A lot of the beer is bottle fermented so you don’t see the variation in beer available from the cask like you do in the UK. Annette has a fantastic natural French accent and it was really fun to hear her talk to folks in French. I think the weekend has inspired her to study French again.

Our waiter told us about the Pierre Marcolini Chocolatier, winner of the world’s best chocolate in 2006, which was a 15 min walk from the center of town. Of course we had to go and when we arrived it seemed to be more like a art gallery than a chocolatier. It really is the best chocolate I have ever tasted. They had 5 or 6 different types of dark chocolate with cocoa beans from various places around the world. Even with a super high cocoa content (72%), it is the smoothest and most delicious chocolate I have ever tasted. My favourite purchase was the sea shells…fantastic white chocolate filled with delicate caramel and hazelnut. YUM!!! The white chocolate is also the best I have ever tasted. Although not “officially” chocolate it does have a huge cocoa butter content so that is why it is named as such. White chocolate that does not have cocoa butter is not allowed to be called white chocolate.

Saturday night we went to a seafood restaurant where I had a delicious whole lobster. Annette and I tried to enjoy the escargot offered as a starter for free but we struggled a bit. The escargot were served in a brine of some sort and just wasn’t our thing. We did notice how everyone in the restaurant gobbled them up when served. If I am going to eat snails they need to be drowned in garlic and butter.

Sunday we enjoyed a Catholic Mass in French in a very old and gorgeous church in the centre of town. Annette has a good understanding of French and a enormous understanding of Catholic services so definitely absorbed more than I did. The service was interrupted by a Muslim protestor of some sort which was the first time I had ever seen anything like that. We certainly didn’t feel at risk but it was odd.

After church we set out for waffles. I had one with chocolate, bananas, and whipped cream. I had a lovely espresso to accompany it as well. The espresso in Belgium is milder than in other countried on the continent. It has almost no bitter taste at all.

We were able to take the train back to the airport and save quite a bit of money over a taxi. Before we knew it were back in London Sunday evening. We had a bit of a delay on the Heathrow Express and it ended up taking longer to get from Heathrow to Paddington than it took to get from Brussels to London. Funny how things happen.

I will enjoy the chocolate and beer I brought back and would definitely like to explore Belgium again.

Oops!!! Never mentioned Spamalot. Ruthie, Jim and I went to see Spamalot when they visited in October. It was a HOOT! If you like Monty Python, you must go see it. It is very entertaining and will remind you of all those mindless hours spent in front of a TV watching Monty Python back in the 70's and 80's.

I did notice quite a few young people (20s or younger) in the audience who seemed to be enjoying the show so perhaps a recollection of the all the silliness of Monty Python isn't required for entertainment.

Cheers!

2007…wow! The time has passed so quickly in the last nine months, it is hard to believe.

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the music I have enjoyed lately in the UK. I mentioned the Nutcracker in my last post but failed to mention a couple other music events I have attended recently. BTW, the Nutcracker music was extra enjoyable as the arrangement was different than I have heard before and seemed to have additional parts of music added in that were really lovely.

Towards the end of November I attended the last day of the London Jazz Festival and the Royal Festival Hall overlooking the Thames. This is a huge festival over 9 days at about 10 venues around London. I saw this amazing group called Cascade that included a fiddle, saxophone, concertina, percussion, and sitar. Each member of the group is a highly accomplished musician in their own right. The music was fascinating and the mix of sounds very pleasing.

At the beginning of December I went to Islington Academy to see the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars. They were fantastic! They played a combination of reggae mixed with other world music sounds. They all seemed to be so engrossed in the music, it was a true joy to watch them, particularly knowing their very difficult start. As the name suggests, they are all survivors of the Sierra Leone civil war and were discovered in a refugee camp in the Republic of Guinea.

Last night I went to St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square to hear the Festive Orchestra of London perform JS Bach, Pachelbel, Mozart, and Vivaldi on period instruments. The setting was in the church and was illuminated by candles. There were 7 violins. 2 violas, 2 celli, a bass, and a harpsichord. The music was exceptional and the acoustics in the church seemed to improve the sound if that was possible. It was really inspiring and great way to start 2007.

