First Visitor!

Happy December to everyone! Good luck to those in the Seattle area this weekend, hope you can all dig yourselves out of the heaping snow! (we're jealous!) Catching you all up on events on our end, we entertained our first visitor from the States on the weekend of December 5-7. Brent, a friend and co-worker from Seattle was our inaugural flat-guest, and we all had a great weekend.

The weather was completely cooperative, with brilliant sunny skies and reasonable temperatures. We kept pretty busy the whole weekend, with a stop to our favorite local pub, the Prince Edward, right off the bat on Friday night, followed by home-made porridge in the morning. Saturday was filled with plenty of sight-seeing, including the fascinatingly busy Borough Market, walks through Hyde Park, and along the Thames, seeing Parliament, Big-Ben and Buckingham palace. Of course stopping at many a pub along the way... London was an absolute shoppers' paradise that weekend, as main streets were shut down to car traffic, and completely filled with bundled-up pedestrians.

We dined in Soho on Saturday night at a brand-new Italian restaurant receiving rave reviews (despite only being open for 3 weeks!), and met up with London EY-ers for a traditional Finnish Christmas party in the Angel area of London. Complete with mulled wine, traditional Finnish food, and a visit from St. Nick himself, it was eye-opening and a great time. Plus, we'd never been to Angel, and it is a really cool, eclectic, young part of town. We'll definitely be going back.

Hope all is well with everyone, we're looking forward to entertaining our second visitor, a good friend of ours from Seattle affectionately known as "KVR," from December 27 through Jan 5. We'll be sure to post further adventures from the Holidays, as well as our recent trip to Rome and New Years! Happy Holidays everybody! Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We missed everyone from back home over the holiday - and honestly, it was pretty strange that November 27 was just an ordinary workday for Londoners... however, we managed to gather some good American friends and feast in a big way. Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Hope it was a good one, and Go Zags!

Beautiful Bordeaux

At last, we bring to you.. the long overdue recount of the Bordeaux region adventures from our November 6-9 excursion. Whilst brainstorming back in September/October about where to travel in November, we came up with the idea that since late Fall wasn't likely to provide for the best weather, a trip focusing on indoor activities might be best, and hence, we decided on wine tasting. Our love for Washington and Californian wines is quite strong, but we wanted to expand our horizons and gain a better understanding of wine from Europe, especially the famous French regions. We decided that making this trip sooner than later made sense, as French wine dominates UK wine shops, and we wanted to know more about the region early in our UK experience. As one of the most famous regions in France (and the world, for that matter), we decided on Bordeaux.

Our trip started out a little bumpy, with our flight to Paris delayed due to fog in London, which unfortunately meant a missed connection to Bordeaux. We'd packed our itinerary pretty tightly with winery visits, and it meant that our first one wouldn't work out. We were bummed, since we'd managed to secure a visit and tasting to the famous Chateau Margaux, however there wasn't much we could do about the late flight. Opting for a TomTom (GPS) when renting a car (Renault Clio - smallest car I've ever driven) turned out to be a great move, as the directions we'd brought surely would have caused more than a few headaches.

Once on the ground, in said rental car, we were on our way up to the Saint-Estephe area in the north Left Bank area of Bordeaux. (Bordeaux is split into two large sub-areas, the left and right banks of the Garonne river). We started our trip on the left bank, tasting at the Chateau Cos d'Estournel on Thursday afternoon, and stayed the night in the tiny town of Pauillac, which is known in the wine world for its proximity to some of the most famous wineries on the left bank. The town itself was extremely sleepy, as November is most likely not "peak season" for southwest France, however we managed to find a really nice bed and breakfast, near the Garonne waterfront for a reasonable rate.

