I will miss my Royal mates

Once again I say goodbye to my mates at Buckingham Palace. As I head off to the US on Monday I will miss our afternoon tea for the next month. I guess I should dress up little better for the Queen but sometimes I'm just too busy. I promise to pay a visit to my US tailor, and spice up my wardrobe at the famous Wenatchee Wall Mart

Royal Albert Hall

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood was the concert tonight. It doesn't get any better than that. This was our first visit to London's Royal Albert Hall. We shared a private box with 5 other couples but with the circular design of the hall there were no bad seats in the house. Opened in 1861 by Queen Victoria, the Royal Albert Hall designed to hold 8,000 was as amazing as the show itself. What a night!

Cheap Sun Glasses

Here on the streets of London with Lora and Julie. We had to check out the designer sunglasses in China Town. We send off our friend Lora today, we miss her already. Now back to the same ol boring life on Monday. I'll once again have to comb the streets for the next bit of action. Click on the link below for the real story!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WTlP08LEg

Million Dollar Quartet

The Million Dollar Quartet is a true story of a jam session that happend by pure chance Dec. 4 1956 in Memphis. These superstars were Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash shown in the studio picture. Julie, Lora and I enjoyed 2 hours of hits from the 50's. Great musicians played and acted out the music and story of the recording stars lives' in the music business. This is a new London show playing at the Noel Coward Theater and a damn good one. I love the old Rock & Roll.

Barclays, New Appointment

Announcement from Barclays: We are delighted to announce that Julie Roddy has been appointed as Director of Retail Operations for the United Kingdom, effective June 1. She will be reporting to Steven Roberts, Chief Exective COO, UK Retail Operations. Julie will lead the UK Mortgage operations across our sites in Edinburgh, Dartford, Leeds, and also in Noida, Chennai, and Mumbai, India. Julie brings a wealth of experience into this role having worked for 25 years in the US at Washington Mutual managing Retail and Mortgage Operations. During the last four years Julie has held roles of Regional Director for both the London and Southern regions leading the way in people engagment and regional performance. Please join us in thanking Julie for her siginificant contribution as a Regional Director and wishing her every success in her new role.

Truefitt & Hill

As recognized by Guinness Book of World Records, this is the oldest Barbershop in the World. Opened in 1805 the London "Truefitt & Hill" is well known as the world leader in men's grooming. The shop opened in an era when vanity and good grooming were the essential mark of a gentleman. Some of the notables on the who's who list of clients include Lord Lawrence Oliver, Danny Kay, John Wayne, Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, Charles Dickens, Stewart Granger, Sir Philip Roddy, Fred Astaire, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cary Grant. I visited the shop yesterday on James street where I've been several times. One of my favorite areas of Central London. I'm lucky this week to have my own personal photographer, Lora in town. Everyone in London is getting real tired of taking pictures for me.

Vat Tax

The Vat stands for "value added tax" here in the UK and is similar to sales tax in the US. With unemployment high and taxes going up everywhere, we need a break. I found just a little to cheer about today in central London. Now maybe a guy can afford a night out to more respectable places for a change. Gees! it's about time.

Mamma Mia

Today we saw the musical Mamma Mia at the Prince of Wales Theater. The show opened in 2004 in the theater that was built in 1884. Most everyone has seen the movie Mamma Mia that features the timeless music of Abba. It's the story of a daughter's quest to find her real father on the eve of her wedding. She has 3 possible choices and invites all three to the wedding without telling her Mother. Too Funny! With us is best friend and neighbor Lora, from Lake Chelan who came for a 10 day visit. Great show and great company.

London Filming

It is very common to see film crews here in London shooting sets for future movies. Acting schools are also very popular here so there are actors always looking for any part they can get. Recently I looked out my window and saw a plane crash with fire, smoke and people running everywhere. I got my scope on it and saw a movie set with dead people, fire, blood and guts everywhere. The filming lasted 3 days and these pictures are from my flat about 300 meters away. I went over there quick to see if I could get involved. There was a lot of action with zombies walking slowly getting shot at and bloody human limbs laying on the ground. They were recruiting more actors to be zombies but had specific requirements. They had to walk slow, look dumb and act stupid. It all came natural for me except the walk slow part. They sure had a lot of requirements. Maybe acting school!

