London Icebar

This is actually the coolest bar we've ever been in. At 20 degrees (F) this London Ice bar is open year-round with reservations only, which last 40 minutes and have sub zero coats and gloves included. The bar, seats, tables, glasses and entire decor is all made of ice. The employees rotate every 1 1/2 hour with a warmer job. We took the day and went into London with this fun group of friends. How cool is this!

Boxing Day

This is a public holiday and is usually the day after Christmas. Boxing Day dates back to past centuries when it was custom for the wealthy to give gifts to people of lower class or less fortunate, like me (Remember to give generously to my Harley fund). Here in England and many European countries this is the biggest revenue day of the year for the retail businesses. Here is a shot of the high street with shoppers searching for the bargains and stores making huge price cuts in all of their inventory. With the sagging economy we are seeing more store closures. Woolworth's was the biggest retailer to go under in our village, along with several smaller shops.

The Bel and the Dragon

We did make it to church on this Christmas day 2008. We were invited out to Christmas dinner by friends Simon and Jasmine who took us to Godalming which is a small village close to us. This very old converted church with all of the classic English architecture and charm, is now a fabulous restaurant. We had a wonderful holiday turkey dinner with this very delightful couple. We are having an unusually mild UK winter. We hope that our US friends are enjoying the lovely snow and cold weather that we miss so much.

Candy

Happy Birthday Candy! You made the blog. This beautiful young lady is our next door neighbor and has become a good friend. She turned 24 yesterday and is dressed up for her college ball. Candy is from Hong Kong and is a law student in her final year here at the University in Guildford. After leaving home at the age of 14, She attended boarding school here in England and went through college here also. This is not uncommon in her culture for children too leave home that young for their education. We got to know Candy when she kept coming over to borrow our can opener. Now that we got her one for her birthday we hope she still finds the time to visit us. We hosted a holiday party last night in our building, and had about 20 inmates from the four cell blocks join us. After all of the moves Julie and I have made together we've discovered that it's these friendships and neighbors that make a home, not the big fancy house. Now we don't talk any more about going back home because we are already there.

Happy Holidays 2008

Here we are ready to enjoy our second Christmas at our home in Southern England. This is the time we always reflect on our last year and also look forward to the next. In the spring of 08 we enjoyed a week in Monaco and Southern France. I then went to Lake Chelan for a 6 week working vacation on the Cabin. We both took 2 weeks in August for a wonderful holiday also in Chelan Washington. In the fall we enjoyed a week trip into Egypt and followed that up with two weeks in Arizona during Thanksgiving, where we had this Kodak moment with our family. We had a few significant celebrations this year. The most special was our 25 th Wedding Anniversary. Next was my 40 th class reunion from Quincy High School, in Washington. While in Arizona Julie had her 50 th Birthday and last we couldn't forget our faithful dog 'Bogey' turning 10. In between all of these side trips Julie not only managed to work her full time job for Barclay's, but put her UK Southern Region in the number 1 spot out of the 9 UK Regions. Great job Julie! Son Brent is busy as a Pharmacist specializing in hospice care. He and Sandra are busy raising our grand daughter Kiana. Brooke is finishing her 3 rd year at Arizona State U, towards her teaching degree. I am proud to say that our children are doing just fine without us. We wish all of our family and friends all the best during the holidays and going forward through these interesting times. I'll keep "blogging" along as best I can. "MERRY CHRISTMAS"

ELTON JOHN

Saturday night Julie and I stayed overnight in London and took in a great Elton John concert. The 61 year old singer-songwriter from the early 70's still plays to sell-out crowds. Here also is a picture of the O2 Arena, where the concert was held. The O2 was built after London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic games. It has seating for over 20,000 and can be altered to host world class sporting events. The arena is surrounded by numerous pubs and restaurants all under the huge dome.

Spotted Dick

Believe it or not this is a very tasty desert. It is a steamed suet pudding with dried fruit, usually currants. It's commonly served with custard and brown sugar. The word 'spotted' comes from the dried fruit and 'dick' comes from the dough. I've heard of this before and thought it was some dreadful disease, but I sure never thought I'd be eating it. I've gotten all of my overseas shots before our Egypt trip, so I think I'm safe. Now that Julie and I are back in England, I can keep up on the Blog.

