Dubai

Were do I begin...for starters Holy Cow, I was in freaking Dubai! I, never in a million years, would have ever thought I would have the opportunity to visit a middle eastern city. We all hear about Dubai, we all see pictures of the hotels, the beaches, the city, yet how many people do you know that can say "Yes, I have been to Dubai!" Well, It was all Viv's idea. I wanted to go to Italy and see all that Italy had to offer, Viv had other plans. He wanted to visit somewhere that if we were living in the US, would be harder to visit, like Dubai. It's a 8 hour plane ride from London, and you fly over city's you only hear about on CNN. We flew directly over Kuwait and Baghdad, and a few hours later we landed in Dubai. For starters, the bathroom was different. I walked into a bathroom stall in the airport to see a hole in the ground..I stopped, looked at it, and then looked at it some more...I said to myself, um what do I do?! I then left the stall, and went into another stall, where I saw my friend, a western toilet. Phew! After we located out luggage we walked outside to be knocked back by the heat and humidity at 9 at night. At 9pm, the humidity was unbearable. Just waiting for a cab, I looked like I had been at the gym, with water beading on my forehead from just standing. The hotel was about 20 minutes from the airport. We stayed at the Sheridan located on Jumeirah Beach. Our hotel room had the largest balcony that overlooked the resort, the ocean, and the high rises. The following morning we woke up to hotness! The temperature at 9am was 110 degrees, and with the humidity it felt like you were in the Devil's layer. We decided to visit the pool, seeing that it was the only thing you could do outside.

I don't know why the hotel even has lawn chairs because you can't use them, its too bloody hot! Viv and I were in the pool then entire time we were at the pool. They had a great bar that you could swim up to and sit in the water while enjoying a pretty cocktail with an umbrella in it. All the people at the resort were European. How could I tell you ask?....well, the size of their tinny speedo's gave it away. I think that there might have been 2-3 other men wearing board shorts at the pool, they were obviously British, while all the other men wore ittsy-bitsy-tinny-weeny speedo's...and no ladies, no one at the pool looked like David Beckham in a speedo, if you catch my hairy, fat, ugly drift. After our fingers looked like prunes, Viv and I decided to check out the local mall, seeing that everyone told us Dubai has the best malls in the world, aka, Heaven! What makes things even better is that there is no personal or income taxes in Dubai, so what you see on the price tag, is what you pay! The currency in Dubai is the Dirham, although many places you go the price tag is in Durham and also USD, although you can't pay in the USD. We hopped into a cab and found our way to the Dubai Mall, aka, the largest mall in the world! Did I mention that Dubai was my Heaven? The Dubai Mall cost 20 billion dollars to build and has over 1,200 shops and over 12 million square feet. Its bran-spanking new and still hasn't had its grand opening yet. There were a lot of stores that still had not opened. But, boy do they like western food; Uno Chicago Pizzeria, Taco Bell (where we had lunch, it was the best lunch ever!) Hardee's, Caribou Coffee, Burger King, Starbucks Coffee (no surprise, a grande soy latte cost 9$USD!) KFC, Panda Express, Subway, Johnny Rocket's, Dunkin Donuts, just to name a few that we saw. Also lots of western shops, Bloomingdales, Express, Gap, BCBG, Forever 21, Clair's, Guess, Coach, Crocs, and many more. I wasn't expecting to see so many western stores, most of these stores and restaurants can't be found in London, so It was surprising to see them somewhere so far away. But this mall doesn't just offer shopping and eating, of course not, not in Dubai!...there is a 22 cinema screen theater, a fashion catwalk atrium where the floor rises up and becomes a catwalk, there is a section of the mall called Fashion Island, and its my Mecca! There are 70 stores dedicated to haute couture. (Heaven I tell you!) There is a replica of London's Regent street, a Aquarium that's in the Guinness book of world records for having the worlds largest viewing panel, an Olympic sized ice rink, the largest gold souk, a retractable roof in part of the mall, a supermarket and an organic foods market too. And did I mention the 150-room luxury hotel that you can stay in when you can't find your car in the 14,000 parking spots? Needless to say, by the time we left this mall, our feet, our backs and wallets were hurting! Oh, I almost forgot to tell you...well, I didn't know that it's against Muslim religion for women to show their shoulders in public, and so when we got to the mall, Viv had to run into Gap and get me a scarf to cover my shoulders because I was wearing a strapless dress...always do your research before going to another country! After lots and lots of walking, we headed back to the hotel had a bite to eat and called it a night.

The following day was nice. Nice meaning that it was only 100 degrees and the humidity was at 70 percent, so the pool we headed to. Today you could actually sit in your lawn chair for 20 minutes before your head started beading up with water. The pool was great, but I was more interested in the ocean. Dubai sits in the Arabian Gulf, and the gulf felt like a hot tube. I'm not a big ocean, sea creature kind of girl, so I was delighted to see the bottom of the ocean was clean with white sand and not a fish in sight. I think the water was just too hot for fish and such, but it wasn't too hot for me! I swam around like a fish and would run to the pool to get cooled off from the hot waters of the gulf. I did some shelling and found some great shells along the beach. The entire day was spent back and forth between the pool and the ocean, with a quick break for lunch at the hotels buffet...not a bad day!

