Snow Day

On Monday we awoke to a blanket of 12" of snow!!!! That is the most snow I have ever had fall upon my house - anywhere - except maybe in the Rocky Mountains on a ski trip.

The kids walking down the main road in our area. Tons of folks were out and about walking around.

I think the house looks pretty in the snow.

B making snow angels with her buddies.

No plows in the town, streets are chock full of snow. It may take a long time to thaw if they cant plow anything.

This sounded like a good idea until he tried the one knee, no hands slide down the sledding hill. Note that it is a trash bag covered boogie board that 0ne would normally use on the waves in the ocean.

The kids were so excited to see so much snow. The entire day was spent outside playing. L announced it was too deep to make a snowman. An occurrence we have never come across before.

B receives a huge push from L down the sledding hill.

DA worked from home. The tube lines basically were shut down. Only the Victoria line had good service and Central line had severe delays. All other lines were closed in the morning, so DA couldn't get into work - not to mention if he could even drive out of our neighborhood!! I made a valiant effort to dig out our cars using a -----rake. No shovels here! Admittedly after an hour I hadn't made much progress, so I abandoned that effort.

For any of you "Holiday" movie lovers, this is the one week where it might look like that - snow everywhere. I think this little lane right in front of our garden looks just like the movie. This is real Surrey covered in snow.

Today (Tuesday) is also a snow day. More fun. We walked down to the village for a little outing. No bread at the grocery store, but most of the stores opened today for reduced hours. The trains were running limited service so DA went into the city late in the morning. He made a rookie mistake - wore his dress shoes and suit and had to trek across 12" deep snow at the train car park. We are such Texans that we don't even know what businessmen wear to trudge through the snow to work. I'm sure folks are chuckling at him. He made it fine, but said it was very slippery. I wont be taking the Mini out, that is for sure. I think it only has a 6" clearance to the ground and the snow is deeper than that. Might have to be rescued again if I tried that. I'll be walking everywhere I need to go!

Just got word, another school snow day on Wednesday --- running out of things to do!!!!!!!

My knight in shining armor

One of my favorite things about living in England is getting the opportunity to buy English pottery - or Staffordshire pottery as many people call it - so called because it's made in Staffordshire county. The January sales at the Stoke-on-Trent potteries are awesome. They make it well worth the 2.5 hour drive.

This week, 3 of my friends joined me during the early morning hours to make the trek. As we set out for out journey, going around the roundabout to enter the M25 during rush hour traffic, I realized that I had a flat tire. NOOOO> we've got all the kids sorted for the day, the husbands on call and Stoke on Trent in our eyes. I knew I shouldn't drive on the rim, but there is honestly no where to stop except just in the middle of traffic. I bit the bullet, drove on the rim and went on around and pulled to the side on the slip road. There aren't any frontage roads in England, so the places to pull over are far and few between. This is just not something I've had to deal with yet while living in England. Car repair, yes, but car breakdown, NO. I had no idea what number to call, who could help, etc. My mobile phone had spotty service and since I have a pay as you go phone, I thought my low balance would run out as I figured it out.

Very, very lucky for us, DA had delayed going into work in order to help me out by getting the kids to school. He was still at the house. We called another dad to go to my friends house to get her other car key, he took the key to DA and DA drove her car to meet us. We were very grateful as DA, my knight in shining armor arrived. He graciously offered to stay with the car so that we could continue our journey to Stoke in my friend's car.

Our pottery trip was very successful with the flat tire a faint nightmare. Imagine all of Burleigh 30% off (my favorite), Spode on clearance and Portmerion 40% off. I'm trying to find places to stash it. Not too easy when storage comes at a premium around here. Now all need is some company so I can serve dinner on my new plates. Do I hear you calling British Airlines????

PS. the tire service repair guy found DA within the hour and put the spare on very quickly. DA was glad we were able to get someone there because DA said he had never seen the locking wheel lug nuts like we have, and he could not have gotten them off without lots of effort - not something he was willing to deal with while wearing his business suit on the side of the motorway. Yeah for tyre service!!! ( the service people didnt understand me when I said I had a flat tire. They just said I needed tyre service.)

