Christmas Time Advert(s)

I know I posted an advert back in the spring for a mobile phone company of the cute little cat and girl singing one of my favorite 80's hits, but I just had to share another one! I found a new one that I even saw some of my American friends on Facebook sharing...so I know the word is getting out on just how cute it is!

Now Christmas is in full swing over here.  They have been putting out store displays, fully stocked shelves with all the trimmings, and the city lights around Nottingham since the beginning of October.  This week they started the set up for the beautiful Christmas Market that we were able to see last year when we visited to pick out housing.  Hard to believe that was a year ago? It is funny to think that they don't have the battle we have the U.S. about decorating/shopping for Christmas before Thanksgiving.

Back on track- My newest favorite advert is for John Lewis, which is like a Nordstrom. It is a great store, but unfortunately U.S. friends, the shipping is 25 pounds, which is around 40 dollars. Yowza!

Here is the cutest commercial. Enjoy!

*Update as of Nov. 14th:  I found another Christmas advert by the supermarket, Sainsbury's.  It is another heartfelt commercial that I thought I would share. They love the Christmas commercials over here, and to be honest, I can't even think of a Christmas commercial that stands out in the States other than the cute polar bears from Coca-Cola.  We definitely don't have something to this extent, and I really do like it!

**Another update as of November 17th: For some reason the videos aren't working for everyone. The only reason I would think that is if you are viewing this post on a mobile/tablet device. It works just fine on my computer, but the videos do not show up on my phone. Not sure if this helps. If you want to look the videos up yourself: John Lewis Christmas Advert 2014 and Sainsbury's Christmas Advert 2014 should work if you Google them! If you got the videos to work, please feel free to share some advice or what device you used in the comment box below. Maybe I'm doing something wrong...


Onto the next adventure...

50 Foot Flames? Hmmm...Okay.

Picture this, no seriously, picture this because I forgot the "good camera"...

Walking up on a cold November night in a local recreational park to see a giant bonfire with 50 foot flames. Along with this the other side of the park was filled with carnival games, food, and rides.  Guy Fawkes Night is also known in England as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night, and Firework Night.

 

The giant blob of yellow is the bonfire. Least you can compare it to the size of the tree next to it since the picture is bad. 

Who is Guy Fawkes?  
Guy Fawkes is known in Great Britain as the guy who failed in the gunpowder plot in 1605.  He planned to assassinate King James I in the Parliament building in London.  Within his group, he was in charge of guarding the explosives.  He was caught by the authorities, questioned, and then sentenced to death.  So, I'm sure you're thinking...what does this have to do with this special night on November 5th? 

What is Guy Fawkes Night? 
Well Guy Fawkes Night is a celebration. Since King James I escaped, those Londoners were encouraged to start bonfires to celebrate the fact that the king survived the potential assassination. As months went by, they named November 5th as the Observance of 5th November Act.  So along with the yearly bonfire nights, there are firework displays as well.  Mackey was not enjoying the fireworks part of the night.  

Jeff and I walked to the Forest Recreational Grounds to admire the giant bonfire, and within the hour the firework display occurred.  To me, it is an odd holiday to celebrate, but we definitely don't have anything like this in America.  Jeff made a good point, that we could never have the giant bonfires like this because it would probably start some sort of wildfire since it is so dry in the states compared to the damp English weather.

 The firework display!

To see more pictures (since my phone takes awful pictures), check out the Nottingham Post.

Update: As I left the house this morning (about 12 hours since the bonfire went out) our entire house smells like a bonfire and we were over a mile away from the event.  There is still a little haze in the air from all the smoke. And the worst---everyone at the gym reeked of bonfire smoke. It must have been seeping out of their (well, our) pores!

Onto the next adventure...

#1 Birthday Weekend....Ever!

How spoiled am I that we spent my 28th birthday weekend looking at this...

 View from the terrace at our hotel

Dubrovnik, Croatia was one of my Top 3 places to visit while we are living over here. Jeff decided the perfect time to go was around my birthday.  We got up around 2:45 AM, and were at the Manchester Airport to fly out by 5:30.  We got into Dubrovnik, found our beautiful hotel, went into the city, grabbed lunch, and....it starting storming.  We rushed back to our hotel to wait out the storm.  Ended up working out well that we could take a quick nap since we got up so early.  Later that evening we went back out to explore the Old Town (a walled city).  We then fulfilled every child's dream...ice cream for dinner!  Jeff and I walked around the old city eating our ice cream.  We found some places we wanted to explore more in the morning. We walked north of the Old Town to just explore more of the city. We made it to a marina filled with boats, which was pretty cool.  

