Meat, Meat & More Meat

Cory's birthday was on Sunday.  To celebrate, we had the week of MEAT.  It all started with a roast the weekend before his birthday.  Finally we visited the local butcher.  Cory selected a fine piece of beef at the small price of <GASP> 27 pounds.  Yes, you got that right, 27 pounds, which equates to roughly $42 for a roast.  It was good, but for $42 I'm expecting fillet mignon, not roast that I dip in ketchup.  It made Cory happy though so that's all that matters during the birthday week.

The weekend of his birthday we continued the meat theme and ate at several new places.  First stop was the Fine Burger Company for burgers.  Decent burger, nothing too exciting.  They did have large flat screens at the tables to order food from.  Great concept, but not the most user friendly.  The did have a button to remove mayo from our burgers which made both Cory and I very happy.  Mayo is a staple here.  They even dip french fries in Mayo which in my opinion is plain gross.

Next stop was Bodean's BBQ which has been on our list of places to try since we have arrived.  If you read about Bodean's it has close ties to Kansas City.  The owner actually got his inspiration from OK Joes.  Bodean's did not disappoint and was the closest thing we've had to a good KC meal since we arrived.  Brady loved his hot dog.  I had a solid pulled pork sandwich and Cory liked his pulled pork & brisket combo.  Bodean's plays American sports on the TVs and generally has a sense of a good Midwest BBQ. 

Last stop on the meat tour was a visit to the Rotisserie on Cory's actual birthday  The Rotisserie is quickly becoming a local fave.  They have a good rib eye, nice starters and a delicious pancake dessert topped with carmel and ice cream.

Happy 31st birthday Cory and thanks for letting Brady and I participate in the week of gluttony!

Pictures from weeks of 10/25 & 11/1

Getting caught up on pictures that have been taken the past month. My mom was in town for 10 days so we were really busy exploring the city & surrounding areas.  Yes, Brady has a black eye in many of the pictures.  He seems to get in minor accidents frequently these days.

Around the neighborhood & the Zoo:

View from Primrose Hill:

Near Buckingham Palace:

Big Ben:

Football:

Hanging out:

Nanny:

Double Rainbow at Windsor Castle:

Oxford - Bridge of Sighs

Come on Fulham!

This is Cory writing his first blog post, oh boy, here we go! 

Last Saturday while Kari, her mom and Brady were off to Windsor, I was invited by a friend from work to attend an English Premier League Football (Soccer) Match.  Fulham v. Wigan was set to kickoff at 3pm at Craven Cottage, home of Fulham FC.  This was my first ever professional football match.  What a way to start! 

Living in London has encouraged me to follow Soccer as there is nothing else to watch on TV.  For those that don't follow professional soccer, the Barclay's Premier League is one of the most respected professional football leagues, with some of the best football talent in the World.  Teams you have likely heard of within the Premier League are: Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester United.  There are 3 other well known professional soccer leagues around the world, La Liga (Spain), MLS (USA) and Italian Serie A (Italy).  Some of the teams you've likely heard within these leagues are: Real Madrid (Spain), AC Milan (Italy), FC Barcelona (Spain), and the Kansas City Wizards!  Yeaaah, GO KC!!  The Football fans in London don't give a lot of respect to the football talent in the US, but it is still a growing sport and will someday get the respect it deserves.

Some fun facts...As are the contracts for American Football, baseball, NBA and hockey, the contracts for Soccer players are outrageous.  The most publicized contract for a soccer player in the US is David Beckham (5 years for $250 Million).  Wayne Rooney, who plays for Manchester United, just recently signed a 5 year contract, rumoured to be in the $275 Million range, incentives are still being finalized.  To give you a non-soccer reference, Alex Rodriguez has a 10 year contract with the Yankees worth about $275 Million.  The NFL contracts are structured differently, so the highest paid player varies from year to year, but the highest paid QB in 2010 is Eli Manning with a 6 year, $106 Million contract, expected to make in the $10-12 range this year.  It was surprising to me that professional soccer super stars make just as much or more than the super stars that play sports in the US.

There are 20 teams in the Premier League.  Last Saturday, Fulham was ranked 10th and Wigan was 17th.  Not exactly a match of the top teams, but hey, it was still some good football action for a Saturday!  I asked prior to the match if I need a Vu-Vu-Zela or if I need to know any chants.  The Vu-Vu-Zela question was greeted with eye roles and a "oh geez".  The only chant I was told I needed to know was "Come on Fulham, Come on Fulham".  I was now prepared to attend my first professional football match!  Tailgating has not caught on in London, but we did manage to find a pub close by and have a couple pints prior to kickoff.  We had fantastic seats, 5 rows behind the goal.  One of the stars for Team USAwho now plays for Fulham is Clint Dempsey.  I won't bore you with the details of the match, but we had a lot of Oohh's and Yeah's and COME ON FULHAM's....the final score of the match last Saturday was Fulham 2, Wigan 0.  Both goals were scored by the pride of Team USA, Clint Dempsey.  After the match I was given a Fulham scarf by one of my co-workers, so now I can attend the next match in style, GO FULHAM!

