Sleep first. . . then blog

I still hadn't recovered from when the American's were here and we got very little sleep, and then yesterday I was up for 22 hours straight helping with a Sing Live show in Royal Leamington Spa! So this morning I had a lie in till 12:30 and now feel well rested. I was determined to have a productive day until Alex walked in with a Wii. Needless to say we have spent lots of time on that this afternoon. But still, I am determined to get all caught up. Sorry about my lack of blogging lately. Now that so much is happening that I have to blog about I have no time to do it. I'm not one to sacrifice sleep so I figured I would catch up today.

Royal Leamington Spa is a city in central England that used to be a big industrial city. Because of this, it was a target for bombing in World War II. Most of the city was destroyed but there is a statue of Queen Victoria that made it through the destruction but stands a little crooked. Queen Victoria is the Queen that gave Leamington Spa it's Royal Charter because she was fond of it's spa waters. It's a neat little town with beautiful buildings all with ironwork around the top. I wish I had gotten some pictures.
The concert was great. Instead of wearing the gold concert attire like they normally do, the company got all dressed up for the times of Cole Porter.

Working backwards until I have caught up to where I left off on the American Tour. . . .
The past week at the office I have been helping Sabine sort out some things from the ball, especially the new merchandise line that has been launched. I was helping to inventory and organize it all so I was totally in my element (I know, I'm weird, I'm one of the very few people that like to clean and organize) I have been trying to learn as much as I can before going home on Sunday. I don't know where all the time has gone. I will be training on Access on Monday so I'll be trying to remember what I learned in my computer class two years ago (eek!)
Friday night I had some curry food again. It has such unique flavors and I am going to be on a hunt for Indian restaurants when I get home.

On a very exciting note, Carson and I both received our first wedding gifts this week. Carson has been on an internship in Winston Salem since January and Wednesday was his last day. His co-workers threw him a party chipped in to get him some camping gear of our registry. He was so excited that he went home and set up the tent in his living room! I can't wait to use it. On that same day, Linda (who has some very nice contacts at Carnival Cruise lines) told me that she has arranged for our room to be upgraded for the cruise that Carson and I are taking for our honeymoon. So Wednesday made for a great day and we are both so thankful!

I am starting to pick up the accent here :-) (It sure took me long enough.) We were talking about all the different accents in the office the other day. In American the different accents are spread out over a large area, i.e. southern accents. But here, it can vary from city to city. . . and people can tell where you're from by your accent.. although it sounds no different to me. It's amazing what our different ears are attuned to.

So we're back to last weekend. . the American's last days here. It was the 10th Anniversary concert of Sing Live. What's really cool was that it was on the exact same date at the exact same time as the concert was 10 years ago. The dream ten years ago was to do two concerts a year in Leeds. . . so this would have been concert number 20 . . . but in fact it was concert number 176! And Sing Live is now an international company with 11 locations! It was really good to be a part of such a special weekend and to see how far the dream has come. There were two shows (Sat & Sun) and after the Sunday show there was an after party at the hotel where the Americans were staying. By the time we all got to the hotel it was almost midnight (and the party was just starting) and the bus was coming at 4:30 am to take them to the airport. Most of them were planning on staying up all night until the bus came but in fact there were only about 7 of us that did. I have never been at at this time of the night to confirm it, but the sun came up at 3:45. Talk about a long day of daylight. So now you can see what I had to recover from. Also on Sunday John took me and my parents to the coast to a town called Whitby. The reason for our journey was to taste the best fish and chips in England. We were not disappointed. I have been spoiled now by the freshness and amazing flavour (English spelling) and taste. We had a fun time walking around town and visiting the Abby. A town I want to return to for sure!

And I think I'm all caught up. Lots to do in my last week here and I'm beginning to think about all of the things I'm going to miss. This time a week from now I will be over the Atlantic.

Continuing on. . .

Right, so continuing on with our trip. . So back to Leeds (where the ball and concert took place) by way of Windsor Castle. The flag was flying which meant the queen was there. We did not she her but her house is AMAZING! Even if it isn't something that you are interest in the sheer beauty of it takes your breath away. We couldn't take pictures inside the castle but here are some from outside of it.
I want a garden like this!!

We got these little personal radios that you would enter a number into based on where you were and what you were looking at and tell you the history and story behind everything.



Even the lampposts are posh!