After a day of sun and sand, Viv and I needed to spend our last day seeing Dubai. What a better way then a double-decker bus tour! The tour lasted 6 hours! And we saw it all, Palm Island, Burj Al Arab, The Gold Souk, the Dubai Marina, and Burj Dubai.

I really enjoyed Palm Island and being able to be on the island. For those of you who don't know, Palm Island is the world first man made, artificial islands located in the Arabian Gulf. They look like a giant Palm from the sky and can be seen in space. Its said to be the 8th wonder of the world. There are all kinds of residential and commercial properties on the island. Trump has a building being built and the Atlantis hotel is located at the crescent of the Palm. The Palm has its own monorail public transportation system. When your driving on the island, you can't really tell that your on this palm shaped structure, but who cares, its a really cool concept. With the success of the Palm, the developers announced a larger Palm to be started in 2004 and to take 10-15 years to build, but that was before the global credit crunch that has all but killed the real estate capital of the world, Dubai. I know that real estate on the Palm can't be cheep, because in every driveway that I saw there was a luxury car in the driveway, and when I saw luxury, I don't mean a Mercedes C-class, I mean a Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini...and who is surprised, after all, Dubai has the highest per capita incomes in the world.

We also visited the Gold Souk, about 30 minutes from our hotel. Its a traditional market in Dubai located in the heart of eastern Dubai's commercial business. 1 in 5 people in Dubai purchase 5 pieces of gold a year, and this is where they do it! By some estimates, approximately 10 tons of gold is present at any given time in the Souk. And gold isn't just what they offer, they have diamonds and exotic stones galore. Just walking around the Souk, you are mesmerized my the windows staring in your direction. Merchants walk the street trying to get you to visit their store, with bribes of water and juice to get you out of the hot weather. I have never seen such amazing jewelry in my life (with the exception of any Cartier store) And just about every store had a customer doing some browsing. Nothing has the price on it, the merchants come up with the price by weighing the piece and looking at the days gold price, then you can barter with the guy, hoping to come home with a prize piece for a cheep price. In one window, we saw a diamond ring that was 15 million dollars, and it had to be the size of an strawberry! You needed two fingers to keep that ring on. It was terribly hot (imagine that) so we walked around the market for about a half hour until we had to get back on our air conditioned double-decker bus.

We had a chance to see the Burj Dubai in all its glory. The Burj Dubai is the world tallest building at 2,684 feet high with 160 floors and the worlds fastest elevator. Its architects are familiar names; Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, who are the Chicago based architects and engineers responsible for that other tall building, Sears Tower (I can't call it Willis yet) The building cost 4.1 billion to construct, and if your thinking that maybe a corner office in this building could be nice, well get your check books out, because it will cost you $4,000 per square foot to occupy this famous space. It took them 5 years to build it, and it will also offer a hotel and will be the first world's tallest structure in history that includes a residential space.

The hotel and residence have a famous name attached to it: Giorgio Armani! That's right, Mr. Armani is opening his very first hotel in the Burj Dubai and he will also offer residences as well, for a measly beginners asking price of $3,500 per square foot. I wonder if they will throw in a nice Armani suit for that price?! The buildings grand opening is slated for mid-September and they better hurry, seeing that Skidmore, Owings and Merrill will be completing the new "worlds tallest" back in Chicago in a few years.

Last but not least, the Burj Al Arab. It's the only hotel in the world that has a 7-star ranking. And is the second tallest building in the world used exclusivity as a hotel. It's located on its own man-made island that has a giant, intimidating gate that you have to access to get to the hotel. Well, we didn't access the gate. The only way to see the hotel in all its glory is to either 1. pay $1,500 a night to stay there or 2. have a dinner reservation, which you can imagine isn't cheep. We looked into having dinner but decided that $300.00 a plate without drinks wasn't a top priority (I'm more of a taco bell kind of girl anyways) As you drive around Dubai, you can see the top of the building from the streets, and I was always trying to catch a good picture of it. The building is build to resemble sails of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. It seems to be a very iconic symbol for Dubai, much like the opera house is to Sydney or the Eiffel tower is to Paris. The hotel coat $650 million to build, but by charging $1,500 a night and $300 a plate for dinner, I think they got their money back real fast! The largest suit in the hotel is 8,400 square feet and cost $28,000 a night!!! Ok, so I'm going to have to wait to win the lottery, actually with that price, a few lotteries! A long day of sightseeing Dubai was behind us now and it was time to eat.

Viv and I decided to go back to Chicago for dinner...actually, we decided to go to Uno Chicago Pizzeria for a dinner of deep dish. Was it good, yes. Was it just like at home, no. The pizza was a little different, the pepperoni was not spicy , and the sausage was crumbled all over the pizza and didn't taste all that great, but I'm not complaining. There were pictures of Chicago all over the restaurant and there were baseball games in the TV's...we felt like we were back home, that is until we looked around and saw all the other customers in the restaurant, and looked at the water bottle that was written in Arabic. It was nice, and with our belly's full we were ready to catch our 3am flight to Maldives for the next leg of our holiday...

