Introducing........Yasna Klarin!!!!!!!!!!

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond. Tonight was great, and I am very, very pleased to introduce tonight’s feature guest on the Taylor blog- ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the one, the only, the Aussie born Croatian….Yasna Klarin!!!

So, a bit of back story – Jenny and I met Yasna completely randomly on an overnight train from Cairo to Luxor. We spent the week on different cruise ships down the Nile but ran into each other at every temple. We also shared a convey with her (3 hours each way in the desert starting at 3 AM) down to Abu Simbel (this will cause a bit of a heart flutter for any Matthew Reilly fans out there).

We then hung out on several occasions whilst over here on LaSalle, and tonight was the first time we’d gotten a chance to hang since moving in July.

We met at the Beer Wharf near Borough Market (THE place to buy fresh food and produce in London). We tried some new brews, including MeanTime Pale Ale and the Beer Wharf EPA (a GREAT cask ale). After that and a nibble, we rolled to a Lebanese joint called, Hiba, where we gorged ourselves on Shawarma (which we said about 16,000 times in our best Egyptian accent), hummous, halloumi cheese, and kebabs. All in all, a simply terrific night.

However, and I have to say this for all of my Tennessee peeps – Yasna is OBSESSED with Elvis, and earlier this year she fulfilled a lifelong dream of going to Graceland. And not just the general admission, oh no – this gal did the VIP TOUR, complete with a re-enactment of “life with the King.” How obsessed is she? Well, let’s review the highlights (and Yazz, you KNOW we love you):

1. She now owns an Elvis Prestley jumpsuit.

2. She took 900 (that’s right – NINE HUNDRED) photos of the house.

3. She now has not one but TWO key chains that read “I’ve been to Graceland.”

4. She now has “tasteful” Elvis coasters (to replace the “tacky” Elvis coasters).

5. She now owns the Pauline (Elvis’ chief maid) family cookbook, complete with recipes for cajun ribs and Southern Fried chicken.

She loved Memphis, and when I mentioned that it “wasn’t that safe,” she was shocked. The conversation went something like this:

Yazz: “Where are the bad areas?”

Me: (silence)

Yazz: “Can you not think of one?”

Me: “I’m actually trying to think of a street other than Beale where your Aussie ass would NOT be riddled with bullet holes after 10 PM.”

Yazz: “What about Elvis Prestley Boulevard?”

Me: “There are more brothels on EPB than in Vegas…AND you’ll get shot before the night’s over.”

Yazz: “But Elvis is the King – and the people were so friendly!”

Me: “And I thank you for keeping the TN economy alive, but if you wander off Beale after dark, you will find that friendly is replaced with 9 mm’s.”

Yazz: “You’re joking, right?”

Jenny: “Nope – we’ve had this conversation before. In fact, when Sam’s governor, he’s going to sell Memphis to the state of Arkansas.”

Yazz: (silence…followed by a large gulp of Lebanese wine)

As always, it was SO GREAT to see her, and the time simply flew by. So we caught the last Tube home and are now about to sack out before another fun filled day tomorrow.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print. Chat tomorrow!

Love,

Sam and Jenny

SHAKE AND BAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family,

And a good afternoon to you from across the Pond. As I type this, it is absolutely POURING outside. We are talking a true “hide the women and children, load the animals two-by-two, and will someone please go find the unicorn” type of storm. In fact, it’s the strongest downpour I’ve ever seen in all my visits to the UK. Case in point, check this artsy shot of my pants. Yeah, I can now think of 1 downside to the 15 min walk to the Tube…

Today, however, was great. The only downside was saying good-bye to my partner in crime, brother Ray Tavares, who will depart the mother country (well, not his mother country – he’s Portuguese) tomorrow (wife and three kids in tow, of course) after just over a 4 week stint.

The photo here is Ray and I doing our normal “Talladega Nights Shake and Bake,” which happens rather frequently, much to the confusion of the Brits who have no idea about “sweet little 8 pound 4 ounce baby Jesus, playin’ connect four, don’t have a care in the world” or about the man, the myth, the legend that is Ricky Bobby.

The upside to Ray’s departure? Free lunch at Nando’s! Nando’s is a Portuguese chicken joint that specializes in peri-peri sauce. Talk about fantastic eating. I am definitely getting soggier and soggier around the mid-section, but life’s too short to pass on peri-peri sauce!