Seeing the guards in really life was so cool. One of the guys nearby where I was standing was trying hard to get them to shift their attention. I could never hand it. I would either laugh or . . . well lets just say get really tired of it.
The slots in the walls were for people shooting arrows to they could be protected.


The next day... York. A popular tourist town. I have been once before on my trip but I saw completely different things this time. With Linda I got to see all the cool shops- with the USA group I got to see all the tourist things. Our first stop in York was to Yorkminster Abbey. It was so amazing and beautiful. It is amazing to see what can be build without all of the modern architecture techonolgy. You just look around and wonder how they built it.



Onward through the town we went to the Shambles which is a street that is very small and the houses are close together. This is how all the streets in the town used to be built.



Then John, mom, dad went on a hunt for fish and chips. After having been on a hour long hunt for Indian food a couple of nights before I decided to visit some more tourist spots instead. I went to the Jorvik viking centre which was a ride though a viking town that used to be on that sight in York. It was kind of a Spaceship Earth type ride followed by a very interesting viking exhibit. I felt like I was back at Disney.


Out last touristy visit was to Castle Howard. I have to say this was one of the highlight of my week. Not only was the castle beautiful (although it paled in comparison to Windsor Castle) but the grounds we amazing! There was a rose garden that was the largest that I have ever seen. It was a beautiful day so I found a bench in the gardens and just sat there for a while. It was so relaxing and no amount of time allowed for me to take it all in.


Almost caught up. Just a weekend to go. Hopefully I'll finish up tomorrow.

It's all happening too fast

This whole internet thing is great until you don't have it for a week.. and then you get behind. And the list of things to share isn't getting shorter and I went on a wonderful walk through the moors this evening with Linda and their dog Lily. I love to hike, but to get to hike at someplace unique that we don't have anything like in the states is fantastic. As we were walking along we would come across sheep just roaming around. England is so cool. Now that my time is coming to an end I have started to think about all of the things that I have gotten used to here that I am going to miss.

Back to our week of touring last week...

Our second day in London we a more relaxed day but for sure an amazing one. We started off the day with a tour of the Royal Albert Hall- one of the most famous concert halls in the world. The reason for this special visit is because Sing Live will be taking a group of about 1000 people to sing there next September. This concert hall is a very sought after place to perform. I'm already making plans to come back next year. Not only did we get a special tour (this isn't a place that tourist can just go in and see) but we got to go behind the scenes and see the Royal Reception room where queen and other royalty stay behind the scenes when they come to see a show. When we walked into the concert hall a hush fell over the group it was so amazing.

This picture is the group in front of the statue of Albert. The hall was built for him but he died a year before it was completed so this memorial was built across the street. It was pretty elaborate.
Our next exciting event of the day was a trip to Andrew Lloyd Webers office! We didn't meet him but we met with the world wide licensing manager for all of Andrews works.
The day gets even better with a big trip to Harrods. Oh my gosh.. if you don't know what Harrods is it is THE place to shop. It's fun to go and be shocked at all the prices but it's definitely not cheap. Everything in it is so "posh"!

Well my computer has decided it is tired of loading pictures for the day so I will continue on tomorrow.

Catching Up

Have you missed me? I'm sorry to leave you but I have been touring with the USA group for the past week and have had very limited internet access. I can't even figure out where to start. . . and it might take a couple of days.

Lets start at last Friday. It was a very exiting thing to go and pick the group up at the airport (totally worth getting up at 4 am for). The group had some down time when they got here but we went straight to work setting up for the ball the next day. There was lots to be done but it was fun to have my parents there helping too. I sure have missed them.

Saturday: Day of the ball. Even being there and taking part in the set up it was still amazing to see the transformation take place in front of my eyes. It was an absolutely fabulous evening. When the music stopped at the end of the night we didn't want to stop dancing. They sure know how to dance over here. The floor was packed! Unfortunately my parents flew back to the states today with all of the pictures from the ball on their computer so pictures to follow.

Sunday morning we set off for LONDON! On our way down we stopped at Stratford Upon Avon and had a nice walking tour of the city and learned a lot about Shakesphere. We had some cream tea which was a first experience for many of the American singers.... and it wasn't the last for the trip.

Our first full day in London we took a coach tour around England. We saw all the big landmarks. Our first stop on the tour was to see the changing of the guards. One of the singers caught a video with her phone.



