The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

Wimbledon is known for tennis, which is like ping pong, but played with dog toys (the yellow ball). Friends from Chicago, Brent and Odele, have been in town to see a few games and apparently even had good seats and only got rained on for about 45 minutes during the 2 days they were there.

We ventured to Portobello road to see the market up there, relying on Cullen, our Montana friend, to be the tour guide. We figured that would make sense.

And of course, there have been a few pubs, busses, tube delays, and dog time.

We often walk Milo from Fulham over to Barnes where there is a large area for dogs to run around. It includes a cemetery that has been completely overgrown, which makes it fun and a little creepy to run through with Milo as he chases squirrels. He never has caught one though. I mapped out the walk we took today and it was a bit over 6 miles.

   Over the last couple of weeks, I have pulled up 15 of the slate slabs in our garden. Last weekend Alan and I got a pick-axe and pounded out the concrete that was below the slate slabs. Over the last couple of evenings (somewhat in the dark), I have put down some turf (I always called it sod in the US). It was sunny today, so I finally took a photo of the almost finished work. It isn’t quite done because there is still a pile of broken concrete to deal with, which is against the brick wall in the back. Some of it is already hidden away in the slate boxes that I built, which we can now use as a bench. The one uncompleted box sitting on its own will get moved, but after it is full, we will still have some left over concrete chunks to do something with – not sure what yet. And yes, this is mostly so the dogs (Milo and Daisy) can have a place to use for… whatever it is dogs do on grass.

There is a great TV show in England (the only one as far as I have found) called Dr. Who. It has been around since 1963, but I am most familiar with the new shows. Outside the Earl’s Court tube stop there is a 1950’s style police box. In the TV show one of these is called the Tardis, which is the doctor’s time machine and space craft.

Also see more pictures of the Tardis.

The BBC has a bunch of sounds from the TV show too.

On Saturday, Alan took me to Old Deer Park to meet up with some Welsh guys who live in London and go to all of the games. This is where the London Welsh Rugby Club plays. There are two types of tickets you can buy: one in the covered stands/bleachers where you can sit down and the other where you stand along one side of the field. We joined these 4 or 5 guys on the standing side, which is the same spot they stand for every game. It is fun to stand on the sidelines as the players tackle each other right in front of you. Remember, most of these guys are pretty big and wear no pads. The "helmets" you see in this photo are to keep your ears from being torn off – these are optional and only one guy was wearing them on Saturday. Unfortunately, the London Welsh lost to Moseley (the other team) 40 to 10. And no, I don’t understand the rules very much and I’m still not a good spectator, but it was fun to go to a Welsh game with the local Welsh.

Our bikes, extra large dog crate, and a variety of stuff people in the US usually keep in their garage can now be stored in our new shed. We spent most of Saturday putting it together. It comes as a kit with all the walls, floor, and roof built, so it is just a matter of lining them up, putting the roofing on (I call it shingles, but the guy who delivered it called it felt).

I also pulled up some of the pavers; nine of which can be seen in the photo leaning against the shed. We plan to plant some grass or something back there so the dogs have a place to go, other than the pavement.

For all you Americans, our project of building the shed would be considered DIY her in England, which means Do It Yourself, but you never hear it said that way: it’s always the acronym. It is a concept I am still getting used to, since everything from piecing together a shelf from IKEA to remodeling a home seems to fall under "DIY". I suppose the dining room table, twisty chair, and other things I’ve built over the years would also be considered DIY projects.

I had never even heard of the Red Bull Air Race before and since it doesn’t go to the same city each year, I figured I should check it out. For those that don’t know, it is an obstacle course for small planes to fly through and the pilot with the quickest time through the course wins. A few interesting stats:

1. The pilots can hit up to 10Gs on the corners at the ends of the course and can fly up to 400kph (almost 250mph)
2. The planes are built for racing and often have little modifications to make them quicker to turn and to go faster. Apparently this often makes them a bit unstable, but helps win the race if the pilot can handle the plane.
3. The planes have glass at the pilots feet, including the cockpit top, so the pilot can see in front, to the side, and below them. 
4. The pilot knows to hit the course when the announcer says "smoke on": the pilot then turns their smoke trail on so we can see their trail through the course.  
5. Red Bull invented the race and the "cones" for the planes to maneuver around. These things can get hit by a plane, tear apart, and the plane won’t crash. A pilot can hit one without receiving a penalty (I saw that happen), but if they pop the cone (or shred it), then they get time added to their overall time.  
6. You have to fly through some cones horizontal, others perpendicular (one wing towards the sky, one towards the river), and others you just have to fly around like when on a water ski course.
7. The youngest pilot is 39 years old…. so there is hope for me yet, if I ever get a pilot’s license.  

Click on the photo to see more photos I took, in addition to the video below.

Our friend Alan has a good write-up about Gordon Brown taking over as Prime Minister now that Tony Blair stepped down. See: There’s a new sheriff in town

Our friend Mark was in town and requested that we go to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant called Fifteen London. If you know me, then you know that the only food I know much about is sushi, sake, and chocolate. That means I had no idea what Fifteen was all about, so as their site at http://www.fifteen.net/Pages/default.aspx explains:

In 2002, Jamie Oliver combined two ambitions: to open a top class restaurant and to give disadvantaged youngsters the chance to gain professional training that would set them up for an independent, inspired and productive life. Five years on, Fifteen is still achieving both, improving and expanding all the time.

We ate in the Trattoria and all thought our dinner was good. There was no sushi or sake, but the brownie was good.