Love/Love – An Equal Match.

Kim and decided this weekend to try our luck at tennis. Yes, we’re watching Wimbledon but the real inspiration is the nice weather and our newly found tennis rackets. Saturday we hiked over to the park – a whole 5 minute walk, took out our six tennis balls,  and startiing batting balls over the net toward each other or at the other tennis players on the court (Well, I don’t know if you could call anyone a tennis player on those courts but there were certainly some people out there giving it their best shot while enjoying the warm and windy weather. I swear it always feel like Mary Poppins is about the blow in. good She didn’t as we probably woudl have pegged her with a tennis ball!), onto the other courts, outside the tennise court gate, onto the cricket field next door… you get it. We were rusty.

We actually got a 15 ping volley in by the end of the two hours. Since then we’ve gone at least 20 at a time. It’s just so great to get outside and do something physical with it being walking or running.

After having done several couples sporting activities; ball room dancing – which went ok but he was too good; yoga – really nice but really that’s a singular sport; biking-we can’t talk to each other. You all know how much we both love to talk to, at and over each other…So tennis is by default – a natural choice. It has us running around the court, enjoying the outdoors,  and talking about why the ball wound up hittng the gate once again – the wind? bad back hand? couldn’t run fast enough? some other ball flew into the court during our one 5 toss volley.

We have found a fun sport that we are both good enough at to enjoy. My back hand is improving. Kim’s serve is inproving. We’ve played three times in the last 4 days. The first day for 2 hours! I actually got color. If that’s even possible here in England. I felt the two hours of playing for about 12 hours afterwward. It’s good though. I am enjoying the fast sprints and the twisting. You twist alot when going for ball on either side of you coming at a rapid speed. I won’t say fast but rapid.

We are a tennis match. Well, we play a good tennis match. We match when we play tennis? I have met my match but isn’t that what this whole blog is about anyway…?

 

 

Kim and Beth Magin – Anniversary #1

KimandBeth.JPG, originally uploaded by The Magins.

Here we are, the Magins just one year later to the day or our wedding (the photo is, it’s 14 days later now!). We spent June the 8th, our wedding anniversary, meandering the streets of Canterbury in England with Kim’s Mom, Connie. Canterbury is beautiful, click here to see. Have a look through the photos and tell me if you think it’s just as funny as I to see a Subway down the street from a major historical 18th century wall!? We stuck with the old and went to a traditional pub for food. Kim had bangers and mash (sausages, onion and mashed potatoes.) Connie and I had a traditional Sunday roast, which is basically turkey day dinner fixings. very yummy!

Just prior to our visit to Canterbury we went to a wild animal park where we saw a host of animals from apes to tigers to lemurs and anteaters. The man who runs the sanctuary breeds the animals and then puts them back in their natural habitat. My favorite part of the park was the apes. Monkeys have always been my favorite animals and these apes were amazing! They had a lot of character and seemed genuinely happy to be living where they were, which makes me happy.

Here is a link to Cornwall as well. We went twice in April and I am just getting a chance to post the photos. Cornwall is a beautiful beach filled county of England. It’s about as far as San Fran is from Los Angeles but there are allot fewer things to see along the way. I slept for most of the car rides there and back. Kim likes it as it’s the best place for surfing in England. The surf was good the second trip we went down. My favorite photo is the pheasant crossing the road. What a bold bird! Also take note, our trip was two weeks apart. The first few photos I was wearing a winter hat and the last few photos we were wearing t-shirts and jeans. The weather in England is Schizo!

Is this a blog?

I have been treating this like a space to store photos. If I don’t have a photo I don’t write a post. I don’t know what my excuse has been the past two months as now I have so many photos to post and so many things to say that I feel I’m over flowing with information to update you with!

