Garnet's Life Adventures

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

This "holiday" is always a tough one for me - people celebrate with family and BBQ, but I fear often forget about the reason why we have a 3 day weekend.  Not just to hang out and have fun, but to remember those people who have served and are still currently serving in our military, hence Memorial Day.  It is thanks to people like them that I do not have to serve or be drafted!

My paternal grandfather served in the Australian Merchant Marines and I went to a private military college, so I know lots of people who have served and would love to list them all here, but that would take forever and I'm sure like the 7 dwarfs I would forget just one and feel horrible when I realised whom I had left off my list.  Instead I will just give you a quick update on my weekend, which turns out was spent with lots of veterans!

Friday I went to UMass Memorial Hospital to visit my friend Matt (Air Force)  mum, Judy.  I got there around 2pm and stayed until he arrived.  Around 6pm we both left to go home so we could shower before meeting up for dinner with his friend Ned.  After dinner we went to pick up Matt's brother, Chris (Marine) for a drink at a local bar while we waited for our friend Kelly and two of her coworkers to be ready to meet up.  The girls decided they wanted to go dancing, so we went to Jose Murphy’s – where I relearned how much I dislike the college bar scene!  Saw my college intern at this place, luckily he didn’t see me!  So after awhile we left there, went back to Matt’s house where we had all met and drove home.

Saturday morning I went to see Judy again in the morning and then met my mum at Azteca restaurant for her birthday lunch.  Then we went to look at my new apartment, well the display unit, but she got the idea of the layout and such.  Then went to movies, saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (follows a group of British retirees who decide to "outsource" their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India) Then we had a late dinner of Thai food.

Sunday we went for brunch at Cafe Manzi which by the way is a fabulous place!  I had eggs benedict and it was deliscious - they had some of the best home fries I've ever eaten!  We then went to the Greendale Mall in search of a Pandora like necklace - we were very unsuccessful, but we did manage to find a new phone cover for my iPhone so that made me happy :)  We considered going else where go look, but then decided Wooberry Frozen Yoghurt was a better choice and we were not wrong!  Mum left shortly after that to head back to New York. Around 4pm my friend Ben (Navy) and girlfriend Lauren arrived.  Afte giving them a quick tour of my flat, we went over to the Marine Corps League for a quick drink.  There I ran into two more Marines, Ray and Jon.  We only had time for a quick drink, but it was great to see friends whom I hadn't planned on seeing :)  We then went to visit Judy and Matt met up with us there.  After about an hour visit, we went out to Funky Murphy's for dinner and then home to sleep, we were all exhausted!

Monda, Ben, Lauren and I went to breakfast at Brody's Diner and then over to Matt’s house.  We then were trying to think of a place to go be outside and have a drink - we were struggling, when suddenly Matt made a brilliant idea of going over toBuca di Beppo, so off we went.  We were able to sit out on their outdoor deck drinking and have appetizers till 5pm.  I then dropped Ben and Lauren off at their car, so they could go hom.  Matt and I proceeded to UMass Memorial for another visit with Judy.  Finally at 8:15pm, I whispered to Matt I really needed to get going - I was exhausted and still had to go back to his house to drop him off, so we said our goodbyes and home we went - where I think we both crashed early!

All in all a great weekend - though I don't think I hung out with any of my Army friends, but I'm hoping they'll forgive me, especially as I hung out with lots of Marines ;-)

Labels: family, friends, memorial day, military, weekend

posted by Sara @ 6:40 pm 0 comments

Randomly meet in DC in '03 and now again in London!

As I had told some of you last week I found out on Tuesday that a friend (John) from long ago who I'd not been in contact with in a long time was arriving into London on Thursday night and staying in Russell Square. Thanks to the internet & facebook, he & I were able to reconnect after 7 years of not seeing each other aside from a brief bumping into at the zoo in Washington DC probably in 2003 (but neither of us is really sure when it was.) We met for the first time in '98 in at his frat house at Brown University. I was dating his best mate so we ended up spending a lot of time hang out for about 4 years, during which time we discovered we had lots in "common" like his birthday was the same as my dad and he was at Brown University where my dad had gone some years before. During his time at Brown he met Malina, a girl I'd grown up with since 3rd grade! Come to find out they'd gotten married about a year ago . . . what a small world it is!

