Today was a day of highs and lows....
I found out today that Brucie-baby wasn't coming to visit the Inc next week after all, so I wasn't going to see my favourite Colonel (or his delectable white jeans!), but he did write me a good e-mail will all his news so that made up for it...a little anyway.
I got a nice surprise mid morning. I was walking out of the office when I thought I spied what looked like the back of Andy Becks head. Telling myself I was being totally ridiculous I carried on out the door...and when I came back in I got a better view of the guys standing outside Paul B's office. It WAS Andy...and Phil Cork too!! It was a lovely surprise! Everyone in the office adores Phil from his time over here, so there were hugs all round. It was so lovely to see him! Actually it was lovely to see both of them...it's always nice to see a face from back home.
One of the slightly more stressful points of the day was when I found out that Stephen had omitted to tell me that I was supposed to be booking people from the UK into a hotel in New York. And they were on a flight over. Thankfully I managed to get them booked in, but I was having palpitations and would happily have crowned him if he had been in the office!!!
Another stress point was when I got home. I struggled to get the kitchen door unlocked, then couldn't get my key back out of the lock. I could have cried! Thankfully we had bought WD40 when we arrived 5 months ago...so all I had to do was find it. I could have cried! After dragging everything out of the storage cupboard I finally found it....and after a brief phone call to Stephen to berate him for not sorting this last night when he found the lock was sticking, I managed to oil the lock and get my key back out.
I'm just about to go and sort out the Christmas card list...always a fun job! I think I need a drink!!!!!
Wednesday 28 November 2007
Monday 26 November 2007
Bahama Mamarama
Last week was Thanksgiving week, and as we found out, the whole of America slows down in preparation for the 2 day holiday. It is traditionally the biggest travel week in the US when everyone travels to be with their families....which made trying to get hold of our travel agents to book people on flights pretty challenging! I was e-mailing and phoning HRG-US from Monday onwards trying to make bookings...and only got through to someone on Wednesday morning! I had spent 2 days listening to a voice telling me "you are in a queue for the next available agent"...I stopped believing them after the first day!
Wednesday in the office was pretty darn quiet! There were only a handful of us in the office, and as Timothy had told me that he was "working, but not coming into work" it was up to Colin and I to man the reception desk. I was pretty incredulous that the receptionist was working from home (I mean, how on earth was that going to work? Did he have a remote control buzzer to let people in??), but it seems he was actually taking a vacation day, but was helping Colin at the off site storage for the first 1/2 hour of the day...it still caused me a brief "I don't believe it" moment!!!
As it was really quiet Dawn announced that she was closing the office a couple of hours early, so I escaped just after 3pm with some relief (its tough being the junior receptionist you know!). Rudy needed a run to the airport, so I gave him a lift over, and despite his pretty non-existent instructions as to how to get back to where I needed to be(!), I made it home. Home to the luxuriant warmth of a new furnace! Yippppeeeeeeeee!!!!!
The furnace was actually turning into a bit of a saga....Stephen had phoned the furnace company on Tuesday morning to find out what time they were coming on Wednesday, only to find that they thought that they were waiting on a part. There was then a discussion along the lines of "No. you are installing a new furnace". "No, we're waiting on a part". "No - a new furnace". "Are you sure? I'll need to speak to my manager. I'll call you back". He had about 3 of these phone calls, before they agreed that they were installing a new furnace! I'm grateful to have heat! It was pretty darn cold last week, and we were burning logs at an alarming rate. I think we were pretty much single-handedly responsible for deforesting large parts of Virginia! Also, cleaning out the grate was not such a fun job, and guess who got to do it?
We met Hils and Paul for drinks and dinner on Wednesday. It started out as drinks, but after a couple of PG's I think Hils decided (quite rightly!) that cooking sounded like too much hard work so we toddled off to Overwoods for steak and another couple of glasses of PG. We were laughing at the absurd time I had booked out taxi for the next morning. (If someone is going to get stuck in solid traffic, or have the taxi break down, it's going to be me! So I had booked it for 6:30...) As it turned out they were right! We could probably have got away with 7:30...but the flight was overbooked, so if we had turned up at the airport later who knows what might have happened!!
The flight down to Atlanta was uneventful. We were both in stitches at the announcement made by the cabin crew shortly before landing.... "As a way of thanking you for flying Delta, and as its Thanksgiving, we have hidden a voucher for $150 in one of the seat back pockets" (at this point there was a great scrabbling going on!) ".....Actually, I lied. There is no voucher. I asked you to look out the trash and no-one moved, but tempt you with $150 bucks and you're tearing my plane apart!!"
It was a teeny-weeny plane for the hop from Atlanta to Nassau. Just 3 seats wide! We had been sitting in Friday's near the gate and looking out for the plane coming in...little did we realise that that it was actually there, but was so teeny that we couldn't see it! We had a little shot of Bahama Mama when we landed (yummy!), collected the luggage, found our minibus transfer van and headed for the hotel. After a quick change, a quick look round the hotel and a quick drink at the bar we headed out to the local recommended restaurant Johnny Canoe. It was Happy Hour (our technically Happy 2 1/2 hours) and 2 for 1 on drinks, and that always sounds good, doesn't it? So after a G&T and a margarita we had dinner, and then I had a Junkanoo coffee (with all sorts of hard liquor in it! - yummy but potent!!). Feeling decidedly Happy after Happy Hour we sauntered off in search of the hotel (okay, staggered off!). We had barely gone 10 yards before we spotted the Daiquiri Shack. WOW! What a place (it was a rum shack - and I really do mean it was a shack!), but it was run by this great guy called Trevor who made the most totally amazing fresh fruit daiquiris, floating in about a pint of dark rum. After the first sook on the straw I made a joke about falling backwards off the school, and said that Stephen had make sure that he catch me. Quick as a flash Trevor said "he may not catch you on the way down, but we'll make sure he catches you on the bounce". So funny!! Anyway we spent a happy hour in there being introduced to all the locals (it was the only place I got a free refill of anything on Nassau! And a free refill of these babies was worth having!!!)
