In which a change in our heroine's living situation arises.

And duh....why didn't I title all my blogs in the above manner to match the overall theme? From now on I will. :)

---

So I am about to get a new flatmate. Yup, Tom (aka Mr Posh in the derby world) is moving in. He has been keen on living with me for some time, and he spends about 5 nights a week at my place as it is.

Finally my flatmates said “why doesn’t he just move in and pay some rent?”

:)

So when we get back from the states, Tom is moving over to Notting Hill…leaving southeast London behind. Eeek!

No seriously, I am cool with it, obviously. Just a bit nervous because I haven’t lived with a guy “officially” since my ex-husband – and this seems to put the final nail in the coffin of any vestiges I might be harbouring that I am still “single” or unencumbered by a relationship. I think that after the long struggle to accept divorce I had finally reached a state of enjoying singleness. And then of course I met Tom…who rather than being the kind of guy you have to pin down for some shred of commitment, is pretty much the poster man for “serious relationship”.

Anyway, I really didn’t want to leave my flat, as regular readers and friends will know that I LOVE where I live. This makes everything cool….cause now I get to live with Tom and stay in my hood. Notting Hill Carnival 2008 after party is definitely on this year!

So Courtney Goes To London moves to Phase…3? Yeah I guess Phase 3 sounds about right. Briefly proceeded by Holiday in the Sun 2008 Phase 1.

Exhibit A – where I will be sipping mai tais next Friday

Exhibit B – the house we will be staying in while in Todos Santos with my family

http://www.mexicovacations.com/mx/32731.html

LRG Update...

So the second London Rollergirls bout was absolutely amazing. It was so close after xmas that we were all a bit worried about turnout, and at one point were even thinking we would have about 50 people in the audience. HA….hardly. We were totally sold out about 2 days before the bout, and we even had ticket scalpers outside the venue on the day! You know you have arrived when someone is trying to tout your tickets.

I had a fantastic time announcing, and definitely would want to continue doing that if I ever had to retire (along with coaching). More importantly though, the gameplay was just super amazing. The difference in skating skill level between the first game and this one was truly great to see. We probably had about 10 bout rookies in the lineups and they held their own and showed potential that makes me happy for the future of LRG. And for the girls that were skating their second bout, well I may be biased, but many of them showed skills and gameply knowledge at the same level of gals that have skated more than one full season. The audience could really tell too. Our first bout had an audience that didn’t quite know what to do…but this time around people were jumping up and down and screaming their lungs out by the end of the bout. This was probably helped by the fact that the game pretty much went down to the last two jams, with Team Pink finally taking the win.

On an unfortunate note, we had a broken leg in the 1^st period from veteran skater, Ana Ki. She is sporting a titanium pole in her left lower leg as a souvenir of derby now.

And on to boot camp…

This past Saturday, LRG hosted the first ever European Roller Derby Boot Camp. We had skaters and refs from the across the UK leagues, and even a few from Stockholm, Sweden. It was pretty sweet. We had five hours of skating and training – covering the basic basics for newbies, and also hitting all the major elements of play for the more advanced girls. The session ended with a two hour pick-up scrimmage with everyone getting involved to their levels. Everyone had a fantastic time at the boot camp and the afterparty, and I really felt like for the first time here everyone understood what it was like to be a part of a roller derby community. We have the benefit at LRG of having lots of visiting gals from the states and other leagues, but many of the smaller start up leagues in the UK and Europe just don’t get that. So for them, I think it was very important to get a feel for it.

Ahhh London....

I love this quote from an article in February’s Vanity Fair:

I’ve been spending a lot of time in London lately, and it’s the perfect place to be. It’s as expensive as hell, the dollar stinks, but the parties are nightly, and restaurants are jammed, as are the theatres and the hotels.

I just read that and thought - “Damn right, and I live here!”

If I go back and read my very first entry in this blog, it makes me remember how excited I was to come here. Sometimes in the everyday grind, it’s easy to forget that I am actually here. So lately I have tried to look around a bit more, and really witness where I am. It’s so magically different from the west coast, and it really is pretty amazing. I love the buzz here. It’s like the fantasy and sophistication of NYC combined with the more charming and everyday British sensibility. I love being on the cutting edge, in a city that is at the peak of it’s game, but still being able to live a normal life.

I love going down to the local coffee house on Portobello Road on Saturday morning and watching the tourists and thinking “hell yeah, I am a local!”

