October Saturday

 October is my favorite month and I can't believe it's almost over.
We took a nice walk yesterday to enjoy some fall goodness.
Blackfriars Road leads into our neighborhood. It does not disappoint.

 Love these trees with yellow berries and red leaves. No clue what they are called but
I see them everywhere here.

Where's Waldo? Often times you can spot him in my pictures...
Sometimes he stands right in my light.
But I quickly forgive him and try to get a picture of him instead :)

 I wish I had captured this situation better. This guy was not liking Neil and I walking by.
He was really hissing at us.

Mmmmm. Homemade cinnamon rolls are perfect on a fall Saturday.
I highly recommend them.

Hope you all had a nice last weekend of October.

Lost in Translation

I have all sorts of material for new blog posts, but I couldn't figure out what made most sense as a follow up to the last post :) But let's dive right in, back to reality. I'm still a bit red in the face from this one...

A few weeks ago I was on the bus home from work. It's about a 3.5 mile bus ride down a hill and back into downtown Oxford. You could say I work in the country and live in the city. In fact last year this very road up to work was closed for two weeks because badgers had torn up the concrete from burrowing around. We have an apple tree in the office yard, and it's not rare to have a fox running around outside. It's a little bit country, and it's a nice change from NYC.

Back to the bus ride home...
I happened to be wearing a dress that day and my colleagues riding the bus with me asked if I had any special plans that night, "what's the occasion for the dress, Julie?" "No special plans," I replied. "Sometimes I just don't feel like wearing pants, that's all." To which a great roar of laughter erupted. I was quickly reminded that I live in England and that pants have a completely different meaning here even without the word under preceding. Trousers is the appropriate term!

More to come soon from Neil's first few weeks of classes...

Je t'aime

I don't know where to begin this post, but Paris turned out to be quite the life changing trip. This man here, my best friend, was up to some serious behind the scenes planning to make it a memorable and special weekend.

It started off with casually enjoying ourselves as we strolled around Paris. Having both been before, we didn't feel pressured to run from site to site so instead we had (seemingly) no set agenda for the whole weekend except that we wanted to enjoy ourselves before Neil started business school today.

We spent some time at Notre Dame and hiked up to the top and to the bell tower. It's really so beautiful and the views are fantastic. Did I mention it was 65-70 degrees and sunny all weekend? We were spoiled.

Next we walked over to the Louvre (without actually going in on this trip) and over to Jardin Tuileries. 

Are you still reading? I'm sorry for the longer than usual post but I wanted to share our special trip with you all. The Vespa eye-candy was out of control. I was surprised not to see more vintage Vespas but I was loving the French scooter style. They are fearless drivers, I tell you...weaving in and out of traffic and in crowds of people.

After lunch we parked ourselves on a bench on the river Seine. It was such a nice day out that we were just savoring it. Neil said we should take a picture to remember the moment, and with no one in sight to take it, we snapped a classic 'hold the camera out and hope for the best.'

Then, to my surprise Neil got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! It was a perfect moment, just the two of us. It's a moment I've been looking forward to and I must say that it was completely worth the wait. I feel blessed beyond belief to have found such a wonderful and caring man that is also my best friend. He took the French term fiancé to a whole new level, doing this in France. But honestly, it could have been anywhere in the world and it would have been just as special and important of a moment for us. Afterward, we spent the evening on a champagne tasting river boat cruise and went up to the Eiffel Tower and out to dinner. All I can say is that it was a very happy evening indeed. I couldn't stop looking at my beautiful vintage ring and we were just over the moon. We now have a special place in our hearts for Paris.

It was very a memorable night to celebrate such a life changing day. We can't wait to share in all that is to come with our family and friends. The weekend continued to be memorable. We shared ideas about the future and enjoyed Paris in October.

It just so happened to be the Montmartre Wine Harvest Festival that weekend. There were a lot of yummy food vendors.  Vibrant crowds make for great people watching and Paris did not disappoint. There were even fireworks that night!

It was the most memorable weekend to date. I'm so incredibly happy to think this is just the beginning of life with Neil. I think it's amazing to be able to start it all off with seven great years behind us to keep building on.

J'adore Paris.