Texans in London

Soon!

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 16:18:19 +0000

Hello everyone, In all the excitement of the Mendez family being in London, and moving home soon, I haven't had much time to post anything. Work has also been hectic since I will be leaving soon and Alex is finding lots of last minute things for me to do.... (This is a picture of Alex's Girlfriend's visa application that I have finished putting together--120 documents!!)

Birthdays have come and gone, we had a lovely quiet time. We went to the Greenwich Astronomy Museum where they have just opened a cool planetarium.

So it was a nice romantic afternoon spent looking at the stars and drinking expensive coffees!

And Greenwich is a really nice area, lots of expensive houses and other things to envy, so it was a wonderful day. And now the rest of the time will be spent reminiscing about fun times in London and seeing our favorite places for the last time.

Today we went walking with our flatmate Diego, he is a teacher, so he has been at home with Tommy this whole summer. They have been having fun talking politics and watching great British TV shows. So I'm glad I got to join them on one of their walks finally.

We went to a ship called the HMS Belfast that is famous (for something that I need to discover), but it was expensive--as usual--so we kept walking instead. We walked to Monument, the statue commemorating Ground Zero of the Great Fire of London, started in 1666 by a baker called Thomas.

Coincidence? Hmm...

Then we went to St. Paul's

and then across the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern, then to the lovely Thames Beach,

and home to meet the new flatmates.

I've got two more weeks at work,

and then I'm looking forward to having at least 2 weeks off before we have to start the arduous task of FINDING A NEW JOB.... (Da Da Duuuummmm....) We're excited about Mexican food and Kerbey Lane, and parties with family, and seeing all our friends, and finding out what Austin has in store for us now! So keep up to date, and we'll find a time to get together soon!

Funny Japanese things!

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:12:25 +0000

Trust me, watch the whole thing, it's so cool!

This is a variety show where comedians are placed in a "punishment" school, where they are punished if they laugh at their co-star who has very bad English lessons!

A late-night program.

**All these videos are courtsey of my lovely Japanese friends. We want to go there soon!**

Summer has arrived: Part 2

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:31:21 +0000

Yeah, it looks like summer has come and gone. My flatmate said today that there is going to be one more day of summer in the whole year. I think that might be a little bit of an overstatement, but it certainly feels that way. We were planning on having a 4th of July bar-b-que, but we didn't really think it through, and it was raining anyway, so we sat around in our pajamas watching bad movies and ordering ridiculously large amounts of Indian take aways. Seriously, they gave us enough food for 3 days--for all 4 of us! Needless to say, I'm good on Indian for the month.

Because of all the rain, I'm dubious about the vegetable garden. I keep waiting for everything to just die, but all the plants that normally need a lot of sun seem to be fine. Although our lovely next door neighbor Dorothy thinks that they might bite the dust eventually.

Obviously, I'm worried, because this garden is my current only hobby. Painting my room SHOULD be up there on the list, but really, I can't be bothered. Tommy and I did have a nice rainy day out today, looking at books. He's officially finished school, and is just waiting on his certificates! We have our first Mendez college graduate! Way to go, Tommy! Today we looked at food science books, which might be something he'd like to pursue more someday. Maybe he'll be on his way to the first Dr. Mendez in the family... As for me, work has me tied up completely at the moment, but the silver lining is that we put air conditioning in the shop this week! I feel too American, being excited about air conditioning, but there it is.

So here's some pictures (mostly of the garden of course).

Tommy and the zucchini plant. Yes, it really is that big.

The tomatoes. Before and After!

My favorite flowers!

Jonathan being strange, as usual, excited about his new jacket for working with Gordon Ramsey!!

Our usual picture. We're in love, can't you tell?

Summer has arrived!

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:05:22 +0000

**P.S. Click on the thumbnails for the high-res picture!**

Our garden is looking wonderful after I attacked the weeds, why is it that they always grow faster than the ones you planted?!?! We're looking forward to lots of yummy veggies, although I'm trying not to get my hopes up just in case.