Needless to say.. I’ve been busy. Having a full time job is quite a reality check. It made me realize how EASY my life really was in LA. Life here isn’t hard. I just think life is easier when I have more of my own time. I have very little time to myself here. In LA I worked about thirty hours a week with very little commute time. I am now working about 10 hours a day and I have a two hour commute each way. Wow! after adding that up I am really realizing how little time I do have to myself.  At least those 50 hours of work are paying off and I enjoy the folks i work with as well as the work I am doing. Recruiting is turning out to be a lot of fun. Kim and I have had the chance to travel and do some really fun things in and around London on those days we do have off.

We went to Cornwall for his birthday in mid April. He loves to surf and the best surf is in Cornwall. It’s a 5 hour drive down to the most western point of the UK. There is actualy a place called Lands End that has signs every where saying the “first and last place you’ll eat in the UK”, “the first and last place your mail arrives and leaves” the UK. Corny. Maybe that’s why they call it Cornwall, or maybe that was just a cheap shot on my part at a play on words. It is an easier and less bustling lifestyle, you are eaither a surfer or you cater to toursit for the 3 short months it’s actually warm and somewaht sunny in the UK.

Sun. I am beginning to wonder what that is and so is my pasty white skin. Kim actually said to me the other day. “I thought your natural skin tone was darker than than you are now. Are you really Italian?”  Yes, I have completely lost my sun kissed, I live in LA on the beach, glow. It’s warm here, at least, but I just wish the sun would crack through the clouds for more than 10 minutes a day and not for 10 minutes while I’m inside working or traveling on the Tube.

We then got the chance to go back to Cornwall for a the bank holiday weekend the weekend directly after his birthday weekend. Kim’s friend Sean and his family and us headed back to coast for some more sun and surf catching. We actually caught both on more than one day. It was amazing…

We also had the chance to witness the London Marathon. It brought up a few butterflies but more so  alot of admiration for the runners. I don’t ever want to run another marathon but I still get so excited at running events. Showing up the day of the event is about 5% of the effort. It’s the day to day training that leads to the actual run that makes the event so special and hopefully injury free.

My sister and Steve also visited for a week in May. I was so happy to see them both. They did alot of exploring around London on their own but we did take them to see some castles outside of London and to Stone Henge and Bath to see the old Roman baths. They said they had a blast. We did too. Thanks for taking a trip across the US and the pond to see us. You are welcome anytime!

I am currently promoting a new yoga class that I start teaching in July. Just one class, one hour each week. If it takes off, maybe I’ll add another. You can go to oneyoga.wordpress.com for more details about the class or… just see have a look through thoughts on yoga. I created the yoga blog last summer when I created this one but haven’t been super active with it since I’ve been working.

I go to work each day at the same time. Take the same train and even wind up walking behind the same person at the train change at Balham station. But one thing each morning that does change is the wildlife outside my bedroom window. One morning I saw a frog sort of jumping up and down. I thought it was but it was actually being attached by a crow who was picking it up and dropping it to prepare it for his breakfast  that morning. I eventually saw  the crow fly off with the frog.

Then I saw a family of foxes hanging out one day in the sun. Again, the sun rose and was shining but I had to shower! There were three baby foxes in my neighbors backyard rolling around and hiding behind the bushes and piles of wood and trees. One was off exploring more and the other two were playing more. It was really fun to see. The mom just layed around catching some sun. Smart lady! I actually woke my my sister for the event. She was so happy I did that she woke Steve up to see it too.

Another morning I saw a couple of ducks hanging out on the roof of one of the garages behind my house. They are probably from the park just down the road but they are happy on the roof as they don’t have to share the buffet of food the roof seems to provide. I’ve never seen a duck eat so much and for so long. Plus, there was a little puddle of water they were splashing around in up there. Excuse me that must be the sauna not a puddle. Sort of like a penthouse for ducks. Very exclusive. Members only.

Pictures are on there way. Some new videos as well. Enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think of them or just what you’re thinking in general.

Snow in our front yard!

Snow in our front yard!, originally uploaded by The Magins.

