2013 Helminsklee Christmas Greeting

In true FuquaVision style, we bring you our last minute production of the (not quite so epic) Helminsklee Christmas card.

Enjoy the show!

Christmas 2013 - Helminsklees Actually

Simple Pleasures - our first few months in London

During our year in Indonesia, there were many times when we noticed the lack of modern conveniences we took for granted back home, and we really developed an appreciation for how good, and quite frankly how easy life is in the US. With our move to London, we've been reunited with a lot of those modern conveniences, and oh how sweet it is!

Seriously. When you're used to crazy traffic, regular flooding, and a general lack of everything from home, it's such a relief to be back in a modern, Western society. But, we've noticed it was the simple things we missed the most. For example:

Sidewalks & Crosswalks

Oh sweet sidewalks. They're everywhere. Walking around a city has never been so easy. As detailed in our blog post here, walking in Jakarta was an adventure. Here in London, not so much. London is definitely a walking city, and we have been out & about taking advantage of it all. The only thing we really have to worry about here are the throngs of people who share in our love of said walking.

A typical day strolling though London

Not to be outdone by the sidewalks are the crosswalks. No longer do we play real life frogger when crossing the street. Oh no, we simply wait at the corner, and (allegedly) let out little shrieks of joy when we see this guy:

Not only that, London crosswalks go a step further to look out for your safety by idiot-proofing them:

Yep, the crosswalks actually tell you direction from which traffic will come. Brilliant!

Traffic Signals Being Obeyed
Driving in Jakarta typically looks something like this:

Red light? Nah, that's just a suggestion.

Any traffic signals or signs are generally ignored. Here in London, it's back to the rule of law. The few times when we are in a car (or more often a bus), things tend to flow in an organized way. Who knew those green light/red light things actually worked?!

(speaking of buses) Yaaay public transportation!
Buses, subways (The Tube!), overground, underground, oyster cards...so many options! So many ways to get home! All the things!

We love the public transportation system here. It's been perfect for us. We live a 2 minute walk from two tube stations and a couple bus stops. It's just so convenient. Here's Gloria's take on the tube: people like to moan about the tube but it's the most reliable form of transport I've ever experienced. I know exactly what time I need to leave my apt to get to work at any given time. If there are closures, I get an email about what's going to be shut down, and if a line is shut down there's an alternate bus route - which actually is a pain in the butt, but you're never without direction and the right place to go.

Plus, we've now experienced the Paris metro system and we can say with direct experience that Tube is much friendlier. With frequent reminders to "mind the gap", wifi at the stations, and the fact that the doors on the tube trains don't close with a force intended to chop off a limb (I may or may not have been caught in a closing door in Paris), the London tube is vastly superior to the Paris metro. Also, the Tube doesn't smell like pee...(ah hem, mon cher Paris)

So there you go. London public transportation FTW!

Queues (lines for those of you in the US)
I don't think I ever thought I'd say I was happy to wait in line. But after experiencing "queues" in SE Asia (which are really just crowds of people all trying to push through a door at once), it's refreshing to wait in line without having little old Asian women pushing in front of us.

Ok everyone, time to crowd around in a mass frenzy! Good job.

Food & Groceries

Much like in the US, if there is a type of food we want, we can find it here. Our local supermarket even has an "American" aisle.

Pop Tarts, Lucky Charms, Jif...bringing American obesity to Europe one step at a time!

It's amazing. We're even able to get all our Thanksgiving goodies. In the past few days I've bought a turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie....all for only 3x the price back home. That's the one downside of London. Everything is mad expensive. But, that comes with the territory. Besides, look at all this food! It's here! RIGHT HERE! Every day I can have good coffee, breakfast cereals, pastries, AND crappy American snacks. Living the dream!

The one notable exception to the crazy prices is alcohol. It's sooooo nice to have a wide selection of booze at it's ACTUAL price - not quadruple like we're used to paying in Indonesia & Singapore. Seriously. We can get bottles of wine for less than $30 again.

£5 wine - It's so good when it hits your lips!

Also, PORK Products! ALL OVER THE TOWN - with apologies to our halal or kosher friends, pork is awesome. And now we have it again! Roasted ham, sausages, ribs, bacon...wait, scratch that last one. British bacon is some kind of freaky, thin sliced pan fried pork abomination. We'll delve into that another time, but for now, I'll just say this:

Bacon

Not Bacon

And for those who require a little more info:

So there you have it. Despite the obvious bacon SNAFU, we love it here in London. We're extremely happy to be reunited with the conveniences of modern life, and after only a couple months, London already feels like home.

