Valentine's Day in Cobham, Surrey

After arriving at our dear families home in Oxshott, we combatted the jet lag with a case.....yes a case, of champagne. The next day after the appointment with an immigration lawyer in Servington, ( Tim was right, I need to fill out the UKM form, and let bureaucracies take it from there for duel citizenship) we got ready to celebrate Valentine's Day at my beautiful cousins restaurant where she works called Strada in Cobham. This was just one of many culinary delight's we encountered in the U.K. Whatever you have heard about british food, you will need to rethink it, it was amazing. Far from bland, my tongue has never been happier......Sorry Tim.
From the vegetarian risotto with soybeans and asparagus, the charred yellow fin tuna, spring vegetables, and beef cheek's, everything was scrumptious. Experiencing  english lovers nibbling their meals exchanging secret glancing made for  fun people watching, and the restaurant itself was beautifully designed. Tim and I loved the odd shaped lighting fixtures and clean lines of the place all the while retaining it's warmth.
I also loved the fact that my parent's now having bragging right's to say they celebrated Valentine's Day in England, how romantic. I will include a supplementary blog regarding this trip and what exactly it meant for us, hell maybe that will be my next one so you can read this with that frame of mind.

Thank you so much dear Lydia for sharing this with us. It was, hand's down, the best Valentine's I have ever had. If you are ever in Cobham, Surrey, England you must try out Strada restaurant. It is right downtown Cobham. The staff is beautiful and friendly, the food is rockin', and they take American Express.( One huge note to those traveling regarding gratuties. They really do not believe in them, more than 10% would actually insult them. So if you are like me, and believe in heavy tipping, you must restrain yourself. They will respect the 10% fully. In fact a lot of the credit card transactions DO NOT include a tip line so you must tell them to add it when you give them the card.)

on our way to Oxshott,England: DAY 1

What a long trip here.But what made it worth it was flying into Schiphol airport in Amsterdam before daylight was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! Twinkling lights suddenly broke the darkness from below. Yellow's, whites and green's that outlines building from above, with long freeways packed with rushing cars headlights shining white and brake lights red. I am sure it was maddening if your were one of the motorist's, as most rush hours are, but from 2000 feet above, it was beautiful! Nudges between Tim and I while trying to crane two heads out one window with 'oh what's that?' and ' look look look ' was the only dialog going on between.

Our flight steward Don was a wealth of info (Tim scored us seats next to the emergency exit, which I recommend you try to do, there was so much leg room we could totally stretch out, make sure its Delta cause they use airbus, which tend to be roomier anyway) Being Don's 490th trip to Amsterdam he was able to answer a lot of our questions. He informed us the huge different rectangle buildings that glowed amber turned out to be where they grow the tulips in green houses.The city almost looked as if we were approaching a space station, surreal and beautiful. I felt like early man who just witnessed fire for the first time. I am kicking myself for not filming it, but I was so entranced by it at the time, any thoughts of getting the Flipcam out were lost. I hope at some point we will one day retake that route just so I can film it to share with others.

Another quintesential moment was at custom's at Heathrow, where you fill out a card with your info and they ask questions before they stamp the book. Tim and I are so used to doing those sort of things seperatley but she asked who I was in with, I said Tim, who went off to another agent, and asked how did I know him, were we work college's? I said yes, and she started to 'clue in', then asked do we live together and for some reason I said yes and kind of motioned to my ring and she instantly said to call him over and totally treated it as 'married' without even blinking and then talked to us as a couple, with no wierdness. I have to tell you, I felt like a slave who was then addressed as a free man. Do you understand the difference? From her there was no 'specialness' it was addressed as normalcy. I wanted to cry ( in a good way) I can't explain why, and yes I know that won't be everywhere, but hope was instilled from that moment, she was young and it gave me a glimpse of a future hopefully where it won't be an issue, just different variations. oh I wished I got her picture and hugged her, but I am sure they frown on that as customs agents. I was just so grateful to witness it.

Anywho, Jane, my mothers cousin, collected us from the airport and drove us to her amazing village of Oxshott. I had to close my eyes for most of it, because these people are crazy. The car's fly like bat's out of hell, weaving in and out. In America we like our 3 car lengths and elbow room, and who has not witnessed a 'slamming of breaks' when people have felt you have infringes into their space. There seems to be none of that alpha road rage entitlement here. Space is limited, so if you can nick in, you do, and the other driver's know this and let you. I will still be keeping my eyes closed. And if Tim thinks we will get a car here if we ever move here, he is out of his skull.

Oxshott is such a lovely village, the homes here are massive. I mean massive. Jane and her lovable husband Frank run in some posh circles, thats for sure. Their home seems to be the quintessential english manor home, in fact as I am typing this I am in their sitting room, coal fire burning warm, BBC on 'telly' in the background, looking out upon their beautifully manicured english garden. Frank even groomed and transformed a gigantically long hedge into a long steam train. Jane and Frank are the perfect host, and their daughter Lydia is gorgeous. I could sit for hours listening to her accent. Tim and I are going to secretly try and get her to say ' what's a snozzberry' ala Willy Wonka. Yes we are sick and wrong, but c'mon, thats funny. Our first night on advice of our flight steward we stayed awake until 10 ish to help with the jet lag (and it worked!) and Jane invited their colorful neighbors over, she canadian and child therapist, he a new yorker and Citibank upper management. 6 empty bottles of Champagne later we went to bed.

Love, the boy's

*wink yedda and gunner*