London is funny in the summer, people actually start smiling. That's a big change from the usual. And the UK really loves its music festivals. Everyone wonders if it's cold over here in the summer, but both Tommy and I agree that last summer was the hottest one either of us had experienced. It's really only for about a month, but the temperatures reach near to Austin levels, with the same humidity, except that NOTHING is equipped with "air con" as they call it here. It's still a something they advertise as a novelty. But this year Alex is finally breaking down and getting it for the shop, which is no cheap endeavour, believe me! Anyway, I complain too much. It's really not that bad, and it means I'll have a nice garden. Here's the latest pictures!

The garden, finally with grass! Tommy is in the corner trying to kill flies with the bamboo stick. Don't ask....

This is one of the wonderful tree/bushes that grows here on it's own. I'm obsessed with the flowers (obviously since they are pink)!

My roses, just budding. The bush was buried behind a bunch of nettles, we had no idea that it was still alive! Interesting that they are yellow roses-Texas follows me wherever I go!

Carrots, zucchinis, tomatoes

And here's my favourite dog that lives in the neighborhood. He's so cute!

So that's summer so far in London. It was rainy and cold last week, but maybe this week it will finally stay warm! So lots of love, and bye for now!!

I forgot!

Sun, 06 May 2007 11:37:26 +0000

Here's a picture of us at the shop on Naoko's birthday recently. Only Mami(Japanese girl) and Alex(the boss) are missing.

**From Left**

Top Row: Samara, Domenico, Giovanni. Middle Row: Paris, Natsuko, Naoko, Tylie, Thomas. Bottom Row: Nana

Domenico and Giovanni are Italians, both stylists. Paris is English, a junior. Nana and Natsuko are Japanese, both juniors. Naoko is Japanese, a stylist. Tylie is English, our receptionist. Thomas is French, a stylist.

And no, Nana is not standing, although she is really short!!

One last thing--Naoko had a sushi party for her birthday at her home in Watford(London suburb.) Here's the link to her picture site.

http://pictures.annexia.org/naokobirthday2007

It's been a while.

Sun, 06 May 2007 11:31:47 +0000

I thought I'd like to wait until we had some news, which (somewhat) explains my absence. It's been a cold winter, but spring--and almost summer--arrived early this year. It's pretty warm already, so we're looking forward to some hot weather this summer. Alex is finally looking into getting air conditioning for the shop, which is a very welcome idea!! In light of this fortunate weather, we at home have decided to take advantage and do some gardening. It's been great so far, and we're growing lots of vegetables for good summer meals. The vegetables are inspired by Jonathan, who has lots of big plans for meals! And now that the garden is weed-free and a bit less buzzing with flies, we'll be able to have some bar-b-ques.

Tommy's basil--doing well!

Tomatoes! Growing from seeds. Exciting!!

Zucchini. They grew up overnight!

My lillies, before the cat attacked them.... :(

The garden from the second floor. Beautiful!

So we're having fun watching all the plants grow, and I hope that we'll have some nice veggies at the end of the summer!

Tommy recently participated in a contest for the California Raisins Company, where young bakers from schools around the country went to Leeds to bake their own recipes that included raisins (of course). The contest was in March, and he just got back from the awards ceremony last night. His team got second place, which is good. (But they should have won first, because the team that won brought their stuff pre-mixed--and it tasted bad!!) So maybe they'll try and get a recount on the votes. Tommy said that many people at the awards ceremony were telling him that his team SHOULD have won.... Oh well. Still, second place is good for his resume!