Stephen and I at the Daiquiris shack....delicious (and potent!) drinkies!! That's Trevor in the background.Despite having had 42 pints of rum the night before we were up reasonably early (about 8, which is actually a 2 hour lie in, but early for holiday!) and more importantly, we were feeling pretty healthy (must have been because we got about 10 portions of fruit the day before!). We found a nice lounger and then didn't move from it all day!! This was a recurring theme for most of the time we were away - I think this was the first time I have totally relaxed in months, and I felt an overwhelming desire to sleep! I'd read for a bit, then snooze, read, snooze, read, snooze...bliss!
We popped back into the Daiquiri shack on the way to dinner....and on the way back!! There were a couple of college kids in there on our first visit, and they were still there when we got back so we got talking. Turns out they weren't college kids...they were actually pilots!!! They were in the Bahamas for the weekend as they had flown some high-rollers down from Vegas (they flew privately chartered jets). Is this a sign of advancing years, when pilots look about 20?
The restaurant had a bit of local flavour going on. There was a Junkanoo band which came through for a couple of circuits. According to Trevor (and I guess he knows!) Junkanoo starts on Boxing Day, and is a festival of dancing and Junkanoo bands. The band consists of a couple of brass instruments, a couple of drums and a cowbell. There is actually a competition for musicianship of individual instruments...including the cowbell!
The Junkanoo band
The cowbell player pauses for a close up
It was a bit strange on the journey home. We actually cleared customs and immigration into the US before we had left Nassau! Needless to say, we didn't expect that....but thinking about it rationally, it is small planes flying into regional airports which leave The Bahamas, so I guess they don't have immigration facilities. It was getting a little chaotic at certain points - one of the guards on the scanner points was getting flustered as there was a huge extended family with about 8 kids milling around and in pushchairs trying to collect their stuff off the conveyor. They were blocking the area completely, so we couldn't get forward to get our stuff and the security girl was getting really flustered. She started shouting for the owner of the laptop, so Stephen made his way over (past the small children) and I did my best to follow. By this time she was picking up our stuff out of the tray and thrusting it at us (didn't think they were allowed to do that), but as we were trying to put things in bags, put watches and shoes back on etc we weren't moving fast enough for her and she was getting really ratty. We had so little time that I was worried that we were going to end up leaving something behind in our (enforced) haste. It came to a resounding conclusion when (as they were still putting trays through the machine) the backed up trays spilled over the edge of the table and nearly squished one of the babies in the buggy, and the Mommy practically got the guard by the throat!
Collecting the luggage at National airport was amusing (well, it was be amused or be irritated!). It said carousel number 11 when we got to the display, so we waited for ages and nothing appeared. Then another flights baggage came out, but our flight was listed next. Then another flights luggage came out. Then our flight disappeared from the displays altogether. Finally there was a shout further down the baggage hall...someone had found it...about 3 carousels down! People were running down the baggage hall!
The resort
The beach
The Pool
Sunday 18 November 2007
I am the "Log Lady"
What a lovely night we had last night! After hanging out as long as we could huddling round the fire with our dwindling supply of logs, we headed out for dinner. We decided on Tex-Mex and went to the Austin Grill. They do pretty darn good margaritas, so we decided to have a drink at the bar before we had dinner. What a palaver! Not to mention humiliation!! I am 5 foot nothing, the bar stools must have been about 3 foot 6!! There was no way I could even get a corner of my butt onto the stool (and I had a couple of good goes!). I piled my coat, scarf, bag etc onto Stephen and tried again. Nope. Still no joy. Even standing on the footrest I was still a couple of inches short of making it on. By this stage I'm telling Stephen quite pointedly that I'm NOT trying again! I was laughing and humiliated in equal measure! Then the guy next to us at the bar got involved, and pointed out that there was a supplementary launching platform running along the bottom of the bar. I was kinda concerned that the guy was going to get underneath and shove me on, so I made a concerted effort! After standing on the ledge and hurling myself upwards I finally made it onto the stool! (I'm now contemplating a career in High Jump!). Thankfully the margarita was worth the effort. They do a really good swirly lime and strawberry frozen one which was pretty darn tasty! Dinner was really good, if a little overwhelming...I ordered chicken fajitas, thinking this was going to be a lighter choice (I was obviously thinking in UK portions!)...4 dishes appeared in front of me!! A sizzling platter with the chicken, onions etc, the tortillas, a plate of sour cream, guacamole, cheese, salsa, and finally a plate of rice and beans. I did my best, but I was barely making a dent in it! Stephen managed to polish off his steak, which was a much more reasonably size.
We were just stuffing our faces when Morag phoned to say they were on King St and did we fancy meeting up for a drink. Turns out that they were in a restaurant only a block away, so we hooked up for drinks. It has been ages since we saw them both, and it was strange as I had actually said to Stephen in the afternoon that I was feeling guilty as it had been so long. We had a drink in the tapas bar, then wandered down to the jazz bar (aka the QQ weekend office - Paul was in there, so there was a high QQ count last night!). The band were really good. Obviously old hands judging by the wrinkles! And there was some serious hair action going on! The guitarist had a quiff and Roy Orbison glasses, the bass player had a pretty unconvincing toupee...and the drummer looked as if he was out on parole from the big house for the night!!! It was about 12:30 when we all left and found Morag and Simon a taxi. Their babysitter is going to be going "Oh, no! They must have been out with that Scottish couple again!"
