Perfection

It's been a while, and yet no time has passed. This is the nature of true, everlasting friendships.

This past week, one of my dearest friends from college, Meredith, came to visit and stay with us in London. Taking advantage of a fortunate coincidence in holiday breaks from our respective educational jobs, Meredith arrived in London last Saturday, and left again for San Francisco this morning. It was probably the most time we've spent together since we were roommates in college, and though our lives have evolved quite a bit since then, nothing at all has changed between us. To sum up this past week with Mere, I have only one word: PERFECTION.

And, here's why....

PEOPLE magazine extravaganza! With a weekly subscription to People Magazine, and no time during the school week to indulge, Meredith schlepped six People Magazines across the pond, and they became a regular fixture in our low-key evenings (and, as you might imagine, my encounters with People Magazine are very few and far between since we've moved to London). An absolute treat for both of us.

Evening meals to rave about. We began the week with dinner at Wagamama, one of Meredith's favourite restaurants in London, and ended the week with a traditional pub dinner, to satisfy Mere's love for Fish & Chips. And on the nights in between, Bryan completely spoiled us with his cooking :). Thank you handsome....

River walk, on a beautiful day. Perhaps my favourite walk in this city, beginning at St. Paul's tube station, crossing the Millennium Bridge, and meandering along the river towards the Tower Bridge, complete with lunch from the vendor stalls at the Borough Market, enjoyed on a quiet bench overlooking the Thames. Divine.

Film, and lots of it. Taking advantage of ₤3.50 Tuesdays at the historic Coronet Cinema in Notting Hill, we logged a double feature together on Tuesday - Never Let Me Go in the afternoon, and The King's Speech in the evening with Bryan, followed by a late-night trip to nearby Gelato Mio. Brilliant.

Even moments of silence were allowed, appreciated, and perfectly comfortable. We fluctuated between catching-up, laughing to the point of tears, and enjoying the city side-by-side in silence, the combination of which was most refreshing. As someone once wrote, "The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch with, never saying a word, and walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you've had."

Ceramics! On the top of my to-do list in London, since we moved here, has been to spend an afternoon at the Biscuit Ceramic Cafe in Greenwich, for not only is Greenwich one of my favourite areas of this city, but the idea of drinking tea and creating my own ceramic masterpiece has always sounded lovely. And, lovely it was - painting, sipping tea, and watching the week's one and only rainy day from the comfort of the coffee shop (and yes, you read that correctly - only one day of rain during the week - we lucked out for sure!)

Tea & cake is best when enjoyed on a daily basis, and did we ever enjoy it; from proper afternoon tea at Harrods, to the Orangery at Kensington Gardens, to Bryan's farm cafe, and my local coffee shop by work. We had lovely cakes, lots of tea, and spent one afternoon reminiscing for hours about Santa Clara. As far as tradition is concerned, the British definitely have afternoon tea & cake down right, and when in London, one must oblige.

It's ok to sleep-in on holiday! Perhaps the most luxurious part of the week was sleeping in, lazily getting ready together during the late morning hours, and spending half days on the town. We packed a lot in to the week, but did so at the most delightful pace.

O the bargain shopping! From fantastic sales to souvenir missions, from High Street Kensington to Portobello Road, from standard British pie & mash to Dutch pancakes, we did it all, enjoyed every minute, and refueled along the way :)

No rushing, no hurrying - we have no where to be, and all the time in the world to get there. Our very simple, yet blissful motto for the week.

Perfection is a difficult thing to achieve. That being said, I'm fairly certain that we did it. I miss you already Mere! Thanks ever so much for traveling so far to see me, and for being a wonderful roommate once again.