I love the fact that I am used to hearing an English accent, to the point that an American one jars me a bit. I love reading the free papers on the tube, and checking in on the latest with Kate Moss/Girls Aloud/Amy Winehouse/etc…

I love my job in the London digital world…where people work hard and have a lot of passion, but also know how to have fun and seem to prize the fact that I am eclectic. In fact, I think I really like being the crazy/eclectic/outgoing/sassy American. I probably enjoy standing out a bit, but also feeling like I belong.

That’s how I feel in London.

2nd LRG Bout!

Tomorrow is the second London Rollergirls bout, and I am pretty damn excited! My usual experience is that on a second outing, the attendance tends to go down a bit. But momentum in London is obviously rolling, because we are pretty much sold out already! I think we are going to surpass our capacity from our first sell out bout, and have to turn away people at the door. We need a bigger venue!! Our capacity right now is 499, which includes crew and skaters....I think ideally we need something that fits twice that, but London real estate and venues are just madly rare and expensive.

Anyway I am having anxiety dreams and making lists in my head during the night in prep...and I am not even skating. Since my knee is still on the mend, I decided to sit this one out and instead I will be announcing the bout and acting as press liason. Yeah, big stretch I am sure.

I can't wait!!

Need some warm sun!

So I basically had the flu all of Christmas. I managed to just about make it to 10:30 on Christmas day, at which point I collapsed into bed with the shivers and shakes. At least I had a nice Christmas dinner and a whole ton of champagne first. Dating Tom has made me a champers girl....how very London City of me...

Anyhoo....I managed to drug my way through New Years eve, and then spent it on the couch with a relapse. Another great NYE. Oh well.

And now I am back in the office, having started my new job! That's right, I just officially became a full time employee of Grand Union, which is where I have been freelancing until now. They lured me in with a new position/promotion: Group Project Director. So now I have a new title to add to the old resume. I am pretty excited actually. I think it will be a great new challenge, and I really love the people here, so it's a good environment. Plus we are moving to swank new office right near Oxford Circus in a few months, so that means major shopping opportunities at lunch! (Bonus, of course!)

But all that aside, I am definitely looking forward to a visit to LA in February. Thankfully logic has won over, and instead of going to the snow in Bend, I am now going to Mexico for a week. Hooray! I need some sunshine bad....

It will be fun to show Tom LA too...and make him eat spicy Mexican food, which as a true Englishman, he will probably hate.

:)

Roller Derby and Tom

Honestly the only reason I don’t blog more often is because of the picture optimization! Anyways….so what is going on with me now?

Well, let’s start with roller derby. Unfortunately, I have sustained another injury. A few weeks ago at practise I took a hard block and ran into some wooden benches at the side of the hall. My knee is messed up and I am currently awaiting an MRI. I may have torn the lateral meniscus of my left knee, but I am hoping that I will be able to skate once the surrounding tissue heals. Meanwhile, I have resorted to swimming. The league is going awesome though. London Rollergirls (LRG) has really grown leaps and bounds since I first got here in April. Along with two other girls, I was recently elected as one of the league directors, so I am right in the thick of things. We have garnered a lot of publicity, a ton of new recruits, and the skating is looking really good. We should have the opportunity to play some travel games soon, and may even have some visitors from overseas…ooooo!

BAD LEFT KNEE

On September 8th, just before my euro trip, we staged our first expo bout. That was pretty fricken awesome. It was the first roller derby bout in the UK, and it went great…we even sold out our venue. My team didn’t win, but who cares because it was all about the league. We split into Team Pink and Team Black – in honour of our league colors, and we dragged Bikini Killer back from Detroit to play on Team Black, since she spent all summer with us helping the league grow. A few pics:

TEAM PINK!

MY BOOTY


PIVOT


FAIL


AND FINALLY.....VIDEO!!

What else is new? Well I am once again in a relationship. I kept saying I didn’t plan on coming to the UK to get involved with another Brit…been there done that, etc….but I suppose that was a bit silly really. I am in the UK, so it’s likely that I would end up dating here, right? So I met this guy named Tom, who is the housemate of one of my work friends. He came to my Notting Hill Carnival after party, and Francisco gave him the seal of approval (F was here visiting for carnival). We have pretty much been dating every since, and are now definitely in a “relationship”. He should be coming with me to the US in February, so some of you can meet him then. What is he like? Hmm….well he doesn’t really like roller derby, he works in the “city” doing high net worth tax consulting for a big 6 accounting firm, he is very English, he talks “posh”, he votes Tory, he wears a lot of suits, he has blue eyes and light brown hair, he is 6’4”, and he is a bit younger than me. ;) People say we are very different, but somehow it seems to be working out nicely.