 View from our hotel window

View from the hotel window...beautiful clear water!

Sidenote: Cats.  I thought Italy was known for the amount of cats on the city streets, but I think I found a place to beat that record.  There was a crazy amount of cats walking around the city.  No matter where we were, like a side of a cliff...there was always a cat around.  A couple adorable kittens (one of which was all black, like Mackey) wandered the streets as well.  All the cats looked like they were in good condition, whether they belonged to someone or not. I just kept walking around the city think of Bob Barker. Yes, you heard me, Bob Barker. I kept picturing him saying "Have your pets spayed and neutered." Dubrovnik needs this...

Back on track. We woke up and went into the Old Town where we walked the city walls.  As you can tell in the pictures, the Old Town was enclosed by walls.  You can walk on top of the walls and boy is it beautiful! It took us about 2 hours to get around it, and that was stopping for a beer about half way through.  It was really fun walking around, and probably one of our favorite things we did while we were there. 

 Could get a little chilly and windy at times. "All you need is a light jacket."--Name that movie!

Great view of the wall we walked around in the Old Town

 At another fortress that has a great view of the city and the Old Town Wall

 The Croatian flag

If we were there longer, it would have definitely been great to go out on a boat!

We headed back to the hotel to go to the hotel's private beach (About mid-60's). We grabbed lunch seaside at the hotel restaurant, and then we laid around reading until the sun was hidden by the large cliffs.  This was perfect timing to head up to Mount Srdj, the 412 meter (350 feet) high mountain. We braved the cable cars, as the walk up the mountain would have took for-ever! Not a huge fan of cable cars, but this one was definitely better than the one we rode in Barcelona. Not nearly as scary.  We made it to the top, went to to Fort Imperial.  This fort was a crucial part during the 1991 war, and much of it is still in shambles.  It was crazy to look from the west side of the fort, as it was beautiful, beach-filled Dubrovnik.  The east side was Bosnia, which was mountainous and bare.  The fort was turned into a museum, but a lot of the material presented wasn't in English. Needless to say, I  lost focus.

 The Bosnia side of the mountain

 The Croatia side of the mountain

We ate at the top, Restaurant Panorama, where I had the best Bailey's coffee ever. Jeff was checking off a few new beers off the count. For those of you who know our goal, I will look at our count later, and get back to you.  We had a great time watching the sunset over the city.  We grabbed an "linner" (lunch+dinner), as the sun was setting around 4:30!  We took the cable car back down, enjoyed another chilly night in the city, and headed back to the hotel.  

Our beautiful view for dinner & drinks

The next morning, we went down to the beach for a few hours.  The feeling of relaxing on a beach, reading a book felt amazing.  Are my snow-filled Indiana friends/family closing their computers at this point? Sorry!  Jeff and I both finished our books, and put our feet in the cold Adriatic Sea.  Well, Jeff braved it and got all the way in. I was a chicken. 

After our beach-filled morning, we went back into the city to check out a bar on a cliff and walk around the city one last time.  We had a few beers at Buza Bar (Buza=hole, not Booze). We grabbed a seat right in front, and enjoyed the view.  It was great to see sailboats, kayaks, ships, etc. go by in front of us.  Besides the cultural side of walking around the walls, I really enjoyed this afternoon.  It was so relaxing! 

 Best view in the house!

So stinkin' pretty, right?

We ended our time in Dubrovnik by walking to a restaurant outside of the city walls and getting a "jumbo" pizza.  I'm not sure if I was just so hungry or what...but it was one of the best pizzas I have ever had (pepperoni, hot peppers, Tabasco, arugula, sauce, and a couple kinds of cheese). We ate the entire thing, and headed back towards the hotel.  

 Beautiful view on our way to the pizza place

 And yes, we ate the last piece! Yum!

Once the sunset, we went on a long walk to the Cave Bar (One of the Top 5 Hotel Bars in the World). It was really impressive, as stalactites were still hanging from the ceiling.  You could also see through the cave floor in one spot of the bar where the water flowed. Really cool!  It was definitely a long walk to this hotel bar, but definitely worth it. 

 This "hallway" leads into the room in which you could see the floor. 

