A Year in Reflection

New Years Eve not only is a time of celebration but a chance to reflect on the last year. Last year this time I made a huge list of New Years Resolutions and where I wanted to be. Well, looking back I can say that not a single item on my list was completed. The year was probably the most difficult and dowright painful I've ever had since moving to London. However, instead of listing my failures and struggles these last several months, the only thing that I can do is move forward. This year is gone and there's nothing I can do to change the things I have had to deal with. I feel that life is made up of opportunities to learn from the challenges and I definitely feel like I've grown this year and learned a lot about myself. I hope that the New Year will be somewhat easier than this last one, but if not that I will be able to cope with whatever comes my way.

Instead of a long list of resolutions this time round, my one goal this new year is to have more compassion. Compassion towards myself, compassion towards James, compassion towards others and compassion towards my environment/world. I really think this one thing will make so many other things that are insignificant in comparison fall in place. Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone changed their perspective/focus to things like compassion & gratitude? It makes you think and personally I can't wait to see the potential for change it will bring to my own life.

So watch this space and hopefully this next time next year I will have a much different report to give! In the mean time, Happy New Year to all of you as well and I hope that the new year will bring blessings to you and your family.

Christmas in the Country

Again this year we spent Christmas and Boxing Day in the West Midlands (the Shire) with James' family. It was a great break and nice to get away from the hectic worries of London. It was nice to go running along the lanes in the countryside and was even better to catch up with friends and relatives. I feel there's something really great about being in the fresh air around horses, chickens and other 'live' animals. It can do anyone the world of good. Anyway, here are some pictures from our trip:

James' niece and nephew

Views of the Countryside

Drinking in England

Being the holiday season, the never-ending problem of drinking in England becomes even more apparent than it does the rest of the year. The last two to three weeks in December, most people in this country are either drunk or in the process of nursing hang-overs. Its got to the point that James and I won't even go out on New Years because there's just too many drunk people around who are annoying and cause trouble.

Binge drinking is officially a problem in England. Many government initiatives have been started, with little positive results to squash and regulate this. I'm not surprised though because pub life is a huge part of the culture. When you think of pub's you think of seedy little bars with flashing neon lights, the smell of smoke and weird creepy men eyeing you up. Well, its not like that (for the most part) here. Pub's are a place you take the family for Sunday lunches out and is where friends and work colleagues meet. The government banned smoking inside pubs and most are old Victorian style, with beautiful interiors. The entire social networking is centered around visits to pubs and even if you don't drink alcohol, you still go to the pub and have a huge choice of alternate beverages open to you. In a way, pubs are very similar to cafe's, but a lot more 'homey'. So, based on all of this you can see why its so incredibly difficult to not grace through the doors of a pub in this country. If you don't you can pretty much kiss any chance of friends goodbye.

Being fond of 'the drink', the English have learned the art of making alcohol. Besides tea (that's a completely different subject) the amount of beer that this little island makes is astonishing. Alcohol in Europe has more alcohol content than the U.S. and your lucky to find anything for beer below 5%. (Beer in America is around 1 1/2-2%) and wine is ludicrous at 12.5%. The term 'alco-pops' is a big thing as well. There's a huge choice of sugar-laden alcohol related drinks that you literally cannot tell they are alcoholic as they taste of soda-pop. Its unfortunately become a problem for young teens obtaining these 'alco-pops' before the legal age requirement of being 18 years old. Its very common seeing teens standing around drinking because they have little else to do with their time.

The country caters to this 'abuse' and then is surprised when they have more problems with anti-social behaviors and other problems. Too many use alcohol as a coping mechanism, which only covers the real source of the problem in my opinion. I don't think a downright ban is necessary but more education should exist about the effects as well as alternate coping skills in dealing with stress. Alcohol should be approached with a very very mature attitude or completely avoided if not possible to drink in moderation. This has been my approach to it since I've lived here and James tries to do the same. On a positive note though, a lot of people it seems are starting to become more health conscious and binge drinking is getting better. I don't think that this problem will ever go away entirely but I think that there is hope for the future.

