After a while of not feeling like there was very much of interest to write about, along came December. We barely had time to settle back in after our all too brief visit to the States when Christmas hit us with a vengeance.
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Here's a picture of my office with the decorations up. The first desk is mine - the one with the blue thing on the computer. You can also see a red party hat on my desk, which was from our Christmas "do" (read on). I brought it to work because two of my employees asked for a dunce cap to wear when they did something really stupid. A kind of reward for the person who had the worst day. Yes, you are right. It is a little scary. But it is also what lets me come home at night and laugh.
First was my company's Xmas do - at the Oxford Hotel, a 5-minute walk from our house! It was a pretty typical company Xmas party except that we had to share the room (and the dance floor) with a few other companies. Plus, along with the traditional Christmas Crackers (things you pull to make go 'pop' and then there's a prize inside), there were party hats and blow things. Felt more like New Year's Eve than Christmas but it was fun all the same. Not quite as wild as I'd heard some Akzo Nobel parties could be though. A bit disappointing since we were able to walk home!
Then came Tom's company's Xmas party - a dinner for employees only. Bah humbug! Lucky for me our finance department Xmas dinner was the same night. We went to The Barley Mow, a pub not too far from work where we had a merry old time eating, drinking, singing, playing Trivial Pursuit and exchanging Secret Santa gifts. One of my employees, Alan, had me as his Secret Santee and I got a Mr. Mean Boss mug and book - Mr. Mean's Theory of Management (or something like that). He ain't seen nothing yet!;)
(Tom) At Tom's company, everyone in the company is invited to the Christmas party. This means flying people from Edinburgh and Dublin, and giving everyone (all 200+ who went) hotel rooms. Okay, we did have to share, but that wasn't so bad. Besides, my roommate at the hotel showed up at 6 a.m., a full 5 hours after me. Meanwhile, I got up at 7 a.m., showered, and was out by 8. A fun party - open bar, trivia quiz, dancing - what more could you want. Oh yeah, better food. It was very mediocre food, but that didn't put a damper on the event really. Open bar certainly helps. Enjoyed it very much. (Toby) Tom's company is much better to their employees in terms of spending money on them than my company is. Our Xmas party was technically only for members of the Sports and Social club at work and we each had to contribute towards our dinner. It's really a contrast to the day to day niceness of working there.
We also had a Christmas raffle at work to raise money for charity. Vendor gifts along with some other stuff was raffled off and I won 4 prizes! I got a Kilo of Cookies tin (about 200 chocolate chip cookies), Xmas notecards, a grab bag from one of our vendors (lots of pens, a travel mug, some golf balls, chocolate and other little goodies) and a Christmas hamper from one of the supermarkets. Hampers are big here this time of year. It was a nice basket with a bottle of wine, some shortbread, marmalade and jam, cranberry sauce, chocolate and a Christmas pudding. We are skeptical about the pudding (it's like getting a fruitcake), but Clare at work says they are delicious and we should leave it alone until next Christmas when it will taste even better. Right.
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The first semester of my yoga class ended and December and starts up again on the 13th of January. Here's a not-so-great picture of my instructor who is 80 or 81 years old (click the pic for a bigger version). Amazing. I bought a ½ hour yoga video to do in the mornings and watched it for the first time last night. It was so relaxing that I watched about 10 minutes of it with my eyes closed! Uh oh.
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We had some company in December also. Celeste, our friend from Texas, came to visit for a few days before heading off to Italy for a few weeks. I took Friday off of work, which I spent showing her around Oxford and then on Saturday we (including Tom) went to Stratford Upon Avon, Shakespeare country. (That's us hugging outside Billy's house.) We'd been there briefly once before, but this time we got to see another of his houses and a play - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (yes, we know it is not Shakespeare!). It was ok, but not as good as we had expected. Celeste left on Sunday and we got ready for our next guest - Varda, who is a friend from way back (growing up in Newton).
Varda came on Wednesday, expecting to spend about a week at our place commuting into London to see the sights and lots of theater before heading to Tenerife (Canary Islands, more below) with us for a Christmas break. Unfortunately, she was sick almost the whole time. She got to London once, but spent the rest of her time in Oxford in our flat drinking lots of tea and eating chicken soup.
She felt better enough to make the trip to Tenerife, but ended up seeing a doctor there who gave her some antibiotics. She was recovering for most of the week, but enjoyed herself anyway - we hope! She went off traveling to Paris and Portugal after Tenerife, and had a 2-day layover with us in Oxford before going home yesterday. She felt 100% better and had a blast. Phew.
