Location Update, Part 2.

Seems some of you have been having trouble posting comments to my blog. I actually can't seem to post a comment myself, so I don't know what's up....what kind of problems are you having with the comment function? I read all the comments, so let me know if there's something specific you'd like to discuss. My email is laurenhaleybrock@hotmail.com. In the meantime I will contact blogger and find out how to get the comment function working...

I did see that the Visa rules are changing, but since it's now been 9 months since I have been employed part-time, and 14 months since I have worked full time, my prior earnings have fallen too low to get enough points in that area. February was the last month I could have made it to a high enough prior earnings level....so even now that the rules are changing, I don't think I'll be eligible for another 6-8 months once I get a new job ;(

Location Update

Well, I've taken a break from the blog since I am now back in California, and I couldn't decide whether to keep up with writing while I am away from England for this indeterminate period.

My tourist visa ran out and D and I aren't quite ready for the marriage commitment, so with the Tier 1 visa option closed to me for the time being, my only option was to return home. D and I haven't lived together long enough to qualify for the co-habitating partners option. Luckily, my sister has headed to Singapore for 2 months for work, so she has graciously lent me her apartment in San Francisco for the time being.

It's great to be back here in a city that I love, and the sun has not really stopped shining since I've been back, but I really miss D and our dogs, and the routine of our life there together. D is still in England for the time being, looking after the doggies and trying to find a new project for his electrical company. Once he gets everyone sorted out over there, he hopes to come over here in May and join me for awhile, but it's hardest not having a date on the calendar yet!

We are surviving on Skype calls once a day and some text messaging, but it's no substitute for the real thing. I met a cute Canadian girl last week (while we were both enjoying some frozen yogurt in the sunshine) who was visiting her Canadian boyfriend--she's in Toronto and he's been here for the last 3 years! Yikes!

I know I'm not the only one out there struggling with the downsides of an international long-distance relationship. Anyone have any suggestions?? I'd love to hear your inspiring, happy-endings right about now! ;)

To Drive or not to Drive...

I'm having dreams about my old Audi convertible, and cruising down the PCH in the sunshine with the top down....ahhh....

I haven't yet driven a car here in the UK during these past 7 months because our sole vehicle is a large work van with manual transmission, and I only know how to operate an automatic car. Even if I could learn to drive stick, the thought of driving around a huge van on the tiny lanes around our house without the aid of a rear-view mirror is fairly daunting.

I drove a rental car in Australia for a couple of days when I lived down there, so the "wrong-side" stuff doesn't scare me much, but there are plenty of hills around our house, and I have visions of myself sliding backwards down them as I slam on the clutch and search for gears.

Since I'm now job hunting, if I get a job offer for a position that pays decently well or requires me to drive to work, I'm pretty sure that it would be worth it to spend some money to get my own car. That's put me to thinking about whether or not I actually CAN drive here without a UK license.

I took a look at this site on Directgov.com to find out what the government says. Apparently most drivers who are visiting the UK, or relocate here, and hold a valid drivers' license in their home country, are permitted to operate a normal vehicle (up to 8 passengers) for up to 12 months after arriving in the UK as a visitor, or up to 12 months from the date of taking up residency. There are some slightly different parameters if you come from a Commonwealth country such as Australia & New Zealand, where they also drive on the left and probably have the same signage, and those instructions can be found here.

Before the 12 month period is over, you must obtain a provisional UK drivers license and pass a driving test. If you do this, you can skip over having restrictions such as "L" (Learner) plates on your car, having to be supervised by a qualified driver, or being restricted from driving on the freeways (motorways).

If you fail to obtain the provisional license before the 12 month period is over, all of the UK's provisional license restrictions will apply, and your car will be branded with the dreaded "L" (Loser).

So go on, get organized, and make sure you have all the documents you will need to exchange your foreign license for a shiny, new UK one, by taking a look at the requirements here.

Me, I'm gonna be shopping for a new, tiny, automatic car....and I'll be keeping the roof up to stay warm, thank you very much.

London! - A Weekend in Pictures

I spent last weekend in London with a girlfriend from college who was here on work and we had a fantastic time cruising the town and checking out some new spots! It's been awhile since I enjoyed the comforts of a corporate charge card! Thanks Liz!

