Taco Night

Tonight was taco night at the Willey's. (NB - I just looked looked up "taco night" on Wikipedia and there was no entry, disappointingly.) Taco night is always a favorite, and we even brought out the special margarita glasses! Overall, not bad, with a few notable differences:

• the taco mix was not nearly as flavorful
• regular salsa is hard to come by, and we were not impressed by the roasted tomato + pepper salsa we chose
• the tortillas sucked, full stop
• the cheese was selected from several different English cheddars, from all over this small country, then grated by hand... rather different from the Kraft Mexican Fiesta pre-shredded experience!

Anyhow, I think taco night is a sign of something bigger -- perhaps a bit of normalcy. I'm hopeful! We had a 'normal' weekend, in that we got out of the apartment and did stuff. 'Normal' because on paper it was, but in practice, maybe not. Working backwards...

• Sunday night, we watched NFL (on Jason's work laptop, through the slingbox), and did laundry in the kitchen. I like that Football does not take up the whole day on Sunday. We can start watching the games at 6pm and if we stay up til midnight / 12:30 can watch the second set too. And we'll never be tempted to stay up for MNF!
• Sunday day we golfed. Jason went the previous weekend and he is much happier for having discovered a relatively convenient public course. I played poorly but was giddily excited to see golfers in knee-high socks and sweater vests. Also notable was that the weather was good enough to golf.
• Saturday night we went to a birthday party. This must mean that we're meeting people. One of the guys in my group at work invited us, so we rearranged all our plans and went. We were the only native English-speaking people there... lots of Germans, a few Italians, French, Belgians, Dutch, and likely some other countries represented. Other tidbits worth mentioning: a strange selection of music (specifically remembering "Do you believe in life after love" by Cher, and the Beach Boys' "Kokomo"); a really disgusting mixed drink from my Italian co-worker; and a chilled jaegermeister-type German liquor called something that aptly sounds like "kill a bitch".
• Saturday daytime we took a walk out to Battersea Park, one of the many parks near us. Didn't actually go in the park but walked to it, then stopped for lunch at a pub and made our way home. Now tell me, if you saw this sign, would you find a different route?

Say Cheese!

As promised... cheese tray from Paris Friday night dinner!

Photo credit: Jill Dexter

France

Spent last week in France... travel paid for by Unilever, other than 1 night's hotel and some meals. Gotta love it.

When: Last week, 3 days after returning back to the UK

Why: Three days of Unilever training (Tues - Thurs)

How: Hopped the Eurostar to Dijon. Well, really the Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord, transferred to the Gare de Lyon, and got on the TGV to Dijon. All in all about a 5 1/2 hour trip (1 1/2 hours layover).

What: Most notably, fabulous food: escargot de bourgogne (specialty of the region -- snails with a pesto-like sauce), veau, saumon, canard, foie gras, etc. etc., of course accompanied by the finest wines of the region, which I have learned come from the '05 vintage -- and '03 if you can find it.

Where: Somewhere outside of Dijon in Bourgogne (Burgundy).

Here's the Chateau de Chailly at which I spent 2 nights:


Not bad!

On Thursday, I took the TGV back to Paris to meet my friend Jill who was in Paris for a few days, also with Unilever. In a happy coincidence, this visit was arranged before I got the invite the course in Dijon (and fortuitously, I hadn't yet booked my train tickets). Jill & I go "way back" to Slim-Fast in West Palm Beach but she's on Caress now, and her Global team decided the most cost-efficient place for a few Americans, Argentinians, and Singapor(eans?) to meet would be Paris. Here's Jill & her best St. Denis imitation:

I would have shown the one of Jill working her corner outside the Moulin Rouge but unfortunately that one didn't come out too well. You can see that, and more!, in the full album -- link at right.

Best Meal in Paris: Astier, 11eme arr., Friday night. We arrived late, it was packed, and after hanging around outside for about 20 mins, we almost left to find something else. It turned out we were just patient enough and as we were about to walk away we were ushered inside for a delicious 4-course meal, the third of which was a 24" round cheese tray (on our 20" x 30" table). We had seen the tray being passed around the restaurant and anxiously awaited our turn... They gave us all the time we needed to sample at will about 10 of the roughly 20 cheeses (avoiding the stinkiest and boringest). Unfortunately this picture is on Jill's camera. I'll share when I get it!

Best (only) day sightseeing: We spent Saturday roaming around Montmartre, up to the Sacre-Coeur where we climed the dome and visited the crypt (location of headless picture above). We had lunch on the touristy square on the way down to Pigalle, where we beheld the slightly disappointing facade of the Moulin Rouge before finding some sweet crepes and making our way back to our hotel. There, we napped about 20 minutes before setting off on the Fat Tire Night Bike Tour!

Best (only) night sightseeing:

On Jill's first night in Paris, she was roaming the 8eme arr. looking for dinner when she heard someone calling her name -- and ended up dining with her flight attendant! The Jersey girl recommended the 4 1/2 hour bike tour, and was sure to add the advice of bringing along bread & cheese - along with decent wine - to have for dinner on the 1 hour Seine boat tour in the middle of the bike tour.

Biking through the busy streets of Paris was perhaps a little too stressful for me but it was worth it! We rode throughout the city, and saw the sights at night -- Notre Dame, Ile St. Louis, the Louvre, and of course this silly tower that I took about 50 pictures of:

Fortunately for you, I edited at least half of them out of the album! It's lit up blue these nights in honor of the EU and twinkles every hour on the hour for 10 minutes. It's bizarrely mesmerizing. We raced at midnight to make it to the base for the fantastic view pictured above. Note that my cycling confidence increased dramatically after the free-flowing cheap wine provided by the bike company

Missing Persons: In case you're wondering where Jason was in all of this... well, he was due to travel down Friday, but a fire in the Eurostar tunnel on Thursday suspended service indefinitely so those plans were foiled. What bad timing!

An important day

Just a shout-out to, IDK, my BFF Julie. Happy 30th!!!

Home

Just got home from being home for 2 weeks. On the short red-eye back on Thursday night, during which I got about 70 mins sleep - if that! - I spent some time thinking about home.

Home: New Hampshire
A place where I can have a massage and other spa treatments with Mom, golf with Dad, golf with Julie, visit with Grammie & Aunt El, eat crab rolls, lobster, and fried clams, see the Krueger clan, be cared for by Mom & Dad when I'm not feeling well (and even when I am!). You can go home!

Home: NYC
If you asked me 5 years ago, here on the 5th anniversary to the week of our move to the city, if New York would feel like home, I'd have said no. But where else could I, on 24 hours' or sometimes 30 mins' notice, have sushi in Midtown West with Rachel, go shopping in Union Square with Veronica, have veggie loaf in Brooklyn with Greg & Kaity, brunch in Chelsea with the Weinsteins & Larry, lunch in the Village with Carrie, play Apples to Apples in Midtown East with Hal, Lisa, Rachel, Craig, and Jen, go to Nobu in TriBeCa with Nicole, and call Jill for a last-minute place to crash in Jersey. Even without a home, I was home!

Home: Englewood Cliffs, NJ
No kidding. You spend more time with work folks than loved ones, and when you're lucky enough to truly like the people you work with, it doesn't necessarily feel like work... more like a big project you're working on with friends.

Home: London
Well, they say home is where the heart is, which is why the locales above qualify as home. But of course, that makes the flat at 5 Shelgate the truest home of all.