Colonial Beach

We decided to go for an outing today. We weren't sure where to go, so after a quick look at the places to visit in Northern VA website we picked Colonial Beach. There wasn't a whole lot of information about the place, but hey, it was listed on the site -it must be worth a visit right?



Wrong! It had a small beach, and that was about it. No cute historic buildings (which you cannot go anywhere in VA without falling over!), not even a good ice cream place... Walking round you got the impression that we'd stumbled across the Red Neck Riviera!! We beat a retreat and drove over to Fredericksburg. Now this place oozes history! Its the site of many civil war battles, its also the place where George Washington grew up. This is where he chopped down the cherry tree and threw a silver dollar across the Rappahanock river.

Around the outskirts of the historic centre are hundreds of shopping malls! Which is where we ended up looking for somewhere for lunch. It had chosen this moment to pour from the heavens! We spent about 15 minutes waiting in the car for the rain to slow from absolutely torrential to heavy in order to run the 20 yards into the restaurant! This should have been an indication of how lunch was going to go... We had to ask for straws for our sodas, napkins, cutlery... Actually Stephen was asking for "cutlery - knives, forks" and getting totally blank looks, so I had to jump in and ask for silverware. I'm now totally bi-lingual...

I guess if you're working in a restaurant you're maybe not going to be Nobel Prize material. And I guess this is the same in the UK too...but I still maintain that its not a great leap from "water" to "wadder", or forks to silverware. SURELY its possible to work it out??!!!

Colonial Beach from the pier

Mamma Mia!

After a whole year in the US we have finally made it to the cinema to see a movie!! There is an independent cinema in Old Town which came highly recommended - it sells beer, wine and panini's - delivered to your seat by "one of the men who do it all" - sells tickets, refreshments, food, starts the projector... you name it! We went to see Mamma Mia!. We both enjoyed it - just to varying degrees!!! Stephen nearly bolted for the door in the first 5 minutes, but he persevered. I enjoyed having Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth (semi-clothed and wet) in one movie. Add ABBA songs and what's not to love??

A Walk to the Old Town Farmers Market

The Potomac looking very shimmery

Walking along Union St towards Wilkes

The Farmers Market at Market Square



Produce at the farmers market

Gas Prices

After a couple of months where gas prices were around $4.30 a gallon they have suddenly fallen to $4.05 a gallon this week...and once again we're seeing the enormous pick-up trucks in the parking garage at work. Their fuel consumption is so bad that the companies rarely quote it! Its around 8mpg so high gas prices really hurt anyone who is foolish enough to buy one... needless to say Stephen is desperate for one, but I'm holding firm!!

Tommo's leaving lunch

On Tuesday we also said our farewells to Paul "Tommo" Thompson. Another lunch. Another ice cream cake. Another Brit leaves us and heads back to Blighty and a life where bacon butties and Indian food is freely available, but where gas costs about £3,000,000 per gallon. We'll miss him.

Paul and the Brazilian beauty Alessandra

Reading the hastily composed poem

With his leaving gift - a DC United soccer shirt

The BD Boys

The QInc Girls

Paul and "Kev"

A little funny... Paul has always called Stephen "Kev". Why is lost back in the mists of time. I was speaking to someone back in the UK (who knows us both) and he asked if Kevin had been back in the UK for the Farnborough Air Show! He doesn't know Tommo, so I can only presume that Stephen is leading some kind of secret double life (well secret from me anyway!) in which he is known as Kev!!!! We were all in stitches when I shared that story!

Two very different functions

On Tuesday we went to Wolf Trap to see Mark Knopfler in concert. There were a few of us from work going, so the plan was to take our picnic blankets, some wine and some nibbles, sit on the lawn and take in the show. Poor Lynn wasn't able to come as she was ill, so she donated her ticket to Tim. I said we'd give him a lift, so we had to run back to his apartment so he could get changed, back to our house so we could do the same, and then out to Wolf Trap to park up and find a pitch.


We were there about 10 minutes before the gates opened, so we were parked close to the entrance of the venue. We were pretty surprised therefore when we go got through the gate and the lawn was already liberally covered with people! We found a spot and spread ourselves out. It wasn't long before there was absolutely no room round about us at all.


