Back to the States - In Food

I decided to document my trip back to the states with food so here it goes.


Early the morning of the 28th I found myself in the Birmingham Aiport settling for BK.


On my Aer Lingus flight from Dublin I chose the Beef and Pasta over the Chicken and Veg option.


My first meal back in the states was a moderate half-rack of ribs and loaded mashed potatoes from Chilis. (Oh yeah and a Coors Light)


Back at the house on the 29th I enjoyed some Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Dressing and an ice cold Pabst Blue Ribbon.

And later that day I attended a feast and pretty much enjoyed the best that the USA has to offer. I have missed the food here. Go Mountaineers.

Adios England

After returning to England I spent some time in and around London with my friend Bex that I met while traveling in Argentina. Sadly I was all pictured out and didn't get any real pictures except for this one from the train station in Chorleywood (quite a happening locale).

Other than that I have spent my time here saying goodbye to my friends


I will miss that even on a Monday things can be busy (now back to WV) where things are barely busy on the weekend.


I am not sure what to type about this photo but I thought I'd throw it into the mix anyway.

I fly out tomorrow at 8am into Dublin and then from there to Washington DC.

Back to England

I have now made my way back to Birmingham after a couple of great nights in London. I will be here until the 28th when I fly back to the states. I am sure I will post some pics sometime soon but right now I am just recovering and eating a lot.

Decisions, Decisions

I am currently in Riga, Latvia and I have some decisions to make. Originally I took this most recent trip to avoid high fares home from England in early August and hopefully make it to Spain but it is coming time for me to decide what to do.

Here are some of my choices:

Go to Tallinn, Estonia (THIS IS THE FIRST STEP OF ALL THE CHOICES)

1. Head to Helsinki Finland and fly back to England en route to the USA
2. Head to Helsinki and fly back to England before going to Spain and then the USA
3. Slowly make my way back from Tallinn to Enlgland by land and extend the trip
4. Choose a major city or two and just go there before England and the USA
5. Work my way back to Spain and then England before the USA

Not sure which way to go but I should have it figured out by tomorrow. Oddly the thought of home is sounding good after about 7 months and if I can save a little cash I might get to go travel again a bit sooner.

TEFL Complete

After 20 hours in class spread over 2 days my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class decided to celebrate our escape from the classroom. We are all one step closer to teaching abroad. Goodbye England....I fly out on Friday to tour Eastern Europe.

Escaping Swine Flu

A recent report here in England has put out this warning for the future.

"Swine flu: 100,000 UK cases a day by August

Health secretary Andy Burnham announces that the disease can no longer be contained

Thursday, 02 July 2009

More than 100,000 people could be diagnosed with swine flu every day by the end of August, the government said, announcing that the disease can no longer be contained in the UK."

(This could be how it is spreading)

It is nice to know that to escape this rapidly spreading illness I will be retreating to the continent of Africa... wow.... that just doesn't seem right. By the end of July I move out of England and hopefully escape the more than 1 million cases every 2 weeks. It was also noted that Birmingham is a hotbed for the activity.

(Time to get my vitamins in Morocco)

I fly to Morocco on the 6th of July.

PUB GOLF in Moseley

To celebrate Amy's birthday we had a pub golf night. It requires that you dress up like a golfer, do a pub crawl, and score your drinks based on how many pulls you down it in with a different drink at each pub.

Running around Birmingham

In my attempt to get back in shape I have started to frequent the local parks on foot. In Moseley there is only one main park and it requires residents to pay for a key so I just run to the other parks. Granted, they serve as more of the end of my run in one direction than a place to run around inside, but it is nice to get away from the city for a bit.

Here are some shots around Cannon Hill Park.

The Detox Diet

Having spent the last 4 months in England with only 2 more to go I have decided to preemptively strike my waistline. For the past two weeks I have tried to avoid the following items that are staples of the English diet. It has proven to be a positive step already so for those of you who don't understand the typical foods here in England let me share.

On a typical day it seems apparent that almost the entire population partakes in a pint of lager or cider and as most people know one quickly turns into 5 or 6.



The next stop is "The Chippy" for fish and chips loaded with salt and vinegar. Delicious fried goodness.

Particularly in Birmingham (because it is the home of the factory) Cadbury Chocolate varieties can be found in the cabinets of every home for sweets to snack on.



Then if that doesn't fill you up some Walker's Crisps (OK so to people from the US they are potato chips and yes the brand is owned by Frito-Lay hence the similar looking bags).


