Its been a Bermuda-ful December!

Once again I know I have fallen behind on the blog updates, but as I am sure it is for everyone reading this, December is a crazy month!  In order not to bore you to tears I will break up the updates.  This one is going to be from where the previous update left off at Philips Birthday through until we leave the Rock to head home for Christmas. 

On Saturday, December 9th we took the ice cream truck and went to the Boat Parade.  The boat Parade is a Bermudian tradition that I have never been able to attend due to the fact that it is held on a Saturday night in December and I have always had to work.  I was once again working, but this time it was on the truck and I had a front row seat!  This year there were about 40 boats in the Harbor all decked out with lights and music.  Some even had Santa waving to us!   



Prime location to watch the boats go by



The sun was just setting as the boats started circling



this boat was simple, but I really liked it



its hard to tell, but that is the Bacardi boat





The night ended with fireworks which I am still convinced Philip arranged as a kick off to my birthday the next day ;)

Speaking of which!.... Philip had to go to work at Cafe Cairo after the parade but he waited until midnight to go so I could open my birthday presents and he could sing to me! He did a wonderful job on my gifts....



me wearing my jersey....



 

The only problem is the jersey is big enough to fit Philip!  So it looks like he now has his own Brady jersey to wear for when we go watch the games in town!

Philip making a pouty face wearing MY jersey

The next day.....my actual birthday!!!!!! was so amazing!  It started with bunch at the lighthouse.  We sipped Mimosa and I got to have Eggs Benedict, one of my all time favs (btw Kel...still not as good as Warren tavern!)



Philip and I at Gibbs Lighthouse on my Birthday



After brunch we went home to install my other gift, a box for my bike (that's the red thing on the back) so that I have somewhere safe to put my bag and stuff while I am riding.  Knowing that red is my favorite color...I got a fun red one!

This was the first year in a long time that I did not have to work on my  birthday because even though it is MY birthday, people still insist upon having Holiday parties on December 11th! I made a list of all the things I wanted to do and it kept us very busy.  The next thing on the agenda was baking Christmas cookies.  My intention was to make a whole bunch and give them to friends and family...good in theory.  They only lasted until Monday and then we were all out!  I did make more dough, again with good intentions of making more, but that is now in the freezer waiting for Valentines Day cookies I guess. 

As if my day was not already over the top, Philip planned a dinner with our friends to Harbourfront! So for the second time in 2 weeks we got all gussied up and went out to a lovely dinner!  Everyone had fun and it was the prefect way to end my day!

Things slowed down a bit that week giving us time to get our stuff together to go to to Va. for Xmas with the family.  We flew off island on the 22nd.  Prior to that we were able to have Xmas dinner with friends.  On Monday the 21st we went over to our friends Kim and Chis who are both chefs....always a wonderful evening when we get to go over there!  Their place was all decked out for Xmas, complete with fireplace and Santa hats!

 Wednesday night we went over to Lynn and Davids and had another amazing dinner!  Lynn lived in Japan for a few years and learned the art of hand rolling sushi.  Philip and I are both huge sushi lovers so this was such a great opportunity.  Lynn and David taught me how to make my own tuna roll and for a first time I think I did a pretty good job!




table set for hand rolled sushi dinner



So there you have it.....December 9-22....we are almost up-to-date!



Another thankful, merry, happy, special, successful week and a half!

Consider this your warning, this is going to be a long one!  If you do not have time or do not really care all that much about what we have going in, look away now!

Now that we have that out of the way....the title of this blog does hold some significance and as you read through it you will see why.  It has been another busy busy week or so here on the Rock and I have been slacking on the blog updates so I am cramming it all into one.  The first major event was Thanksgiving!  I love this holiday (as I do most) because I have so many fond memories growing up spending this day with my family and eating some amazing food.  Plus the excitement of Black Friday was always an added bonus!  This year was not different! I decided that just because I am living somewhere that does not celebrate Thanksgiving does not mean I can't!  I was able to watch the parade on my computer at work, although it was not the same as watching it on my couch in my jammies, it was still worth while.  We made a reservation at the Fairmont Southampton who were doing a Thanksgiving Dinner Dance.  I know, Thanksgiving isn't really known to be a dancing holiday, but we went with it.  We also asked our friends the Petty's to join us.  Daivd is a born and raised Onion just like Philip.  They have been friends for well over 20 years and after being gone for about 10 years David has recently moved back with his wife Lynn who is British.  We have been spending a lot of time together and it only seemed right to spend Thanksgiving with them as well as they are now a part of my "Bermuda Family"