Tortilla Flats

I am at the Superstition Saloon here with good friend Greg. This was a stagecoach stop built in 1904 and is located in the Superstition Mountains of Tonto National forest in Arizona. Since I sold my Harley, Greg was kind enough to loan me his wife's Harley for this great day-ride. I sure miss my bike in this perfect riding weather but who needs the expense of a bike when someone will loan you one. Same goes with the car that Gene and Sara loaned us for 3 weeks. A special thanks to some great friends.

Happy birthday Julie

You only turn 50 once and this is Julie's time. Son Brent and his wife Sandra opened their beautiful home for us to trash for this 50 th. party. Brooke put the party together and got out invitations, and we were surprised with several friends coming from Washington State as well as many from Arizona. We are blessed with so many close friends but can only visit for a short time with each person at these functions. Julie and I will take memories of our wonderful family and friends back to England with us this Saturday

Bob and Kristen

We took a side trip to Newport Beach California. Here we celebrated newly weds, Mister and Mrs Bob Bond, who were just married in Hawaii. Bob is Julie's boss at Barclay's bank in England and has been a long time friend for both of us. Kristen, a California girl is now the new 'Bond' girl and is a wonderful lady. We wish them all the best as they start their new life in London.

Bogey

Here's Bogey, our faithful Cairn Terrier. Bogey turned 10 years old last month so we are celebrating our time with him. The morning walks he takes us on are his favorite pass time. He's the only family member that I have that never complains. It was a tough decision to not take him to England with us. We decided that he was better off here watching over our pool while we are gone. Daughter Brooke and her little dog live with Bogey. We miss him a lot

Arizona

Here we are back in Arizona enjoying the 80 degree days and these beautiful sunsets. This is the time of the year that we love the most, and is the reason we moved to Az. in the first place. Julie and I are here through Thanksgiving and are making the most of our short time with our family and friends.

Guy Fawkes Bonfire Night

November 5 th is a celebration of the capture of Guy Fawkes and the safety of the King. In 1605 he plotted to overthrow the King and blow up the Houses of Parliament. To carry out this plot, Fawkes and his conspirators got 36 barrels of gunpowder into the cellar under the house of Lords. Before it was set off, Fawkes was captured, tortured and executed. This celebration every November 5 th is commemorated with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire. This was done in Stoke park, which is a 5 minute walk from our flat.

Halloween

I'm a little behind on the blog, too much golf I guess. Halloween is celebrated here just as we Americans do. Stores, Pubs and Restaurants are decorated for the holiday. Parents dress up the little ones and get them around to all of the neighbors for treats. Here at our door is the pirate Charlie and his beautiful sister Georgia.

Early Snow

Here comes my worst nightmare.........Snow already. Today with golf on my busy schedule, I couldn't back out and had to deal with the snow. Playing with a white ball, I lost plenty and was cold on top of all the penalty strokes. This is John getting ready to hit his tee shot and never see his ball again. This snow hasn't hit London this early since 1934. I sure don't understand what all this fuss is about global warming.

Fall

Here we are in the fall season and getting ready to turn back the clocks. Southern England is located about 50 degrees latitude, which is about the same as southern Canada. So this is just like being back in Washington State except we get very little snow. YEA! The leaves turning color and are quite beautiful, but they are falling as fast as the stock market. It creates major problems on the golf course. I can loose a golf ball right in the middle of the fairway because of the darn leaves. But I guess I shouldn't complain too much since that's my biggest problem right now.

Home Again

Here's the rest of the story since we were evicted Sept 10 th. We were feeling lucky to find a new built flat in Guildford so no more worries... wrong! With a new lease signed, a completion date, and a move in date, we were set. So the moving truck arrives and things go bad. It seems with property prices falling, the property was reappraised and the value came down123,000 pounds less than the landlord agreed to pay a year before. Therefore the bank wouldn't fund the loan and we couldn't move in. Our things got sent back to storage. In the meantime here's where we lived: (1) 5 days in a Guildford pub.(2) The Hilton for 4 days in London. (3) A company furnished flat in Canary Wharf, London. (4) 2 days with a friend in London. (5) Another company flat in Canary Wharf. (6) With a tip from good friend Simon, another penthouse flat came open at Trinity Gate right where we started. We only have to take a different elevator now to our flat that we moved into last Friday. Can you believe it! We sure meet a lot of people with these moves. I wish I knew why they call houses flats in Europe. Roommates are called flat mates, we will have a flat warming party, instead of a house warming party. I sure don't hear anyone calling a house wife a flat wife. So the top center of the picture is where we are now, the top right is where we were before....Hope we can hang there for a while.

