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In Brief:
Karen
spends four months in Barcelona…Duke goes to gundog school…Greg picks up running
and quickly injures himself… Karen wins the St. Catherine Marathon on New
Year’s Eve…Milligans and Klesels storm Europe…
Greg gets a promotion… Karen interns for the London Olympics
Trips
We spend most of our free time
travelling, mostly because we are glutens for punishment, but also because we
love it. Here are some of our favourite
trips from the past year…2007 started in Paris
(Greg’s favourite city) with a visit to the Musee d’Orsay and of course the Champs Elysees for midnight. This was followed by a quick trip to Texas where we loaded up
on tex-mex, cajun, & BBQ for the year ahead.
Our next big trip was to the Aegean with Karen’s brother and his wife (Doug & Jen). Starting from Athens
we made our way to Rhodes, Kos, Bodrum and finally Istanbul.
Doug & Jen bargained for a rug in the 500 yr-old Grand Bazaar for
about two hours before getting something they liked and Karen had all the shop
keepers on notice that she “wasn’t paying more than half”; this was definitely
not your average trip to Pottery Barn.
During the summer we had a great
stretch for three wekends where we were able to visit Edinburgh
(for our anniversary), Dublin, and Cambridge; three
beautiful cities with very different histories.
In September Karen’s parents joined
us for a trip to Rome. We love Italy and are planning a longer
trip there this spring. Rome is amazing, the buildings are well
preserved, it is a great experience to actually stand next to the Coliseum and
pretend you are a Gladiator.
Over Christmas we were in Brussels
for all the chocolate and beer we could get our hands on, oh and there was a
Christmas market and beautiful Gothic
Church for midnight mass too! To end the year we went on a spectacular trip
to Egypt where we saw the
pyramids in Giza,
the Sphinx, King Tut’s treasure and some incredible traffic that only a city of
20+ million can produce. The trip was in
conjunction with the St. Catherine Marathon near Mt. Sinai
where Karen took first place! It wasn’t
her PR, but the starting line was more than a mile high and went up hill from
there, somehow training in Barcelona and London didn’t get her
100% prepared for the altitude.
Visits
Thanks to all who were able to come
visit us throughout the year, spending time with our friends is always a
pleasure. Karen’s friends Shelley and
Kristy came to the UK and Ireland, we all went to the Kaiser Chiefs
concert in Hyde Park and even Duke enjoyed the
show. Greg’s dad and his wife Tammy were
able to spend time in London and make it up to Scotland and Wales on an American-style road
trip. Our friends that live in Paris
(Joey and Lorie) came for a long weekend, it was Joey’s first time in London, and he loved the
fact that everyone spoke English.
We had a surprise visit from our friends John McLaughlin,
Gus & Wildy Giron for an evening of Tapas and great conversation on
Marylebone High Street. Sean (Greg’s
brother) and his girlfriend Becky came for their spring break, we went to Bath where Duke met some sheep
for the first time. Karen’s parents came
to Barcelona and joined us for a nice, long
weekend in Rome. Kevin and Patrick Roche gave up their
American Thanksgiving for a chance to hit London,
Paris and Barcelona,
although not as impressed with the museums in Paris they had a great time at Camp Nou
Stadium for an FC Barcelona match. Doug
and Jen joined us for two adventures, an unforgettable trip through the Greek Islands
from Athens to Istanbul,
and later brought their daughter Taylor to Barcelona
for a trip up the Costa Brava.
Karen
Karen
worked for the London 2012 Olympic Committee over the summer. She
helped design and implement their onboarding process which they will
definitely need over the next few years! After the summer it was
off to Barcelona for her autumn semester at IESE. But escaping
the cold and dreary London weather and hanging out at the beach wasn't
the only thing she had to look forward to as most of her classes were
in Spanish and the workload proved to be just as heavy as at London
Business School.
Greg
Greg had a little more to celebrate for his birthday at
our favourite Lebanese restaurant this year as he was able to throw in a
promotion. He also spoke at an industry
conference here in London over the summer and
lately he has been spending more time working in London
(as opposed to Scotland)
and has been to the states a few times where some of you may have seen
him.
Looking forward…
2008 promises to be an exciting year,
between Karen graduating from business school and Greg’s London assignment coming to an end the
continent we’ll be writing this from next year is still a mystery. We hope to see and hear from you all during 2008!!
-Greg and Karen
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