We spent some time this morning looking out our holiday clothes. We booked a long weekend in the Bahamas a couple of days ago, and we head off on Thursday which is Thanksgiving. It was a bit of a bargain, as it halved in price if we travelled on Thursday - Monday as opposed to Wednesday - Sunday. We're not worried about celebrating Thanksgiving, and we have enough holidays not to worry about taking an extra day so it worked out great!
We made a trip to Home Depot to get more logs. We bought about 5 bundles, which we figure will get us through a couple of days. It was a bit milder today, so we didn't have to light the fire until about 4pm when it suddenly got dark and cold. We're in our warmest woolly poollies, and I've got throws for snuggling under on the sofas so it's actually quite cozy. And the good news is that it only took a few minutes to get the fire going using a fire starter and logs. Cleaning it out wasn't even so bad....once I had got Stephen to move the enormous spider that was hanging out on the screen going "hey Kerry, hurry up and get this lit, my feet are getting cold".
There was an awesome display of Christmas decorations in Home Depot. For $150 you can have a giant inflatable Santa riding a train with 2 carriages - with animated elves and revolving Christmas tree. And there was a gizmo which would synchronize your Christmas lights to Christmas music. There is also no need to ever wrap your Christmas tree in lights. All the trees here are pre-lit with lights attached (not fibre optic, just lit with bulbs). There is absolutely no arguing over who has to untangle the lights, and tears of frustration when you put them up and discover they are not working...they are so cheap you just throw them out and buy new ones!
I have my decorations planned! I have bought masses of lights, garlands, wreathes and bows....and last night I went on-line and found the most fabulous things! I was looking for glass droplets for the tree and found a website that sold crystal droplets for chandeliers. It said they were good for tree decorations too, so I placed an order. They were only 33 cents each!! So (assuming that they are delivered and I don't lose patience with putting the hanging hooks on 100 of them!) my tree will be a-glisten with sparkle this year.
We were just stuffing our faces when Morag phoned to say they were on King St and did we fancy meeting up for a drink. Turns out that they were in a restaurant only a block away, so we hooked up for drinks. It has been ages since we saw them both, and it was strange as I had actually said to Stephen in the afternoon that I was feeling guilty as it had been so long. We had a drink in the tapas bar, then wandered down to the jazz bar (aka the QQ weekend office - Paul was in there, so there was a high QQ count last night!). The band were really good. Obviously old hands judging by the wrinkles! And there was some serious hair action going on! The guitarist had a quiff and Roy Orbison glasses, the bass player had a pretty unconvincing toupee...and the drummer looked as if he was out on parole from the big house for the night!!! It was about 12:30 when we all left and found Morag and Simon a taxi. Their babysitter is going to be going "Oh, no! They must have been out with that Scottish couple again!"
We spent some time this morning looking out our holiday clothes. We booked a long weekend in the Bahamas a couple of days ago, and we head off on Thursday which is Thanksgiving. It was a bit of a bargain, as it halved in price if we travelled on Thursday - Monday as opposed to Wednesday - Sunday. We're not worried about celebrating Thanksgiving, and we have enough holidays not to worry about taking an extra day so it worked out great!
We made a trip to Home Depot to get more logs. We bought about 5 bundles, which we figure will get us through a couple of days. It was a bit milder today, so we didn't have to light the fire until about 4pm when it suddenly got dark and cold. We're in our warmest woolly poollies, and I've got throws for snuggling under on the sofas so it's actually quite cozy. And the good news is that it only took a few minutes to get the fire going using a fire starter and logs. Cleaning it out wasn't even so bad....once I had got Stephen to move the enormous spider that was hanging out on the screen going "hey Kerry, hurry up and get this lit, my feet are getting cold".
There was an awesome display of Christmas decorations in Home Depot. For $150 you can have a giant inflatable Santa riding a train with 2 carriages - with animated elves and revolving Christmas tree. And there was a gizmo which would synchronize your Christmas lights to Christmas music. There is also no need to ever wrap your Christmas tree in lights. All the trees here are pre-lit with lights attached (not fibre optic, just lit with bulbs). There is absolutely no arguing over who has to untangle the lights, and tears of frustration when you put them up and discover they are not working...they are so cheap you just throw them out and buy new ones!
I have my decorations planned! I have bought masses of lights, garlands, wreathes and bows....and last night I went on-line and found the most fabulous things! I was looking for glass droplets for the tree and found a website that sold crystal droplets for chandeliers. It said they were good for tree decorations too, so I placed an order. They were only 33 cents each!! So (assuming that they are delivered and I don't lose patience with putting the hanging hooks on 100 of them!) my tree will be a-glisten with sparkle this year.
Saturday 17 November 2007
Man makes fire...
A quick fire-starter update....the easy lighting fire logs give off absolutely no heat!! After freezing for an hour or so, we are now burning logs....at an alarming rate! We will have to go and re-stock in the morning (or go chop down a tree out the back under the cover of darkness!). Still, it's now quite roasty toasty in here....All we need now are the crumpets for toasting.
I'm a fire starter....
