Adventures with cliffs

Jim and I took Friday off and were going to just putter around the house, but Jim got motivated and we headed off to Seaford, England, which isn't far from Brighton, England...both of which are on the coast and only about an hour and a half train ride away.

Seaford has a lot of wind and some beautiful cliffs. THe beach is made of pebbles (or, what we would commonly refer to as "rocks.")The water is clear and blue and we could see the ferry coming from France and then leaving to go back to France, as well as WW2 planes flying over and upside down and in loops.

Jim in front of the sea and the cliffs:


There were multi-colored beach huts along the beach. Some people used them for storage and others used them for hanging out:






At the top of the cliff, we thought there were lots of brown stones...then they moved and we realized that there were hundreds of bunnies. We were worried if we walked too quickly towards them they would throw themselves off the cliff...but they just went into their holes. Which, we noted, probably weren't helping the erosion problem that the cliffs are having.


These cliffs are called the Seven Sisters. We don't know why, but we had several hypotheses (Jim hypothesized that they look like boobs...but I pointed out that if they were boobs, they would only be 3.5 sisters. We'll never know. Or maybe someone will enlighten us. Or I could look on Wikipedia.)


THis is our dream cottage, on the sea:


On the beach, we threw rocks for this cute dog. And Jim nearly got swept away by the waves while he did his LL Bean pose:




Here Jim sits at the mouth of a River. In the far background is the sea (the English Channel). The second picture is of the river winding away from the sea. We were surprised that the river was flowing towards the ocean instead of away from it. We don't know much about rivers and how they flow, apparently.



After all the nature, we went to a pub. I had homemade lime fizz. It was refreshing. Then I sign languaged to Jim that there were some Americans sitting behind us and he said, "What? Are they saying the Star Spangled Banner??" in a very loud voice, which made the two Americans look up from their tea and was very embarassing.


We found, actually, that people in Seaford had a really hard time understanding our accents. I think it's more of a locals type of place.

We spent the night in Seaford and, instead of exploring nature some more, we went to Brighton. We had to check out the Brighton Pier, which had an amusement park at the end of it and an arcade on the inside:


I lost Jim for a little while, but found him safe and sound...


Dance, Dance Revolution requires WAY too much coordination for us. And, as usual, a gaggle of teens stood sniggering behind the old farts trying to play the high tech video game without any success (seriously...what is up with the arrows on that game? My brain and my feet can't process it fast enough!)


Brighton was full of artsy places and cool clothing stores and fleamarkets. We didn't get to explore as much as we would have liked, but here are a few of the things we did:

Visited the outside of a castle:


Observed awesome graffiti in the form of a tribute to rappers and to James Brown:




Once again, wondered about the Rainbow Bright trend, which is also popular in London...most noteably in Camden and particularly in the Rave Shop in Camden Market, where you can buy all kinds of puffy, colorful outfits,which can be worn to the fleamarket or at the rave.


When we got home, Jim cooked a gourmet meal and Spike came over for a visit. Fun times..and it's only Saturday still! We love long weekends.

Fall is falling

It has kind of been fallish all summer here, but suddenly we have noticed that the trees near our house are turning a little yellow and the sun is going down earlier. Today when I was running, I noticed leaves on the ground. I think it's not much longer before fall is upon us here. Fortunately, I love fall, so that's ok.

Today I think I may have had a brush with the offspring of one of the rich and famous. I was attempting to buy a bike online and I am pretty sure that the owner was the daughter of Steve Jobs...you know, Apple computers, ipods, itunes, etc. And she was very cool and down to earth (on email), which for some reason didn't surprise me...afterall, she was using Craig's List. Anyway, unfortunately the bike was sold before I had a chance to see it, but the emailing back and forth about it gave me something to do today (we won't go there).

Less than two weeks until our Norway trip!

I want a greyhound!