I have had a couple of pints in the past couple of weeks and one bag of crisps but the others have been successfully avoided and I plan to keep up the plan for a bit longer. Now if I can just bother to get off the couch and go for a run every now and then I should be back on my way to the shape I was in before breaking my leg over a year ago.

Summer is trying to start in England

The sun has been making some appearances here in Birmingham England but it just doesn't stay around long enough. It peeks out from behind the clouds just long enough to get you to head out of the house then vanishes behind dark clouds that bring cold wind.

With any luck this guy will manage to soak in a little bit of the sunshine before it hides again. I am off to try now.

Breakin Convention - Birmingham 09

Here is a rather long vid of some break dancing here in Birmingham put on at the Hippodrome.

Travels Ahead

I have decided to start the travels again so there should be some interesting posts to come. Here is the possible itinerary.

Tomorrow:

I will board a train to Scotland then make my way back down through England.

End of May:

I fly to Eastern Italy with possibilities of traveling to Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and or Romania.

Mid-July:

Oslo, Norway



That is what it looks like for now... the adventure starts tomorrow.

Baddesley Clinton

The second house I visited over the weekend was Baddesley Clinton. It was a more traditional Tudor that was Catholic based during the time of the Henry VIII so the Church of England became the main church because he wanted to divorce his wife.

This house included priest hides that were built into the house in case priest hunters came to seek out Catholic priests that were not to be in England.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baddesley_Clinton


The house also has a moat which is a great idea for any house.

It has a lake as well and my historical team joined me as well.
In an attempt to find history, Amy tried to take a new perspective.
I just laid outside and took "artsy" photos because it was a nice day.

History around Birmingham - Packwood House

This weekend I was taken to see some Tudors around Birmingham. The first one was Packwood House and is located to the south of Birmingham.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packwood_House



I gathered my team of historical experts and headed out (OK so Amy really isn't into history, but the other to were).
The garden around the house serves as a picnic area for families daily.
Sadly Packwood was heavily remodeled by its last owner so it lacks a little in the history department, but is still a beautiful house.


It does provide views like this and a lake that apparently has Pike in it so swimming was out which is sad because I brought my birthday suit with me.

Brummy Life (AKA Back in Birmingham)

Now that I am back in Brum I have been meeting up with old friends and sleeping for days at a time. If anybody actually checked back on here far enough they would see the three of us together back when I was in Argentina.


Since I have returned there has also been some celebration that left my mouth tasting of tequila the next day.

The other day I also went out to do some shopping at the Bull Ring here in Birmingham and noted the famous skyline.


I have also noted the innate ability of the Brits to name companies in English.... check out the name on the right.

Back in Moseley

Now that my European adventure has been over for some time and the Easter Holiday has passed I find myself being quite lazy. I haven't posted in quite a few days and to be honest because I am now recovering from the restlessness of travel. Now that the return and holiday are out of the way I am sleeping until noon and doing nothing with my days. I did go out to the Bull's Head here in Moseley on Easter Sunday because Monday was a Bank Holiday here so everyone was out on the town.

As of now there are no set plans to do any traveling in the immediate future, but I am sure that I will find somewhere to end up before too long.

Bratislava and back to England

To wrap up my European tour I went to Bratislava Slovakia for a few nights to see another city. The city has been reinvigorated by their recent transition to the Euro and boast many beautiful sights right on the Danube.


The old downtown is nice and tiny so it is more of a walker's paradise.



Sadly I was so exhausted from my travels that all I wanted to do was pass out... luckily now I am back at my own bed in England and recovering from the trip.

Top Gear - My UK Addiction

Since moving over to England I have had a lot of time spent sitting on my unemployed behind and what better to do than assimilate to the local culture and my niche has become football (soccer for those back home) and cars... My car fix comes in the form of this:
TOP GEAR WEBSITE
Here are the hosts:
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May
Week in an out they set up insane car challenges and test the newest offerings on the test track all driven by this man.... errrr well the Stig.

My Birthday Video

I haven't really shown my day-to-day here so I figured I'd make a video of my birthday for my fam and friends back home. Warning - It can be quite boring.

Rain Gear Call to Action

Before heading off on my South American Adventure (yes, that was over 5 months ago) I purchased a simple raincoat in Florida because it was on sale and I had packed nothing like it. It has now been in the rainfly compartment of my pack for past 5 months and never used (neither has the rainfly on my bag). Today with the rainy weather I remember that it was still packed in the bag so it has emerged and will face its first test today.

The coat has been in 13 countries so far including the one I purchased it in and this is its first taste of the elements.