It's amazing how you see landmarks like Big Ben on movies but to see it up close it's so much more amazing. You just have to see it to feel it!


One of my new friends from the American group, Jen!

At Linda's suggestion, we ate at Patisserie Valerie for lunch which was a very great suggestion. I had a Tuna and Sweetcorn melt!! It was wonderful. I have a new favorite sandwich. And then there were some wonderful puddings to choose from.

This church was one of my favorite sights because of my upcoming wedding. This church is actually where the idea for the design of the tiered wedding cake came from!

There is so much more that I have to share but I was up all night last night and I didn't go to bed till 5:45 this morning (more about that later) so I'm off to bed and will continue tomorrow night!

They're here! They're here!

The countdown is finally over. . . both for my parents coming and for the ball, which is tomorrow night. It was so exciting to go and meet the group at the airport. When I wasn't looking at my watch, John was. We were both very impatient :-) And they looked so good in their travel shirts. We got to the airport early to beat the traffic so we took some time for some breakfast. I found out that expensive airport food is an international thing.


We got everything sorted and the group settled at the hotel and then John, Linda, Mom, Dad, and I went to lunch at Pret A Manger. It is a nice little sandwich shoppe in Leeds City Centre that I had been to before with Linda. This time I have photographs to go along with it.

Also, do you remember me talking earlier in the blog about Linda taking me to Harvey Nichols? The classiest store in Leeds? (There is even a bell man to open the door for you!) Well I had my camera this time and my dad snapped a picture.
This is the store window display.. the skirt is made out of martini glasses!!
As you can tell, the number of pictures on my blog are increasing. This is because my dad is here and likes to be behind the camera so I can be in front of it!

I took mom and dad to the office today to see the girls they have met before and meet the new ones since the last time they were here. I speak the English "language" very fluently now. . . my mom finds that humerous, although she commented that I haven't picked up an accent yet. (I still have three more weeks tho!)The we took a walk down high street. We stopped in the first bakery because something caught my mom's eye. We walked and shopped until they were begging to go home. To complete the night, we had some amazing English fish & chips! It will be an early night for all of us and a long day tomorrow, but a much anticipated one!

Counting the hours!!

It has been a secret so I couldn't talk about it on my blog, but my parents are coming with the USA group that is arriving tomorrow morning! It was a surprise to the group coming so I didn't want to spoil it. John and I have been counting down the hours. I got a call from my mom this afternoon saying that they were all checked in and ready to go! It will be a very early morning for John and I to go meet them at the airport (I think we're leaving at"quarter past five".. yes, my friends.. that's AM!) But it's all worth it.
Another CRAZY day at the office wrapping things up. I think Linda and I are prepared for the ball on Saturday. It is a good thing since we will not be in the office much tomorrow, but it's kind of unnerving. What have we forgotten?

Right, I have some more english words/phrases to share. Some of them have become commonplace to me and I don't notice until my mom laughs at me when I talk.
Bits and Pieces
Cuddle (hug)
Getting things "sorted"
Posh- oh, I can't tell you how many times posh has been used in the office in the past week. Everything for this ball is going to be "posh"- but to get the real effect you have to say it with a proper English accent :-)

A family tea

Three days left to prepare for the ball. My wedding is going to seem easy after helping plan this massive event. I have been working on a seating plan for 560 people! But this finished product is going to be amazing and I can't wait. The USA group will be on a plane in less that 48 hours. I can't wait for them to get here! It will be nice to have some fellow American's around and we have a schedule full of exciting sightseeing planed for next week.
Tonight after work I was invited to a family birthday tea. It was enjoyable to sit around a table with such wonderful people and such an array of great food. They go heavy on the sweets over here so after I enjoyed a large amount of sweets I was compelled to go for a run today. The weather is nice and beginning to cool down after a warm start to the week (the don't have air conditioner over here!!) I'm not into running but it's hard not to enjoy a run through the English countryside!!
Today I was working on somethings for the ball with Kath from the office. I would be thinking and make a really strange face to lighted the mood. What we Americans would call making a face, the English call "pulling face." After Kath taught me the proper phrase, I pulled a lot of faces at her for the rest of the day. It was some nice humor in the midst of chaos!
Another English thing that I found crawling all over my desk today were red ants. They are itty bit and not like the red fire ants that we have in America. They don't do any harm but they are very annoying.

