Christmas Spirit

Jason's group had their 'Christmas Do' as its called here, last night. With budget cuts, it was on everyone's own pocket this year, so that meant spouses (me) could go as well. It was at a vodka bar in Cambridge-finger food and drinks.

Jason chipped in and bought 5 pints of beer, 20 shots, 8 bottles of wine and 4 jugs of cocktails. A few guys started in on some alcohol before arriving at the bar and were well on their way. The food went fast, but the booze went faster and before long another 10 bottles of wine and several rounds of shots came and went. Since Jason is the boss, he was given the honor of at least 3-4 shots and the wife of the boss has a few as well.

Someone wore a red sparkly boa to the party and it made its rounds, we all danced with embarassing abandon.

So total booze count: 10+ pints of beer, 30+ shots of vodka in various flavors, 18 bottles of wine, 6 jugs of cocktails (one with double alcohol). And how many people? Thirty at the most.

Home by 2, up at 7 and way too old to drink that much any more.

Sunrise

I need sun

I left for class yesterday in the dull dark cloudy morning, sat on a train for an hour, sat on the tube for half an hour, got some cash, stopped by my regular lunch spot, an Italian deli-where I've become a regular. The sandwich guy now knows when I am running late and when I can have a cappuccino or not and today he made me a special sandwich. Anyway, one with my day-then I got to walk for 15 minutes to class-nice break in the day actually-and got a few looks from builders as I am dressed like a school girl with a plaid wool mini and knee high black boots.
Sat in studio for 5 hours-got my first project back, had to present it to a visitor from another school, worked on a fun project with a group (somehow 4 expats grouped together) for the grounds of Glyndebourne, an old country house in Suffolk that hosts operas in the summer, had some muled wine and the day was done.
Left school at 3:30 to a dull dark afternoon-dark enough for the Christmas lights on Kings Road to be on.
Woke up late this morning because it was dull and dark, and so far today we have had 5 minutes of sunshine. Time to light candles and eat chocolate.

Today's Headlines...Shame on you

While sitting on the tube this morning on my way to class, I picked up the free commuter paper to pass by the 30 minute ride. What do I spy on the front page as the headline? The richest countries of the world spend more money on sun cream protection in one month than they spent in a year (or something to that tune) on the poor countries suffering the most from global warming. And of course the US is the worst offender, pledging absolutely nothing to the fund.

How dare you selfish people put your family and their skin health and their risk of cancer before whole countries? You wouldn't need to spend that much on sunscreen if you were more green. Its all your fault.

This coming from a country that burns its trash, has huge bonfires every November, wants you to recycle but makes it impossible to do so (and the solution is to charge you by weight on your rubbish pick up), wants everyone to take trains but charges way to much for the average person to afford for a ticket.

Sound of Silence

It is odd-the quietest moments of my week are actually on the train from home to London. In the morning, there is rarely a sound to be heard on the train-despite it being packed with people standing in the aisles by the 4th stop.
You may hear the occasional whispered hello between people but that is about it. Most are sleeping, listening to Ipods, reading a book or the paper. And if you are brave enough to answer your mobile phone should it have the audacity to ring-the mass of looks that are sent your way could strike you down or turn you to stone!

It's a Dilemma

What to do when its 25F outside...do we ride our bikes the 3/4 mile or so to school, walk (it's a good 10 minutes longer than the old house) or drive? I have to admit I get lazy when my garage bins are frozen shut and there is enough ice on the car windows that I have to run it for 5 minutes before leaving, and drive. However, with petrol now costing us about $9/gallon I may need to rethink.

Tractor vs Lorry

All settled in our new house, still no bed though. The main disadvantage to the new house: We are walking distance from the train station. The wisdom of a country that wants everyone to take the train instead of drive means that the train stations charge an exorbitant amount of money to park in the car park, plus your ticket. Solution? Everyone parks on the street. Solution of the County Council? Restrict parking on the street closest to the station-in the form of you get a ticket if you are parked there between the hours of 11:30 am -12:30 pm M-F. So if you commute you can't very well come back and move your car. Side effect-cars just park somewhere else...further up the road...by our house. Try getting out of your drive when you have cars on either side and one directly across.