My biggest news is that we had a seminar in Italy (about a month ago). It was similar to the show in Madeira, but this time, the whole weekend was dedicated to us, and we had a show on Sunday, demonstrating our cuts and COLOUR BY ME ON STAGE!! SCARY! Then on Monday, those who wanted to pay a bit extra came to the workshop where Alex taught a step-by-step of two of the cuts, and I demonstrated some interesting colour techniques. The weekend was a great success; we were all really happy with our work on the models, and we got a great response from the people who attended the show, about 80 on Sunday and 25 for the workshop Monday. The next step for us is trying to set up an academy in London, so we can host the seminars at home! Alex has a space ready for that, and we're going to start getting everything underway. That's a really exciting prospect for me because it means a move towards creative work, but also lots of experience starting up a new branch of business. Luckily, Alex has a great business sense, so he's a really good mentor.

Here's a few pictures from the seminar.

Our fantastic models after the show!

My live colour model.

The presentation models, we changed the styles each time they went on stage in order to demonstrate the versitility of the cuts(one of Alex's main objectives.)

Giovanni's cut.

Domenico's cut.

Alex's first cut. He also cut my colour model.

Monday's workshop.

Well, I think that's it for now, but I'll try and post more regularly, now that I've got something interesting to take pictures of--my plants growing. If you can't tell, I'm excited! I just hope they actually grow well and the cats and flies stay away. Wish us luck!

After Christmas

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:21:24 +0000

I know I'm in trouble. Mostly because we've had a few rather momentous things happen, and I haven't posted anything about them. Worse still, I have very few pictures! *Gasp!* So I'm sorry, but in my defence, I've been enjoying life too much here to take any pictures!

We started off the year great, with our friends Jonathan and Ami from Austin moving into our house. They've been planning to come to London for a while, and as luck would have it, the other couple in our house decided not to renew their contract right when Jon and Ami needed a room! Great! (Although we do really miss Nuria and Victor...) They landed in London on New Year's Eve, at 8:30pm--just enough time to get a taxi and have dinner before the clock hit midnight. Then we spent the 1st lounging on the sofa, enjoying the utter closed-ness of London on major holidays.

And then, of course, on the 2nd, Sylvia and Risa landed, I picked them up from the airport and tried to keep them awake in order to defeat their jetlag. They were so mad at me! That Tuesday was pretty much spent just running around and getting familiarized with London.

That night was drinks and Spanish food at Nuria and Victor's new place of their own, and the girls were finally allowed to sleep.

Wednesday was museum and window-shopping day, and we ate dinner at Wagamama's.

Thursday was North London, including my shop, where Risa had her hair done.

Friday was Central London, Saville Row, and Tommy's bakery.

Saturday we laid low until we caught a matinee of The Producers on its final night in London.

Sunday was also a quiet day, with one last museum and meeting up with friends.

Then Monday, I packed them off on the train to the airport, and didn't hear from them again until 2:30 that morning, safe in Austin!

That's the short version of the trip, but I'm sure everyone has heard all about it already from Sylvia and Risa. It was really great to have them here, and hopefully they got a little taste of London life (although it was a budget life--yes, it can be done, amazingly!) I think they really got the wrong impression of London, though, since I had the whole week off, haha! Normally I don't go waltzing around London, eating out every other night and visiting museums as the whim takes me. And I hadn't seen any shows until they came over!! But I'm very glad I got to act as tour guide.

Since then, it's just back to normal life, and all the boringness of work and school. Except that we do have a fun little twist in the shape of Jon and Ami, who seem to like to cook dinner for us. Tommy mentioned last night at dinner (Jon made curry rice and golden beets, we had soy chicken with a honey-vinaigrette sauce and apricots, and haricot vert with hard-boiled eggs) that we haven't eaten as well as the last 3 weeks that they have been here, than since we lived with Byron and Melissa, and Tommy and Melissa made amazing dinner every night! All we're missing here is the Skinny Cows for dessert :( But I'm really happy to have them here for my part, because now Tommy has someone to geek out about food with, and go to the market on Saturday with to buy veggies. As long as I get to appreciate the fruit--and veggies--of their geekiness, I'm happy!

