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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Part Two

We made it to London around 10am ready to go. As I expected, our room was tiny. The bathroom reminded me of my basement apartment bathroom - very small. We did the standard touristy things.



Outside the National Gallery in the center of London


"Big Ben kids...Parliament"



Outside Westminster Abby. Theerrr's Parliament in the background.


BBC 1...BBC 2...BBC 3...BBC 4.


My friends Eddy and Patsy. Well, their clothes. Still pretty cool. I earned that coffee mug as a news anchor. Did I forget to tell you I studied broadcasting? I was flawless!


$1 to make a call. Good thing I had no one to call.


Eurostar! Going 184 mph to Paris.


Angelina's in Paris. Drinking chocolate and real cream. So good.

Poor statue.


Outside the Louvre. No time to go inside.


Inside the Notre Dame.


Outside the Notre Dame. It was cold in Paris.


Eiffel Tower. No time to go up. Maybe next time.


Cool photo looking up the tower.


Done with Paris and trains and the subway train that got re-routed while we were waiting for it. Ended up walking back to the hotel about 2 miles. Not a fun way to end the day.


Penny Lane!


Tower of London. Lots of bad things happened here.


Pondering Stonehenge. Or maybe the sun was in my eye.


Our long journey home with our British goodies; Vimto and Walkers Roast Chicken flavored chips. Both were very good and so was our flight.

Friday, February 15, 2008

I realized at lunch I'm officially old

Glasses that I haven't worn in a year.
Eye cream.
Taking NPR's advice on a good place for lunch.

Check, check and check.

So my eyes have decided to crap out on me lately. I think they've said, "hey, we're not young anymore so remember those glasses you sorta needed when we were younger? Ya we need them now".

I'm actually thinking it's a combination of things like the ridiculous lighting situation at work. Half the office has no lights on - think caves or basements - and the other half sit like they are on the sun. Guess which side I'm on. I should just wear my sunglasses. I might get less stares with those on instead of my glasses and hearing, "You wear glasses?" I'll start responding with, "I do?!"

And it's really dry here. Not good for eyes. I'm not crying (even though my work does make me want to cry all.day.long), my eyes are dying for some moisture.

Speaking of aging eyes, I've got wrinkles that have just decided to pop up around them! Does it all go down hill from here? Guess my years of squinting at the computer screen pretending I didn't need glasses has caught up. I bought some eye cream and have been eagerly using every night. We'll see if that expensive crap works.

I was in denial about my age even with the wrinkles and the need for glasses but not anymore. I realized I'm old(er) because of NPR today at lunch. I've listened to NPR for years. I don't want to hear how you think I'm lame because of it - whatever, we've all got our lame things in our lives and now that I'm old(er) I can say stick it!

Thursday is restaurant review. We heard of a BBQ place near work. Justin wanted to go because it sounded good. I agreed. We went today and it was good. Until some older people (older than me now) walked in and was talking to the cook. All I heard was "we heard about you on NPR!"

My life is over.

Ok, just kidding! I've only been 30 for 2 weeks and it's not bad at all. I can basically do what I want. I had ice cream for dinner the other night. I hear my mom and sister do that all the time. I don't see what all the excitement is about though. It's just ice cream. I was hungry an hour later. It was really dumb, lesson learned.

And isn't it about lessons learned through out life?

So I'll go on listening to NPR. I'll keep using my sunscreen (MIL loves me for using sunscreen. I know tan fat is better than white fat but no wrinkles kicks all their asses combined.) and eye cream and I'll get a new prescription for my glasses. I'm 30 and I like the surprised look when I tell people that. Lesson learned.

*going to get Scullers from her Cali vacation this weekend. I should have the rest of my photos up at the foell.org gallery when I get back for those who are interested.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Part One

Just some of our Thailand photos:


We stopped in Tokyo for some goodies.


View from our room in Pattaya. Yes it was that hazy and humid.


Getting ready to go boating. The waves were rough and the winds were high. Oh and 3 people got sick and the boat wouldn't start. But we made it back.


Red Bull in a medicine bottle. It cost us $.33!


Eating yummy Thai food.


Justin's food was smoking!


Wat Po with some of the wedding party.


Adit, Paveena, and Adit's mom Sarita at the Ring and Mehendi Ceremony. No clue what happened but it was really a greeting line. Party #1.


Henna time.



The Baraat (Indian procession to meet the Bride). Party #2. We made it to Party #3 later that night (basically a really big wedding reception) but I felt sick so we left early.


After the ceremony. Justin, Adit and I waiting to depart for the Doli (to pick Paveena up...again). Party #4 about to start.


Walking through Paveena's neighborhood on an Elephant. All the white people have seen "When Animals Attack" so we stayed away.


Successfully picked up Paveena and Adit's crew, including Justin, carried her to the last reception. More dinner, dancing and boozing.


See the glow? It was humid.


Justin, as he looks in his natural state.

Stay tuned for part two.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

London in Eight Days

We actually have a few days left here. I'm just waiting for Justin to get up so we can head up to Liverpool to visit the hometown of The Beatles. Internet is expensive here. Actually I just looked at my credit card bill and I spent $111.00 on 2 shirts! So I'm really watching what I spend and if it's something I can get at home, I don't buy it.

London is a complete 180 from Bangkok. It's so nice and friendly. Traffic jams are replaced with subway delays and hookers are replaced with pubs.

It's hard to say if I'd go back to BKK. I need some time to think about it. London on the other hand, I'm totally coming back to. There is still so much we haven't done. But so far it's been great.

Yes, I've had some great Thai food, British food (guess that can be hard to believe) and we had some Lebonese food last night. Yes, I've taken lots of photos including photos of Justin and I in our Indian outfits. Don't worry, we'll post them up for all to see. On our way back from Paris Justin took a photo to show how I was feeling at the time. You'll be able to tell which one.

Well it's time for a traditional English breakfast. We'll be home Tuesday night. Don't worry work friends, we'll be in the office Wednesday at 7am!

Friday, February 01, 2008

The Longest Wedding Event EVER

It's Saturday Morning here(11:00am)and the final wedding event was last night. Adit rode down Paveena's street on an elephant (seriously) to pick her up. The temple marriage was simple compared to all the other events we've been to here. It's like they are royalty because cameras are always flashing. It's really impressive.

It's been a crazy but amazing event (all 4 of them). I'll post more when Justin fixes his space bar-it's stuck-hard to type.

Overall we've had an amazing time here in Bangkok. Shopping is CRAZY here. We went to one mall - 5 levels. 1 level all cell phones! People love their cell phones here. More shopping today. We leave tomorrow night for London. Hopefully I'll get some photos up once we get there.

Have a good Friday night...I did!