Training: Ten Mile Marker

Well since my last post, I've managed to break over that 6 mile hump finally. Slowly but surely, I have been adding the miles and today for the first time in my life I ran for over 2 hours, non-stop making the grand total 10 miles. I was having serious doubts I could ever get to this point and funny enough today I enjoyed every bit of the way. Blackheath and Greenwich (near where I live) are beautiful before 8 o'clock in the morning, bloody freezing this time of year but make absolutely beautiful running routes. We've seen a family of swans in a nearby lake and a couple of times we have even seen fox's! Anyway--the next hump is 15 miles and getting the ol' speed up. Hopefully it will be early in the new year when I can write again about how this who process is going.

In the mean time, I would like to mention that my partner James and I are required to raise sponsorship money for charity in order to run the London Marathon. Although there is plenty of time to think about this (its not until April), we would both be grateful for any assistance in reaching our goal. Please see the button in my side-bar for 'JustGiving' for more information should the mood take you!

The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army

One of the best reasons for living in London is the incredible once in a life-time exhibitions that come here. Today was one of those great experiences as I had the privilege to see at the British Museum , the largest exhibition to date outside of China of the famed 'Terracotta Army".

The exhibition was housed in the Museum's library, famous in its own right for having reader's grace through its doors such as Karl Marx and Arthur Conan Doyle. It has a dome ceiling which adds to the grandness of what you are seeing. You walk up a set of stairs and immediately its overwhelming, so much to see, read and absorb.

The first part of the exhibition was learning about the man behind the Army: China's very first emperor, Quin (pronounced 'Chin' which is where the name China comes from). He came from a family of horse breeders, I believe he was poor and after uprising he pronounced himself leader. The 120 artifacts included in this section were normal every day items of the time--things of significance like bells, clay roof tiles, money (including what they used for money before a form of currency) and items used during rituals. One thing I found interesting was the fact the emperor wanted to consider himself ruler of not only China, but the universe (heaven & earth). He actually planned the spots for his temples based on the stars. His idea's of death & being ruler of the spirit world led to him making the artifacts (including the Terracotta Army) that surround his tomb.

A farmer found the Terracotta Army in 1974 accidentally, not realizing that it would become one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th Century and be considered now the 8th wonder of the world covering an area about 56k/36 miles. Apparently only 1/3 has been excavated so far and to date they have managed to put back together approximately 7,000 (they were broken obviously) of the Warriors, have found 40,000 arrowheads, found about 87 pieces of armour (each has about 500 pieces, they have put back together two), found horses, chariots, acrobats, Strongmen, musicians and animals and man made rivers of mercury. The actual tomb these items surround, has not been touched. Some say the emperor created an entire replica of China inside the massive mound. There is no plans on opening the tomb just yet and they are focusing on the pits surrounding it first. Who knows whether this will be opened in our lifetime.

In the last part of the exhibition I was able to see 20 of these warriors, including some of the horses, one of two in existence of the pieces of armour, some acrobats, archers, strongmen, as well as some of the birds and musicians. Obviously only a tiny, tiny fraction of what exists but a good sampling of the items anyway. It was great because although the actual warriors were surrounded by a heavily alarmed motion sensory bar, we were able to get incredibly incredibly close. Each warrior if you would believe is made unique, with different hairstyles as well as facial and physical features. The detail is exquisite and they look so life-like. Apparently 700,000 people worked (including convicts) over 38 years in making this mausoleum for the Emperor. Many obviously died unfortunately in the process.

Although I hope to go to China one day and see these again in the country of orgin, I doubt I would ever be able to get up as close as I did today. If you can't tell by this post it was an amazing experience to see them and one that I will honestly never forget the rest of my life.

Christmas across London

I love the Christmas decorations this year in the city. In years past it seems like they haven't put much thought into them, but this year its different. This year its been fantastic and it really sets the mood for the whole holiday season. Here are a few shots from the city:

Trafalgar Square

If you click on the picture to enlarge you can see the details and the twinkly lights of the tree better. The tree in Trafalgar Square is a gift given by Norway every year as a thank you for England's help in WWII. The views are great here at night when the fountains are lit up and you can see Big Ben in the background.

