The Boys in London

Alex and Frankie made their way to the UK a week ago ...yay! Not that any of us are the best planners but we had very little on the agenda aside from, pub lunch, maybe a "football" match, Sunday football and hang. Clearly, we ended up doing much more then that!


Thursday...

Upon arrival, the guys went to sleep since neither of them managed any real sleep on the plane. I left them several notes around the house since there are several...hmm, how the hell does that work things in this place? They napped, ate and then came to Canary Warf for happy hour...or happy hours as they like to say in London. We went to HA's for Ramesh's going away "do". Most of the HR team was out as was OpsRC for Melissa's welcome drinks. Good times had by all...the guys got to meet some of the cool people I work with and some of the odd ones ;) We definitely spent 15 minutes debating how to say aluminum. OMG silly but so funny. They also enjoyed Frankie's american accent...I kept hearing, "say that again!" After a few jokes re: pints vs half pints we decided we needed food and went with Claire, Meliss and the guys for Mexican. We heart Claire! Fast forward --->go home and attempt at sleep/hang out for a while.


Friday....


I leave for work which was brutal since I was tired, definitely had stayed up too late and probably had 1 too many drinks. Awesome! Unbenonst to them, I said goodbye and went to work. Fast forward---> they sleep in, have a pub lunch and then because of POETS, I got to come home a little early and hang out before we went to dinner/went out for the night. Not sure who I was pretending to be..oh yeah, I dont need a nap..lets go. Sure--a 30 min nap later we're ready to go to Brick Lane for dinner. This area is pretty cool because you can basically negiotiate free food/drinks etc just to get you into a place. Its a million times worse then walking around Little Italy when those guys stand outside and try to get you to come in. We ended up sitting next to this Canadian/Aussie group who had THE most annoying woman with them. She was listening to our convo and then striking up that topic in their convo. There is absolutely no chance that we were talking about cookie vs biscuit and then 5 min later you start discussing the same topic?!? After dinner, we meet up with Meliss and head to a couple of very random bars and into a club (of sorts). We basically ended up in a free style dj dance party (our scene obv) and hung for a while. It ended up being a lot of fun but we def stuck out a bit. Fast forward---> we get home and hung out (again, just what I/we needed...stay up later and drink some more). This was when Alex pulled an Alex. We're playing Scattegories and something comes up about a 4 letter word that begins with _....he enters a word and is trying to convince us that his word counts....yeah, until Frankie calls him out on the fact that the word had 4 letters. (Insert Homer Simpson noise).


Saturday.....


We wake up and go to Borough Market. Yum! I show the guys around and then we decide on meat on a stick on a roll. It was awesome. Pics to follow. Grabbed a glass of sangria and sat down in a mini park to hang out before we went to the football match. We had a lovely little morning. The next hour or so wasn't so nice as we got lost on the way to the Tottenham match but ended up having a great time while there. The chants and songs were amazing! They had one that literally said 1, nill you fu$@#ed it up! hahaha. We then went back in to central london and went to the pub for a couple of drinks. Fast forward through dinner, some drinks etc and then off to bed we went. We wanted to be fresh for Sunday...lots of plans.


Sunday.....

We decided to have old school brunch at the apt...eggs, streaky bacon (as they call it here), biscuits (not the cookie) and mimosas. Compliments to the chefs. We then went to this wonderful wine tasting type of place where the guys had an opportunity to taste absinthe and couldn't pass it up. Pics to follow but Alex couldn't help himself to make the women at the table make a new batch because wanted to see it on fire. After tasting some nice wines and wondering around we went over to Bodeans to watch the fins game. Yay for NFL in London. This place even had the sound on. For those of you who are used to games always being on and never worrying whether or not you'll be able to see the game, you wont understand but for those of us outside of S FL it can prove quite challenging. Anyhow, ate some good food and watch the Dolphins win!! We came home and then decided to nap before the Giants game came on. The game was starting at 1:30 so we got up and the guys got a couple of drinks while I tried to rally. I end up watching pieces of the game but was too tired to be totally into it. I'm pretty sure the times I was awake was when Frankie was yelling at the Giants for playing like total garbage. I get sent to bed and completely pass out!

Monday...

I wake up....uggg. The guys ended up coming to Canary Warf to have lunch with me before they headed over to Greenwich for the day. They went over there which is where the GMT line is but also where a brewery is supposed to be. Meanwhile, they find some weird museum and they play with blocks. Who knows?!? We met up for happy hour in the Warf and went to a place that, without question, had the worst smelling bathroom I could have ever been in. We left around 7 to make it home for family dinner. Melissa was kind enough to cook dinner for us. We had a great night eating, laughing and just spending time together. After dinner, we played poker...seriously like the good ol days although this time we drank wine when we were lucky if we had beer in a glass bottle. I ended up winning (shocking, I know) but then we continued to hang out in my apt. The issue? Well, it's late and Frankie and I were both working on Tuesday. What a great idea!?! So...it's getting quite late and we're several drinks into it before we decide it's prob a good idea to go to bed. Meanwhile, I wake up in the am and grab my water glass. Phew..I'm feeling thristy and I'm so glad I have this....realization: I have just taken a sip of an old vodka/soda. OMG, I could have died and/or thrown up then and there! I say goodbye to Alex since he's leaving that afternoon and then off to work I went!

