February 15th, 2013 Catching up. Where to begin. Well, today marks the half way point of our adventure. We left on Dec 15th and we arrive home on April 14th. Wow, we've done so much, but it's crazy to think it's half over. Ryan's ready to go home now, he's missing his girl. He's a good sport tho, and doesn't complain. Thank goodness for Skype-they enjoy that.
This morning was a little crazy. Kari and Jared had a flight from Heathrow to Chicago at 8:40 a.m. They were all packed last night (even taking some of our extra things) and we set to wake up at 5 a.m. Bryn was going with them to the airport so they could use our Oyster cards and so he could help with luggage. Erik's got a bad cold so he and I said goodbye last night. Well, at 7 a.m. when Erik woke up they were still here. Quite the flurry of activity and they were out of here in 10 minutes. They got to the airport by 8 a.m., but too late to make it. They had to rebook on another flight, for $250 each. They get in about 4 hours later than expected, so that's not too bad, and I was afraid that it would cost more. Still a stressful morning, especially at the end of a two month vacation when you're out of money! We sure had a wonderful time with them here tho!
The 4 kids had a 3 day adventure in Dublin, Ireland earlier this week. They had fun cycling around the city, hiking on the Ocean Cliffs at Howth,(about a 30 minute train ride away), walking thru a path that was more like a creek bed, playing in a playground and seeing a Viking Museum. They also got to enjoy some live music one evening.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Monday, February 18th
It's a gorgeous sunny day here in S Kensington, London. Erik, the boys and I took a 5 mile walk down to the Thames, crossing over 2 bridges and enjoying the weather. We also stopped at a fun restaurant "The Old Dutch Pancake", which sells huge crepe-like pancakes for 5 pounds, on Monday! Tonight, Erik is roasting a chicken for dinner, it's nice that he's got more time to enjoy cooking. Makes my life pretty easy! Then this evening, we will go to "Showstoppers", an improvisational musical. I guess they take ideas from the audience and create the musical on the spot! It's at the Royal Albert Hall, which is a gorgeous building.
I'm quite a bit behind, so I'll try to catch up. On Sunday, February 3rd, Kari, Jared and I attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Then for supper, we went to Churchill Arms for Thai food. Erik was back from France in time to join us.
Over the next few days we went to the Museum of Science, The British Museum and The Natural History Museum. They are incredible museums and all free! I think I like the Natural History Museum the best, but it's really cool seeing the Rosetta Stone and the very old things in the British Museum. Tuesday night, Erik and the kids went to Spamalot and I went to Billy Elliot. I loved the musical, such amazing talent, lots of singing and dancing and humor. On Wed we had 6 LC students here for pizza and had fun squishing into our living room and playing Salad Bowl. Thursday we all joined in with the students on their Food Walking Tour. It was quite chilly, but was an interesting tour of Boroughs Market and surrounding area. The guide talked about fishing over the years in the Thames, it's a very clean river now. She also told how the railway completely changed how people ate, especially the milk trains. That evening, Ryan,Erik, Kari and I got to learn about change ringing. One of my fellow sopranos in Gospel choir is a bell ringer and she invited us to her rehearsal. The bell master took us up to the belfry and showed us the bells. This tower, St Olaves, has 8 bells. There are about 5000 bell towers in the UK, 50 in the US and 7000 in the world. So it is definitely a culturally British thing. Then we even got to ring the bells, with individual supervision, so we didn't damage the bells. It was very fun. We stayed and listened to several of their methods (songs).
Friday we attended a 2 hour tour of the Houses of Parliament, the palace of Westminster. We even got to go into the House of Commons and the House of Lords, (but we couldn't sit on the seats!) The House of Lords contained a big red wool sack, kind of like a huge bean bag, which contained wool from each of the countries in the British commonwealth and the justices sit on it-it was so interesting!! I wish I could remember all that our guide said, but I do remember there is lots of ceremony associated with the building, which is huge. There were several amazingly gorgeous rooms that are used exclusively for the queen to walk thru when she opens parliament. It is almost all rebuilt after the fire of 1834, except for the Great Hall. There are over 1100 rooms, 4 post offices and numerous employees on eight acres. Quite an impressive place.
