306/365

David and I went to Royal Ascot today! We got dressed up...



Saw The Queen....


and even won some money!

293/365

I found a slug in one of our milk bottles at work. I didnt know what the milk man would do to him, so hid the bottle in the bushes so he could make his slow escape. I'll have to check him tomorrow to see if he's found a new hang out.

173/365

Here we are stuck in traffic for over an hour this morning due to the miniscule amount of snow-ish substance which fell over night. Pathetic!

163/365

I love that there are really streets like this in England. Its so "movie set", but really just Farnham. Lovely!

Oh and there is a castle in Farnham, too:

134/365

Today was one of the days I look forward to the entire year: PRAM RACE DAY! Other wise known as Boxing Day to most, but to me its just the day that the wonderful Pram Race happens in Windlesham. Basically, participants choose a theme such as GI Joe, Legos, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc and decorate a pram (stroller), shopping cart, parade float (depending on how fancy they are), dress up like idiots and run around this very quaint village going from pub to pub drinking in each one. Its lovely. Here are a few shots:

133/365

For Christmas lunch, we went to a fairly swanky hotel with David's parents instead of cooking at home (my genius idea). I love the tradition of wearing hats on during your Christmas meal no matter how fancy of a place you may be eating. The tradition is that each person has a Christmas cracker on their plate and you open them at the start of the meal and wear the paper hat which is inside. On a side note: David and I went to Fortnum and Mason (aka the Queen's grocery store) and saw crackers being sold for £1000 for 4 of them! I wonder what kind of hats are in those...!

Oh and we went to David's parents to after lunch and played Monopoly (some new version where you buy famous places in London) and I won big time!! Look at my hotels!

131/365

As you can tell by this photo, Jolly England has much to learn when it comes to clearing roads after snowfall (especially after rain falls on the snow and turns it into thick sheets of ice). I imagine the side roads will be treacherously slippery for days to come.

107/365

Classic.

98/365

Ha ha! We went to Hardy's restaurant in Bagshot (the only "real" Mexican/TexMex restaurant around here) tonight and look at this... Pronunciation of fajita? Seriously?

And for the record: It was really very good. I will be back for sure!

96/365

Just in case you havent been one of the hundreds of people I have told about the wonderful 10 pound note. Imagine the uproar if Americans attempted to put Darwin on any goverment anything! Go Darwin.

91/365

I went to the doctor today and noticed this sign and it made me giggle. (Its an advertisment for a local gym)
In America, signs in doctor's offices would probably urge you not to drink at all, but look at the print in the black box: "Workout your weekly alcohol intake in the club, then work it off with a free 5 day pass". I love that they just assume everyone has a weekly alcohol intake! Good 'ol England.

74/365

This is the UK equivilant of a vanity plate... I never can tell what they are supposed to say since you have to keep close to the format of a regular plate, apparently. You can't just have a plate that says a word, it has to have some numbers it in, so people use numbers that they think look like letters to take the place of them. Eventhough they dont make any sense, people pay thousands of dollars for the rights to certain plates.

For further reading on the fun subject of UK license plates, including how you can tell the age of a car by its plate, click here!

68/365: You know you're in England when....

I went to a conference for work today in London and came across this nice photo in between rooms 5 and 6. Of course, I giggled and whipped out my camera. I wonder where one buys these mass produced portraits?

63/365

Tell me.. what make one chicken burger more American than the next one?

44/365

We went to a little pub for lunch this afternoon and came across this lone horse... David figured someone had ridden him to the pub to avoid drink driving.

27/365: Covent Garden Has Talent

I went into London today to meet with yet another recruitment agency, go to a charity career and volunteer fair and to meet up with some girls from the ex-pat website to which I belong.
The recruiter was as helpful or unhelpful as the rest and didnt give me much hope that he would be the one to come through in the end, but we'll see. The charity fair turned out to be much more about charities looking for volunteers rather than employers, but I suppose that was to be expected. It was really nice to have some girly talk with some other ex-pats and to hear that I am not alone with some of the issues I've been having, so I hope we can do these things regularly.

While I was waiting to meet the girls, I went to Covent Garden (of course!) and came across a fabulous really funny street show. The host picked some poor guys off the street and had them compete in what he called "Covent Garden Has Talent" like the TV show Britain's (or America's) Got Talent. Here is a bit of what he did:

22/365

Whoops no photo today. But I am glad to report that the British Gas guy came back and sucessfully fixed the boiler, so I had a wonderful long hot shower before we went off to the pub tonight. The neighbor's dog, Molly, came with us and ran around the pub and I loved that no one cared! The landlord (pub owner guy) even gave her biscut and I gave her a drink of a water on the bar. We'll see what Mirra thinks about the pub next month!

21/365: Something For Everyone

There are many tea and coffee shops in Camberley, but take a look at this one closely...see on the right - its "for the over 50s"! Who knew there was such a thing?? I looked up Age Concern since they seem to run the shop and its actually a charity for elderly people and this is just one of the programs they run. It's perfect considering that the Starbucks in Camberley is filled with annoying teenagers. I wonder if the over 50s would allow me to stop in for a coffee if I am on my best behaviour?