D day

For the last two years, my enjoyment of the English spring has been somewhat hampered by massive snot production and bright red, Twilight-esque eyes (although I don't think the vampires eyes were quite so watery...). After 36 years without any real allergy problems, I have fallen victim to my immune system. Last year I tried my mother-in-law's suggestion of local honey, but I either didn't start taking it early enough, or it doesn't work for me. Thankfully, over the counter allergy meds seemed to do the trick.

This year's immune implosion occurred at precisely 11:34 pm BST on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. I was minding my own business, watching bad TV and knitting, when all of a sudden my nose exploded. By the time I went to bed, we were out of tissues. Yesterday we took the girls and my brother-in-law on a 6 hour round trip car journey to Aldeburgh, on the east coast, and I wanted nothing more then to lie down on the (lovely) stoney beach in the bracing sea breeze and take a nap (albeit with my head turned to the side so I didn't drown in my own excretions). Today was marginally better, but nowhere near good. Or in the same neighborhood as functional, which is more important, seeing as it's the Easter holiday and I'm on child/dog duty more or less non-stop for the next four weeks. And those lovely pills that kept me going last year? They seem to be an unnoticeable bump in the road to my runaway IgE load.

Himself pointed out that our ornamental cherry tree on the back deck has just started to bloom. I wonder if that's the culprit? If so, we may be generating some lovely cherry wood items at this time next year...

Some intial thoughts on December

Thought #1: It's kind of nice living someplace where it actually snows. My previous post highlighted the first of several snowy days, and it snowed again yesterday briefly and overnight/this morning quite a bit - to the tune of about 3 fluffy inches. Two foxes were running through the garden this morning, and we've had a badger come to visit in the last couple of weeks.

Night shot with no flash = fuzzy badger

A friend recommended peeing around the massive hole said badger has dug under our fence from the neighboring garden - they can be quite destructive, particularly to lawns, and since they're a protected species we can't very well take active measures to get rid of it. Himself took one for the team and duely watered the appropriate area and we haven't seen it since. The foxes, however, have found the same access point very useful. Aaaahhh, English wildlife!

It's all very lovely, particularly since I'm holed up inside and the rest of the family is out playing in the snow. Which brings me to thought #2: I seem to be on track to taking a run at last year's stellar record of two bouts of disease within 10 days over the Christmas holiday. This year's plague is better then last year's in that it's not the flu and I don't have six extra people in the house, but it's still not very fun - I am blogging from the comfort of my bed. Hooray for wireless!

Thought #3: the first few days of the girls' holiday have been nice. We've decorated Christmas trees in situ,

and at home.

We've gone to the dinosaur museum and made mini-mince pies.

And I've discovered that they are big fans of Cheap Trick. Particularly this song.

I'm not sure why D has her tongue out in ever shot - maybe she's chaneling Mr. Jordan? It was some pretty strenuous dancing...

Time for me to finish up and crawl under the covers for a nap. Here's hoping everyones' gifts are purchased/made/otherwise obtained, that the snow is falling softly and the Christmas tunes are on. Enjoy!

The State of the Household

Last Thursday saw the end of our Month of Houseguests, when my parents went back to Boston Maine. Himself was leaving the next day for RAB, and Boo celebrated by...

...getting chicken pox. To say that I was underenthused about hanging out at home with her for a week while she battled through would be a slight understatement. But only slightly. So we shooed Daddy off for a plane to the northern end of the world*, and spent the weekend baking cookies, tie dyeing dresses, hanging out with some friends and going to see "The Princess and the Frog". And what do you know, due to thewonders of partial immunizations**, yesterday Boo went back to school! I can only hope she didn't proclaim proudly to her friends and teachers "I have chicken cocks!", a phrase she came up with while sitting on the can over the weekend, almost sending her mother to the hospital with hysterics.

The weather has vastly improved in the past couple of days, and I'm looking forward to the weekend, when we get in the car and trek down to the southern end of the world* to pick up Himself on Sunday. The part I'm looking forward to is not the five plus hours in the car to Cornwall, but getting to "camp" at one of these at the end of it. If you can call sleeping in a "tent" with walls, a woodstove and real beds camping. The girls and I will get to have some more quality time together hanging about and tending our chicken coop on Saturday, and we'll head down to Land's End on Sunday to get a tired, saddle sore Daddy. A friend recommended this organization to me, and it turns out she's been to this actual farm with her kids and they loved it. Here's hoping the weather continues to cooperate!