Friday evening was especially fun. Kari and Jared went to a Scottish Ceilidh. They ended up walking extra to get there, but had fun once in. It was sold out, but there were 90 tickets available at the door. Kari and Jared were right after the last ones were sold, yikes, but thankfully someone had two tickets they didn't need, so they bought those. It was very packed and Jared said he hadn't frolicked so much in his life, but they had fun. Good exercise too. Bryn, Ryan, Erik and I went to Chalk Farm and met Joe Berry and his fiancé Chloe at an amazing Italian Restaurant. Joe was a UK soccer coach and had stayed with us for a week 5 years ago. We'd kept in touch via Facebook and it was awesome to see him again. He was surprised at how grown the boys were and was happy for us to meet Chloe. We really enjoyed visiting with them and they bought our meals too, what a nice surprise.
Saturday, Erik, Kari, Ryan and I headed to Cambridge. It's about an hour via train. We went to the Wesley Methodist church, who are celebrating their 100th birthday and hosted a workshop, "Come and Sing with John Rutter". We've all sang many songs written by him and really enjoyed our day. There were about 350 people there to sing, mostly all amateurs like us. We sang thru several songs John had written and before each song he'd talk about it. He also talked about what it is like to be a composer, he said writing music doesn't get easier as he gets older. We sang music by other composers too. What a fun day!!!
After the workshop we joined with Jared and Bryn, ate at Nando's-a chicken place Bryn and Ryan love and headed to a rugby game. We had some trouble finding it. There was engineering work taking place on the tube lines we were supposed to take so we took a train. It was quite far away from SW London, many of the students had trouble getting there, what a bummer. We really enjoyed the game tho.
On Sunday, Erik and I headed to Enfield to attend the Community of Christ service. We took the tube and then a train. The rails were being worked on, so we had to catch a replacement bus. Unfortunately, the bus driver didn't stop for the 6 of us waiting in the rain, so we took a taxi. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there and we missed half of the service. But it was very nice to meet everyone. We ate lunch with Keith McMillan, who is a good friend of Roger and Patty's and worked in Cordova with Dave Allison in 1985. Apostle Richard James also joined us for lunch. At 1 p.m. we attended the Congolese service, which is also Community of Christ. We enjoyed it very much, lots of singing and praising. All in all, it was an 8 hour day, but well worth it.
As I mentioned in the Feb 15th post, the kids flew to Ireland for 3 days. While they were gone, Erik and I went to the Musical Mamma Mia, which was funny, and included ABBA's music. Erik has had a bad cold for a week now, so we took it easy. We did go to a Pancake flipping race on Tuesday for Shrove Tuesday. Quite a funny tradition. I guess traditionally people couldn't eat sugar, flour and fat during lent so on Shrove Tuesday they would clean out their cupboards by making pancakes. Lots of pancakes are still eaten in London on Shrove Tuesday and there were several races around the city! We also went to Southwark cathedral, pronounced Suh-thark, and saw a new art exhibit there and the famous Shakespeare stained glass window.
On Valentines day we went downtown to do a laser obstacle course race. (Except Jared, whose back was bothering him) Ryan won, with Kari in 2nd. Then Kari and Ryan got their feet nibbled on by fish, it's a thing they do in Turkey. It tickled them quite a lot at first, was funny to watch them. We did a little souvenir shopping and then Erik and Ryan came home and we went to the British museum. Erik cooked an amazing Valentines dinner, we had a yummy meringue cake to top it off. Then Kari, Jared and I spent time packing-they took some of our souvenirs, etc home with them. Thanks.
It was so very wonderful to spend the week and a bit with Kari and Jared, such wonderful people whom we all love! I'm sure they are having a wonderful week in Illinois right now. They will be home to Portland on the 21st.
I'll write about Oxford in my next post, it's time for dinner.
It's a gorgeous sunny day here in S Kensington, London. Erik, the boys and I took a 5 mile walk down to the Thames, crossing over 2 bridges and enjoying the weather. We also stopped at a fun restaurant "The Old Dutch Pancake", which sells huge crepe-like pancakes for 5 pounds, on Monday! Tonight, Erik is roasting a chicken for dinner, it's nice that he's got more time to enjoy cooking. Makes my life pretty easy! Then this evening, we will go to "Showstoppers", an improvisational musical. I guess they take ideas from the audience and create the musical on the spot! It's at the Royal Albert Hall, which is a gorgeous building.
I'm quite a bit behind, so I'll try to catch up. On Sunday, February 3rd, Kari, Jared and I attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Then for supper, we went to Churchill Arms for Thai food. Erik was back from France in time to join us.
