London Calling: March 2007

24 March 2007

Kirsten trumps Snoop

We definitely sympathise with Snoop...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070324/ap_en_mu/people_snoop_dogg

22 March 2007

We Have a Visa!!!! and other updates

After weeks of worrying and some "official" bad news Kirsten received her long-term Visa yesterday. This means she can now stay in the country for another 5 years, unless of course I leave (the country or otherwise)...

So it's joy in the Hennigan household these days, travel throughout Europe can't be far behind.

A couple of other updates:

Last Friday Kirsten's collaborating physician from Philly, David Iddeden (sp?) popped into London to visit us and took us out to a top meal at Petrus, one of Gordon Ramsay's finest. The 8 course tasting menu with champagne to start, wine to partner and Port to finish was truly a memorable experience. We told him he should come visit more often...

Monday we hit the Carling Academy with Mads (getting her Brit on), Martyn and a few others. Carling Academy is a small music venue just down the road from our flat. The performance was the Alabama 3 (theme song to the Sopranos) opening for the Tennessee 3 (former back-up to the one and only Johnny Cash). Aside from the talking to I had to give a particularly disinterested concert-goer, it was a good night of punk country and classic Cash tunes. Something about a room full of Brits jumping up and down and singing Ring of Fire at the top of their lungs just warms the heart.

17 March 2007

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

Ah the 17th of March, and a Saturday to boot. 2 new posts below so check them out. And for a recap to get us current:

--Due to the Scots inability to keep the French from crossing the goal line and the Italians late try against the Irish, France won the 6 Nations Rubgy Tourney on points for the second year in a row. Hopefully the World Cup will be more friendly for the Irish lads.

--Another gorgeous day in London, perfect for Paddy's Day. We took the opportunity to walk from our flat to Borough Market. Definitely a healthy walk (without a map) and we saw many sights we normally wouldn't. Don't look know but this is starting to feel like a familiar place...

--Tonight it's off to the Hemingfors Arms to have some pints of Guinness and take in some live Irish music. The craic should be good. The company will be outstanding, we'll have a Kerryman (did you know there are 2 types of Irishmen?), a Belle and a Nicolas and about a hundred imbibing Irish folk.

There, it's done. We are officially up to date with the blog. May the adventures continue...

We got culture yes we do, we got culture how 'bout you?

Monday saw the run of activities continue, as well as the good weather.

The Almeida Theatre which is just behind our flat just kicked off a new performance. After being extremely pleased with the first offering "There Came a Gypsy Riding", and being offered discounted tickets, we took in the new show "Dying For It".

The cover art made us believe that it was some sort of half puppet/ half human play, but we were pleasantly surprised to find it was all-human, all the time.

Rather than write my own recap, here is the summation as stolen from the Almeida's website,

"When his last hope for self-respect disappears, Semyon decides to take his own life. But word gets out and he finds himself inundated with sympathetic visitors - begging him to die on their behalf. Suddenly, he’s an important man, and on the night of his proposed suicide, events spiral to a gloriously funny climax.

Dying For It is the world premiere of a new play inspired by Erdman’s celebrated satirical comedy. Moira Buffini is best known for her brilliant comedy Dinner at the National Theatre and the West End.

So far we're 2 for 2 with plays at the Almeida, a definite must for any visitors to Chez Hennigan in Islington.

One of the neat things about being so close to the theatre is walking down the street to work or for dinner and bumping into the actors and actresses, it's our own little slice of culture heaven, come into the light one and all...

Sunday with Charlie

Brian's buddy Wayne and his fiancee Claire are the proud parents of a 7 week-old baby boy, Charlie Tritton.

On Sunday 11 March, we wandered about Islington for a couple of hours. The weather was gorgeous and is starting to demonstrate what a wonderful place this is to be in the spring and summer. We hopped a train out to Windsor in the early afternoon and spent a few hours among the hordes of tourists (damn foreigners!) walking by all the shops in the shadow of Windsor Castle.

After a fruitless effort to find the perfect gold shoes for Kirsten to compliment her bridesmaid gown (for our friend Cate's impending wedding) we decided to treat each other to the perfect Sunday afternoon activity...

So while Kirsten enjoyed a pedicure, Brian sat in a pub and watched England beat France in the 6 Nations Rugby tournament, thereby keeping Ireland's hopes of a championship alive, at least for another week.

We finally made it over to Wayne and Claire's and our first meeting with little Charlie. I'll say this for the kid, he's got one set of lungs on him! We each took turns holding him, it is possible he liked Kirsten better, not that you can blame him. After baby time was over we decided to let Wayne and Claire resume normal activities without the added distraction of 2 childless Americans with no real responsibilities...

