I got a unique opportunity for work to travel to Europe to present a case I had worked on. I went with several colleagues and a guy from HQ. Our first stop was London, then to Paris, then Brussels. We flew into London on a Sunday morning and had the day to sightsee. We stayed right by Buckingham Palace. I went to Mass at Westminster Cathedral. We toured the Tower of London but skipped the Crown Jewels because of the Line. Powerful for me to see the spots where many of the English martyrs suffered torture and imprisonment.
Since it was for work, we took black cabs everywhere, which was quite an experience. I was used to the Underground from my previous trips, so it was kind of cool to be driven around upground. Sunday night we had a nice traditional dinner in a pub. Monday was our presentation at the Embassy.
Pic for my dad. This was near my Marriott Hotel near Marble Arch. I walked past it several times since the rest of the group stayed in a Hilton a mile away.
Monday afternoon we took the Eurostar train to Paris. That city isn't what it used to be. It's being transformed by immigrants, which in and of itself isn't bad, it's just not the Paris of old. I immediately felt unsafe when we walked out of the train station. We did have a phenomenal meal at a restaurant off the Champs Elysees, where we stayed.
There was a train strike in France, so we got the last few tickets on the train to Brussels, which just happened to be first class, happily approved by our HQ supervisor. The ticket included a nice little dinner with wine. For train food it was quite delicious.
I had breakfast in Brussels at this restaurant, which is a chain. This location is quite significant -- ask me about it in person sometime. The food is delicious.
We did our briefing in Brussels. We did a group dinner at a restaurant on Gran Place. The beer I'm drinking in this photo was glorious, mostly because we were done for the week as far as work. The other photo is my boss getting down & dirty to take a photo of the City Hall in Gran Place.
I also enjoyed a plate of frites and of course we walked over to see Mannekin Pis. The flight home the next day was long. I had one night to pack before we set off on our next adventure....
We didn't take any photos of the girls or their school X-mas party, except for the one at left, which is JoJo and her friend Chiara. It was JoJo's first friend playdate on her own (without her sister). She got picked up from school, had pizza for dinner, and got her hair done. Quite cute!
Later that night we headed to my co-worker's house for a "Bond voyage" for my colleague Maria, who was transferring back to HQ. I went as golfer James Bond from Goldfinger while Bobbins was a generic Bond girl. My buddy RK took the cake with his get-up. It needs no explanation. (Pictured with Maria and Joy, the hostess)
Two years ago some gals started an ugly sweater contest for our annual Christmas lunch. This year I won it, thanks to Bobbins and Goodwill.
One of my co-workers, Mark, retired in September. We called him the most interesting agent in the world, which he very nearly was. The guy had stories out the ying yang. It was impressive. I enjoyed listening to his wit & wisdom. He will be missed around the cube farm.
A fellow ASU alum, I wrote this shirt for his wife, who went to that school down south.
A couple of the gals I work with upped the ante for our Christmas lunch this year with an ugly sweater contest. We had some real "good" entries. There was even a trophy presented to the winner, which was Joy (brown hair gal sitting on the left, looking at the camera).
I signed up for my work Christmas party long before we found out the girls' school Christmas production would be the same night. After a couple days thinking about it, we decided there'd be plenty of school plays in the future, and we had already set up the babysitter to go out. So off to the party we went, while Nana T & Pop took the girls to Redemption Church in Tempe. We had a nice time out, esp. enjoying the food (but wishing the young DJ were better), while the girls did well and had fun in the production.
Nana T took some videos but they are fairly nondescript.