Or you can have a problem like today...a large tow truck (lorry) was parked across from my house to retrieve my car for repairs (France accident), there were also cars on either side of my drive. Then the poor local farmer decided to drive down the road to get to his field.

Another Day

Today we started learning how to use our pens to draw straight lines and circles. You may think it sounds easy. Well its not. A very discouraging day indeed. I know what I am going to do all weekend. These pens are buggers. I have ink blotches all over my fingers and my paper was full of splodges and smears. Drawing a perfect circle with a compass so that the line is even all the way round and one cannot tell see any overlap what so ever for the end point was not fun.

Round out the day with a letter from the kids' school notifying me of an outbreak of head lice.

School Days are here again

Well, I am now in my second week of school. Today the allure of taking the train into London every week, twice a week for the next nine months, has gone. That didn't take long!

First off-despite my best intentions of waking up at 6 to get in a little exercise and eat a bit of breakfast in order to make the 7:55 train-didn't pan out. I slept in due to a bad night's sleep (still sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor) so no exercise. I did eat and had a cup of coffee made by my loving husband. However I had to run the whole way to the station. There is another train 5 minutes later, but it is a slow one. I managed to get there, buy my tickets, run up and over the tracks just as the train pulled in. No sooner did the train leave then the rain started coming down in buckets. Hope the nanny feels comfortable enough to drive the kids to school

Once in London I ran to Boots for some tissues (nagging cold), chap stick and over to M & S for lunch and water. I take the fast train to ensure a good hour to get to class. Just as I walk over to the tube station alarms start up and the doors close. There is a huge crowd standing around waiting to enter while swarms are exiting. I am hoping it is just crowd control and not some disaster because the bus takes almost 1.5 hours and I can't remember which ones to take anyway. I send Jason a quick text to find out what is going on-signal failure at Kings Cross has just caused the closure of the Circle Line (the one I need). Fantastic.

After about 10 minutes the doors open back up and they let the cattle in. A made dash to my platform where the notice board says a train will arrive in 10 minutes. An announcement reveals it will only go one stop. Ok-I can catch the District Line from there and still get to my stop. After 10 minutes the board changes to 'delayed' with not sign of any trains. I quickly run out and over to the Central Line, standing room only. My only option is to take this train a few stops, get out and Bank and take a fast hike to the Monument station (up and up and down the stairs because the escalators are not working). It is a good 10-15 minute walk. From Monument I catch a District Line train and get to my stop with 15 minutes to walk the 10-12 minute walk to my class. Of all the days to forget my deodorant. Ah well-I fit in with everyone else now HA!

I walked thru the door with 2 minutes to spare and out of breath.

Wet and Tight

No not the name of a new movie but our life today in the UK. We have
not seen the sun since we came home from France and the high was
pushing 60. I think our summer is over and it is still August. Quite
depressing I must say,

We started the move today and our first casualty was a paper cut from
a box for me. Next up-the movers only brought a small van so our idea
of moving the beds today didn't fly. They did bring over everything
they boxed up today-next problem. The stairway here is about as wide
as a door and it has a sharp curve. The girl's big dresser had to be
dismantled to fit and there is no way in hell our wonderfully soft and
thick mattress is going up the stairs. So off to storage it goes.
Since Jason is pretty much gone for the next month-we will make do
with the trundle bed and start shopping for something that will fit up
the stairs.

We also decided that the girls room is too small for 2-they wouldn't
have room to pull out the basket under the bed without hitting the
dressers-so they will move the to 'guest room; and the guest room will
have to be re arranged when ever someone visits to accommodate the
trundle.

Jason was almost the next victim...he nearly fell on his ass on the
tile floor in the conservatory-it is so damp that the floor is
weeping-so I've turned on the heat hoping it will dry out.

Now I am sitting here having a drink, washing my sheets so I can store
them and looking forward to what tomorrow may bring..

Bird brain

We have lots of windows in this house and employ a bi-monthly window cleaner. It never fails that the day after the window cleaners wash my windows, I can walk around the house and see no less than 3 imprints of a large bird. One was even so kind as to leave a few feathers as well-he must have hit hard.