Philip and I at
Thanksgiving Dinner

David and Lynn at
Thanksgiving Dinner

That Sunday was the Santa parade in Hamilton.  It was a fun day but somewhat surreal to me.  We were on the ice cream truck for it which was great since it was 75 and sunny out all day! It was a lot of fun to watch it from the truck. This is a picture of my view from the front seat.  It was a beautiful night!

Santa Parade in Hamilton, Bermuda

We took a few days off to relax and rest up for our next major event...Philip's Birthday!!!  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love birthdays (especially my own!)  Philip has never been a big fan of celebrating his birthday but I think I may be rubbing off on him.  For the first time since I have known him he decided that he wanted to go out to dinner with some friends to celebrate!  Once he said that I was all over the planning!  I booked us a table at his favourite restaurant Waterlot Inn and sent out an invite to friends.  November 30th turned out to be a very happy night!  We had so much fun!  David & Lynn and Kim & Chris Chafe all joined us for dinner and drinks.  

Philip cleaned up in the gifts department!  He is now ready for his next round of golf with new shirt, hat, towel and glove!  His comment was if only someone could gift him with a better swing he would be all set!  He is also now sporting a custom made (because they only make them in the size the player actually wears)   Man U jersey with Roony's name and number on it (I know, for the Americans reading this it means nothing, just smile and nod like I do!) 

Moving right along to this past weekend, as we know from the previous post I have already started to decorate for Christmas, well we are now all set with our tree and everything! 

 
Philip and I have gone through some tough times and have always come out on the better end of things...who knew agreeing on how to properly decorate a Christmas tree was going to be our hardest battle to overcome!  I like an elegant tree with solid white lights and ornaments.  Philip prefers a "dancing" tree with blinking coloured lights and tinsel! We were forced to compromise and agreed on solid white lights, blinking yellow lights at NO tinsel!

 

And what better way to finish this post then with a success....I got my license!!!  It took 2 attempts at the written test (who cares what international standard is used for helmets here?!?!?! turns out it is Snell...google it!) and 1 try at the actual riding, I am now legal.  Philip was helpful this weekend by setting up "cones" in our driveway so I could practice.  He thought it would be funny to video me doing it.  So being that it is the holiday season and I am a giving person I am including the link to the video...you can thank him!

So just to recap (in case you didn't figuer this out while reading):

• Thankful...Thanksgiving
• Merry... Santa Parade
• Happy...Philips Birthday 
• Special...our tree
• Successful...me getting my license

Stay tuned for the next update as we have a lot more stuff going on the next week or so (including someone's birthday!)

A weekend of firsts....(repeat!)

So I was silly and thought I would try a new blogging site that looked pretty cool...turns out it was lame!  So i am reposting my blog from last week that was posted there because I don't think anyone get a chance to see it and would not want to upset any of my loyal followers but causing them to miss one of my updates! So here it is.....

Since Friday was a holiday, we will start with Thursday.  Philip had to work at 4pm which means I had to take the bus home (an hour and a half later I had only made it half way there!).  Friday brought us Tropical Storm Sean which was not a big deal at all.  But on my way to the bus stop I was able to snap this pic of the calm before the storm hit….

Being that I am not in the Sates I feel that I am not longer restricted by the “Can’t-Put-Up-Christmas-Decorations-Until-After-Thanksgiving” rule most people (except for the retail stores, of course!) abide by.  So I spent the day on Saturday decorating with things that I have had in storage for about 4 years.  It was so much fun to open the boxes and see everything again.  It was a bit odd because it was 75 degrees and sunny out.  I am not used to listening to “White Christmas” while wearing shorts and a tank top! So here is the fruits of my labor…..

What Christmas village is not complete without Fenway Park in it?  That would be a wonderful gift from my sister, the Yankees fan!