With a bit of texting, phoning and sending Tim running off we managed to find Dawn's parents, and shortly after Dawn found us too. After lots of nibbling and quaffing the show started. The first song was a bluegrass number and I began to panic that the whole night was going to be down those lines (yawn) and be a bit self-indulgent, but I should have had more faith. He pulled it back around, threw in a few classic Dire Straits songs and kept us all very happy indeed! I had forgotten how good Mark Knopfler was! I haven't listened to a Dire Straits CD in about 10 years because I absolutely cannot stand Money for Nothing, and I had forgotten there is more to them than that one track. However, I suspect that Mr K is also fed up with it as it was the one glaring omission from his set!


The weather was fairly kind to us. It was brutally hot - about 97F - and we were all sweating buckets. There was a thunderstorm forecast, but it didn't quite happen. We had a free light show, as there was lightening going off all around us, but we didn't really have much rain. There were a couple of brief showers which had Tim and I hiding underneath a blanket, and others beneath the waterproof cushions and brollies, but considering that most thunderstorms come with several inches of rain, we were exceedingly lucky!


After the show, we discovered that being near the entrance to the grounds is not necessarily a good thing. First In, Last Out. It took us around 3/4 hour just to get out of the field!! Mostly down to the Prelude driver in front of us who happily was letting every single car in front of her!! Stephen was beginning to suffer from road rage! There was a truck coming down the side who was leaving room for us and Stephen sensed his opportunity and quickly dived around the side and then in front of the Prelude. I suspect that he would have gone over the top if we'd had a bigger SUV!

The lawn at Wolf Trap. I defy you to spot a blade of grass...it was at capacity!

Tim

Stephen in his shirt, enjoying a beer. Looking more American than the Americans!

Patterns hold no fear for me now!
In a cheeky little number I picked up at the weekend.

By the time we dropped Tim off home, got back home ourselves, unpacked the car it was after 12:30 before we got to bed. For the first time ever since we've been here I did not get up when the alarm went off at 6:15!! Even with an extra hour in bed we were still pretty tired (everyone was!), and we still had the Embassy reception to go to that evening!


I trotted off to the ladies to get ready (how very glamorous, huh!)...straighten my hair, touch up my make-up, apply extra deodorant all over... We left the office about 5:30 in plenty of time to get to the British Embassy (a 20 minute drive according to google maps). Unfortunately our SatNav decided that we needed to take a different route and go on a sightseeing tour of Washington. She took us to 550 Mass Ave, and made us drive all the way across the city to 3100 Mass Ave. Through rush hour. It took about 3/4 hour and we were almost the last people to arrive at 6:15. D'oh! We got to meet the British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald and his wife. Then we grabbed a glass of champagne and headed out into the garden which is much admired and really lovely. The outfits on display were very varied....from sundresses and flip flops (the American national obsession!), through business suits (me) to those who were attending a Royal Wedding and were there in frocks and HUGE hats.


We had a very nice time, had a couple of glasses of champagne and chatted to some very lovely people. Amongst them Stuart from the Embassy who goes to watch the football at the bar Stephen goes to. We were telling him the story of the last time I had spoken to him. He had phoned the main reception number and Joni had put him through to me saying "There is someone on the phone. I can't make out a word he's saying, but I think he's asking for Paul". Stuart has a very Glaswegian accent (he makes Stephen sound positively English) despite 11 years in the US practising slowing down!


I think someone needed to give the caterers a better brief. I think they had been asked for a finger buffet, when what was needed was canapes. There were waiters circulating with trays of food (as you might expect). But the trays of food were such things as breaded shrimp (with little shrimpy tails on) and lamb cutlets. I declined these, but Stephen didn't...and was left holding onto his lamb bone as there was no-one circulating to take the debris. Not quite finger food! I only hope that Lady Sheinwald isn't finding bones in her potted palms for the next few days!!!!

Its Hot Hot Hot!!

I know I hark on about the heat a fair bit...but can I just say that Sunday was REALLY hot! When you swung your arms when you walked you could actually feel them cutting through the air. The air felt thick. Breathing was like sucking air from the vent of a tumble drier. Not too lovely!

My retail therapy day wasn't very successful. I saw the perfect dress in Macy's...there were plenty on the rack...they were all a size 2. Unless anyone knows a way for me to lose half my bodyweight overnight then this dress was not for me. So, I didn't find a dress, but I did get some new light and loose summer clothes. This does mean that I need to wear a suit in the heat of a DC summer. In fact, I need to go and look out the outfit tonight in readiness as we're going to Wolf Trap tomorrow for a Mark Knopfler concert.

