Updates..because I'm really behind on them!!

So, seeing that my Dad updates his blog more than I do made me realize I should really keep this thing more up-to-date!

Things have really been pretty much the same lately, just hanging out spending time with Mike while I'm over here in London. Since he works during the week, I mostly just stay at home and read some books, watch tv, and chat with friends from home. I love the weekends though because most of the time Mike doesn't have to work weekends at the bar, so we get to spend a lot more time together. It's nice. Sometimes we'll go hang out in a fun park and have a picnic or something, other times we'll just sleep in til late, cook a yummy breakfast at home, go to a pub and watch "the football" (soccer), or last weekend Mike was able to find a local pub that was showing the first Cal game!! It was SUCH a good game too, we dominated over Maryland, and it was really fun to watch American college football here because everyone who walked past was so confused about why we even watching it...heehee. Mike wore one of his hundreds of Cal tees that I've gotten him as gifties, and I wore my Cal alumni hoodie that I love.

In other exciting news, I've finally booked my ticket to come back home to the States!! My flight back to Atlanta is on Sept. 26th, and I'm actually really looking forward to getting back home again. I miss my friends and family so much, and I really just miss not being a foreigner. It sounds weird, but I miss American culture and food and stores and even the currency!! haha. But I feel like it's going to be weird getting used to dollars instead of pound coins again...sigh. I'm not sad to leave Mike behind either, because he's planning on coming to visit just one week later! So I won't have to miss him too much.

This weekend we're leaving on Thursday to go up to visit Mike's "Pop" for a few days, so I am looking forward to that because I really like all of Mike's family and his grandpa is a really nice man. Then, we're coming back on Saturday and going to a housewarming party for Mike's friend, and on Sunday it's our 1-year anniversary!! Neither of us is really sure what we're doing to celebrate just yet, but we'll probably try someplace new for dinner and just have a nice night out. So I'm looking forward to that. :)

That's all for now!! I'll update more lata.

The Hanging Basket!

Last Friday night, Mike and I felt like going out in Bedford, nothing special just having a drink or two in a local pub and perhaps listening to some live music as well. So, we walked down the main street away from the house where we are staying and came across a pub called "The Flowerpot" that looked nice and small and casual and had a sign out front that said there was live music there on Friday nights. We went inside and it was a small place, with just a few people scattered about the bar chatting to each other, and there was a young guy playing his guitar over on the left side of the place, and a few people who looked like his friends sitting right up in front of him. Mike ordered a Magner's cider and ordered me a rose wine and then we took our drinks over to a table by the guy playing the guitar so we could watch and listen and enjoy the music.

The singer/guitarist guy turned out to be named Sam Miller or something like that, and he sounded a little bit like Paolo Nutini combined with Gavin DeGraw or something..it was good music, he played some covers as well as some of his own stuff. It was nice to just get out of the house and go somewhere and hang out and chat and listen to good music and have a few drinks on a Friday night. After we'd been there a few hours, we decided to head back home and as we were walking home - Mike got confused and said he'd had a fun time at that bar...what was it called..the Hanging Basket?

