Sunday, April 30, 2006


Yesterday Beth and I went to Portsmouth with Steve... The historical ship yards were amazing. We saw a ship from the 1500's, and 2 others from the 1800's...

posted by Rino @ 2:02 PM 0 comments  


Meet the new Captain of the HMS Belfast

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Wise words in London's Holland Park

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Beth having fun in the kitchen...

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Friday, April 28, 2006

Yes,

This Blog has gotten weak as it has been at least two weeks since my last post.
My excuse remains that we still don't have a decent internet connection at home. But I promise to not let that stop me anymore.

On our sh*t list are the following companies related to our internet/cable fiasco
- NTL
- BT
- Bull Dog
Also... I blame our management Company who has told us we can't get a SKY dish because we live in a "conservatory" area. Well... the people below, to the right, and across from us all have them. I guess we live in the only "conservatory" area in London which consists of 15*20 feet.

The good news, not to jinx things, is that it looks like we will finally be making some headway in this area next week....

Work has been busy for both of us. I've been on a project that took me to Milan and Berlin for a day each... Since then it has been long days and late nights in the office including missing 2 bank holidays. The good news is that this is truly unique as nobody else was working when we were.... I just hope I don't get too many of these unique projects. Beth has also been very busy with her US client work... We just found out she does not have to charge VAT. I'm sure all of you were very concerned about this.

Some R&R is in the not too distant future.
This weekend we are going to Portsmouth http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/

Last weekend we attempted to go to Windsor Castle.. Fortunately we found out as we were buying train tickets that it was closed for St. Georges Day. We'll go soon. http://www.windsor.gov.uk/
Instead, we went to the HMS Belfast which sits in the river Thames. It's the equivelent of the Intrepid museum in NYC... just not as intrepid. http://hmsbelfast.iwm.org.uk/

Beth's brother Jeff arrives on Monday... we look forward to his company. Next weekend, we plan to take Eurorail with him to Brussels....

Oh... PS.... Never put 220 volts through the antenna wire of your stereo... It might not work after that. Half the stuff I brought here is in a dodgey repair shop right now.

As they say here... Cheers

posted by Rino @ 10:03 AM 15 comments  

Saturday, April 15, 2006




We went to a Scotch museum last week... This place's collection was impressive. Of course they also sold plenty of it.

Here are some very old bottles well protected behind glass.

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Our neighborhood....

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Beth's office....

DOH!

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Friday, April 14, 2006


Our bedroom... The walls were very green... so we opted to give it a W Hotel feel and put large brown curtains against one side of the wall. I get Starwood points every night I sleep here.

Step aside Ian Shragger (sp?)

posted by Rino @ 6:34 PM 0 comments  


Well,

Still no decent connection at home.
For all of you who complain about customer service in the US, try it out here first.
I am managing to sneak someone's "very low" powered internet connection right now (i.e. I am sitting as close to the window as I possibly can...)
Now.. here are some pictures... 1st. a lovely shot of me sitting in our living room/dininig room/garden viewing room. Notice the "proper" pose?

posted by Rino @ 6:29 PM 2 comments  

Friday, April 07, 2006

Well, despite all the promising... WE STILL DON'T HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION.

- We moved into our place on Sunday... We love it. Great location, well furnished, etc
- I started work on Tuesday. I was scheduled for 4 days of training... It ended up being very basic... Most of the modules I had actually instructed in the past... Therefore I have been in the office for the last two days
- I got assigned to a project in which I will be going to Italy and Germany next week each for a day.
- NTL (the local cable provider) kept Beth waiting at home all day on Tuesday... only to tell them that a MASSIVE wiring project had to be done in order for us to be provided with cable, broadband, and a phone.... this may take WEEKS... so Beth has gotten to know the local Starbucks well
- Our ocean freight arrived yesterday... 36 BOXES! HOLY S**T was our reaction when we saw it... WHY DID WE PACK THAT MUCH??? We were up till about 1 last night unpacking.. it's actually not that bad.

- I learned something new this week. The word "smart." Except it sounds like... "smaaaahhrt" That is how they dress here... Smart. It's the word for professional (i.e. suits) dress. I like wearing suits b/c people call me smart.

posted by Rino @ 5:31 PM 4 comments  

Saturday, April 01, 2006

We move in to our new place tomorrow!

We got the keys the other day... and have been spending time getting some items we need.

Today we went to a football (soccer) match. We saw Fulham v Portsmith. It's toward the end of the season... both teams have rather lousy records. We went with my friend Steve and a few other people. We started in the traditional way... Met at a pub a few hours before... gathered for some pints and the traditional English breakfast... or in my case, Sausage and Mash. Steve's team Fulham, ended up loosing 3 to 1.

We're supposed to get high speed internet access this Tuesday. Once that is connected, I pledge to update this more frequently and with more pictures.

posted by Rino @ 10:20 PM 4 comments