Celebrating 07/07/07!!!

On 070707 we celebrated with friends and family! As a child I had always promised myself a party on that date (my 52nd birthday) so we had one. There were about 50 of mny favorite people in the world here and we just ate and drank and laughed and listened to 70's music. My nieces were all three able to be here (Mary, Andi and her daughter Olivia) so that was quite a treat! My brother spent a few extra days with us (to help us get ready) and that was a treat as well. He and I got to go to breakfast (just the two of us) on Friday and it was lovely! The party was a huge success and we had such fun...I am glad I did it. We are both glad it is over (as those things just take so much energy and we are ready for the normal pace to return. I travel almost every week this summer (mon thru thur) but all in the states...which will be nice. Virginia, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Austin...all nice places so it should be a fun summer.

London with a friend

At the end of May I went to London to teach some classes and a girlfriend of mine joined me there and we had a great time! We spent a couple of days at a beautiful old Manor House called Frimley Hall in Camberley. We had scones and clotted cream with our tea (for tea on Sunday afternoon) and the weather was flawless. It was quite a treat! Then we stayed for the remainder of the time at the Marriott with Exec status...so we had breakfast and dinner in the Exec lounge (whenever we weren't out running around). We took the underground into Londaon a few times and it was very cool. We took the "Jack The Ripper Walk" a couple of miles going to all the murder scenes. Pretty graphic and very creepy....and because it was such a bad part of town I was HIGHLY motivated to stay in the middle of the group and never once did I fall behind! We also saw the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. It felt like "battle of the bands" and I wondered if the guard ever just thinks "Can't I just go to work like everyone else?" Anyway...it was cool. And it was COLD, too! Frickin' Freezing when the rain kicked up. But that is part of my experience in London, too. It was fun....but fun to be home, too.

April & May 2007

I have been terrible about blogging....but I want to be sure to capture what I have been doing. Since Nick and I went on our 3 city tour I have been taking some trips by myself (as Nick grows accustomed to being retired). I went to Paris for a class and took the M1 from the Grand Arch (I stayed at the Hilton there) into the Champs Elysee. Got off at the Arch de Triumph...it is HUGE!...and then walked on the Champs Elysee to visit a really old restaurant for lunch. It was called "The Farmer" on Rue Marboef and was an old 1900ish art deco restaurant that had been restored. It was cool! I have also been to St Paul, MN (stayed at the St Paul Hotel...very beautiful!), to Lisle (near Chicago), to Atlanta and to Detroit. I am currently in London and will blog a separate entry or two about that. All is well and things are going great!

Cheryl: A Little more about Paris

One other thing that I just remembered about our rainy walk in Paris. There was a "One-Man-Band" guy playing inside of a tunnel that we walked through to get to the garden. He literally had a trombone, trumpet, guitar, accordian...busy man! Anyway...the obvious choice in music would have been for him to play that song that everyone hears when they think of Paris (I don't even know the name of it) but he chose a different song and we laughted when we realized what he was playing. I had just said "OH man....I was hoping that he had a monkey" (and I said "menkey" like Clousseau says it.) Then as we walked away the guy played The Pink Panther theme. It was classic!!

Cheryl- We LOVED Paris!!

I have to say that I am surprised that we absolutely loved Paris! Those of you that have been to my house recently may remember that the painting over the fireplace is of Paris in the rain. Now I love the picture even more because I have been there and we loved it! The weather was a little damp but not too cold and Nick walked around the city every day. We stayed about a half an hour walk from the Eiffel Tower so Nick spent alot of time walking (during the two days of training). We did some of the tourist things....walked on the Champs Eleysee, checked out the Eiffel Tower and the Arch de Triumph. We decided since we only had a few hours to skip the Louvre and go instead to Musee D'Orsay and I am so glad we did! It was wondrous! The Van Gogh's were absolutely vibrating with life! Nick got lots of great pictures of the art and they look astounding on our MAC! We walked a couple of miles through quaint little streets (I kept thinking about how much it reminded me of Paris Las Vegas LOL!) to go to little restaurant that had been recommended to us. Nick tried the steak au poivre (his standard) and I had the Tournedoes of beef and the food was absolutely exquisite! (Even the catered food for the workshop was wonderful...which is usually not the case.) Once we had finished the cappucino's and creme brulee we asked the waiter if he would call us a cab. He looked as if he were about to say something but instead answered "yes" and walked away. A couple of minutes later we saw our waiter out in the street trying to hail a cab! We jumped up and ran out front and reassured him that he did not need to hail us a cab.,..we could do that ourselves! The taxi stand was only about a block away so we walked up there. We laughed about how usually the French are not known for excellent service...but in this case he surprised us! That truly was over and above the call of duty for a waiter! When we caught our plane to come home we arrived at CDG airport to find a line of 200 people waiting at United Economy. Because of my status they allowed us to check in via first class (where there was no line). As we approached the First Class counter Nick turned to me and said "It's good to be king".

