*Disclaimer – I am preloading this on Wednesday night so next week my stuff will be more current.
Have a good Memorial Day Weekend!
Advertisements
Pictures of the Week…And Last Week Too!
English Mike is the MAN
Some Pictures of London
I have been remiss in posting these so here is a bonus Post Presidents Day entry for you 15 readers. We had a blast in London and hopefully we will be doing something like this again in the near future.
Regarding London, it was great seeing PNG Mike and Lady E as well as Lord Jimmy and his parents and seeing Vegas JD was a bonus too.
Oye Ceras, por favor, no te bajes la pierna. Es considerado grosero por los estándares de inglés.
It was a great time and we will be back!
6 Nations Rugby & Sunday Funday in Big Smoke
You might as well add another sporting event that I have been exposed to that you can drink like a fish, and cheer for the home team! I recall one summer I was down in San Pedro Belize while World Cup was being played. Mexico was playing that afternoon and the entire town came to a halt to watch the match. As luck would have it while we were in London we were going to be in town for England National playing the Irish team. You could tell that on Saturday it was game day because the pubs were busy.
For those of you who care, the teams that make up 6 Nations are; England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales. To understand the game it is similar to football but without helmets or pads. Oh and unlike College or Pro the place kicker is actually the person who scores the touchdown (I don’t know the proper name) and they don’t have to rely on someone who has one job. I like it already
Papua New Guinea and Lady E met us up for some pints and we were also lucky enough to have a drink with JD from Las Vegas. We enjoyed some light fare and many pints that afternoon and had a great visit. Oh and it was a bonus as England won handily and they were chanting that they wanted Clemson next.
Sunday we headed over to China Town to see Jimmy’s Mum & Pop and enjoy some good Chinese food with questionable rude servers. After our meal we walked around and checked out some of the museums on a Sunday. Not a bad way to spend the weekend catching up with good friends. I told my boss on Tuesday “I know you will find this odd but we have some friends who live in England.”
It was great seeing everyone and thank you for taking time out of your weekend to spend time with us. You are welcome to our joint on this side of the pond anytime.
A Trip Harrods – The Mecca of Mall Food
Sunday afternoon after hanging with Jimmy’s Mum & Pop we decided we wanted to make a run over to the local Mall of Memphis London. You know I am talking about….Recall back in the day when the only way you could get a Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich was a visit to the Mall? I mean where else could you get your Hot Topic and Spencer’s crap and then enjoy some chocolate chip cookie? And if you wanted to go ice skating this place was it.
London’s version of the Mall of Memphis is a place called Harrods in the East end of London. We took the Tube over to Knightsbridge and took a visit to the food hall. If you don’t know what Harrods is all about you can read up about it here. You have seen all those signs that read “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.” Harrods is just that store. Upon entering the hall, you realize that this place doesn’t mess around.
I am going to leave it now up to the pictures but if I ever won the lottery, I would be heading there for meals at every one of their 24 restaurants. That beats the shit out of the Mall of Memphis doesn’t it?
Now show me a Mall food court that can beat this one? I dare you!
Happy Chinese New Years and a couple Milestones for us too!
Note to self, when you think that you can make a quick trip across the pond to England for a long weekend at my age it is going to hurt. If you didn’t know; I headed out last Thursday night to hang out with Mary Louise for the weekend in London. She was finishing up a whirlwind trip of her own and had a meeting yesterday with her people. I got home last night and naturally (it is 3AM Eastern Time as I type this) the jet lag is strong when you get older. Enough about me, lets get to the title of this worthless dribble.
Happy Chinese New Year as this is the year of the Pig. We were in the Chinese section of London on Sunday having lunch with friends and they were all decked out for the big party. I keep saying I am going to go down to Chinatown and see the festivities. Maybe if they are doing it this weekend I will head over there.
So Happy 3 and a half year anniversary to us for ripping off the band-aid and moving to New York. It really has flown by and even though her ass will be getting on a plane in about 2 hours Geranium would agree with me. Again, I am not dogging Memphis, but we really like living up here. We have slowed down a tad on our exploring the city we still find it great and are enjoying ourselves. I mean could I really have flown to London for a long weekend Thursday night after working and will be back to selling tickets in Times Square today? Got to love direct flights.