(People were in there, so I couldn't snap a photo)

 The entrance from the outdoor seating

I leave you with an odd picture.  We were walking late in the city on our first day, and found this picture... Many of my loyal readers know my new-found fascination with the world of eggs over here. Bet you have never seen eggs in a pop-like machine! 

Overall, I was very grateful to spend my birthday weekend celebrating with Jeff in this beautiful destination. Thank you to all of you who sent cards, messages, emails, etc. for my birthday.  You definitely made me feel right at home! Love you all! 

Want to come along, too? Check out this interactive website I found!

Onto the next adventure...

At a Glance: Burgers. Pottery. Pubs. Football

Sorry for the lack of posts from us. Boy, have we been busy this month. Can you believe it is already the end of October? We have had a couple "normal" weeks around here.  Jeff has been working a lot, so he has been really busy lately.  We celebrated our 2nd anniversary two weeks ago.  There was monsoon-like weather so instead of going out, we watched our wedding video, ate pizza, had a glass of wine, and many many desserts.  We properly celebrated the following Friday by heading out to Annie's Burger Shack and Freehouse, which was the best burger I have had since we moved here.  Ahhh-mazing! The lady who owns it is from New England.

 Best two years ever!

This past week, I was able to go with a few friends to the Denby Pottery Factory & Shops (Pottery made in the Derbyshire area, around where Jeff works) on Thursday.  We ate at the little cafe, and then shopped. I finally found a teapot to bring home! It was almost addicting to see all the different types of pottery as well as the different pieces. I wanted to buy a lot, but settled for a beautiful little teapot.  I still have my eye on the cake stand...

 

My teapot's new spot in our flat! 

 This past weekend was a great one, as we went out with some friends on Friday night.  We met up with our friends in Nottingham to hit up Pitcher & Piano (the church-pub) and headed out to a few other places.  It was a fun night out, although I felt super old hanging around bars with "kids" (drinking age, 18).

My friend, Jo and I, at Pitcher & Piano

Saturday came quickly, and we headed to The City Ground to watch our first "football" match. AKA, American friends, SOCCER. Our friends, Andrew & Julie, came with us to the game. We stopped at a local pub that was on the canal near our house. It was a great environment inside, although we ate outside.  The pub had a boat garage, so part of the canal ran through the restaurant and boats were inside. Very cool place. 

Anyway--we went to the stadium to watch the Nottingham Forest (Tricky Trees) play the Blackburn Rovers,  Jeff bought a Nottingham Forest scarf, grabbed our tickets, and headed to our seats.  We were up high, but we had a really good view.  There were over 27,000 people at the game.  

 View from our seats

It was a great environment, although the atmosphere was nothing compared to American ball games.  There was not a whole lot of music, announcing, or even much on the "jumbo" screens.  Although they didn't have the flashiness, like our American sports do...I felt like people were there for just the raw sport, and not all of the other pieces of entertainment, which was cool.  The crowd was REALLY into the game, especially the opposing team who ended up whooping us 3-1. I felt because there was not so much entertainment, people truly paid attention to the sport itself.  And speaking of football (this time, American Football).  It was great to see American Football being played on our live TV screen this weekend, as Detroit and Atlanta played over here in London.  Tickets were super expensive and of course, sold out...but that would have definitely been a fun experience.  Either way--I think Jeff was a happy camper when he could watch it on a real TV and not a computer screen.

Group shots!

All-in-all, it was a great experience and one we checked off of the bucket list.  We can't believe that we are running out of time to accomplish some of these events, places, etc. that we want to before we move home.  It was crazy to us that we are already planning our 2015 trips! 

Busy week ahead, hope to post again soon! 

Onto the next adventure...

Our Weekday Adventures in the Notts

Travis came back to Nottingham with Jeff and I after we had our fun in Munich, Germany. We also were lucky enough to have another visitor, Jeff's dad, Greg.  The beginning of the week was pretty low key as the weather was awful (that's saying a lot for people who are used to the rain & wind).  Travis and I sucked it up to explore the city to some extent.  We went to the Nottingham Castle and Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which are two of the many "musts" of Nottingham.  We also went out to an Indian restaurant Jeff and I had on our "to go" lists.  Watch out future visitors, we'll probably force you to do the same!  On Wednesday, Travis and I hopped on the bus to go visit Jeff and Greg in Derby.  It was a quick ride, and we were able to walk around the city, stop to have some tea, and do a little shopping at local charity shops.  Great deals, and Mom, I think I'm addicted to searching for teapots now...ught oh!

