Reluctant Anglophile on temporary hiatus

The Reluctant Anglophile will be on temporary hiatus through this Wednesday, August 10th, due to the unforeseen arrival of Annette Terkaly from Paris (pictured above with the RA above during a toothy-grinned moment after imbibing one to many glasses of wine in a Parisienne brasserie). Annette was there taking the annual creative writing course taught at the American Academy by my high school friend, travel writer Rolf Potts.

The last-minute itinerary I've cobbled together for Annette's visit includes lots of fun things, such as an outdoor movie & picnic at Kensington Gardens, tapas at that rarest of beasts in London--a BYOB restaurant, a shopping trip up to Camden Market, and a Soho pub crawl. We might also make it to the Great British Beer Festival, where you can even do tutored beer tastings. But lest you fear that life here in London involves entirely around the imbibing of alchoholic beverages, I've also planned some cultural activities as well, such as the Freida Kahlo exhibit at the Tate and viewing of the Buckingham Palace State Rooms, open only once a year during August.

Given my hard-won knowledge of British culture and my love for seeking out all that my new city has to offer, readers will be happy to know that I'm soon going to be putting all of that to use by working part-time for the expat organization FOCUS, where I'll be doing magazine writing, marketing and website work. Unfortunately, I won't be granted the same editorial freedoms (read: cynical liberties) that I have with my blog, but at least my experiences will hopefully help other expats adjust more readily to their new life here in England, by warning them about such insidious things as roosting pigeons, abysmal customer service and alarming newspaper headlines.

Blogging will resume this Wednesday and I'm sure there will be lots of blog-worthy moments during Annette's visit, especially if we attend the Beer Festival on 'Funny Hat Day'. Looking forward to having everyone visit and having some blog-worthy moments of our own!