Well as I said earlier, he'd sent me a message on facebook saying he'd be in town & would love to meet up for brunch or something on Sunday. Friday morning on my way back to LSHTM from Imperial I went by his hotel to left a message. That night since I'd not heard from him I called the hotel & spoke with Andrea, one of his co-workers, who told me where they had planned to all meet up. Halfway there he called me so we made plans to met at his hotel & we go to the bar together.

After a bit of chatting with his conference group, Andrea, John & I went off to have a fish & chips dinner at a pub near Holburn and then as they were rather jet lagged, I dropped them back at their hotel with plans to pick him up at 9am on Saturday.

The next morning I underestimated the outside temperature and when I got out at Russell Square tube it was soooo cold out I walked faster than normal to try to stay warm & arrived at 8.50am! After a quick breakfast at the hotel (for free) and the addition of more socks & long johns they were ready to head to Borough Market. We taste tested our way around there for a bit until it was too cold for our noses & toes to manage. We then headed over to the river and down to the Tate Modern, which in my 3+ years had never been to. After about 2 hours of viewing the art work we made a bee line for one of many of Monet's famous Water Lilies, Sea-Roses (Yellow Nirwana) . After admiring the painting we had finally warmed up & decided to venture over millennium bridge to St Paul's. Andrea made the executive decision that it wasn't worth £12 to go inside especially as she was on her way to Rome where she'd see many more cathedrals! We then took the tube back to Tottenham Court Rd, where we split up so they could go to the British Museum whilst I went home to get my flat ready (make up the beds) & put on an addition layer of clothes.

The three of us met back up at Sketch, a really awesome tea place on Conduit Street (Mayfair - I highly recommend it, esp the toilets!) where we met Andrea's mate Oliver. Another American who's been living in London for just over 3 years and who works on Climate Change etc.

Around 7 we headed down Oxford Street to Selfridges for a bit of window shopping before we headed back over by Carnaby Street for dinner at Cha Cha Moon. By the time we were done eating we were all exhausted & ended up just going to their hotel to pick up their bags & back to my place for the night! We did however stay up until 2am chatting on Skype to Mike, Mr & Mrs T, Malina, and Andrea's mum.

Up early on Sunday (7am to be exact) so we could all get showered & out of my flat by 8am. Down to Kentish Town train station where we discovered that no overland trains would be running through central London so we all got on the tube via Bank & I gave Andrea directions on how to get to Gatwick from London Bridge via the First Capital Connect trains. John & I switched over to the Piccadilly line & went out to Heathrow. After dropping John off at the airport I headed back into central London to meet Kaylie at the cinema to see The Reader, which I really liked and then later in the afternoon I met up with my American mate Adrienne who I've met through the NU Alumni of Europe Group (which btw I started) to see Slumdog Millionaire which was also a very good movie.

Next on my list of want to see are Australia (even though it's gotten crap reviews & every Aussie I know doesn't like it) and Milk which came recommended by John and my god-brother Sam , but of course the latter isn't out yet over here, we are always behind in these movies!

On a side note, I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of my Cineworld Monthly Membership, since the beginning of December, I've seen the above named movies, along with:

• Four Christmases (Vince Vaugh & Reese Witherspoon) pretty good and rather funny
• Changeling (Angelina Jolie) VERY very good!
• Burn After Reading (Brad Pitt, George Clooney) horrible!!!
• Zack & Miri Make a Porno (Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks) stupid funny, which I'm not a fan of, but we missed the movie we'd planned on seeing
  
• My Best Friend's Girl (Kate Hudson, Alex Baldwin) pretty good
  
• Secret Life of Bees (Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifa) not as good a book of course
  
• Twilight (Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson) good but I'm told didn't follow the book
  

Well I can't believe 2 weeks from yesterday is my thirty first birthday, but should get back to work now!

Labels: friends, movies, weekend

posted by Sara @ 2:45 pm 1 comments

A case of the Mondays

not me, but others around me are "having a case of the Mondays" for sure! not sure when I'll be able to post again as my day is already flying by & tonight will be filled with packing, packing & more packing, cause as those of you who know me well, know I'm not a pack-in-advance girl at all! I normally stay up late the night before & then wake up early & freak out & finish packing the day I'm flying out, which will probably happen again this trip - I can't lie about it!

Had a great day in the sun yesterday, Kaylie & I went to Hyde Park for a picnic, others were suppose to come, but didn't make it. We were getting a good dose of vitamin D for the week and then finished the day off with some Lebanese food on Edgeware Rd with Rob (who came by after work).

