31 July 2008

I see Cretans

Despite the spate of good summer weather we've had in London (relatively speaking), Kirsten and I decided to do it one better and head to Crete for a few days.

We rented a villa on the western side of the island near Chania where we anticipated spending 5 relaxing days in the sun. We were not disappointed. We were treated to 5 straight days of cloudless skies and 90+ degrees. Thankfully we had a lovely pool all to ourselves when the heat got to be too much - all that exertion of sitting around reading really takes it out of you.

As an added bonus our friends Jon and Dina were able to make the trip to get a little downtime before moving into their dream house. A little bit of Crete goes a long way.

Really not a whole lot to report from Crete unless you want to hear about all the sitting around, drinking cold drinks, eating lovely homemade food, frequent dips in the pool, early evening swims in the sea and all the other boring things we got up to.
Two of the interesting bits were when Kirsten and I took the rental car and drove along a winding cliff side road to go to a "secluded" beach called Elafonisi. With a steep drop off on one side and herds of goats wandering around the road it was a pretty nerve racking drive. Just a few examples...
The secluded beach had a parking lot filled with tour buses, apparently the secret is out. Nevertheless, we found a couple of beach chairs under a big beach umbrella and spent a lovely few hours ... you guessed it ... reading and soaking up some rays (or the shade in the case of someone who got really sunburned within the first 30 minutes on the first day...ahem!). The charm of Elafonisi was that a portion of the land was cut off form the mainland by what had been referred to as a lagoon. You got to this island by wading through 50 ft. or so of knee high water. As there were no umbrellas to hide from the sun we stayed on the mainland.
Our 2nd to last night in Crete we went to the harbor in Chania for some dinner. We figured we might as well get our hands on some octopus or other seafood, Greek salad and other Grecian delicacies. We got some really nice pictures, but none on our camera so you'll have to picture it in your mind's eye. Dinner was alright and we decided to finish it up with some Ouzo, after all this was Greece. It would have been nice if it had stopped there but the proprietor liked us so much (can you blame him really?) brought over a round of raki. If you've never had you aren't missing anything. We were considering bringing a bottle back to help remove some paint from a few of our walls...
All in all, a very nice trip to rediscover what a proper summer is supposed to be like. Maybe next time when we go back we'll try and get out of the villa a bit more and find out what else this lvoely little island in the middle of the Med has to offer. Until then we'll always have the sun.

posted by Brian and Kirsten Hennigan @ Thursday, July 31, 2008 0 comments

18 July 2008

Banish - ed

Romeo, oh Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Well, last night Kirsten and I know where he was. He and Juliet were on stage in Regent's Park at the Open Air Theatre.

Each summer a series of Shakespeare's plays are put on as well as one non-Shakespeare play. An open air theatre in London? With the weather it may sound like a bad idea and I guess if it actually had rained we would have agreed. however we were fortunate to get cloudy skies that created a brilliant colourful backdrop as the sun set.

This particular performance was Romeo and Juliet in 50's style (I thought that's what West Side Story was???), except the script was all original Bill.

We grabbed a bite to eat before the performance but the food on offer did look good. But there was something very nice about watching Shakespeare under the night sky in an intimate venue with a nice bottle of red wine.

Truly how Will was meant to be enjoyed.

Now it's off to Crete, for some well deserved fun and sun after a week of celebration for 2 years of marriage.

posted by Brian and Kirsten Hennigan @ Friday, July 18, 2008 1 comments

08 July 2008

What a final

too bad we missed it. So apparently the 2008 men's Wimbledon final is considered one of the best tennis matches ever played (it seems like we have one of those every few years). We watched the first two sets and anticipated as did the rest of the tennis watching world that Nadal was going to finally unseat Rog in impressive fashion. I guess it was impressive in that he endured a 5 set marathon but it wasn't for Kirsten and I to watch, we had bigger and better things to do. We had a date with Dolly Parton.

We were lucky enough to have found a couple of tickets to the final Dolly Parton show at the O2 on the final night of her 4 week European tour and we were there for her.

Before the show we popped down to Greenwich to check it out and grab some dinner at one of the out of the way pubs that surround the area. We took pictures at the Prime Meridian being all east and west at the same time. If it hadn't been for the steady downpour it would have been pretty sweet. We'll be back Greenwich, oh yes, we'll be back.

Let me say it loud and clear, Dolly rocks! She's 60 something years old, her face has more plastic than Mr. Potato Head, her sequin outfits are blinding but the woman still has a set (ahem) of pipes. She sang a mix of her classics (Jolene, 9 to 5, Thank God I'm a Country Girl, I Will Always Love You) with some of her newer material but what made the concert so special was her conversations with the crowd between songs. So in addition to belting out the tunes she kept everyone laughing with her personal anecdotes about where she was from and the origin of the songs. Interesting little factoid: Jolene was based on the town tramp from her little town in Tennessee and Dolly wanted to grow up to be just like her.

Other highlights were her throw back gospel tunes and a cappella songs with members of the band, sounded like something straight out of "O Brother Where Art Thou".

The only damper on the day was that the Jubilee line was closed for maintenance works. If you aren't from London or haven't been to a show at the O2 recently let me tell you a little something about getting to the O2, there is only one public transportation stop, and it's on the Jubilee line. Of course there are buses and Thames boats, but they take a dog's age to get back to central London and after a show you get the distinct pleasure of having your personal space violated by about 20 people, simultaneously. However, despite the transportation woe nothing could dim the glow of a wonderful performance from Dolly.

posted by Brian and Kirsten Hennigan @ Tuesday, July 08, 2008 1 comments