* That would be the UK northern end and the English southern end.
** She managed to get one of the two course chicken pox vaccines before we left the States, and her case was so mild as to be unnoticeable. We totally skipped the icky blistering oozing itching stage. Hallelujah!

Inappropriate clothing, cars, lilacs and WTF?

In other words, a random sampling of tidbits.

Tidbit the first: this weekend, the temps in London got up to 22 degrees C (a whopping 72F). This was apparently the signal that most of southwest London had been waiting for. In a climate that would have a number of Houstonians huddled in their parkas and wool sweaters, I was "treated" to the sight of more naked flesh then is really appropriate on my grocery run. OK, I realize it's been cold and raining for nigh on five months, but that does not make hot pants and bikini tops (thankfully not on the same person!) good ideas for a trip to Sainsbury's. Just sayin'.

Tidbit the second: my driving test is on Tuesday tomorrow (cue heart palpitations). Himself took his last week, and I'm sorry to say that my run of doing better then him in this arena is likely to be finished. You are allowed 15 minor faults on the practical test before you fail. He got two. Apparently (according to my absolutely lovely driving instructor) that's really, really, really good. So I'm bowing to the inevitable and just hoping at this point that I pass. The ALDI did give me the encouraging news* that 50-60% of people with driving experience pass on their first go. Excellent. Fantastic. Shit. So tomorrow at around lunchtime I'll either be greatly relieved or hiding under my bed.

Tidbit the third: for the first time in more then 15 years I am living somewhere with lilacs. I cannot begin to explain how happy this makes me. I have very fond memories of wallowing under the lilac bushes at my aunt's house in Somerville as a kid, and seeing those purple cones starting to flower makes me a wee bit giddy. The girls think I'm nuts, but they are infidels when it comes to lilacs. Heathens. They will be educated.

Tidbit the fourth: one of the questions I get quite a bit from people in the states is how's the food? And, for the most part, it's good. Especially in London, you can get just about any kind of food you want**, and pub food has moved towards hoity toity roast lamb with truffles kinds of things, at least at some places. But the one thing I cannot wrap my head around are the flavors the Brits chose to put on their potato chips (crisps). Last weekend at the store, I was so stunned by a display that I had to play photo documentarian (sorry for crappy phone pictures).

OK, cheese I get, Teriyaki Chicken is pretty much in line with usual choices, but Flame Grilled Steak from Argentina? I've now checked out the website, and the flavors available include: Welsh Rarebit, Argentinian Flame Grilled Steak, South African Sweet Chutney, Australian BBQ Kangaroo (???!!!!), Dutch Edam Cheese, English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding, Scottish Haggis (oh barf), Irish Stew, Brazilian Salsa, American Cheeseburger (better then Apple Pie, I suppose), French Garlic Baguette, Italian Spaghetti Bolognese, German Bratwurst Sausage, Japanese Teriyaki Chicken and Spanish Chicken Paella.

I'm not sure what more I can say. I thought Prawn Cocktail crisps were bad, but these are beyond comprehension. Truly.

* The encouraging part being that only 10% of new drivers pass the first time.
** We have not yet found good mexican. I've been given assurances that it does exist, but we haven't found it yet.

Easter

The girls have been on Easter/Spring holidays for the last two and a half weeks, and they don't go back to school for another week and a half. This has been death on my work schedule (what work?), but has been amazing in terms of spending time with them. We've had a bunch of expeditions: the first week we braved the rain and cold temperatures to go to a farm with friends T and M (4.5 yrs and 20 months respectively), who we met our first day here. The girls had great fun feeding the animals (sheep, goats, horses), ooohing and aaaahing at the baby lambs, and playing on the playground. We even managed to time it so we left just as the skies were opening up in a true downpour.

The following weekend was Easter weekend, and it was very busy. First up was the Easter Egg Hunt, 2010 version, with M and T again.