Today we woke up to a winter wonderland! The last time I checked it was April here in London and we didn’t see a drop of this white stuff called snow all winter. It is pretty and amazing and beautiful but the ducks in the park all have baby eggs they’re incubating at the moment and the wild flowers in the park and the gardens of many of the English are in full bloom. I hope this doesn’t effect them too harshly.

Plus, while writing this I’m sitting in front of a big picture window and watching the direction of the snow change by the minute. The wind just like the weather we’ve been having can’t make up its mind which way to go! This week it was too hot to even have a jacket on.

Life in England changes like the wind and weather as well. One day it’s calm and and almost boring, other days it’s blustery and exciting. Most days it’s gray like skies above.

Have a beautiful Sunday no matter where in the world you are!

The Portugese flag…

The portugese flag…, originally uploaded by The Magins.

Portugal… ahhhh…Portugal- want to see photos click twice on the flag above.

For four short and three short nights. Why short..? The vacation wasn’t long enough. I could have used about four months and 3 days in Portugal. It was not only a beautiful city for it’s weather but the people were friendly and thankfully very clever with language as we’re not! Everyone spoke English except other tourist from other parts of Europe other than England. We asked a Polish guy for directions. He looked Portuguese!

We started our holiday in Oporto where we landed on Friday at 9AM. Yes, we were up at 2AM to catch a flight out at 6AM. Long day! Its’ amazing the energy that can be extracted from mild, warm, sunny weather. We traveled down the coast stopping in little villages along the way. Click on the photos above for a description of the sites we saw that day and throughout the whole trip. We went a bit picture crazy so be prepared to see the whole of Lisbon and it’s coastal towns and sites!

Once we arrived in Lisbon, the women whom rented an apartment to us picked us up and took us into the Alfama section of Lisboa. It’s close to the water and the oldest part of the city. She now lives in an old pension that has been a part of her family for 3 generations. She and her siblings have split the house up and are living in it and renting bits of it out as well. We had a really nice stay so I’d say she’s at the start of a successful rental business.

That night we went out for a walk around our neighborhood and found a very yummy restaurant that served a mean salmon and some pretty tasty shrimp (prawns for you Europeans out there). We were exhausted not only from our travels but from all the hills sides we went up and down to get to the restaurant. We retired super early as we had a lot planned for the next day in the city of Lisbon.

We ate a little breakfast at home and marched straight to the castle in town. It was good we got there at 9:30-10 as when we walked out at 11. There was a line down the road to get in. We left there and stared down the hill into the city center. Along the way we found a really fun restaurant that we made reservations at for 10PM. See the photos of Chipotle. That gave us the whole day to see all the sites described in these photos.

The next day we set off to outside the city towards a coastal town called Cascais. The map here shows you where we drove and the photos tell a great story of the sites we saw.

Kim got to go surfing. I got to see the ocean. I miss it. We both got to eat another fabulous seafood and steak meal in Sintra. Many of the wealthy that live and work in Lisbon year round have a holiday retreat in Sintra. These days many wealthy people from all corners of Europe now have a holiday retreat here.

We continued to explore Sintra on Monday and then sadly had to drive north once again to catch our flight back to London. I was happy to get back to London but sad to leave the sunny weather. That would have to be my biggest gripe with living here. Otherwise I am enjoying my job, I am meeting new people and Kim and I are always doing something new and fun.

Along Thames River

Along Thames River, originally uploaded by The Magins.

Is is already February? I can’t believe how time passes here. I do think there is a faster pace here in London. Sort of like that do or you’ll never do it attitude. The job I have at the moment requires that attitude or you miss out on the right people to fill the right position. There are so many people doing what I do in London!

I have, however, been inspired to write several time over the month of January and just didn’t make the time to sit down and do it. But events yesterday, and it seems today is going to be a repeat, forced me to sit and get it on the web.

