Happy Birthday Paul! (Veitch)

Happy Birthday mate! We hope you had a good one with Janine and Jamie treating you like a king for the day.

Honestly, we hope you have a good one and that you have many more good years to come. We look forward to celebrating with you next year.

Thanksgiving......!?

Thanksgiving…..? I know it seems a bit strange for a Greek / New Zealand couple to be celebrating Thanksgiving but hey, that’s just how multicultural we are becoming!

Our friends (Olga, Geoff and Ellie) happen to be from Chicago (USA) so they invited us (along with some of their friends who flew in for the weekend) to a festive day of a huge turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, candied yams, mashed potatoes, and a spinach / broccoli bake (our nod to 5 veg-a-day).

The feast was finished off with traditional pumpkin and apple pies and washed down with some red vino.

A few hours later (once we had recovered a bit) Geoff ran me through the rules of “American football”, during coverage of the annual Thanksgiving games.

All and all a fabulous day, with good food and even better friends. I think this is a holiday we could easily get used too….

29 going on....(Part Two)

After Tuesday’s birthday surprises I was rather excited in anticipation of what may lay ahead for the evening. All I knew was that I needed to be ready by 4pm, which allowed for a very short gym workout before we were heading east on the tube.

To my obvious surprise we got off at Leicester Square (Piccadilly Line). At this point I did wander if we may have been going to a show…and before I’d realised we’d stumbled upon “Avenue Q”. http://www.avenueqthemusical.co.uk/ This mainly Muppet character lead show had had rave reviews and it certainly lived up to them all.

The fantastic music and somewhat risqué script had us laughing in shock at times but nevertheless the show was a hit with us and brownie points for Grigoria too.

From the show we walked through Covent Garden to Holborn, by which time I had no idea what was next, caught the Central line (west bound) and got off at Notting Hill. If I didn’t know better I would’ve thought that we were doing an evening on the tubes!

All I know now was that we were a little too early for the next surprise and we would be stopping for a drink before, so we walked down around Notting Hill / Portobello area for a quick cocktail in Eclipse bar. http://www.eclipse-ventures.com/nottinghill.html

Some 45minutes later and a little light in the head (Wow those cocktails are strong…) we walked (this walking was becoming a theme) further west along some of the very nice streets of Notting Hill only to stumble across our friends Olga & Geoff! I did suspect that they possibly could have been joining us at some point and I was very pleased they did.

The final surprise was obviously our restaurant and the only one I knew of in this area was the Notting Hill Grill by top British chief Anthony Warren Thompson.
http://www.awtrestaurants.com/nottinggrill/, which had been one of my ideas for Grigoria’s birthday.

After another short drink (cokes for Grigoria & I – those cocktails Wow) we were seated in there upstairs dinning area. Generally the restaurant is not sold as very posh place but more that they source the best British meat in town, but still it was very nice.

With a few starters, we tucked into steaks followed by a nice New Zealand (Tasmen Bay) wine, the company was perfect, the experience great and the whole birthday a well planned and executed series of surprises.

Easily one of the best birthdays I’ve had, I guess it’s not too bad turning 29!

Anshen + Allen: London: Party

Up until recently I had been employed by Anshen Dyer, which was made up of a partnership between both a UK and an American (San Francisco) practice.

However after 14 years of collaboration the company’s desires had changed and the American practice (Anshen + Allen) lead a buy out of the London studio.

Well last night our studio hosted a party for clients, friends and staff to launch the new
A+A London office.

It was amazing to see the transformation with a cocktail bar brought in, guest lectures from US professionals (filmed), US directors, watercolour artists, a scientific instruments exhibition and a rare sight of some beautiful sculptures.


Once the numerous speeches had finished the champagne flowed and the night rocked on with our resident band and DJ lighting up the dance floor.

29 going on.........(Part One)

To my surprise and almost shock I awoke this morning to my 29th birthday. Although there wasn’t any visible difference, apparently I am (and have been for some time) 29 going on to…an old man!

Nevertheless, Grigoria had a few surprises for me with croissants for breakfast, followed by a gift or two (one kindly given from her parents).
Not to mention the gift from my parents, which by rights, I was allowed to open on Monday evening (time difference).

Then we headed off to work before a secretly planned dinner later at night.

When we met for the dinner, all I knew was that we were going for some tapas…or McDonalds was
also mentioned! But after a short walk from Baker Street Tube we came across The Providores and Tapa Rooms (http://www.theprovidores.co.uk/).

I was really shocked, as I always wanted to go there, given that it is a rather famous kiwi establishment by head chef Peter Gordon.

If you didn’t already know that it was a kiwi restaurant, it wasn’t hard to guess with the big Tapa hanging on the wall.
The kiwi / Asian fusion menu was a real delight of flavours with very simple and yet finely finished meals.

I think Grigoria enjoyed her raisin brownie with yogurt the most and my favourite was the kumara square with sour cream washed down with some great New Zealand reds.

Then before bed Grigoria had one final surprise with a rather delightful birthday cake (or bunt!).

So for my birthday (Part One) I had a great day…I can’t wait until part two on Saturday!

41 – 20, Enough Said!

As we are both (obviously) New Zealand rugby fans, it was pleasing to watch the All Blacks beat their old foes England on Sunday.

To be honest I think I’m the fan and Grigoria watches to keep me happy…In return, I get to support the Greek football team!

So now we’ve pushed aside England, there’s a harder challenge this weekend against France..