The joys of curry, Covergirl, and staying afloat in a sea of estrogen…

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond. Today was another great one, but before I describe it, it’s worth noting what my good buddy Tom (T-Rowe) Price said about the nightly Taylor family blog. Tom basically said that, rather than retyping the blog every night, I could drop the highlights into the following template:

1. Here’s how poorly I performed in the gym and how out of shape I am

2. Here’s what food I ate that’s so spicy I no longer have an esophagus

3. Here is the new pub I went to

4. Here are the new beers I tried (notice the plural)

5. Here’s how much weight I’ve gained

6. Here’s now my 18 year old plaid shirts are holding up in the Mother Country.

I found this quite amusing until I sat down to type tonight, when I realized what the day had been:

1. I skipped the gym today because I drank too much last night

2. I went to a Thai place and had a curry

3. I tried a new pub (we’ll get to that)

4. I drank 2 different kinds of beer

5. I am fat as a damn bear

6. My clothes reek before I refuse to wash them until I get 3-6 wears out of them…even if I occasionally forget deodorant.

So looking up at #1, we hit a Thai joint called Srinam with Madeha Qureshi and Liz. So Madeha has turned my wife onto this 8 dollar mascara called “Lash Blash” (gotta love the Volunteer orange tube - the stuff she's holding is a bit fancier, but you get the picture - LITERALLY), and that was the starting point of the conversation.

After that, it was a steady wade through estrogen throughout dinner, during which time I could only locate the waitress for a single beer (Becks Vier – very tasty). I had the wok-fried duck, which was tasty but no Golden Dragon in ChinaTown. Newcomb – get over here and feed me some crispy aromatic duck and fish flavored air.

After that, I was in desperate need for a pint, so we found a new pub called the “Cock and Lion,” where we both threw back a Kronie (aka Kronenbourg 1664) – very tasty. We sat outside and enjoyed the people watching on Wigmore street, listening to a pair of Canadians, a pair of Brits, and a South African talk about life and working in America (which, for the record, NONE of them had done).

After that, we rolled back home, where I looked at how round my face is and wondered how my cheek bones were coping with the excess weight.

Random side note – in the UK, every citizen pays something called “Council Tax,” which is the cost for maintenance of your neighborhood. It covers sewage, trash pickup, cleaning, and…wait for it…wait for it…all the flowers you can handle hanging from street lights. Yes, they are beautiful – but are they really worth 4,000 USD a household per year? Do they rain gold on Thursdays or something? Medidate on this, I will…

Okay, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Chat tomorrow. Happy Friday!!!!!!!

Love,

Sam and Jenny