Turkish Food

Common dishes here are Doner Kebabs, with lamb or chicken. Yogurt is commonly used in sauces, rice and pastry's are on most menus. The resort food was the best as it catered to everyone in the world and we enjoyed most meals. It was fun watching these Turkish ladies cooking flat bread with spinach and cheese. Julie and I took one night out of the mess hall and did a Turkish restaurant. My meal shown here was veal with rice, veggies and onions. It looked like something a camel dropped on the road, but I ate it all. We didn't like everything but we never went home hungry.

Turkey, in the city

We took a side trip with a cruise into old town Antalya. With great weather and after few leaps into the sea, we reached the old sea port and spent the afternoon in town. Again we didn't hear any English spoken at all, but all of the shop owners could speak a little. We found that most bags, shirts, hats and even shoes had American brand names on them. The currency was the Turkish Lyra, which we had but all shops wanted Euros instead. All Credit cards were accepted as usual. The hookah pipes and rugs are commonly made here in Turkey and are sold everywhere. It's always fun to visit another culture.

Turkish Bath

The public bath tradition started thousands of years ago in the Roman culture when people had no baths in their homes, and is still very popular today. Our resort spa offered the Turkish bath and it is a favorite with guests, so I had to do it. A cute Turkish lady was my attendant and I had no idea what to expect. I started the 90 minute procedure by stuffing my clothes in a locker and wrapping a thin cloth around me. I was led into a steam room for 10 minutes then into the large bath area where several men and women were being washed. Now except for me and one other dude, all of the women , and men had swimming suits on while in the bath. I was laid down face up on this marble slab where she soaked me with warm water. Next was the scrub-down with a course pad which I'm sure was used for stripping paint. Then came the foam soap scrub from head to toe cleaning what little skin I had remaining. I was turned over face down for more of the same. The thin cloth wrap I wore was pulled off several times and readjusted. So my "boys" got plenty of attention, thank you very little. After the bath I stood up and was rinsed, drowned with cold water, and dried. She then rapped me with a dry cloth and took me to a quiet room for a full body massage, which I don't have near the time to tell about. I wasn't able to take my camera with me so I posted a picture from the Hotel lobby. Would you believe that the bath will be my best memory of Turkey and I know Julie can't wait to learn this fine art just for me.

On the Beach

The sun and warm water is what we live for. We take our long beach walks in the morning and camp out in the sun until we're burnt up, then do it again the next day. A long swim and walk burns enough calories that you can eat and drink all day long without any guilt. Some of the sights aren't the best to look at and some are a bonus. I hope you understand why I can't post my favorite pictures. Sea food is served here daily so be careful what you step on as it could be on the menu tonight. Here's two gents who forgot their morning work-out. You just gotta get your exercise! I watched a middle aged lady without a top on who was smoking every 30 minutes, jump into the pool we were in and swim the full length underwater. It was about 25 meters long. She took a short break and did it again, then got out, got a drink, and lit up another fag. Unbelievable! I couldn't swim that far under water on my best day and should have asked what brand she smoked. I'm gonna get some of those.

Antalya, Turkey

We've just returned from our first visit to Turkey, on the Eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. A city of over 1 million, Antalya has evolved from part of the Roman Republic in the 3rd century BC to an International Resort today. We stayed at the Sherwood Breezes resort on the coast and enjoyed a warm sunny relaxing week. This was an all inclusive holiday that included the flight, room, and all food and drinks. The five star property was gorgeous with 5 pools and activities for adults and children as well. Pictures show the property from the beach and from our no smoking room. The Bin Laden news hit while we were there and a resort employee gave me a hug and a big thanks knowing I was from the US. I am a proud American but I wasn't waving the flag on the city streets here. Not everyone in this world likes the US so we kept a low profile and said we were Canadians if asked. After our first day there, we didn't hear any English spoken at all so we were a bit more careful.