Sunday was a very big day for me, I did 2 things I have never ever done before.  The first was to ride my bike all by myself!  Philip was out working the ice cream truck and I had places to be!  I put my big girl pants (and my helmet!) on and kicked started the bike.  The second thing I did was where I rode my bike to…Gibbs Lighthouse!  

I am embarrassed to admit in the 5 years that I have been on and off the island, I have never made my way to the lighthouse.  As you can see from the pic below, it has amazing views!

So that was my big weekend of firsts and of fun!  It was a good weekend, but as they always do, it has ended and we are back to Monday :(

Not a lame Blog Update (aka The Butlers take Manhattan)

I was accused of posting what was referred to as a "lame blog update" last time and vowed that I would not post again until I had something better to talk about.  So here you go Lorna, this is not going to be lame! 

Last weekend Philip and I took advantage of a free trip to NYC because I had to go for a class for my work.  We though we would kill 2 birds with 1 stone and go see my dad for a night before heading into the city for 4 days. 

On Saturday we flew into Newark and Dad and Rosemary were nice enough to drive through the ghetto to come pick us up.  We left Bermuda where it was sunny and 85 and landed in NY as the sun was going down and it was in the 50s.  Needless to say we were both cold (I realized that I had packed all of my winter stuff and left it at dads so I was wearing summer clothes with no coat!).  By the time we got to dads we were all hungry (because of course they don't even give you that little bag of pretzels any more on the planes!).  Knowing that we are not able to get good Mexican on the island dad took us to  Maya Cafe (oh yes, this blog is getting all sorts of fancy...click on that link!).  After dinner we headed back to dads house and it was like old times...Kelly, Ed and Mr. Norton came over with a couple 6 packs and we all sat around talking for hours.  It was a great start to our trip.  

Sunday started as Philip wishes everyday could...

...TARGET!  anyone who knows us knows how much we love our trips to target when we come home!  1 hour and $300 later we are all stocked up (for about a month!)  

After getting our retail fix we finally got to go see Kelly and Eds house! which we have been keeping on top of through Kelly's weekly blogs (Lorna, her updates are never lame so maybe you should flollow her!) It is amazing the amount of work they have put into it and are almost about to move into their dream house.  We could not be happier for them! 

Kelly and Ed (and Cman!) have missed us so much they decided to take the train with us to the city and hang with us.  This was Philip's first cho-cho train ride ever ( he has been in a subway, but that is so different!)

Philip at the Cold Spring stop on the Metro-North Hudson River line

Ed, Kel and Philip on the train

The train was so packed we were not able to sit together so Philip sat next to Ed so he could point out all the things along the way.  

We arrived in the city and got to the hotel The Carlyle Hotel which is right on E. 76th and Madison over looking Central Park!  It was a really nice hotel (but crazy expensive!) so we decided to venture out for some beers and dinner. Thanks to Kel's new iPhone and yelp we ended up at McKeowns and had a great dinner! (and some free shot from our waitress who may or may not have been preggers)

1st of many beers

Kelly, Ed and Cman decided to spend the night in our room with us (shhhhhhh, don't tell the hotel!) so we had a few bottles of wine and caught up a bit.  It seems it was all too much for Ed to handle....

....we lost sleeping beauty before midnight!

Monday started my 3 days of classes (boo!) so I was up and out the door at 7:30am.  

The rest of the group had an amazing day going down one side of Manhattan and up the the other side (check out Kelly's Blog for all of the fun details of their day) Here are some highlights of what they did while I was bored out of my mind....

Central Park Zoo

Cab ride

they Occupied Wall St!

Philip enjoyed a "liquid lunch"

they were awesome enough to get me a red velvet cheesecake!

We were sad to have to say goodbye to them but alas Cman had to go back to school and Kel and Ed to work on Tuesday.  We did try to talk them into staying, but reality called!

Philip and I decided to venture out in the chilly night to go get some dinner.  We found a really yummy place Uptown Lounge where they had really good food, but even better they had $6 wine by glass specials!  Needless to say we were there for a while.  Part way through dinner they had live music which was even cooler!  We had a really fun night together! (No those are not matching shirts!)