You know that I mentioned that the weather had got a little colder recently? Well, there is a cold front bearing down on us, and it is pretty parky outside I can tell you!! It's snowing in the high areas of northern Virginia, and I'm glad we're not living there....as we switched on the heat the other night and the furnace made the most horrendous grinding, crunching, wheezing noise I have ever heard. It turned out to be its death rattle. We got the furnace company out yesterday and there was a lot of teeth sucking. It's 22 years only, and the guy was saying it would be difficult to get parts. Basically it was going to be around a $1000 to repair it, or $2600 to replace it.
Stephen phoned me in work, asking my where our landlady's phone number is, so he could call her and discuss the options. It was a frustrating phone call between me and him! I knew the phone number was going to be in one of three places (my piles of filing!), but Stephen is rubbish at looking for things!! He will lift one piece of paper, then go "I can't find it"...which is basically what he did yesterday (maybe he lifted two pieces!). I'm on the phone in the office, explaining exactly what he was looking for, and trying not to get annoyed with him every time he went "ach, I can't find it" (every few seconds!). When I hung up Paul (the boss) appeared out of his office and dangled his car keys and said "if you want...". (A brave man to offer they keys of his BMW Z3!!!).
Stephen phoned back a few minutes later to say he had found the phone number, and had left messages for Caryn and her brother (who runs the property management company, and who left our front door open). When they phoned back Caryn agreed immediately that replacement was the best option (she said she had hoped to get another couple of years out of it, which implied she knew that it was on the verge of death!). The good news is that a new until will be quieter - the current one sounded like having a jet engine in the cupboard off the den! The bad news is that the company can't replace the unit until Wednesday...
Rudy was really kind, and offered us a place to stay if it all got too cold. We were joking that he would have to hide the good wine and whisky, and put out the plonk! I don't think we'll have to take him up on the offer. The top floor of the house (the master suite) has a separate heating system, so it's toasty up there, and we have wood fires in the Den and Sitting Room. Of course, we had wood fires, but nothing to burn on them! We had to make a run to Target and Lowes this morning to get fire starters, a poker set, a log basket, logs...plus the stuff for winter...de-icer, a long handled scraper, some de-icing granules for the paths. It was quite a haul!!
We bought firelogs as well as proper logs, as these light in 5 minutes without hassle. Not having lit many open fires in my lifetime (and last time I did it involved paper twists, kindling and prayers that it would take!) we wanted an easy option for when we get home from work. I'm prepared to put the time in lighting a proper one at the weekends, but after work I want instant heat! Stephen remembered that there are often flaps that need to be opened in the chimney, so was soon on his knees with his head up the chimney. Then he was on his back with his arms up the chimney, swearing! The flap was broken at one side, so it wouldn't stay open... It took a few minutes of swearing, thumping, swearing, jiggling, swearing, but eventually he got it open. My hero! He was absolutely black with soot when he was finished, but we now have fire!!
Stephen has now gone off to Summers restaurant to watch the Scotland soccer match. They're playing Italy in the Euro2008 qualifiers. One of the guys in the UK sent Stephen a link to the game trailer on YouTube - it was really good!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAFA_X-iMHY&feature=related I only hope that the game lives up to the hype!
We have had a lot of problems in work this week with the US servers going down. I could still connect using my UK laptop, so I was okay but the US folks were getting rather frustrated that they couldn't communicate with the outside world. It's amazing how much you rely on e-mail and internet!! Turns out that someone has been unplugging us from our port. When it went down again yesterday Dawn was in the lift and downstairs to the server room in a trice. There was a technician in there, swearing blind that our port was his port. I wouldn't have wanted to be in his shoes! Dawn was looking pretty fierce!
As it was POETS day, Paul suggested that the office close early and we all go over the road to Jaleo for a drink. What a laugh! Dawn said something so funny that Paul literally spit his beer all over her!! We headed home after a couple and pretty much went straight out as we were cold! I don't know what I was thinking when I got ready! Instead of pulling on my warm coat, I pulled on my little wool jacket. Within 3 blocks I was frozen, my teeth were actually chattering!! We had a super hot Thai curry to warm me up...but the service was a little rushed (massive understatement!). They actually whipped my starter plate away whilst I was lifting the food to my mouth!! The food was good , but there was no chance to enjoy it! We popped into the Jazz bar (or the QQ weekend office as we now call it!) for an hour. The band were good, but my only slight whinge was that the band leader played bass guitar, so every song had a minimum of 2 bass guitar solos - superb musicianship - but still - yawn!! On the very plus side, we discovered that a gallon of Baileys was only a dollar more expensive that a glass of wine!!!
Stephen phoned me in work, asking my where our landlady's phone number is, so he could call her and discuss the options. It was a frustrating phone call between me and him! I knew the phone number was going to be in one of three places (my piles of filing!), but Stephen is rubbish at looking for things!! He will lift one piece of paper, then go "I can't find it"...which is basically what he did yesterday (maybe he lifted two pieces!). I'm on the phone in the office, explaining exactly what he was looking for, and trying not to get annoyed with him every time he went "ach, I can't find it" (every few seconds!). When I hung up Paul (the boss) appeared out of his office and dangled his car keys and said "if you want...". (A brave man to offer they keys of his BMW Z3!!!).
Stephen phoned back a few minutes later to say he had found the phone number, and had left messages for Caryn and her brother (who runs the property management company, and who left our front door open). When they phoned back Caryn agreed immediately that replacement was the best option (she said she had hoped to get another couple of years out of it, which implied she knew that it was on the verge of death!). The good news is that a new until will be quieter - the current one sounded like having a jet engine in the cupboard off the den! The bad news is that the company can't replace the unit until Wednesday...