-Brandina

P.S...Thank you Mum ♥

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart." ~Elisabeth Foley

The Perfect Speed

Friday night, we met at the train station after work. In theory, meeting at the train station is a rather romantic event - both parties carrying overnight bags, scanning the crowds in search of one another, excited for a quick weekend away. In reality though, we must say, Kings Cross St. Pancras International train station is anything but romantic on a Friday during the evening rush hour. But, that's beside the point really. Just having the opportunity to do it is poetic in and of itself. We met around 5:30 pm, and hopped aboard a 6:10 regional train bound for Dover, UK, a small port town that sits on the Southeastern Coast of the UK, serving as the portal to the English Channel. As you may remember, the last time we were in Dover was during our stressful, high-speed flee from France, after crossing the Channel via Ferry from Calais, trying desperately to make it home to London during the Icelandic volcanic ash ordeal. Fortunately, our visit to Dover was much slower and relaxed this time around. We stayed at a cozy Bed & Breakfast, with a quaint downstairs Bistro, lazily waking up to a morning blanket of seaside fog and the sound of seagulls, quite reminiscent of Monterey Bay, CA. We explored the Dover Castle, the 2nd most visited landmark in the UK (behind Stonehenge), took a long walk to view the infamous White Cliffs of Dover, achieving their white appearance from a surface of pure white calcium carbonate (chalk), and closed out Saturday with a delicious dinner, Bryan indulging in locally-caught fish & chips. And just as quickly as we arrived, we left again, boarding the 10:44 am train back to London this morning, watching the idyllic UK coastline disappear in the distance.

Dover Castle

The White Cliffs of Dover

-B&B

"Perfect speed isn't moving fast at all; perfect speed is being there." - Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Two of Us, Together

Our newest item of flat decor.... which I finally completed this afternoon!
Inspired by a photo taken of us last summer in Worthing, UK.

"Two of Us, Together"

Acrylic on Canvas, 30 cm x 60 cm

-Brandina

"...then when we get to the ocean,
we're going to take a boat to the end of the world...
two of us together, we can do anything..." - Dave Matthews Band

Simply Irresistible

We'd like to take the opportunity to dedicate this blog entry to

two of life's simply irresistible pleasures - Chocolate & Beer.

Last weekend, after a very long week of work, we escaped our hectic London lives via the Eurostar, for a short weekend away in Bruges, Belgium. Having only just heard of Bruges after Bryan recently watched the Hollywood film, "In Bruges," and consequently our impetus for planning the trip (seriously!), Bruges turned out to be charming through and through. A quaint medieval town, with original architecture dating back to the 1100's, Bruges boasts all of the visual pleasures of a European hideaway - the Bell tower, the impressive churches, the canal boats, the cobblestone streets and bridges, and the charming store fronts selling Belgian waffles and handmade lace. For the tired and weary, Bruges is a perfect place to recharge - with its busy season in the summer months, January turned out to be an exceptionally peaceful, quiet time to visit, which quite frankly, could not have been more welcome.

But more importantly, being a Belgian town, Bruges provides its guests with the opportunity to just relax and indulge in chocolate and beer. Belgium, as a country, is home to hundreds of locally brewed beers, most famous for its white beers and fruit-infused varieties, and literally countless retailers of chocolate. And, to be fair, Belgian chocolate is quite possibly the most intoxicating chocolate we've had to date - absolutely divine in taste, smell, and texture (trust me, we sampled enough to know!) Despite being a relatively tiny town, Bruges has plenty of both, making for the perfect, most pleasurable weekend away.

View from the Bell Tower

The Streets & Canals of Bruges

The Vismarkt (fish market)

St-Janshospitaal (the oldest building in Bruges)

The Prinselijk Beijnhof ten Wijngaarde (Benedictine convent)

The Burg, a medieval square

-B&B

"I want to lock it all up in my pocket. It's my bar of chocolate. Give it to me now." - Veruca Salt, from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Joy and Sorrow

Emotions - we all have them. We all know that if we were to pick up a thesaurus, we'd find that the emotions we can experience, and the words we can use to describe them, are endless. Theorists and psychologists have spent lifetimes analyzing emotions, dividing emotions into categories and ranking them into hierarchies, using structures, diagrams, and flow-charts, with the intent to simplify, but ultimately adding more complexity. Identifying a list of even the most basic emotions remains up for theoretical debate.

In reflecting upon our most recent trip to Munich, Germany & Innsbruck, Austria, I am struck by the wide range of emotions we felt on this trip, as a result of the experiences we chose to have whilst on holiday. I began thinking about couples researcher John Gottman, who has found that successful relationships have a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative interactions between the couple. Perhaps the 5:1 ratio is optimal in other situations and scenarios as well, not just relationships. It could be that the one negative, whether it be a negative experience, or a powerful experience that results in distressing emotions, creates greater depth from which to appreciate the positive five. Would a sports team truly appreciate the exhilaration of a great win, having never experienced the devastation of a close, nail-biting loss? Would we appreciate the exceptional qualities of our best friends, having never experienced the frustration of a mediocre, one-sided friendship? As philosophical poet Khalil Gibran, writes, "And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain." 5:1 - joy to sorrow - an interesting idea, and a powerful equation indeed.