Setting up in Greenwich Market

I live about 10 minutes away from this market and although this picture doesn't do it justice, the decorations are beautiful this year. Greenwich Market is fabulous for buying artisan goods of everything you can imagine- particularly beautiful hand made bags. The stall directly to the right is selling mulled wine and apple cider, traditional English drinks for the holiday season.

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is absolutely beautiful this year. All the lights are decorated with icicles and it looks like a winter wonderland. Covent Garden dates back to the 1600's and was generally a place where people sold things. It became famous for its flower sellers and was the inspiration for Eliza Doolittle in My fair Lady. It is also well known for the street puppetry of 'Punch and Judy'. Today it is full of musicians who perform, great shops, open stalls, great food and street performers of all sorts. Two of my favorite places of the market include a vintage toy shop called Pollock's and of course the Royal Opera House which is right in the main square. You can never go wrong with a day at Covent Garden and I personally find it a lot more manageable shopping here than some of the busier places like Oxford Street or Bond Street.

Training, Day 22: Six miles or Bust!

Until marathon day in April I thought every once in a while I could chronicle how my training is going for the big day--the frustrations and particularly the little achievements. I figured it would be a neat way to look back at my journey to complete this thing. So anyway here goes:

Well we're nearly 3 weeks into running again after Morocco and it feels like a lifetime. The weather has been cold and dark. Can I emphasize the word dark? Because it gets dark so early now 95% of our running is after the sun has gone down. Our run on Monday was in the pouring rain and whilst I was completely soaked running in the mud and freezing, I kept asking myself now why am I doing this? If it wasn't for James' relentless positive outlook and motivation I honestly think I'd still be curled up in bed on a Saturday morning.

We're up to 6 miles per run, about 3-4 times a week (the other days per week we do yoga or weight training). Last week we did about 15 miles. As we get closer and closer to the time we'll be doing about 40-50 miles a week to train--about 15-20+ miles per run. From what I understand from James and his dad (who've both done marathons) this torture to my body is necessary so that the 26.2 miles won't be such a shock to my system.

At the moment, getting over this six mile mark is a huge psychological barrier for me. I've never run more than 6 miles at a time in my life. The longest race I've done is a 10k and I can feel my body being pushed in ways that its frankly just not used to both mentally and physically. I think mentally this race will be very hard because when you hit that wall of sheer physical exhaustion its the mental that has to carry you through to the finish. I know that it will be a huge barrier to get over especially with my history of self-doubt. I'm up for the challenge though and have wanted to do a marathon for so long. I was always the fat kid growing up and I want to do it to get over this stereotype and finally loose that last little bit of weight. With the amount of running I'll be doing and the calories it burns I'm sure I'll finally do it!

So---Watch this space and hopefully by my next 'training' entry I'll be over the six mile hump!

Best of London

Not much is new in our lives at the moment so I thought I'd give my two cents about what I believe is the best of London. A lot of these are my favorite places, things to do,etc and I'm sure nearly every Londoner will give you a different answer for each. This is what is so great about the city--so many options for every type of personality. The list could go on and on but here are just a few:

Best............

place to eat out on a budget- Carluccio's in Canary Wharf

place to buy groceries- Waitrose

park- Greenwich

au natural smoothies- Crussh

museum to get lost in- Victoria & Albert

overall shopping experience- Selfridges

shopping for everything
including the kitchen sink- John Lewis

Clothes shop- Zara

art- National Gallery

food market- Borough Market-London bridge

crafts/outdoor market- Greenwich

place to watch movies- The Empire in Leicester Square

place to make fun of tourists- The tube (subway)

View of the city- Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Ice-cream- Movenpick/Green & Blacks

Cultural Experience- A play on the West End

place to hear a concert- Royal Albert Hall

Touristy Spot- Covent Garden

Place for a cup of tea- Organic Cafe, Greenwich

Thing to do on a Sunday morning- Walk through Blackheath Common to Greenwich Park

place for peace and quiet- Greenwich Park on a weekday morning

Two weeks & Running

I've been going extra extra gung-ho on the exercise the last few months or so . This is due to a lot of reasons but mainly I need to get my weight down quickly for my health. I've been doing running races every year since 2002 but the last two weeks I had the bright idea to do two 5k (3 mile) races back to back. My total mileage including the race since last Sunday is 10 miles and this doesn't include my usual time I clocked at the gym and doing yoga this week. I've just got a few more weeks to keep this routine up (if I don't pass out first) and then I've got trekking in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to look forward to in October as well. 4-5 hours of hiking a day in the high mountains of North Africa will be definitely a challenge. So, keep your fingers crossed and end of November/December I should hopefully have dropped at least a little bit of weight.