Boys trip to Ireland

(photos to come - havent had time to sort through them yet)

L and I spent last weekend in Dublin, Ireland. It was a father/son weekend. This was our first trip to the land of leprechauns and it did not disappoint. We had a great weekend, saw some beautiful countryside, and had time to talk about all the things that 13 year old boys are interested in - girls, video games, and basketball.
We flew out Thursday night so we could spend all day Friday exploring the Irish bogs, mountains, hills, glens and dews. I realized when we arrived that my maps, travel book, driving route and paperwork was NOT in my bag. I had been tight on time leaving work, so I had to unexpectedly meet Bridget and L at the airport right after work, which meant she had to finish packing my bag. She "accidentally" left out some very important stuff and then she was off for a girls outing with B and was NOT answering her mobile phone. It made for some interesting times until she got home later that night and was able to scan and email me all my paperwork.

L and I finally made it to our destination just south of Dublin in the Wicklow Mountains. The mountains are not very tall but still had a nice snow covering on top. The roads in Ireland make the English roads look like wide; if you have read many of Bridget's previous blogs you will understand this means they are made for only one car going one way. It was actually nice because it made you feel like you were a long ways from civilization.

We saw the tallest waterfall in Ireland - spectacular; we visited an incredible medieval town/monastery, drove over the top of one of the mountains, and visited one of the few remaining weaving factories. We bought Bridget and B a few things just so they would know we thought of them at least once on the trip.
The main thing that I learned that day was that L is over his bout of Mono. I know this because his appetite was fully restored. I have always told L that I will buy him food as long as he eats it. He not only orders off of the adult menu, but he eats a starter, a main and expects desert. By the time we got to the next town we would have to stop for a snack and hot chocolate. The trip costs me about twice what I had budgeted because of all the food L ate. I’m guessing his food alone cost 200 Euro!!!!
On Saturday we drove into Dublin where we spent the rest of the day and Sunday touring the city. The interactive Viking museum was good, St. Patrick Cathedral was very impressive, and the Library (the Long Hall) at Trinity College was a site to see. The town has a great vibe, and everyone was very nice and seemed to be enjoying themselves.
We stayed in the Temple Bar area at a totally cheap hotel (one we would never take the Bridget and B to), but the location was perfect. Temple Bar is the main drag for pubs and restaurants. There are lots of pubs. In Dublin there are 600 churches and 1000 pubs. Guinness Beer is brewed in Dublin and is really what the whole city is built around. There are 4 million people living in Ireland. Guinness brews 8 millions pints of beer a day. Of that 8 million pints - they export 6 million. Doing the math that means the 4 million Ireland residents consume 2 millions pints of beer a day. Needless to say, your visions of Ireland on St. Patrick's Day are not that different than any day of the year in Ireland.
It was a great weekend. L hasn't reached the point where hanging with Dad isn't cool, so I am trying to get as much in while I can.


Postscript: By the end of day Tuesday L and I were grounded because L didn't get his homework completed over the weekend. Gifts from the weavers didn't count as bonus points toward the homework snafu, oops.

- DA

City day with Friends

Had Friday off from school as an in service day so several moms and kids met in the city for a day out. L was on a separate fun outing with DA, so it was just B and I that got to go. It was crazy. Lunch at the Original Hard Rock Cafe was good, except I ordered a delicious salad that had blue cheese on it. Had to scrape all that disgusting stinky stuff off! Hard Rock is a favorite of many because they serve REAL Ranch dressing. That may not mean much to you readers, but for the average Expat suffering from Ranch withdrawals (not me or my family) - getting Ranch in a restaurant is a major treat. It just strikes me as funny that this London restaurant is famous for it's American food. Afterwards we took a stroll over to Harrod's to hit the last day of the January clearance sale. I am happy to report that I bought a couple of things that cost 3 pounds and a tin of loose leaf tea for 4 pounds. I think that has to be an absolute record for spending the least at a Harrod's sale. B was so pumped about looking for something for her birthday gift, but she turned up empty handed.