Our Five Blissful Joys

1. All that German cuisine has to offer, and our never-ending quest to sample it all in moderation, whether seated in the world-famous Hofbrauhaus, standing at tables in the holiday market at Marienplatz, or roaming the stalls and shops at Viktualienmarkt: brats, pretzels, Black Forest cake, apple strudel, Bavarian beer, potato dumplings, roasted nuts, spiced wine, and lebkuchen cookies. Most memorable, of course, are the German food offerings of gargantuan proportion, reminiscent of Gulliver in the giant land of Brobdingnag.

2. Our Munich wanderings, and all the sights along the way. From the aerial views atop St. Peter, to the Isar River views along Maximillian Bridge, to the gloriously-lit Christmas markets, we took in the city sights as we do on most trips - by foot, with Bryan stopping periodically to read excerpts from our Berlitz pocket guide.


3. The charming Austrian town of Innsbruck, nestled in a valley surrounded by the Alps, full of stunning views, cobblestone streets, holiday spirit, and snow fall, making for a perfectly peaceful White Christmas. Easily reached on a 2-hour train from Munich, crossing through snow-covered mountains and plains, Innsbruck was everything you want from a mountain town - restaurants, pubs, and quick bus rides to neighbouring ski resorts, home to the 1964 & 1976 Winter Olympics.

(view from our hotel balcony)

4. The Austrian Slopes of Igls Mountain, which for Bryan meant two days of snowboarding, and for Brandina, meant two days of reading, walks in the snow, and complete peace.


5. The way one is forced to slow down, when traveling on Christmas weekend. With shops and restaurants closed at various times throughout our weekend in Innsbruck, we found ourselves able to relax without guilt, able to enjoy the simple pleasures, like pizza in our pajamas at our hotel restaurant for Christmas dinner, and watching Happy Feet in Austrian with no English-subtitles. A perfectly simple holiday weekend indeed.

Our One Profound Sorrow

1. Visiting Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, a 20-minute train ride north of Munich. Established in 1933 by Hitler as the first Concentration Camp, and thus used as a model to build the others, Dachau is everything you would imagine a concentration camp to be - dark, lonely, and eerily still. Led by a professional tour-guide on a 4-hour tour of the site, we found ourselves both emotionally exhausted and vulnerable at the same time, wrapped up in the stories, consumed by the sorrow, and inspired by the hope of those who survived. It was a sorrow that most definitely carved into our being - difficult to describe, absolutely impossible to forget.

So there it is - 5:1, joy to sorrow on our most recent adventure. We wouldn't have wanted it to be any other way, and we couldn't have asked for any more, or any less. We mustn't discount the power of the sorrowful one, and its ability to add richness, depth, and increased appreciation to the joyful five. Perhaps, when all is said and done, the powerful pairing of joy and sorrow is as complicated as the emotional debate needs to be. It was a holiday that we will forever remember, one that inspired gratefulness on so many levels.

-B&B

"It may not be the best thing you do on a holiday in Europe, but it's one of the most important." - Erik, our Dachau tour guide, on visiting the Memorial Site

Homeward Bound: #3

Tearfully bidding adieu to my lovely Jen -
merci beaucoup mon amie...

A MINI PROFILE

• Hometown: San Jose, California (but moving back to New York City)
  
• Time lived in London: 2 years & 3 months
  
• Our introduction: On a blind "friend" date over rosé wine at a pub near Lancaster Gate tube station in London - Jen's Uncle Harry is Brandina's parents' neighbour in Kona
  
• Something we've shared: Everything that defines quality "girl time," and a mutual love for the simple pleasures - frozen yogurt in Notting Hill, long walks, holiday lights, mulled wine, Wheat Thins, colour-coding our to-do lists, Grey's Anatomy...
  
• Something she's taught me: To embrace the British words like you're a local - rubbish, lovely, heaps, bits, bobs, and brilliant to name a few. Oh, and the best websites for watching American television shows online from London.
  
• Our newly acquired hand-me-down: Two wonderfully-plush bed pillows and a handful of UK-formatted DVDs!
  
• Our next meeting place: Somewhere Stateside...
  

-B

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave." - American proverb