At the Risk of Sounding Obnoxious...

Best start to a vacation ever!! Free upgrade for our 11+ hour flight. Yeah for Singapore Air!

A Balmy 30 Degrees Fahrenheit

This morning I woke up, checked the weather and saw it “felt like 30°F” outside. My first thought? That’s not too bad. Clearly my brain has been warped by our recent days of sub-25°F temperatures, normally I would see 30 and think “holy hell that’s cold!” Today, not so much. However that is not to say I will be upset to leave this ice chamber we call home for nine days of hot, hot, hot weather. 

For soon we will be here....

And here...(!!)

Photo via

And instead of this...

We will have this...

And this...

And the thunder storms don't even bother me! Mainly because Singapore is the type of place that gets one thunderstorm a day for 15 minutes. I suspect every forecast includes a thunderstorm, just to be safe.

I cannot, repeat CANNOT wait to get out of the London winter and into the tropical climate of South East Asia. I'm not even bringing a sweater with me. I may never come back!

Today I Am Off To...

Dave and I made a quick stop in Florence last month when we stayed in Bologna and took the train to Florence for the day. I kept my eyes on the ground and refused to take in the sites because I knew I was coming back a few weeks later.

Florence is one of my favorite cities in Europe. It holds a special place in my heart and I love returning to it, and will continue to do so no mater how times we visit.

This time will be special too. A last hurrah. A farewell, good luck, congratulations, we’ll miss you kind of trip. Full of fun people, good food, maybe some wine (maybe? Try yes!) and of course gelato. I can’t wait!

PS – I made (or is it bribed?) Dave little pumpkin bread acorns so he doesn’t feel too upset I’m hitting Italy without him. 

Sorting the Next Few Months

Dave and I are usually really, really bad about making plans. OK, we can decide to eat at X restaurant tonight, or I can make a reservation for next week at Y place I want to try. But ask us to plan something for next month, or two months out, and we both run and cover our heads with pillows while whimpering like babies. We’re just not planners. The past few years we have been taking two-week trips around the time of our birthdays/anniversary and usually you plans trips like that in advance, right? Not us. We plan them about three weeks before we leave, and usually in a panic because we realize We. Have. No. Time! This makes my current goal of sorting our spring/summer plans quite hard. 

This July will be Dave’s 5th anniversary of living in London, and in June I will hit the four-year mark. An aside – WOW! Time flies. Because of Dave being here five years we have to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain, an immigration status that will move us from a five-year visa (four year for me) to being able to live in the UK permanently assuming we don’t up and leave for a year at a time. It also means Dave doesn’t have to be employed for us to live here. There are quite a few steps to get that status and I plan to go through them here in the future. But all this matters because it means we can’t travel for up to a month between mid-June to mid-July. That may not sound terrible, oh NO! A whole month without leaving London, the HORROR, but it does mean that we are trying to fit in some trips before we get sequestered here (or possibly get kicked out if the ILR doesn’t go through, you never know!). Add to that we are trying to use BA miles to book these trips which means all this must be done pronto; those BA mileage tickets disappear faster than a piece of sausage dropped on the floor in front of Riley.

Since Dave and I travelled through Europe way back in the day, and have lived and travelled here for quite a few years we’re (very fortunate to be) searching to find places to go for the weekend. And again, the mileage tickets. So I am trying my best to plan, strategize, deal with immigration requirements, get over my aversion to making plans, pestering Dave, pestering some more, and pouring over maps, guidebooks, blogs, websites and magazines to decide where to go. Living in London can be this strange alternate universe at times, when it really hits you that a weekend trip can involve Italy! Or Spain! Or France! Or Greece! It still boggles my mind when we have a free weekend and decide to “just go to Paris.” I mean how is that possible, to “just” go to Paris? We’re trying to take advantage of all the places we can travel, places easy and worthwhile for a weekend, and hopefully, maybe, fingers crossed, free on BA.

We do have one big trip planned, a much needed trip to the beach. I am so sick of the cold. Sorry, but my California roots start showing right about now, when the cold just drags on and on and oooooonnnnnnnnn. And the gray. Oh, the gray.  So we’re heading to Thailand (via Singapore) and I couldn’t be more excited. I just saw an old NYT article that said planning vacations brings more pleasure than the actual vacation. The article said the six or seven weeks leading up to a vacation are more beneficial than the after effects, since the glow fades quickly when you get back to real life. So I am basking in the glow of our upcoming trip to Thailand. The sun, the hot temps, the food, the beach, the sand. Yippie!

Aside from Thailand, I’ve got Florence and Germany on the books, along with a quick trip back to the states. I’m also considering a little jaunt over to Amsterdam to see the tulips. And that’s our spring and early summer so far. But I am working on more. I’m not sure where we’ll go, I’m not sure when, but I do know we still have a lot of Europe to see. And I am going to start booking things without waiting for Dave to approve. Next thing he knows we’ll be spending a weekend in Moldova. Assuming BA flies there.

Pancake Update

I made the pumpkin cinnamon roll pancakes. They were good. Even Dave thought so.

Riley had no opinion on the matter.

While the Cat's Away...

The mice make pancakes.

Dave was in the states for nine days last week. When we weren’t too upset and lonely Riley and I enjoyed pancakes. I love breakfast. LOVE. We don’t eat breakfast in London very often, we usually just skip to lunch on the weekends. I miss breakfast but I am also picky, and must admit I prefer American breakfasts (yes, I am playing the American card when it comes to breakfast). Like fluffy pancakes (FLUH-FY, none of this flat, paper like or stodgy crap they serve here), eggs not dripping in oil, and sausages not made of blood. Anytime we go back home Dave and I both manage to fit in multiple breakfasts at our favorite spots (even though he is not as much of a breakfast person as I am. He likes certain things and can leave the rest. Me, not so much). We go to Rick and Ann’s and get potato cheese pancakes (Dave) or the Yukon Gold hash (me), or to Fat Apples for their pumpkin pancakes, or ABC in Napa for their huevos rancheros and/or pancakes. And we do that day in and day out while in California. In London, nope. So while Dave was away I decided I needed to get my breakfast fix. I made two types of pancakes; I was planning on three but that ended up being excessive. (Side note – we’re having the third type this weekend) The first was a carrot cake pancake courtesy of Smitten Kitchen and the second was a lemon ricotta from Bon Appetite. I was a happy camper eating my American style pancakes, although I will admit that I probably never need to eat another carrot cake pancake in my life. They were good but…been there done that. This weekend I am making pumpkin cinnamon roll pancakes found here. They sound like my pancake nirvana, hopefully I saved the best for last. Since we aren’t planning on going back home any time soon, hopefully all these pancakes will satisfy me for now. Or at least until Dave goes out of town again. Because you see, pancakes and breakfast food are my guilty pleasures when I have the house to myself. That's kind of sad actually.

In other news, Riley and I are both hoping the cold weather ends soon. Please? I keep reading about people in the states heralding the start of spring while I check my weather app to see it “feels like” 20° F. Riley has gotten a lot of use out of her new jumper the past few days. 

Warning - I am not a food photographer! Especially since I was hungry and wanted to eat!

Carrot Cake Pancakes

Lemon Ricotta with Sauteed Apples