Rudy was really kind, and offered us a place to stay if it all got too cold. We were joking that he would have to hide the good wine and whisky, and put out the plonk! I don't think we'll have to take him up on the offer. The top floor of the house (the master suite) has a separate heating system, so it's toasty up there, and we have wood fires in the Den and Sitting Room. Of course, we had wood fires, but nothing to burn on them! We had to make a run to Target and Lowes this morning to get fire starters, a poker set, a log basket, logs...plus the stuff for winter...de-icer, a long handled scraper, some de-icing granules for the paths. It was quite a haul!!
We bought firelogs as well as proper logs, as these light in 5 minutes without hassle. Not having lit many open fires in my lifetime (and last time I did it involved paper twists, kindling and prayers that it would take!) we wanted an easy option for when we get home from work. I'm prepared to put the time in lighting a proper one at the weekends, but after work I want instant heat! Stephen remembered that there are often flaps that need to be opened in the chimney, so was soon on his knees with his head up the chimney. Then he was on his back with his arms up the chimney, swearing! The flap was broken at one side, so it wouldn't stay open... It took a few minutes of swearing, thumping, swearing, jiggling, swearing, but eventually he got it open. My hero! He was absolutely black with soot when he was finished, but we now have fire!!
Stephen has now gone off to Summers restaurant to watch the Scotland soccer match. They're playing Italy in the Euro2008 qualifiers. One of the guys in the UK sent Stephen a link to the game trailer on YouTube - it was really good!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAFA_X-iMHY&feature=related I only hope that the game lives up to the hype!
We have had a lot of problems in work this week with the US servers going down. I could still connect using my UK laptop, so I was okay but the US folks were getting rather frustrated that they couldn't communicate with the outside world. It's amazing how much you rely on e-mail and internet!! Turns out that someone has been unplugging us from our port. When it went down again yesterday Dawn was in the lift and downstairs to the server room in a trice. There was a technician in there, swearing blind that our port was his port. I wouldn't have wanted to be in his shoes! Dawn was looking pretty fierce!
As it was POETS day, Paul suggested that the office close early and we all go over the road to Jaleo for a drink. What a laugh! Dawn said something so funny that Paul literally spit his beer all over her!! We headed home after a couple and pretty much went straight out as we were cold! I don't know what I was thinking when I got ready! Instead of pulling on my warm coat, I pulled on my little wool jacket. Within 3 blocks I was frozen, my teeth were actually chattering!! We had a super hot Thai curry to warm me up...but the service was a little rushed (massive understatement!). They actually whipped my starter plate away whilst I was lifting the food to my mouth!! The food was good , but there was no chance to enjoy it! We popped into the Jazz bar (or the QQ weekend office as we now call it!) for an hour. The band were good, but my only slight whinge was that the band leader played bass guitar, so every song had a minimum of 2 bass guitar solos - superb musicianship - but still - yawn!! On the very plus side, we discovered that a gallon of Baileys was only a dollar more expensive that a glass of wine!!!
Tuesday 13 November 2007
Williamsburg - the photos
Stephen wrapped up in his coat - at least one of us was warm!!
Williamsburg....
Sunset overlooking the James River...
This was taken from the area just behind our bedroom...
...and just got better and better!
Jamestown...near the first landing site
Monday 12 November 2007
A weekend away in Williamsburg
It was month end this week, which is always a really busy time for me. There are reports to produce and sales figures to download...I was getting kind of frustrated with the BD guys as some were exceedingly slow in getting me their report input. I got the final input about 30 minutes before the meeting on Friday!! Grrrrrrr!
Colin had a drama queen moment the other day, and he picked a bad time - it was 7:30am, the guy delivering breakfast for a meeting was standing outside when I got to the office as no-one had let him in (he was 30 mins early, but even so...!). I hadn't even got my jacket off as I was helping the guy set it all up, Colin wandered over and I asked him about whether he had dealt with an e-mail which had been sent to him, copied to me, and was super urgent, and I got this big "drama" back! I can tell that you are all wincing...I am better in the mornings, but I'm not cured!! He now knows what you all know! ie assess the mood and proceed with caution for the first 30 minutes of the work day!!!
Tim sent out the message saying that the Christmas Party had been booked, and that we were going on the Odyssey Dinner Cruise. Most people had said they had enjoyed it last year....most people apart from Paul B that is! He made the mistake of e-mailing back saying that it wouldn't have been his first choice (I think he likened it to being on the Metro at rush hour!), and Dawn really took it to heart! I suspect that if he complains on the night, he may be forced to walk the plank!!
Stephen and I escaped a little early on Friday. It had been a long week - we'd done around 45 hours and we thought "sod it, lets skip off early". So we did! We stopped by the ABC Liquor store on the way home. We had a bit of a craving for a G&T, and for that you need G! It was our first visit to the store since we got here, and wasn't too horrendous an experience!! It was just kind of strange having to go to a special store to get "hard liquor" when you can pick it up in the supermarket back home! We came out with our bottles in brown paper bags...just like every lush in every movie! We didn't slug it down from the bottle though - and I'm not sure that Limoncello is their drink of choice either!!