Food

As much as people say that food in England is limited to fish and chips, I have to say that I really enjoy being here because the food is pretty good. It's not like I eat fancy cuisine or anything, but I love the little snackie-type things that I eat all the time. Like, today for lunch I had a yummy cheese and pickle sandwich with mature white cheddar cheese (very strong and delicious) and Branston's pickle (it comes in a jar, and is like a diced pickle in a sweet/tart brown-colored sauce, sounds weird, but tastes YUM), on delicious Hovis thick-sliced white bread. I also had a bag of tasty McCoy's thick ridged crisps that were cheese and onion flavor with a jalepeno twist, yummy. So yea, even though this food all sounds super weird - I love it! haha. Also, the other night for dinner, Mike and I were ready for a change of pace from our usual fare: pizza, pasta, spaghetti, or chili and decided to make "breakfast for dinner" with a full English-style breakfast. It turned out SO good too! Mike did most of it, but I helped with the grilled mushrooms and onions. Our breakfast was one fried egg, white toast, Heinz baked beans, mushrooms and onions, two pork sausages, one thick piece of bacon, anddd...I think that's it!! Our plates were pretty much overflowing - we were so pleased. :) And for dessert, Mike wanted to prove that he could bake a cake from scratch, so we followed the recipe for a Victoria Sandwich cake (white cake with jam sandwiched in the middle) off the back of the flour bag and it turned out all right actually. The only problem was we decided to make powdered sugar frosting and we added vanilla flavouring and some red food coloring, and it ended up tasting just a little bit too sweet. But the cake itself was surprisingly nice. Mike even decorated it with the sweets he'd bought earlier in the day. It was good with a cold glass of milk. Yum!

Summertime

To everyone who enjoyed reading my blog while I was studying abroad last fall, I've decided to start writing on here again since I have now returned to the United Kingdom for an indeterminate amount of time to enjoy my summer months after graduation with my boyfriend. As you all probably know, Mike lives in a town called Milton Keynes, which is about an hour and half drive away from London. Milton Keynes is a newer city, kind of reminds me a little bit of Alpharetta in the way that it is suburban and the main downtown area is comprised of the mall. Not too much to do there, but there's always a good movie to see, a good pub to have a cider or two at, or a fun afternoon stroll around the "city center" (what they call the mall area here). When I got here a few weeks ago, I started living at Mike's house, but starting at the beginning of the month, Mike and I started housesitting for one of his old co-workers in a town called Bedford - which is about half an hour away from Milton Keynes.

The couple who live here usually have gone away on vacation for a few weeks, so Mike and I are watching their house and taking care of their dog Eric while they are off having fun in the sun. It's really nice being here actually, Downtown Bedford is only about a fifteen minute walk away, the dog is a really adorable chocolate lab, we have our own place (kind of..) for about a month, and it's a beautiful house as well which is an added bonus. Mike has to work during the week, so while he's away at the office, I usually stay at home here and clean, or read, or watch tv, or walk downtown, or just rest around with the doggie. It's kind of boring and I get a little lonely sometimes, but it's nice because rather than having to call Mike at the end of the day, I get to actually see him when he gets home from work!! It's a nice change of pace.

This weekend, we had Mike's sister and her boyfriend over to the house for a BBQ and a movie. It was fun to be able to have them over and cook up some chicken and burgers and drink some cider and wine and then watch a silly movie (Body of Lies with Leo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, it was all right, just a little long and overdramatic) and then just hang out and chat for awhile. And on Sunday, Mike cooked breakfast for the four of us, and then after our guests left we walked downtown and shopped (mostly window-shopping...) and just wandered around for awhile before coming home and resting the rest of the afternoon. We watched the movie Remember the Titans, and then got really inspired (as I always do with cheesssssyyyy movies) and so decided to throw the football around in the backyard (the back garden, as the Brits call it) for a little while. We had to stop though when the doggie got a little too riled-up and would rush us whenever we'd try to throw the ball. It makes it difficult to enjoy playing catch when you have a pretty strong dog running straight at you while you are trying to catch the football. So, we just sat outside in the swinging chair thingie (don't know the real name for one of those) and enjoyed the nice cool summery weather.

Today I've just been up and about cleaning, jogging on the treadmill (for a verrryyy short amount of time), hanging out with the doggie, watching tv, eating yummy cheese and pickle sandwich for lunch, and now I'm doing some laundry. I'm gonna post some pictures below (as usual!!) for you all to see one of our nights out with Mike's sister and her boyfriend, pics from our adventure to Bournemouth Beach, Mike's two cats at home, and our little doggie friend here too! Miss you all very much, love you, and if you come across any free tickets to England - I'd love some visitors.