Challenge

I challenge you to do a week's worth of laundry for a family of five...without the aid of a tumble dryer...in a summer that has had more rain than the winter...including bedsheets.

rain

I'm going to start building an arc soon.

Driving Test Take 2

Well I had my second driving test today. I went in with a different frame of mind and worked hard to combat the nerves, said a few prayers. I drove around with my instructor for about an hour first-going by the spot where I drove to fast last time, and the 30 signs are all gone and its back to 40.

There were about 4 of us waiting, and my name was called first by none other than the supervisor who rode along on my first test. She was very nice however and set me right at ease. The whole time we were driving around on my test I kept thinking, "Man I do not like this lady's perfume and I can't wait to get out of the car."

I made a few mistakes, but nothing fatal-turning my signal on too late, running a yellow light-but I passed and thats all that matters.

Car Wash

How do you wash your car and not waste precious water in a country that has tons of rain but can't figure out an efficient way to contain it and claim there is a draught and impose a hosepipe ban for the summer?

Jason was sitting at the table eating lunch today when we were hit with a torrential downpour. Quick thinking bloke that he is, he donned his wellies & raincoat, rushed outside and washed his car. Why not let the rain rinse it off? Plus since it is rain water-no hard water spotting either. And he got to save himself the trouble of drying it as well.

He came back in only to find that Griffen tried to turn his coke into a potion with some surface cleaner, but that's another story.

Its raining pigeons

Well not really, but during story time with Jillian Friday afternoon we heard some strange sounds coming from the fireplace. Upon further investigation, I spied some feathers, lots of soot and 2 legs dangling from that little hole where the air goes up the chimney from the fire place.

MMM-what to do. I called a few local chimney sweeps and left messages. Called Jason at work (like he can do anything from there), finished reading our stories and left to pick up the other 2 from school.

My friend Lisa suggested calling the SPCA. So thats what I did. They called back and said to put a light in the room and maybe the bird would make its way into the fireplace. No go its too big of a bird. They said they couldn't come today, but someone would call tomorrow. Great.

Jason tried to take apart the fireplace so the whole top would fall down and we could grab the bird and hold a large plastic bag close to the opening, close all the doors and open the windows just in case in got loose. Not knowing pigeons, we decided not to risk it and wait till Saturday.

Saturday rolls around, SPCA arrives. He just popped the fireplace down grabbed the bird and let it loose outside. Of course he was covered in soot and so was the hearth, but the bird flew away unharmed.

Bugger

I know-I need to catch up on my blogging. I did have a draft of the final days in Morocco, but it has disappeared into the depths of internet space.

Crappy week to say the least.

I finally took my driving test as it looks like we will be here for another year past the initial contract of 2 years. Plus Jason threatened to take away my keys if I didn't.

So-my instructor took me out for a few more lessons, said I was good to go and he felt I would pass no problemo. HA. We went out for an hour of driving before the test-and I had no problems. Ten minutes before the test time, we drove to the center and maneuvered the car into a space and made our way on foot to the waiting area. Even though I've been driving for a long time, I was nervous.

There were 4 other people waiting to take the test and one by one they disappeared as their examiner called them to their cars. Mine seemed like a friendly chap, talking to me to ease the nerves. Until we stepped into the hall and he introduced me to his supervisor, who was going to ride along with us. Brilliant.

First step was to stand in the car park and read the license plate on a distant car (eye test). Then I showed him my car. Most people have tiny cars and he was taken aback by my VW Touran, which in reality is narrower than Jason's BMW. But I let him think it was big. I had to show him I knew how to check that my lights were in working order and I knew how to honk my horn (duh-I'm American of course I know how the horn works). Then we set of for our 45 minute driving test.

Right off the bat I made an error. I wasn't sure if a light was for me and started to slow. They make a big deal here about putting on the break without the clutch, so I was doing that and stalled the stupid thing. I NEVER stall. Grr. Then we went around Cambridge, me showing him I knew how to turn down narrow streets looking for on-coming cars because there is really only room for 1 car at a time. I had to be sure to look in my mirrors every few seconds for bikers. A couple times I had to just pull over in a convenient spot, to show him I know when its safe to pull over (no bikes in the way) and pull out, again the bikes.

