Bruges

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9.01.09

We returned from the three day weekend with our bellies full of chocolate
and our camera full of fairytale photos. We decided last minute to take
the Eurostar to Bruges, Belguim since every hotel and self-catering
cottage in the UK was already booked. The British are serious about their
holidays... and the Belgians are serious about their chocolate!

We toured the canals in a little boat, explored cute pedestrian cobbled
streets and grand squares, saw a Michelangelo sculpture in a beautiful old
church, enjoyed the local parks, toured a convent (no, they didn’t have
any openings for the girls), heard a carillon concert, climbed the bell
tower for fabulous views, and indulged in fries, waffles and chocolate.

We returned home to 6 mounted bobbies enforcing crowd control on the
corner of our street. It was amazing to see Notting Hill Carnival
transform our neighbourhood into one huge (messy, drunken, loud) party
(purportedly the biggest street party in all of Europe). We took in a bit
of the parade until one of the cops let us know that there was a mob of
150 people nearby and that shots had been fired recently! As we walked
back towards our house I saw an oncoming woman’s eyes pop out of her head
as she witnessed a fight break out on the corner where we had just been.
Yikes! We watched a bit of the mayhem from our terrace (one arrest, one
drug deal, at least one public urination....) and then we went to bed to
the sound of yelling, whistle-blowing, and later street cleaners. Today
all is clean and the houses and shopkeepers along the route are taking

down the plywood from their doors and windows.

A Few Random Posts

6.23.09

I just had the coolest experience. I was walking home from running some
errands and I happened across one of the “Play Me I’m Yours” street
pianos. Some fellow was messing around on it so I sat down on a nearby
bench to send a few texts. After he got up, a man in a neon work vest came
by and said, “Hey what’s this?” He bent over as if to test the water and
proceeded to play the most amazingly beautiful classical music for about
45 seconds then hopped on a garbage truck and drove off. He could have
been in the Royal Albert Hall, but it was on the corner of Westbourne
Grove and Denbeigh Road!

Since there were no other takers, I played the two songs I know by heart
and a few of the songs out of the laminated book. Some older gentleman
came by and jokingly/accusingly said, “What are you doing?” He said that
he lives nearby and that at first he thought it was someone’s stereo too
loud and then he thought it sounded quite nice so he came down to check it
out. He said he had heard of the project and that he was going to oppose
it but then got too busy to bother. Now this old man is happy he didn’t
and he thinks it is a great idea and that London needs some shaking up!

A few more people gathered and they coaxed me into playing a few more
songs (luckily the book was full of easy songs that I could sight read)
and a lady sang along. I wish I could play by ear. I want to hang out by
one of these pianos all day just to see what transpires. I love it!

6.3.09

Unanticipated bonus of living in the UK: I can now watch Trainspotting
without subtitles.

Though today I heard this one: As I was buying fruit from a stall on
Goldborne Road one stallkeeper said to the other, “She must’ve washed her
knickers in the same juice” Whattt? I don’t even know if this is PG. I
didn’t catch the context.

3.29.09
Spring is here. Daffodils are up and the kids are playing football
(soccer) outdoors again. Fiona was player of the week last week and Brenna
was player of the week this week.

Pictures from Cory

Photos from our trip home in February.
47 pictures
View Album at Shutterfly

Top Five

Top five ways you know your kids are in the Spanish school:
1. WordReference.com is a permanent tab on your internet browser
2. Your preschooler comes home saying, “Es mio!”
3. Flamenco is an after school activity.
4. They cancel school on account of the weather and you get no phone call, no e-mail, nada. The only way to find out is to walk there and find the gates locked.
5. You speak to your husband in Spanish hoping the kids won’t understand and you get an instant translation instead.

Top two ways you know it’s a public school:
1. Your kid tells you “”So-and-so doesn’t have a dad – he’s in prison.”
2. “Neither does so-and-so, her dad got sent back where he came from.”

Snow Day in London!

This is what we woke to this morning. Can you believe it? Brenna said that God made it snow in London to make it more like America. And it is. Except in Tahoe they are prepared for it, in London they are not. No buses, limited underground service, no school, no notification system for the school. People say it's the most snow they've seen in 15-20 years.

It is the ultimate snowman-making snow. You can actually roll the ball around and it gets bigger and bigger.

Brenna turns 4

Brenna turned 4 on Jan. 15. After school we made cupcakes and opened some presents on Skype. For dinner she wanted to go to the “blue” restaurant for pizza. They served her a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream with a candle and sang Happy Birthday in Italian. Then home for the English version because we just had to sample the cupcakes.

She got to blow out candles three times in total, four if you count the pretend cake at school. Friday was her party, and the weather even cooperated. A group of friends walked over from school. We had lunch in the flat and then the kids ran off their cupcake-induced energy in the gardens. They went wild until the weather stopped cooperating (rain).

Brenna was super cute, all smiles and very excited to have all her friends over. Fiona was a very helpful little hostess and helped serve and even helped two little girls figure out how to share a dolly.

It was a good ending to a rough week that started out with Fiona throwing up every twenty minutes for the whole night. Two nights later Brenna clocked in at every two hours. Cory was spared the throwing up part but was wiped out for two days.

When your kids throw up in bed, assessing the damage is a bit like checking out your car after a fender bender. You hope you only got one panel because you know it will be cheaper to fix. Sheets, blanket, comforter, pillow, mattress, pajamas, and hair are akin to totaling your car. Seriously, I almost threw away some of it. That is a lot of laundry when your washing machine is about the size of a pasta pot.

Thankfully, everyone recovered in time for Brenna’s Birthday and it never hit Ryan, which is very fortunate as he had exams last week and this. European exams are hard core. He has been putting in 12-14 hour days studying. Wish him luck!

Red Hut Reminders

This morning, trying to entice the kids into eating my home fries, I said, “These potatoes remind me of hash browns”. Fiona then launched into:

“Hash browns remind me of Red Hut. Red Hut reminds me of America and America reminds me of my friends and my friends remind me of home. My home reminds me of my bed and my bed reminds me of my stuffed animals. My stuffed animals remind me of my toys and my toys remind me of Sam’s (Sam’s Beach House - another restaurant). Sam’s reminds me of my Webkins. Webkins remind me of my cousins. My cousins remind me of their parents and baby Alex. Their parents remind me of Grammie and Grampy, who remind me of Nana and Papa who remind me of their cats who remind me of Bodie and Scout. Bodie and Scout remind me of Scout and that she died and that we love her and that we still have some of her ashes.”

Yesterday as we were getting ready for school Fiona said, “I wish Brenna was my twin. Then we could go to school together and she could sit next to me.”

Brenna said yesterday, “I wish there was snow.”

As for me, I wish I had a carpool, or even a walk–pool (since we walk to school).

And Ryan wishes that he didn’t have to take exams in January. Otherwise he’d be really happy with his semester and be able to enjoy his five week break.

*This photo is from this fall when I took the girls on a paddleboat on the Serpentine, the big lake that bisects Hyde Park.