LBC

I'm sorry I've been a little negligent in my blogging as of late.  Considering Joshua and I have had nothing to do while we are home, we sure have been finding LOTS of things to do!  Every day seems busy and filled with errands, lunches with friends, or visiting family.  And now, we only have one week left before we head off on our next big adventure to the island of Grenada.  This month has flown by.  So I guess I'll have to catch you up on what's been going on around here.

A couple of weekends ago, we took a trip down to Long Beach to visit all of my friends from college.  Josh and I also had an extreme urge to dine at our favorite italian restaurant in the world, Roman Cucina in Sunset Beach.  We called up a bunch of our friends very last minute and told them that we would be in town for a night.  And surprisingly, many of them were able to meet us for dinner.  It was so great to see so many of our closest friends and we appreciated the effort that each and every one of them made to be with us that night.  The food, as always, was amazing and the company and converstation was simply great.  I only wish that we could spend nights out with these people a little more frequently.  Unfortunately, our current "medical school, romp around the world" lifestyle won't permit that at the moment, but we are lucky that when we are in town, our friends come runnin'.



BFF's since high school: Katie, Me, Tristen, & Liz



Can't imagine my life without this girl!

The Whole Gang!

The next morning, Josh, Katie, Tristen, Liz, and I went to Schooner or Later.  It's a breakfast/lunch place on the Long Beach Marina.  If you are ever in Long Beach, CA and looking for some of the best breakfast food around, Schooner is the place to be.  Plus, it's in just about the most beautiful setting imaginable, especially when the sun is shining.

I'm so glad that Josh and I were able to make the trip to see our friends in the LBC.  I really love that city and sometimes, I can't believe that I lived there for four years.  It seems like a lifetime ago that I was there, but it's nice to know that it's only a couple hour drive away, and that everytime we do make it there, we make more and more great memories.  

So Long, Farewell, Aufwiedersehn, Goodnight

The time had to come when all the siblings would leave Newcastle. And I know, I'm quite a bit behind as they left a week ago today.  But I had to finish up my blog posts about our adventures in the UK.  They went off to Dublin, Ireland after being in London while I took the train back to Newcastle by myself.   I would have loved to have gone to Dublin with them, but I had literally just been the weekend before they arrived and felt that it was unnecessary to go there again, my money could be better spent on new and different adventures. The sibs spent two nights in Dublin and arrived back in Newcastle on Thursday morning.

They had a couple of days to spend some time in Newcastle before they flew back to LA, so I took them to my most favorite place in Newcastle that I've blogged about quite a few times, Jesmond Dene.  We strolled through the park, near the river, and enjoyed yet another sunny day in Newcastle.  It was great.

Bert, Rach, and Anna at Jesmond Dene

At the old well.

On their last night in Newcastle, we went to our favorite restaurant here in Newcastle, Francescas which is right down the street from our flat.  Kris, Tarrah, Julie, and Kevin all joined us for the evening and we had a lot of fun eating, drinking, and enjoying each others company. 

The Four Fairman Siblings

The four medical school students.

Me and the Hubs

The Whole Gang

Our buddy at the bar.

It was so much fun to have all my siblings here in the UK.  I don't think that many people get to do what we did.  Four siblings, all basically over the age of twenty, with different schedules, jobs, schools, marriage, it's amazing that we got to travel in Europe together.  I love them all so very much and I am so thankful to have the best siblings in the world.  Bert, Rachel, and Anna, I love you to death and I am so glad you guys came to visit Josh and I.  These are adventures and memories that we will talk and laugh about over holiday dinners with the family for the rest of our life.

- Remember the time when we were in Newcastle on St. Patrick's Day and we met "Mark," or "Allen," or "Ellen," or whatever his name was.
- Remember the time when we went on Edinburgh's haunted vault tour and we thought we might all pass out from the scariness of it all.
- Remember the time when we went to the whiskey factory in Edinburgh and we all took shots on the video camera and we made those hilarious faces in front of serious whiskey drinkers.
- Remember the time when we met James Buchanan on the train ride home from Scotland and he offered the girls chocolate and Bert took it and then he couldn't believe Bert's name was "Bert."
- Remember the time when we were on the train to London and we played "F*** the Dealer" without alcohol and we said the loser had to get x amount of noogies, wedgies, and credit cards as their punishment.
- Remember the time when we were walking through St. James Park and Rachel said "I can't control my bowel movements and desires." :)
- Remember the time when the server at The Shakespeare Bar in London brought Anna a "Merry Berry" aka cranberry juice after she ordered a "Bloody Mary."
- Remember the time when we walked the entire length of Hyde Park only to find a playground and all of our feet were hurting and I didn't even want to walk 3 feet to the park gate let alone to the Knotting Hill gate.
- Remember the time when all three of you came to Newcastle to visit me, and we had so much FUN together.