Tuesday I headed back to class and Philip relaxed in the hotel and caught up on some movies on the iPad.  He was nervous about going out in the city by himself (which he got over real quick after ordering a hamburger from service for lunch only to realize it cost $52!!!!!).

Tuesday night dad and Rosemary were going to come to the city and have dinner with us but sadly they both got sick and were not able to make it.  We went to see or friend Brendan Kelly who bar tends at Patrick Conways just outside of Grand Central on 43rd St.  We were able to see him before he got the train home which was great for us as we typically only get to see him once a year on vacation in OBX.  

I think we are starting to see a common theme in these pictures.. Philip with a beer in his hand!

That night we were trying to find a Chinese restuarant a guy in my class had told me about (another thing we can't really get on the island!) but were unsuccessful.  We were both starving and sick of walking so we decided to go into the next place we found.  As it turns out we eneded up in P.J. Clarks   which I came to find out:

For 125 years this venerable New York institution with its colorful history has entertained the famous, the infamous and everyone else who appreciate the ambiance and food of a real saloon. The pay phone is still "Out of Order", the broken cigarette machine remains broken, and the ashes of one of our favorite patrons, still reside behind the bar. Our little terrier faithfully watches "the joint" while P.J.'s famous jukebox plays Frank, Buddy and Sting. The wives' beer window stands open and anyone can say "So, set 'em, Joe" where Johnny Mercer penned "One for My Baby". Democracy reigns in the dining room as the newsmaker rubs shoulders with the CEO sitting next to the ironworker. We welcome you for another 120 years (at least) of good food, good drink and great conversation.

We had a great meal and over the top service.  I would defiantly go back and also recommend to anyone in the area! 

Philip and Bridget

Ed and I

Wednesday was our last full day in the city.  Philip actually did venture out to hit up a deli for lunch (saving us about $40!).  I finish up my final day in class and am proud to say I graduated!!  Not wanting to waste our last night in the city I touched based with an old friend Bridget from high school who had just returned to the city from her honeymoon.  Ed has been working in Queens so we asked if he wanted to come meet us for one last beer as well.  On the recommendation of another old friend (thanks Bud!) we went to Doc Watsons on 2nd Ave and  again it was a great pick!

It was a nice night (not too chilly) so we sat outside.  The service was pretty bad but the company and the food more than made up for it.  It was really nice to spend some more time with Ed (sorry Kel, we really missed you!) and to be able to catch up with Bridget since we were unable to make it to NY for wedding.  

This was our last night and it was a great way to finish up our trip.  The next day we were up early to catch our flight back to reality.  We left just in time as it was rainy and yucky when we got on the plane and snow was apparently not far behind!  

I just want to say a big thanks to everyone who made an appearance in this blog (except for Lorna!) for making our trip more than we could have ever imagined.  Philip has not spent much time in NYC and was blown away by all of the fun things he got to do.  We are looking forward to our next trip!

so Lorna......was it lame? 

I scream, you scream......Cool Licks!

Last Sunday, being the wonderful wife I am, I agreed to once again give up what it typically my only day off to hang out and help Philip on the ice cream truck.  Rest assured this does involve some negotiating before it happens.  The deal is I help on the truck and he has to take me out to dinner that night as payment.  Its really a win-win for both of us!

We were going to a block party in a very fancy neighbourhood on the other end of the island.  As it turned out it was a beautiful day....

...this picture does not really do it any justice (crappy blackberry camera!)  It was sunny and about 85 and the water looked magical it was so sparkly!

Philip is a very cautious driver, which is a good thing, but at times he may go a bit too slow for the locals.  As you can see, this guy did not want to wait....

Once we got there, we switched spot and I took over the drivers seat (sucker!)

and Philip went to the back of the truck to start making the little kids (and the big kids) happy....

It was a pretty lame party for most of the day, but I got to read a lot of my book so that kept me busy.  Plus I also had this amazing view all day, you can't really complain too much can you?

I would like to say this weekend is going to be much of the same, but Hurricane Ophelia is going to be our visitor on Saturday as a category 2 storm!  We will keep our fingers crossed that there is not too much damage to the island.