Yes, I know how much hard work it is to have a dog. And how it will hamper our traveling. And how expensive it can be (People often froget that we had Buster Brown, the overdoser, follower of his nose, trash scavenger, eater of sheet cakes, and poop connisseur in our lives before we moved to England!). But today we went to visit a greyhound rescue, where we walked some of their dogs and I was smitten. Jim was less smitten, but still enjoyed it, I think (although that's not really obvious from the look on his face in the picture below). Anyway, we'll go back to volunteer and walk some of the 50-60 dogs they have in this kennel--retired racers, most of them--and see where that leads. Jim is being way more receptive to the idea of getting a cat these days....

Jim walks Robbie, a sweet and mellow greyhound at the kennel. I walked Star, who was a little more spazzy, but also sweet. When we walked back to their kennel, both dogs started leaning on us because they weren't ready to go back in. It was very heartwrenching (and it's a good thing JIm was there and we have so many trips planned for the fall, or we might have a greyhound sleeping on our couch right now.)

Our Friends

Lately our friends have been sending us lots of pictures from their travels and other exciting life events. So, I thought it would be fun to feature other people's lives on our blog for a change.

Alex and Osiel are friends and former neighbors from Houston. Alex is Greek and Osiel is Mexican, so they do a lot of traveling. Recently they went to Greece, Paris and Norway. HOpefully someday we'll meet them someplace in Europe (maybe Greece?)Here they are at Versailles:


ANd in Norway:


Lorri is another friend from Houston. She and her husband just adopted a beautiful baby boy!


Rashmi and Siddarth (previously featured on this blog during our fabulous visit to Windsor) just got back from Mount St. Helens:


Jenny, my old college roommate and friend, complains about not being a spring chicken anymore. Whatever. (She's the one in the middle. Who looks just like she did in college.)


And, of course, no blog would be complete without a picture of JIm. Here he is modeling the lastest in man capri fashion:

another funny sign

COurtesy of Meg and Dan. I wish people actually paid attention to this sign!

All the places that we're going to go

At the end of August we will go to Norway and we'll stay in a stone cabin near glaciers and in the fjords! (Pictures to be posted later when Blogger decides to work again).

THEN, in October we are going to Rhodes..one of the Greek Islands!!!!!!!

We feel so lucky to live over here.

Out and about and around London

I've been scolded for being a blogging slacker, so here are some pics from recent times.

If you come to our house, you can use the "London Loo" that has been in our front yard for....oooh....3 months now. When you walk up the steps, you can enjoy its sweet aroma and marvel at the large flies that are in residence.


The Millenium Dome in all its strange splendor, as viewed from Jim's office.


Jim works with these yobs. Kevin gives us free chocolate because his sister works for Mars Bars or something like that. Simon (on the left) gives Jim all my messages.


THere is a mall under Jim's office:


Corporate types stroll about in Canary Wharf:


We went swimming in Hampstead Heath's famous pond. It was very cold and we left covered in pond scum.


There were lots of people at the pond. One lady removed her underpants in a not so subtle way and many men appeared to be swimming in Fruit of the Loom Underwear.


Refreshed after the pond!


When I walk to work, I get to see a lot of this in Regent's Park (Blue Heron in the distance!)It's funny to watch the blue herons hanging around with the pigeons, waiting for bread.


We saw Richard and Colleena in Princes Risborough! Lizzie and Cordelia love ice cream:


Jim in dreamy pub light:


Jim's ear in dreamy pub light:


There are a few gas lamps left in London:


In our neighborhood they don't have "duck crossing" or "deer crossing" signs. They have "elderly people crossing" signs.(We especially like the graphic on this sign)


Blogger won't let me post anymore pictures at the moment, but tomorrow I will add:

Sunset and a bus.

AND

Jim medidates on Primrose Hill. This morning when I was running I saw:
1. a guy asleep (passed out) on Primrose Hill.
2. four youths still up from the night before and watching the sunrise on Primrose Hill.
3. a guy who was had just woken up and was checking his watch on Primose Hill. (I never realized that Primrose Hill was such a popular place to sleep!)

We also hung out with Howard, Holly and CLara yesterday, but being morons we forgot to take pictures of them. Clara has become an expert aerobie thrower and chaser and almost could climb over the fence in front of Kenwood House. When she realized she couldn't quite do it, she would cry, "Stuck! Stuck!" and Howard or Holly would rescue her.

Time for bed for me.