England isn’t as cold and wet and gray as every says. I’ve been noticing that over the past few months. No, it’s not sunny California but it is pretty mild here most days. It never gets so cold that I have to wear a hat or else…. I can remember those kind of days in the North east of the US; Montreal and Plattsburgh, NY and even Albany, NY in the winters were freezing. There were no signs of new life, sometimes, until almost April. I have photos of girls lying out next to 6 foot high snowbanks in P-burgh! Luckily London is a bit more forgiving in the weather department and it’s been pretty warm and most days the sun does peep it’s head through the clouds at least for a few hours. There are flowers already budding in the parks and even in our garden.

The English do appreciate the weather when it is pleasant. So many people were out and about taking walks, riding bikes, running or just sitting outside instead of inside at the pubs. Funny how the place quiets as night falls and the suns sets. It never felt that way to me in America. There is always seems to be a buzz about the place no matter what time of day it was. I feel it actually slow down here. On the real cold and somewhat gray days it never seems to have any kind of pace or kinetic feel at all.

We took a bike ride to Kew Gardens yesterday. There are so many amazing parks in England. They all have their unique draw. This one in particular is special because they have large green houses over 100 years old where trees and plants from all over the world can grow from all over year year round. It was so hot and tropical one of the houses. I loved it! They should have a tiki bar and a beach area inside. They’d have my business every weekend!

We also had the chance to drive today. I am now used to being on the other side of the road from all the bike riding I’ve done since moving here. I have payed attention while Kim drives us around town on various occasions and well I took I took the wheel with confidence and actually had fun while doing it. I miss driving my zippy focus on the highways of LA. That freedom of knowing your ride is just outside the door of your destination. I like riding the trains most days. I get to read and not worry about road rage but really it takes so much time out of your day as there is walking and train travel to factor in between each point of arrival. Sometimes the trains aren’t as reliable as we need them to be either.

January was a blast! I went to my very first Pantomime. (This is worth a look as it really better explains what it better than I can.) This is a show that every English kid goes to before the age of ten at least. It is not a bunch of actors dressed up in black and white miming on the stage. It’s not a mime. It’s a Pantomime. Old fairy tales, like Jack In The Beanstalk, which we saw, are turned into a comedy of errors by using funny props and the characters that are male are usually played by females and vice verse. They do jokes for adults and for kids. Audience participation in is encouraged and is constantly being provoked through the characters on the stage. Our friend Simon directed it so we got to go behind the scenes after the play. I would love to show you the photos but they are on my blackberry and I can’t seem to get them from that digital medium to my apple. So you’ll just have to come visit us (hint, hint, bribe, bribe…) to see them.

January was also my 34 birthday. I don’t really feel any older, with so many new things going on around me how can I? I think that’s the key to everlasting youth. Keep like fresh and new and you’ll never feel old and stale. Last year I was lounging on a beach in South Africa. This year… I was lounging at a spa in Bath, England. Bath used to be the place the Romans would bath at he natural hot springs that are still bubbling up in their original place. We did a tour of the original bath’s after going to the not so natural but still very luxurious Thermae Spa in Bath. It was constructed about three years ago. It has a roof top hot pool with bubbly sauna incorporated into the large pool that overlooks beautiful Bath. The steam room with four large steam capsules was a fabulous place to sweat out all worries and stress and then the bottle floor has a large wading pool, again warm and cozy. The spa is coed so you wear bathing suits around everywhere. I did get a massage when the day started and that allowed me access to a special quiet room in a section of the spa that no one else was really in. I think most people just come for a an hour or so to sit in the pools. Kim then took me to the pump room for lunch which is an old Victorian type looking room with a live piano player. The food was fantastic and they even have a fresh spring of water you can drink from.

In the beginning of the month I got the chance to see my friend and old hairdresser from LA in her hometown in North London. Claire came to visit her family here in England. She has been in LA for over 15 years now. It was so good to connect with such an amazing person and super friend.

We also went to a charity event with my friend Merritt. She lives about a 5 minute walk from my work now in London. She lives in a very funky area of London and we went to a building called the TEA building for the event. Funny as I’ll be going to that same building this week to meet with a new client. The event was good, there was wine tasting and local artists work on display and for auction there. The DJ was pretty bad but at least it was for a good cause.