Cooking

The days are getting busier and busier at the office but tonight was very enjoyable. I got the chance to cook (or more like assist) a wonderful professional chef. Michael has been with Sing Live since the beginning, but before he retired he worked as a chef numerous places.. one being Betty's (which is a famous tea room previously mentioned in this blog). It was a great "experience for the day" and I learned some great tips.

Today at the office John asked if I was winning which was a phrase I had never heard of, but John was nice enough to translate that it means that you are getting things done. Another term that was used a lot today was "smart", which means dressy- as in dressing smart.

Words don't do justice

I realized today that so many things go through my mind to write about each day and then when I sit down to type my blog I go blank. So I'm going to try to remember as much as possible today.

Today was a day of many firsts for me. I went to my second rehearsal today and afterwards I went to my first English pub! Can you believe that I have been here for a month and not been into a pub? England has a very social culture that revolves around pubs. There was a very nice group of people from Sing Live there that we talked with for a while. I learned that people won't leave you alone at a pub until you have a drink in your hand. I got away with it for a little while but then someone told me that I couldn't come into an English pub and not get a drink, so i sipped on a coke. Then for dinner tonight (I call it dinner because I was with a converted American) we had Indian food. John has talked about Indian food for as long as I have known him and I have yet to have it. It was a very distinctive flavor, but very good. We had a wide assortment of wonderful food that I think counts for my food quota for the next couple of days. I am still so full! While we were waiting for our order we went to another pub (this time I got away without a drink) but what was cool and unique about this pub was there was a plane in the back! I got a picture with my phone but I can't figure out how to get it onto my computer so I will have to keep you in suspense for the time being.
On the way back from Leeds (which is about an hour away) we took the "scenic route." It was amazing. Words just don't do justice to the beauty of the countryside here. It's not flat like Florida, but the hills aren't densely covered in trees like the mountains in the Carolinas. A camera couldn't capture the feel of driving though the country roads lined with quaint stone walls and vast countryside as far as you can see. Nothing beats it.. it was a wonderful ride that made me appreciate where I was. On our drive John pointed out some million pound houses. (What a vast difference to what 1 mil American dollars would buy!)
This week will probably be the busiest of my trip here making final preparations for the ball. A group from Sing Live USA will be arriving on Friday morning. I am looking forward to that!

5 Words that Discribe England

Today at lunch the girls asked me to pick 5 words that I would use to describe England. . .so i thought that would be a good thing to share with you all (or ya'll as they made fun of tonight)
1) Expensive: it's expensive for me because the exchange rate means i need to double all of the prices over here. But in general, pounds to pounds and dollars to dollars, it is more expensive here, especially the gas, or petrol. All you Americans would be grateful if you had to fill up just once over here.
2) Small: everything feels smaller. The cars here are all tiny (our big American SUV's would trump these little things) Also, the houses that I have been in have the small "cottage feel" to them. Not spacious like most of the homes in the states.
3)Traditional/proper- There is more history here and there seems to be a higher grade of manners here. Things seem to have a lot more meaning behind them. We don't have anything like proper English Tea in the states.
4)Pastry- Just in the high street of Northallerton (the small town that I am living in working in) there are numerous pastry shops on one street! We have sweets in American but not like here.. that's one thing that I'm going to miss when I go back to the states.
5) Tea- Everyone drinks tea over here. Everyone always has a warm drink on their desk at work. They have electric kettles over here and it is such a culture to have a cup of tea. I'm actually starting to prefer it over coffee! (But maybe because they normally drink instant coffee over here)
Tonight was my turn to cook tea and Linda got to relax for once. I made the only thing that I could remember the recipe to. Everyone loved it! After a wonderful pudding of Banoffee Pie, we all sat down to play a game of Whoonu, a game that I first played with Carson's family that is a great getting to know you game. We had a wonderful evening. It's a late night for me but I get a lie-in tomorrow so I'm not bothered (does that make any sense to you Americans?)
Tomorrow holds another rehearsal for me for the 10th anniversary concert that is two weeks away! Looking forward to it.