If you want to see Dempsey's goals from the match, click the link below.  Disregard the random music that accompanies the video.  Both goals were scored on our end, so that was cool to see!

Clint Dempsey's 2 goals from the Match

Overall it was a great time and we're looking to plan our next match!  Maybe Kari and Brady can attend next time!


Craven Cottage, home of Fulham FC, just before kickoff

Some sweet football action between Fulham (white shirts) and Wigan

Number 23 CLINT DEMPSEY!!!!



After the match, Dempsey gets props from a guy in a red coat.  Great match Clint!



Canterbury

I'm feeling a bit guilty today. It's Halloween and the only sign of the holiday in our house is the pumpkin on the coffee table and the pumpkin marshmallows that Brady snacked on today. Halloween is celebrated in the UK and according to several reliable sources kids do trick or treat, but it's not the same. I can assure you that our flat neighbors did not have a bowl of candy waiting for kids. I also can assure you that kids are not running up the halls of the portered flat buildings trick or treating or ringing the gate intercoms at the very large houses. We have skipped Halloween this year so I just hope Brady doesn't look back at photo albums and ask what he dressed up as when he was two.

Instead of a traditional Halloween day we decided to go to Canterbury. My mom is still in town and she wanted to see outside of the city so Canterbury was our destination of choice.

First stop was Fish and Chips at a local pub.  Well, almost first stop.  My mom decided to stop at Fat Face to get some clothing souvenirs, then we were off to lunch 45 minutes later.  She did get some really cute sweater dresses to take home. I learned by chance that the name of the pub, Thomas Becket, was in honor of Archbishop Thomas Becket who was murdered in the Cathedral in 1170.  This was a perfect lead into our next stop.

On to the Canterbury Cathedral.  The church is a Church of England church and is very very old.  The Cathedral's history goes back to 597 AD.  The details were pretty amazing.  The cathedral employs 800 people and a majority are dedicated to the ongoing maintenance and restoration of the facilities.  Another interesting fact.  The Cathedral has been a place of pilgrimage since Thomas Becket's murder.  The book, The Canterbury Tales is actually about a group of pilgrims who were traveling together on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket.  I am pretty sure I read part of this book in high school, but I couldn't remember any of the details other than the fact that it was in Old English and very hard to understand.

 

 

 

  

After the Cathedral, we headed to the Canterbury Tales exhibit.  We were all going to go through it, but it was a actually a bit scary for Brady so we decided to just let my mom go through.  The place highlighted many of the stores in the Canterbury Tales.  Recap from my mom of one of the stories.  Three men found gold and were going to split it.  One man decided he did not want to share so he put poison in a bottle of wine.  The other two men also decided they did not want to share and only wanted to split two ways.  The killed the third man and drank the wine to celebrate.  All three men ended up dead.  Moral of the story, don't be greedy.

Overall I liked Canterbury.  It had a neat city center and had tons of shops, restaurants and historic things to look at.  The train ride was smooth as well.  When we were leaving I noticed a restaurant called CJs so I think we'll have to go back so Cory can eat at his name sake.

Borough Market, London & Tower Bridges & St. Pauls Cathedral

On Saturday morning, my mom arrived from the US.  Once again, we had a goal to keep our guest awake for the entire day so she could try to get on a normal sleep schedule.    We gave her time to take a shower and have a cup of coffee and then it was off we went.  First stop was Borough market.  The Borough market takes place every Thursday, Friday and Saturday and has a wide variety of produce, prepared foods and other things for purchase.   We’ve had several friends recommend visiting the market, in particular they have recommended a stand that sells grilled cheese and potatoes with raclette cheese.  I’m sure you’re thinking, they are going all the way to a market just to have a cheese sandwich.  Yes, we were and amazingly we were not the only ones with that plan as there were 20+ people queued up.  The grilled cheese was made with emmental cheese and had onions cooked into it.  They were quite tasty.  Cory also found a stand selling baklava.  He bought enough baklava for us to eat for a week so I am going to have to forgo my evening ice cream for baklava.

Cheese Sandwich

Baklava

Market

Fruit

After the market we walked to London Bridge.  For having a song written about it, it really lacks eye appeal.  Tower Bridge is typically the bridge that people recognize and frequently mistake for London Bridge.  Since I am a Londonite, I figured I should do a little research on the origin of the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down as I was sure it had some significance.  Turns out it's not much of a story and there are differing opinions on the origin of the song.  Most popular thought is it simply has to do with the difficulties of bridging the River Thames.  Other theories suggest that the song dates back to the Vikings or is just made up.

Looking at Tower Bridge

Standing on London Bridge

From London Bridge we headed to the Tower of London.  Near the Tower of London were tons of pigeons.  Brady LOVES chasing birds and got at least 30 minutes of entertainment.

After the Tower we headed towards home.   On our walk home we happened to pass St. Paul's Cathedral.