Pictures left to right:

1.Palm Island from the sky- no I didnt take this pic

2. Burj Al Arab, the 7-star, uber expensive hotel

3. A few buildings in the city, business district

4. Worlds tallest buiding, Burj Dubai

5. Me wanting everything in the Gold Souk

6. A view of our hotel pool with Viv floating arond.

7. My favorite lunch, Taco Bell!

8. Viv and myself at the beach

9. The view of the resort and gulf from our rooms balcony.

Roxanne...

"Roxanne, you don't have to put on the red light." Well we all know who sang those famous words, and now after a weekend trip to Amsterdam, I understand who Sting was singing about.

Viv had to go to Amsterdam for work, so we made a weekend of it and packed up our bags. Just a 45 minute flight from London, and a cab ride into the heart of the city. Our hotel was amazing! It was almost as large as our flat in London. It had two bedrooms, one of which was a loft over looking the living room. The living room had a small kitchen and a 50" flatscreeen TV. But the best part of the room was the view. We were on the 6th floor, and when you pulled back the curtains, you could open a large double window and look over the canal and the street. (and there was no screen, so it made me a little nervous, I could have easily fallen out the window) The view was lovely and and city was beautiful with the buildings and bridges all light up in the night. The next morning, V iv went off to his business meetings and I met my cousin...

How weird, my cousin was in Amsterdam. She lives in Atlanta and was visiting Paris and decided to hop on over to Amsterdam the same weekend Viv and I were visiting. I met her and her French friend at a cafe were we sat and caught up on the family drama. After lunch we met Viv back at the hotel and the four of us took a stroll over to the Heineken Experience. This was the perfect way to start our Amsterdam trip. Heineken IS the beer, or as they spell it, bier, of Amsterdam. Heineken stopped brewing her in 1988, but keeps the building open for flashy tours. The Heineken Experience was nothing more then their marketing department bombarding us with the Heineken trademark, the slogan and of course, the smiling E's...but there was a light at the end of the tour...free beer! You see, Dutch social life is all about drinking. The cafe's, as they call them, offer oodles and oodles of beer choices, always having Heinekin on the menu. After getting our buzz on, I had the courage to ask my cousin about the Red Light District. Viv and I didn't really know what the deal was about this area, I mean of course, I knew they did, well, illegal things, but didn't know if it was, well, a tourist stop? Sure enough, she had been there the evening before and gave me a heads up about what goes on and what to expect in this area of town...I knew I was going to need a few more drinks after her description! Then she came up with a brilliant plan: because I was so nervous, I was to visit during the day because there wasn't a whole lot of "business" going on...so that's what we did...the four of us walked to the Red Light District.

So we walked, and as we walked, I chewed all my nails down to the bone...they kept laughing at me because I was VERY unsure that I wanted to visit this notorious area. And let me tell you this, as we walked, I KNEW we had arrived, no one needed to announce what part of town we had stumbled upon, you just KNOW.

And how did I KNOW????...Well, for starters, the smell. As you walk along these tight brick sidewalks, you all of a sudden get a whiff of something, then you look, and there is a "coffee shop," and no people the shops don't smell like "coffee." How jacked up that 'they' call them coffee shops?! Poor Starbucks (by the way, we never saw a Starbucks in the entire city, only at the airport, where 2 grande lattes cost 9euro, which is $17.00!!!) Anywho, I knew that they were NOT serving coffee at these shops. No,Viv and I did not go into any coffee shops...I know, I know, I should have just gone IN..When in Rome...but seriously people, I was super scared. You should have seen the people in these shops, they looked all weird and creepy, while I looked like a very stylish tourist...ok, so maybe they didn't look weird, maybe I'm over exaggerating and my imagination has gotten the best of me, but I wasn't about to walk into a "coffee shop" and have my Tori Burch sweater smell like weed, um gross! And hello, I heard a rummer that just smelling that stuff makes you all loopy...I'm loopy enough with just one glass of wine, imagine, I don't think so! Anywho...as we continued our journey around the District, there were also shops that sold "Seeds." Yep, you guessed it, were not talking Marigold seeds, were talking pot plant seeds, what do they call it...yes, Merawanna, Cannabis (no idea how to spell it? Those are the same things, right?)

So after my eyes widened at the coffee and seed shops, my jaw then hit the ground...Ok, so I'm not going to go into that much detail, use your imagination, this is a family blog...but I think I was more shocked then anything, not really grossed out. You are walking and you look to the right, and there is this women in a "bikini" looking at you through a doorway/window. Eye contact I was not about to make...There were so many women, and some were better looking then others; some old, some young, some fat, some skinny, some maybe men? Anyway, the "District" was surprisingly large, and thank goodness, there were tons of tourist all over the place, some even pushing kids in strollers..NO JOKE! After a few blocks, I was able to pull my jaw off the ground, and was, well, use to it?...It was just crazy, and LEGAL...well, if that's what puts dinner on the table, then so be it, who am I to judge?!