The London night bus - just like the Shooters bus in Durham

The more things change...

As I hinted at in my previous post, the past couple months have brought some pretty big changes in our lives. Most significantly, we moved from Jakarta, Indonesia to London, United Kingdom. We exchanged hot, smoky Jakarta, for foggy old England. But, there was one twist: although Gloria and I left Jakarta on the same day, we did not arrive in London together. You see, while Gloria's went straight to London to start work, I had to go back to the US to get my UK visa approved. So I headed back to Philly to submit my visa paperwork. The good thing is that it gave me a chance to catch up with Gloria's side of the family, and I got to see our nephew Alex and give him his belated birthday present.

Lego & block!

I was also able to take the opportunity to head home to Michigan to see my family. As luck would have it, my visit coincided with Gloria's parents' trip to visit my parents, so I would be able to see everyone at the same time. Perfect! (yes, our parents get along so well they plan trips just to visit each other...how great is that?!)

So, after taking care of everything in Philly, I headed off to Michigan for some Helminski family time.

First time I'd seen my parents in a year

And since this is my family, the first item on our agenda was drinking a few beverages out on my parents' deck.

A reason to live indeed...

Lucy was ready and waiting to chase the tennis ball

Immediately getting spoiled by Mom's food

My original plan was to spend most of my time in MI at my parents house, with a couple nights at my brother's place to hang out with him, Tammy, and their boys, then head over to Detroit for the Lions game (my anniversary gift from my AMAZING wife), and finally head up to our cabin for some time with nature. But, as with most plans, things didn't quite work out. You see, my brother & his wife have two little boys: 3 year old Dominic and (almost 2 year old) Ryan. The boys decided that the week of my visit was the perfect time to get sick. So instead of spending time at my parents' house, I got to take care of sick little boys.  It wasn't too bad though. For the most part they were good, and Ryan got to revel in the joys of not wearing pants all day (pardon the vertical video - I'm ashamed of myself).



As you can see I took my Uncle duties VERY seriously. For the uninitiated, here are a few of the key things you must do when taking care of young children:

Make sure they wear adult shoes on the wrong feet

Teach them to copy your goofy faces

If they want to play on stairs alone, go for it! Just take pictures (through the cat door if possible)

No shirt? No pants? Must be dinner time.

Post bath time = put on your brother's pajamas

Uncle duty? Nailed it.

Alright, enough kid stuff. Time to make the most of my anniversary gift from Gloria and go see the Lions play the Vikings in their season opener. Yep, my wife got me tickets to an NFL game for our 1st anniversary. Best. Wife. Ever. True story.

With my buddies Todd & Rich tailgating pre-game

Our view as the Lions beat down the Vikings. Woo hoo!

The trip to Detroit was great because in addition to the Lions game, I had a chance to catch up with some of my buddies I haven't seen in years. Always a good time.

Then it was back to Muskegon for a quick visit with my parents and Gloria's parents before they headed off on their road trip to the UP,

Morning coffee in the Helminski house

and then after picking up my sister Liz at the airport, it was up to the cabin. Ah yes, the cabin. Our rustic family sanctuary in the woods. Basically we head up there to eat, drink, play games, laugh, share stories... just good family time.

Why yes, that is a lens flare over the old outhouse. 

A proper meal at the cabin: steaks grilled over the fire.

Lucy in her happy place.

My Dad, also know as Dzia Dzia (that's Polish for Grandpa), pushing the boys in the wheelbarrow. 

If you're not playing in the dirt, you're not doing it right

This is like looking at a mirror image separated by 60 years. Ryan is pretty much my Dad's shadow

Ryan's trademark pouty lip 

And the flip side, when he's having fun

It's not a proper trip to the cabin without the old red, white, & blue

The spoils of the seafood boil. A ridiculous meal

In the end, it was a pretty typical trip to the cabin. Lots of eating, drinking, laughing, etc. Oh wait, there was that one thing we haven't seen in a good long while. Cardboard box sledding! First up, Liz:



As you can see, we pretty much just hop on a box and cruise on the down the hill. We've been doing this since, well, since my Dad was a kid. The simple things... Anyway, here comes the Moms!



Yep, that's our Moms sledding down the hill, giggling like schoolgirls. So much fun.

After the cabin trip, my time back home came to and end, and it was time to head across the pond to my wife and our new home in London.