You have to perform 2 of 4 maneuvers on the test-I was only worried about 1 but my instructor said the examiner would be nervous about the size of my car and not make me do it anyway. First maneuver for me was to perform a 3-point turn in the in middle of a street without hitting the curbs. With my car it was more like 5 turns, but they only want to see clutch control and that you are observant of what is around you. No problem.

Next he took me to a round-about on the A-14 near where Jason works. There is always road works going on here and the road way changes on a daily basis. Not fair if you ask me. I thought I did fine, and he had me go onto the A10. Good, this was just testing me to see that I went slowly around blind curves. Second maneuver, back around a corner staying close to the curb and straight back until he tells me to stop. Fine, did that perfect, even when the garbage truck decided to back into the road perilously close to me. We drove around a bit more and went back to the test center. The other maneuvers I could have been given are backing into a parking space and parallel parking.

Here he told me to park and turned to me and said, “Well I’m sorry to tell you that you have failed your test today. Would you like a briefing?” I requested my instructor hear what had to be said. Turns out I failed because I stalled the car and drove 40 in a 30. The sign is posted just after you come off the round about on the opposite side of the road that I was looking. My instructor was a bit miffed; the same examiner failed another student of his the day before for something stupid like ‘undue hesitation.’ On the way home we decided that the supervisor was doing a ride along because he had been passing too many people.

I really just want to be in America where I understand how everything works; I can drive an automatic and have large signs in obvious places.

Then to top it all off the landlord came by for a visit to see her garden today. I asked her if she was going to let us renew the lease in December. No go, she wants her house back. Double bugger. So now we have to look for a new place to live on top of everything else.

On the plus side-I was offered a place at the Chelsea Physic Garden’s garden design program next September. It’s a 1 year program, 2 days/week in London and 3 days of work from home. We also have to find a new nanny as our current one doesn’t want to nanny full time.

Essaouria continued

After breakfast-hard boiled eggs, breads, coffee and juice, we book a camel ride with the other family we have been hanging around with. Our guide helps set us up with a local guy, who we hope will show up at the appointed time. Sure enough he shows up-with a taxi. The taxi laws are strict here and only 3 can go in at a time. The dad’s each split up with 2 kids apiece. That leaves me and the other mom, Jillian and the guide. We squeeze into the last taxi and as we drive by the police on the edge of the town, I lay Jillian down. The taxi driver looked back at me and smiled saying something along the lines of-‘ah, good thinking.’
We pair up on the camels with Kaitlyn having to brave one on her own. She’s not too happy about that. Camels are strange creatures to ride on. We climb on as they are lying down and then they rise up one end at a time. Despite my legs were sticking straight out, stretched to their limit, it is actually a bit easier than the donkey. It is against the law to ride the camels on the beach now because of their poo and the risk to others on the beach, so we walk thru some brush instead.
Jason’s camel was in the lead-he was the head male, the only one not neutered. Every time a female camel walked by, his camel would make this strange noise and an enormous pink bubble of flesh would pop out of its mouth and the spit would fly. That wasn’t even the worst part. My camel was directly behind Jason’s. His camel decided to poo half way thru the walk, which was fine, except it felt the need to flip his tail as it pooped. I could only lean back so far, but little bits of camel poop found their way to me. Kaitlyn was behind me screaming that the poop was going to hit her and she wanted off. The stupid camel did this not once, but at least 3 times during the ride. These animals are absolutely disgusting and I think I will never ride one again. At the end of the ride the camel guide told Kaitlyn that when Angelina Jolie visits, she always requests the one she was riding.

We relaxed for 2 more days in Essaouria. The kids played on the beach, we walked around, went shopping for souvenirs in places we really didn’t have to bargain at. This is an intense vacation that makes us really miss America. One of the highlights over the next few days was going to the fish stalls. Despite it being street food, it was touted as safe. You basically pick a stall, pick your fish, they cook it and you eat it. Nothing like eating fish caught fresh that day and grilled to order, served with a side salad, chips and a drink. The kids were happy with chips and ice cream. Tomorrow we head back to Marrakech for the night and then back to our home in England.