Rockin' Camden Town!

I am starting to get into a good flow now with work and figuring out a schedule that will work for me. I am still not sure how I am going to fit my yoga in yet... but I am determined to make it happen one way or another :) Nothing to special about Monday this past week, but Tuesday I got to call my mom and wish her a very special birthday! I love being able to use Skype and talk to everyone, it makes me feel right there with her. Hope you had a great birthday Mum!

Wednesday, Jeff and I got to go out for a date night at the local restaurant/pub, Havelock Tavern. It is one of our favorite and the menu changes weekly, so it is always something new. I also got to call my Dad and wish him a very happy Birthday! It is always a good week when you get to talk to family back home :)

Thursday, we went out to celebrate one of my work mate's birthdays. We went to Sway Bar near my office. We had a blast! We started out with a few drinks, then dinner, then some dancing later on :) Here are a few pictures...

With the Birthday girl!

 Fun photo shoot with the girls! 

Later that night, we spotted a few new stops on the central line... Someone is very creative!!! They made stickers to put over the real stops.

 Headache? Casually Faint into a handsome man's arms

Step 1 and Step 2 are directions for making a cocktail. 

 And my favorite 'creative stop' is Sweating Profusely!

Friday we met up with one of Jeff's old classmates from UNCW. Crazy how big the world is, yet so small at the same time! We met up for a pint at pub in Mayfair, Bonds Pints. It was great to catch up with Hannah and hopefully we get to hang out more soon!

Saturday we went to explore Camden Town. We had no idea it was going to be so big! Here are a few pictures of the market from the outside... 

They had cool designs off the front of the buildings along the high street.... 

This market is slightly different than the one's that we have been visiting. It mainly had really cheap clothing, tourist stuff, and all kinds of food stalls. We ended up walking away with an awesome painting for about 20 quid to hang up in our flat. 

We stopped to grab some food at this Mexican food stall. I have realized that after being here for a little while, the food standards are not the same as at home. Check out all the chicken and peppers just hanging out up against the glass. Keep in mind this is always where the money is taken too! It was still tasty either way haha

They had super cute seats to eat and watch the locks by...

The locks themselves were pretty cool. We got some snapshots of a long boat entering, the water filling up and then it leaving. 

Next we headed across the road to grab a pint... and we realized the market continues to these underground stables that now house more stalls. We saw everything under the sun, from cute baby clothes, interesting glass lamps, leather bags, pictures and paintings, london tourist stuff, and other nick naks. It was really cool how they used the underground stables for the market now. The stables were originally built to house the horses that helped move the boats along the canals back in 1854. 

After strolling around for awhile, we headed home to drop off our painting and continue the night on at the Casino! There are several 24 hour casino's here... so I am surprised this was our first visit, but at least it was a good one. We sat at the Blackjack table and had a nice little run! I was doing just okay, but Jeff was getting super lucky with these extra bets that you can place. For example, you can bet that you would get a flush with your first 2 cards and the dealer's first card. He seemed to hit it more than his fair share... but it helped us walk out with an extra 150 quid! 

We rounded the weekend out with the boring house keeping stuff on Sunday... washing clothes, bills, cleaning, and trying to get our cable set up. Getting more than basic cable seems to be an impossible task at this point. haha I have a feeling Jeff might be purchasing a new tv in the future to stream movies from. Next week I have training in Brighton and Jeff is joining me for the weekend. This will be our first trip outside the city and we are really excited about it! 

We love getting to skype and facetime everyone from home the past few weeks! You all mean the world to us and we feel incredibly blessed to have you in our lives. 

Open East End Festival at Queen Elizabeth Park

The weekend started out great with a nice relaxing barbecue at our friends house, Giorgio and Jeff. They have a BEAUTIFUL flat in Woolwich, with 3 bedrooms and a balcony that is almost as big as the inside! We couldn't have asked for a better way to start off the weekend. Here are a few pictures of the sunset and view from their flat...

A view over the river.... 

A view to the north... 