Also, I learned a GREAT new British Finance (um, yeah, I know…I work in payroll – cut me some slack) phrase today. When you want someone to do something and you are the person mandating the deadline, tell them “I’m two ten to the nastro.” Apparently, it has something to do with wire transfers and automated clearing houses. To me, I think it’s just something out of Top Gun (Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full).

Okay, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Tavares clan – safe travels! Ray – we’ll see you in a week…SHAKE AND BAKE!!!!!!

Love,

Sam and Jenny

Cancelled plans make for a GREAT night...

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond. Thanks to my wife, tonight was a GREAT night! We had originally planned to hang with the Tavares clan and Knockout (the nickname for our good friend Kirsten Olsen – I won’t introduce her yet – you’ll have to wait until I actually do meet up with her for more details and a photo), but due to illness, plans fell through.

Instead, JT and I went home for some take-away Indian and a night in (translation – more TWILIGHT – I am so pathetic…). Okay, I will confess that this was JT’s idea (I was lazy and said let’s just go to the restaurant), and so she gets FULL MARKS for finding a FABULOUS local curry joint (Danger Will Robinson, Danger!!!). Observe the bountiful feast laid out upon our table…

So here’s my big thing – as many of you know, I like HOT food, and we are talking hot (insert the 7,000 jokes from the Granville 6 about how I can’t eat a whole Naga pepper and how it’s forever documented that an eight cent Habanero pepper from the Fulton Co. Farmer’s market nearly killed me).

My biggest problem with Indian to date is that most places look at me, think “this white guy with such a ridiculous Southern accent couldn’t possibly handle the hot stuff,” and then they give me some beet root and candy. When I finally convince them that I want the hot stuff, they cook up lamb with 14 billion green chilis but no flavor. However, tonight, we broke through and found the balance.

I went with the Vindaloo – balanced on the knife’s edge, I tucked into the first bite to find an explosion of flavor and heat. I tell you this so that you can appreciate the enormity of importance I place upon the right balance of heat and flavor, a combination that few establishments have managed to discover (here’s where I pour some out to Step In India – LONG LIVE THE NAGA CHICKEN!).

Also – the other beautiful thing with eating in – you buy the beer! Our meal price was cut in half because we drank at home. As you can see, both JT and I got into the act.

And yes, mom, in case you’re curious, that’s my West Maui Parasail t-shirt which you bought for me in Hawaii 13 years ago. As you can see, I no longer need the collar (since I pop my head through the hole in my back), but the shirt is still wearing fine. In fact, I think the hardened green pit stains are a nice touch as well.

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

Love,

Sam and Jenny

Even I'm falling in love with Edward...

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond. Another great day is in the books. Tonight I had originally planned to go see Star Trek (like all really cool people do by themselves on a Tuesday night), but instead I came home to focus on my new Obsession: the Twilight Series (like really, really, REALLY cool people do by themselves on a Tuesday night).

Okay, I will be the first to admit that some lines are cheesy. Okay, really, REALLY cheesy. But I just can’t put these things down. I am about 40% of the way through #2, and it’s WAY better than the first one (and whipping by).

The photo pretty much sums up how I’ve spent my last week. According to JT, this photo proves I’m turning into a vampire (although I’ve never seen a vampire carry around the same spare tire snugly fastened against my waist).

I have a feeling I’m going to go into something akin to “Post-Potter Depression” when this series is over. Luckily I’ve got the 3rd installment of both the Nightwatch trilogy and the Inheritance trilogy to nurse me through it. I am loving this tube ride more and more ever day – who’d have ever thought I’d look forward to a commute?

So tonight will be some reading and relaxing and (hopefully) some trip research. And I still haven’t mentioned the highlight – muffin puffin is whipping up some Indian in the kitchen! Check out my baby in action – Gordon Ramsey, you wish you had these mad skills (and all this AFTER a day of conquering v-lookups and pivot tables…).

Okay, short and sweet tonight, but that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Hard to believe it’s August and that we’re already in our 4th week here. MAN, the time is flying. Chat tomorrow!

Love,

Sam and Jenny

I am the half-blood prince…and other important cinema lessons in the UK…

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond. Tonight was a great night – we saw “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Okay, I will go on record to say that this was, in my opinion, THE BEST film to date (which is shocking, considering it was easily my least favorite book). From start to finish, I was really, really impressed with the acting, the action, the pacing, and the effects. Full marks.