Once I conquered my fear of the "District" I was all good. My cousin and her French friend had to call it a night and head back to Paris. Viv and I made our way back to the area of our hotel and had a lovely dinner al' fresco then we called it a night.

I was not prepared for Saturday, I don't think either of us were. What I'm referring too is Gay Pride. That's right, we had managed to book a weekend in Amsterdam the same weekend the Gay Pride parade was taking place. Now I have seen EVERYTHING! We walked onto the streets of Amsterdam to see people everywhere, all in town to celebrate Gay Pride '09. It was pretty amazing, the canals were full of groups of people on their boats pre-partying. Large boats, small boats, house boats, row boats, you name it they were full with people. The larger boats had huge stereo systems on them, were talking speakers the size of a suitcase and 2-6 on each boat...and then they had DJ's spinning live on the boats as they pre-partied. I've never seen anything like it before. Viv and I found a spot on the canal to watch the parade. It was great, the boats were all decorated like floats. There were different themes on the boat/floats, and you bet there was a whole lot of drag going on. I've never seen such elaborate costumes in my life.

After a while of watching float after float, my back and feet started to hurt, and I had drank enough warm wine and needed to grab a bite.

Viv and I headed off to lunch and then made our way across town to the Van Gogh Museum, a spot that I really wanted to visit. The museum has the worlds largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh: it houses more then 200 paintings, including many very famous masterpieces like 'self-portrait' from 1887, 'Sunflowers,' 'Wheatland with Crows' Viv's favorite, 'The bedroom' and many, many more. The museum did a really good job of educating us about Van Gogh and broke up all his art work by year and location he painted his masterpieces. They focus a lot on his contemporaries and his influence on other artist, as well as talk about what influenced him. I highly recommend this museum should any of you be visiting the Netherlands. I didn't pay the extra euro's for the audio tour, and kind of regret it. The museum also has an extensive collection of works of art by other 19th century painters and sculptors. And they have this great exhibit questioning the authenticity of a few Van Gogh pieces and teach you how they determined the authenticity of these pieces using technology..pretty amazing stuff!

So after we knew way too much about this Epileptic artist who is known for cutting off his own ear, we wondered around the canals as the Gay Pride parade concluded. Our feet and backs were hurting, so what better way to rest, then to find a near by Cafe. We sat and sat and drank and drank...we drank until it was dark and dinner time was upon us. When we were walking to the cafe, we saw this cute Italian restaurant, and so after our cafe visit, we decided to head back to the Italian restaurants direction. We quickly found a table outside. All the tables were packed, inside the restaurant and outside. We felt lucky to have found a table. Now, anyone can tell you that European service sucks, but, Viv and I must have sat at that table for 20minutes before 1 of the 2 waiters in the whole joint even approached us, and they only approached us after we had to flag them down. We ordered, and we ordered a lot...we were hungry! A beer for Viv, wine for me, a bottle of Pellegrino for the table, an appetizer of fresh bread with olive tapenade, then Lasagna for Viv and I had the waiters recommendation, prawn and scallop homemade ravioli with a sage butter sauce. The meal, surprisingly, came fast and we chowed down. The food was SO good! Really, the first Italian, besides pizza, that I had eaten in a month. After staring at our empty plates for what seemed like hours, we again, had to flag a Waiter down and ask to take the plates away. We sat and sat at our table, like another 20minutes, until our original waiter came out and asked us if we had even received out food. Um, Hello dude, way to be a great server, YES we had gotten our food, and yes we had eaten it, and yes, we do want dessert. I ordered profiteroles and Viv had a cannoli. Ok, so here is were the fun begins. So, obviously, the service at this restaurant was not fast, nor even slow..it was CRAWLING! And I Viv and I knew were weren't the only ones getting bad/no service. Two tables had sat down and after a while just got up and left. Viv and I were so annoyed, and Viv went inside the restaurant on THREE occasions trying to look for someone to pay so we could leave the joint. After waiting and waiting for 45 minutes (NO JOKE) we just left! That's right.....we didn't pay for dinner! HELLO, we SO tried of waiting and waiting! They just didn't care about us paying them...we did feel bad, we liked the food and would have liked to go back to the restaurant some day, but not after we skipped out on the meal. We quickly but not so quickly walked away from the table, and then when i looked back, i saw the table next to us, who were also waiting for their cheek just as long, if not longer, took our lead and just left without paying as well. So, that was a first for me and Viv, and hopefully we won't make a habit of it...ha ha.

We walked back to the hotel, laughing and feeling a little paranoid. Then we called it a night.

Sunday rolled around before we knew it, and we woke up to a rainy, cold day. We had originally planned to wake up early and take a canal tour of the city before we had to take off for the airport. But seeing the weather, we both decided to forget about the canal tour and watch MTV instead. One of my favorite programs was on, Paris Hiltons New BFF...I haven't seen MTV in a month, I was excited and Viv got easily hooked into the program. After a few episodes of Ms. Hilton, we packed up our bags and headed for the airport. Back to London life we went.