As we were traveling across the city on the tube at rush hour, I couldn't help but laugh - at just the crammed, sardine, cattle car, pack 'em in like dirt tube cars. It's a little nerve wracking traveling with kids at that time. Worrying if you will both get on or get off without getting separated. Not my favorite thing to do at 5:30. My respect to DA for putting up with that every day. B and her friends basically had to stand with their faces tilted straight up to the ceilings so that they could breathe. They were so crowded that their little faces were crammed into the back of some ladies bag and another's coat.

We made our way to a few other places and ended up in Leicester Sq to try to find a movie to watch with the kids. Too bad. I guess English kids don't get to watch movies at the theater on Friday nights. Every single movie for kids only played during daylight hours. The kids were bummed, but a little dinner helped perk them up. We arrived home at 11:30 after an exhausting, but fun day in the city.

Orchestra Concert

B at her orchestra concert last week. She's in the first year orchestra and they all did a great job.

2 year anniversary

woo hoo! This week we celebrated our 2 year anniversary of our arrival in Great Britain. Honestly, I never thought we'd make it this long. I remember those cold first nights when I told (or maybe shouted) DA I thought we had made the biggest mistake ever, how could we ever have "done this" to our kids, and why on earth did we ever think it was a good idea to move here. All of these things you must read with lots of drama and hysterics to get the full effect!
Yet here we are 2 years later with smiles on our faces eating a little congratulatory cake to ourselves with our "Old Glory" and Union Jack flags.
I drove 45 min to the local Costco that day, and as I was walking by the bakery section looking for bagels, I realized that a good old American style white cake with REAL white sugar icing would be the perfect way to celebrate. Costco is the only place I've seen that sells American style bakery cakes. All the English bakeries that I've seen use a disgusting fondant icing that tastes horrible on cakes that you have to order 10 days in advance. No quick run to the Collin's Street bakery for a cake or cupcakes here!
This is a photo right before my kids had a piece of cake - they soon went into a sugar crazed frenzy - the Perfect way to celebrate our American memories.
Yes, you've seen these props before in other photos. Those 4th of July goodies the Barnes sent us those first months have certainly come in handy. I carefully clean them off and store them away after every holiday.

My American moments

I go home for only 2 weeks, and what do I do, pull an American moment yesterday. First, let me say, I had gone to the gym to work out. On the radio the announcers kept saying that it was THE most depressing day of the year - by mathematical calculations, so I was feeling proud that I overcame and had the motivation to get to the gym. After the workout, I decide to run by the grocery on the way home - because you know I have to go to the grocers almost every day! I was still wearing my capri yoga pants and white trainers (tennis shoes for the American readers :-) I get out of the car and have to walk down the high street to the stationers to buy folders, and you would have thought I was a 3 headed monster!!! I was stared at from EVERY single person I passed. My white trainers were so offensive, "tourist" their eyes screamed, "a tourist is loose in the village". I just wanted to yell, "I LIVE here!" I was very self conscious and felt like a freak, just for wearing white trainers (and they're not all that white). On my way out of the grocery store, I decided that maybe it was a little freakish to have white shoes AND white legs. So for my grocery trip today, I will have on my grey trainers, long pants and black coat. THAT will assure all my neighbors that I do live here and will wear the accepted daily uniform of dirt colored clothes so that I can walk on slimy, wet streets and not look dirty.

Oh, to end that wonderful trip to the village, I walked through the parking lot and almost fainted. There, in all it's shining glory, looking like a giant amongst peasants, was a gleaming Cadillac Escalade taking up 2 parking spots. I had to laugh at my thought, "what a monster. who would ever drive something that big?" ... hello... me....for years.... and Suburbans may even be bigger than an Escalade. Funny how we can flip our brains right back and forth between old American habits and new European ideas.