"Trust Us With Your Life" Taping

This past Friday Kelsey and I attended the taping of the new ABC show, “Trust Us With Your Life.”  We first stopped at Portobello Road that is just a cute area of town in Notting Hill.  We stopped for an early dinner at First Floor, and the food took a while so the bartender offered us free drinks!

Then we hop on the train over to BBC Studios in North West London.  We arrive and since this is an American show they wanted an authentic audience so we got yellow wristbands designating, “American.”  We also were greeted with a free beer to enjoy in the lounge before we went in.  Score again!

We get in the studio and get seated in the front row because we had the yellow wristband.  We were off to the left looking at the stage.  They had a man come out and warm up the crowd and then the director came out and told us about this new show.

Finally the comedians came out and we were ready to start the show!  The premise of the show is they have a celebrity guest come on and the host, Fred Willard, talks with them about events in their life.  The comedians then improve their take on the scene.

We thought the show was hilarious!  At one point I was in tears, you’ll have to see the show because it’s hard to describe but Wayne Brady is the man.  I also forgot how funny Colin Mochrie is!  The celebrity guest was Florence Henderson, the mom from The Brady Bunch.  She was really funny herself, on camera and off.

The show is very similar to, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” which would make sense because it’s the same creator.  I thought all the improvers did a great job and I would recommend the show!  They didn’t say when it would air, but it’s on ABC primetime!  Look for Kelsey and I in the front row off to the left by the comedians.  Great free night!

Day Trip to Brighton

Kelsey and I decided to take a day trip down to the coastal city of Brighton.  We took a bus that left London at 8:00 AM and we arrived in Brighton just after 10 AM.  We didn’t have a whole lot planned for the day so we got dropped off right by the pier so we decided to walk down there first.  The pier was amazing.  There were rides, carnival games, arcade games, and various food vendors.

We then decided to walk around the city and stumbled across, The Royal Pavilion.  We didn’t exactly know what it was or whether or not we wanted to tour it, but conveniently we also came across the Tourist Information Center.  They advised us to take the tour and to also check out the Lanes, which is an area of town with lots of cute small shops.  We parted ways because I wanted to take the tour and Kelsey wanted to shop!

The Royal Pavilion was brilliant!  Unfortunately, you couldn’t take pictures in there.  King George IV built this palace as a party house.  He loved to entertain his guests by providing lavish meals and music.  

The Kitchen

The kitchen was my favorite as it was huge!  They had it nicely set up with mock food and cookware to set the picture of what it was like when the servants were preparing meals.  The servants also had secret passage ways that they would use so they would not be seen by guests.

The Banquet Room

The banquet room was amazing as well and this is where they ate their meals.  High ceilings, huge chandeliers, amazing decorations!  My other favorite room was this room next to the Banquet Room.  This room is where the women would go after dinner to gossip and freshen up while the men smoked cigars and continued to drink.

The Music Room

The next room was the Music Room.  This is where guest would sing, dance, and party, all night long.  The tour then went on to bedrooms, upstairs, and other various rooms.  I enjoyed to tour because it came with a little phone looking device that you held up to your ear to hear information.  You just entered in a number, depending on where you were in the place and then it would give you facts and stories.  Overall, it was worth the £7, and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour.




From there, Kelsey and I met up and walked around the Lanes for a bit.  For dinner, we found it was necessary had to have Fish and Chips.  We found a great little place and shared a platter for two with various batters and fish.  Lemon pepper, cajun, black pepper, and original were the types if I remember correctly, and the fish were cod and haddock.

Our bus didn’t come until 10 PM that night so we had some time to kill.  Kelsey went down to the pier for some arcade fun and I found a casino that I thought I’d try my luck in.  I sat down at a Blackjack and noticed that every single player was placing this side bet that I didn’t get until I asked.  Basically you side bet on the first three cards, your two cards and the dealer’s up card, and you try to make a poker hand.  So if the dealer has a King up card, and you have a Jack, Queen you win 9:1!