So overall Amsterdam was an eye opener. I enjoyed the area we stayed in, it was beautiful and the Dutch food and shops were fun and interesting. The center of the city seemed dirty, crowded and just not my cup of tea. I think that if you are in the area you should visit Amsterdam, but keep in mind, there isn't a whole lot to do. 2 days is really all you need for this city.I certainly would not recommend flying from the States just to see Amsterdam, unless you are a super freak that enjoys feeling loopy...Its a stamp in my passport and I certainly came home with a few stories.

Tot Ziens Amsterdam

Hallo Dubai!!

Pictures, left to right:

1.My cousin and Viv at the Heineken Brewery

2.Canals cover the city, you get around by Vespa, Bike or Canal. The streets are so tight its hard to get a car through them.

3.Down the street from our hotel, so pictures.

4. Jaw dropping Red Light District

5.Free Beer at the Heineken Experience.

6.Gay Pride '09. Holy people everywhere!

7.Van Gogh 'Self-portrait' from 1887.

Tell Me It's Just Casper?!

So I know I'm not crazy (although a few of you might disagree) but seriously, do ghosts and spirits really exist? Well, if you asked me that question last night, around say, 4:30am, the answer would have to be a definite, YES, YES, YES!

So here is the story:

I was sound asleep when I casually heard some noise coming from the hallway outside our bedroom. I was dreary, and attributed the noise to our flatmate, Marcella, walking around the hallway. But after a short while, I was fully conscious and asked myself, what is Marcella doing? The noise that I heard was this popping sound, like those fireworks that you throw on the ground, or like electric sparks, and they were moving up and down the hallway getting louder as they came closer to our door and softer as they went down the hallway towards the living room. Well, I didn't think to much of them, but they then woke Keith up after a few moments and dashed out of the bed opening the bedroom door into the hallway, looking to see what the popping noise was. Well, there was nothing in the hallway, and Marcella had not been awake. So quickly, Keith went into the bathroom, that's connected to our room, and as soon as he closed the bathroom door, I heard the popping noise right outside our bedroom window, on the stairs that lead down to our garden flat. The Sound Had Moved! (Can I just tell you that as I remember the night, I have goosebumps and my heart is racing) The popping noise slowly migrated up the stairs outside out bedroom window and I heard the noise start to make its way down the street. Loud at first, then slowly, the noise would gradually get softer, as if "it" was walking away from the flat. Keith was in bed by now, and looked to be sound asleep, not noticing the sound moving away from the flat. I, on the otherhand, was stone cold scared. Something wasn't right, This sound was literally moving, it was in OUR flat and then went up our stairs and then down the street. I lied in bed not moving a muscle, thinking that if I moved the noise would come back. And sure enough, I heard the popping sounds start to get louder, like they were coming towards the flat. They weren't in any kind of rhythm, they were random, sometimes 2 pops, sometimes a group of 5 or 6 pops, but they were getting closer. For what seemed like a lifetime, the popping noise moved up and down the street, and at one point they were right outside the flat again, until they finally got distant and then went away. The entire, say 30minutes this look place, I was saying to myself, 'that's a freaking ghost' 'go away' ' please go away' 'I hope it can't read my thoughts' 'can it hurt me' 'were is the sun, ghost don't come out in the daylight' 'I need garlic' ...a million things raced through my mind.

No, I didn't go back to bed (would you?) I wasn't certain if the noise was gone for good, and WAY too frightened to sleep. Keith woke up to me wide awake, and as soon a he opened his eyes, I told him my ghost theory for what had happened last night. He didn't seem surprised, and said he too heard the noise moving up and down the street (see people, not crazy) but he just thought it was some kids...I said, HELLO, kids would be laughing, and HELLO, kids were not in our hallway. Then Keith said it was probably some animal, again, HELLO, no animal in our hallway...he went to work, leaving me doing research on the Internet about spirits and ghosts.

I found nothing regarding ghosts and spirits making popping noises, but I did email a 'paranormal expert' asking him about the noise that I heard. My theory: I think that it was some kind of electrical current that the spirit produced that made the popping noise..I don't think that is that far fetched?...um, were talking about the 'undead people!'

Also, I'm just going to throw this in...I have crazy good hearing and know what I heard. My mother has told me for years that I can literally hear a pin drop. Also, my most fear, ever since I was a child, is being visited by a ghost. I used to imagine ghosts in my room at night and lying in my bed for hours sweating, scared, not moving because I thought a ghost was visiting me, and when I got the courage, I would go into my parents room and sleep on the floor, feeling protected..but sometimes that didn't even work. And finally, no, this isn't the first 'ghost' run-in that I've had (remember, I'm not crazy)

About 5 years ago, I was living by myself in an apartment in Chicago, when I was woken up by a loud banging on my frond door (I lived on the third floor) Elsa, always one to greet a visitor, sat, un-normally, on the end of my bed and growled. I got out of bed, thinking it was some drunk neighbor or something, peered out of the peep hole to see nothing. As I walked back to the bedroom, there in the hallway, was a picture and the frame I had of Elsa lying on the floor. Ok, so it wasn't just lying there, it had been taken apart and lined up in a row...back of the frame, picture of Elsa, glass, then frame..all perfectly lined up in a row (ok, I'm getting goose bumbs again) and what made things any weirder (like they could be) was that the picture was suppose to be two rooms away, in the living room...so "magically" it appeared to have floated into the hallway, and taken apart and lined up?!?!?! I FREAKED!!!!

