An instrument of peace....where there is doubt, faith

What's new? What isn't new?

brand...www.actionforchildren.org.uk

engagement....www.designeditmyself.com

wedding...ianandlaurawedding.blogspot.com

job....www.imgonnabeaconsultant.co.uk

pending employer...www.serco.com

party...www.20Decemberinanaheim.com

Christmas...www.illbehomeforchristmas.ca.us

Some are real sites, others are not.

Some is big news, some is old.

This is my most random e-marketing from ebookers.com. Check it out.

Dear Laura,
America has voted for Barack Obama, and now it’s your turn. We’re giving you a choice of top US destinations at election-winning prices in our exclusive three day seat sale starting Friday. On the ticket are 12 cities and a host of hotels, all campaigning for your attention. The question is, which will you choose?
PS. America’s president isn’t the only thing that’s changing — we’ve got a brand new look and feel. We hope you like it as much as we do.

Washington£259Chicago£269
Philadelphia£259Miami£269
Orlando£279Los Angeles£315

Living near Peckham, the afro-caribbean town, I was quite surprised by the Obama fever and buzz pre-post elections. Some of the Africans were sharing iPods (which is absolutely disgusting!) others were sharing the paper, people peering over shoulders to catch Tuesday's events. People were genuinely friendly with each other on Wednesday morning and many of my colleagues stayed up through the night watching the election results. In the countries that I've travelled to in these past 3 years, sentiments towards the States have sadly been mostly negative. It was truly spectacular and I've been amazed at the international interest and hope that I've witnessed. Our Tube papers continue to dedicate the first 3 pages to Obama's victory. It's been really interesting to experience. I don't know if people will say goodbye to the America bashing, but I'm hoping it becomes more passe as time moves on. Interesting times.

xoxo, L

At the end of April, Chief Bongard and the Mrs., Mary Jo came to London for a family wedding. We met up with them after they drove something like 7 hours for what should have been a 2 hour journey. Four words: men, directions, mobile phone!

Anyways in was great to see him and catch up on the Torrance Mafia. Seems like everything is still the same, good people/good times.

Bongard hung up with Fire Hat 2 weeks ago and will find himself sidelined on the football field for one of the local schools.

Oh my goodness. I'm quite excited right now. One of the downers with the Blogger programme has always been the slow download of photos matched with people's requests to SEE more photos. Hurray! I can finally make a slideshow and share for everyone without filling your inbox with countless photos that you make or may not be interested in.

I'm going to jump around for a bit and get you all up to speed. Not that I have any true excuses for the four month lag, but life has been busy.

The photos below are from my unexpected trip back home in June. I ended up at my cousin Angela's wedding. It was a dry festivity with praise music in Murrieta, detoxing can be fun, but sneaking out to the parking lot and taking whiskey shots is even better. Oh, takes me back to the good ole days.

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Here is a picture of Hannah and Michaela celebrating St. Patrick's Day. I dig the shirt which states, Kiss Me I'm American. The Irish American label is not highly thought of over here and often the term used is Plastic Paddy for those who hang on to the Emerald Isle as the homeland. I think the Scots and English are simply jealous.

They're getting old.

MONKEYS!!!!

Like the tenative approach from both parties? He's thinking give me the damn peanut, lady! And I'm thinking, please don't rip my face off. These are the green monkeys that were eager to eat all of our peanuts which were smuggled in. Well worth the price of admission. The red monkeys were quite shy with us; however they were great fun to watch playing with each other.

More of the Gambia to come!

Headed to Gambia....2 weeks. Can't wait.

African sunsets, hot sun, good people, malaria, someone to bring a drink with an umbrella-ella-ella in it, monkeys, lots of cheeky monkeys.

And no work! Ya-woo!

talk soon.
Lo

My cousin, Cait, came to visit Ian and me for Christmas. She and her husband Ed wanted to hang out in London with our Charlie Brown Christmas tree and check out the sights. Originally, I had planned just to see them for about a days time, however all went to hell in a hand basket when Ian and I fell ill in CA and brought our germs across the Atlantic. We cancelled our trip to Edinburgh and stayed pent up in our room while we hosted our Toner clan guests. I don't think we contaminated the two of them, but we managed to have a couple of nights out and get a few pints in and a good pub meal.

We had a good time hanging out at London Bridge, one of my favourite spots for old school London. Cait and Ed had spent time in the City as well as tracking old haunts of Dickens. I informed Cait of the newest serialist in the UK who writes weekly in the Scotsman, Alexander McCall Smith, Sandy if you will. I told her how great it would be to share it with her English class and how sure I was that the students would get a kick out of the tales of 44 Scotland Street. (Remember, my old Edinburgh stomping grounds.) I was telling Cait that is she wanted to check out his most recent writings that I was most positive she could find some microfiche and share the stories with her students. That pesky little internet just wasn't in the forefront of my mind. What era is it?! Maybe I'm losing it, lord knows sometimes I struggle.