But that's life for now, just relaxing and eating great food and watching loads of bad movies on TV. The weather just turned cold today, until now it's been about 55 F outside--none of the birds have migrated, and the flowers are confused and blooming already. It's actually quite funny, but I'm worried that it means some really cold weather is yet to come. I hope everyone at home has stayed safe in your freezing temps. and I hope you got to build a few snowmen at least! So bye for now, enjoy your cold, and I'll enjoy my warm while it lasts!

Merry Christmas!

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:32:06 +0000

So after all the excitement of Madeira, things have calmed down into the Christmas rush at work! Ack! Actually, it's not so bad, just a lot of nice big numbers at the end of the day.

But things are going well, Tommy finishes work on the 22, and is totally free until Jan 3, and I'm excited about having a few days holiday soon. We're going to have a group of friends over to have a lovely dinner and spend the night since London closes down on Christmas Day. Then on New Year's Eve, our friends Jonathan and Ami will be joining us in London, exhausted from their whirlwind honeymoon in Europe and (hopefully) ready to relax in their comfortable new home! Then 2 days later, Risa and Sylvia are coming over for a week! This is all great news for January, which is a really hard month in London, when Christmas is over, everyone is broke, and it's stinking cold outside. Hopefully this year winter won't last until MAY!! like last year....

I don't have much news other than that, just anticipation of things to come. We are going to buy loads of phone cards so we can call everyone for a long chat over the holidays--so stay by those phones! No, really, don't hold your breath, but we'll definitely call everyone! In the meantime, enjoy the holidays, and stay nice and warm in your toasty little southern state...(grr...) ;)

Merry Christmas!

(Here's a lovely photo from when Byron was here!)

Bright at Night

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:02:02 +0000

It's strangely bright outside right now, even though the sun set at 4:30 this afternoon. It seems as if dawn is just around the corner. Tommy and I wondered if nocturnal animals like cats can lose their dark sight from living in a city like London, and would those animals be at a loss if they were transplanted to the country where there are no lights for miles? As I was flying in from Madeira last weekend on my 6-hour-delayed flight, I was reminded how strange London is at night. There's no mistaking it, with it's dome of light--probably only New York or Las Vegas comes close.

Madeira was a success, in every form. We had great models, I did great colour for great haircuts, and all in the difficult conditions of a hair show hosted in a luxury, retiree hotel! For the five different groups of hairdressers attending (with 6 or so models to each group), the company gave us one small conference room to do all the colour and all the cuts. But our group pulled through, even if we retreated to the hallways to do the cuts, and we had six models instead of the four we originally planned. The models were fantastic, most of them spoke English (or understood Alex's particular brand of Portu-Ital-Spanglish), they all loved (and suited) their hairstyles, and they picked up my intricate choreography in under one hour!

Here's all our gorgeous models: Carla (Domenico's onstage cut), Catarina, Laura, Maura, Petra, and Sara(Alex's onstage cut).

Here's all of us together!

And finally, here's a few pictures from the few minutes I could spare to take photos around the island.

That's about all I've got for good pictures, but there was a photographer at the show who also took a video of the stage production. Hopefully I'll get a hold of a copy that I can post online! Til then...

Colour Inspiration

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 04:48:19 +0000

I've been Googling for inspiration at work, looking for places to find interesting colours. Somehow I have to transfer these sources of inspiration into hair colour, but that's the hard part. Right now, it's the fun design stage, and I'm enjoying the freedom of working on models and not worrying about the longevity of the colour (or if the subject likes the idea of wearing copper and green hair!!) And in the end, the really difficult thing is how to manage these colours on dark Portugese hair! Oh well, I enjoy a challenge...

Alex mentioned copper and green, a patina.

Wine is an obvious choice for dark hair. We'll probably pair it with bright red, like these leaves, and a few hints of orange.

We'll try one blond as well, so white wine is a good inspiration, especially with greens in mind.

