Dave and Mere do England

Internationally televised on Sky Sports, visited the queen's residence in London and Windsor, rode all tube lines except two, got so scared in the dungeon we nearly cried, saw the mysterious Stonehenge, the tranquil town of Bath, significantly expanded the dishes we are comfortable ordering at Indian restaurants, laughed so hard it hurt, and hit every pub we could.

Yes, this is what happens when Dave and Mere come to visit you abroad over Thanksgiving.  My parents and sister had already had the chance to visit during our time in London so it was really great to get Dave and Mere out here before we move back to the States.



















We definitely did a whirlwind tour of England when they came to town.  I'm sure there are a lot of things they'll remember for some time, but it was really great for us to have some other Americans to spend Thanksgiving with.  We spent the afternoon and evening at No 1 Sports Bar on City Road.  This has been and will always be our favourite London pub.  We watched the NFL games, drank, ate, and even got interviewed by Sky Sports Network on our thoughts of the efforts to get American Football more attention in the UK.

To our final guests ... what a way to end London.

The Making of Harry Potter (Stupefy)

Diagon Alley!

I finally made it!  After having to leave the UK unexpectedly early and giving away my already purchased Harry Potter tickets, I was able to return and make it to the studio.  You actually have to take a train out to Watford Junction and then a Harry Potter shuttle out to the Warner Brothers' Studio in order to get there.

I was like a kid in a candy store, literally.  Diagon Alley, the different creatures they created, and all the sets/props were unreal.  I seriously could have stayed there all day.  Mike was very glad to hear the final warning to leave or we'd miss the last bus back to the city!

Model of Hogwarts used in every movie

Tom Riddle was messed up

Chamber of Secrets is somewhere nearby

Ipswich, Suffolk, UK

For the past ten days Jolene and I stayed up in Ipswich, a small British town off an inlet of water on the East coast.  This trip did a lot to remind us to reflect on the full circle that we have come while living abroad this past year.

We went to Christchurch park to celebrate our second Guy Fawkes night with a lantern procession, fireworks, a fire show (Flame OZ), and a carnival with the same couple that we went with in London the year before.




There was also an epic battle between me and a coworker and two other British kids where we got into giant bubbles and ran around knocking each other over.  For two pounds, this is by far the best deal I've gotten abroad.

We stayed in a hotel that overlooked the marina called the Salthouse.  The view, rooms, decorations, and food were all great in this place.  After staying in quite a few very nice hotels over the last couple years we have decided this place is our favourite.  Convincing Jolene to leave the hotel to catch our train was far from an easy task.  We will miss her lounge chair in the room and the giant scorpion statue from the lobby the most.

The sole purpose of this trip was to deploy the second upgrade to the system at work.  The hours were very long and we had a whole bunch of interesting hurdles to overcome.  I can say for certain that some of the craziest stuff that has ever happened to me at work in the last decade has happened in Ipswich.  We will now shift into a stabilization period for the next month but this represents the beginning of the end for our lives in London.