Richmond Hill Hotel, Richmond-Upon-Thames

Liz's company put her up here in this cute boutique hotel in Richmond-Upon-Thames, at the end of the Tube's District line, to be close to the film production she's working on. The hotel was charming, it served alcohol all night, and had a great hillside view over the Thames.

SoBar in Richmond-Upon-Thames

We stopped at this cute spot tucked down an alleyway in Richmond for our first drink of the evening. The nibbles and drinks were excellent, and the place got pretty busy between 5 and 6pm while we sipped our drinks. It was a little on the noisy side by the time we left, but the jazzy beats playing over the stereo were nice.

Oscar Bar at Charlotte Street Hotel, SoHo

This place was around the corner from our dinner restaurant, so we stopped here for a drink around 8pm. Every table was full and the bar was packed. Liz had an espresso-tini that was out of this world--like a spiked Starbucks frappuccino!

Fino Restaurant, SoHo

We met two of Liz's work colleagues here for a 9:30pm dinner on Saturday--they are film editors working on a new Disney/Pixar feature that's filming here in London. Amazing pork belly, tuna tartare and classic tortilla, plus some fabulous Spanish wine.

Fish Works Restaurant, Richmond

We needed something greasy when we finally rolled out of bed at noon on Sunday, but breakfast was already over, so the fish & chips at this cute seafood brasserie fit the bill.

Camden Markets

We went to hunt for some antique tidbits for Liz's mom's new restaurant in San Francisco, but mostly found lots of tacky t-shirts and cheap souvenirs. The whole trip was worth it for the small stall we discovered selling Brazilian-style Churros (large tube-shaped doughnuts dusted in cinnamon & sugar and filled with dulce de leche). Delicious!

Claridge's Hotel Bar, Mayfair

We had a couple of hours to kill before our dinner reservation, so we sat at a cozy table in this bar and ordered some frou-frou cocktails. I had a Vanillita--cranberry & lime juice mixed with fresh strawberries, Vanilla vodka and honey, served over crushed ice. C'est bon!

Cecconi's Restaurant

We were excited to get a last minute 8pm reservation for Sunday night, and got great seats by the front window. Loved the mint green accents to brighten up the black & white retro vibe. Also loved the buffalo mozzarella & cherry tomato starter and the fresh crab & avocado salad. My Venetian fritelle dessert with zabaione cream was heavenly--glad I ate light & saved room.

Glastonbury Dreaming...

The lineup for 2010's Glastonbury Music Festival has begun to be announced, and of course it made me reminisce about attending the festival last June with D and another couple who are two good friends. The 2009 festival began 2 days after I arrived in England last June, and we made the decision to go at the last minute, so our only ticket option was buying passes on ebay from ticket-holders who looked similar to us (since the tickets bear photos). I was nervous about spending the money on poached tickets, but D was convinced it would be OK, so we went for it, and it worked OK for us.

Here are my top 5 tips for Glastonbury survival if you are lucky enough to go:

1. Camping vs. Caravans. If you have got re-sale tix, like we did, plan to camp inside the festival grounds as it is too risky to go in and out to your car, camper van or mobile home past security every day. Once you get in--stay in! If you have valid tickets, I'd recommend camping once to get the "real" experience, and then try booking a caravan camping spot outside the festival grounds the next year. This will allow you to eat your own food for the whole weekend, sleep on a bed or sofa, bathe and use your own (hopefully cleaner) toilet facilities at least twice a day.

2. Get there early! If you are camping, plan to arrive at the festival grounds as soon as possible after the gates are opened on Wednesday morning. The traffic heading into the grounds is horrendous, and all of the good camping spots get taken up by Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Yes, it's a pain to take an extra 2 days off of work when there are no musical acts organized, but it's worth it--the poor sods we saw arriving on Friday in the mud wandered for hours before finding any decent patches of dirt big enough for a tent. Anyways, we found that by the time we actually set up our campsite, had a few drinks, a bite to eat, and a walk on Wednesday, it was already late evening. The bars are open, and many of the stalls and stages have some random performances on, so there are definitely things to do. If all else fails, read a good book and enjoy a long nap--once the party starts, resting gets hard to come by!