I also bought a new moisturiser and used it this morning. I gave it one pump of the dispenser and it spurted out enough to moisturise my face, decolletage, arms, legs....I was rubbing this stuff everywhere! I now have elbows which are defying the signs of aging!!

Lazy day

I ran away from work about 1:45 on Friday as I had a long overdue appointment to get my hair cut and tinted back to its (at one time) natural colour. It was a lovely day and I had a few places on King St that I needed to pop into, so I decided to walk along. I was wearing jeans - BAD decision! When you're in air conditioning all the time you forget just how warm it is outside... It was 93F outside and very humid. By the time I got home I had to peel the jeans off my sweaty little legs, pull on a cotton sundress and stand Marilyn Monroe style beside the a/c vent!! I am off on the hunt today for some loose clothing, as well as a frock for the do on Wednesday.

Stephen got home yesterday and is gasping in the heat and humidity. California is seemingly much cooler and a whole lot less humid! I went out for a walk in the morning - along to King to stop in at Firehook for a Morning Glory muffin (and they are truly glorious!) and a Starbucks latte. I headed over to the marina for a seat so I could scoff them, and had to leave after about 10 minutes as the sun was beating down on me and even at 9:30 it was too hot for comfort. I had a sweaty butt - not lovely!! I wandered home and had a very lazy day watching movies and finishing up my book.

On the subject of books, Hils had recommended Only in America by Matt Frei as a good read. He's the BBC's correspondent in DC, and presents the BBC America news programme (so not unknown here). I popped into Books a Million, couldn't find it on the shelves and so asked one of the assistants to look it up for me. After a few minutes of me spelling his name and her looking confused she told me she couldn't find it, by author or title. I put this down to the shop being possibly the worst bookshop in the world and the assistant being the DC equivalent of a Valley Girl..."Its, like, not showing up on the system, like, I totally can't find it". But, Bad Kerry for thinking that, it turns outs its an import. I checked on Amazon (both UK and US). The difference in the reviews in the two countries was marked! The UK loved it for its insight and humour. The one review on the US site hated it for its "European bias about America" and said that "You would not know from this book that America is a richer nation than Great Britain or that its citizens have a higher standard of living". There were a couple of used copies available on the US site, but I guessed it the review was typical of the feeling about the book then the used copies would probably have been spat on, so I ordered it from the UK site. I am looking forward to reading it very much!

...its oh so still...shhh, shhh

There was a little burst of activity this morning, and now we're back to the normal for this week. There is still tumbleweed blowing down the corridors...

The good news is that its not just our office which was quiet. So was Starbucks! I went down this morning about 8am and there was nobody in there!! My drink was ready before I had finished paying for it. The NEVER happens!!

I had to laugh at an e-mail I was copied on this morning. Tommo's manager sent him a note in response to his "I've got food poisoning" e-mail which said "Please ensure this is recorded properly on your timesheet". So warm, so caring, so fluffy.... Is the man a robot? Or a moron? What happened to the part where he expresses sympathy for the poor bloke who's been dreadfully ill in a foreign country on his own... Some people should never be allowed to manage staff.

I had to ask advice of Hils yesterday. Stephen and I are going to a drinks reception at the Ambassador's residence next week and the dress code was Business Attire. Simple for guys...not so simple for us girls when you factor in the extreme heat and humidity of DC in the summer! All the suits I have are more suitable for British winters and I'm worried about:

a) passing out in the heat
b) turning into a puddle of sweat, having may make-up drip from my chin and my hair go curly

Actually my hair going curly is pretty much a sure fire thing, but I want to minimise the rest! Hils went last year, so was able to advise on how the dress code was interpreted. I think I may be going shopping at the weekend... oh, any excuse for retail therapy!!

It's oh so quiet....

It has been a quiet week work-wise this week. All bar one of the BD guys are out of the office: two are on leave and the rest are at the Farnborough Airshow, which pretty much leaves Tim and I down the BD end of the office with occasional sightings of other human life!! This morning was quite busy, but this afternoon I could swear that time was going backwards! I was on the phone to Paul today when he said "You should have gone to San Diego with Stephen". D'oh!! Why didn't I think of that???

Tommo has been having a bad week. He was flying back from vacation, the first flight was delayed and he missed his connection in Puerto Rico. As there wasn't another flight out that night, American Airlines put him up in a hotel for the night and he went for dinner in a local Japanese restaurant. It turns out that the scallops were not a good dinner choice. They were undercooked and it left him in the care of a doctor and almost hospitalised with severe food poisoning. He was flying home tonight (against doctors orders), so goodness knows what effect the pressurised plane will have on his stomach! I don't envy his fellow passengers!!!