After a bit of breakfast, some packing and some phone calls home we headed off on Saturday morning. We had booked a weekend in Kingsmill Resort (not owned by the bread company - but owned by Anhuser Busch - the Bud company!) near Williamsburg. Stephen was having a nightmare day!! We were stopping to get coffee and he nearly sideswiped a car in an attempt to parallel park. Then he and another car both went for the same gap on the interstate (us from the left, and them for the right), thankfully they saw each other in plenty time, but he was definitely having a mare!! Which continued when we got to Williamsburg, checked in and unloaded the car.... I had asked him to bring my coat (either of my black coats - even told him where they were!), and he had gone to the wrong place and had thrown in a suit jacket instead!! I probably haven't mentioned the weather recently - 3 weeks ago it was shorts and t-shirts, 10 degrees above average, now it is big jackets and 10 degrees below average.... So I'm in Williamsburg, in the cold with only a scarf and a woolen jacket which is fine for slightly cold, but not fine for brass monkeys!!!!
...But I'm Scottish, and hardy, so I soldiered on!! Colonial Williamsburg was really interesting. It was renovated in the 1920's by a Rockefeller (it cost $70M which was a lot of dough!). It was exceedingly well done though, and captures Williamsburg in the period just before the start of the American Revolutionary War. We wandered about soaking it all in, then we had a nice lunch to warm us up and restore Stephens blood sugar levels (which were fine, but he had to blame the crap driving on something!).
The hotel was rather nice. It was one of these gated communities which 3 golf courses, tennis courts, a spa and a hotel with 3 or 4 restaurants. We decided to eat in their casual restaurant (translation: pizza, pasta and burgers) on Saturday. You know I mentioned the hotel was owned by the Bud company - well we found this out by reading the menu here!! We were laughing at the description of the chicken wings...or rather the Bud Chicken Wings with a choice of Bud BBQ sauce or Bud Hot Sauce "perfect with a Bud"...we quickly called it the "total Bud Experience"! We ordered the total Bud Experience (by its proper name), with the added bottle of Bud for Stephen. He looked at the waitress as if she was nuts when she asked him if he wanted his Bud Select now or to wait until his main course arrived...so accustomed was he to our reference to the Total Bud Experience he thought she was asking if he wanted his appetiser with his main course!!!
The room was comfortable, and the bed was delightfully squishy with mattress toppers and feather and down pillows...no problem getting a good nights kip here I thought....oh, how wrong I was!!!! I had turned back the 40 tog duvet as I knew that was going to be too hot, and left the summer weight duvet in place. I can't sleep if I'm too hot, so after the initial bout of exhaustion had passed I woke up. I kicked the duvet off. Still too hot. Eventually managed to doze off about 2am and Stephen's mobile phone went off!! Eventually dozed off again (about 3am) and then the heat kicked in (it was air fanned and REALLY noisy!). It was about 4am when I finally got over - I didn't think I was going to get any sleep at all!!!!
Despite my lack of sleep we got up early and headed off to see the sights. The plan was to get a coffee and muffin en-route to Jamestown....little did we know that this was the only corner of the US of A NOT to have a Starbucks every 100 yards!!! Jamestown was fascinating. It was the first permanent British settlement in the US, and is the backdrop to the story of Pocahontas (whom someone told me died of some horrendous STD - is this true?). We then went onto Yorktown which is where the British surrendered to George Washington at the end of the Revolutionary War. Didn't spend so long there - we were starving and there were no open food places to be seen!!! We headed back to Williamsburg about 1pm for some lunch and found a really nice cafe where we practically inhaled our sandwiches we were so hungry!! We had practically starved to death in the land of plenty!!!
After all the historical sightseeing we decided that we were probably in need of some retail therapy. There is an outlet mall in Williamsburg, and y'all must know that they are two of my favourite words!!! I looked up the location on my blackberry and we headed off....we were struggling to find the place, so I checked the blackberry again...just up here across from the pottery warehouse. Well, this was the crappest outlet mall I have been in! Dress Barn and the Black & Decker outlet...there were about 10 shops in total!! Disappointed we headed back to the hotel, and I had a snooze....I woke up (nearly 1 1/2 hours later - oops!) and the first words I said were "That wasn't the outlet mall...it was supposed to have Coach and Ralph Lauren...and it was supposed to be outside". Turns out that the second time I looked it up I got the wrong Williamsburg Outlets...if we had turned right instead of left at the traffic lights we would have found it!! D'Oh!!
We went back into Williamsburg for dinner to a restaurant called The Trellis. Totally fab food and desserts to die for! We certainly made up for the lack of food earlier in the day! We both had huge fillet steaks which were cooked to perfection, followed by utterly delicious white chocolate ice cream. Mmmmmmmmm!
We were more successful at finding the good outlet mall this morning. We stopped in on the way home. Very nice indeed! And not a Black & Decker outlet in sight!!
We were reviewing what we had learned this weekend on the car home. We learned that Pocahontas died aged 22 and is buried in Gravesend. We learned that there are no places in buy food in Jamestown and Yorktown (that are open out of season), or places in between. And most importantly (and I should thank the TV news here), we learned that America single handedly won the 1st World War and instigated Veteran's Day....
Colin had a drama queen moment the other day, and he picked a bad time - it was 7:30am, the guy delivering breakfast for a meeting was standing outside when I got to the office as no-one had let him in (he was 30 mins early, but even so...!). I hadn't even got my jacket off as I was helping the guy set it all up, Colin wandered over and I asked him about whether he had dealt with an e-mail which had been sent to him, copied to me, and was super urgent, and I got this big "drama" back! I can tell that you are all wincing...I am better in the mornings, but I'm not cured!! He now knows what you all know! ie assess the mood and proceed with caution for the first 30 minutes of the work day!!!
