We're leaving on a jet plane...

Our dear friend Reina came to visit us in England for a week and it was really good to have a friend from T.O. come and experience life in England. We managed to get ALOT done while she was here and here's a quick list of what we/she did:

• Went to Windsor Castle..unfortunately St George cathedral was closed for services

• Mon/Tues she did the hop-on/hop-off bus tour for the day and by the time we met up after work, she was absolutely spent! lol! One night we took her to Ancient Raj in Frimley for Indian food and after eating the lamb madras, she's on a mission to find similar food back home!

• Went to this wicked restaurant in Soho called Inamo which has tables that allow you to order food off, play games, etc.. all with a touchpad and a projector above-head displaying all the images..so cool.

• Went to see the musical Wicked with Claire and Alan as well..and it was Wicked! Seriously, i'm not a fan of
  musicals but the evil witch, Elphaba, played by Alex Khadime was simply brilliant! I could even watch it again just for
  her.

• Went to Stonehenges..yes, that's what she calls it lol! Damn it was cold and windy that day but she got to see onw of the seven wonders of the world so that's cool! Afterwards, we picked up Michelle and headed to Westfield mall where we all made some pretty big purchases (2 Jaeger bags and 1 Reiss jacket were bought..among other items)

• Checked out the Ministry of Sound! Yeah baby, the legendary club for house/trance music and Erick Morillo was
  playing that night. Amazing sound and music in all rooms, one of the things that made it that good was the fact that
  even though it was sold out, it wasn't packed and not the slightest bit humid or hot like Guvernment/Warehouse. We are definitely going back again..New Years Eve maybe?

I'm soo tired right now, after flying in from Dublin this morning (flight left Dublin at 6:50 so you can guess how early we had to wake up to get there.) but again, I must say that i've been nicely surprised at the variety of things to do and seein Dublin. Honestly, i thought after the Guinness storehouse tour, it would be just another city..but nope..im wrong again.

• We stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel by Shepherd's Green, about a 2 minute walk to Grafton Street and this hotel was definitely one of the best we've stayed at. Has a rich history (JFK stayed here) and very nice bar (No. 27) but we paid way too much for drinks there (£18 for Jameson's and a mojito..wtf?).

• Lots of shopping to do in Dublin, stores everywhere but prices were actually a bit more than in London..seriously, makes London look like somewhat of a bargain!

• Did the Guiness tour (of course) and didn't join the tour group but did our own tour and stuff. Nothing too extremely fascinating; one thing i learned was that the top-selling brew is Guiness Foreign Extra Stout (not sold in NA)...but I like Guiness Draught better actually. The Gravity Bar at the top of the storehouse was the liveliest..and you can guess why!

• Temple bar was a cool area of bars, restaurants and such, hung out there for a bit and also at our hotel bar.

• Did a tour of Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced 'jail') which was not too bad. Infamous jail for holding thousands of convicts in a place buitl for only a couple hundred (irish Potato Famine was the time with the most 'visitors' because they would actually be fed in prison!).

• Sunday was very cold and rainy..good thing we experienced real irish weather! But it was also the official Christmas Tree lighting ceremony that day so we went afterwards to go take a picture like tourists.
  

so just a quick recap on the last couple weeks here:

• Went to check out an adult-themed puppet show that is loosely based on the Sesame characters. Called Avenue Q, it dealt with controversial and offensive themes in a humourous, keep-an-open-mind type style and was actually quite hilarious....as long as you understood it was all for show.

• Songs such as 'Internet is for Porn', 'Everyone's a little bit racist' and 'Schaudenfreude' (German word for happiness at the misery of others - "you know, like the Germans"..ouch.

• Went to see it with Claire and Alan so it was definitely good to meet up with some friends in London

• Also, we celebrated CDN/US Thanksgiving with Michelle's co-workers, a group that contained US, CDN and UK people. We cooked a 7kg turkey complete with stuffing, cranberry sauce and everyone pitched in and brought some food, desserts..and lots of drink...that was finished by the end of the night..lol. Good times!

For our 'celebration' to ourselves for coming to england and living/working here for an 8-9 month period, we decided to go check out the #2 restaurant in the world, Fat Duck by world-famous chef, Heston Blumnthal. for a good overview of the place and such, check out the Wiki entry here.

• It is set in a very inconspicuous location, with a regular pub right beside it. Nothing fancy about the exterior of the place, its pretty much like a regular house sandwiched between 2 buildings with only a couple plaques outside to identify it's location. The inside, is very modest as well, looks like a regular country home with exposed beams and a dining area of less than 20 tables or so.

• The food itself was very rich in flavour and of course, taste, and it was an attack on your senses at the same time. We chose the tasting menu, complete with 17 courses!! (including 6-7 appetizers and a few palate cleansers)

• Food example #1: Orange and beetroot jelly squares - the orange square tasted like beetroot and the purple square tasted like orange..cool!!

• Food example #2: "Sound of the Sea" - the course first started off by them bringing a conch shell with headphones attached to them. We put them on and listened to the sea while they came out with a dish that recreated the sea itself! i.e. the sand was made of crystallized tapioca, the surf was some bubbly thing, there were mussels, oysters..even cooler!!

• Food example #3: Salmon wrapped in liquorice gel

• Food example #4: Hot and Cold iced tea - when you drank it, the top was hot but the bottom was cold! And it all looked the same..wow!

• Food example #5: The first palate cleanser was a nitrogen-frozen mousse (done right at the table) sprinkled with green tea and they sprayed a lime fragrance above you while you ate it..lol..jokes!

• They ended off with 'breakfast'! Lol! The last few courses were breakfast-themed, like parsley cereal, nitrogen-freezed egg with bacon, etc.. a very elaborate production and presentation!

• There were too many to list but all in all, it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a chance for us to take advantage of our close proximity (less than 1 hour) to the #2nd Best Restaurant in the World..and one with 3 Michelin stars

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WIFE, MICHELLE! woohoo! What a way to celebrate her bday, Canadian Thanksgiving in Prague! awesome!

• It was also our fly-day back to London so we only had the morning and early afternoon to do stuff. Walked to Wenceslas Square and the street leading up to it was nice! Not sure what the horse statue meant at the top of the street but I know its significant.

• Our handy Frommers Prague day-by-day guide was extremely useful to us and even until the end, we used it to find an off-the-path Czech bar and had goulash and pilsner one more time..mmm goulash..mmm

• Just before we left, we decided to go on a whim and do some paddle-boating on Vlata river and this was a good move. We got to chill and paddle in and around Charles Bridge with amazing views of that and the Prague Castle and a bunch of onlookers on the other bridges and lining the streets....very relaxing and unique way to spend a bday!