I turned all lights on and got Elsa and got in my car and drove to my parents house, at like 4am.

After a few days, and some Internet research, I learned it was a 'poltergeist' aka, Polish for a loud ghost, someone who likes the living to know they are present, and likes to play games (not fun games to the living world, if you ask me) So I got some garlic, a cross and went home and told the ghost in a loud and firm voice, while holding the garlic, that "I understand you want to be here, and i know you won't hurt me, but you can't live here, and I banish you from my home."(that's what the web site told me to do, I didn't come up with that on my own) Dude, THEN THE LIGHTS FLICKERED!!! NO JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took that as the ghost left, and for a few nights I didn't sleep, but never heard from my 'friendly' Casper again.

"They" say ghost don't follow you, so I don't think I have a ghost stalker. But given that I am living in a really, really old city, the likely hood of a ghost is probably very high.

Maybe it was my grandmother checking in on me and taking a stroll through the city, or maybe it was the King of Pop (get it pop, popping noise...ok, really bad joke) or maybe I am crazy?! I kind of hope I am crazy, and this never happens again.

Pictures of where I heard the 'popping'

1.Our flat, you walk down the steps to get into our flat. This is our buliding and street.

2. Our bedroom. Outside those windows are the stairs to get up and down to the front door.

3.The long hallway going into the living/kitchen/patio area. First door on the right is our bedroom. Im taking the picture from our front door.

4. The stairs going down to our flat. Thats our bedroom window and throught that gate is the front door.

I can't stand it

Ok, so its been nearly 4 weeks and

NO SHOPPING!

I can't stand it!!!

For those of you who know me, and for those of you who don't so well...I live to shop. My closet is sufficating from lack of labels. Yes, I did bring some amazing clothes to London, and yes, everyday I do look oh, so chic in my 'American' clothes (if I do say so myself) but...hello people, this is London, home of Alexander McQueen, Vivian Westwood, Matthew Williamson, Burberry, Stella McCarthney, Ana Hindmarch, Lulu Guinness, and not to mention amazing world-famous department stores; Harrods, Selfridges, Liberty, Harvey Nichols...the list goes on and on...

All day I walk along the streets of London looking, wanting, wishing for chic labels. Ok, so it dosent all have to be designer labels, granted they are nice...but how about a little Top Shop, Reiss, Zara or Jigsaw love to bring home to the empty hangers in my wardrobe>?

The fashion here is amazing just think about it, Kate Moss, Sienna Miller, Kiera Knightly they are all produsts of this British look...who knew that leggings and ridding boots could look so chic, or fedorias dressed with feathers would work well with a sundress and Hunter garden boots, and how about the girl who wears gladiator sandles with her bermuda shorts and a long blazer...you just don't see these things in the States (at least not in the midwest)...and I'm so inspired to fit into the British fashion, and to forget the rules about bra straps showing and not having your butt covered when wearing leggings...The brits do it all, good and bad. You can break a fashion rule here and a million eyes aren't on you...you can step out of your confort zones and try something new without being riduculed. The truth is, if you don't have your own sence of style here, you are boring...and I have never been one to be bording when it comes to fashion...sometimes a little conservative, but never boring.

Yes, I do have a list of things that Im dying to buy with my weak American dollar when I go back to the states for a visit in a few months, but truth be told, can I make it that long?!?!?!?!? I just can't fatham doing the conversion of the price of a Tori Burch handbag, and when I figure out the price in US dollars, its like double then what I would pay in the States...OUTRAGES!

Window shopping is the worst form of torture...

so, I have decided not to torture myself anymore. After 4 weeks of nearly crying at the Fendi counter at Harrods, I have made the life changing decision...I am going to read...???

Read you ask>? YES!

and no, I'm not talking USWeekly, although I do allow myself to splurge and spend $7.00 on an issue whenever I come across one at a local street vendors. (typically its a week or two old)

So reading it is...I will make my days about reading and not shopping...

First off, The Story Sisters, by Alica Hoffman...I began reading this book last week, when my desire for shopping hit an all time high, and after 3 days I finished the 325 page book about 3 sisters and their life's trials. I found my favorite thing to do is grab a blanket, make myself a little picnic lunch, and head on over to Hyde Park and find a quite tree that I can lean against. And to my surprise, I find myself looking forward to it?!

The book was interesting, the weather ok, the park fun, and my desire for shopping gone (that is until I have to walk past all the shops on High Street Kensington to get home)

Reading, who knew?!...The most reading I ever do is UsWeekly, Elle Decor and Vogue...which has VERY interesting articles!

So, my new book is...I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, in fact when I bought the book I asked for a gift receipt from the checkout girl so she didn't think the book was for me....the New York Times #1 Bestseller, Twilight....and 138 pages into it, and its good!..no, its actually, great!?!