Going back to the oxidized theme, this one might be my favorite colour pallate.

It will be interesting to see how we actually translate these ideas into hair colour. I'm sure I'll post plenty of pictures after the show.

Bonfire Night

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 14:11:01 +0000

The British celebrate a holiday called Guy Fawkes Night, in honor of the rebel who was put to death for attempting to blow up Parliament and assassinate the king in 1605.

I'm still not certain whether the English are proud of this man or happy that he died before the plot could be realized--and honestly, I'm not sure most English people know what it's about either. Anyway, it's just an excuse to light fireworks and bonfires for about a month before, and two weeks after, November 5. And it's good fun, since we missed the 4th at home, now we can make up for the fireworks we didn't get to shoot!

Well, my dad will be visiting again for 3 days next week! Always so short of a time, but it's better than nothing. We're trying to think of lots of fun things to do, so hopefully we'll get some good pictures from the time. Oh, and here's what my hair looks like now!

Photo Story

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:21:40 +0000

No real connection, just some nice photos.

Belstone, Devon, England.

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 10:57:36 +0000

More pictures already!?!?! What's going on? Well, I suppose the lovely new computer is spurring me on in my desire to create and communicate.

We had a great week relaxing and hiking (in completely inappropriate clothes) around on the Moors. Dartmoor is a National Park, protected by the government, with limitless access to hikers! All of my English clients laughed at me when I said that's where we were going. I didn't understand why until I found out it's the home of one of England's largest prisons, as well as a government ammunitions testing range and the setting of Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles. Maybe they're scared that it's haunted. Actually, that wouldn't be too surprising!

Tommy and I just hiked the areas fairly close to the town. There is a river running by Belstone that we followed all the way to another town called Sticklepath

Here is our bed and breakfast, named The Barton.

The tops of the hills are called Tors. They are fairly tall, but nothing that a good, stiff climb can't conquer.

Tommy's crazy!

This is the tallest tor in the area.

There is a little version of Stonehenge on the closest tor to Belstone, called Nine Maidens.

They are so mysterious!

And last, some lovely sights from our walk along the river.

Next up, photos from around London!

New Computer

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:05:26 +0000

At (long) last, we received our new, pricey computer. But, isn't it gorgeous? Worth the wait...

So, this definitely calls for a new blog. I'm sorry to send you all over the internet trying to find the blog host that works, but hopefully this will be the one.

Here's an update on what's been going on. We went to Brighton and Stonehenge and Bath with the flatmates on day trips. Then we went to Devon for our own week-long holiday (not Scotland, hopefully that will be next time). Now Tommy is back in school, and I'm working as usual. Tommy's doing more intensive course work this year, so he's in for some late nights studying. I'm soon to be starting part time as Alex's business manager to help him reorganize the business and the salon as a whole. This is a really exciting opportunity for me because Alex is a great person to learn from, and it's a step in the right direction toward owning our own shop someday!

Also, in November I'll be going to a hair exhibition in Madiera to show Alex's new collection that he's put together for our colour company. He and one of my collegues will be performing the cuts on stage, while I'm in charge of the colour backstage. Great for my resume, and I get to go to an island paradise for 4 days...

But that's all the main news. Other than that, we've just been living and working and getting colder bit by bit. Everyone says this is the hottest October ever, but I'll be the judge of that. Anyway, here's some pictures to keep you occupied til the next entry--hopefully soon, now that I have this new site that works much better.

First, Brighton:

The famous pier.

Beautiful beach.

Tommy, his school mate Vincent, and Vincent's flatmate.

Some chairs.

More clouds. Did I mention we were in England? :)

Just a cool picture of Tommy.

Now, Bath and Stonehenge:

A beautiful church in Bath.

Apparently, this is a famous bridge.

Us!

Stonehenge.

Only rich people are allowed in to Stonehenge. £6 per person!!!

Well, that's all for now! Stay tuned for pictures from Devon!