3. Choosing a Campsite. You should have an idea of which camping area you want to aim for and try to park your car in the parking lot closest to the desired area, since you will likely have to carry everything with you over 1 k from your car to your campsite. In choosing a campsite, there are 2 main objectives:

1) If you are over 30, like D and I, chances are that you can no longer handle going 48-72 hours without sleep, which means that you will be looking for the quietest place possible to camp. Unfortunately, there are no truly quiet places at Glastonbury, only "loud" and "really loud"; therefore, D and his friends have established a tradition of camping in the "Family Camping" area, which falls into the merely "loud" category. Now, since we do not have children, this means that we had to sneak into the family area by staggering our entry--my female friend and I went in first, claiming that our husbands had gone in ahead with the kids, while the boys came in 10 minutes later, claiming the opposite. One note--sleeping in the kiddie area does mean that you will have to keep the partying 'round your tent fairly tame, and may have to endure some loud tantrums from time to time, but at least most of the neighbors are asleep by midnight.

2) The 2nd objective in campsite selection is proximity to toilets and the milk-man route: you should be close enough to the loos that a post-midnight toilet run won't seem like torture, but far enough away so that the stink doesn't haunt you; and close enough to the milk-man route that you can hear them coming past with fresh supplies in the morning, but far enough away that your tent doesn't get trampled by folks coming to the truck in the morning,or splashed on by tottering children with full cartons of milk and yogurt.

4. Hauling your Gear. This one is pretty simple--you need a sturdy wheelbarrow (be sure to check the tire is pumped full and has no holes) and a few strong & chivalrous men to make it into the festival with a weekend worth of gear intact. Since the car park is so far away from the campgrounds, it is advisable to try and take everything with you in one trip. Luckily for me, D and his buddy were happy to fill the roles of wheelbarrow pushers, so we ladies carried as much of the less awkward gear & luggage over our shoulders as we could, and they pushed the rest. Now, experienced campers may find that they can fit all they need into massive camping backpacks, but we don't have ultra-light, ultra-portable cooking equipment, so we were relying on bringing in full-size camping burners and ice chests to help store our food and cases of beer & cider. The more food and drink you bring in, the more money you save (cuz the food at the festival is $$$), but obviously you can lighten your load if you only bring in a tent, sleeping bags, clothing & toiletries.

5. Packing Essentials: Wellington boots (for the mud, in case it rains--and it probably will--and for braving the public toilets and port-a-loos), hand sanitizer gel (loads), sunblock (when it's not cold and raining, it's HOT), toilet paper (I carried a roll in my backpack at all times), a good rain-proof poncho or a few disposable ones (handy, but less enviro-friendly), a fleece jacket for cold nights, a swimsuit or board shorts (for outdoor bathing or sunbathing on sunny days), sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat (to keep the sun off your face and your view of the stages from being blocked by glare), a good camping tent with a proper rain fly (one that provides cover to a front and back storage area will be best), summer weight sleeping bags, Thermarests or inflatable mattresses, head lamps or flashlights/torches (for your tent and the toilets in the dark), camping chairs (to sit on outside the tent, above the mud), a small basin that you can fill with water to wash yourself and your dishes (better than wasting concert time waiting in the 2-3 hour shower line), extra camera batteries and a solar-powered charger that can power your cell phone and ipod (otherwise, once the batteries die you are screwed--the line at the "cell phone charging tent" were horrible after Friday night).

Bringing Your Dog to the UK via PETS scheme

After months of planning, spending half of my bank account, and an 11 hour flight from Los Angeles, my dog, George, finally arrived in England on Saturday night! I began the process to bring George here back in April, so all in all it took nearly 9 months to get all the vaccines, paperwork, and finances in order, and it was exhausting, but worth it! He's now adjusting to peeing on the snow and getting to know his new house-mate, D's dog Mia, but being reunited has been great. I decided to share some of the finer points of the process for those of you considering moving to England or travelling here with a pet.

1. First things first: make sure that your dog is not on the list of prohibited breeds that the UK won't allow to be imported at all (currently includes Pit Bull Terriers, American Pit Bulls, American Staffordshire Terrier, Dogo Agentino, Japanese Tose or Fila Braziliero), or on the list of snub-nosed breeds that some of the airlines won't allow to be flown as cargo (all pugs, Boston terrier, Brussels Griffin, English Toy Spaniel, Japanese Spaniel, Pekingese, English and French Bulldogs or Shih Tsus). Check your dog's breed with the airlines who are qualified to fly into the UK on your chosen route (current list of non-EU routes here), as policies vary by airline. My dog, George, is a Puggle (part pug, part beagle), but only 1 of the 2 airlines that are qualified to fly dogs from LAX to London-Heathrow would accept him because he is crossed with a snub-nosed breed (pug). Virgin Atlantic accepted him, but British Airways would not, so I had only one option and no chance of price-shopping the flight.