We kicked everyone out early so we could hop on the train and go to watch the Boat Race at Barnes Bridge. There were lots of people,

and tasty adult beverages.

I got all nostalgic about rowing,

while Devil decided she could do without the cheering,

and Boo sprawled full length in a mud puddle.

This past week, the weather has taken a turn for the absolutely divine, so we've been spending lots of time outside. We went to Leeds Castle (home of the famous albino peacock) again,

and spent another day at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, a girl favorite.

To round off the week, yesterday we went to the Zoo in Battersea Park. We didn't do much of anything with the animals, but the playground was very popular. As was ice cream!

We've got one more full week of holiday left, and then a couple of days, and I'm beginning to think I'll actually make it through in one piece! Plans for the upcoming week include at least one more visit out of town if the weather stays good, and maybe some museums if it gets crappy goes back to normal. It's funny watching all the Brits come out from under cover, kind of like mushrooms popping up in the lawn, as soon as the sun comes out. And then I realize that we were all wearing shorts yesterday, so I guess we're in the same boat!

Look! Look!

I think spring is coming...

London Christmas Magic, the Delayed Wrap Up

So here's the thing about having a house full of people for the holidays. It makes blogging much less of an issue. With that excuse out on the table, here's a few photos to round off the last week and a half or so.

We had a "traditional" English Christmas dinner, complete with sausages wrapped in bacon and mince pies (sadly unphotographed). There was turkey,

Stuffing,

Cranberry sauce and roasted potatoes and broccoli and brussel sprouts (for Nana).

There was a mofo big bottle of wine, courtesy of my siblings-in-law.

No, a really big bottle of wine (large red wine glass for scale).

It was the largest bottle of wine I've ever seen (note the use of milliliters, not liters. Because 3000 seemed better then 3?).

The next day, there was playing with new toys.

Scooty the scooter

Brand new (perfect) tea set from charity shop

Over the next week there was hiking in the mud on Leith Hill,

10 seconds later there was much crying and wailing as Devil took a step and left her wellie behind in the mud. I may or may not have peed myself a little bit with the laughing. Which didn't help calm the situation of course.

Have walking stick, will travel.

As well as much coming and going of visitors (at this stage mostly going). The last couple left yesterday morning from our house at 11:30 for their 4:00 pm flight. They left extra early because we got a big snow yesterday, and there was some concern about being able to get to the airport.

They needn't have worried. Their flight was delayed five and a half hours. I'm hoping duty free is still standing!

Yesterday's snow has revealed something that Londoners do not do particularly well:

Plow. Our road, while not a major thoroughfare, is relatively well used. It didn't get plowed or sanded (gritted as they like to say here) until this afternoon. This morning it was a sheet of thick glare ice. Yes, people were out driving. We saw lots of slow skids, one SUV with rugs under the rear tires (to no avail) and a lot of traffic. Thankfully no collisions of any kind, but it made me supremely glad to Edit HTMLnot have to drive to school or work.

But I won't talk about the trains. Not yet at least...

Happy New Year to you all!

A real autumn

It's been fun watching the girls experience their first real autumn. And by real, I mean with leaves and rain and cold weather and everything! They seem to be enjoying it*. A brief pictorial essay:

Off to the dinosaur museum.

That's an evil look...

Yup, pure evil.

Whee!

Leaf angels, not as satisfying as the snow variety.

Whee squared!

Miss. Diva Boo at B&Q (Home Depot equivalent)

Trip to B&Q coupled with the grocery store was too much.

Provisions. Himself was worried about the impending Guiness shortage scheduled to hit the UK Any.Minute.Now.

Now we're gearing up for an attempt to indoctrinate some British friends into the calorie consumption binge that is Thanksgiving, and the impending arrival of all grandparents and one set of uncles/aunts for Christmas time. We will have ten people in the house at one time. It's going to be amazing!

* Although Devil did say to me yesterday morning that she wanted to go back to Houston because it was warm there**.
** This from the child who refuses to wear tights*** and therefore goes to school every day with bare legs.
*** She would wear tights to school if she could wear the pink ones, but she can't so she doesn't. Sigh.