The cinema experience, however, was NOT what I would call life changing. Let’s just recap some unique facts I learned about cinema in the UK tonight:

1. There are two kinds of seats in theaters in the UK – Premium and standard.
2. Premium costs 2-3 pound more per person, but I will pay it EVERY TIME I GO TO A MOVIE GOING FORWARD.
3. Tonight I sat in standard (aka DONKEY CLASS), where the following occurrences were quite regular:
a. Everyone around me talked the entire film in FOUR DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. I would have told them to shut up, but unfortunately I don’t speak Hungarian, Polish, Estonian or Farsi.
b. The seats were built for hobbits, meaning that my neck and back will need 14 years of therapy to straighten out.
c. The standard seats are quite close to the screen. I felt like I was on the front row of the Drive-in for part of the film.
d. Stadium seating? Um, try bucket seating…there were only 7 rows in this uber-modern, upscale cinema.
4. The upside is that there is a pick ‘em – mix ‘em candy shop in the theater that’s quite cheap.
5. There’s also BEER in the theater (marked under a big sign that reads “Thristy?”).

All in all, I loved the film, but I will pay for premium next time (and all subsequent times). The cost for JT and I to see the film tonight in STANDARD, you ask? 35 USD – yeah…good thing it was awesome.

Also, a couple of new features I hope to start on the blog. One will be the Welsh phrase of the week, courtesy of Brother Owain Morgan. The other is the “immigration tip of the week.”

So get this – if you want to become a citizen of the UK, there are tons of ridiculous laws that you have to learn (none of the locals know ANY of them). However, one today caught my eye (no, I’m not immigrating – the book is just in the HR office). This is (more or less) the quote as I remember it:

“In the UK, there are establishments that serve alcohol. These establishments are called pubs. Lots of people drink in the UK, and if you are invited to have a drink of alcohol, you should accept. However, please note that, during the course of the evening, someone may offer to buy a “round” of drinks, which means he will purchase the drinks for the entire group. It is expected that you will return this favor later in the evening, but note that pubs are very crowded. If you knock over someone’s drink whilst on the way to the bar, it is advisable to offer to buy them another. Also, there is no queing at the bar – the bartender will find you when it’s your turn.”

Moral of the story for all you wanna be Brits out there – put down the Ultra and step up to the heavy stuff.

Okay, that’s about all the news that’s fit to print. Chat with you guys tomorrow!

Love,

Sam and Jenny

Walking amongst the ghosts of academic greatness..

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond. First off (and I did have it written down to tell you guys yesterday, for the record) – Saturday was mine and Jenny’s SIX YEAR dating anniversary. Can you believe that? Hard to believe how time has flown, but we were laying down on Friday night, and it suddenly hit us that 6 years ago was our first date (A Knight’s Game to see the band Avalon, in case anyone’s curious). Absolutely amazing.

So, today was another great one. Today we hopped the bus to London Victoria (no Vic Line service due to planned engineering works – C-Web, I did sing a few notes of the song…) and then hopped the express to Britain’s oldest university and truly one of the most revered and reknowned centers of academia on earth – that’s right, today we fulfilled a long time goal and visited Oxford.

The city is absolutely stunning, and I would recommend it to anyone. While Bath remains our favorite day trip, Oxford is now second (Carter – if you’re reading this, don’t think me a traitor because I haven’t hit Cambridge yet).
We hit Carfax Tower first for a look at the city, which was AWESOME. Oxford University is comprised of 39 individual colleges, each of them very beautiful (and charging a fee to get inside). It adds up in a hurry, so you need to pick the ones that you want to see. Some of the highlights of the trip:

1. We saw the original pulpit that John Wesley preached at during his first mission.

2. We saw a blackboard that Einstein used whilst giving a lecture at Oxford. His writing is still on there, and they tried to explain to me how the formula represented general and special relativity when compared to the red shifts of the oscillating universe. I promptly punched the guy and told him if I wanted to hear a foreign language spoken I would have taken a day trip to Moscow.

3. We saw the house where Sir Edmund Halley set up his original observatory between 1711 and 1715 (covered in construction and indicated only only by a VERY small wooden plaque).

