January 2011

Viva La Jamie!

Jamie Visited! It was fun! She rocks!

I miss you James - come back!

Sophia's Birthday was a fabulous affair. We had drinks at the Oxo Tower, followed by drinks at La Soiree, followed by many many many more drinks at The Savoy. Thankfully I was on a cleanse, so all I had was lots of almonds and juice.

Date night with Nigie is always fun. Fun for me because I got to wear a white jacket in January.

Nxx

Rounding out the Old Year

I could pretend it's December 2010 and I am on top of my blogging, but let's face it only Shannon can managing two babies, being a wife and a top notch blogger.

So --- here's a recap of December 2010

NT's Last December Birthday

Bucking tradition, I decided to embrace my birthday this year (and lipstick) and who would've thought -- I had a good time. Weird.

Nigie aka Head of Domestic Affairs, made breakfast, took me to a play, which followed by dinner at the Spanish restaurant up the street. We ended the night watching Turner & Hooch while drinking Champagne. It was all really sweet. Best birthday ever. Probably because I decided to start celebrating my birthday in June . If the Queen can have two birthdays, so can I.

Christmas & New Years Eve 2010

Nigie and I made the trek up to Manchester and celebrated the Lord's Birthday with the Manchester Dickies. Despite having the flu I had a wonderful time, and managed to return to London with my liver in tact.

New Years was a compromise agreement brokered between Nigie and myself. I wanted to go to somewhere fancy and spend lots of money and he wanted none of that. We ended up at the Shoreditch house, then danced till to 3am at Jeremy's and Lydia's.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Nxxx

#45 on Bucket List - Getting Kicked out a Charity Ball

Definition of an adult - a person who has attained the age of majority and is therefore regarded as independent, self-sufficient, and responsible.

Definition of a crazy adult - someone who gets drunk at a charity function, insults an auctioneer for insulting their fiance then gets their whole table kicked out of the event. Then drunkenly walks to Bungalow and causes such a fuss he isn't allowed in.

I was invited to a black tie event expecting a high class snobby London affair and what I got was a front row seat at The Jerry Springer show. I thought if anyone was going to get kicked out of a charity dinner it would've been Sarah. But, alas, it wasn't. The ball was in support of Training for Life, a job scheme that puts homeless people back to work. As event's go, it was pleasant enough, even though they dragged out each course well beyond reasonable means. We were served our main two hours into the event. Good thing I am off wine at the moment because I would have been incredibly drunk with no food to sustain me. Although the nights' events were definitely shocking (I could see my Grammy shaking her head in disgust) it was a good time.

Craig, as always, was a reliable plus one. He wore a makeshift Dinner Jacket (tuxedo for us Yanks) and a clip-on bowtie. My own boyfriend was unable to make the nights' festivities because ... well now looking back on it, I don't really know why. The highlight of the night was watching Craig in his makeshift Dinner Jacket play the piano. Who knew he was so talented? Who knew Sarah would stay to Bungalow 8 till 5a? Who knew I would become my judgemental Grammy so fast?

Just another wonderful night in London.

Nxx

Craig tinkling the ivories - he's a teacher level pianist

Sophia & Sarah

The Twins, Sarah & Jessica

The Lord Mayor's Show

Alderman Michael Bear, Lord Mayor

The Lord Mayor's Show is an annual event that takes place in London Rememberance Weekend. Last November I was in Rome filming Italy's answer to Deal or No Deal, and I completely missed the event. So, when Nigie announced his Naval Reserve unit would be marching in the Lord Mayor's parade and asked if I wanted to come, like President Bush when asked if he approved of water boarding, I responded 'hell yes.' Yet unlike Prez Bush, I didn't have henchmen to keep me on schedule so I missed my beautiful Nigie marching by mere seconds. No pictures to show. No need to fret though, when Nig came home around 1am he directed me to BBC iPlayer, where we watched his two minutes of fame over and over and over again. It was exhilarating. BBC's coverage of the parade was quite thorough. Almost too thorough.

Although I wasn't able to see Nigie, my lovely Sister Sarah's parents Irene and Damian visiting from Belfast, saw him and the whole parade. I only spent a short while with her parents but the time I spent with them was memorable. Her dad is Ireland's version of a taller, married George Clooney and Irene came out with us the next night to the Soho House to see the Brit Girls. She and the drag queens made fast friends. It was lovely to meet the Maguires.

The Lord Mayor's Firework show was truly spectacular. I was very impressed and even teared up during the event. Maybe I was moved by the extravaganza of the whole day or maybe I was a little tipsy from a Mango Madness Snapple. Those things are are deadly.

Can't wait to see the show next year. Hopefully I will get to see Nig live in action.

Nxx

OPB - Other People's Birthdays

I love celebrating other people's birthdays. It is soooo much better than celebrating your own.

Kevin's late October birthday served as a perfect reason for he, Caroline and I to get together. We reunited at one of our favorite eateries and had a wonderful catchup. Happy Birthday Kevin!

Nigie's friend Martin and Martin's twin brother Chris celebrated their 30th bday last Friday. I met up with the boys after dinner with some of my work friends and it was a great night. It wasn't until the next day on Facebook that I realized we left too early and missed out on cake and other goodies. Ah well, we still had a good time.

Nxx

Nigie & Martin

Ronsad, Doug & Nigie

My friends Jessica & Sarah

Halloweenieeees

Shaun & Chris invited us to their annual Hallo-dine party. This year's festival of food had a slight twist...a fetish one. Fetish was meant to reign supreme at the party but somehow Nigie and I were the only weenies to follow instructions. I was surprised that Nig was so open about letting his leather and chains wearing side come out. I thought his idea of fetish would still involve khakis and a tie. But he shocked us all by really getting into the spirit of things. We made a perfectly slutty couple. The other guests showed up in Halloween attire and Nig and I showed up naked. Or, almost naked. Despite the incredibly awkwardness of being slightly whorish around married couples it was a wonderful evening filled with scary stories, games, thriller dance contests, and pumpkin carving competitions. Nigie took home this year's pumpkin carving crown. It really meant a lot to him. A LOT.

Nxx

Nig and I making our families proud

The second of our 8 course meal - twice baked souffle

Our gracious hosts

Nigie's prize winning pumpkin

To Live and Fly to LA

The second weekend of October I made a last minute decision to get on a plane and meet my grandparents and best friend Shannon in LA. It was the first trip home for both my grandparents and Shannon since each had respectively moved out of California earlier in the year. It was my best trip home and that was probably because I wasn't there long enough to know what was going on. Thanks to a very pregnant Shannon (she's a baby birthing machine) and her family for their hospitality and awesome Christmas present. My grandparents looked amazing - having lost a total of 20 plus pounds each. I was so happy to see them for a total of 2 hours. Alana looked amazing at the party she threw for her buddy Seth, Brad and I ate pancakes at Denny's and Dylan went with me, Shannon and Talley to Oak Glen and freaked out by pestering bugs! All in all it was a great visit.

See you guys ... um in January?!

Nxx