The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

On day one of my new life as a US resident, I were lucky enough to see the excitement of Seattle: the Fremont bridge going up to let a sailboat pass by underneath.

Today is my last day in London and I write this blog entry from Heathrow’s Terminal 5 in the BA lounge. I fly back to Seattle today (Lorie and Milo already moved back), but will forever remember the last 3 1/2 years fondly: the friends, adventures, experiences, theatre, public transportation, way of life, diversity, pubs, and proximity to so many other countries. I know I will visit London again, but I won’t be a resident. Our residency will now be in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, in the shadow of the Space Needle. 

What is Milosthinking? You’ll have to click on the link to find out what it is and why I just made up a new word.

For my last theatre experience as a resident of London, Megan and I went to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the musical. For those of you who were at Lorie and my wedding almost 10 years ago, you may recall we walked down the isle together to “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor. It is one of the big songs used in the play, and even gets repeated in bits a few times. That means I liked the music, and the play was fun – quite gay as you might guess from the 3 guys in drag pictured here, but it was fun. 

On Sunday I took some time off from work and met Geoff and Silvia in Chinatown for a Dim Sum brunch. Our timing was either poor or interesting depending on how you view it. That’s because it was Chinese New Year and the streets were closed (to cars) and packed with people. There were stands setup with stuff for sale, a couple of big screens, a band, dancing dragons, and probably a bunch of stuff I didn’t see. Thankfully, the wait for brunch was a normal 15 minutes or so and the food was good as always. While it was interesting, I didn’t hang out on the streets since it was a bit too crowded and I didn’t feel like dealing with it at the time. I’m glad I got to experience it though.

I will be moving back to Seattle very soon, and I hope to have more experiences like this one… 3 years ago I got to play a ski patroller at Winter Park in Colorado. My friends Keith and Lisl were real patrollers, so at the end of the day, Keith pulled Lisl and I up to the top of a few runs via a snow mobile and we all split off into different directions. The task was to “sweep” the runs to make sure nobody was left on the mountain as it was being closed down for the night. As you can see here, I “swept” the Gambler and Aces-n-Eights runs. What it really means is that I had two great runs all to myself at the end of a great day of skiing. That’s a great way to finish a day of skiing.  

Flying from Seattle to London today, I sat next to Richelle Mead who was coming to London for a book signing. OK, I had no idea who she was before or after she told me, but she explained that she writes vampire books for teens, which I know nothing about (vampires or teens). However, since she is a best selling author according to the New York Times and USA Today, I’d say her books are worth checking out. She tells me that her vampires aren’t scary, so if you are a teenager interested in some good fantasy books or you just like vampire books, then I suggest checking them out.

I am in Redmond/Seattle for a meeting with a bunch of people from around the world so Stephan from the Netherlands thought it would be a good cultural experience to go to a bar and watch the Superbowl game (apparently that’s American football). We had a small European mix there to watch it: Troels (Denmark), Christian and Henrik (Germany), Primo (Switzerland), Jani (Finland), Stephan (Netherlands), and me. I think that was everyone – sorry if I’m forgetting anyone. Thankfully Jani was up on the sport so he could explain what was happening to those of us who don’t follow it, even if he and the others thought it was funny that the American of the (me) group didn’t know as much as he did.