Our new bed

A new bed was recently delivered to us. For your enjoyment, we made a couple of videos while putting it together. 

-Nic

KINDER!!

Shut up, you're just not Euro enough. These are hip, man!

- Chris

The Dog's Bollocks

So, back story, I'm on the phone today for work with a UK client and we're discussing an advert that ScreenPlay's going to run as part of the British Video Association Awards. It's a joint ad highlighting both companies.

Anyways, I ask him his thoughts, and he says it's "the dog's bollocks". I pause... thinking to myself, um, is that good or bad? what the hell does that mean? Knowing I'm a Yank and we're always friendly and joking, he says that when a Brit describes something as "the dog's bollocks", it's a good thing... maybe similar to the "bees knees".

Here's a little background I found from phrases.co.uk -

"Meaning:
Excellent - the absolute apex. In other contexts the word bollocks (meaning testicles) has a negative connotation. For example:

- 'that's bollocks' -> 'that's rubbish'
- 'give him a bollocking' -> 'chastise him'
- 'He dropped a bollock' -> 'he made a mistake'

The reasons why the 'dog's bollocks' are considered to be the top of the tree aren't clear. It may be linked to an associated phrase - 'stand out like a dog's balls', i.e. 'outstanding', although I can find no evidence to indicate that phrase as being earlier than the 'dog's bollocks'. Dogs do enjoy licking their genitals of course but again, there's no evidence that links the coining of this phrase to that. It is most likely that this is just a nonsense phrase, coined because it sounds good. In that, it would join a long list of earlier nonsense phrases, e.g. 'the cat's pyjamas', 'the bees knees', etc."

There you have it... ok, maybe a little more info would be fun from Wikipedia:

"A usage with a positive (albeit still vulgar) sense is "the dog's bollocks".^[17] An example of this usage is: "Before Tony Blair's speech, a chap near me growled: ‘'E thinks 'e's the dog's bollocks’. Well, he's entitled to. It was a commanding speech: a real dog's bollocks of an oration".^[18] Sometimes the phrase is shortened to just "the dog's" or "the bollocks" (see below). There are also several broadly synonymous substitute phrases that are sometimes used for humorous effect, including "the mutt's nuts", "the dog's danglies", "the badger's nadgers" etc.

This phrase has found its way into popular culture in a number of ways. There is a beer brewed in England by the Wychwood Brewery called the "Dog's Bollocks",^[22] as well as a lager cocktail.^[23] There is an Australian political blog called The Dogs Bollocks, with the motto 'Truth is like a dog’s bollocks - pretty obvious if you care to look – but most of us prefer to avert our gaze, or have them permanently removed'. In a derivative word-play, fans of Chelsea F.C. are known to refer to players Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba as "The Drog's Ballacks"."

I laughed and told him I'd keep that one in my back pocket for the right time. I'm giddy to use it.

- Chris

Liverpool... courtesy of Google!

OK, Nic has been asking me to post a blog (sorry, I've been slacking!). Since I'm geeking out on "Google Maps/Street Views" right now, I thought I'd tie them together.

So, if you've never done this and you live in a fairly large metropolitan city, go to Google Maps, and type in your home address. If it pops up and has "Street View", you can actually select that and navigate the streets with real pictures. Now, I remember them launching a beta of this in only large cities - San Fran, NY, LA, etc and there was a huge uproar (invasion of privacy, yada yada), but now apparently it's all over the world. And, if you want my opinion, two thumbs up!

Here's a visual idea of how it works. I searched some of our "usual" streets/spots in Liverpool and took a screenshot of each -

A view from Lime St - this is one of the main streets leading into Liverpool City Centre. The building on your right is St. Georges Hall. Nic actually has a school event there on May 17th. Beautiful inside.


Our "flat" building. Unfortunately, I couldn't avoid that truck at the bottom of the shot covering our front door.


Albert Dock - easily one of the prettiest places in Liverpool. This is the entrance here with the backdrop of the famous Liver building on the right.


Bold St - we walk up and down this street often. Lots of shops, a great art-house film/cafe called FACT, a pancake breakfast spot called Qwaffs, and leads straight up to that famous Liverpool cathedral you see in the distance.


Korova - Venue/Club up on Fleet St. This is where all the Liverpool hipsters hang, it's owned by members of that group Ladytron. Think Cha Cha for Seattle folks. That said, it actually is a cool space to be in... separated by 3 different rooms, bar upstairs and the venue is downstairs in the basement, almost like being in a DIY house.


Upper Duke St - On the right, is the entrance to LIPA, Nic's school


Manchester - Just for fun, here's a shot of Oxford Road in Manchester. If you know England, Man is about 45 minutes away by train, easy to get to from Liverpool. On the right, there's an awesome cafe/bar/film house called Cornerhouse, which we frequent when in Manchester. Oxford Road train station is literally 2 min away from this shot.