Hope you all have a great two weeks - I'll post if/when I can from Rwanda, but if not I promise to have lots of photos to show upon my return!

Labels: monday, picnic, weekend

posted by Sara @ 12:27 pm 1 comments

feeling unconnected

you never realise how much you rely on your home computer, broadband & the internet at large until suddenly your computer fails & you have to go for over a week without it! my computer crashed the sunday night i arrived back in london (a week ago yesterday) and at first i thought it was going to be a quick fix, but after 2 days of bringing it to work and hours on the dell.com website, i had to call in the experts, who thought it was going to be a 5 minute fix, but low & behold found out it's way more complicated than even they could sort out in 1 hour, so the laptop got taken away & supposedly is going to be returned to me tonight, FINGERS crossed, since these days with the crazinesses (is that really a word!?!??!) at work i don't have lots of time to give you updates on my oh so exciting life (LOL)

briefly this weekend:
friday night at home
saturday jaiden & john came over to fix my bed, then we went to the junction (pub) to meet up with rob, kaylie, naomi & andy, then on to primrose hill for greek food, before wandering back down through camden
sunday rob & i went to the assembly house for lunch & then waited whilst the computer guy attempted to fix my computer, after he finally gave in we went to leicester square to see Wall-E, a cute movie with very very little talking!

found out my mom has another dog in her life, his name is kumquat & he was the runt of the litter (and to be honest the one which I said way back when he was born if i moved back to the state I would want just cause he was such a cutie & i LOVED his name)

here they all are, Kumquat, Alice & Quid

with my boss on the Tour de France,Tash in the south of Spain, Mel in the south of France, this week is going to be hectic!!!

Labels: computers, dogs, photos, weekend

posted by Sara @ 11:39 am 2 comments

Bank Holiday Weekend Excitment (lol)

Labels: bank holiday, birthday, memorial day, mum, photos, plants, visitors, weekend

posted by Sara @ 1:13 pm 1 comments

Rome, Italy - photo tour

Labels: italy, mini holiday, photos, rome, weekend

posted by Sara @ 9:36 pm 2 comments

Rome Here I come :)

Update on the weather for the weekend in Rome & London (hee hee)

ROME, ITALY:
Saturday: SUNNY, 80°F
Sunday: SUNNY, 77°F
Monday: drizzle, 75°F

LONDON, ENGLAND:
Saturday: sun, 66°F
Sunday: light rain, 75°F
Monday: rain, 68°F

So I'm now positive we made the right decision leaving the UK for the weekend (our other choice was going up north to the lake district, but the temps up there are even cooler than London with heavier rain & wind . . . I reckon we made an excellent choice for a weekend get away!!!

Labels: england, italy, London, mini holiday, rome, weather, weekend

posted by Sara @ 11:28 am 2 comments

Rome's weekend weather compared to London

ROME, ITALY:
Saturday: SUNNY, 77°F
Sunday: SUNNY, 78°F

LONDON, ENGLAND:
Saturday: RAIN, 67°F
Sunday: RAIN, 70°F

Sorry don't mean to brag, but now I really can't wait to go!!!!!!!!!

Labels: england, italy, London, rome, weather, weekend

posted by Sara @ 12:25 pm 0 comments

Shell Wildlife Photographer @ Natural History Museum!

In all the excitement of my possible new future I forgot to tell you my exciting weekend story:
I went to see the Shell Wildlife Photographer exhibit at the Natural History Museum on Saturday and learned that I have crap art taste in photos - I typically enjoyed the runner up or even the honourable mention more than the winner, but then again what do we know about art?!?!?!



I was suppose to meet up with a guy (Ayo) I use to work with a boy scout camp many many moons ago and who I hadn't seen in just as many moons. So I called Ayo up & decided to meet him in Camden as he was staying in Shepard's Bush & I don't know a thing about that area at all. Rob & I met him at the tube & went to the Tup, where upon we were stopped by bouncers . . . WTH I thought, bouncers, they never have bouncers & then I heard loud music coming from inside & noticed lots of signs posted everywhere saying "NO ID = NO ENTRY" - I wondered what on earth was going on. I slightly worried as A) this has never happened before, but then again I haven't been to the pub in probably 3 weeks so maybe something drastic had happened whilst I've been gone and B) I don't carry any ID with me to tell I'm over 18 (hello I'm 30 do I really need any?!?!?!)