Another anniversary that I am particularly proud of is that 12 years ago Mary Louise and I went Tobacco Free. We decided to quit the Tuesday after the Super Bowl and we did it together. Copenhagen and Virginia Slims Menthol started losing money on us 12 years ago and even though we both gained enough weight to support another child it was the best decision that we could make. So to all of you who are battling your demons keep up the fight. People ask me if I miss dipping. Who are you fucking kidding? Sure I miss it but I don’t miss having my gums scraped or the chance that I could get mouth or gum cancer.
I will post more about the trip to London, I have a ton of pictures that I took sober(ish) and will recap later this week. Happy Chinese New Year, Happy “half” Anniversary of being New Yorkers and Tobacco Free to us!
Have a good week, even if it is Tuesday!
Where Have You Been and What Are You Doing This Weekend?
Apologies to my 14 readers, I have been kinda busy as of late. Mary Louise and I had some friends in town and went out to ABC Cocina to have lunch with them on Saturday. We hadn’t eaten there and we had a great time catching up. That evening we went back into the city and had dinner with the Landlord at a Little Italy establishment. Sunday Mary Louise headed out on the road and is in Spain for a couple days. Then she goes to France for a couple more days. Then she finishes up in London this weekend.
Because I am such a humanitarian I decided to head across the pond on Thursday night to hang with her over the weekend. Granted because she has her a nice hotel room in Westminster close to the Thames river doesn’t suck. As of now we have plans to see Papua New Guinea Mike on Saturday and The Thompson’s on Sunday. Other than that we are going to wing it.
I will keep you posted!
Bar 595 and Having Fun With Telemarketers
You probably have heard of Bar 595 if you live in Memphis. You probably have drank a beer out of one of the Coozies. You probably have seen a Bald Guy from England post pictures of the coozie all over the world. Still don’t know what I am talking about? Do a search for Bar 595 on Facebook and you can figure it out.
It is rare that my personal foam rings. Normally when it does it is either a doctors office confirming my upcoming appointment or a telemarketer. Since I keep the 901 area code phone it is pretty easy to tell who is a real call or who is a telemarketer. I have to give them credit, they mask the number to make it look like it was my number missing a digit or something like that.
So the other day when the phone rang I answered with my traditional “Go for Carbunkle Trumpet” and the caller was asking for the owner of Bar 595. For whatever reason I decided I would play along instead of saying that I was busy and to remove my number from your fucking list. I said that I was but I was kinda busy and to hurry it up. They were telling me about their credit card solutions and if we were interested in changing vendors. I said I was all for it and have a rep come by tomorrow after my lunch rush.
English Mike I may give them your number next time.
Man Time Flies
One of the only redeeming qualities of Facebook these days is the “On this date” part where you can see what you posted on this day for up to 10 years. On the 5th year of this past week we were across the pond for our good Friend’s wedding. Yep Papua New Guinea Mike and Claire were married 5 years ago this past week. Naturally we wished him congratulations and a text thread started with a couple of the boys. I didn’t want to remind anyone but in the past 5 years the following have occurred;
- RJ & Mallory sell the Flophouse to Jenna
- We sell 595 to RJ & Mallory
- We then move to New York to drink with the Asian Fireman & Mr. 3 First Names and be an hour from Pepe.
- RJ & Mallory go to +2
- The Asian Fireman and the Real Estate Tycoon can’t be outdone and go to +3
- Pepe and D3 go to +1
- PNG Mike – MAKE SURE THAT CLAIRE DOESN’T DRINK THE WATER!!!!! Mrs. Trumpet has been drinking bottled water for the past 5 years.
Kegs and Eggs with the Lads. See all those Dark Liquid Glasses that are in front of everyone. That is English Coffee.
Right after that the Bar decided it was “Last Orders” because the Americans were swinging an invisible jump rope.
If you see this man and he says “Lets do a shot” you run like hell!
Oh Look PNG Mike “Iced” down some beer for us.
Mike and Clarie’s English Garden – We will put in an outdoor bar at the fenceline!
I am only posting this so that the Asian Fireman and his wife can save it and we can torment Wee Fiona when she gets older and starts to date.
Back when all 3 of these boys weren’t procreating.
I think that we need a return trip to Big Smoke soon. Anyone up for a field trip?