4. We saw the first building ever designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

5. We saw the Oldest Library in Europe (the Bodlean), complete with Oxford’s first ever lecture hall.
6. We saw the oldest school at Oxford (FREE!) – Merton College, founded in 1264. THAT’S RIGHT – 1264, two hundred and 28 years before Columbus crashed into the Dominican Republic.

But the highlight was this REALLY cute dive called the Turf Tavern, complete with FANTASTIC fish & chips and 11 cask ales I’d never tried before. So we tried the Turf Tavern Ale, the Hopback Summer Lightning, and the St. Edmunds Golden, all fantastic (and Jenny’s cauliflower and cheese tart will be served in Heaven).
And now we’re back at the flat, where I’m about to put Twilight Book 1 to bed. Jenny is blistering through Book 2, so I expect to start on that one tomorrow. No one give away any secrets!

Okay, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Tomorrow’s back to work – have a great rest of the weekend!

Love,

Sam and Jenny

Our first celebrity sighting!!!

Family,

And a good afternooon to you from across the Pond. Wow – another great Saturday in the books. First off, JT and I read about 150 pages in each of our respective “Twilight” books last night (I’m on book one, and she’s on book 2…so far, so good, but really, could she have figured it out that quickly? I mean, I’m a vampire and JT hasn’t figured it out yet, so I’m going to say no…and all I could think about was the Neah tribe near Cape Flattery…and how much I wouldn’t have trusted a word they said…).

After our reading spell that ended at 1:00 AM, we slept in until 10:30 (yes, Chuck, I know…), at which point we popped up and had some breakfast. Actually, JT made breakfast while I tried to deposit our first ever check in the UK. In the continuing saga of Sam’s bank account, some key points:

1. You don’t sign checks in the UK. Instead, you kill infinitely more trees by signing the massive “pay in” slip when you visit the branch. And no, you CAN’T deposit checks at the ATM. It’s all about the personal touch, even if the gal at the counter asks “Where are you from, Texas? You sound just like George Bush.” Yeah, she’s lucky she’s still breathing…STRATEGERY!!!

2. I have activated my online banking account and my checking account via the internet, but NO – that isn’t linked to the ACTUAL CARD. That is apparently a separate set of activation codes and PIN numbers, even if I changed the ATM PIN # with the same card that has apparently NOT been activated.

3. I finally did manage to deposit the check, but I had to enter my PIN # 4 times because my card wasn’t active (and somehow won’t be active until Tuesday even though I USED IT TODAY). Honestly, at this point , I’m glad we dumped tea in Boston Harbor (UK friends, my apologies…I’ll translate – HARBOUR).

So we tried to go to a show today, but we never bothered to check show times. As a result, we didn’t realize that both the Mousetrap and Blood Brothers didn’t start until 4 PM. We couldn’t do that due to already made plans, so we hit the Empire Casino (same locale as the European World Series of Poker Final Table), where JT and I lost 10 sterling each on video craps (both 13 and 14 did hit, however). After that, we caught some pints at the Bear and Staff (see what I said about any two names going together to make a pub?), where I tried Wainwright's and Top Banana (same people that make Deuchar's).
We went back home, where we met a fellow expat, Carolyn Parnell, at a local spot called La Fromagerie. This place rocked – we got 5 GREAT cheeses for 13 quid. But more imporantly, it was our first ever celebrity sighting! So we sit down, and almost instantly I notice that the dude across from me was the dude that was the British bad guy from the East India Trading Company in Pirates of the Carribean (parts 2 and 3). And who was beside him (we are talking the person sitting BESIDE muffin puffin – maybe 2 feet away)? None other than Rachel Dawes – Maggie Gyllenhall. That’s right – Mona lisa Smile, Batman Begins, and several others? Jenny’s comment as she walked away??? “Oh, I didn’t even notice.” Honestly, could my wife BE ANY CUTER?

After that, it was off to a new pub called “The Marylebone”, where we had Sagras (Brazillian Lager) on draft for the first time ever. All in all, it was a GREAT night! The only downside is that, after 2 years, Carolyn is moving back to the US! We’ll just have to make the time count while she’s here!

Dinner was a plate of SERIOUS lasagna at Demario's at 11 PM...yeah, that's how we roll (and how I keep this girlish figure).

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

Love,

Sam and Jenny