Finally, here's something completely random. We were at the "cinema" and this advert came on before the movie. It's a T-Mobile commercial filmed at Liverpool Lime Street station. This is where we catch all our trains down to London, Manchester, or wherever. It's hilarious, watch this:



- Chris

AMSTERDAM!!!!

Hi Guys!

Still so much to catch up on! Before heading back home for the holidays, Chris and I flew from John Lennon Airport in Liverpool to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. OMG. One of the most beautiful cities we've ever seen! We were there on the 15th-17th of December and it was FREEZING. We managed to walk around the city and see the sights, but we had to step into random shops in order to defrost enough to move along.

We happened across a dutch doughnut shop and we picked up a few different items. Chris sure enjoyed his picks! Can you see the little bit of powdered sugar on his mouth?

Towards the end of our trek across the city. Noses red and hair blown.

I definitely want to come back here again - maybe in the summer so we can rent some bikes and go on a boat tour!

Chris warming his hands.

So, at first we thought there was only one of these clock towers so we used it as a reference point. Unfortunately, there are like 5 in the city so we got ourselves a little lost for awhile.

Another pretty canal shot.

Ah, here is the infamous Red Light District. Can you spot the girls in the window?

If not, here's a closer shot. They would tap on the windows as we walked by trying to "lure" us in. It was so surreal. I mean, you hear about this place, you know what goes on, but it doesn't completely hit you until you see it in person. Needless to say, we didn't hang around long. 

This was the first time I ever saw swans in real life. I just some some more today when we walked down by the docks. :) One of my fav birds.

The Red Light District is beautiful despite what it's known for. 

Oh yeah, we also saw pot plants in the windows, pot lollies (as the Brits call 'em), pipes, etc. We didn't sample any - swear to God! haha. Been there done that. Oh wait...I guess I should speak for myself and not Chris on that one. :)

The other lovely thing about Amsterdam is their shopping areas. There are trams that run throughout and a lot of the streets are pedestrian only. H&M, Zara, Mango, an awesome tea shop, and many other stores warmed us up along the way. Plus, we enjoyed all the Christmas decorations.

Chris is an extension of the M. How silly.

At this point, my feet were completely frozen.

IAMSTERDAM.

This is where we ate breakfast one morning. Their coffee was so delicious that we sat for another cup (no free refills in the Netherlands - or Niederland as they say).

See the boats on the left side? We could have gone on one of them for a boat tour, but it was just too damn cold!

Oh yeah, the ratio of bikes to cars is like no where else I've ever been. There were probably thousands of bikes all over the city - people riding them even though it had to have been below zero (celcius) and there was a separate bike lane (much nicer than the lanes in Seattle), a pedestrian lane, a lane for cars, and then the tram lane. Talk about having their transportation under control.

And this was a picture we took outside of John Lennon Airport of the famous Yellow Submarine! Isn't it so cute? It used to sit in a park, but they moved it when they opened the airport.

Hopefully we'll be caught up by the end of the month! Hope you've been enjoying all the pictures! Miss you and love you!

Nicole

Ps. Some other trivia for you: Did you know that the Heineken Brewery was in Amsterdam? We walked by it, but didn't go in - figured breweries are breweries right? Also, there was a Vincent Van Gogh museum, but we didn't feel like paying 12 euro each to see it. Maybe next time.

London Part 2

Here are some more pictures from our awesome trip to London. Not exactly sure what church Chris is standing in front of. I just like the expression on his face. Ha!

So, the pictures are a little out of order again. This is us after riding the Eye. It was totally worth it!!

I have no idea what Chris was doing. Silly silly. Us on the eye.

The crazy view from the Eye. 

On the other side...

Chris is having a fun time.

Such a beautiful city!

While walking all over the city, we happened across Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End (loads of theatres - similar to Broadway) where Phantom of the Opera was playing. Chris had never been to a musical and I hadn't seen it since I was 9. This musical changed my life so I was pretty excited!

Unfortunately, we were only able to get seats together with a pole in the middle of us. Other than that though, we were relatively close and had a great time.

The inside of the theatre - isn't it gorgeous?

This is the outside. Quite ornate. The theatre manager of Her Majesty's came in to talk to my class the other day and he said that the sign actually rotates so if there is a King, they can change the name to His Majesty's Theatre. 

Here we are in Trafalgar Square. Luckily we found someone to take a photo for us.

A statue of Oliver Cromwell stands right outside of Parliament. I couldn't remember who he was so I looked him up on Google. He was an English military and political leader best known for making England into a republican Commonwealth and conquered Ireland and Scotland.

I really want to print this picture off and make it into a postcard. 

Wow, can you see how windy it was? My hair is going all over the place.

There was a nice park that we walked through.

Chris was stoked to see so much green!

Yay! We were so lucky that the weather was nice. I'm standing on the Thames River. 

Taking a stroll by our hotel.

A museum that we didn't go into. Just didn't have enough time. Thought it was cool though because the god Neptune is sitting up on top.

Hope you enjoyed all the pictures! We're both a little ill at the moment so I'm going to lie down and rest again. Next blog: Amsterdam!!

Much love,

Nic