Travis and Jeff played squash together, while Jeff's dad and I had some quality time at a local bar.  We all met up later that night to try yet another pub Jeff and I had been meaning to try.  Pretty good food and atmosphere.  

Thursday, Travis and I explored Notts and visited the Galleries of Justice which was awesome.  Sorry to our visitors so far that I didn't take there...would have definitely been worth it.  This building was used as a court room to convict murderers, thieves, and pick pockets...just to name a few.  It was also used as a gaol (jail) and reformatory school.  The tour was really interesting as we had numerous tour guides depending on what section of the building we were in.  We learned some amazing things about the criminals of Nottingham and surrounding areas.  They executed people right outside of the building by hanging them in front of tons of people (sometimes thousands).  There are many other gruesome facts I learned, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum. 

I made Weaver take this picture. Can you tell how excited he was?!

 We were each given a conviction number, which identified us as a criminal and gave us a pretend crime to be convicted of.  My card read that I was a cow theft and my punishment was execution.  Other people were thieves as well, but their punishment was transportation.  Transportation meant that they were sent on a boat to Australia for __ years.  Many of them died by the time they got there though.  

Stealing cows is a serious crime!

At first we thought it was for a head...we quickly changed our mind after this photo was taken that it was probably for the waist! Whoops! 

 Carvings from the convicts in the "exercise area" which was only for marching around for an hour. 

We also learned the roles of men and women while in the jail.  They were mostly confined to their cells, but were only given amenities if they had money.  There was also an area called the Pit which was for the poorest people, and it was basically a hole in the ground that they had to stay in. Pretty scary in that area! 

The "pit". I tell you what, the mannequins set up around this place freaked me out at times. 

There were numerous exhibits that taught you more about escapes (two escaped via helicopter in 1987), staff's responsibilities, and other miscellaneous items.  I even took my own mug shot. See below...watch out I'm pretty scary! 

(1st pic) The execution spot once moved inside the building grounds (2nd pic) the area for children.  

Don't mess with me! Am I right?! 

On a less-scary side of things, we headed to Pitcher & Piano which I have taken pictures of before.  If you don't have time to reread that post...Recap: A local restaurant that converted an old church into a beautiful pub. 

 Beautiful inside, especially with hardly any people!

A pint in front of this background...so perfect!

Thursday night, Jeff came home early and we headed to the Robin Hood Beer and Cider Festival.  Yes, another beer festival...It was a really neat environment as all of the beer and food tents were set up on the grounds of the castle.  We were given these cute little 1/2 pint beer mugs as a souvenir as well as drink our beer from the night in it. We were given an allotment of tickets to sample a huge variety of local breweries.  I found some new beers that I really enjoyed, and I think the boys were the same way. Although, they were a bit more daring than I was and tried some really nasty beer as well.  Not too many pictures, as we were just enjoying the environment.

On Friday, I decided to explore some areas of Nottingham that I had not been to and dragged Travis along.  We went the long route and walked down by the canal since it was actually a nice day. It eventually rained later in the day...There are so many beautiful churches in Nottingham, and I have been in zero. Well minus the church that was converted into a pub. But I feel that doesn't count. ha! We made it to two different churches in the city center, which were both so quaint and beautiful.  

 St. Mary's Church

 St. Peter's Church

We also went to this park called Arboretum that is just north of Nottingham Trent University (1 of 2 universities in Nottingham).  It was really pretty.  It had a small lake and even had some caged birds that were on display as well.  Andrew came down on Friday night, and the boys headed out for a guys' night.  Jeff and I ended the weekend relaxing, as the last month has been pretty busy!

 The lake at the park

Not normally a "bird person", but loved seeing these little guys!

Onto the next adventure...

Sausage, Beer, Beer, Sausage, Beer, Pretzel, Beer, Beer, Sausage, Beer

The title of the post pretty much sums up our time in Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest, where we had lots of amazing German food and lots of amazing German beer.  We had a friend join us, Travis, for the festivities.  He came in from the states, and met us in London to head to Stuttgart, Germany on Wednesday. After an hour, fifteen flight to Stuttgart, we headed by train to Munich for another two and a half hour ride.

We made it to Munich, and the boys immediately put on their lederhosen, and I put on my dirndl.  We headed towards the festival where thousands of people were already drinking, eating, and enjoying the festival.  What a sight to see all of these people dressed up in the traditional attire.  There were 14 large "tents" that held all the different local beer.  And by "tent" I mean a standing structure that holds about 10,000 people.  Not so tent-like, right? 