Happy New Year!

Wow! How time flies when you’re having fun! I have now been a recruiter for two months. Do I like it? hmmm….. it’s good. It more than pays the bills and well i feel I’m learning yet more about myself. Very important in my opinion to any task you take on.  I’m slowly fulfilling my new year’s resolution as well. Bringing in cash.

Kim and I went home to America for the holiday. My new work gave me Dec. 21 through the 2nd off! Yahooo! They are very kick-back at the office. Thank god cause they have an amateur working for them. They, Andy and Dave, have been very helpful and are teaching me a ton. I even have a peer. Gary, he’s the other recruiter who is also an entreprenuer at heart, like myself, and decided to get a job, like myself. He has been on for about three months longer than me. He’s very sweet and funny!

The process of recruiting is interesting as it’s a system and you have to do it over and over. Then you may get a product/result. The only problem with this process is the human factor. You and I both know how that can cause unsolvable issues. Global Warming- need I say more?

Speaking of.. there are more unprecedented floods in the UK and the warm f the sun is wonderful but peculiar this time of year.  I miss the sun of LA but maybe people people will be flocking to the UK for warm, sunny vacations.

More to come in the coming days. Just wanted to re-connect with my dedicated blog watchers and keep those looking for something new to read in blog world.

10-4 good buddy as they say in America not the UK as I learned at the office the other day.

Bayo’s Going Away Party….

IMG_1579.JPG, originally uploaded by The Magins.

Bayo’s is one of Kim’s work buds. He is leaving the company after working there for 5 years! He is taking a two month trip to America where he’ll be visiting friends and family.

You can click on the photo above or here to see the photos from his VERY FUN going away bash!

Good luck and have fun during your travels Bayo!

Thanks for looking the shots!

Thanks for looking the shots!, originally uploaded by The Magins.

This year Thanksgiving was spent in London with friends from all corners of the earth. Austria, South Africa, America, Australia were all represented by unique, fun, silly and intelligent folks.

Jen, my best bud from the states is a newly transplanted Czech expat. She and I actually did a very traditional English past time our traditional Turkey Day. We went for high tea at a very fancy hotel in London. Our coats were taken at the door. Sort of the way you valet your car in LA. You just assume you’re going to get them back when you leave! We were escorted in to our reserved table for two in front of the fire. The hotel had a historic feel about it but was modern in it’s service and presentation. We were asked the type of tea we’d like to drink and told the three tier snack plate we were given could be refilled at anytime. A buffet English style! The bottom tier had crust-less sandwiches of all sorts, cucumber and cream cheese, salmon and chives, tomato and cheddar to name a few. The second tier had scones which they gave us clotted cream (click on the word for a good description of this) and jam to put on them. Then we ate the most delicious desserts sitting on top that we barely finished! We don’t know how we felt so full when the sandwiches were no larger then our first two fingers put together! I guess the tea is filling.

We then decided to take a walk before dinner and found a street fair where they were blowing real looking man made snow into the crowded streets below. Kids were catching snowflakes on their tongues. All the shops were open late and serving drinks and sweets. We had already had enough to eat and were on our way to dinner anyway! We then met Kim for some dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in the city and then drove north to pick up or two house guests from Austria, Dominik and Robert.

Friday Jen and I went shopping with Dominik and Robert and then we met up with Kim for dinner at the house later that night. Dominik tried on new some hats and Jen decided to use the train to take a nap!

Saturday was Turkey Day. My Australian friend Renee, and Kim’s friends from SA who came with their son Jonny experienced their first Turkey Day dinner at our home. Everything came out well and Jonny tried his hand at photography. See the photos here.

Sadly the visit came to an end on Sunday and we had to take our three lovely house guests back to the airport to catch their flights home.

Hope to see you all again soon – Merry Christmas!

Diving the Maldives Islands

Sea Scene III, originally uploaded by The Magins.

FINALLY… our underwater experiences are on the blog! The pictures speak for themselves.

Enjoy.