Friday morning saw us up early for our 9:30am scheduled tour and tasting at the very famous Chateau Mouton Rothschild, by far my proudest scheduling victory of the trip. We had an inkling of the Chateau's fame before our trip and tour, however the visit taught us quite a bit more and our fascination with the winery continues to grow. For example, the fact that the winery's wine cellar has approximately 110,000 bottles of wine, some dating back to the mid-1800's, was astonishing. Also amazing is that included in the cellar's bottle count, is the winery's archival cellars, where they take cases of each vintage (with starting retail prices for each bottle around 2-300 USD) along with magnums, double-magnums and Jeroboam's (5L bottles) and store them infinitely - only opening the bottles to re-cork them every 25 years for preservation purposes. Not to mention that the winery commissions a famous artist each year for the label, with previous vintages displaying works by Picasso, Chagall, Warhol and Dali.

We also tasted Friday at the Chateau Pontet-Canet, which is not nearly as famous as Mouton, however the vineyards are adjacent, and the wine is much more reasonably priced. Recently, the winery has received great acclaim from wine media, so we decided to visit. Our tour guide was extremely friendly, taking us through the vineyards and facilities, and we even met the owner!

For lunch Friday, we had made a reservation at the Chateau Cordeillan-Bages, which is a two Michelin-starred restaurant (fantastic presentation and service), and had by far the best meal of our trip to France. Initially we were a bit shell-shocked by the entree prices, however decided to do it anyway - and we were not at all disappointed. Prior to our main courses, the chef provided us with no less than three free tastings, or "amuse-bouche's," all of which were exceptional. Our mains were unbelievably well presented and amazingly flavorful, and afterwards we were again treated to three free dessert tastings!! Good thing we'd said 'no' to the desserts we would have paid for - these were much better! Outstanding service, what an experience.

After lunch, we hustled over to the right bank region, to our Friday night lodging in the Chateau Franc-Mayne, just outside the village of Sainte-Emilion. Staying in a chateau/winery in Bordeaux was one of our best decisions of the trip, as we were right in the midst of the vineyards, and received a free tour the next morning of the Grand Cru Classe listed facilities and limestone quarry wine caverns. The village of St. Emilion is known for being built nearly entirely out of limestone blocks, as it sits on immeasurable reserves of limestone rock, which was excavated in medieval times for construction of castles, cathedrals and wealthy villages. The Chateau Franc-Mayne, our accommodation on Friday, and the Chateau's vineyards sat directly on 4-5 square kilometers of excavated limestone quarries, which was the perfect storage space for the latest vintage as it aged in French oak barrels. As part of our tour, we were able to explore the caverns, and they were unbelievable! Absolutely enormous!

The town of St. Emilion quickly made it to my 'top 5' in Europe, after we visited Friday night and Saturday. The limestone style of building provides an unmistakeably medieval essence, which permeates the entire village. Luckily we were able to tour the town's most notable attraction, an underground monolithic Gothic cathedral, built by excavating limestone from one solid limestone deposit. The dimensions of the cathedral were uncanny (like most in Europe), and the thought of it being entirely underground was almost impossible to fathom.

Our final tasting of the trip, was at the Grand Cru Classe listed winery Chateau Laniote, near Saint-Emilion. The smallest operation we visited, we were immediately greeted by the winemaker/owner who explained that the winery had only ever been in his family, passed down through seven generations. An absolute crack-up, he told jokes, did magic tricks for us, and generally had us in stitches for most of the tour/tasting. He was, by far, our favorite character of the trip.

From there, we travelled back to the central city of Bordeaux for our last night of the trip. Arriving on the late side, we only had enough time to check in to our hotel, and dash out to make our dinner reservation. We found the city to have a very busy nightlife though, and could definitely see ourselves going back to spend more time. The next morning before our flight, we managed to do a bit more exploring, and only confirmed that it is a city worth spending time in.

Overall, our trip was a huge success, in that we had a blast - but also learned a TON about Bordeaux wineries and Bordeaux-style wine making in general. It feels great to be able to walk into wine shops in London now, and know whether the Bordeaux wines we're looking at are left/right bank, which parts of the region they're from, and understand the different classifications of wineries. If you have any questions, let us know - we'd be more than happy to confer our new knowledge upon you!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, we'll be celebrating in style, with two separate dinners among American friends over here =). Hope all is well with everyone, cheers!

