The week after I crashed my bike I got what I thought was a rash on my stomach. Nope. Shingles. So freaking random! So I'm itchy and my skin's pretty sensetive, but I had anti-viral meds to take care of it; hopefully it will work.
Some fun tidbits:
-I got to select wine for Dave Matthews Band the other day. Actually it was for a roadie filling out dressing room requests. But just in case you're curious, he's drinking a Seghesio Zinfandel. I wanted to suggest something from Washington since he lives there, but the roadie didn't really care about wine or DMB.
-Jamie and I got asked to give a Marriage Course testimony at the final party that we do. It was pretty fun getting to describe what we got out of the course, even though our story was relatively plain.
-It is ripping hot here! It pretty funny to hear news reports freaking out about mid to high 80s. But with the confined spaces on trains and stuff does get pretty sick. Just hot and humid; it's a sauna in your work clothes! Sweat dripping down the back of you legs and back and you haven't even got to work yet. Ahh, London summers....
-Mark and Amy, our great Australian friends, have left London forever-not a fun tidbit. But we are happy that they get a chance to explore the US before they resettle in Australia outside of Sydney and start having babies :)
-We're trying to plan a clandestine 4th of July party with our expat friends from church. We're actually going to do it on the 5th for pragmatic purposes. Of course, we have a stock take this weekend so I get to spend a night helping count all our wine. Happy 4th of July to me! And no softball either. They don't do that here.
-Jamie's rolling to Tokyo again in a week or two to work her Index magic. Her free miles have got to be huge this year!
That's about all the menutia I can think of at this point; Aidan is talking constantly about his birthday a month out and Oliver is just talking constantly or at least babbling and almost-talking. He said clearly, "Hi" to some random girl who walked by while waiting in the doctors office. Hilarious because he would do that with a dude. Shameless flirt....
I'm going to go enjoy the sun before it disappears...
Cheers!
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Monday, 22 June 2009
You should have seen the other guy....
On Saturday I safely crashed my bike into a stupid lady driving a Mercedes. Safely crashed is a bit of an oxymoron, but I managed to come away unscathed, however bent my bike's frame. The killer is that it was totally her fault and I let her go before grabbing any details as I was simply relived to be in tact and not bleeding. It was a little more shaking that a car on car fender bender, even though ultimately the damage was the same. So no details exchanged and me sitting on the side of the road catching my breath, restoring my heart rate to normal. Now I have to go in to a police station and see if they might have CCTV of the incident.
All that made me very late for our friends Mark and Amy's going away BBQ which was at our house. I hobbled home on my barely working bike and came in with black greasy hands from putting my chain back on and looking rather haggard. I was really bummed for the evening and even more sad that Mark and Amy were leaving in a week! On top of that, my back was all messed up from moving loads of stock after we had a big wine sale last weekend and ordered about 2-3 times our normal stock holdings. Still have a little tweak which is slowly getting better.
Other fun news: Natalie Flath, one of Jamie's small group girls from UPPC and a friend from SPU stayed with us for a couple nights to see London as they were on their way to work at a camp in Grenoble, France for July. Great to see them and always fun to see old youth group kids all grown up!
Lastly, we just heard that Aidan is going to get in to St John's for recpetion. I'll do a whole blog on school admittance here in the UK and the insanity it involves. The US school system is not as bad as you think it is...trust me.
Cheers!
P.S. On Sat at the BBQ (when I started this post) had a Los Altos Hormigas Malbec from Argentina, like '06, '07. Awesome wine with a great deep flavor, some spicer and firm tannic stucture. Then on Monday (as I finished this post) had a Ridge Lytton Springs (Zin blend) 2006 previously in the evening with Jamie on our date night (thanks to Nat for watching the sleeping babes.).
All that made me very late for our friends Mark and Amy's going away BBQ which was at our house. I hobbled home on my barely working bike and came in with black greasy hands from putting my chain back on and looking rather haggard. I was really bummed for the evening and even more sad that Mark and Amy were leaving in a week! On top of that, my back was all messed up from moving loads of stock after we had a big wine sale last weekend and ordered about 2-3 times our normal stock holdings. Still have a little tweak which is slowly getting better.