Jeff and I in our Bavarian attire

Inside one of the beer tents. (This was taken Sunday so less people in their Bavarian attire)

Oktoberfest is known for its traditions like the cookies. 

We walked a little bit, grabbed a giant sausage, and headed into the Hofbrauhaus tent.  It was pretty funny to see the three of our faces as we walked into the tent. I think we were all in shock as there were people everywhere, the band was playing local tunes, hops were hanging from the ceiling, and everyone had giant beers in their hands (1 liter of beer, approximately 2 pints).  We walked around, a little overwhelmed, and found room at a table where we enjoyed a few beers.  We loved the songs the band played, even though we did not understand any of the words.  It was also fun to meet new people, mostly Germans to talk about the festival and whatnot.

Giant sausage. So yummy! (PhotoCred: Travis)

The festival area. You can see the large tents (buildings) on both sides of the pictures. One of which has the giant beer on top!

This was our favorite tent. The only one with sit down and standing tables. 

The boys in their gear with their beer! (PhotoCred: Travis)

On Thursday, the three of us walked around Munich.  We went into a couple churches that were really pretty, popped into a few shops, and ate at a cute little outside restaurant before heading back to get back into our gear.  We could not make it inside a tent, so we enjoyed an area outside a tent before meeting our friends, Julie and Andrew who were joining us for the remainder of the Oktoberfest excitement.  We all had a great night, grabbed some sausages, and headed home for the night.  Another successful day.

 The insides of the two churches in the city of Munich. 

Julie and I with our giant beers (PhotoCred: Julie)

On Friday, we got up early to rent a car. You're nervous about how this story is going to go, aren't you? Luckily they drive on the "right" side of the road and the driver's seat is on the American side as well, and Andrew took the lead, so that was nice.  No issues as all, really nice roads, only "bad thing" was the signs were in German.  We drove about 2 hours to the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle in which Disney modeled their famous castle after. We were the lucky ones who could barely see the castle up close because there was a crazy amount of fog that morning.  We looked off the edge of the castle, and it was pure white...we couldn't even see the ground.  It was pretty disappointing that the weather was so yucky.  Other than that, the inside (no pictures allowed) of the castle was beautiful. It was not like the other castles we have been to because it wasn't used for war; it was purely for the joy of the king.  The rooms were still decorated as if the king still lived there, so that was pretty great to see the fine details.  Sidenote: The story of this king is pretty interesting if you want to read more.  We walked down from the castle area, grabbed a great local meal, and began to head back to the car for our journey home. Funny story though...the fog lifted and we looked up from the sidewalk to see the castle perfectly in the background.  Just our luck!

 Inside the castle grounds. Fog was so bad I didn't get many pictures

After the fog "magically" disappeared as we were leaving the city 

We ended our evening at another beer tent, and enjoyed the festivities.  Saturday morning we woke up early to head to the festival.  We knew that since it was a Saturday and the last "big hurrah" day we were going to need to get to the tents early.  We stood in line around 8:15, and the tents were supposed to open at 9:00.  The line began to move, and immediately everyone smooshed into one giant blob of a crowd.  At one point the line was moving, but I was not physically moving my feet. The line was pushing (not roughly, just tightly) that we were just moving together.  The 5 of us were split into 2 groups by accident.  Jeff, Travis, and I were sent to sit outside while Julie and Andrew made it inside the tent.

The Oktoberfest gang! (PhotoCred: Travis)

Inside our tent on Saturday morning. Great environment! (PhotoCred: Andrew)

We eventually met up in a few hours, and hung out until the early afternoon.  We took it easy the rest of the evening, and rested up for a long day of traveling the next day:

• 2.5 hour train ride to Stuttgart city centre
• 30 minute metro ride to the Stuttgart airport
• 1 hour 15 minute plane ride
• 1 hour long underground ride in London
• 2 hour train ride back to Notts (Back at 1 AM)

I leave you with a few little videos that capture the environment inside the tents. Pretty hard to describe it all in writing. Prost!

Video of the band's first song. Immediately everyone got up on the benches and began singing some German song. (VideoCred: Travis)

This video is of everyone singing the "What's Goin' On" song by 4 Non Blondes. (VideoCred: Travis)

Thank you to Julie, Andrew, and Travis for allowing me to use some of your pictures on the blog. You definitely saved me from lugging around the giant camera all weekend!

Onto the next adventure...