Come to find out this weekend was the Camden Pub Crawl (ya know you have to pay £40 for a pass kinda deal in order to hear all these up & coming bands in all the different pubs) well NO WAY was I paying £40!! Luckily just as we arrived our mate Ray (manager of the pub) was coming out & he let us in with the special passes . Hung out there for a few hours - got a bite to eat & then left b/c the bands SUCKED (I fear for the future of the music industry, if these are the up & coming bands we're in trouble!!!!)



From there Ayo went back to SB and Rob & I went to go home UNTIL Rob suddenly wondered how he was to get to his new home (come on you have to be laughing rather hard right now as you know Rob well enough to know he's not the type to look panicked but he was - it was hysterical). I tried to ask without laughing and without sounding sarcastic, "don't you know how to get to my new home?" to which I got a reply of "no not really"
"well how in the hell did you get to south kens earlier today?"
"Jim dropped me off at the tube on his way home to Nottingham"
"okay, call him" (attempt failed as Jim didn't answer his phone) "alright, let's go to my place & look it up on TFL"
now as most people already know in order to use TFL you need a destination (tube station, post code, etc) come to find out he didn't know that part of the process so it made it rather hard. to make the next rather not so amusing part where he proceeded to get upset with me & the computer & the website for not being able to figure out how to get him home - I finally just said, "you can kip on the couch and figure it out in the morning" because by this time he was going to run the risk of not getting the last tube or needing special night buses - he really is a mess at times. I don't know how he (or Jim for that matter) survive - utterly amazing!!



On Sunday after all that excitement my day was much calmer - Rob & I went to breakfast at Mamma Mia's (ya know red awning place next to the Assembly House, near where I use to live in KT) from there he got on the tube & as I haven't heard from him since I think he's made it safely back home.



From there I went to meet up with Gen and we wondered around the streets of chalk farm/primrose hill area since the sun was sorta out & we wanted to take advantage of that fact. Then after that I went food shopping and did 2 loads of laundry & spoke to my sister, mum & dad, before going to bed.

Labels: friends, museum, pub, weekend

posted by Sara @ 9:35 am 3 comments

Girls Gone Wild with chocolate in Brussels

top of building in the grand palace

Belgian waffle with strawberries & whip cream

mannekin-pis

Lara & me with mannekin pis

Labels: belgium, brussels, friends, mini holiday, photos, travel, weekend

posted by Sara @ 8:56 pm 3 comments

president's day weekend in review

Just realised it's President's Day weekend in the states, so most of you hard working American's will be off tomorrow, whilst I'll be busy working in London.

I had a very productive weekend, considering how sick I had been last week. Luckily I felt much better on Friday & was able to go to work for a full day :) Didn't do anything on Friday night, aside from getting a nice curry take away, for ONLY £3.95, which is VERY cheap for London prices!!

On Saturday I got up around 9am, showered, had breakfast, went to the post office & picked up a package which didn't fit through my mail slot. Brought it home, had a glass of water & headed to Tufnell Park tube station, where I got on the Northern line southbound via bank (that's the branch) - got off at Euston, switched to northbound Victoria line and rode all the way out to Walthamstow Central station. Met up with my mate Jenny, about 15 minutes later Adam & Genny showed up as well. From there we went to check out the Walthamstow market - the longest (distance) daily open market in all of Europe! I was overwhelmed by the amount of stalls on the street. We wandered for a bit, checked things out & listened to the stall owners yelling out their offers, competing with the other nearby stalls.

After 2 hours, we were rather cold, so we popped into a cafe & had a hot chocolate. From there we went to Sainbury's and got some food for lunch, before we went back to Jenny's house. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting, eating and having a good time. At 5pm I left to meet up with Rob at Kings Cross for dinner. From there we went to Camden Market (obviously the part that wasn't burned down) and had some Vietnamese food followed by stopping at the pub to hang out with some of our mates. At 10pm I was knackered so I headed home.

This morning I woke up & decided there were lots of things I wanted/needed to do, so I finished watching The Notebook, which I had started watching last night, but fell asleep (stop laughing mum!!) Then got up outta bed, showered, had breakfast, and decided first I would check out the gym across the road (literally 4 store fronts away). I really liked it so I signed up since I've been meaning to join a gym for awhile now & just have been too darn lazy to make the move, but today I did (yeah me). From there I went to Sainsbury and grabbed a few items.