The races these last two weeks were the same distance but two completely different worlds. The first one was the London Peace Run through Greenwich Park. About 100 people participated, 80 of them professional runners. Mentally I found this one horrible because half the people darted way ahead at the start, the heat was draining and the difficulty of the hills were unexpected. My time was crap but James did it with me and that made it a lot more worthwhile. Here are some pics of James and I at the end of the race:

The second one, the Hydro Active Women's Challenge was quite humorous due to the amount of people involved. 20,000 runners just in London participate every year to do a little 3 mile race and professional runners come from all over the world to run as well. Its an absolutely huge event and highlights are even shown on the 5 o'clock news. You also get a great goodie bag and medal at the end full of t-shirts, organic food and samples galore of everything you could imagine. I swear people do it more for the stuff at the end than the actual challenge of the race. My time was a lot better than the Peace Run cause the route was easier. In the end I managed to do it in about 34:00 which is a personal best for me (My very first 5k I did it in about 46 min). You can see from the sheer amount of people in the pic below how popular this run is. Also, although the expression of my face at the end makes me looks out of it, I was just glad to get these darn races over with.

James and I as Simpson characters

Can you tell I'm bored? Today I found this free site and although its sponsored by Burger King (can't stand fast food) its a bit o'fun to see what you look like as a cartoon. If you look at the picture of James and I in the sidebar this is what it went off of. I think James' one looks more realistic than mine. What do you think? Anyway--if you are bored check it out.

Proms, Palaces and Picnics

James and I had an absolutely glorious weekend. It was the first weekend that there was not a cloud in the sky and it actually resembled the summer. We got out and took advantage of the weather and managed to get some pretty decent sunburns in the process.

Friday we went to:

the PROMS

Every year during the summer London has a 3 month classical music festival where every single day there is a different orchestra performing. Some of the best orchestras in the world play and the last night of the Proms is a national show of patriotism where flags fly for the national anthem and other English songs. Since moving here I've been every year and this year was no exception. We heard the BBC Symphony Orchestra--they played Russian music Stravinsky and Rachmaninov. I particularly liked the Rachmaninov piece---very beautiful smooth melodies. Anyway--we're going next week as well to the Proms so looking forward to it.

Saturday we went to:

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace is just in the outskirts of London next to the Thames river. It was the home of Henry VIII (the guy with the many wives). It was absolutely huge and magnificent and reminded me of the palace of Versailles in Paris because of the sheer size of the Palace and gardens. They have activities throughout the Palace such as minstrels, guided costumed tours, etc. They also have a working tudor kitchen which is the oldest 'working' tudor kitchen still in existence. The chefs were making marzipan and bread and it was great fun watching them and the smells were divine. The palace has a deer park (the deer are original descendants of the flock belonging to Henry VIII), the largest and oldest grape vine in existence (planted in the 1700's and still living, produces a grape crop of 600-700 lb a year) and one of the biggest outdoor mazes in the world. In just under 4 hours we managed to see everything except the deer park. It was wonderful and a really great day out. Here are some pictures from the day (there are more on my flickr page):

We ended our weekend by having a picnic in Greenwich Park and reading our books whilst catching some rays in the sun. It was an absolutely wonderful weekend and I wasn't very happy it had to end!

Totally Sick of Harry!!

Sorry Potter fans--forgive me for this little rant!

Living in the birthplace of Harry Potter its impossible to not know when a new Harry Potter book is coming out. Its plastered all over the news, all of the bookstores have midnight openings, every shopping centre seems to have 'wizard weekends', you get random people in the grocery store dressed up as Potter characters and even the pubs have 1/2 price pints for potter fans. It seems to go away after a while until the new movie comes out or the next book installment.

