Geneva, December 2013

Bienvenue à Genève!

In early December Lloyd and I took a quick weekend trip to Geneva, Switzerland to do some exploring and to go to a classical piano concert.  One of my oldest friends, John Vera, was going to be in Switzerland attending his girlfriend Salome's piano concert.  Unfortunately for us but fortunately for John, he was asked to play a prestigious Christmas gig back in the states so he was unable to attend, but we decided to go anyways.  Geneva is such a clean and beautiful city, nestled in the alps the city is centered around a crystal clear alpine lake with a giant waterspout in the middle, aptly named the jet d'eau, literally meaning 'water jet'.  We enjoyed walking around the lake and taking pictures of the crystal clear water.  

We arrived late our first night in Geneva and were starving (bordering on hangry...) so we left our hotel in search of food.  The first cafe we came to was packed and not many people spoke English, but the owner of the restaurant, recognising we were tourists, ushered us outside to chat.  He got one of his friends who spoke English to translate for us and said that his kitchen was about to close but he would take us to another restaurant nearby that was still serving food.  So off he went, weaving us through the cobblestone streets until we reached a busy restaurant, and instead of taking us in the main entrance he opened up a side door and took us through the tiny kitchen, passing the owner of that restaurant on the way where he explained that we were hungry and needed a good meal.  I assume she told him that she'd be happy to take care of us (it was in French so only a guess) he shook our hands and headed back to his own restaurant and we were taken to our table.  

We were pretty impressed at the genuine hospitality shown to us and the following meal was nothing short of amazing.Lloyd had a delicious steak and I had the biggest schnitzel I've ever seen - I've discovered that schnitzels are pretty much the chicken fried steak of Europe.  
Amazingly enough we ate all of it and were thoroughly stuffed!  

The next day began with another chilly stroll around the lake and this time we were shocked to find that people were actually swimming in the frigid water!!  They were braver than us, as we were bundled up in our gloves, scarves, and hats.

Later that afternoon we attempted to take a bus over to the French side (about 15mins away) to ride the gondola up the side of the mountain to one of the ski resorts, but when we got there we found the lift was closed for a few months so we wandered around the tiny town before we went back to Geneva.

Christmas markets

Ready to go to the show! 

Marquee outside Victoria Hall

Salome's performance was at the Royal Victoria Hall, a beautiful venue that looked even better lit up with the lights for the performance.

The inside of the hall was just gorgeous, with ornate carvings and gorgeous instrumental murals painted on the ceiling.  Salome's program was unique and interesting, see below for the description from her website:

In Salomes Envisage, the artist performs the music in its purest classical form. During the live piano performance a video projection of cinematic visuals and lighting takes the audience on a wandering journey through lost, forgotten and mysterious places. Parallel to the musical rhythms of the compositions, the visuals support the performance as both a scenic element surrounding Salome and as a series of freely interpretable micro-narrative fragments that transport the audience into a new experience of classical music and allows to experience the music in a truly heightened way.

The beautiful ceiling in the hall 

And the brass! 

Salome's stage - lovely performance!!

Geneva was beautiful around Christmas time and was decorated with lights, Christmas markets, and brass ensembles playing Christmas tunes.  

Local swans

Geneva's own Christmas display :)  Cartier, Tiffany's and all the banks! 

Our hotel in Geneva was so cute and charming, modeled after an Austrian chalet, the rooms were full of knotty pine wood which gave the hotel a warm, comfortable feeling.

So cute! 

The hotel also had a restaurant which played live music and we decided to have dinner there one night which meant that I got to sample some of the local cuisine - cheese fondue! The cheese was smooth and delicious, and made me wish I had an excuse to eat it more often!  

Not only did they have great cheese fondue, but they  had great music too - even a real live yodeler!





I even got a chance to play the big horn on the back of the wall and of course impressed everyone since most people couldn't even make a sound with it.  The bald guy bandleader didn't speak English but somehow explained how I could play Amazing Grace using the different harmonics on the horn and he called me up a second time in the evening to play it again.

The house band finished the night with one of my favorites :)

On the last day we met Salome for a yummy Swiss brunch on the lake, capping off a relaxing and pleasant weekend to Geneva.  Au revoir, Geneva, see you next time!

Jen & Salome on our last day in Geneva

Texas Visit, November 2013

Shortly after our engagement we went to Texas to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with the family, and subsequently, celebrate our engagement.  Although it wasn't a long visit, we were able to spend good quality time with family and close friends.  

One highlight of the trip was the time we spent with Grandma and Grandpa, as it's become a family tradition to make and roll-out the noodles in advance of Thanksgiving dinner.  Grandma put everyone in the kitchen to work and we had them rolled out and drying in no time.  

Time to make the noodles! 

Rolling out the noodles with Grandpa

You can tell who the winners are in this pic! 

Another highlight was the Marble Game!  In these pictures Grandpa and Lloyd are hiding their heads in shame, since they lost to the superior marble players, Grandma and I.  Grandma is fiercely competitive and relished in our win.  Girls rule!

Reunited and happy 

We're number 1! 

We also went out to Fort Worth to see some friends and had a great night meeting up with Chels & Wheel, Justin & Kathleen, and a few other friends.  

Beaver den roomies - both engaged! 

Another night was spent at a housewarming party for Mattie, we got to try some delicious food and celebrate his fancy new apartment in Grapevine.