I really hope my reading plan works...although I do still plan on living at Neiman's for a day when I visit home.

Its a cruel, cruel fashion world!

Bath, England

So Viv and I took our first weekend trip away, to Bath, England. Its a unique, old city with buildings made from the local limestone quarry. Its known for its hot spring, which the Romans created into bath spas. There is a splendid Abbey in the center of the city's courtyard and the city had unique Georgian stone crescents. The city is set about 100 miles west of London, in the Somerset countryside.

We took the train to Bath, it took about 1 1/2 hours to get there and upon arriving to the city, we walked to our hotel. We stayed at a cute English style hotel, you know the type..creeky uneven floors, ceilings so low you couldn't wear 2" heels, doors that you had to duck through, bathrooms with faucets that you didn't know how to use, and of course showers that were dark, had lousy water pressure, and made you hit your head if you stood up straight while washing yourself...like I said, a cute English hotel.We were really lucky about our hotels location, basically right in the middle of the tinny town. After dropping off our suitcases and hitting our heads on the ceiling, we walked around the town, in search of a bite to eat. We went straight for 'The Circus.'

The Circus is basically a street in Bath, a round street, with huge trees in the center of it. It is the masterpiece of John Wood 'the elder'. It has striking architecture and although nobody knows why johnny boy designed it this way, its lovely to walk through. So lovely, that Nicolas Cage bought a home on the street...and he paid 4 million pounds a few years ago, so if you do the math, a few years ago, Nic paid 8 million US bucks for his Circus! I wanted to knock on his door, but knew he was away filming in Singapore, thanks USWeekly. So Viv and I decided to have a drink and some marinated olives around the corner from Nic's cheep pad.

After drinks and olives, we headed out to dinner, umbrella open because of the nasty drizzle that never wanted to go away for more then 30minutes, and after a day of travel, olives and curry, we called it a night.

Saturday the sun was shinny and the clouds were white, not gray with rain, thats rare in England. First thing on our list, Starbucks....second thing on our list, the Roman Baths. Just a few streets away from our cute English hotel, the Roman baths were full with tourist. They are England's only hot spring, and the Romans built a magnificent temple and bathing complex that still flows with natural hot water. Its amazing as you walk though this place, just to think that the Romans walked were I was walking, on these ancient stone pavements. The spring, the temple the entire bath is beautifully preserved and the museum does a terrific job interpretating the ruins that aren't all intact. You felt like you could really see how they used this place, how they bathed and used the waters to heal ailments. The tour was great and afterward, we decided to be 'those people', the peeps who go on those double-decker buses and have the nerdy headsets on while the tour guide tells us to look left, then right.

The bus really was a good idea, Viv's idea of course. We really got a feel for the town and learned all kinds of fun facts, aka Nic Cage. We saw Jane Austins place, saw were the Vikings put up walls, saw the lady's house who wrote Frankenstein, learned how Queen Victoria used to visit the baths because it made her skin feel better (she had psoriasis and she only bathed 4 times a year, gross, maybe that's why she has psoriasis?!) we saw Solsbury Hill, aka Peter Gabriel's hit song by that title (he grew up a town away) and crossed 1 of only 3 bridges in the world that has shops on both sides of it (the other two are in Italy; Florence, Venice) After our brains were full of Bath knowledge, we needed a snack, so we headed back to the cute English hotel and had afternoon tea.

Well, I don't really recall much after that...you see I got bloody sick! While Viv and I munched on scones, I felt dizzy and nauseous, so I went back to the room and preceded to be sick the entire night. Poor Viv, he had to be on his own the rest of the day, doing a little more sightseeing on his own, then dinner by himself...I would have much rather been with him, then on the bathroom floor of the cute English hotel.

By the Morning, I was fine. Sunday morning we woke up extra early, due to the fact we had both been in bed by 9pm Saturday night. We woke up to find the entire town still asleep. The local Starbucks wasn't even open yet. Viv and I took advantage of being one of the few people up and got some amazing pictures of the Abbey in the center of town without any tourist in the frame. Then we took a walk up to the 'The Royal Crescent'

The Royal Crescent is one of the worlds best known landmarks. Built between 1767 and 1775 and designed by John Wood, 'the younger'. The crescent contains some 30 houses, one is now the most exclusive hotel in Bath, The Royal Crescent Hotel. We will stay there when we win the lottery. We did get a chance to walk through the lobby of the hotel and into the garden...holy nice-ness..I now understand, just by the courtyard garden why the cheapest room at this joint starts at 400.00 pounds, that's almost $800 US bucks!

After the big Crescent adventure, Viv and I had basically seen the entire town and done all the tourist things. We finished up with lunch at Jamie Olivers, who is one of my mothers favorite celeb chefs, so I made it a point to go to his restaurant. I had delish porage, aka, oat meal topped with honey and nuts. Viv had a typical English breakfast, cold beans, fatty bacon/ham, tomatoes and eggs, a real mans meal. Before we knew it we were back on the train headed home.

