Pub Lunch

The weather was gorgeous last Friday and so I went to lunch at our local with a few colleagues. I wanted to take a few pics to remember this place. Standing at the bar my eye is always drawn to these frames that contain old ticket stubs and always to the David Bowie ticket stub.

They have a lovely little courtyard perfect for sunny days.

What's This?

There’s some road work happening on the main road to work in the mornings. H has been taking me so he can have the car and the road work always has us stopping in front of this house. What is this head hanging outside their front door?

Last Day on the Farm

A. promised that she would come out and work at the farm last Saturday. I was surprised that she made those arrangements as it would be her last Saturday in Buckinghamshire and figured she’d be hanging out with friends. However, she does love being there. The first time I picked her up from the farm she explained what she ate for lunch that day by saying, “Mom, we had eggs and sausage for lunch and it was the best sausage you’ve never tried”. They make it there at the farm, so she has requested that I buy some since, and yes it is good.

Friday night she started whining about going to the farm because she was tired and didn’t want to spend the whole day out there. Saturday morning she whined some more and when we got in the car, she said to me, “Can’t we just go there, I’ll hide in the car and you can explain that I couldn’t make it today, you buy the sausages, and then we’ll come home?” I had to laugh because the idea of NOT going there was out of the question all because of the sausages.

It was a beautiful sunny day on Saturday and once she got there she was happy she didn’t change her mind. I did buy the sausages, brought them home and H made sausage and peppers for lunch, and of course left plenty for A.

My Header Pic

I thought it was only fitting for my last week in England that my shoe make another appearance.  I took that yesterday and at that moment I was walking on the crosswalk (aka zebra crossing) near Abbey Road Studios.  More on that later...

Abbey Road has been my go to stress record the last few years.  Every time I listen to it and hear the words "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make", I smile, partly because I'm thinking about this SNL clip.  Mid-way into this I laugh out loud every time.  Enjoy!

From My Office Window

As spring finally decides to make an appearance, in the afternoons out my office window I can see people gathering for a pint at the pub across the way.  Damn this working for a living!

Moving is Never Fun

This week was very stressful on the moving front. I’ve got a deadline at work next week so that coupled with the move makes my head hurt. Moving doesn’t bring out the best in a family, LOL. After H and I had a very tense lunchtime discussion early in the week I headed back to work and sat at my desk feeling like I was going to have a heart attack. I called my coffee buddy A and we walked down for a Starbucks before the afternoon kicked off. I probably didn’t need a stimulant at that moment but did need a friend. I unloaded about the move and everything else that’s been adding to the craziness. I told A that I felt like I was heading down a spiral of negativity. He perked up, stopped me in my tracks and said with both surprise and delight, “J! You are turning into an English person! Just in time before you leave the country, it’s happened!” We shared a Belgian chocolate cornflake treat, each had an Americano and headed back to the grind.


The next morning morning when I came into work there was a bottle of wine and a bon voyage card on my desk from the cleaning lady. I know it’s scary that I’m at work late often enough that I have a great relationship with the cleaning lady, but something about solving crimes together bonds people. I thought to myself bottle of wine as a gift from a casual acquaintance at work, you won’t get that in America!

Made Me Laugh

Two pictures I took in Whitstable made me laugh out loud.  This first is what an homage to glam rock or the band KISS in the middle of the folk CDs for sale?  And this figurehead from the Whitstable Museum looked like Will Ferrell in drag.