My holiday season included some much needed time off for rest and relaxation. I didn’t realise how much I needed a little time off without running around the city, country or continent. I went to the famous Borough market on Dec. 23 and picked up all kinds of yummy things to enjoy during my days at home over the holidays. I had some fabulous sea scallops and prawns from Scotland. I also bought some of the famous Aunt Alice’s Christmas pudding with brandy cream. It was very rich and delicious. Contrary to what some people think, Christmas pudding is not anything like fruit cake, in my opinion. It is mostly raisins, sultanas, nuts, and LOTS of brandy with a little flour to hold it all together. YUM!

On Wednesday 27DEC I took the train to Weymouth in County Dorset on the south coast of the UK. As I was born in So Weymouth, Mass I have been curious about Weymouth, UK. It is a much bigger town than I expected and probably as big as Brighton. I hiked the Coast Path for 10 miles on Thursday overlooking the Channel and rolling hills of the south coast. It was a beautiful day and I saw quite a few other hikers with their dogs and families. At the half way point I came upon a lovely little pub and stopped for a drink…in this case a diet Coke. Knowing I had five miles to return to my B&B made me positive I did not want a beer. My B&B was very nice and I had a huge room with a four poster bed and a fireplace. The fireplace had been sealed off but was still lovely with what I imagine to be the original tile work around the edges as well as the cast iron stove portion. On Friday an amazing gale storm moved in and the wind was gusting to 70 miles per hour. I went to the museum and learned about the early days of the town when King George III decided to take a holiday there. Weymouth is also quite famous for being the entry point of the Black Death (plague) in 1348 which wiped out half of the population of the UK over the following two years. I walked all around the old town and the harbour and over the three days had some delicious fish and chips, Italian food, cask ales, and 3 outstanding full English breakfasts. Needless to say I did not go hungry.

My picture posting is a bit behind as I evaluate other options for my pictures. I will have an update soon with a new link to my pictures.

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2007!

Namaste.

Blogging…again.

Whoa! I didn’t think anyone even read my blog. Thanks to all of you that have sent me emails wondering about the latest update.

So, where am I in European adventure? I have been to Ireland, Scotland, and the Netherlands since my last update. I will attempt to work backwards as my weak little mind finds that the easiest approach.

Last weekend I was in Amsterdam for Thanksgiving. What a trip! I stayed in the museum area right near Leidseplein square. What a LOVELY area. The canals are everywhere. There was a little skating rink and all these stands selling little waffles and pizzelles and other holiday types of sweets and cookies. The city of Amsterdam is very clean and everyone rides bikes. They ride the traditional upright, comfortable bikes…no racing bikes here. You have to be really careful not to walk in the bike lane and you will get run over. Luckily for me I saw another tourist do just that so I knew what NOT to do after that.

The Van Gogh museum is awesome. They have over 200 original Van Gogh’s in the museum as well as several other impressionists represented which allows you to see the similarities and the differences. On Saturday I spent about 3 hours at the Rijks Museum which is currently undergoing some major renovations but still has lots to see. I found myself mesmerized by the huge still life paintings of the Dutch Masters. Some of them do not seem “still” at all and seem to have lots of movement. I really loved the ones of typical skating scenes in Amsterdam. There was also one painter who did all these still life scenes in Brazil in the late 1600s. They (the Dutch Masters) were famous for all the hidden messaging in their still life painting.

The museum also had quite a collection of china, silver, and small household items which was very interesting as well. Saturday afternoon I walked around the Vogelpark for about 4 hours listening to my iPOD. It is a HUGE park with lots of small ponds and such throughout. At one end of the park there is a haven for all types of birds. There were a bunch of birds I had never seen before, check out the pictures. I am not sure what those birds are called but they are cool to look at.

I took the ferry over to Holland via Harwich UK to Hook of Holland. The ferry was like a cruise ship and had a movie theatre, multiple restaurants, and a casino. I really do enjoy traveling without airplanes. It is nice to be able to move around whenever you want. You can take a train from London to Harwich in about 1.5 hours, then 3.5 hours on the ferry, and another hour on the train on the other end. It is very relaxing cruising on the Channel. On the way back to the UK, the sun was setting on the Channel and there were just a few huge tankers out in the water. It was really beautiful. You can also take the ferry over from a few other spots along the UK coast. Next time I may have to try taking the ferry from Newcastle. I have been interested in checking out Newcastle ever since I saw it on the train to Scotland. It looks to be a very pretty town.