Sons of the (California) Desert

Stan and Ollie are on the road again. Chaos and mayhem ensues!! It began on Monday morning before they had even met up...in fact before they were even on the same coast!

Stephen phoned me from Dulles airport and asked me to check his desk to see if he had left his keys there. He hadn't, so I called him back and asked him to check his laptop bag and his jacket carefully. They were not there either, so I phoned the taxi company, who phoned the driver (thankfully I had the cab number!), who HAD the keys and agreed to drop them off to me in return for a "token of my gratitude" which I translated to be about $20!

Whilst I was stressing about getting his keys back, Stephen was busy winding Simon up. The rental car company had given Simon a convertible and there was much e-mailing back and forth about the suitability of the car. It began when Simon suggested that Stephen needed to bring sun protection for his thinning scalp, then Stephen began on the "Where will my golf clubs go?" theme, which ran for a while. When he got on the flight I was compelled to e-mail Simon (before he traded in the car!) to let him know that Stephen was joking about bringing his clubs. Which is when Simon told me that he had lost his wedding ring the night before!! He had got into the car and realised it was missing, so feeling sick as a dog, he pulled over and searched the car. He ran back to Hertz and searched the parking lot, then the rental office...still no ring. Finally he searched his laptop bag where his paperwork was, and there it was! It must have slipped off when he got his drivers license out. He was exceedingly relieved!!

If this was how their trip was beginning I was starting to think they should push the abort button for this mission before anything else happened!!

Firehook and Fireworks

After our lovely walk through Old Town, and stopping for fantastic muffins and okay coffee in Firehook bakery in Union St, we headed over to the golf driving range so Stephen could loosen up before he plays this week. Its a swanky computerised range which tells you how far your ball has gone (blah, blah, blah) - except the computer was down! We resorted to the old fashioned way... "Stephen, that was a load of sh**e!" and other such constructive criticism!

We went out to dinner in Overwoods (mmmm Blackthorn Cider) and then we went to watch the Old Town fireworks. We didn't quite make the concert, but we got to the marina just in time to see the display which was pretty awesome. Apparently the cannon for the 1812 overture were impressively loud - Andy was joking that there are houses in Maryland who must be missing their roofs.

Big Bang!

The Twins at dinner in Overwoods

Morag, Simon and the girls came round on Sunday for an afternoon cookout. I think we lasted about 15 minutes outside before the heat got the better of us! We decided that we should throw Stephen outside marinaded in DEET to ward off the mosquitoes, and let him do all the BBQing. He was a little sweaty when he staggered back in, and probably suffering from heat exhaustion...but we reassured him it was all worth it as the food was delicious! We couldn't believe how big the girls have got since we last saw them 3 or 4 months ago!! Lizzie was speaking quite clearly now, and all her baby hair had gone - she was looking quite grown up, as was Alison. And both as cute as a button, and VERY full of beans! Stephen was actually quite well behaved and didn't wind them up too much for once!!

A Saturday walk through Old Town

Lee St - just further up our block.


Looking towards the Blackfords former home


At the Marina

The lower end of King St

The Town Hall at Market Sq

Walking home along Royal St.
Some of the restaurants are celebrating Bastille Day today.

My booty from the farmers market. They were just closing up, so these were a bargain.
He very nicely threw in about 4 smaller bunches of flowers as well!

He's home!

My technical expert is back from the UK!! YAY!! Its good to have him home...not least because my laptop is still sick and I need someone to fix it!!

As I was all on my ownsome this week Pat and Jude invited me round to dinner on Wednesday, along with Andy and Marie who are the new couple in town, having arrived from the UK about 3 weeks ago. Andy used to work in Malvern too, and we know a couple of people in common. Turns out we both know Naomi - in fact both used to sit next to her (not at the same time!).

I've also found a little time to pick up my paints and canvas and get creative this week. Its been a while since I've done anything, but it was good fun - even if they're not going to win prizes!

WWW Woes

I've been having computer problems tonight - and my technical expert is in the UK....Noooooooooooooooo!! Eventually I managed to get my laptop working again, but it was definitely more through luck than judgement. I was just surfing the net and the screen went black..never a good sign. I did a restart and windows went through a disk check...surely an even worse sign!! Not a problem I thought, I have the old laptop upstairs - it still works. Not tonight it doesn't!! It wouldn't connect to the internet!! Thankfully my new one now seems to have recovered from its little huff and is talking to me (and the net!) now. I was beginning to have WWW - Web Withdrawal Wobbles!!