Tim sent out the message saying that the Christmas Party had been booked, and that we were going on the Odyssey Dinner Cruise. Most people had said they had enjoyed it last year....most people apart from Paul B that is! He made the mistake of e-mailing back saying that it wouldn't have been his first choice (I think he likened it to being on the Metro at rush hour!), and Dawn really took it to heart! I suspect that if he complains on the night, he may be forced to walk the plank!!
Stephen and I escaped a little early on Friday. It had been a long week - we'd done around 45 hours and we thought "sod it, lets skip off early". So we did! We stopped by the ABC Liquor store on the way home. We had a bit of a craving for a G&T, and for that you need G! It was our first visit to the store since we got here, and wasn't too horrendous an experience!! It was just kind of strange having to go to a special store to get "hard liquor" when you can pick it up in the supermarket back home! We came out with our bottles in brown paper bags...just like every lush in every movie! We didn't slug it down from the bottle though - and I'm not sure that Limoncello is their drink of choice either!!
After a bit of breakfast, some packing and some phone calls home we headed off on Saturday morning. We had booked a weekend in Kingsmill Resort (not owned by the bread company - but owned by Anhuser Busch - the Bud company!) near Williamsburg. Stephen was having a nightmare day!! We were stopping to get coffee and he nearly sideswiped a car in an attempt to parallel park. Then he and another car both went for the same gap on the interstate (us from the left, and them for the right), thankfully they saw each other in plenty time, but he was definitely having a mare!! Which continued when we got to Williamsburg, checked in and unloaded the car.... I had asked him to bring my coat (either of my black coats - even told him where they were!), and he had gone to the wrong place and had thrown in a suit jacket instead!! I probably haven't mentioned the weather recently - 3 weeks ago it was shorts and t-shirts, 10 degrees above average, now it is big jackets and 10 degrees below average.... So I'm in Williamsburg, in the cold with only a scarf and a woolen jacket which is fine for slightly cold, but not fine for brass monkeys!!!!
...But I'm Scottish, and hardy, so I soldiered on!! Colonial Williamsburg was really interesting. It was renovated in the 1920's by a Rockefeller (it cost $70M which was a lot of dough!). It was exceedingly well done though, and captures Williamsburg in the period just before the start of the American Revolutionary War. We wandered about soaking it all in, then we had a nice lunch to warm us up and restore Stephens blood sugar levels (which were fine, but he had to blame the crap driving on something!).
The hotel was rather nice. It was one of these gated communities which 3 golf courses, tennis courts, a spa and a hotel with 3 or 4 restaurants. We decided to eat in their casual restaurant (translation: pizza, pasta and burgers) on Saturday. You know I mentioned the hotel was owned by the Bud company - well we found this out by reading the menu here!! We were laughing at the description of the chicken wings...or rather the Bud Chicken Wings with a choice of Bud BBQ sauce or Bud Hot Sauce "perfect with a Bud"...we quickly called it the "total Bud Experience"! We ordered the total Bud Experience (by its proper name), with the added bottle of Bud for Stephen. He looked at the waitress as if she was nuts when she asked him if he wanted his Bud Select now or to wait until his main course arrived...so accustomed was he to our reference to the Total Bud Experience he thought she was asking if he wanted his appetiser with his main course!!!
The room was comfortable, and the bed was delightfully squishy with mattress toppers and feather and down pillows...no problem getting a good nights kip here I thought....oh, how wrong I was!!!! I had turned back the 40 tog duvet as I knew that was going to be too hot, and left the summer weight duvet in place. I can't sleep if I'm too hot, so after the initial bout of exhaustion had passed I woke up. I kicked the duvet off. Still too hot. Eventually managed to doze off about 2am and Stephen's mobile phone went off!! Eventually dozed off again (about 3am) and then the heat kicked in (it was air fanned and REALLY noisy!). It was about 4am when I finally got over - I didn't think I was going to get any sleep at all!!!!
Despite my lack of sleep we got up early and headed off to see the sights. The plan was to get a coffee and muffin en-route to Jamestown....little did we know that this was the only corner of the US of A NOT to have a Starbucks every 100 yards!!! Jamestown was fascinating. It was the first permanent British settlement in the US, and is the backdrop to the story of Pocahontas (whom someone told me died of some horrendous STD - is this true?). We then went onto Yorktown which is where the British surrendered to George Washington at the end of the Revolutionary War. Didn't spend so long there - we were starving and there were no open food places to be seen!!! We headed back to Williamsburg about 1pm for some lunch and found a really nice cafe where we practically inhaled our sandwiches we were so hungry!! We had practically starved to death in the land of plenty!!!
After all the historical sightseeing we decided that we were probably in need of some retail therapy. There is an outlet mall in Williamsburg, and y'all must know that they are two of my favourite words!!! I looked up the location on my blackberry and we headed off....we were struggling to find the place, so I checked the blackberry again...just up here across from the pottery warehouse. Well, this was the crappest outlet mall I have been in! Dress Barn and the Black & Decker outlet...there were about 10 shops in total!! Disappointed we headed back to the hotel, and I had a snooze....I woke up (nearly 1 1/2 hours later - oops!) and the first words I said were "That wasn't the outlet mall...it was supposed to have Coach and Ralph Lauren...and it was supposed to be outside". Turns out that the second time I looked it up I got the wrong Williamsburg Outlets...if we had turned right instead of left at the traffic lights we would have found it!! D'Oh!!
We went back into Williamsburg for dinner to a restaurant called The Trellis. Totally fab food and desserts to die for! We certainly made up for the lack of food earlier in the day! We both had huge fillet steaks which were cooked to perfection, followed by utterly delicious white chocolate ice cream. Mmmmmmmmm!