Cairo Egypt

Cairo is the 3 rd biggest city in the world with 26 million people, catching up with Mexico City, and Beijing China. We got a taste of the city streets because we had an hour ride to the Cairo airport. I felt like we would have been safer on this camel after our car got run into by a donkey pulling a cart. I'm not kidding, these carts are even on the freeways.

Pyramids of Giza

Our final two nights were spent at the historic Mena House in Cairo. This hotel was built in 1860 next to the Pyramids of Giza and the great Sphinx. Again thousands of tourists flock to these Pyramids that are over 5000 years old. We crawled into the biggest Pyramid which took us into an inside chamber. It was quite a squeeze getting past people coming out. The tour guide said that still nobody knows how these Pyramids were built.

Luxor

Luxor was the city on the Nile where our cruise ended. We toured in the 115 degree heat but held up ok. This is the Karnak temples and it's impossible to even get a picture that shows just how massive it really is. These columns are about 10 ft. across and have granite blocks on top that weigh up to 3 tons. I got no idea how they built these. In the lower picture is a statue of the Scarab Beetle. The myth is that if you run around the beetle 3 times, it will bring you good luck for the rest of your life. If you do 7 laps around it you will be blessed with fertility. We both made darn sure we stopped at 3.

Valley of the Kings

This is actually up on a mountain, and so popular a sight that an estimated 10,000 tourists a day visit here. We went into several tombs and couldn't believe the vivid colors and carvings that looked like they were recently done. These tombs date back to 2600 BC, and have lasted so long because of very little rain and almost no humidity. The most famous is the tomb of King Tutankhamun which was found in 1929. It was hidden for so many years because it was found directly under another tomb. The Egyptians have security with guns at every tourist attraction and at every hotel where we stayed. Tourism is their biggest asset so they take it very serious.

Lauren

Lauren from Detroit, (lower picture) on the cruise with her family had never been on a blog so Lauren this one's for you. This is Julie, Lauren, and Prem from Baltimore. We Americans had the biggest showing on this cruise. Meeting all of these great people is what makes these trips worth while. We gathered up a crowd from several separate tables our last night and had our feast at one large table.

Night time on the cruise ship was a blast. After a great dinner the first night, there was entertainment in the lounge. We had Egyptian night with native Egyptian dancing and guess what... We thought we were going to the show, we didn't know that we were going to be the show. We both got drug onto the stage along with a few other brave souls. I even got a lesson from a belly dancer but couldn't get a picture. This made the cruise a little more fun.

Sonesta Star Goddess

This is the tour ship that we spent 3 nights on. It took about 20 hours to reach our destination at Luxor. The ship had 33 state rooms that were furnished to the max, complete with flat screen TV's and wireless Internet. The food was the best, with a different theme each night. We took advantage of the pool on the upper deck when weren't out on a tour. There are over 500 cruise ships operating in this short section of the Nile River. This cruise is very popular for tourist from all over the world.

Philae Temple of Isis

This Temple was our second stop in Aswan. This beautiful Temple was a victim of the Aswan High Dam. With an incredible multimillion dollar project this temple had a coffer dam built around it and it was moved to higher ground. It now sits on an island and is accessed by small tour boats. We felt like we were back in Arizona with the mid-day temp hitting about 115

Aswan High Dam

This Dam is a must see for all tourists. It was completed in 1970 and is the largest embankment dam in the world. This dam was built to control the flooding of the Nile River during the rainy season, and to release water during times of drought. It forms the 3 rd largest reservoir in the world which is called Lake Nasser. Unfortunately the reservoir covered some Egyptian temples that were built about 2600 BC.

Movenpick Hotel, Aswan Egypt

This was our first stop on a 1 week Egyptian tour, to celebrate our 25 th anniversary. We flew into Cairo on Oct 2nd, and with a delayed flight we found ourselves running through the international airport to barely make our connecting flight to Aswan. We finally arrived at the beautiful Movenpick Hotel after midnight. Since we didn't speak Arabic very well we had a little trouble communicating. But on our arrival we were met by a driver connected with our travel agency who took care of us until we reached our hotel. With a few tips thrown out, we got to our room with all of our luggage. Egyptian currency is the pound, and it's 10 Egyptian pounds to one English pound or 5 pounds to one US dollar. Now we are back in England and can catch up on the Blog.