Using what I have in the way of craft skills

So I have a new big project to work on for the ball. It should be fun but I think Linda has now overestimated my creative skills. Today made for another trip into town. I think I'm getting a hold of the traffic flow now. I went into town to get a sandwich for lunch and some more supplies for my project. I got a sandwich, chips and a drink for 2 pounds.... which translates to about 4 dollars. It was something that was actually reasonable in American money and it was really good. They had the strangest combination of stuff to put on the sandwiches.. i had tuna and sweet corn. Another option was chicken and sweet corn... plus a whole lot of other options.. but ham and turkey were no where to be found on the list. An interesting experience.
Another word, or phrase, that I learned tonight was "putting on your glad rags" which means putting on your nice close to go out.

So I didn't get run over . . .

Well, nothing to report yesterday as it was just another day at work and then home for the evening. Things are getting crazier by the day with the ball getting closer and closer.

Today I ventured into town on my own to visit a discount store for some craft materials we needed for the ball. The scariest part about it was crossing the road. They don't have many intersection here, mostly round abouts which confuse me because they are two lanes wide, but also the cars drive on different sides of the road so I have to look the opposite direction that I'm used to. I found what i needed at the craft store, but my biggest accomplishment was getting home without bing hit by a car.

As wonderful as the food is over here, I have been missing American food. So what does Linda bring home for dinner tonight . . . southern fried chicken!! I was very excited, but the girls were not to impressed with this dish. It is hard to eat chicken with a fork and knife the way they do over here. I was so tempted to pick it up with my hands and eat it the "right" way.

This is what it's all about!

Tonight I went to my first Sing Live UK rehearsal. This rehearsal was for their 10th anniversary concert that will be sung at the same place at the same time on the same date as their first concert was 10 years ago. This adds an extra special meaning to this concert and it was very fun to listen to John put an extra special spin on everything.
The rehearsal was at a little methodist church and they about had the place packed out! A little bit of history to add to this story. . . the pews had dividers going down the middle of them from when the men and women used to sit on separate sides of the church!

So back to the rehearsal. It's fun to do the admin stuff in the office but when you go to a rehearsal and hear them filling the entire room with singing it's just awesome. While sitting and listening to the songs I have lots of time to think. Music brings back so many memories from the familiar songs and the new ones are fun to listen to as well.

The first song that they opened with was Starlight Express. I saw Starlight Express when I was in high school with a friend so that song took me all the way back to my high school days (because their sooooo far away :-)
Another song that was sung tonight was from My Fair Lady, which was a medley and had "On the Street Where You Live". This is the solo that my brother had in a high school play that he did. The familiar songs brought comfort from the memories. I am going back to the big group rehearsal on Sunday and am looking forward to hearing it all again and meeting even more people. I was able to meet some very nice people tonight ... but some couldn't understand me with my "accent". That still boggles my mind that people think i have an accent.

(A shout out to my Lever neighbor and good friend, Sallie Anna: all the songs that were sung tonight we from musicals and I thought about you since we share a common love for them)

On the way home, John was feeling peckish (hungry) and wanted to stop for the 2nd best fish and chips in England. He was very disappointed to find that they were closed at 10pm when we stopped after the rehearsal. I guess we are spoiled coming from America where everything is open late!

I would like to send a special message out to my mom for a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I know she won't want me to tell you that it's her 50th.. but I'm very far away so she can't do anything about it so I'm safe to share that with you. It's officially June 4th here being 12:30 am so I have the privilege of wishing her a happy birthday first and being the first to give her a hard time about the big 5-0

My first concert . . .

Yesterday I went to my first Sing Live UK show! It was a wonderful event held in Manchester at a beautiful concert hall, especially since we don't have anything like that in the USA to my knowledge

Something I noticed was that the UK group has learned over its 10 years how best to organize hundreds of excited singers on the day of a concert. Through watching them I learned many valuable tricks that I will use for USA shows in the future.

Yesterday, however, was a long day after getting up at 7am and not returning until after 1am Monday morning. Therefore, I demanded a lie-in this morning to get my beauty sleep.

Things have been getting extra crazy at the office with the ball being less than a fortnight (two weeks) away and with John (the other co-founder of SingLive) just coming back from the states. Unfortunately, he didn't bring much sunshine with him...

I realize that it's been a while since I've shared stuff that's different in England so . . . a little weird English quirk that i have notice is that they use a lot of double letters in words that we would not in the USA. Like Jewelery is jewellery and traveling is travelling, and whenever there is a double letter in a word the will say "double L" . For example, they would spell molly "M-O-double L- Y"

Time for bed with another crazy day ahead.