2. Start saving money now! Although Los Angeles is one of the most distant points of entry into the UK from the US, I was blown away when I was told that the cost to ship George in his new crate would be over $900 for the one-way flight alone, plus a $175 handling fee in the U.S., and a GBP 310 ($470) fee for customs clearance on the UK end. In addition, the USDA charges $111 per dog for providing the required paperwork approvals, so in the end, the up front costs were nearly $1700. Add to that the cost of all the vet visits to get him micro-chipped, vaccinated, de-wormed and blood-tested (another $300 easily), the cost of buying him a replacement bed, leash, collar, and food bowl for the UK (since his US items couldn't come with him in the crate), and the money I paid my brother to feed and look after him for 6 months while I went ahead to England (another $600 at least), and the grand-total comes to somewhere around $2,500. Ugh, it actually makes me sick to think about it (since I only paid $200 to adopt him in 2007). The things we do for love!

3. Follow the P.E.T.S. scheme as closely as possible. This program from DEFRA involves 4 major steps: a) your dog must 1st be micro-chipped with a UK-approved brand (George had a 10 digit AVID Friend Chip); b) your dog must receive a rabies vaccine after being micro-chipped--no vaccines prior to the micro-chip insertion will qualify; c) 1 month after the vaccine, the dog must have blood taken and sent to the USDA approved lab in Kansas to check that the rabies antibodies are at the right level; d) if the blood test comes back OK, the dog will be approved for travel from the date that is 6 months after his blood was drawn. This means that you should start the PETS process at least 7 months before you actually want to leave the country; otherwise, your dog will be placed into quarantine at Heathrow, which sounds awful for the pet. You do not need a "Pet Passport" if your dog is coming from the USA--all you need is the third country Veterinary Certificate, which is available here for free. Do NOT be lured into paying for this form or a pet passport by some of the online pet travel websites.

4. Buying the crate. It was pretty easy to find an IATA-approved animal crate in Los Angeles because the crates have special labels at the pet stores, but it was a little harder to guess which size we needed because we didn't have the dog with us at the time. The general requirement is that the dog should be able to stand up inside the crate without his nose or tail touching either end, or his head touching the roof. This should allow the dog to stand up and turn around comfortably during the flight. The crate needs to be ventilated on all sides, and the roof, and must have a metal gate at the front, with an adequate water dish that attaches to the front grate. We also bought a padded crate liner to fit inside and make it more comfortable since he was going to be flying for such a long time. My brother started introducing George to his crate about 2 months before the flight, and put treats inside frequently so that George would think it was a 'good' place to be, and he seemed OK with getting into it for the flight.

5. The final days before flight. The final DEFRA requirement is having the dog treated for ticks and tapeworm by his vet within the 24-48 hour period prior to his flight. Additionally, the dog's paperwork must be taken to a USDA office for certification within 10 days prior to the flight, and the office locations are limited. The USDA office in Los Angeles is located next to the airport, and is only open between 7:30am and 11:00 am Monday to Friday, so we had to carefully coordinate the flight time around these other appointments. Be sure to check that all the paperwork is completed fully and to the exact requirements of the PETS scheme; we had to have our rabies certificate reprinted at the vet's office because it didn't have George's microchip number shown on the certificate, or the time of treatment (based on a 24-hour clock).

George's flight landed only 30 minutes late on Saturday (despite the snow), but our vet failed to fill in one piece of information on his Veterinary Certificate, and so we nearly missed our chance to pick him up on Saturday evening while we waited for the vet office to open in California and correct the mistake. It was stressful, but the DEFRA agent was very patient (thanks Andrew!) and the Virgin Atlantic rep was super helpful (thanks Dean!), so they helped us make it happen at the last minute.