POOR JET LAGGED TOM AT A DERBY EVENT -
ASLEEP ON THE COUCH AS LRG DIRECTOR
SLICE ANDICE AND HER HUBBY REF BALLISTIC
WHISTLE GIVE HIM A GOOD DERBY TREATMENT

So probably in part because I have someone to spend it with, and also because of the ticket prices, I have decided to stay in London for xmas. I will have Christmas dinner with friends and Tom, and just enjoy the wintery goodness of a London xmas. Shame I can’t ice skate because of my knee.

Instead of coming back in December, I am planning a visit in February. I was hoping to get some sun at my dad’s place in Mexico, but it looks like I will be heading to LA and Bend, OR instead. Oh well, I’ll get plenty of heat in August at Rollercon 2008.

Eurotrip 2007

God, I feel like a blog slacker…..

So yeah, obviously I have had a crazy few months. After my little visit to the US, I was back for mucho carnival, derby, and Eurotrip madness. So this blog will be about EuroTrip 2007 – ‘cause those are the pictures I finally uploaded last night. 

First off, my brother/mom/her boyfriend arrived in London. That was fun, since they got to see where I was living, and I got to introduce Kalon to Europe. We had a few days in London before we took the Eurostar train over to Paris.



Paris was good, but I wasn’t enthralled. I have been there several times before so none of it was new for me. We also had a few annoying encounters with taxi drivers that left me seething and cursing the Parisians as a whole. We got tired of walking around, and ended up doing L’Open Tour bus, which turned out to be great! My French language skills started to come out again, as they always do when I am in France. 5 years of high school and university French and I cant actually speak it….but when I am surrounded by it, I realize I know more than I think. I often end up being the one who has to communicate with the locals for the family.

My mom and Don and Kalon enjoyed seeing the sights…a first for them. We had few amazing meals – with a friend of the family, and also with my Aunt Linda, Aunt Carol, Uncle Brent, and cousin Morgan – who we met in Paris. Kalon and I ended up trawling the streets later in the evenings. We really enjoyed the café culture, although were constantly shocked by how expensive cocktails were.

Highlights of Paris:

Jardin du Luxembourg

Drunk guy on the street (broke a bottle on my foot and made me bleed!)

Cathedral’s by night….then watching the quad skaters do their thing on the bridge
(sadly forgot to take pics)

And then to the countryside……….

We had a gîte rental in the village of Busserolles in the Dordogne countryside for a week with the whole family. I was woefully inadequate with the pics of people and the actual place we stayed, but I got lots of scenery. We stayed here: http://www.lamaillerie.net/ -- which is the gîte property that my mom’s former computer consultant bought with her partner. Tanya, Lisa, and Cole were great hosts and we had a fun time sitting around the fire pit by the waterfall and drinking lots of wine and ale with them. We sat around a lot, read The Dirt (Motley Crue book), ate some amazing food, and generally relaxed with the family.

Highlights of the Dordogne:

Birthday lunch at the Ferme Auberge “Les Forges de la Valade”
5 courses and champagne for my 34th birthday

The AMAZING Go Kart track

The beautiful town of Brantôme

Before the week was up, Kalon and I packed up our bags and headed back to Paris to pick up our friend Paul for the rest of our Eurotrip. Relaxing time was over, and it was back to party mode. We had Eurail passes, which were awesome. When you get a Eurail pass as an adult, it’s automatically first class. You still have to pay for the reservations on each train, but it’s totally worth it. So we picked up Paul at the Gare du Nord in Paris and hopped our Thalys train to Amsterdam. Had a great time on the train, chatting to a French woman and indulging in the free alcohol.



We arrived in Amsterdam and figured out how to take a train to our lovely budget hotel….the infamous Hans Brinker. This place has a bar and nightclub on location and is full of young party seekers. Our room was pretty funny….three single size beds with nothing else except a full size school locker each. Klassy. Beer was cheap though. And they have great ads.





Amsterdam is pretty cool. This is a city I have always wanted to visit, and it didn’t disappoint. The weather, unfortunately, was crap…so I would like another visit in the summer time in the future. I think this is a city that lends itself well to short sleeved shirts and riding bikes in the sun, so that’s how I want to experience it next time. Anyways…the city is quite charming, with the tall old buildings – complete with hooks at the gable tips to haul furniture and goods up into the houses out of the canals.