Mother nature greeted me with a beautiful sunrise from the plane

With that, the next chapter began. Stay tuned for more tales from jolly old England....

Raja Ampat - Paradise on Earth

First of all, my apologies for the lack of posting here over the past few weeks. 

A lot has happened, which we'll fill you in on in the next few posts. Starting with our trip to Raja Ampat!

One thing we really missed during our time in Indonesia was our friends from back home. But, all along we knew that we would have one big trip in August when several people would be coming to visit. What we didn't originally know was where we would go with them. Well, shortly after we moved to Jakarta we noticed that we kept hearing about this place called Raja Ampat. So we looked into it and discovered that Raja Ampat is a remote part of Indonesia known for its untouched, pristine waters and the most bio-diverse ecosystem anywhere in the world. Sold!

For the better part of 6 months we planned this trip out. Our Fuqua friends Jacqueline, Matt, Dave, and Dave's lovely lady friend Kristin would fly out and meet us in Indonesia, where we'd spend 3 days diving & exploring Raja Ampat, followed by a night in Bali to just chill. Giddyup!

Raja Ampat is a remarkable place. As I said it is the most bio-diverse ecosystem in the world, which as our friend Jacqueline put it: There are more marine species here than anywhere! And in a more condensed area, meaning it constantly feels like you're swimming in an aquarium. (by the way, everyone go check out Jacqueline's blog huntingcheeseinchina.blogspot.com. It's spectacular)

Also, as I mentioned, Raja Ampat is quite remote. Even from within Indonesia It took us a series of flights and a 2 hour boat ride to get there. At the request of Jacqueline here's the path it takes to get there starting from her home state of Virginia. 

All the long travel becomes worth it though when this appears out in front of the boat.

Yeah, it's like that.

This is Papua Paradise Eco Resort. If you're ever considering coming to this part of the world, stay here. Seriously. It truly is paradise. The bungalows are over the ocean, so you walk out onto your balcony for views like these:

Panorama from our balcony

Gloria enjoying some hammock time

Not only that, the water under the bungalows is actually a shark sanctuary. Seriously. Every day was saw baby sharks, sting rays, and other HUUUGE fish swimming all over the place. Totally surreal.

Two of our shark friends

This little one was swimming around our bungalow for an entire afternoon

Not to mention Chris and Leah, who run the place, are just wonderful people. 

Chris & Leah in the middle of us hooligans

This place is unreal. It truly is paradise. The diving is as good as it gets as well. We saw thousands of fish, octopus, teeny tiny organisms, the most colorful coral, etc. etc. etc. It was awesome. 

Matt & Jacqueline enjoying their bungalow 

Gloria & Jacqueline on the walk to the dive center

A typical view in paradise

Our days pretty much consisted of eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, drink, play catchphrase & laugh til it hurt, then go to bed & do it all again the next day. It was awesome.

I've got a ton of dive pics & videos to edit, and I'll be putting those into a compilation soon. Keep an eye out for it! In the meantime, here's a typical shot of Matt's diving form, or as he liked to call it: "working on some stuff"

Textbook vertical upside-down diving technique

In addition to the diving, we took a little hike through the jungle. It turned out to be a bit more adventurous than we were anticipating, with the path winding us through thick jungle, muddle patches, and even going into muddy waters a couple times.

A cool bird in the water we saw on the way to the hike

About to head down the trail

This was before the trail got a bit more "rugged"

A striking group 

There were wooden cutouts floating on the water that sank when we stepped on them.

But in the end it was worth it for these views.

Alas after 3 days it was time to leave paradise.

Gloria & Jacqueline taking it all in

Dave Watts, ruler of this kingdom!

Here's a little time lapse of the sunset from our bungalow.

And one last picture that I'm particularly happy about. I was shooting a long exposure to get some stars, when I was lucky to have lightning strike in a cloud directly where my camera was pointing. You can see the dark reddish night sky in the top left corner, with stars all around the illuminated cloud. It was a very lucky shot.

Wait, I forgot one thing. Matt had quite a time here in Raja Ampat. First, he made friends with the locals, challenging them to ping pong matches,

Textbook behind-the-head, shirtless ping pong form

then he had a bit of a stand off with some of the local wildlife.

Yep, Raja Ampat, it's paradise (with lizards!).

After that, we headed off to Bali for a night of relaxation and drinks. 

And another time lapse (yes, yes, I'm obsessed…)

With that, our trip, and most of our year in Indonesia, came to a close…