Rewind a couple more weeks. My friends Ruthie and Jim came to visit from Reno, Nevada. We have a great time. I stretched my weekend to 5 days and we took the train to Edinburgh and rented a car. We toured the Highlands from Pitlochry, Inverness, (gateway to the Highlands), down along the Loch Ness, through Fort William, past Ben Nevis (highest point in the UK) and down to Oban on the Northwest coast of Scotland. We managed to hit about 4 distilleries along the way including the smallest in Scotland. We tasted some very interesting and expensive Single Malt scotches. YUM!

We also took the ferry from Oban to the Isle of Mull. We drove the car onto the ferry and then drove all over the island. We went to the furthest point of the island where you are looking towards the Isle of Iona. If we had more time we would have take the ferry over to Iona. Iona is known as the sacred isle and has lots of history. The sea is very blue, the rocks are various shades of pink, and you can see white sand beaches on Iona. It looks more like the Carribean than Scotland. Very beautiful place.

On our last day in Scotland we saw the William Wallace monument and Stirling Castle in Central Scotland.

The week before my friends arrived in London, I spent the weekend in Ireland. I previously posted the pictures so I imagine some of you have seen them. If you have seen the pictures of the sunset at Lahinch on the west coast of County Clare, there isn’t much more to say. What a lovely place. I did some hiking in the Burren and went to the oldest Dolman in the Burren. The Dolmans, also known as Portal Tombs is where some of the oldest human remains in the world have been found. The one I went to is know as the Poulnabrone Dolman and is much older than Stonehenge in the UK.

I also spent the night at a castle, wandered into a farmer’s market in the country, went to St. Bridget’s well, and also the Cliffs of Moher. Check out the picture of me at the Cliffs of Moher, the same spot I was about 6 years earlier. Quite a few changes in my life since then.

Today is December 2nd which means the holiday time is in full swing. I went to see the St. Peterburg Ballet perform the Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday. Absolutely great!!! It was the best Nutcracker performance I have ever seen. The Royal Albert Hall is an amazing venue and it was my first time there. The costumes and music were particularly good in this production. It was very different that what I remember watching on TV as a child.

Happy Holiday season to all! PEACE!

Take the time when you get it…

I have been remiss in my blog and have done so many things in the last month I am not sure where to start so will work backwards.

I am writing this in the middle on the night in London as I have the “London crud” and my sleep/wake cycle is all messed up. I kept this cold at bay for about a week but everyone at work has it and it finally got me. UGH! Breathing was really difficult for a short time but I am on the mend now.

Let’s see, it was just about a month ago I went to Edinburgh and the Loch Ness with two Cerner friends, Annette and Sharon. We had a great time. We toured a whisky distillery and went to the Loch Ness. No sign of Nessie but that may have been only because we didn’t drink enough Scotch. We saw the statue of William Wallace, aka Braveheart and heard all the stories of Mary Queen of Scots. I saw a full end to end rainbow on the Loch Ness. You can see it in my pictures. The north of Scotland is gorgeous and I can’t wait to go back.

The week of Sept 2 was my trip to Rome. Steve, Linda, Joann, and I had a great time. I only have about 3 pictures because Linda took over 700! I can’t wait to see them and will share the location once available. We did it all! The Colesseum, Pallidium, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Navona Square, Vatican Museum, Sistene Chapel, St. Peters, Sorrento, Pompeii, Ostia Antica, and even a couple hours on the beach outside of Rome with a swim in the Mediterrean. FANTASTIC! My feet are still sore from walking about a hundred miles. The food and wine were plentiful and delicious. I do believe we had pizza at least once a day. The super thin crust and light toppings were great. I ate lots of porcini mushrooms on everything. YUM!

We had an amazing apartment in the south of Rome in a non-tourist area not too far from the Colesseum. The apartment was huge. The ceilings were about 14 feet high and the place was filled with gorgeous antiques and beautiful artwork. Thanks to Joann for finding and securing the apartment. It was a great way to spend the week in Rome. We did very good with getting around and only took a taxi a couple times. The Metro is VERY easy in Rome because it doesn’t go very many places as there are only two lines. Every time they try to expand the Metro they find more ancient stuff that they have to preserve and turn into a proper archeological dig.