Hail to the Chief

I totally forgot to mention what we saw driving home from work on Thursday 3rd. Abraham Lincoln! Yup, the 16th President of the United States was crossing the road right in front of us!! It certainly caused us to do a double take!!

Happy 4th of July

It's 4th of July, and we have been in the USA for over 1 year now! It's hard to believe that the first year has gone by so very quickly. We arrived here on 1st July last year and it could really have been just a few months.

We've actually had a fairly quiet day. We are both shattered today - we're scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of energy levels. I blame the frantic pace of this week and last weekend!! We had a lie in his morning (Stephen slightly more than me) and then another snooze about lunchtime. Except that Stephen didn't really wake up properly! We had been invited to Alyssa and Greg's 4th of July cookout (its an American tradition) and the plan was to get over there around 3pm and leave about 5pm to get back to the Potomac to get a good view of the DC fireworks. As it was he didn't wake up until about 3:45, so we didn't get out there until about 4:45 and didn't leave until about 6:45. We drove past Daingerfield Island on the Parkway and they were still letting people park, tried to get into Gravelly Point but it was full, turned around and headed back to Daingerfeild - only to find it was now full too!! Consequently we are now watching the 4th July fireworks on TV from the comfort of our sofa. Ah well, it was just not meant to be!

It was lovely to see Alyssa and Tanner again. The idea was that everyone takes a dish (its called Pot Luck), and as Tanner said she was taking corn bread as it was very American I realised that I should probably take something Scottish. And as Stephen is particularly fond of tablet what better thing to make? I got my mum to e-mail the tried and tested never-fail tablet recipe that came from Stephen's mum. Never fail until now, that is! I made a batch last night and it was like a cross between fudge and toffee...and it wasn't even particularly sweet! I looked at the tin of Carnation....it was evaporated milk, not condensed milk. D'oh!! I knew as soon as I poured it into the tin that something was badly wrong!! I made another batch this morning and it was perfect! Otherwise I would have had to rustle up another Scottish favourite...like mince and tatties or deep fried mars bars!!

Joni's birthday

It was Joni's birthday on Thursday, but we wasn't going to be in the office, so we decided to take her to lunch on Wednesday, which was actually Stephen's birthday, but he wasn't able to go to the lunch cos he was getting our car serviced. (Following this so far?) Tanner and Maria (who used to work for the Inc) were also in town, so it was a grand all-encompassing lunch. I was at the BD meeting in the morning so I enrolled Lily to help organise it. The plan was that everyone should be at the restaurant at 11:50 and she would bring Joni over at 12:00.

Joni had asked me if it was okay if she went for lunch at 12 (I have to cover the phones at lunchtime), so I was trying to phone her before I headed over to say "just put the phones through" but she wasn't there, so I just had to go. Apparently she wouldn't leave the desk when she couldn't get hold of me! The girls bringing her over had to lie, cajole and then drag her away. What dedication!!

Paul and Hils say their farewells

The sad day finally arrived. Paul and Hils were heading back to the UK at the end of their secondment. They hosted a final boozy evening in Chadwicks on Monday, so we got a chance to chug a few final glasses of Pinot Grigio for old times. After dinner people wandered off and it was just the hard core left - Paul, Hils, Stephen and me and it seemed only fitting that we should push the envelope in terms of potential hangovers in the morning, so we went to O'Connells for a final, final drinkie. Paul and Stephen can break David, but they can't break me!! (I didn't have the half pint of martini though!)

Orlando -The Photos

Stephen being felt up by Buzz Lightyear

The Universal Globe

Clan Spark at Universals Islands of Adventure
l-r: John, Stephen, Lyle, June, Jen and Leanne

The Hulk Coaster

Stephen on the Hulk - notice he's upside down!!

The kids cooling off in the water mister

Me with Jen, Leanne and Lyle

Me with John

At Hooters

John and June

Stephen closing in for a hit on Lyle

The close up of his expression!!

The Mighty Kumba about to be conquered

Here they come...

The slightly fuzzy close up (but remember they WERE going 60mph!)
4 rows back: l-r Stephen, empty seat, then Leanne and John (with their hands up)

Here come Jen and Lyle...

Jen and Lyle with their hands up screaming all the way

John and Lyle

Me with Rory McSnory

The hotel pool

The hotel lobby