Before leaving Windsor we hit up a new sushi place on the high street, our first proper Sunday sushi dinner since the States, and it was very good. The host was very welcoming and provided us with glasses of plum wine to finish off our meal. With that we hopped the train back to London, belly's full and cheeks aglow from the sun and drinks absorbed throughout the day.

We could definitely get used to this sunny lazy weekend activities, here's hoping that the trend continues...

Kicking it in March

So everyother weekend or so Kirsten has to work either Saturday or Sunday. This gives me the opportunity to sleep in and then spend the day in the nearest pub watching football, rugby or god forbid cricket. I guess I could always go into the office and use the time productively, but that generally sounds like the worst idea ever.

Last Saturday (10 March) while Kirsten was working, I convinced Martyn to accompany me to Cambridgeshire for the East Anglia Food Festival, billed as the largest food fair in England. It was quite the adventure getting there, and finding that the "largest food fair" in England comprised 80 stalls. If one were to speculate at the Brits cuisine based on the food fair you would be convinced their diets consisted of sausage, cheese, olive oil, beer, wine and poultry...oh wait, that is their diet. Some of the highlights (aside from being in the middle of nowhere and costing us 20 pounds to get their from the train station):
>>The St. Peter's Brewery - quality beers in very unique bottles. Check out the website (www.stpetersbrewery.co.uk), they have a limited distribution to the US. I also found they have a pub just down the road from us, so make sure we go there on your visit. The Honey Porter is fantastic.
>>River House Smoked Salmon (www.riverhousesmokedsalmon.co.uk) - I like smoked salmon normally, this stuff was phenomenal.
>>Agnes and Joe (www.agnesandjoe.co.uk) - Awesome curry, brought out beads of sweat on my forehead, but really nice flavor. It didn't hurt that the woman was wearing a Red Sox hat, I told her the curry was a "wicked pissah", she told me to f^&* off, oh well...

Some of the places that Martyn and I avoided were the Diaper Poultry Stall (I think a re-brand might be in order), Bhaji Man (he scared me), The Story of Pork (scintillating) and several others that just looked odd.

After Martyn and I made it back to London, I picked Kirsten up and we met up with fellow ex-pats, Pat and Amy for a lovely dinner down Charlotte St. Lots of good restaurants to choose from.

On Sunday Kirsten and I went out to Windsor, but that's for the next blog entry...

08 March 2007

Enough already

Yeah, yeah, yeah...so we took a month off from the blog, we have lives to lead people!

The lovely Mrs. has written 2 new blog entries. Consider yourselves caught up.

Publius jr. indeed.

Cotswolds Make Me Horny.

Brian told me I couldn't use this title, but hey - it's my blog entry right??? The runner-up title was "Liz Hurley's Lovely Wedding!!!"

Let me explain... Last week we both were feeling a little down. Life can be stressful sometimes you know? We knew that an escape from the city would be just what the nurse practitioner ordered. Both of our passports are tied up in Visa World so we had to stay in the United Kingdom. I emailed some friends for suggestions and started looking in to the Cotswolds.

The Cotswolds are a grouping of small hills that lie about 100 miles west of London. We read that they were known for their quaint villages and abundant hiking trails that span between Oxford and Bath. I was looking for something that was full of fresh air and not too touristy. We found a small town called Broadway and started looking at B&Bs.

And that's how we met Dick and Jane. They own and run the lovely Lowerfield Farm, located about two miles from the center of town. After submitting an internet request, Richard (his name's not really Dick) immediately called us at home. We booked a room and he agreed to pick us up at the train station on Saturday morning. He arrived with tweed trousers, a V-neck sweater and a cap. A true old English gentleman. We hopped in his car and he immediately started in about local history, his farm, and his heritage. I knew then that we had picked the perfect weekend reprieve. We learned that his farm supplies enough wheat for 50 million loaves of Warburton bread (probably the equivalent of Freihoffer's in the states).

When we arrived at the farm we were greeted by Maisie and Molly. Two very friendly, gorgeous labs. We were told that Maisie was particularly good for pheasant hunting. We were shown our room and given a cup of tea. After a nice chat with Dick (I mean Richard) and Jane we hopped back in the car and headed to Broadway. We strolled through town, checked out a 14th century church, and hiked two miles up to a lookout tower. (see pics)

We headed down from the tower around 3:30 and noticed a helicopter overhead. We assumed it must be the one-and-only Sir Elton John heading to Liz Hurley's wedding just 15 miles from Broadway. As we continued our stroll through town, we kept on the lookout for anyone famous. No luck.