Other fun news: Natalie Flath, one of Jamie's small group girls from UPPC and a friend from SPU stayed with us for a couple nights to see London as they were on their way to work at a camp in Grenoble, France for July. Great to see them and always fun to see old youth group kids all grown up!
Lastly, we just heard that Aidan is going to get in to St John's for recpetion. I'll do a whole blog on school admittance here in the UK and the insanity it involves. The US school system is not as bad as you think it is...trust me.
Cheers!
P.S. On Sat at the BBQ (when I started this post) had a Los Altos Hormigas Malbec from Argentina, like '06, '07. Awesome wine with a great deep flavor, some spicer and firm tannic stucture. Then on Monday (as I finished this post) had a Ridge Lytton Springs (Zin blend) 2006 previously in the evening with Jamie on our date night (thanks to Nat for watching the sleeping babes.).
Monday, 15 June 2009
2006 Spier Shiraz
Tonight was the final session of "The Marriage Course" which is like Alpha for marriage--well not really, it really is just a marriage course. Not to disparage it by calling it just a marriage course; it is well organized and researched and has awesome content for us to work on. So I encourage those of you at UPPC who are married to get involved in running it because it is easy to do and then easy to invite work relations to.
I've decided to sample a wine while writing new posts; nothing like mixing business with pleasure. But which one in which.... Tonight is a Spier Shiraz, 2006. I think I'll also name each post after the wine, because my title creations have been lame recently. Tell me if it gets annoying. Not great but serviceable. I was afraid it would be great because I know the supplier which handles classics like Sutter Home. Mmmmm...
It has been an awesome week in London and good weather means that we get some great time in our back garden, barbecueing and just enjoying summer. Last night (Sunday) happened to be one of those times. So we made burgers and had an awesome Torrontes (Argentinian wine varietal) and Aidan came up with this corker: "We're having a picnic so we get to eat outside...(pause)...yeah and I don't have a bedtime." Nice try kid, thought you could slip that one by mommy and daddy while enjoying some hot sun and cold wine (Jamie wants to be clear - she and I enjoying the wine, though we do let Aidan smell our wine and do "cheers" with his juice :)).
On that note,
Cheers!
I've decided to sample a wine while writing new posts; nothing like mixing business with pleasure. But which one in which.... Tonight is a Spier Shiraz, 2006. I think I'll also name each post after the wine, because my title creations have been lame recently. Tell me if it gets annoying. Not great but serviceable. I was afraid it would be great because I know the supplier which handles classics like Sutter Home. Mmmmm...
It has been an awesome week in London and good weather means that we get some great time in our back garden, barbecueing and just enjoying summer. Last night (Sunday) happened to be one of those times. So we made burgers and had an awesome Torrontes (Argentinian wine varietal) and Aidan came up with this corker: "We're having a picnic so we get to eat outside...(pause)...yeah and I don't have a bedtime." Nice try kid, thought you could slip that one by mommy and daddy while enjoying some hot sun and cold wine (Jamie wants to be clear - she and I enjoying the wine, though we do let Aidan smell our wine and do "cheers" with his juice :)).
On that note,
Cheers!
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
After 9 years you think you know someone....
Jamie just admitted to me that she has no idea what TRON is...This is a sad day for me....
Saturday, 6 June 2009
More Famous People in London
Dustin Hoffman was in Whole Foods Kensington two days ago. Pushing his own cart and everything. Besides that, life has been settling down a bit in London for the Forbes'. That's a relative term with Jamie's job though. She's been to Singapore for a week and Paris and probably a few other places too. I have a hard time keeping track.
May 20th was our 9th anniversary! Crazy to think we've been married that long, it has flown by! We went out to dinner at a restaurant called Racine, which Jamei had been to a couple times before for work stuff (must be rough...). We had oysters and Champagne to start, which was a first for me! We had some meal for two, veal I think, but one of the best bits was the spinach blended with foie gras. Yum! The wine we got was so-so, probably a bit over priced for what it was.