Warwick Castle Visit

Castles always bring me back to Disney-driven childhood fantasies of being a princess carried off by a handsome prince on a white horse, so I was thrilled when a coupon/voucher offering 2-for-1 admission to Warwick Castle arrived in the mail a few months ago. Although D grew up near here, he had never been to visit it as a child, so he was interested in it too. The castle, which claims to be England's best preserved Medieval castle, is only 25 minutes drive from where we live in southern Birmingham, so when New Years Eve day arrived bright and sunny, we decided to drive over and give it a go.

When we first entered the grounds around noon it was still fairly quiet, but I was nervous that the whole experience would be boring for adults since there seemed to be prams everywhere, and a Disney-esque quality to some of the displays. Luckily, once we passed through the courtyard and entered the main castle building through the Great Hall decked out with Christmas decorations, I was pleased to see the traditional hallmarks of a Norman castle in full display--swords, armor, massive antique furniture--and not a Swashbuckling Micky Mouse in sight. Many of the rooms featured wax 'mannequins' dressed in period clothing and they were so life-like that in my photos the rooms appear to be filled with costumed performers!

We wandered through all of the rooms in the castle, then walked up the "Mound" to the original castle ramparts for a better view of the grounds. Behind the castle walls we watched as the falconry master flew several hawks and falcons over our heads and demonstrated medieval hunting techniques using birds of prey. Following the demonstration we wandered through the Peacock Park and got closer to a dozen peacocks than I have ever been in my life! After a stroll along the castle waterfront, and through the old water-wheel/electric mill, we hiked back up to the castle entrance and took the stairs up onto the castle ramparts.

Winding up about 100 stairs in the highest castle turret was a little claustrophobic, but the view was worth it--we could see all of Warwick town and the surrounding villages. All in all it was a great way to spend a couple of hours--even on a bitterly cold day.

Since it was New Years' Eve, we didn't want to stay too late, but went for a late lunch at a charming pub in Warwick village called The Zetland Arms Hotel before heading home. The room was cozy and the food turned out to be fantastic--D had a plate of faggots & peas with mashed potatoes, and I had a grilled sausage & stilton cheese panini sandwich. We were two very satisfied customers!

Bonus #1: The castle admission office was doing a promotion giving away a voucher for an extra visit in 2010 with every adult ticket purchased in 2009, so I can go back again in the spring when it's warmer.

Bonus #2: I got to ride away from the castle with my very own price charming beside me.

Train-Riding Etiquette for Beginners

There's nothing more relaxing than a quiet hour spent reading a good book in the nearly empty coach of a train passing through the English countryside, listening to the dull rattle of the train moving over the tracks or the rain splashing on the windows. I have really come to enjoy train-riding here. A majority of the time the experience is thoroughly enjoyable and the journey passes quickly. However, after visiting London on several train trips over the past few months, I have a few simple requests for all my fellow train-riders:

1. Please preserve the peace & quiet that others are enjoying around you, especially if you choose to sit in one of the "Quiet Zones" that are now available on many trains. If you are in a Quiet Zone, that means no talking on your mobile or to other passengers, listening to music on your iPod (see # 6 below), or even sending text messages on your mobile or Blackberry unless the tones are turned off on your keypad and the new message alert is silenced. If you choose to talk in other areas of the train, please keep the volume to a whisper and the conversation length to a minimum. Your life is not that interesting. Funnily enough, I haven't heard any loud Americans on the train in England yet, but there does seem to be a corresponding increase between the volume of non-English speakers and the distance from England of that language's origin (i.e., French, Germans and Spaniards are on the quieter end of the scale, but things get louder as you move towards the Russian, Arab, Chinese and African dialects).

2. If a woman is travelling alone and carrying 3 or 4 huge bags (especially on the Tube), you should definitely offer her your seat or at least a place to stand where she can set the bags down during transit without causing severe trauma to the feet of her fellow travelers.

3. When there are signs posted in narrow passageways or stairwells in train or Tube stations asking travelers to "KEEP LEFT" to allow movement in both directions, if you choose to ignore said signs, you immediately lose the right to protest when travelers traveling in the correct manner whack into you as they pass or shove you out of their way. They are rushing to get on the train platform as much as you are rushing to get off of it.

4. Bringing hot french fries onto the train at any time is a definite sin. It is completely disrespectful of all dieters on the train and may cause more than 1 rider to 'fall off the wagon' and rush into the nearest McDonalds in shame upon exiting at their destination.