Recipe of the Week #3: Roast Squash, Sage, Chestnut and Pancetta Risotto

For our third recipe, we've decided it appropriate to highlight one from the UK. We've chosen this Fall-appropriate Butternut Squash recipe from British Chef Jamie Oliver's archive. Perfect for chilly weather, and seasonally available ingredients, the flavors in this dish are full and absolutely delicious. We elected to opt out of the optional 'mascarpone on the side,' and kept the chestnuts' influence to a minimum. The roasted squash flavor, garnished with sage and pancetta is fantastic... cheers!

Link: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/risotto/roast-squash-sage-chestnut-and-pancetta

Birthday Weekend

First off - thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes to Nicole on and around November 2nd - she really appreciated it! We had a great weekend, beginning with sushi on Friday night, and then a little shopping Saturday for the festivities in the evening.

Nicole's birthday was a perfect excuse for a night on the town, starting off with the musical, Chicago, at the Cambridge Theatre near Covent Garden and rounding out with a three-course dinner at the gourmet "Landau" near Oxford Circus. Extremely attentive service, artistic presentation, excellent pre-dinner aperatif's and champagne made for a fantastic evening. We would recommend The Landau to anyone.

Sunday, the actual b-day, opened with breakfast at our favorite AM joint - "Harlem," which 'specializes in American soul food' and the best blueberry pancakes in town... whoa, they're good. Later that day, we invited friends over to our place for the inaugural get-together, featuring red wine, pizza and then pub-crawl in our neighborhood to cap it all off. We found a couple of new great pubs, including one that will likely become our go-to pub, our "home field" if you will... it is a good one called the "Prince Edward," with a great selection of of beers and ales.

Following the weekend - next up on our agenda was a trip to the Bordeaux region of France, renowned for its Chateaux in the country and fantastic wines. We've just returned with over 300 pictures, and some great stories - more on that in the next post. Hope all is well with everybody - in other news, we've received our first confirmed visitors, if you're interested in visiting us, better get your reservations in now! Good weekends/weeks are going fast! Haha, just kidding, there are plenty of them out there.. cheers everybody, have a good week.

Recipe of the Week #2: Quick Sausage and Mushroom Lasagna

So, we're a little obsessed with the latest issue of Bon Appetit. This week's recipe was a huge hit, not only with us - but also with our French neighbor next door. The perfect chilly Fall meal- this lasagna is one of the best I've ever had, with a ton of flavor from the mushrooms and sausage, it is also pretty quick to make. Give it a shot, you won't be disappointed.

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/fasteasyfresh/2008/11/quick_sausage_and_mushroom_lasagna

Recipe of the Week #1: Pumpkin Spice Cake with Caramel and Cream Cheese Frosting

As many of you may already know, Nicole and I really love food - and especially enjoy finding new recipes, scouting ingredients, and sipping one of our favorite wines while putting it all together...

In tribute to our love for food - we've decided to periodically post recipes that we've discovered recently, or old favorites...

First up to bat is a recipe from the most recent issue of Bon Appetit - and was the result of us already missing Thanksgiving food, even though Thanksgiving is still a ways off... this is a fantastic cake - give the recipe a shot, it'll change lives...

http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2008/11/pumpkin_spice_layer_cake_with_caramel_and_cream_cheese_frosting

Update to the Present!

Hello Friends and Family,

I figured it was past time for me to contribute a little update to our site, and so... without further adieu...

I was talking to my buddy from back home, and he asked me if it was starting to sink in -- that I had moved from Seattle, and was living in Europe. And for the first time, I was able to answer "yes" - I'm starting to get used to the idea, and it is truly fantastic. I definitely miss quite a few things about Seattle - the inherent natural beauty of the land, friends, family, and just "home." However, it is impossible to escape the fact that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and Nicole and I have to pinch ourselves every now and again to remind us that it is real. As I go into detail of how great it is, remember friends and family that we miss you all tons, and really hope you can make the trip over to visit!!