I figured it would be the same this time for the last book. Boy was I wrong though---It has totally completely gotten out of hand. You would think the Beatles landed or something. Most bookstores are completely out of stock already due to the (I kid you not)--2 to 3 mile long lines to get your greasy little hand on one. People apparently came from all over the world to stand in one of the lines here in the birthplace of Harry!! Why spend your only vacation time standing in line to get a book? Was a trip to the Taj Mahal too much money?

Saturday we did a bit o' shopping at Canary Wharf and I saw about 5 complete brownie troups getting their faces painted and then standing in line to ride the huge broom ride. Are they even old enough to read the darn thing? Of course the usual dressed up people and by the end of the day I thought I was going to barf if I saw another little kid dressed up like Harry or Hermione. That and the thought of how much money is being made off a little book.

If you can't tell I'm sick of the hype around Harry Potter. Seriously I think its great that it gets kids and adults reading and excited about it. However, I doubt that most of the hype is due to the fact that these books will win the pulitzer or some other award for their amazing good writing. I think its because everyone is doing it because its the 'cool' thing to do at the moment. I've never read any of the books and actually walked out of the first movie cause I thought it was rubbish and have never turned back since. Call me strange but I'd rather read a book or go to a movie cause I want to not because everyone else is doing it. I am sure its great mindless fun but at the moment I just would rather do other more worthwhile things. Maybe when I'm retired I'll buy my first copy of a Harry Potter book, I just don't know. In the mean time I'm really sick of this whole thing and can't wait until this whole thing passes.

The Tour de France in a Minute or Less

The Tour de France started in London this year. Every year they do the Prologue and Stage 1 in a different country before moving to France and this year we're lucky enough that it was here. The route was actually scheduled to go through Greenwich which is only 10 minutes from where I live. This was an incredible opportunity to see something like this so we stood waiting for about 45 minutes just to see the riders. This is actually the first time we've seen the beginning of the race. A couple of years ago we by default were in Paris on the Champs Elysee at the very end of the race when Lance Armstrong won his 6th title.

It was crazy watching the race though as there was more entourage than cyclists on the route. Buses, Sponsors, French and British Police, Cars with extra bikes and Race Officials were the majority of what we saw. When it came time for the hundred or so cyclists they were so fast that they were gone in like less than a minute. Even though it was short and we had to deal with rude people trying to push into our view--it was definitely worth it. I really admire people who do this kind of thing which is the ultimate test of endurance and strength of character. I feel really grateful that I live in London so I can have these opportunities to be a part of experiences like this!

Rain, Wimbledon & Strawberries with Cream.

I love the weather in England. The weatherman is never right and usually its the exact opposite of everything predicted. As you go through your existence here never "quite" knowing what to expect, you dress in layers and plan for every minor calamity--whether it be rain, snow or mini tornado. We Londoners are resilient this way though and you can rest assured that whenever a spot of rain hits "brollies" of every shape, size and fashion will be popping up everywhere.

Why the sudden fascination with the weather? Well its been raining a lot you could say at the moment here to the point most of the countryside seems to be flooding. Funny enough last summer there was a drought. If only mother nature could figure out a happy medium so that there would be plenty of water but still enough sun to work in the occassional BBQ. Maybe she didn't get the memo eh? Anyway, whilst I'll never seem to understand the British weather it sure gives me an excuse to catch up on watching movies under nice warm duvets. I've managed to fulfill my duty in this area nicely recently, favorite recents: Last King of Scotland and The Queen.

On another note I do have to say the rain this time of year also means its time for Wimbledon which started a few days ago and goes for two weeks. Have been a couple times now but don't know if I'm up for the journey all the way out to SW19 (SouthWest London) this year or in the mood for strawberries and cream*. We shall just have to wait and see how the weather holds up. Unfortunately, this year I may only make it as far as watching it on t.v. with my duvet!

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* Its a tradition at Wimbledon going back like a LONG TIME to have strawberries and cream whilst watching the tennis. English strawberries are very much in season at the moment and its just another excuse for people to be posh at a 'social event' like Wimbledon. They charge a fortune for them at about £3.50/$7 a pop but it really is the thing to do when you go.