We went to the British Ambassador\u2019s home for New Year\u2019s Eve for a small, casual chili supper. I enjoyed chatting with the Canadian ambassador\u2018s mother about her former career working around the world with international organizations. (I was also jealous because she once received a gift of driving a NASCAR at her nearby racetrack! I would love to do that!) It was a nice evening! We came home a bit before midnight but stayed up listening to the fireworks all around town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last Sunday, I had a fun video chat with Ann and Pam then John and I jumped in the pool before heading over to the British DCM\u2019s house for a small happy hour to meet his visiting girlfriend. I was happy to get to chat with the wife of the EU\u2019s DCM – she\u2019s a lot of fun. Wednesday for lunch I met some other wives of embassy employees for lunch – I enjoyed seeing everyone, especially the two daughters of a co-worker who are visiting – they are very smart and interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve really been flummoxed by grocery shopping here, so I was happy to go to a butcher yesterday with a couple from the embassy. I recognized some of the cuts of beef and bought some to experiment with. I\u2019ve heard the beef here is not that good, so we\u2019ll see. I was fascinated to see fresh raw milk in the dairy case. They put it out while I was there and it was still warm. I was a bit daunted by the thought of pasteurizing it myself, so I didn\u2019t get it \u2014 but it was tempting. There\u2019s only one dairy here and finding fresh milk at the grocery store is a challenge (I went twice this weekend with no luck). Sadly, the UHT (\u201cshelf\u201d) milk is not very good, and I really need milk in my coffee. Even the local Starbucks uses shelf milk. The struggle is real, folks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spent some time this week planning a trip for a wedding in May. I\u2019m also trying to get a handle on finances – something I\u2019ve ignored for a long time. It\u2019s been fun to dig into the details of it all and start building a retirement spending plan (it\u2019s complicated!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John and I started watching \u201cBlue Lights\u201d on BritBox. It\u2019s a police procedural and we\u2019re hooked! We just started the last season although they are planning another for 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yesterday the U.S. announced that Maduro in Venezuela was captured and taken for trial. Guyana is next door to Venezuela, but we are fine – thanks to so many of you who reached out to us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We went to the British Ambassador\u2019s home for New Year\u2019s Eve for a small, casual chili supper. I enjoyed chatting with the Canadian ambassador\u2018s mother about her former career working around the world with international organizations. (I was also jealous because she once received a gift of driving a NASCAR at her nearby racetrack! I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8005"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8005"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8009,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8005\/revisions\/8009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}