So, how to begin - moving into a place where we know we'll be settled for more than a few months is an awesome feeling. I counted up the number of places I'd stayed in the past 3 months - and it totals 6! That is a lot of moving around... (thanks again to those who let me crash!). We're living in a great neighborhood, lined with classic white London townhouse-type buildings, and within walking distance of french bakeries, coffee shops, multiple pubs, tube stations, Notting Hill's Portobello Market (see picture above), and last-but-not-least, Hyde Park. The non-car centered lifestyle is really refreshing, and the Underground is incredibly effective. You can literally get across town in 25 minutes, for less than 2 "quid" (pounds) - way better than fighting traffic yourself, or taking a cab for somewhere near 30-50 pounds.

One aspect of London/Europe that is still a bit surprising to me, is how long things take to process - nearly everything takes probably 3-4 times as long as they would in the States. Everything from broadband internet, tv, phone, and - especially, the job search process. It is really fortunate that my career is in a profession which is universally needed, even in an economic downturn. I've been told by nearly every recruiting firm with which I'm registered, that had I come to the UK last year - 20 job spec's would've been thrown my way nearly every day - and I could have had my choice of the pot. The effect of the world economic recession is exacerbated in London, because of the large percentage of financial service firms making up the economic output. We all know how those are doing these days... 'bout as great as a snowball in h... Anyway - the point is, instead of 20 job spec's a day, I get probably 2-3 sent my way, which has been enough to keep me busy. I've already had 10+ interviews/second-level interviews with various firms, and I have a few promising roles in late stages of the process that I'm excited about. I'll keep you all updated as to how those turn out.

Once we have the job situation nailed down - we're going to start planning our travelling lives for the next year at least. We have a list of hopeful destinations about a mile long - so it will be exciting to see how many of them we're able to hit during our time over here. We've also picked out quite a few places in the UK, and London itself, that we want to make sure to explore - we'll keep you posted on our travels. Next up we're looking at making a weekend trip to Paris, or hopefully Bordeaux for wine tasting.

Another curious difference between the US and UK - is the number of men wearing suits on a daily basis. You were lucky in Seattle to see one guy wearing a suit in a day, and usually he either worked at PACCAR, or in the Nordstrom shoe department. Over here - the (read: Pin Striped) suit is standard. You're almost hard pressed to find a guy wearing "business casual." It is kind of cool, actually - I've enjoyed joining the suited masses on the tube for my interviews. We'll see how long that lasts, once its a requirement and not a novelty... haha.

Welp, enough from me for now - better save some for another day. Miss y'all, feel free to email us with updates!

Cheers,
Matt

Second Email 10.3.2008

Here's the second (slightly edited) edition in Nicole's monthly email series to Family - provided as a bit of a 'catch-up' to the present. Cheers!
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Hey Guys!

How are you?? I hope everything is going well. I just wanted to send a quick email and say hi! And let you all know I miss you! Things are going well over here. I have been working on getting my schedule all sorted out, and I think I have a pretty good client-load. I will be working on Expedia (of course) but it does not require a lot of time, so I have a UK division of Live Nation that I will be reporting to the US, and then a large UK-listed client, Capita, that reports under IFRS. Live Nation is in Oxford, so I will get to stay there for a few weeks during busy season - and I've heard it is a lovely town. Capita has a large team of people that seem really nice and fun to work with. The office is full of people from all around the world - last week i was working with a team of 5 and no two people were from the same place, so we have many different perspectives, which is good.

Matt and I moved last weekend and are settling into our new place. It is in a great location in Notting Hill/Bayswater with a lot going on. Our flat is close to 3 tube stops (within .5 miles) which is great!! In addition, it is very centrally located, so the commute is not bad. The building we live in is older, but our place was recently refurbished with all new appliances. Our sea-shipment has arrived and is waiting to clear customs- to be delivered next week! I can't wait to have our kitchenware to cook with!