We were more successful at finding the good outlet mall this morning. We stopped in on the way home. Very nice indeed! And not a Black & Decker outlet in sight!!
We were reviewing what we had learned this weekend on the car home. We learned that Pocahontas died aged 22 and is buried in Gravesend. We learned that there are no places in buy food in Jamestown and Yorktown (that are open out of season), or places in between. And most importantly (and I should thank the TV news here), we learned that America single handedly won the 1st World War and instigated Veteran's Day....
Sunday 4 November 2007
The sights you see....
I forgot to mention one of the other Halloween sights we saw (and this was a cracker!)...we were driving back from somewhere and passed a funeral parlour a few blocks from the house. In the garden were a giant inflatable pumpkin and a witch!! Now, if only they had put a ghost in the display instead...
Stephen and Alyssa have been working hard this week, helping the UK folks write up a bid. There was a minor Scottish explosion on Friday when they got a draft back from the UK. Stephen and Alyssa had spent all week re-writing the bid in the American "Active Voice" (much more direct) and it came back in the UK passive style (much more polite). As one of our US VP's said: before long Alyssa will have him chewin' tobacca, ridin' a pickup and wearin' a stetsun...
Friday is traditionally dress down day, but we had customers in the office so a note went round saying could we please dress in Business Casual. One of our VP's then made a point of stating that in this instance this should mean no jeans....Which sparked a HUGE email exchange, followed by a note of clarification from Dawn over what Business Casual and Casual Friday each mean. The mood of the office was split on Friday between laughter and lynching when the VP in question turned up in....yup, you guessed it, jeans!!!
We had a really fun night n Friday. Hils and Paul had us over for dinner (delicious as always!), then we headed out to the jazz club on King Street. The band were fantastic on Friday! Paul was amazed that we would know this as Hilary and I gabbed to each other the whole time, but we ladies can multitask!! We are actually lucky that we made it to the same bar as the men as they had strode off into the distance...by the time we turned the corner onto King they were out of view...and there are two jazz venues on King St!! Luckily we spotted Stephen's silver head further up the street so we were able to chase them down.
It was very late by the time we got home (I was definitely a pumpkin!), so we had a lie in on Saturday....well to about 8:30 anyway. We had an overwhelming urge for breakfast - which was nothing to do with the quantities of PG that were consumed the night before (and I don't mean Tips, I'm talking about Pinot Grigio!). After failing to find a car parking space on the street we parked in the garage under Market Sq and heading up King, past the Farmers Market, to Le Madelaine. We had only gone a few yards when we noticed a man with a camera on his shoulder, shadowed by a man holding lots of cables. They were filming. Us!! Well they were probably filming the farmers market, but we were the only people walking up the street at the time... I was not looking my most glamorous! Minimal makeup, scruffy combats...I look forward to that surfacing on some news channel.... "And finally...Halloween came late to Old Town, when a woman in a scary witch mask was spotted on Saturday morning..."
Christmas preparations are underway in the Spark household. I went to Target (where else!) and bought about 10,000 fairy lights, miles of garland and loads of tree bows to decorate it. I will not be outshone by the neighbours at Christmas!!! Expect the National Grid to dip when I plug this little lot in!!!
Stephen and Alyssa have been working hard this week, helping the UK folks write up a bid. There was a minor Scottish explosion on Friday when they got a draft back from the UK. Stephen and Alyssa had spent all week re-writing the bid in the American "Active Voice" (much more direct) and it came back in the UK passive style (much more polite). As one of our US VP's said: before long Alyssa will have him chewin' tobacca, ridin' a pickup and wearin' a stetsun...
Friday is traditionally dress down day, but we had customers in the office so a note went round saying could we please dress in Business Casual. One of our VP's then made a point of stating that in this instance this should mean no jeans....Which sparked a HUGE email exchange, followed by a note of clarification from Dawn over what Business Casual and Casual Friday each mean. The mood of the office was split on Friday between laughter and lynching when the VP in question turned up in....yup, you guessed it, jeans!!!
We had a really fun night n Friday. Hils and Paul had us over for dinner (delicious as always!), then we headed out to the jazz club on King Street. The band were fantastic on Friday! Paul was amazed that we would know this as Hilary and I gabbed to each other the whole time, but we ladies can multitask!! We are actually lucky that we made it to the same bar as the men as they had strode off into the distance...by the time we turned the corner onto King they were out of view...and there are two jazz venues on King St!! Luckily we spotted Stephen's silver head further up the street so we were able to chase them down.
It was very late by the time we got home (I was definitely a pumpkin!), so we had a lie in on Saturday....well to about 8:30 anyway. We had an overwhelming urge for breakfast - which was nothing to do with the quantities of PG that were consumed the night before (and I don't mean Tips, I'm talking about Pinot Grigio!). After failing to find a car parking space on the street we parked in the garage under Market Sq and heading up King, past the Farmers Market, to Le Madelaine. We had only gone a few yards when we noticed a man with a camera on his shoulder, shadowed by a man holding lots of cables. They were filming. Us!! Well they were probably filming the farmers market, but we were the only people walking up the street at the time... I was not looking my most glamorous! Minimal makeup, scruffy combats...I look forward to that surfacing on some news channel.... "And finally...Halloween came late to Old Town, when a woman in a scary witch mask was spotted on Saturday morning..."
Christmas preparations are underway in the Spark household. I went to Target (where else!) and bought about 10,000 fairy lights, miles of garland and loads of tree bows to decorate it. I will not be outshone by the neighbours at Christmas!!! Expect the National Grid to dip when I plug this little lot in!!!
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