Around 6pm we headed to another town called Chipping Camden for dinner. We ended up at a cozy Italian place with a bottle of wine.

All in all it was a perfect break from London.

On Sunday morning we woke up to rattling windows, heavy rain, and fierce wind. Hiking seemed to be out. We went downstairs for a full English farm breakfast and started discussing alternative plans. Turned out that Dick and Jane were driving in to London. They offered to drive us home but we weren't quite ready to end our weekend away. We asked them to drop us off in Oxford instead. The weather was still too crappy to walk around so we headed to an old pub called the Turf Tavern. It had a tented outdoor space with benches and an open fire pit. Brian read his newspaper and I settled in to my book.

A few hours later we decided to get a train back to London.

Both of us started this week feeling refreshed. So, perhaps it shouldn't be "Cotswolds Make Me Horny" but "Cotswolds Make Me Feel Human Again."

Papa Hill Makes a Visit

After a long break (and some convincing from Brian) I am finally taking a turn at writing for our blog.

So, here it goes.

My dad arrived on Wednesday the 14th of February for a week long visit. We missed Thanksgiving and Christmas with him so we were excited to have him here. Our Valentine's celebrations weren't too glamorous, but we did manage to open a bottle of champagne with the lasagna that I had made ahead of time.

Both Brian and I had to work on Thursday and Friday so Dad entertained himself with a trip to the British Museum and a double decker bus tour through London. During those two days Brian was on a marathon for work. By Friday night he was laid up in bed with a fever, sweats, and a relentless cough. Dad and I love him dearly, but the party had to go on. On Friday night we headed to Shepherd's Market for dinner at the famous Polish/Mexican place. It's true! You really can have borscht and a burrito!

On Saturday we left Brian home with some Lemsip and headed to Borough Market to check out all of the amazing food stalls. We bought stinky cheese and sniffed all of the yummy breads and pastries. I led him by the "freak show" stall where they have sharks and eels on ice beds and bleeding rabbit and deer carcasses for sale. After an hour or so we meandered along the Thames and stopped in the Tate Modern to check out their slide exhibit and use the loo. From there we crossed the Millenium Bridge and headed to St. Paul's Cathedral. Afterwards we were ready for a little sitdown and a cup of tea.

Our friends Jordie and Kim were in town visiting an old friend of Jordie's. We had originally planned on meeting them for dinner but with Brian's condition we shortened it to a few pints at an organic gastro pub.

On Sunday I was back to work, so Brian and Dad traveled the 800 yards to tuck in at our "local" for an afternoon football match. We had planned to then head to Hampstead Heath for a traditional Sunday roast but the trains weren't running. Damn weekend "engineering work". We ordered takeout for Brian and headed to a restaurant in Islington instead.

We scheduled the Imperial War Museum for Monday. The Basement and 1st Floor cover World Wars 1 and 2. From there you move upstairs to Genocide and the Holocaust. Holy smokes! Not exactly a cheery pick-me-up. But nonetheless, very interesting and worth the trip. Just bring your snot rag and valium.

After a stop at home, we headed down to SoHo to one of our favorite chain restaurants - Wagamamas. Yum, yum, and more yum. My preference is one of their noodle dishes (#44 Chicken Udon Noodle) but Brian goes for a soup (#21 Chicken Raman). Dad enjoyed his food, but I'm not sure that he was sold on the uber modern cafeteria-style that they have going on. From their we headed to see Chicago. Wow! Those people can dance, and they have FIERCE bodies! The singing was fair to good, but the dancing was outrageous. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. Now I want to rent the movie to see Queen Latifah in the roll of Mama.

For Dad's last day we decided to get out of the city. He had never been to Oxford (and neither had I) so first thing Tuesday morning we hopped on a train. Having been to Cambridge, I knew that a walking tour can be very informative and fun. We arrived around 11, had a snack, and signed up for the 1 o'clock tour. Our guide was very informative and according to dad, "cute". She led us through a few colleges and showed us various points of interest - e.g. where Lewis Carroll supposedly got inspiration for characters in Alice in Wonderland. Our tour guide also pointed out the oldest pub in the city. We took note, and returned after the tour. A few pints later and we were ready to return to London.

On Wednesday morning we bid farewell and helped him in to a black cab heading to Paddington Station. Not only did Dad manage to escape one of the biggest snow storms that upstate New York has ever seen (4 feet!) but I think he also had a fab trip to London Town.

Anyone else care to visit?????

London Calling