5. Do not travel on the Tube at rush hour unless you are willing to be a human sardine and will not complain about it or attempt to prevent it. If there are 2 inches of space left in your car, surely you can fit at least four more people in.

6. If you insist on listening to your iPod or music player at full volume, please invest in a good pair of in-ear earphone buds or Bose-type silencing headphones that prevent your music from being shared with the entire coach full of train travelers. Just because you are enjoying your new playlist, doesn't mean we want it to be the soundtrack to our day.

7. If you intend to use the lavatory while traveling on the train, it is best not to travel with a group of your drunken friends on a stag do (i.e., bachelor party). These types are known for opening the door to the toilet while you are taking a leak and attempting to expose your modesty to every hapless woman traveler passing through the corridor. You are also not likely to leave the bathroom without a puddle on the floor, which will not likely be a welcome sight to the next toilet seeker.

Bon voyage!

Wherefore art thou Shakespeare?

I admit it. I actually paid 17 GBP to ride around on one of those super-touristy, hop-on hop-off, double-decker tourist buses on my first visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon with D in February, and I had a good time. Normally I try to stay away from those types of tourist traps, but in this case we only had a few hours of the afternoon left to see the city, and it was freezing cold out, so the idea of finding our own way through the town and possibly getting lost was about as appealing as frostbite. On that visit D and I didn't pay to visit any of the Shakespearean homes, but we did at least see them all from the outside. We passed by the vacant outdoor tables of cozy teahouses, past sleepy canals with boats shuttered and docked for the winter, and past white-washed Elizabethan buildings fronted by the characteristic raised, black wooden beams.

After I moved over to England in June, I went back a few more times during the summer. On the first summer visit I took part in a city walking tour organized by Stratford Town Walk, that started near the waterfront and meandered past most of the city's major landmarks during the 2 hour stroll. Our guide was quite well informed, and after 2 hours, I knew lots more about the city's history and felt like I could navigate the town fairly easily on my own. Being on my own, I decided against lunch and instead stopped into Benson's Tea Room and had a delicious cream tea while reading my book.

One of the benefits of the Stratford Town Walk was that we were given 5 coupons/ vouchers good for discounts at several dozen restaurants and tourist establishments around town, including the Shakespeare homes operated by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Using one of my vouchers I bought a ticket to visit all five Shakespeare homes (good for 1 year) on the next visit back (for GBP12 instead of the normal GBP 17 price). In about 3.5 hours, I was able to visit three of the homes: Shakespeare's Birthplace, New Place and Hall's Croft. The Birthplace was the most interesting of the 3, with live guides in some of the rooms giving you information about what you saw inside, and costumed actors out in the gardens performing scenes from some of the Bard's most famous plays. Hall's Croft was also fairly informational and well-signed, but New Place was a little on the boring side. If you only have 1 day in Stratford, focus on the Birthplace and adjoining museum and skip the remaining homes. Since my ticket is good until next July, I decided to leave the last 2 houses, Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Mary Arden's House, until sometime next year.

Today I went back for a little mooch (i.e., English-speak for 'a look around') in some of the boutiques and shops in anticipation of Christmas and came across a few cute places:

- Vinegar Hill (http://www.vinegar-hill.co.uk/) a cute shop with jewelry, decorative accessories for the home, party accessories, cookbooks, journals and other small gifts.

- Aspire (http://www.aspirestyle.co.uk/catalogue) a funky shop selling fashion, jewelry and gifts

- Havilands Tea Room (5 Meer Street, Stratford Upon Avon, CV37 6QB), a cute delicatessen with attached tea room - great home-made sausage rolls for 60p!

- Revital Wholefoods (http://www.revital.co.uk/Revital_Health_Shop_Stratford_on_Avon) found a great well-priced selection of organic and asian cooking staples (some of which I'd only seen previously in London), as well as the usual vitamins and supplements.

- Chadds Sandwich Bar (6c Union Street, Stratford Upon Avon CV37, Tel:+44(0)1789 294 044) discovered the most delicious, fresh baguette sandwich I've had yet in England: Thai Red Curry Chicken Sandwich with cucumber, onion and lettuce on a wheat baguette for GBP 2.50. The filling was tasty and the bread was still warm from baking in the oven. Far better and cheaper than Baguette du Monde, Greggs, Subway, Pret a Manger, or any of the other chain shops!! I'm gonna try and replicate the sandwich filling at home and make my own.