Another difference is that you can bet on other people’s hands.  At first this guy placed his bet on my hand and hit the poker side bet and at first I’m like did you win for me?  Thanks stranger!  But then he took his winnings, which I think I should have at least earned a percentage.  So basically if they think a hand is hot, they can bet on the hand and bet the side bet!

We did get hot for a while and I got risky and bet the side bet which was a £5 minimum.  I hit it twice in only like 10 bets!  And after a while I wasn’t concerned with my two cards, but more concerned on the combination of the 3 cards!  When all was said and done I walked away with £ 115, which is like $185.  Paid for my trip!

Overall, we both loved the town and had a great day in the coastal city of Brighton.

NFL Fan Rally in Trafalgar Square

Hello there, Courtney here.  I just wanted to post quick about our day yesterday.  So the Bears and the Buccaneers are playing today at Wembley Stadium in London and the NFL hosted a fan rally and Kelsey and I decided to go to it.  


We show up at Trafalgar Square in the afternoon and there are a ton of people!  There's a stage with various acts, vendors, and other activities.  In true American fashion, we go and grab a Budweiser and Bud Light and go stand in front of the stage.  They had some pretty cool acts including the Chicago Drumline, the Tampa Bay Cheerleaders, and other dancers and singers.  


There were lots of UK fans and American fans as well.  Everyone wearing various football team shirts and jerseys.  I had to wear purple of course, and there were a handful of Vikings fans as well!


Roger Goodell made an appearance and announced that they just signed a deal to have a NFL game for the next 5 years in London.  He also hinted at a franchise over here.


Overall, it was a fun day and great to see Americans and American football because we are definitely missing it over here!  Although, we did find a bar that is playing the Packers vs. Vikings tonight, that we are going to check out!  The Sports Cafe


Anyways, here's a couple pictures from the day!  Will post again soon, we have lots of things coming up!

 

Settling In

Welcome to our blog! Courtney and I thought it would be a great idea to get a blog up and running for our family and friends to keep up with us over here. Every week we are attempting to make one entry, so hopefully we stay focused and committed to this! Feel free to look around our blog, leave comments, & fill out our survey. Cheers!


As many of you who have traveled before know, it sucks traveling with mass amounts of luggage. Going through trains, lifting them up stairs, lifting them down stairs, loading them on buses (you get the idea), all of that can be quite a pain. Luckily for us, when we first arrived in London, we were so grateful to stay with my dad's friend, Carl. We stayed there for about a month until last Wednesday, when we found our own place in Greenwich, Greater London. Finding a place was quite the process because we had a laundry list of necessities. The only way to find the perfect place was to set up times to view the apartments which took a great amount of time and money. After viewing a few places, we came across a great room with a fantastic location within our price range! Courtney and I share a room, and also share this house with two others. It has a modern kitchen, a shared living room, and a large bathroom (See pics below). The first couple days here we explored our new town. We scoped out the mall situation, the parks, and of course to satisfy our American itch- the closest Subway. Our room was completely empty so we bought new sheets, comforters, rug, and other necessities to make our place 'home-y'. We also stocked our fridge, and finally unpacked our massive suitcases.


A day or two after we got settled in, we found the best park next to our place. In this park it had the coolest idea- a free outdoor gym for the public, The Great Outdoor Gym Company. This gym has all sorts of treadmills, fitness bikes, leg presses, shoulder presses, etc. We were completely taken back by this great invention! Not only can we walk to this in under 5 minutes, but now we didn't have to pay a monthly fee to a gym. Way to go UK! I've included the link here so check out the pictures! Outdoor Gym Website

Below are some pictures to give you a better idea of our flat. This wraps up my first blog entry. Courtney will write an entry sometime next week, stay tuned!  xx

 My side of the room

 Courtney's bed still unpacking

Courtney's side of the room all nice and purrrty

Lovin' my rug!

 Our bathroom

 Shared living room

 Kitchen and please note our washer so this is also considered our laundry room