Speaking of meals (It's now a big part of my work, which is fun) the wine team went out for a work dinner last Sunday and went to this BYO place that does one thing-rotisserie chicken. The basic-ness of it allows wine to show off, and since it is BYO, it a place where all the wine trade people go to eat. Random. Anyways, we had a couple awesome wine; first we shared a 1990 Corton Charlemagne which is an old Chardonnay. Rich, but still had fresh fruit along with nice caramel notes and hints of spice. Very interesting as I really don't enjoy much Chardonnay. Red wine was a 1978 Volnay, an even older Red Burgundy/Pinot Noir. Still fresh, with earthy, mushroom aromas and raspberry. The aroma/perfume on old burgundy is amazing an unlike any Pinot Noir from around the world. Expensive French wine is still worth it, even if the lower end stuff I think is rubbish.
Aside from that, Nat Lewington, our new live-in nanny continues to amaze. It has been really fun getting to know her and be able to bless her with the chance to do ministry/fellowship by living with us. She is doing a bible study with a girls she met while leading alpha which meets while Jamie and I do marriage course stuff. She has been kicking it with her friends every night this week. Aidan and Ollie love her too and she has been awesome at being loving but tough with a cheeky three year old...
In addition to all this fun stuff, I surprised Jamie with a belated surprise party the second weekend in May. Made sure it was nice and late so she wouldn't suspect... Really, it was a) for our friends in London and b) hoping to hold out for nicer weather. It was cold and rainy the whole time. Ah, England. It was also "fancy dress", a costume theme party, in safari style. I found these surprisingly nice pith helmets on line for cheap and now just have them lying around for the boys to play with. I'm thinking of ways to integrate them into my daily attire. I could be "that guy who wears a pith helmet."
One final note- this post has taken forever to write. The two days ago afore mentioned was actually now about 2 weeks ago. I'll try to post small and steady from now on.
Cheers!
May 20th was our 9th anniversary! Crazy to think we've been married that long, it has flown by! We went out to dinner at a restaurant called Racine, which Jamei had been to a couple times before for work stuff (must be rough...). We had oysters and Champagne to start, which was a first for me! We had some meal for two, veal I think, but one of the best bits was the spinach blended with foie gras. Yum! The wine we got was so-so, probably a bit over priced for what it was.
Speaking of meals (It's now a big part of my work, which is fun) the wine team went out for a work dinner last Sunday and went to this BYO place that does one thing-rotisserie chicken. The basic-ness of it allows wine to show off, and since it is BYO, it a place where all the wine trade people go to eat. Random. Anyways, we had a couple awesome wine; first we shared a 1990 Corton Charlemagne which is an old Chardonnay. Rich, but still had fresh fruit along with nice caramel notes and hints of spice. Very interesting as I really don't enjoy much Chardonnay. Red wine was a 1978 Volnay, an even older Red Burgundy/Pinot Noir. Still fresh, with earthy, mushroom aromas and raspberry. The aroma/perfume on old burgundy is amazing an unlike any Pinot Noir from around the world. Expensive French wine is still worth it, even if the lower end stuff I think is rubbish.
Aside from that, Nat Lewington, our new live-in nanny continues to amaze. It has been really fun getting to know her and be able to bless her with the chance to do ministry/fellowship by living with us. She is doing a bible study with a girls she met while leading alpha which meets while Jamie and I do marriage course stuff. She has been kicking it with her friends every night this week. Aidan and Ollie love her too and she has been awesome at being loving but tough with a cheeky three year old...
In addition to all this fun stuff, I surprised Jamie with a belated surprise party the second weekend in May. Made sure it was nice and late so she wouldn't suspect... Really, it was a) for our friends in London and b) hoping to hold out for nicer weather. It was cold and rainy the whole time. Ah, England. It was also "fancy dress", a costume theme party, in safari style. I found these surprisingly nice pith helmets on line for cheap and now just have them lying around for the boys to play with. I'm thinking of ways to integrate them into my daily attire. I could be "that guy who wears a pith helmet."
One final note- this post has taken forever to write. The two days ago afore mentioned was actually now about 2 weeks ago. I'll try to post small and steady from now on.
Cheers!
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