After that I came home, called mum, spoke to her, whilst looking online for a hoover from Argos. I found a really nice one which was onsale, look at the advert:
Perfect for homes with pets. 2400 watts. Turbo brush for picking up pet hair. Variable power. 3.25 litre dust capacity. Washable anti-bacterial filtration. Foot operated cord rewind and on/off control. Chrome extension tubes.
since I normally find lots of hair on the floor, I thought this feature might be a really good idea. Reserved it online, got off phone with mum, got ready to go out again & off I trundled to Camden Town's Argos. Picked it up along with a new head for my Sonicare electric toothbrush.

Upon returning home, I hoovered the flat, wow, what a difference that made :) I then made banana nut muffins (see last Friday's post for recipe), did 2 loads of laundry, and now just writing this post, before I veg out. I know I'm going to have a busy week, preview:
Monday night is "cheap ethnic food dinner challenge"
Tuesday night is sushi with Lara
Wednesday night is gym induction night
Thursday and Friday night I have nothing yet . . .

Labels: holidays, shopping, weekend

posted by Sara @ 5:36 pm 7 comments

Happy Birthday Mrs. Nephew

Friday was a blast, the sing-a-long is hysterical & I got a few photos of us dressed as nuns (aka us wearing pillow cases). We laughed through the whole thing whilst belting out all of the songs, good fun was had by all!

After that I legged it up to Camden to meet Jim at the pub, which was actually closing as I walked in so we went down to the Camden Arms with Rose, Ray, and Julie (all bar staff at The Camden Tup) where we stayed till they closed & on to the Oh Bar on the high street we went. Next thing I knew it was late, we were knackered, Jim was hungry so off to catch the bus we went.

Got the internet installed on Saturday along with cable, but they couldn't do the phone line as they "forgot" their ladder & phone cables - now who shows up to install a phone line with out the proper cables I ask you? WTF is up with that?!?!?!? Really chaps my arse, I sat at home all day waiting for this & now I have to wait again on February 1st - Ugh!

Sunday I spent the day catching up on Grey's Anatomy's which I'd been missing since I didn't have an internet connection - now I'm caught up & sad about the writers strike - I NEED to know what's going to happen next (lol)

Labels: birthday, weekend

posted by Sara @ 9:47 am 2 comments

looking like me mum, eh?

Labels: weekend

posted by Sara @ 12:06 am 2 comments

Sad day for Gunners

Arsenals' striker, Thierry Henry (#14), has chosen to move to a new team, Barcelona. Here are some nice photos of his time with Arsenal since he joined the team in 1999. It is a sad day for the Gunners, but I think it will also give some of the other strikers (van Persie, Bendtner, Adebayor) a chance to really shine, of course maybe I'm a bit bias as I think that Robin van Persie is super cute :)

Aside from that news I don't have much else to report, weekend was rathre uneventful. Friday night relaxed at home. Saturday Estee & I went walking in Highgate Woods and arrived home just in time before the sky opened with thunder, lightening & heavy rain. We made a nice dinner with things we had in the house cause we couldn't be arsed to go out shopping! We had Kosher hamburgers with onions & spices along with aubergines and Persian rice (which is fried potatoes at the bottom & then rice on top). That night Estee, Zarina, Giulia and I all went out to a pub in New Southgate to meet up with E's cousin Stephen since one of Stephen's flatmates was having a bit of a get together with his friends for his birthday. Estee had told us it was a fancy dress party (costume dress up for Americans) but we just went in our normal clothes. What we did not realise is that all the South Africans who were there were really into the fancy dress & so we stuck out like sore thumbs. It was fun, but around midnight we decided to head home to have tea & biscuits at our place :) Sunday Estee & I went to TKMax (like TJMax in the states) and then to Yasir Halim's in Palmers Green to get some fresh fruit & veg at good prices. After we got home we did our rota cleaning & then I buggered off to Jim & Rob's for Sunday roast dinner.

And now I'm back at work today . . . fun fun fun. I took a few photos on Saturday night of my flatmates with my camera phone & hope to figure out out to get them onto my computer to share with all of you at a later date.

In other news, my blog has been rated G for everyone - yeah!!

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words: piss (1x) If you fancy knowing your rating click here

Labels: weekend

posted by Sara @ 10:34 am 2 comments