Filling my Time....

Just a couple of things I've been doing aside from organizing the house =)

wine cork board

valentines cupcake balls

designing pottery

Bergen, Norway

So, this trip was planned by our wonderful Scottish friend Catherine, who's actually moving to Houston in a month! We thought it would be fun to do a trip together before they left, and Bergen, Norway was on the top of our list. Catherine organized everything for us and she did a wonderful job! This is a rarity for us to go on a trip without planning anything, and it was quite nice, aside from flying on a twin prop plane with lots of turbulence on the way there...haha.

We stayed in a charming hotel called Det Hanseatiske Hotel, in the center of town.  The first night we were there, the guy from the hotel suggested we check out the Sjorden Bar, where they play live music. The 2 man band was good and we even got some dancing in! Here's where we learned, Norway was going to be expensive; a Heineken beer for 10 bucks! But we didn't let that stop us from having a good time, I mean, what else can you do?

The next morning, we went on the Norway in a Nutshell tour to see the beautiful views of Norway.  I think we'd all agree that our favorite thing was the fjord cruise.  If you don't know what a fjord is, you can find the definition here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjord. Even though everything was covered in snow, it was still amazing. I would like to go back to Norway in the summer sometime as well, to enjoy more of the outdoor activities. Unlike some of our other friends, we weren't brave enough to go hiking in the snow. 





We were all pretty beat from the tour and decided to just have a nice meal and call it a night. I like to try different local dishes and in Bergen, you must have the fish soup.  You can compare it to the American clam chowder, or Scottish cullen skink.  It was a creamy soup with fish balls and prawns, very yummy!





We spent the rest of our time in Bergen just walking around the city and checking out all the shops.  And of course, more eating and drinking. First trip of 2012 down in the books =)

Lady of Leisure

2012 is underway and I couldn't be more excited! Upon leaving Houston a week ago, we have a group of confirmed visitors so I'm already looking forward to that in June. Hopefully, we can encourage our other friends and family to come visit as well. If you're reading this and want to see a beautiful country, let me know and we can make arrangements =P

Tomorrow will mark my 1 month of not working and so far, so good! I've spent the past week in Aberdeen as a Lady of Leisure and am enjoying every minute of it.  I have a list of projects to work on around the house organizing things. Once that's complete, I hope to start working on some craft projects, start getting fit, and of course, exploring Aberdeen and Scotland.  It's freezing here but we've been getting some good sun during the day so that's been nice. I also hope to catch up on some reading, photography, and do some volunteering; the list is endless!

This past week, we had Paul Anderson and Shona Donaldson perform for us some traditional Scottish music at the AWA meeting. I tried out 2 new restaurants in Aberdeen, Musa and Gurhka Kitchen. Other than that, it was a whole lot of sleeping and Pinterest, my new found love! haha.

Watching the Texans vs. Ravens game right now, and just praying the Texans can pull through! Would be great for the city of Houston. Okay, enough of this, time to finish off the game.

2011 Rewind!

2011 has been a fun year! I felt like I lived in Houston most of this year, which has been superb! With this current trip, I would have spent about about 10 weeks in Houston, so much for living in Scotland. This year, Gerald and I also have taken about 12 trips to different parts of the world. Talk about Born to Fly! We have been well acquainted with airport system and have both earned Gold Status on KLM.  The status thing is no joke; Gerald got a free business class upgrade coming to Houston this trip.  Loyalty does pay off, I suppose.

Well, you know how it goes here in Houston if you've been reading my blog. Family, friends, eat, and drink is the typical agenda.  We can't get enough of it!  However, I am looking forward to the New Year, new beginnings, new starts.  

If you didn't already know, I've decided to take some time off work. This time, it will be for real. The last time I tried this, it only lasted 3 months but I'm confident this time will be much longer.  I've been doing accounting for a good 6 years and as Gerald tells everyone, I'm taking an early retirement.  I don't hate accounting, but while I have the opportunity to pursue something else, I wanted to take advantage of it. I've always been a people person, and sitting behind a desk with a computer, just doesn't cut it for me.  I wanted to take the time to give back to the community and do some volunteer work, possibly some volunteer teaching, and just take up other things I've always had an interest in, like photography.  I hope everything works out, but if not, I'm sure I can go back to being a number cruncher. 

With that said, 2012 should be interesting for me.

Check out our 2011 highlight video if you have the time.

http://vimeo.com/34197

Enjoy the rest of 2011 and hope you all have a fantastic New Year!

oh, Christmas Tree

This weekend we completed our Christmas Tree with a new tree topper, bought locally here in Scotland! We didn't get to put up our tree last year since we went back to the States quite early, so I was excited about our tree this year. We bought the Santorini ornament last year and this is it's debut.  It was Gerald's idea to to get the ornament and now I'm thinking we should have gotten one in each city we visited.  Maybe that's something we can start this coming up year.

Anyhow, for those of you that don't know, I'm finishing up work on December 16th and will try out this expat wife life.  I'm not 100% sure what I"ll be up to yet, but I do have visions of doing more volunteering work, getting back into shape, and exploring Scotland outside of the working world. I'm excited and am looking forward to the new year!