Tuesday/Wednesday....

So, Frankie and I go to work....we meet for dinner that night to celebrate his last night in London. We chose a French place over by Charing Cross and had a nice last meal. We end up walking home and hanging out before heading to bed.

I had a work event in the morning but then came home to hang with Frankie before he needed to leave. We spend some time just bsing before I have to go back to work. Booooo to friends leaving. Now that both of the guys are going to be gone I got really sad :( because it had been such a great week!

Overall- I am so happy they came to visit and couldn't have asked for a better time. Cheers to great friends...especially since they had shopping lists for both me and Melissa which included: color catchers (apparently we do have them here), pashminas (one of which got described as barclays blue), brita filers and marshmallows...this is why I love these guys :)

Cannes & Milan

After the wedding and spending Sunday afternoon accomplishing as many of my NY errands I wanted to get done, I met Melissa so that we could begin our trek to JFK. After a sad goodbye with Laura on the curb of 19th and 8th ave, off to Kennedy we went---> fast forward---> arrive in Nice. Wow, let's just say even the landing was amazing and gorgeous. We boarded a bus to head to the hotel but it ended up being a little more challenging then we'd hoped...wayyyy too many bags given that Melissa was moving to Europe that week ;)

Upon arrival at the hotel, we got dressed for the beach, had some food and then made our way to the hotel's private beach club. All I can say is- you must go to Cannes at some point in your lifetime. The sand, water, mountains and boats make for such an incredible view you just never want to leave!! Melissa and I ended up spending several days in this routine...sleep, beach, food, beach, drinks, nap, drinks, food, out....my idea of a perfect vaca! We got great tans and really got an opportunity to rest, read and enjoy a few days off.

One night while we were there, we went out to this random Irish bar (I know, pub in Cannes?). They had live music and we enjoyed singing along a bit and the massive "stag do" aka bachelor party that was in there. We befriended some Brits who were there for a wedding and were clearly enjoying their time in France. Their advice to us at one point in the night, "go to Nice, go out all night, wander around until the trains start running again and then go home". Hmm...dont think so! Anyhow, we hung out with them for the night and ended up having a blast. Pub + club = late fun night dancing around in France.

Our adventure then continued on to Italy where we were staying the weekend in Milan. We got to the hotel and went to dinner- a place that Pam recommended and was just as I would imagine- super cute, all locals, amazing (non US italian food). We had one of the best cheese plates ever! Fast forward--> we are wondering around Milan to see if we can get in to see the Last Supper...not so much. Sold out for 2 weeks....we then walk around the Duomo and eat these amazing cheesy, fried doe things. Pam did say that she dreams about them sometimes. Now I see why! Fast forward---> we decided Sat night will be our big night out in Milan, so we head to the trending night area of Milan. We enter---I kid you not--the Pit Bull Cafe. That's right my FL friends---its a lounge all about Pit Bull---OMG. We hung out with a guy who swore he was Snoop and then made a move to a club. It was so overcrowded but fun for the 15 minutes we could breathe/actually dance. Man do the Italians like to party...sparklers and all! Sunday was the end of our adventure...back to London we went...it was exciting though because Melissa was moving into the building. More to come on life at 64 Buckingham Gate :)

Liane's Wedding

I flew home last week for Liane's wedding and a significant amount of errands that needed to be done. I got in on Tuesday night and went to the apt to crash for the evening. Frankie was kind of enough to have marshmallows...the right ones ;) and dinner waiting. I tried to work London hours so that I could have the afternoons to myself which wasn't too bad on Wednesday. Wednesday was great because I went into the office and saw the old team. It was so great to see the girls :-) Later on in the night, we went for drinks to catch up and then off to dinner for Emily's bday/engagement celebration dinner at Otto! The food was awesome and it was so nice to spend the night catching up. Last stop for the evening was over to McSorley's to have a pint with some of the MS folks. Thursday I went to the neurologist for a follow up to my odd episode at work. The first test showed some abnormal activity but then after wearing a brain cap for 24 hours (awesome btw..it looked like I was walking around with a bomb) it looks like I should be fine. I've been ordered to not do death defying activities, climb laters, drive, get sleep, don't get stressed and not to party too much....some are easier then others! Friday night I went out with Alex for dinner and whatnot to catch up. We went to Buenos Aires which was amazing, as usual. We then went to Common Ground for a couple of drinks afterwards. We had a blast and even got to play some board games while we were there. It was a great night but we were out a bit later then originally planned. Given that I needed to be in NJ around 9/930 for the wedding, coming home at 2ish was probably not too smart. I got upgraded to maid of honor so was running around trying to be as useful as possible. Fast forward through hair and makeup and we started to get Liane dressed. Aside from a couple of awkward pics from Li's mom, the getting ready process wasn't too bad. We jumped into the limo and went over to the hall. Fast forward again---the ceremony was really sweet and Li did a good job holding it togetherish. Fast forward again--- I gave my speech which I think went well and then it was off to dancing. We did have a creepy dj man who ended up doing splits during a random song at the end but overall the party was fun. Went to the after party for a bit and played some pool but then called it a night.