Gail & Bryan

LenDonna

Dad & Lloyd 

Goofballs 

Lloyd and future in-laws 

Dad, Jen & Mattie 

Mattie with his South African parents 

The gang!  Jen, Rachel, Mattie, Bearded Barry, Lloyd 

Our Engagement - November 2013

One of my favorite memories from November 2013 was getting all dressed up and going to look at rings on the famous Bond Street in Central London.  Bond Street has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is known for it's expensive, high-end stores that line the street.  Today it's one of the most expensive strips of real estate in the world, which made it the perfect place to begin our ring search (hehe).  It was pretty intimidating going into the super-secure buildings, but we had fun pretending to be posh and gawking at the expensive, beautiful jewelry.

The actual day of our engagement was the day of the Guy Fawkes fireworks celebration at Battersea park.  I was feeling sorry for myself because last year we went to see the show with a bunch of friends and it was a really fun (albeit cold!) experience, but this year no one was able to come and it ended up being just Lloyd and I.  (As if that's a bad thing, haha)  I was moping around and wishing our friends would have come but decided to try and have fun anyways, so I packed a picnic blanket, bottle of wine and some plastic glasses and booked us in for dinner at Pizza Express before the show.  I picked Pizza Express because it was on the way down to the park and also because I had a gift card that I wanted to use up.  After dinner we walked the long walk to the park and I was able to smuggle my wine in my jacket, and we set up a dark, chilly picnic on the ground in preparation for the show to start. A few minutes after we got there Lloyd asked me what time it was and when I thought the fireworks were going to start, and I looked at my watch and told him we probably had 10mins to go.

He very casually put his hand in his pocket and said, 'Well before this kicks off I just want to give you this...' and hands me a small little box.  Looking back, it was a total James Bond moment for him; he just sounded so super cool and suave, and totally surprised me! The surprise wore off quickly though, as I grabbed the box away from him and opened it, to reveal what looked to be something small and sparkly....but it was a bit too dark to tell.  Luckily I had my phone handy so I turned on the flashlight to illuminate a beautiful, sparkly ring that seemed to light up the whole park.  I immediately extinguished the light, as I suddenly became paranoid that someone would see it and try to grab it from me, so I put the ring on  my finger, just to be safe :)

My second reaction  was to challenge Lloyd, and I asked him several times if  he really wanted to do this, but to be honest he would have struggled to get the ring away from me at that point.  I was sure that I had persuaded him to do this and he grudgingly went along with it.  I explained to him how I'm persuasive for a living so it would make sense if I had somehow talked him into all this...He assured me that he knew what he was doing, and that he wanted us to spend our lives together.

I kept saying, 'are you serious?  Are you serious??'

I was almost thinking it was a joke, I couldn't believe he had surprised me so well, as I was sure I'd be able to recognise the signs before it happened.  But he totally stumped me and it was a beautiful moment, just the two of us.  We clinked our plastic glasses together, toasted to our future and then watched a fantastci fireworks show on the banks of the Thames.  The whole thing was so surreal - I felt so lucky to be sharing an amazing moment with such a special person and I almost had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.  It was definitely one of those 'this-is-awesome-how-did-I-end-up-here' moments.

Lloyd, ever the opportunist, had bought the ring a few weeks earlier and was hiding it deep in the depths of his sock drawer and was waiting for the right moment to give it to me.  When he realised halfway through the week that none of our friends were accompanying us to the fireworks he knew it would be a perfect opportunity.  I further assisted him by booking dinner, paying for dinner, packing a picnic blanket, glasses, and wine - so essentially I planned my entire proposal without even knowing it. He's such a smart guy, the lil' stinker.

As an added bonus, a portion of the fireworks was set to the Charlie Daniels song 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' and I felt like they played it just for me, giving me a small dose of home on a very special night.

Happy girl :)  

Halloween 2013

My first London Halloween in 2012 was a bit disappointing; I have been spoiled by American Halloweens my entire life and was expecting the same, er, enthusiasm towards dressing up.  Last year I noticed that the British have an affinity towards zombie costumes and they took any normal costume and 'zombify' it by adding face paint, blood spatters on clothes, etc.  I considered the possibility of zombifying my own costume but this idea was quickly forgotten...when I found Barry's Captain America costume at the charity shop!!! Needless to say I was ecstatic and purchased it without even consulting with him - I knew he would love it! Jamie's costume was easy to make and took just a few hours and before long we were 4 superheroes ready to party!

We were headed to a Pop Up Ping Pong Party in Central London, and we attracted lots of attention on the tube on the way there...

Even superheros have to wait on the train! 

Held in an abandoned Royal Mail sorting facility, the party was a zombie theme (of course) and we all had to make our way to the zombie hideout for safety.  Our take on the theme was that we were 4 superheros ready to fight zombies and keep the world safe.  Inside the building there was cool lighting, fun Halloween music, and lots of ping pong and beer pong tables.  They even had people running around who's sole job was to replenish the ping pong ball supply at every table.  It was great - ping pong balls were flying everywhere and you just reached into the never-ending supply of balls at your table and continued playing.  The beer and food was cheap, the vibe was fun and friendly and we had a great time!  

Spidey & Captain America vs. Wonder Woman & Bat Girl 

A friendly banana at the party

The room was huge and perfect for a ping pong party! 

Jamie looked awesome in her costume! 

Barry made his own shield and he did a fantastic job making it just perfect! 

We attracted the attention of the event photographers and Barry even made it on the event Twitter page! 

Spidey action shot

It's going in! 

All in all it was a great night and we will definitely be on the lookout for more Pop Up Ping Pong parties soon!