Have a good one!

Thanksgiving in Scotland...

Featured in the clip below is "Team America" with a special guest. I hope you laugh as much as I did!

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/aCKwJNc720bnSvl0

Have a yummy Thanksgiving! Enjoy!

Right, OK...

Where do I begin? Most of you have been keeping up with me via Facebook, and I must admit, that's how I've been keeping up with everyone as well. Also, text messaging has become super convenient thanks to Whatsapp and the new iMessage. So, if you have either one, let me know and we can be friends =) With that said, face time with friends and family have become more and more precious to me.  I LOVE seeing every one's lovely faces and the past couple of months have given me just that.

Since my last posting, we met up with CleAnn and Jamie Toner in Munich for Oktoberfest, flew to Houston for Vanry's and the Jafri's wedding, came back to ABZ for a good 3 weeks and then flew across the US to Maui to celebrate Mama Lorna's 60th Birthday. We're in Aberdeen for a good month before heading back to Houston for the Holidays!

First of all, with it being Thanksgiving in a week, I just wanted to thank God for keeping us safe during all our travels and more importantly for keeping us healthy. I'm also thankful for all the wonderful friends and family we have and for all the new people we've met  this past year.  Every one of you have definitely played a special part in our lives and we are very grateful for you.

Munich seems like ages ago, but I'll let you guys know how it was.  We were hoping to meet up some of our friends for the trip, but schedules didn't work out so it ended up just being Gerald and I.  Luckily, CleAnn and Jamie were planning to take the train in for the day and we got to meet up with them.  I bought myself a Dirndl, ate some sausage and chicken, drank some beer and we called it a weekend. Well, it wasn't as easy as that.  Getting into the tents are something else if you don't have reservations.  However, in order to get reservations, you need a party of 6 or more and have to book way in advance, which we did not have.  On the first night, we went to the Hippodrom tent, only to be turned away.  We then tried the Hofbrau tent and it was jam packed. We had a walk around but couldn't find a seat anywhere.  At this point, Gerald and I just wanted a beer so we heard an American accent and started talking to this guy to see if maybe we can hang out at their table so we can get beers.  Turns out, they didn't have a table and was trying to bum off another table as well, which worked.  Some beer ladies won't serve you unless you are seated at a table but our lady was cool.  She took our money and gave us beer! Each stein is equivalent to about 3 beers, I think we had 3 each that first night...eeks! We ended up hanging out with the American and some of his German colleagues and had a great night. We gave it a rest the next night and decided to go back to the festival during the afternoon for our last day.  Since we kind of knew what we were doing, we attempted the same thing with CleAnn and Jamie at Paulaner tent and were successful. The Hofbrau tent on the last Saturday of Oktoberfest was a different story.  After pushing and shoving, pretending we have stamps on our hand to prove we've already been in the tent, and waiting a good hour, we finally got in thanks to Jamie's friend. Although we would have liked to experience the other tents, we didn't want to go through the same hassle so ended up staying at Hofbrau the rest of the day. Oktoberfest was definitely an experience and good fun. Prost!

Now, on to our double wedding trip to Houston. Ever since Gerald and I got married, we totally have a new appreciation for weddings, because we know what it takes to plan one and how important it was for our friends and family to enjoy it and have a great time.  Both of my friends did just that! Each wedding was unique in it's own and fit both couples very well.  

Vanry (Van & Henry) had a NYC theme wedding with Subway letters as the seating chart, I LOVE NYC ice sculpture, and a signature drink from the Hampton's.  Vanry was relocating to Houston the following week and brought NYC with them. We were happy to see friends that we probably wouldn't have seen in quite sometime if it wasn't for the wedding and to celebrate their special day with them.   Oh yah, I have to give props to their videographer who put together a badass clip that captured the day perfectly.  Check it out if you have a chance.

http://31films.com/vanry/

Christina and Shiraz's wedding was by far one of the cutest. They met in the third grade and reconnected a few years ago.  I must admit, I don't know Shiraz very well, but the smile on his face just shows how happy and in love he was.  I think that is my favorite part about weddings, the look on the bride and groom's face throughout the day. It was a very intimate wedding and I got to catch up with some of girls.  I do miss my girl talks=)  Since the couple met in elementary school, everything about the wedding had a classroom theme: apple centerpieces, "class roster" seating chart,  "class schedule" menus, and apple juice favors! Oh, and I can't forget the "Kaiser Elementary" school card/money box. Well done Mrs. Jafri =)

Congrats to both the Nguyen's and Jafri's! I'd fly across the pond to see you guys get married any day. Best wishes always!

Now, back to Aberdeen to enjoy the "simple" life. A great life, I must say.

I believe this blog post is long enough so I'm going to call it a night. That's what happens when you neglect it for two months. Gerald has promised me that he will write about our adventures in Maui, since he did such a great job planning everything so you'll have to check back for that update.

Tonight's movie night was a success with Crazy Stupid Love.  I always thought "cute" was better than "sexy" but the perfect combination of "cute +sexy" is that much better! I'm speaking about Ryan Gosling =)

Good night folks!