Kalon and Paul wanted to check out a coffee shop – otherwise known as the place you can buy weed – so we headed to the red light district and a well recommended spot. Can I just say….the red light district of Amsterdam is a surreal experience. The reality of scantily clad women behind glass walls just waiting to be engaged for paid sex is odd at best. Walking around and making eye contact with these ladies gave me a really weird feeling. I can imagine it’s totally different for guys, but for me I was just astounded by the obviousness of it all. Men and woman certainly are different. Anyway, certainly worth a stroll, at the very least…

So we went to the coffee shop and I had a laced cookie which did nothing for me except make me more sleepy. This is why I hate pot – and all drugs to be fair. But yeah, pot is just not for me. Never liked it, never will. Kalon wasn’t too keen either. He didn’t get much out of it that night, and had an experience the next day that really put him off it. I practically had to drag him out of a coffee house before he collapsed. Think I’ll stick to my drugs of choice: sugar and alcohol. Oh we did meet a vacationing couple in the coffee shop that was from Boston. WICKED accents too. Good times.





So the rest of the Amsterdam visit was good. I did a few culture things, including the Anne Frank Huis. That was pretty amazing for me, since I have been wanting to see it for a long long time. In middle school I became slightly obsessed with reading accounts of holocaust survivors, and I think the Anne Frank diary started it. Going through the house was like putting a mental picture into reality. I felt like I knew the people and the house already, because of all the reading. I was affected by it, and I am glad I took the opportunity to go.

I really liked the vibe of Amsterdam. I felt very comfortable there. Even though it’s Europe, and totally different from the US, I felt that as a casual liberal urban west coast girl I really fit in. Everyone seemed really chill and open minded and creative and just nice. I definitely want to go back. Plus, they all speak English.

And so on to Munich…our last stop.

Paul and Kalon and I boarded the ICE train (first class, with our own private cabin, natch) and headed to Munchen via Frankfurt. We were heading to Oktoberfest. Beer and pretzels called.

Scuzzi!

Back when Kalon worked at Accenture, he was on a training course with a great English gal named Victoria. They became friends, and over the years Victoria and her husband Alexander had visited Los Angeles a few times. Luckily for us, Alex is from Munich, and his family still lives there. So we were heading into Oktoberfest with some great local hosts, which proved to be a great benefit. We also met up with Wen, who flew in from Los Angeles to meet us.

We didn’t know what to expect when we arrived, but were immediately taken in by the Hurth family and given the royal guest treatment. A traditional Bavarian welcome dinner, followed by a sleep in a wonderful hotel next door to the family home, and the next morning we were ready to enter the Hippodrom tent for the official opening of Oktoberfest.

I was SO jealous of all the people in traditional costume. It was really impressive to see all the Bavarian pride and culture on display. Next time I am bringing a dirndl for sure! What can I say about Oktoberfest?! It was amazing. We spent the entire day in the beer hall…drinking liters of the good stuff, singing traditional songs, dancing, and just having a grand old time. I would go back any year for sure.

Alex and Vic

the Hippodrome

Beer me!

Hold on, still drinking!

Calf warmers, y’all!

Totally stole this cookie...

Drunk German biker dudes (the fat one tried to pull me…eww)

So if a day in the beer tents wasn’t enough, we had more Bavarian fun! The next day the Hurth family took us out to Lake Chiemsee (aka the Bavarian Sea) and the foot of the Alps. It was absolutely beautiful. We took a ferry to an island on the lake, where mad King Ludwig built a small replica of Versailles.

The Lake

Mini Versailles

Then we drove up into the hills overlooking the lake, and checked out the Hurth family property, where they are building a charming vacation home. The land has a beautiful view of Lake Chiemsee on one side, and the Alps on the other. What a great place…



Our day ended with a sunny spell in a biergarten at the foot of the Alps, drinking some cloudy wheat beer and taking in the Bavarian countryside. I think it’s safe to say that Bavaria and Munich were the highlight of the trip. Alex’s family was amazing, and we just had the best time with them. His mother only speaks German and French, so I found my French language skills getting better and better very rapidly. I could completely follow the conversation, and was able to pipe up every now and then. I think I really want to take French classes again, and become fluent.

I loved Munich, and definitely want to go back and check out more of the city. Also, the Bavarian culture and people were really charming. It felt totally different from the rest of Germany…and I hadn’t realized how much they are their own culture before I had a chance to see it for myself.

And so back to London…..a long day of first class trains and we ended up back at my flat in Notting Hill. The boys were in town for a few days, mainly because Kalon and Paul missed their return flight. (I came home to find them drinking a case of Stella and eating steak and chicken pies….good British day)

And that, my friends, was Eurotrip 2007 in all its glory.

Next blog: Notting Hill Carnival, London Rollergirls Expo Bout, and the new boyfriend…

P.S. if you getting this via email...make sure you check out the pics if they dont come through...just go to the actual blog page