observations of an American child in England...

B's observations for the week...
Sept 9 - Driving through our village there is a small round a bout. As we drove through it, the car in front of us started backing up (dangerous!), having not turned correctly to go through the round a bout. B's comment from the back seat, "Americans". After I laughed I asked why she thought that. She said Americans never drive right in England.
true, very true

Sept 10 -As we are riding our bike through the neighborhood she says as she points to a house, "American's must live in that house."
"Why do you say that?" I ask.
"Because they have a sprinkler watering their grass. English people dont have sprinklers!"
I have no idea if that is true or not, but I have to admit I havent seen a sprinkler system since last year in Texas. Funny that she noticed it too and assumed they MUST be American.

Sept 13 - "Mom, I think it's time we stop riding our bikes to school. It's too cold in the morning." What!!?!!! Never thought I'd hear that in September.

Sept 14 - last but not least, yesterday I went to the local Costco (1 hour away) and did some shopping. There are a few American foods I can buy there. After opening the cupboards this morning, both the kids were so excited. Upon seeing a box of Snickers bars, B asked, "where did all the American food come from?" Never thought Snickers bar and a box of Oreos would represent all of America's food, or wait, maybe it does....

back to posting

ok, ok, I went on summer vacation too. Just couldnt find time to post durning those long, lazy, cool summer days. Now, school has started and life is back on a schedule. We had a great summer, although not nearly long enough. So far, we have hosted 8 sets of visitors and have genuinely enjoyed every visit. I got a little distracted by hosting and forgot to stay on schedule with my posting. I'll do better now.
We traveled to some fun places of which I will write more later. The weather in England was unseasonably cold this summer. I have worn shorts maybe 8 times. It rained a ton and just never warmed up. Even the locals have commented on how summer never really arrived. Speaking to a lady who has spent more than 40 years enduring Texas summers - it was pretty pleasant! Although I do hate that we never got a tan - another reason to leave the shorts in the closet. We loved leaving the windows open every day and eating outside on the patio. We comment EVERY day what a joy it is to be outside WITHOUT mesquitos. It really makes such a difference to be rid of those pesky bugs.
Even now we have to wear a jacket in the mornings because it is so cool (highs in mid 60s). The days are getting shorter too. It is now dark by 8:00pm.
School is totally different being able to start the year with everyone else. Being a newcomer in the middle of the year was a complete bummer. We know our way around and arent so green. I've even offered to be a "buddy" to a new family. Amazing how far we have come since January. B is happy to go to school - huge difference from dragging her into school for months. L is ok with school too. His favorite class is Digital animation. He made the cross country team and told me today he ran 3K. I said 'how far is that'. His answer,"I dont know". We need to make the metric conversion for track or else he may unknowingly sign up for a 10 mile run.
We ride our bikes to and from school now which cuts about 45 min off both the morning and afternoon "school runs" - no tardies yet, yeah!. DA bought me a new bike for our commutes. It is sweet, but he laughs at my "comfort" bike. Sits upright and looks like an ol' lady bike. Now he can kid me right back when I laugh at his scooter. I even have a little basket on the front to carry groceries in.
I have tried to expand my baking experiences by using my weird oven. I baked some banana nut bread for a meeting this morning. I was so proud - looked and smelled so good - only to cut it at the meeting and realize the center was uncooked.!! ackkkkk! If I ever learn to cook here, it will be a miracle.

The Normandy Beaches

L and I took a father and son trip down to France to see the Normandy Beaches. It was a guided and tour and we can pretty much tell you anything you need to know about the D-Day invasion. We saw and did it all. We visited all five of the landing beaches spending most of our time at Omaha and Utah Beaches, Pegasus Bridge, the US War Cemetery, Pointe Du Hoc, and St. Mere Eglise. If these place don’t ring a bell, watch the movie The Longest Day.

We also spent one day visiting Mont St. Michel. This is one of my favorite spots in the world. It is amazing. The monks moved out in 2002 so it has lost a little bit. When they were there you could hear their singing all over the island. When the fog sets in it would be pretty eerie.

It is amazing that there is so much evidence of WWII all around. There are still 18 inch guns just sitting out in the fields. You still see the craters creating from bombings, and there are pill bunkers everywhere. Some of the other highlights of the trip included L liking goose liver pate. Of course, I didn’t tell him what he was eating.

All the museums were really good and very hands on, we sat in tanks, climbed down in bunkers, walked on the beaches, and the best thing of all was just spending time with L.