Hiking in the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire

One thing I really miss about Los Angeles is the abundance of day-hikes. From my old apartment in Hollywood I could walk out the door and in 15 minutes be alone up on the pathways of Griffith Park, with only the sunshine and my dog, George, for company. Whenever visiting friends and family were in town, we inevitably drove the 5 minutes up Beechwood Drive to the Hollyridge trail-head and followed the steep, dusty horse-trail to the lookout above the landmark Hollywood sign--a good hour-long power walk. Alternately, on clear, sunny weekend days I often drove for 30 minutes over to the Pacific Palisades and spent a happy hour doing a loop on the hiking trails in Temescal Canyon for views of Malibu and the Pacific.

Since the Midlands district of England is mostly flat to moderately hilly, there aren't really any hikes I can get to on a regular basis for a quick workout, but D has promised to take me to some of the different spots that are within an hour or two of us on the motorway. Hopefully when winter is over, there will be a few more nice weather days for us to venture out and see them!

Before winter attacked, we did have a chance to spend one sunny Saturday afternoon hiking in the Malvern Hills. After driving for about 45 minutes south west from our house in Wythall with D's dog, Mia, we arrived in the quaint village of Great Malvern, and then wound our way up through the trees above the town to a carpark where we found one of the many trailheads providing access to the Malvern Hills. During the first 10 minutes of hiking, we wound our way uphill through a grove of dense trees, but finally came out at the top of the ridge to find mostly grassy hilltops with small bushes of wildberries scattered alongside.

We let the dog loose on the trails and walked for about 25 minutes up to the highest point in the hills. The view was amazing as we could see in all directions, but I was a little disappointed to learn that the highest point was a mere 1395 feet! After hitting the viewpoint we wandered down and around the hills across some of the different trails that seemed to go on endlessly, but finally made our way back to the car after about 2 hours. On our way home we stopped at a picturesque pub on the banks of the River Severn just outside of Worcester for a beer and some sandwiches in the sunshine--it was almost enough to transport me back to the LA sunshine!!

How did I wind up here?

Almost 12 months ago I decided to transition out of my job as a commercial real estate lawyer in Los Angeles and find a new career--either a new branch of the law or a new field entirely. To kick off my adventure and energize me for the changes ahead, I booked a 5 week trip to Nepal and India for myself. The trip began with about 2 weeks in Nepal on a hiking trek to Mt. Everest Base Camp (about 17,500 feet), and then took me to Delhi to join a 2 week food-lovers tour of some of India's major sights, ending in Goa.

One of the members of my trekking group in Nepal wound up being a chivalrous Englishman near my age, we'll call him "D", and during the course of the 2 week trip we fell in love. We spoke on the phone every day for the rest of my trip and D flew out to California to visit me 5 days after I arrived home from India. Things went well, so I then flew back to England 2 weeks later for Valentine's Day to visit D in his hometown of Birmingham. I'd been to the UK a half-dozen or so times before, but only for very short trips, and I'd never been to Birmingham before.

It was February, and freezing cold, but D took me to visit the home of Shakespeare in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon (which is utterly quaint and cute, despite the tourists everywhere with cameras slung around their necks), and showed me around his favorite haunts in Birmingham. We went out for drinks in Moseley and Harborne, and went shopping at the new Bullring Center near the New Street train station. At the end of my trip we went to London for a night and met some friends of mine for a fancy dinner at a Gaucho, a popular steakhouse. I was loving it!

In March I came back for another 10-day trip, and during my 3rd trip back in April, we spent a weekend down by the ocean in Devon, in a cute seaside town called Brixton. By May we decided that I should move over to England for awhile so we could try out life together--my month-to-month apartment lease was becoming expensive since I was only working part-time, and my car lease was up, so I had a window of opportunity to leave the US without having to get out of too many obligations.

After moving all my personal goods and some furniture into a giant storage unit, I came over with 2 giant suitcases of clothes in the middle of June, and have been living here at D's house in Wythall (a suburb of Birmingham) ever since, aside from a month home in California during September to attend a few weddings. I'm still working as a lawyer part-time whenever I can get the work from US clients, because I'm not allowed to work here yet.

D and I are still happy as ever, but we're not quite ready to tie the knot, so now I'm looking for a way to get a work visa, and I'll address that topic on another post!