Well good times were had by all. Ian is planning on joining Ed and his family on the cattle ranch one of these days and living out his dreams of becoming an american cowboy. Coughing and sniffles aside, it was good to hang with fam and ring in the New Year.

xoxo.

Lo

Lo

Tube tales....London sucks the soul

That pretty much sums it up. I have concluded that it's sucking my creative juices from me as I have been confined to submitting to the daily commute becoming a drone, a scurrying rat, a band geek that marches through the Tube interweaving with the masses as if it's been choreographed stepping in time without touching the soulless beings that criss-cross me, but dare to touch. This new London life is quite different that my previous life in Muswell Hill where I simply rolled out of bed walked up a hill and a flight of stairs. Black taxis, double decker busses and Tube journeys were simply for my weekend explorations and all inclusive of the adventure. Now, each day I awake knowing that I will fight my way from bus to train to Tube to bus attempting to knock 1 minute off the commute. Head down and hands in my pockets, I set my sight far in the distance. I have learned that making eye contact is a sign of weakness and only slows me down. I am able to glide through the stations with ease and quickly reach my spot where the Tube doors will open and welcome me to take my place amongst my new best friends. Every day brings an unknown as I enter the train. Sometimes I make close friends that are so close too close we could be married in some countries, other times I make Martha Graham proud with my shape shapes. I have practiced my snow boarding skills and tested my balance to conquer the train as it bobs and weaves. I have amused myself with the fantastic thought of free falling into the crowds to watch the people roll like the tide. Somehow I don't think they would be that amused.

It's a young city because it's a hard city; the greedy stay and the wise have abandoned it. I just got here though and so did my furniture, I can take it a little longer. The country awaits me.

Toulouse, France

up top, Warwick (War ICK)

xoxo,

L

My move from the OC to London.

So I was home in October for 7 days and most of my time consisted of documenting everything that I saved in boxes 2.5 years ago or have been saving in some form of a box since I outgrew items. This could possible have started 27 or 28 years ago. It's quite debatable. Let me tell you of the great dilemna of "what stay's? and what goes?"

What stayed? Strawberry Shortcake dolls, stuffed animals, school notes (not the ones from classes, the ones from boys, Valentine's, etc.)

London: Furniture of course, Kindergarten painting of a Leprechaun, WEDDING pics, Storm Trooper helmet, barbie corvette and Winnie the Pooh bookends! Oh and the grand daddy of them all The GREEN Machine! Bow-chica-mow-wow! I feel the jealousy across our 8,000 miles.

Ian unfortunately is not of the cultural background to truly understand the power of the Big Wheel. It could be that due to most homes, like ours, lack of a garage, basement or any storage for that matter Big Wheels could be seen as slightly excessive...such a strong word. Well certain items came with intent and others well I think my mom was just sick of storing my boxes and paid Bekins a few extra dollars to add Barbie and Star Wars. P.s. Don't forget the baby blanket that amounts to a few pieces of fabric held my 4 stitches of yarn.

I digress. My prize possessions came on 20 December. The perfect storm had occured. A huge project was due at work on the 20th....our bedrooms closets were being built requiring all items to shift into the other 2 rooms...our flight was on the 21st to LA....and my cousin and her husband would arrive from Chicago on the 26th. Good times. So again, my prize possessions came and guess who knocks on my door with his three lovely colleagues. Do you see this picture? Does he look like your typical moving crew? Actually this dude is famous and I just couldn't take their picture with my camera b/c it would have validated the ridiculousness in front of me. Of the 4 movers, two were on there way to greet the grim reaper and I'm most certain one of them walked with Gandhi, and the other 2 jokers walked like my niece. Hyperventilation set in when we were down to the piano and my grandparents china cabinet. I paid the truck driver (who looked like a mover) to get out of his truck violate his union and coordinate this shower of idiots because they had no ramp and would have to lower the goods down 5 feet to the ground. I love all of god's people, I like the Serenity prayer, I like rational thought, I like the phrase "give it to god" and I like whiskey in the wee hours of the morning when a work paper is due and a doo-dah parade is outside.

My piano is standing and needs a tuner. My china cabinet is proudly displaying its crystal.

And "yes" to all of the nosy people, it was cheaper to ship it then buy it all here!!!

Jeremy visits London!

Jeremy and Krista visited London prior to my trip home in October. We had a quick visit with them before Ian headed to New York and I packed up my belongings making London my latest and greatest home.

Jeremy, former Torrance intern and now friend, is the second of the COT intern mafia to come and visit. Kimahn was here earlier in the year, but time lapsed and she never made the pages.

Jeremy took his picture with the newly erected statue of Nelson Mandela, swore that UK escalators were faster here than in the US, and saw London's pumpkin size mushrooms at the Borough market.

Here's Kimahn so she doesn't feel sad. Kimahn took a crazy coach-tour around Europe over a 14 day period and stayed in each stop for only 12 hours. I'm too old for these travels. We met up at Cafe Belgo for the last taste of euro cuisine before she headed home to start at Deloitte in Sac-to.