Thanksgiving, Sussex style

Our friends Duane and Sara host a really special Thanksgiving meal event every few years, and we got onto their invite list last time around, so we got a repeat invite this year.  

Everybody does bring something, and Sara has it so well organized without making it seem too structured.  There are live musicians and dancing after the meal, a few speeches, and overall an overflowing feeling of warmth, love, friendship, gratitude, and joy.  We are so happy to be on their invite list and we feel very lucky to know them, and have them live just a few doors down from us.

Delightful surprise

 So there I was, casually pottering around the kitchen around mid-morning today, and I looked out the front window to see our Danish friend Ole walking down the driveway waving happily at me!  He and Bettina and their kids Casper and Ana Louisa moved back to Denmark several years ago and we hadn't heard that they were here visiting but they were! And they called in on us, which I LOVE when people do. And I'm not just saying that!  I genuinely love when people show up unannounced. Its great that we were all home and able to hang out with them for an hour or so.

Jools Holland at RAH

For Rhodri's birthday back in September, I got us tickets to go see Jools Holland live at the Royal Albert Hall.  It is such a gorgeous venue, and even though we were up in the "Rausing Circle", we had a great view.  Rhods and I hardly ever go out just the two of us, so it was special to meet in London and go out for dinner, then this show.

Weekend in Cardiff

We drove to Cardiff for the weekend to spend time with Sioned, JJ and little Gwydion. It was a great weekend all around. 

Birthday

Today was my birthday and I had a lovely, wonderful day which started with breakfast at McD's with Cat. This was a great way to start the day!

I didn't have anything actually planned for the day except that I did take the day off of work!  After breakfast I did some lounging around the house and then took Annie for a run at Birch Grove.  But before setting off, I had the idea of getting some kind of treatment so I called a new beauty salon in Forest Row and booked myself in for early afternoon.  They had beautiful wallpaper in the bathroom and I enjoyed a couple hours of "self care".  Afterwards I got a call from my gorgeous daughter who is currently up in San Francisco looking after Ripley.  It was great to hear from her.

After my treatment, I had lunch at Season's Cafe and then went to the charity shop next door to find some treasures.  In the evening Rhodri took Tryfan and me out to a surprise dinner at Ockenden Manor. 

It was a quiet dinner but very tasty and special. A great day from start to finish!

Then today (Thursday Nov 21), I went on a night hike with some of my homies - Emma B, Leigh and Liz.  We walked pretty much the same route that Annie and I had run a couple of days ago.

We ended up at the Club, where Anne Marie and Vessy joined us. It was a fun night!

Fun weekend

Rhods and I went to our friend Mel's birthday party at the Ashdown Park Hotel in a beautiful private room which was a former chapel.  The architecture is beautiful and elegant, and we had a lovely evening there with friends.

Today (Sunday) was particularly gorgeous with colorful leaves and a lovely fresh nip in the air.  Emma and I went on our normal Sunday morning dog walk. 

Stonehouse

Even though I just finished 3 days at this London conference, I spent today on the train to and from Stonehouse which is like 3.5 hours away from here!  It was the grand opening of our sister company's UK opening and I was so glad to have been there.  Here is an article about the event: 

https://www.celsiusenergy.com/us/newsroom/celsius-energy-celebrates-inauguration-of-its-demonstrator-site-in-uk/

London in the autumn sun

This week is my third conference in three weeks, and my social battery is really low!  But since this third one is in London, I have to go.  My two colleagues are joining me at this one, and that is nice to be three together so we can discuss the talks.

Murder Mystery Night

Tonight we had a really fun evening at the Danehill Club where there was a Murder Mystery Night organized.  Rhodri had been volunteered (by me - ha ha!) to play a character in the cast.  He was brilliant and it was a super fun night.  His character turned out in the end to be the murderer and that was funny too.

Rotterdam

I had a quick turnaround over the weekend Nov 1-3 where I changed my suitcase and clothing selections and headed out on Monday morning Nov 4th to take the train to Rotterdam, Netherlands.  I stayed at "The Usual" hotel along with my dear boss Ann.  We could walk to and from the conference venue and Rotterdam turns out to be a really cool city.  Beautiful lights decorated the buildings, trees and streets.  Here is a picture of a beautiful McDonalds!

One of the highlights of this trip was doing morning yoga in the basement studio of this hotel. Of course, the US election happened this week too, which didn't go the way I was hoping, but I'll refrain from further comment.

Cowboy Magic Mike

Its nice to be home and I got to help Tryfan get ready for a costume party tonight.  He went as Cowboy Magic Mike. Look at him so sweet with a rose in his mouth and a red bow tie.  He is ready to partay!

Aloha adventure - part 2

Part 1 was quite different from part 2!

But it was a privilege to be here, and it was wonderful to get to see my colleagues in person as well as meet some new people.  Here are some photo highlights... 

Actually when I first arrived, my room wasn't ready yet so I found this choice location to recline and relax.

Ann had matching shirts made for all of us in GeothermEx. Here are Jim, me, Minh, Logan, Ann, Tito and Amber (these are some of my most favorite colleagues, so that made it extra fun).

Here are Logan, Amber and me.. the 3 of us do a lot of work together remotely and it was just so great to be together.

The venue was on the edge of this lagoon that you could swim around in, so Amber and I did this on a couple of days and it was so wonderful and fun.

Here is the venue in the background

Then on Wednesday night Oct 30th I flew overnight to SFO, hung out for about 7 hours in the airport for Halloween day (saw some funny costumes and made a couple of trips to the yoga room near Gate D6), and then flew overnight to Heathrow.  Double redeye! Yikes!  It wasn't as great of a journey as the way over, but it was fine.  I was very glad to get home for the start of November.