I have been enjoying walking to the tube in the morning. Also, in London they have 4-5 free papers that they hand out on the streets by the tubes. It is great to grab one of those and read while on the tube, and they keep me up to date on the latest world economic developments.

As most of you know, we headed to Munich for Oktoberfest last week to experience the festivities with one of my friends who is working for amazon.de for a year. Some of his German friends had a table reserved in a tent, so we were able to join them for the true experience. We had a great time and drank tons of beer (in liters), and ate about as many sausages as you'd ever want to in one weekend. There are approximately 1600 people in each tent (and there are 16 different tents)!! Check out Facebook, or the Slideshow posted on this blog if you want to see pictures from our trip. The table we were sitting at was really close to the EY reserved table for the Munich employees! I got to meet a few EY'ers working in Munich, which was cool. Overall, great experience with liters of beer, singing and 'prosting' (cheers in German).

Matt has been interviewing almost every day since we got back from Munich (including 3 the day after we got back)! All of the recruiters have had great things to say about his interviewing skills and he is in second round interviews with a few of the companies. We will keep you updated with the company/role he decides to go with. We are very lucky that the business world still needs accountants with everything going on.

Please keep me updated on all your lives too!

A few new British words for your repertoire: "chased up," "proper," "keen," and "bloke."

Regards,
Nicole

First Email 9.3.2008

We got a bit of a late start to our blogging - but can fill in the first few months with the emails Nicole sent to close friends and family... cheers!

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Hey Friends and Family!

So, I arrived in London last Thursday and was 'collected' from the airport and taken to my 'interim' accommodations. I'm placed in an area call "Canary Wharf," which is the new business/financial district in London. The location is not ideal in terms of culture, but the apartment is really nice, and has a gym! (Rare). I spent the first few days exploring around and met up with some of the other GEP'ers. We roamed the city trying to get acquainted with the tube, find the EY offices, and just gain an understanding of the general city areas (there are tons!). The main EY office is located very close to the Tower Bridge (most people think of it as the 'London Bridge') and is in a very nice building. We had wonderful weather on Saturday to welcome us to the city, however it quickly changed for Sunday. So far I'm enjoying exploring a new city and learning the cultural differences.

I started work on Monday (Labor Day in the US) with corporate 'induction' at the smaller EY office in Becket House. The major thing going on over here is the consolidation of many areas into the new EMEIA (Europe, MiddleEast, India, and Asia - I believe) area. This occurred in July '08 and many people are still getting used to the idea. It is an effort to bring in global business and unify the way things are done in the area. As you might imagine this consolidation is not an easy task with the multiple languages, cultures, and religions being brought together. Another major topic covered was EY's place in the London market. It seems like a very exciting time to be over here with all the changes going on - except for the struggling economy. (Although I'm watching the pound go down against the dollar daily and hoping it continues - my paycheck will appreciate that!)

For my second day of work, I woke up to a down pour and although we have rain in Seattle it's much different when you are walking .4 miles to your tube stop... and then another .4 to get to the office. You might think .4 miles is not all that far, but I was soaked up to my knees! I'm going to need to invest in some really good boots! I obtained my computer yesterday, and it was nice to be connected again - I also found out that in addition to Expedia, I will be on Live Nation Music and NewsCorp Fox, which should all be interesting.

Matt arrives on Sunday evening and I'm very excited for him to join me over here! We will be looking for a flat in the next week, so we will have more information to come very soon.

A few Londoners words that I have noticed are quoted above and others I didn't manage to fit into this email, but are used quite often are: 'lovely' ("Oh, lovely!" and "What a lovely lunch!"), 'loads' ("there are loads of places to see here" or "I've go loads of work to do"), 'weary' ("my legs area bit weary today").

Miss you all very much! Keep me updated on US activities!

Cheers,
Nicole