Saturday night we attended our first holiday party with Jim's new co-workers. They are all engineers (except for Jim) and have all been working 7 days a week (including Jim), so it was PARTY TIME! Everyone was already well into the wine/beer/vodka by the time we got there and had put on their party pants. Jim and I were the newbies (and the youngest)and were on our best behavior...until the White Elephant Gift Exchange. I opened an awesome "paint your own garden gnome" kit, which a very loud, happy Scottish (Irish?) man promptly stole from me. My second gift was a Starbuck's card, which was also stolen from me, at which point I RE-Possessed my gnome! Much commotion ensued because after two trades the gnome was "dead." Victory was mine!!
Jim was the last person to pick and ended up with some cranberry sauce and something that caused much inappropriate speculation (some sort of not sex toy that somehow, to the enebriated party attendees, became a sex toy). We brought a life sized, hot pink buddah head to the party, which was the biggest hit of all.
Next week there are two parties--one with the client, which spouses are not invited to and a second party sponsored by the company that Jim is contracted with, which is fancy schmancy. Happy Holidays!!!
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Borough St. Market, Ewww, and Greenwich Market
The end of the weekend is upon us and it's time for another blog. On Friday, I met up with a friend at the London Bridge tube stop, which is VERY BIG and VERY CONFUSING. We finally found each other after 40 minutes of text messaging and headed to the Borough St. Market, which is a large farmer's market, very close to London Bridge, the Globe Theater, the Tate Modern, and other historic landmarks. The streets are narrow and cobbled.
Inside the market there were stands and stands of delicious foods--fruits and vegetables, cheeses, baklavas, meditteranean food, meats, seafood, flowers...YUM.
Fresh seafood. You can see a shark with his mouth full of oranges in the back portion of this picture.
A butcher and his produce. Meat eater's delight!
Freshly baked baguettes and...Goose fat in a can! YUM!
Cheeses on display. We ate lots of samples.
Freshly killed game--bunnies, turkeys, geese.
And buckets and buckets of olives!
After the market, Jim and I met and grabbed a drink at an Italian restaurant in the bowels of a building at the end of a dark alley. We headed down the dark and winding staircase and sat at the bar where I was accosted by a very drunk, 70 year old man, who failed to see Jim at first and then, despite Jim's presence, continued to try to convince me to leave my husband for him and to come work for his very drunk friend who's business was failing (I wonder why? This guy could hardly stand he was so drunk). Apparently these guys spend a lot of time at this bar, because they are on first name basis with all the bartenders and the owner. The owner/bartenders could have been the maffia--burly, open shirts with chest hair and gold chains peaking from their collars, long greasy hair pulled back into little ponytails. There was some drama as a new group of drunk Italians sat down at a large table, which was not reserved for them. The Maffia king/owner exchanged a few bullet speed words with them in Italian and the drunken party moved on. Unfortunately the drunken Irishmen next to us did not, but WE did after my 70 year old friend copped a feel. Good thing I've spent so much time with George over my lifetime.
Happy Jim and Claire...
And an uncomfortable moment with an inebriated old pervert who later shared the details of his sex life.
After our maffia/Irish experience, we met Dan, Meg and their friend Wyn for a fabulous Turkish dinner. As usual, we forgot to take pictures of our friends and as usual we had a great time. Someday we will have a whole blog dedicated to them!
Today it has been very cold, but we ventured out to our own little Greenwich market which was very full of fun and cool stuff, food, and lots of people. We looked at furniture, got some stuffed grape leaves and ciabatta bread, wandered through the stands, drank apple cider. It has been a happy Sunday!
Inside the market there were stands and stands of delicious foods--fruits and vegetables, cheeses, baklavas, meditteranean food, meats, seafood, flowers...YUM.
Fresh seafood. You can see a shark with his mouth full of oranges in the back portion of this picture.
A butcher and his produce. Meat eater's delight!
Freshly baked baguettes and...Goose fat in a can! YUM!
Cheeses on display. We ate lots of samples.
Freshly killed game--bunnies, turkeys, geese.
And buckets and buckets of olives!
After the market, Jim and I met and grabbed a drink at an Italian restaurant in the bowels of a building at the end of a dark alley. We headed down the dark and winding staircase and sat at the bar where I was accosted by a very drunk, 70 year old man, who failed to see Jim at first and then, despite Jim's presence, continued to try to convince me to leave my husband for him and to come work for his very drunk friend who's business was failing (I wonder why? This guy could hardly stand he was so drunk). Apparently these guys spend a lot of time at this bar, because they are on first name basis with all the bartenders and the owner. The owner/bartenders could have been the maffia--burly, open shirts with chest hair and gold chains peaking from their collars, long greasy hair pulled back into little ponytails. There was some drama as a new group of drunk Italians sat down at a large table, which was not reserved for them. The Maffia king/owner exchanged a few bullet speed words with them in Italian and the drunken party moved on. Unfortunately the drunken Irishmen next to us did not, but WE did after my 70 year old friend copped a feel. Good thing I've spent so much time with George over my lifetime.
Happy Jim and Claire...
And an uncomfortable moment with an inebriated old pervert who later shared the details of his sex life.
After our maffia/Irish experience, we met Dan, Meg and their friend Wyn for a fabulous Turkish dinner. As usual, we forgot to take pictures of our friends and as usual we had a great time. Someday we will have a whole blog dedicated to them!
Today it has been very cold, but we ventured out to our own little Greenwich market which was very full of fun and cool stuff, food, and lots of people. We looked at furniture, got some stuffed grape leaves and ciabatta bread, wandered through the stands, drank apple cider. It has been a happy Sunday!
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