D.A. In Germany

Several weeks ago, I got the opportunity to go to Munich with a few on my co-workers. The COO, whom I support, lives just outside of Munich and he and his wife were our hosts and our tour guides. I arrived ahead of the others and spent the first day touring Dachau Concentration Camp. I was very glad I went, however, it was quite depressing. It is amazing that one set of human beings can do something so terrible to another group.

The following day was the direct opposite. Munich was fantastic. The people are so nice and seem to have so much fun in everything they do. We toured the city of Munich and saw some great sites. We went to one of the famous Biergartens. They were having a traditional music festival so there were lots of people dressed in their traditional clothing. Very festive.

We stayed in the town of Starnberg. There is a beautiful lake of the same name. This is the lake where King Ludwig mysteriously drown. One of the highlights of the trip was riding in a cab going over 210 kilometer an hour (140 mph) in a Mercedes on the way back to the airport. It was a beautiful part of the world and I look forward to going back – maybe Oktoberfest next year.

Update from D.A.

It has been a while since I posted anything. First, I want to thank Eric O. for for being the only one who defended me when Bridget posted the picture of me on my scooter. With only one gear and a top speed of 55 mph it is a long way from the Harley-Davidson that Eric, Scott B. and tour have toured around Northern New Mexico and Colorado. It gets me to and from the train station and it gets 65 miles to the gallon which is important when gas is $8 a gallon.


Each June a group of some of my closest friends spend a long weekend fishing in New Mexico. This has been a tradition since 1989. This year is only the second trip I have missed. I want the guys to know that I was thinking of them and was with them in spirit.


Work is going great. The honeymoon period is over and I am now into the daily routine. We are making great progress, but it is never as fast as you want it. The people are great and my team is coming together. I am still under-staffed but hopefully I can get that fixed in the next few months. I have had my friends from Navigator/Hitachi helping out with the technology side of my responsibilities. They have been great.



It is an exciting time to be at Barclays. We are in the middle of an acquisition - the hostile kind. We are trying to buy ABN AMBRO, but the Royal Bank of Scotland is trying to buy them under a hostile approach. This will be the largest banking acquisition in history. There will be books written about this. It has been a great first six months. It has flown by and I truly feel like we have taken advantage of this time.

My Absolute Favorite, so far

Over the weekend we traveled to Bruge, Belgium. It is absolutely my favorite place. Touted as a "medieval city", it really is a walk through the past, yet with all the charm, comfort, beauty and chocolate you can imagine. We traveled on the Eurostar train - leaving the house at 4;15am (ugh)- traveling to Brussels and then we transfered to a local train to Bruge. Cars are basically banned inside the city walls, so push bikes, motorcycles, scooters, horse draw carriages and boats are the main modes of travel. We were able to walk from the train station to the city centre. You hear and see horse carriages all around. The boats take you on a tour of the most beautiful canals. Our hotel was so nice, right across the street from a canal with a great view. The architecture all throughout the city is wonderful. I just cant say enough good things about it. And best of all, chocolatier's on every block. Literally every block. We had just been to Cadbury the day before, but it doesnt hold a candle to fresh, Belgium chocolate. We tried chocolate at several shops and really liked the Pralinette shop. L discovered truffles, and I had to stop him from swallowing $2 truffles whole. Told him to savor the taste and make it last more than 1 second. He said he couldn't help himself.

The locals we encountered all spoke English, so it was easy to order and such. They are completely set up for tourists and it shows. Everything is easily accessible. Much to DA's surprise, I actually prefer it over Paris. You can get to each site without ever getting on a bus, tube, train, taxi - whatever - to allow you the most time wondering in and out of shops, sites and chocolatiers. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Warwick and Chocolate

Last week, we joined DA on a business trip to Coventry, and I took the kids to Warwick Castle and Cadbury World - yum. Warwick is so different from all the other castle's we have visited. The Taussad's Group runs it, as in Madam Taussad's, and it is set up for family entertainment. In L's words, "it's not just some empty ole castle you walk around." There was a great archery show, a launch of a Trebuchet (huge catapult) and a falconry show. The highlight for me was seeing an American Bald Eagle up close and watching him fly. It was ironic I had to travel all the way to England to see our country's American Bald Eagle in flight, but it was magnificent. The kid's favorite fact - that they used to catapult dead horses over castle walls during battles. They have told everybody they've seen about that one particular fact. Made quite an impression on them.

On Friday, we toured Cadbury World in Bournville, just outside of Birmingham. It was fun and interesting, although I would like to have seen actual chocolate bars being made and packaged. You mainly learn about the history of chocolate and how it was introduced into England and the history of the Cadbury Chocolate line. They gave away lots of free chocolate and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - eating more chocolate than we ever needed ;)