The Fryderyk Chopin

There's a new sight every day outside our flat. This is a Polish ship which sails everywhere in the world. She sails with 14 professional crew and up to 39 trainees and special personal. The square rigger is 182 ft. long, 38 ft. beam and has a mast height of 124 ft. Built in 1992 the steel hulled ship has an amazing 12,000 sq. ft. of sail and a weight of 306 tons. These canals in Canary Wharf come off the Thames River which is very close and are deep enough for large vessels like this.

Bad Day

This appears to be a real bad day for someone. At least it's only half sunk so the sailor can still keep dry while he gets some help. This is what I saw in the canal off of my deck today in London. There were several cameras in action including mine. One of the dock workers told me that it might be part of a set for a filming crew. I've seen filming before in this canal. It seemed to a good story for the blog.

ILLY

Look out Starbucks here comes "Illy", from the Novello Coffee Company. This is a tiny mobile coffee vendor that offers everything for the coffee junkies. It can't be any bigger than a golf car, but it's licensed and can go anywhere. I found this just outside our flat in London

Happy Birthday Brooke

Thinking about our only daughter on her birthday. She is grinding out 2 more years at Arizona State University towards a teaching degree. We miss her a lot and wish we could be with her on this special day. We look forward to being with our AZ family and friends in November

Shepherd's Pie

This is the first time I've had shepherd's pie. In a pub in Grenwich London it was on the menu. It actually was the only order of the pie left that evening. I didn't know if it was real popular or an order left over from the week before. But I gave it a try. This was a stew of vegetables and lamb in a light gravy with a cover of mashed potatoes over the top. With some steamed veggies on the side it was a great tasting meal. There are many different recipe's for Shepherd's Pie that sound quite good, but this one sure hit the spot.

US Guests

We are joined here by more US friends. Posing here at the entrance of the Tower of London are Gene, Sara, Duane, and Julie. We now have moved back to Canary Wharf in London, to yet another temporary residence. Our guests stayed in our flat and we stayed in the Hilton nearby. While Julie worked I got to be the tour guide. We toured Westminster Abey and the House of Parliament, which isn't always open to the public. The next day we toured the Tower of London. The tower was built in 1078 on the bank of the Thames River. It was built as a royal residence and later was a jail for very illustrious prisoners. It made me a little nervous because it seemed that most people who stayed there got be-headed. Today it is a museum where the crown jewels are on display for everyone to see. We have had over a week with sun and blue Sky's, which has made touring London a lot of fun with with some great people.

The Harley Fund

Now here is one of the best birthday presents I've ever got, thanks George , Lora, & Gloria. I'll tell you why, if anyone cares. After 12 years I've got no Harley in my garage. I know that a lot of people feel bad because they've missed my birthday Aug 30. Don't worry any more, here's the answer. Give generously to the Harley fund. I encourage all gifts and donations. You can give in US dollars, English pounds, Euros, Francs, or what ever currency you wish. You can even go on the easy monthly gifting plan. So all your worries are gone. I will still love all of my friends even if they send in a late gift. With a combined effort we can reach our goal by the time we move back to the states in few years. What a great way to feel really good about yourself! You just can't help but like an understanding guy like me.

The Albany

So here we are now in yet another temporary house. It is a 12 ft. square room including the bath. It comes fully equipped with a 9 inch tv, and an 8 x 10 inch refrigerator. Of course we are living out of 1 suitcase each, which works fine for me but not very good for Julie. This is the only property that we could find in Guildford that would rent for a short term, to evicted felons like us. Our room is above a popular pub called the Albany, so the noise goes on into the night. Our new property that we were promised yesterday is still locked up because the landlord hasn't got his bank loan yet. So all of our possessions are stored at the moving company. We are evicted renters and nobody want us. The adventure goes on.

Milan

Lake Chelan neighbor Milan Moss has been a good friend since we first met in 1995. This picture is the perfect example of what I mean. In my absence while he was in Chelan, Milan protected my favorite bottle to the last drop. He made darn sure that no one else got any of it. I know it wasn't an easy task but he stepped up and did it and asked nothing in return. I don't even know how to thank him for doing that for me. Year after year we have spent many hours together either fishing or just killing time at Happy hour with our families and friends. As I left to go back to England this year, Milan gave me some advice for the first time. He told me to "slow down". Now I'm a person who's gone through life like it's a 100 yard dash. It's possible that in my haste, I've missed out on people, events and places that probably were important. So going forward I'll take his advice and make an effort to slow it up a little. Thanks Milan for the advice and the friendship, and thanks for taking care of my bottle. Can't wait to see you next summer!