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.