The weather was quite hot and VERY sunny. I didn’t perform my fainting routine but came pretty close the day we went to Pompeii. Very hot and dry and LOTS of walking. It is amazing to think about how old everything is in ancient Rome. Pompeii actually had running water through a series of pipes which are still preserved throughout the site. I loved the picture of Venus, it is amazing how bright the colours are in the mural.

The Vatican museum and Sistene Chapel are well worth the long waits. The restoration of the Sistene Chapel is complete and the paintings are so intricate and detailed. I was grateful for my flexible upper back as I stood gazing up at the ceiling for a long time. Our guide filled us in on some of the speculation of the hidden messages in the paintings. My favourite part was the Last Judgement, there is a LOT going on in that mural.

Sorrento is spectacular with its high cliffs hanging over the Mediterrean. We didn’t make it to Capri as we just ran out of time. The shopping was awesome too. I managed to come back with three pairs of shoes. The Italian shoes are so stylish even when they are comfortable.

Finally made it to the Tate Modern in London and saw a huge exhibition on Kandinsky. The exhibition follows Wassily Kandinsky’s journey from landscape painter to modernist master. Pretty wild stuff. We also took the ferry along the Thames on a gorgeous Indian summer afternoon. Linda, Joann, and I started out the day at Harvey Nichols with brunch and a brief perusal of the handbags and jewelry. Somehow we managed to resist the £795 Chloé handbag.

Work is really busy and we are getting some much needed help in the form of new global associates and a few more Americans. Cerner Limited now has 500 associates and we are adding more all the time.

I am off to Ireland for the weekend. I am staying in a castle on Saturday night and plan to do some hiking around the Burren. I am looking forward to feeling my roots in the gorgeous Irish countryside.

Éirinn go Brách (Ireland forever)

Da Blues, Camden, Portobello…with a bit of Haggis

Hello out there to all my friends and family in cyberspace.

There is new chill in the air which I really feel in the early a.m. We’ve had some very typical British weather and it has been cool and rainy quite a bit lately. I am a bit concerned that summer is over. Wow, that was quick. I am optimistic for Indian summer which I understand can come quite late when the loads of tourists are gone. Sounds great to me. It is also no longer light at 4:45 a.m., it not really light till 5:30 and is already dark by shortly after nine.

The summer will linger just a little longer in the form of the Notting Hill Carnival this weekend. My flat will be right in the middle of the festivities. I will be in the Edinburgh this weekend but will arrive back home to London in time to enjoy the end of the carnival. The festival goes back to the sixties when large communities of Caribbean immigrants wanted to celebrate in the style of the famous Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. Check it out: http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/NottingHill06/general/

Friday evening I ventured out to a venue called…Nothing but Blues Bar in SoHo. They had a great band called Soul Kitchen. It is a VERY tiny little place with no room for dancing which kind of put a damper on it for me. I still had a great time and listened to some great blues music. I took the bus back and jumped off on Edgeware Road and managed to find myself a yummy late night pizza with garlic, rocket, and fresh tomatoes. After spoiling myself with the pizza, I walked home and it was quite a nice long walk to burn off at least a few of those calories.

Saturday I went up to Camden to check out the market scene. Rows and rows and hidden spots selling pretty much anything you can think of to buy. There was a very cool Art Deco furniture store that I just loved. Something about that era of furniture is very cool, I like it a lot. I really want a new couch for my reception area in my flat but I have to work that out with the landlord. The couch I have is not very comfortable and I would love to have something big and soft to cuddle up onto this winter.

I took the bus to Camden and on the way home I saw Abbey Road and the famous music studios of the Beatles. I didn’t realise how close that is to where I live. On the way back I stopped at a lovely little pub called the Metropolitan and had a pint.

Long story there, but the short one is I started talking to a Scottish man (Haggis reference) in the pub and hours later we were dancing away down on Portobello road. I think he knows more about music and film than anyone I have ever met. I am actually able to tell the difference between Scottish, Irish, and English accents now. It is really quite fascinating. I still have trouble understanding some Scottish accents. There a bunch of sayings that are totally different that English sayings. Sometimes I feel as if I am learning lots of new languages that are all English but with a twist. I still speak American but am learning UK English and it is fun!