Let's always remember the time spent here.  Because it really was amazing.

Fajitas, Pizza, Pasta, and Chocolate Cake

This past week has not been one that my "Biggest Loser Cookbook" would be proud of, but it was a week of some yummy food. Last Thursday night I hosted Girl's Night at my flat for the SO's of Newcastle. Mexican food is hard to come by here in the UK, and so we decided that "fajita night" might be a good way to curb those cravings. I provided the chicken for the fajitas and everyone else brought something to add to the spread. We had chicken fajitas, spanish rice, beans, guacamole, chips, chocolate chip cookies, and shortbread with whipped cream. It was all soooo delicious. But what was even greater than that was that we had 10 girls here, well 11 if you count newborn baby Penelope! Such a great showing for one of our first girl's nights here in the Spring Term. It was so fun to meet all the new girls and hear about where they are from, whether they have kids, how their husbands are doing so far in school, how they are adjusting to Newcastle life, etc. The night was spent "ooing" and "ahhing" over baby Penny and eating lots and lots of amazing food. I look forward to many more nights like this. Here are a couple of pictures from the night.

Sarah G., Amberlea, Yolanda, Michelle, Christine, Julie, Louise, Me, Sara W., Sarah C., and Penny



Sarah G. getting some cuddles from baby Penny.

Mummy Sarah C, showing Penny off to Julie and Sara W.



Sara W., and Penelope

Friday nights in the Scurlock household tend to be Josh's one night off from studying. Unless finals or midterms are looming, we usually do something together on Friday night. Since Valentine's Day didn't get to include a night out because of Josh's test, we decided to go out to dinner on Friday night. Our friends Julie and Kevin who live right around the corner from us joined us at Francesca's Italian Restaurant. The restaurant is literally about a 3 minute walk down the street from our house, and until very recently, I didn't even know it existed. It is across the street from houses, in the middle of the neighborhood. The inside looks exactly how I would picture a restuarant to look in the heart of Italy. It had a very old italian, romantic feel to it, complete with checkered table clothes and italian flags. This is what it looked like inside, although I don't think everyone was thrilled that I was taking their picture. Haha.

The crazy thing about this restaurant is that not only can you not make reservations, but you also can't put your name in when you get there.  You just wait in the "que," or line until it's your turn to be seated.  It's an interesting way of doing things and on top of that, it's crazy busy there all the time!  When we got there at 8:00pm the line was practically out the door.  We thought about leaving, but weren't sure where to go so we decided to stick it out in the que.  We had to wait about 40 minutes in line, however it's not half bad since you can buy drinks at the bar and sip your wine or beer in line while waiting. 

Josh and I in the que.

Julie and I

Let me just say that the "que" was worth the wait. Not only was the food amazing, but it was so inexpensive.  I couldn't choose between pizza or pasta but to my surprise, I could have both! They have a "half pizza, half pasta" option on their menu for those of you who are indecisive.  So I went with the margarita pizza and pesto pasta. 

My half pasta/half pizza dinner.

Hubby and I

And of course, no meal out is complete without some dessert.  Preferably chocolate cake!

After dinner, we headed back to Julie and Kevin's with a bottle of wine and just hung out for a couple hours. It was a really fun night and we certainly enjoyed ourselves. We will definitely be back to Francesca's soon!

A group shot at Kevin and Julie's flat.

Non Birthday....Birthday Dinner

Because Josh's birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, we decided to have a birthday dinner with some of his friends on the following Friday.  Kris, Tarrah, Allison, Ryan, and Austin joined us at Zizzi's Restaurant in City Center.  It's an italian restaurant that is probably one of our favorite italian places in Newcastle.  However, it doesn't even compare to Josh and my favorite italian place in the world, Roman Cucina, in Sunset Beach, CA.  The food was good, the company awesome, and overall it was a fun night out with friends.  Here are some pics from the night.

Kris and Tarrah

Austin, Allison, and Ryan

Josh and I

The Guys

Austin and his dough stick

My yummy chicken salad with avocado.



Thanks everyone for joining us to celebrate Josh's birthday...again! Everyone helped make it really special.