Last Vacation Post – Back to the Big Smoke for Dinner
So for our last installment of The Trumpets take on Europe we headed back to the Big Smoke for one last night and have dinner with my “other” little sister Bridget, her husband Patrick and their baby “Little Jimmy”. We secured a very nice hotel thanks to Mrs Katz and were walking distance to the Royal Hall where Bridget works. We had some great drinks overlooking the Thames and even though it was cold and rainy (Again where are you Mr Sun) we had a good visit. Later that evening we had pints in a couple of different pubs/bars and retired for the evening. Again, and I can’t say how impressed we were with the mass transit, we popped on the Tube and in 30 minutes were at Heathrow Terminal 4 to board our flight back to the Colonies. As luck would have it we were able to secure first class accommodations and after a 10 hour flight we landed in Minneapolis St Paul. Mrs Trumpet and I signed up for Global Entry and let me tell you, that is worth it’s weight in gold as it is a piece of cake when clearing customs.
All in all, we had a blast and were thankful that we had great traveling companions (The Lees, Smoothie, D3, Jess, Handsome Dan & AJ) as that can make or break a trip. On advice we downloaded Viber and were able to communicate with everyone depending if we were in the same hotel or in Ireland, or wherever. Now I guess we need someone else to get married so we can do it again!
The hotel we stayed at on the last night
Still around town
For our Friend Anne
Proud Papa and Baby Jimmy
I don’t know how many of these suckers I drank but it sure was good!
AJ enjoying the Dessert Cart
The only way to travel Trans-Atlantic – First Class Baby!
My Luggage for 10 days – Yes we carried on the entire trip and it was a godsend when navigating trains, streets and tube trips
Taken out of order but this is the Paris Train Station – Very efficient
First Day back in the US and for some reason the Guinness doesn’t taste like it does in UK but at least there Max.
To the King!
CBT!
A Rare Post by CBT – Pictures of food and drink from across the pond for you Foodies
Now before I start getting a bunch of “CBT you hypocrite!” posts allow me to ‘splain myself for this photo barrage of food pics. Some good friends of ours who live in Sacramento when they go out to dinner will take a picture of the bottle of wine so that they can pick up a bottle at their favorite liquor store later. I always thought this was a smashing idea as I have from time to time found a great wine and can never remember the winery who bottled it. I recall the many different food shows who would showcase a dish and on occasion thougth “That was a neat presentation” but never had the stones to take a picture before devouring the plate. You recall my friend Ashley who took a picture of her burger from SOB don’t you? I have later learned that this is called “Blessing the food” by food bloggers so I figured when in England/Brussels/Paris do as they do.
This mad picture taking was also proof as to why I gained a dozen stones and can’t fit into my pants now as even my cousin the doctor gave me a good chewing out on my last physical. Anyway the food and drink across the pond is phenomenal and if you have the means to travel over there, by all means eat out often! Next trip I am taking extra Lipitor tablets with me as I fear my blood has been replaced by cholesterol.
Now onto the pictures.
Lamb, Leek and Sausage Pie from “Drawn and Quartered” in London
Somewhere in Paris, I could live off of this stuff
Killer Bottle of Table wine that we drank in Brussels
For those of you who are wondering, No we didn’t get a bucket but I was amused that the line out the door was mainly Americans
Pate Terrine – I can hear my heart saying “Stop CBT”
All that time I spent working in French Restaurants paid off as we paired this bottle of Cotes de Nuits with a cheese plate in Paris
Say what you want to about the English but they do make a killer breakfast. Make sure you try the Black Pudding too
I think this was our Hotel Wine
Harrods puts out a great wine (that isn’t an arm and a leg expensive either)
I am not saying the Sauce Bernaise was good but yes, I am eating the rest of it with a spoon
Stinky Cheese, Ham, Salami, French Bread and Wine – The French aren’t all bad after all
Dense Chocolate Cake and Red Wine – Why Not!
Hey Look a Chicken!
Mussels in Brussels with Pom Frittes too!
If you look closely you will see what I call the Triple Crown of Shopping – Charcuterie (meats) Store, Formager (Cheese) Store, a Wine Store and a Grocery Store all in one block. I spent an hour here just looking
When you do the math the produce here in Paris was much cheaper than at the Gangsta Kroger…..and way better too!
What is in there you ask? Why it is a cheese aging cooler
I had no idea what was the daily special but they have it everyday
Kind of a strange way to wash your pots and pans but hey if it works
Vegans – Translation for someone who can’t hunt of fish very well
Why the long face Mrs CBT?
Oh she didn’t have her Train Wine yet. Yep that was hard not to order a beer or glass of wine when we returned back to the states. “You mean I can only have Iced Tea? Bullshit!”
Ok so write it down, CBT took pictures of food which I normally never do.
TTQ!
CBT!