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As for Tenerife - we really enjoyed it. Never heard of it? Neither had we until we got to England. It is one of the top two British tourist destinations - right up there with Orlando (no joke). Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands, about 100+ miles off the coast of Morocco (click on the map at right). It is part of Spain and about 4 hours by plane from London. It was about 74 and mostly sunny every day. We got to hang by the pool (with all the topless European women!), and eat a lot as we were on the half-board plan which meant big buffet breakfasts and dinners with mediocre food. We did walk around town and along the beach, but didn't really spend any time there. It was just what Tom had hoped for - time to relax, do nothing but read and soak up some sun.
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) Beach at Tenerife |
) Looking back at all the hotels |
) one of the pools at our hotel |
) Inside our hotel |
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It was great for me to be in a Spanish speaking country for a change. Although I am a little rusty, I surprised myself by how much I remembered from college and how (relatively) well I could get along. Only once did I respond to the hotel reception person in Hebrew by mistake! Oops. Tom's favorite word was heladeria (ice cream shop).
We hired a car one day to tour the island, including a trip to Spain's highest peak (Mt. Teide) via cable car. Really a beautiful view. Tenerife is a volcanic island and most of the day we toured was spent going up and down very windy (that's curvy, not high winds) roads to climb up the mountainous terrain. Lots of hairpin turns on steep roads with sharp drops and such. I was driving and it was pretty crazy. I even got to drive through some clouds on the way up Mt. Teide. Most of the island is very desert-like but it gets foresty closer to the mountain. Here are some pics from the day. Check out the snow!
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) Cable car to go up Mt. Teide |
) Toby and Varda on Mt. Teide |
) All three of us |
) Toby and Tom on Mt. Teide |
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) Panorama view from volcano (big file) |
) Volcano summit |
) La Orotava, a town on the north side of the island |
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We went on a 2-hour whale/dolphin watch on Sunday. We did get to see some small whales, all short-finned pilot whales, but not very much of them. Seems like they were all having a pretty lazy Sunday.
On Saturday night we went out for an early birthday celebration since Varda wasn't going to be around for my actual birthday (January 5th). We found a small restaurant in a nearby fishing village that was great. Excellent food and service with a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere. They explained everything on the menu to us and were just great. Tom had some espresso after dinner and they brought him some grappa to wash out his cup with. Then they brought us a peach liqueur of some sort to try. Turns out they didn't charge us for any of it! Quite a nice change from the hotel cafeteria. Dinner was Varda's birthday treat - thanks Varda!
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) Panorama - great topography! (big file) |
) Near Masca - dramatic landscape |
) Panorama continued (big file) |
) Dinner out |
) Whale (small) |
On the island, Varda and Tom read numerous books each (they traded back and forth) while I spent the entire time studying for my driving theory test. Tom had already passed his and since I had failed a practice exam on the web I figured I should read the driving code book and the practice question book which I did - cover to cover twice! I ended up taking my test on the 4th of January and got a perfect 35 out of 35 questions. Ask me anything about British road signs or rules. Go on, try me! I knew I was over-studying, but it would have been stupid not to have passed. And, if you are desparate to try a theory test, just click here to try one.
Continuing on the driving theme, Tom and I have both scheduled our practical driving exams for the end of the month and both of us have scheduled some driving lessons beforehand to make sure we know the British practices we need to know in order to pass the 45-50 minute test that awaits us. For example, when turning left or right the Brits pass the wheel through their hands whereas we Americans generally do a hand over hand thing. Also, when stopped at a traffic light, Brits are supposed to use their hand brake instead of their foot brakes so as not to "dazzle" the car behind them with their brake lights. Who knew? Rich, who was here before Tom, didn't pass his test so we are a bit nervous. We hear they are very particular about stuff. So, well see. You'd think that after about 22 years of driving this would be a piece of cake. Not bloody likely!
What else? Well, I just had a birthday on the 5th of January and my wonderful husband surprised me by installing a CD player in my little car. What a brilliant surprise that was on Friday morning! Unfortunately, it means giving up BBC News in the mornings, but man does it make the drive to work a lot more pleasant! Thanks Tom! I tried to keep it quiet at work but I leaked the news on Friday (the 3rd) because I had to tell someone about my cd player. As punishment, I came back from lunch to find balloons on my desk and chair!
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Friday night Celeste came back from Italy and we got her for one more night before she headed back to Texas. She treated us to dinner and then we came home to watch V. Graham Norton (a very funny talk show here) and drink champagne (a late New Year's Eve celebration). (Here she is with Tom.)
We saw the 2nd Lord of the Rings film - The Two Towers - and really enjoyed it. Two thumbs up. Two thumbs down for the Bond flick, Die Another Day. We're hearing a lot about some great new movies in the States but they haven't reached Oxford yet. Would love to have Loews cinema near by!
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Major rains in Britain over the last week or so, which lead to major flooding. Here's a (not-so-great) picture looking out our bedroom window. It is normally green fields with horses and cows but currently is covered in water as this picture shows (all the shiny stuff is water!).
Bits & Bobs:
And there you have it for this report.
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