A view toward London and the center of the Arsenal 

(the gated community where their flat is located) 

The lovely fountain in the middle of their complex... it was very peaceful and calming :)

The barbecue set the perfect tune for the weekend... It ended up being very relaxing. Saturday we took it pretty easy and explored a new part of London that evening. We have heard great things about Chiswick, so we decided to check it out. Jeff's ride home from work goes through here too, so he had a good idea of the places we should check out. He did a great job at picking out some places for us to try. It was the first time it had really rained hard when we were out, but it didn't stop us much :) We hopped around to a few different pubs on the main high street and settled on this French restaurant for dinner. It was a little nicer than we had planned to have, but it was a good time to celebrate how far we had come and both of our new jobs. Needless to say, that has been one of our favorite meals here. Jeff got this steak that was out of this world and I had a seafood pasta that was amazing!

Sunday had a little more excitement with our visit to the Queen Elizabeth Park and Open East End Festival! The anniversary games were going on all weekend, but unfortunately we weren't able to get tickets. We were able to snag a deal on the Open East End Festival though. It was fabulous! There was a whole section devoted to food trucks, there were arts and crafts, a music hall, games set up for kids, bingo, and random shows throughout the fields.

I tried my first Scotch Egg! One of Jeff's work mates eats one fairly regularly, so I thought it was a perfect time to try it out. It is basically sausage meat around a boiled egg that is fried. Here is a picture of one from the internet. It was actually pretty tasty! We also tried some Moroccan chicken wrap and a ginger beer that were both delicious!

After grabbing some food, we went to explore the other areas of the festival... here are a few pictures of walking to the entrance of the park... 

One of our favorite things that we ran into was a BMX bike event. I was able to capture a few tricks in the photos... They were super impressive! There were 4 riders and they would do tricks one right after the other. 

Overall it was a great day out in the sun and living the dream in London! 

The royal baby has arrived... Prince George of Cambridge!

Time is flying by!!!! I am super excited to have started work and get on a somewhat regular schedule (vs sleeping till i wake up). The first week of work was the usual... trainings, meeting tons of people and trying to remember everyone's names, and then getting through more on-line training courses :) The best part of getting to know all the other newbies that are joining at the same time as me. Luck would have it that there is another girl from Raleigh that is joining on the same day as me! I have meet some really awesome people from all over the world and we have already hung out several times since then... It is a great feeling to start making connections right away. 

After the first week, we had a pretty relaxing weekend and meet up with some of Jeff's work mates. Saturday we went to a new area of London for us, Barnes Pond. It is a little bit further south than we have been before and it was totally worth the extra effort to see it. We have found that each area/neighborhood that we visit each has its own very unique personality. This area was very peaceful and calming. 

Here are a few pictures near the bus stop...

Here are a few pictures at the pub we meet Ryan at and grabbed some dinner.

And yes, London has enjoyed so much beautiful, warm weather the River Thames is drying out. Have no fear... it rained all day today and it appears the typical London summer is back. I am sure the water will be back to normal levels soon... and I will be taking my vitamin D to supplement my sunshine :)

Sunday, I dragged Jeff out of bed and we went to get a proper english breakfast. We walked over to the Holland Park area and found a fun store to explore....

And of course they had one of Jeff's favorites :) Texas Pete... he puts it on everything, so good thing it is close by!

We picked up a few other things... some treats for a few fellow american friends and some betty crocker cake mix (which was a total disaster... i blame the oven! haha)

Later on Sunday, we meet up with Jeff's friend from Raleigh who is wrapping up his secondment in August. It is always great to hear the stories, tips, and tricks if you will, of everyone that has been here for a while. We meet up in Shoreditch at a lovely beer garden. Then it was back to the grind at work Monday morning.

Week 2 started out great! Tuesday was pints after a market event for my team, Wednesday the royal baby arrived and then Thursday it was 'pond hopping drinks' for a fellow Raleighan moving back home :)

The announcement of the royal baby was big news! The news was all over BBC and facebook, so it was hard to miss. BBC was down at the Palace interviewing people that went to look at the royal announcement. I thought it was super funny that half the people they talked to were Americans. In some sense it seemed to be just as big of a deal at home as it was here. I think the English were more excited at the possibility of an extra holiday for his 1st birthday than the actual birth! haha Non the less it has been a very exciting time to be here and witness history! This british summer is starting to be epic with Wimbledon, the royal baby, the beautiful weather.... what more could you ask for. Well one could say it is hard to top the Olympics that were here last years, but we thought no better way to find out than to actually visit the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for the Anniversary Games and Open Festival! Stay tuned for more details and pictures to come soon.