If anyone has the chance to visit London, I highly recommend a trip to Bath. Just a short train ride away, its a world away from the hassle and bussel of city life. Its a beautiful and unforgettable place to visit.

Now, next stop.... Dublin!

Pictures left to right:

Part of "The Circus" Nic's pad is in this strip.

Bath in all its Glory. Thats the bridge with shops on both side of the street; 1 of 3 in the world.

The Royal Cresecent. The uber exclusive ritzy hotel is in the dead center.

Me at the Roman Baths with the citys Abby in the background.

Viv at the Roman Bath's, notice how lovely the water looked...makes me want to jump in!

Wimbledon

How fortunate I have been so far as I continue to explore this wonderful city. My experiences got better as Viv and I headed to the 2009 Wimbledon Tennis Championships on Thursday. I have a friend who is a college tennis coach for a prominent Chicago college, and he was kind enough to get me tickets to this years games. It was a hot and sunny day, perfect for a day of lawn tennis. Viv took a half day (very rare) and met me at the courts.

Wimbledon is about a 20 minute tube ride away. The grounds sit right on the River Thames. Wimbledon itself is a huge tennis site. Besides the famous, centre court, there are plenty of other courts, something like 15, some with stadium seating, some with sideline seating, all with grass courts. I have never played nor seen a grass court before, and had totally forgotten that its part of the magic to Wimbledon.

Viv and I watch many matches; a men's match, a mixed doubles match, a junior women's and men's singles match, and the level of their play was amazing. I played tennis in high school and just two years of college, and was so in awe of the level that they played. The juniors were spectacular, just to think they are 15, 16 years old and serving at 115mph was jaw-dropping. Just as interesting as the players, were the ball fetchers (I don't know what they are really called, anyone?) Basically there are these young kids, 9-13 years old who's only job is to retrieve the ball and hand the players tennis balls and their towels when asked..and they do it with military precision. They were like little soldiers on the court. And something else I had not expected but seen on television, were the judges. Every court had a head judge, who sat on top of a high chair overlooking the entire court, announcing the score and making sure the game was played by the rules. Along with the head judge, there were 8 other judges on every court. A judge at basically every line, watching like a hawk, ready to call a ball out. It makes you wonder how a player could ever dispute a call, with so many judges, although each judge had different jobs. There was a base line judge, a judge who watched the serving players foot to make sure he did not serve over the line, and a judge for every other area of the court...and they all wore khaki pants/skirt, a polo top, and a cute paperboy hat, with matching polo treks (that's London talk for sneakers)..and yes, when I say polo, I mean Ralph Lauren was the official wardrobe for the judges, and ball fetchers.

Wimbledon would not be complete without Pimms and strawberry's with cream. And yes, we did both of these. Pimms, delish! It taste like a bubby fruit salad in your mouth. The strawberry's were sweet and the cream cold. Viv and I had lunch at the courtyard. We sat in teak lawn chairs, eating parma ham and mellon with a bottle of white wine...life is good! All around the grounds they were serving anything but carnival food. You would be hard pressed to find something to drink besides champagne, pimms, wine or Evian water. Food choices included duck, prawns, roasted chicken and parma ham. It really was a wonderful and amazing day. Viv and I both left Wimbledon so happy to have been able to attend. It's most certainly English lawn tennis at its best!

1 week and counting...

Can you believe its been 1 week since I arrived to my new home in London? Busy, busy I have been...Lets see, Ive met a bunch of new peeps, mostly Americana's ironically, attended a Killers concert in Hyde Park, gotten lost, been to Bond street, Covent Gardens, Camden market, figured out the tube, learned how to use the dishwasher, the laundry machines, and managed to even understand military time and ask for something at the deli using the metric system...totto, were not in Chicago anymore.

It's certainly a change of pace, everyday is an adventure. When I walk around the city I can't help but have a huge smile on my face. I just never, in a million years, would have thought that I would be living in London. A typical day, so far, is I wake up around 8:00, when Viv is leaving for work, go make a little breakfast of yogurt, scones and of course a 'spot of tea.' I then goof around on the computer, talk to Marcella, the flatmate from Germany. We kind of plan our day together, then get dressed (lots of skirts and tank tops b/c the weather has been in the 30's..aka 80 degrees-see metric system) then head off into the day, stopping for lunch or a snack as the day goes by. Then Im usually home around 5-6ish in the evening goofing on the computer some more and waiting for Viv to return home around 7ish, prepare or go out to dinner, watch a movie on the tv(the British TV sucks) and off to bed at 10-11pm. They are great days, and by the time I return home my feet are soar and nasty dirty from all the walking Ive done.

Pictures from left to right:

Killers concert stage at Hyde Park (aka the Central Park of London)

Marcella and I at Camden Mrkt, we had a police man take this pic..haha

Kensington Palace garden...more lovely in person. The palace is in Hyde Park. Where Dina lived

Me at the food market in Camden. The vendors would yell and scream at you forcing you to try their food tempting you to order lunch from them...I got suckered in and ordered Thai.

Viv at a cafe at Covent Gardens.

Viv and I on our Patio before the Killers concert. We hosted a pre-party so I could meet a few people here in London.