Every year Carolyn stays in the small English village of Bibury whilst helping out with the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford. Carolyn is always telling me what a beautiful part of the Cotswolds this is so we took a trip so I could check it out. Bibury really is the perfect English village complete with weaver cottages, trout farm, swans, excellent pubs (with open fires) and beautiful country houses.
The long static view from our apartment is changing - for the better! I first noticed the new Strata sky scraper (AKA as the eletric razor) popping up from behind the old Victorian school (now luxury apartments) a few months ago. It's really starting to take shape now as it ventures past 50% of its final height. The Strata will form a key part of the much needed Elephant and Castle regeneration scheme. This isn't the only new sky scraper in SE1 though as work is well underway on the Shard which will become the tallest building in the UK. It's all happening in SE1.
Continuing with the American history in England theme we headed down to St. Mary's Church, Rotherhithe. Christopher Jones, captain of the Mayflower is buried here along with many of the ship's owners. The Mayflower set sail for North America in 1620 from a mooring across the street from the church. There is a pub overlooking the mooring named (you guessed it) the Mayflower. It would have been rude if we didn't stop by for a quick pint. We finished the day with a visit to the Brunel musem and a late night watching the Philadelphia Eagles lose to the Arizona Cardinals.
We got up early (for a weekend) and hit the gym for a couple of hours. We quickly ruined any positive effect from our workout by heading downtown to Ed's Easy Diner. It was all my fault as I had a craving for American diner food whilst pounding the rubber on 
the running machine. We both went for burgers, cheese fries and shakes - nice. The diner is just down the road from London's China Town, forget New York - London is the real metling pot.
I'm Just back from a work conference in Vienna - what a beautiful city! We managed to grab a few hours after the conference to go exploring. I particularly liked the window puppet which looked like Jake and the slutty bride wedding cake. Make of that what you will.
My Mum gave Carolyn a book on American history in England for Christmas. We immediately read the chapter on William Penn as he founded Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. Reading the article reminded us that William Penn is buried close to my office on the outskirts of London. I did a bit of research and found a great walk on the Internet which covers the Mayflower barn and the final resting place of William Penn. The walk took in some beautiful English countryside but seeing the original timbers from the Mayflower was something else. Next to the Mayflower Barn is the old Jordans guest house where William Penn and George Fox (founder of the Quaker religion) regularly worshipped. A little further down the road we came across the current Quaker meeting house (1688) set next to a small graveyard where Carolyn used her Philly sixth sense to walk straight to William Penn's grave.
For the third year, Carolyn and I headed into central London for the New Year's Day Parade complete with customary cheer leaders, Morris Men, classic cars and American marching bands. It was bloody freezing but great fun despite the distinct possibility of frost bite. I can't imagine what it was like for the poor high school kids from Hawaii and Florida ;-) There were over 10,000 performers from 20 countries including the UK effort - Morris Minors which broke down every 10 feet.
We went down to the South Bank for New Year's Eve to checkout the fireworks. Carolyn brought along her new camera to checkout the night shots. Both the fireworks and the camera were very impressive!
We drove to Barnes so that my mum could catch up with an old friend. As Carolyn has just passed her UK driving test we left them to it and took the MINI out for a spin. Carolyn drove around Richmond for a while before taking the leap and venturing out onto the M4. There isn't a much better test than driving around central London and then out to Heathrow - I guess I trust Carolyn with the MINI now ;-)
My mum came to stay with us for Christmas. Carolyn loved her new camera, mum couldn't stop playing Brain Training on her Nintendo DS Lite and I couldn't stop hoovering up everything in sight with the Dyson D16 Handheld. Carolyn also gave me an Archos 5 media player which will be great when I'm working away from home. We spent most of the day battling it out playing Monopoly, needless to say the capitalist American won.
Carolyn's cousin Joey and his wife Erica came to stay with us on the first leg of their European tour. We made sure Joey and Erica enjoyed a wide variety of pubs on their visit including: Blackfriars Pub, Most Cafe Bar, Waxy O’Connor’s, George Inn, The Coal Hole, Market Porter, Browns at Butlers Wharf, Ten Bells and the 99 club.
For the last couple of years our filing system has involved some shoe boxes, a broken security box and some old plastic pockets. I couldn't take it anymore and 'persuaded' Carolyn that we needed a proper filing cabinet and here it is in all its glory. 
I also ordered a shredder which was so much fun there wasn't much left to file once I had finished playing with it. The comfy theme comes from our latest purchases - a Union Jack pillow from Karen Hilton and an RAF themed bean bag from CoolBeanBags.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, Oxford Street and Regent Street are pedestrianised to help solve the problem of a million people trying to walk along a narrow foot path. It's a good day for shopping as there are lots of street entertainers and Christmas bargains. Carolyn and I usually go and knockout as much Christmas shopping as we can in one hit.
