Upon DA's insistence...

After my last post, DA insisted I post the "real" photo. This is what he pictures in his mind as he's riding.

Dream on, baby!

The Scooter photos...

Daily savings at Train car park.......3.80 GBP


Weekly savings at Petrol station.....50 GBP


One time scooter purchase......2,000 GBP


Photos of DA on a scooter.......Priceless

You asked for it. Wonderful, laughable photos of DA on his scooter. In all his business suit, dress shoes, briefcase glory! This is NOT what he had in mind when he gave up his favorite truck back home knowing he might get a motorcycle in the UK for commuting. A Triumph sounded great, a scooter, well the photos speak for themselves. Notice the lovely "L" on the front and back. Stands for learner, but the kids jokingly tell him it stands for "loser".

We're not complaining though. It's new, cheap and gets him to and from the train station, so in the words of Martha Stewart, It's a Good Thing!

London thoughts

After living in Dallas all these years, I thought I was used to the 'busy'ness of a city. But after spending time in London, I am realizing what a HUGE city it is. It is unbelievable to me that Live Earth concert (60,000+), Tour de France (1 million +), Wimbledon, Justin Timberlake concert, all the West End shows, horse races, car races, etc., can all be full on the SAME DAY. That doesn't even count the people going about their own business - working and carrying on as usual. Where do all these people live? I am amazed that mass transit can move all these people around like it's no big deal. The police are working really hard in light of recent terrorist events and life goes on in the midst of it all. There are so many choices that we have a hard time deciding what activity to do. And the funny thing is that the roads are so SMALL. Really, 2 lanes each direction is a big road. That makes it even more impressive that so many people move about the city effortlessly.
If any of you are getting sick of our "we did this and we did that" routine, I apologize. It's just that we have never had such a variety of choice before and without any outside obligations. No teams, no home ownership issues, no school organizations - just family time to go and do as we please. It is a small capsule of time that we are trying to fill with as many "English" experiences as we can. So bear with me as I write about them all. It's as much a diary for us as it is for you to read. We'll be back in Texas complaining about the weather and eating at Mi Cocina as our big event of the week before we know it.
Cheers. (we are working on saying that like the British - we are way too cheery when we say it and the Texas accent just makes it laughable.)

Le Tour de France

Did you see us on TV? On Saturday, we ventured into the city with millions of other people to watch the Tour de France prologue stage in London. It was absolutely beautiful weather, and after the wettest June in 150 years (literally), the riders and spectators enjoyed a sunny, gorgeous day. We watched from Hyde Park. It was a long afternoon because you have to be in place early to get close to the barricades, and also there was lots going on in the park. Since we watched the time trial stage, the riders would come by every 2 minutes or so which allowed us to spend more time watching the race instead of the 15 seconds they would go by if we were out on the open road during the stage on Sunday. After the first few riders, we got right up to the barricades and were able to lean over and see all the riders. The kids spent lots of time digging in the dirt and B turned hundreds of cartwheels in the grass. DA - he had to take a quick nap in the sun after a hard day of spectating. Really, we were so happy to see the sun that we had to soak up a few rays.

Oh, Lance Armstrong. yeah, he was there----- in wax. Madam Taussad's had a booth with his figure. Of course we took some shots.

At the end of the day, I realized that I had time to get out to the brand new O2 arena and see Justin Timberlake in concert. How could I pass up an opportunity to see him in LONDON? So I went, bought a ticket and enjoyed the concert in my Tour de France spectating clothes. ALL the other people were dressed up to the 9's, I'm sure in hopes that JT would notice them from the stage. HA. I just enjoyed myself and then made a MAD dash back to the train station so I wouldnt miss the last train out. Got home after 1:00 am. It was a long, but fun day. (If you are a JT fan - it was a great concert!!)

4th of July in the UK

We saw fireworks! We made a special effort to find a fireworks show for the 4th of July. As B questioned, "dont they have 4th of July here?" "yes, on the calendar, but it's not a celebration!" There are a few celebrations around that cater to the American expatriate community. We went to Kempton Race Park to see the horseraces and enjoy the fireworks afterward. My kids unexpectedly found some friends from school to run around with, so they had a great time. We would view the horses in the parade and then B would "vote" on which one would win. We didnt do any betting, but B did her individual "voting". It was a very fun evening - a bit cold though. My kids were in there 4th of July shorts, t-shirts, flip flops and such. I made B take a sweater at the last minute and good thing - it was really chilly once the sun went down - at 10:00. They didnt play the obligatory "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood, but they did play Elvis and "New York, New York". Just a little taste of home.

Yes, we are safe and sound

I know there has been lots of news about Britian the last few days. Lots is going on - Wimbeldon, Princess Diana concert at Wembley, new Prime Minister, England goes Smoke Free on July 1st (yeah!!), Tour de France starts in London this week, and more disturbing - the terrorist threats. To calm the minds of our parents, family and friends - we are fine. Life is going on as normal, there's just a more obvious police presence. We have been in the city over the weekend and people are out and about, eating at restuarants, going to West End shows, shopping!, and generally going about their daily routines. We appreciate your concern and we will be careful. promise.
We would really like to score some tickets to Wimbeldon, especially since it is about 10 miles from our house. Hate to live so close and miss such an event, but the rain has really interferred with the tournament and we dont want to buy tickets only to be rained out. We are going to try to get close enough to see the Tour de France this weekend. They will ride around London and then the next day ride from London to Canterbury. I'm not sure where we will watch from. I think they go by in a split second so it will probably be lots of time spent getting into position only to turn around and go home 5 min. later. We'll let you know.

More fun with friends

We are so lucky to have more friends from Dallas come to visit last week. We had a great time, and the kids were so happy to have friends from back home to play with every day. There was LOTS of jumping on the trampoline - even after full days of site seeing. Rain fell almost every day, which was nothing new to our rain soaked Texas friends! but it didnt keep us from doing anything. Just break out the raincoats and umbrellas and keep on going. There were many highlights of the week - from the British museum to Windsor castle to feeding the ducks in the village to shopping on Portobello Road and browsing at Harrods.

DA and L were living it up on the D-day tour in France for a few days. I'll try to get DA to write a post about that.