Cheryl:Walking in Windsor-London Part2

My workshop was Tues & Wed so we spent Monday being tourists. We caught a cab to Windsor and took a tour of Windsor Castle. It was unbelievably oppulent and much bigger than we expected, Heidelberg was cool (we went there in October) but Windsor is a currently lived-in well-maintained castle....so it was eye-opening. The raised flag indicated that the queen was there that day so Nick asked the woman in the little store "Can you let the queen know that we are here today so she can come down and see us." The woman asked "Is the queen here today?" and Nick answered "Yes...and I am certain she will want to see us if she knows we are here". I am not sure what the woman was about to answer because Nick laughed and told her he was kidding. He delivered the request so seriously that I was starting to think he had come unhinged. He made the whole thing even funnier when he explained to me that we don't have a flag (to let the queen know when WE are here) and he said "flag" ala Eddie Izzard. It makes me laugh even as I write this. We spent alot of time in the State Apartments (especially the weapon rooms...quite impressive) They don't allow pictures and the postcards do not include the weapons rooms...so we don't have pictures of that. We had lunch at a little place called "The Three Tuns" and walked for a couple of hours around the town of Windsor. I taught the next two days and Nick was pretty much trapped in the hotel by rain. We left for Paris at 4PM on Wednesday via British Air out of Heathrow.

Cheryl: Weekend in Wokingham- London Part 1

We were amazed at how easy the self-check-in was for Lufthansa. Because of my status on United (Premier Exec) they put us in Business Class and treated us like First class…very comfy!. We arrived at Heathrow and John (my client’s driver in London) drove us to our first hotel (built in the 70’s for non-business travelers) where we dropped off our luggage and then caught a train to spend the day in London. I actually understood and remembered the locations because of (I almost hate to admit this!) all of the Regency Romances I read when I was younger! LOL! I knew about Weybridge and Ascot and Covent Gardens and Drury Lane. It makes me absolutely want to re-read my Patricia Veryan collection (hers are the best!!) Anyway…we got off the train at Waterloo station and were halfway across the bridge when an ice cold bucket of water was dumped upon our heads. It was actually rain….but it was wetter than rain (is that possible?) and more dense than rain. Within a heartbeat we were 100% soaked. Nick said “I don’t think we could be any wetter if we jumped off the bridge into the Thames!” Then the wind picked up and we were freezing! YOu guessed it...No umbrella…and no winter coat (too bulky to carry around). Once across the bridge we had Irish Coffee and let ourselves dry out a little at a little Irish Pub. Then we went to a store and bought a cool mini-umbrella (soft green) and a cool green safari purse to put it in. We checked out Covent Garden and the Theatre district and ate Cornish Pasties. We also went to Somerset House (which plays prominently in Veryan books because her characters are in trouble all the time). Somerset House now houses an art gallery (as well as the Naval Offices) and we spent some time in the art gallery and checking out Nelson’s Stair,etc. On Sunday we went to our main hotel "St Anne's Manor".Check-in was delayed (as they had rented the entire Manor House and grounds to a group for the weekend) so we went to a little “strip Mall”(?) in Wokingham. There was a bowling alley (smokey!) and a little “American” restaurant called Frankie & Bennie’s. We hung out at the little restaurant and listened to oldies and talked and laughed. It was a wonderful day! While we waited out front of the restaurant (for the cab to take us back to the Manor House) they played Nat King Cole’s “Smile, though your heart is aching”. Nick took my hand and put it on his shoulder and we danced in the mist to that lovely old song. There are certain moments in life that are seared into my memory…crystal clear for all eternity. This was one of those moments.