Over the next few days we went to the Museum of Science, The British Museum and The Natural History Museum. They are incredible museums and all free! I think I like the Natural History Museum the best, but it's really cool seeing the Rosetta Stone and the very old things in the British Museum. Tuesday night, Erik and the kids went to Spamalot and I went to Billy Elliot. I loved the musical, such amazing talent, lots of singing and dancing and humor. On Wed we had 6 LC students here for pizza and had fun squishing into our living room and playing Salad Bowl. Thursday we all joined in with the students on their Food Walking Tour. It was quite chilly, but was an interesting tour of Boroughs Market and surrounding area. The guide talked about fishing over the years in the Thames, it's a very clean river now. She also told how the railway completely changed how people ate, especially the milk trains. That evening, Ryan,Erik, Kari and I got to learn about change ringing. One of my fellow sopranos in Gospel choir is a bell ringer and she invited us to her rehearsal. The bell master took us up to the belfry and showed us the bells. This tower, St Olaves, has 8 bells. There are about 5000 bell towers in the UK, 50 in the US and 7000 in the world. So it is definitely a culturally British thing. Then we even got to ring the bells, with individual supervision, so we didn't damage the bells. It was very fun. We stayed and listened to several of their methods (songs).
Friday we attended a 2 hour tour of the Houses of Parliament, the palace of Westminster. We even got to go into the House of Commons and the House of Lords, (but we couldn't sit on the seats!) The House of Lords contained a big red wool sack, kind of like a huge bean bag, which contained wool from each of the countries in the British commonwealth and the justices sit on it-it was so interesting!! I wish I could remember all that our guide said, but I do remember there is lots of ceremony associated with the building, which is huge. There were several amazingly gorgeous rooms that are used exclusively for the queen to walk thru when she opens parliament. It is almost all rebuilt after the fire of 1834, except for the Great Hall. There are over 1100 rooms, 4 post offices and numerous employees on eight acres. Quite an impressive place.
Friday evening was especially fun. Kari and Jared went to a Scottish Ceilidh. They ended up walking extra to get there, but had fun once in. It was sold out, but there were 90 tickets available at the door. Kari and Jared were right after the last ones were sold, yikes, but thankfully someone had two tickets they didn't need, so they bought those. It was very packed and Jared said he hadn't frolicked so much in his life, but they had fun. Good exercise too. Bryn, Ryan, Erik and I went to Chalk Farm and met Joe Berry and his fiancé Chloe at an amazing Italian Restaurant. Joe was a UK soccer coach and had stayed with us for a week 5 years ago. We'd kept in touch via Facebook and it was awesome to see him again. He was surprised at how grown the boys were and was happy for us to meet Chloe. We really enjoyed visiting with them and they bought our meals too, what a nice surprise.
Saturday, Erik, Kari, Ryan and I headed to Cambridge. It's about an hour via train. We went to the Wesley Methodist church, who are celebrating their 100th birthday and hosted a workshop, "Come and Sing with John Rutter". We've all sang many songs written by him and really enjoyed our day. There were about 350 people there to sing, mostly all amateurs like us. We sang thru several songs John had written and before each song he'd talk about it. He also talked about what it is like to be a composer, he said writing music doesn't get easier as he gets older. We sang music by other composers too. What a fun day!!!
After the workshop we joined with Jared and Bryn, ate at Nando's-a chicken place Bryn and Ryan love and headed to a rugby game. We had some trouble finding it. There was engineering work taking place on the tube lines we were supposed to take so we took a train. It was quite far away from SW London, many of the students had trouble getting there, what a bummer. We really enjoyed the game tho.
On Sunday, Erik and I headed to Enfield to attend the Community of Christ service. We took the tube and then a train. The rails were being worked on, so we had to catch a replacement bus. Unfortunately, the bus driver didn't stop for the 6 of us waiting in the rain, so we took a taxi. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there and we missed half of the service. But it was very nice to meet everyone. We ate lunch with Keith McMillan, who is a good friend of Roger and Patty's and worked in Cordova with Dave Allison in 1985. Apostle Richard James also joined us for lunch. At 1 p.m. we attended the Congolese service, which is also Community of Christ. We enjoyed it very much, lots of singing and praising. All in all, it was an 8 hour day, but well worth it.
As I mentioned in the Feb 15th post, the kids flew to Ireland for 3 days. While they were gone, Erik and I went to the Musical Mamma Mia, which was funny, and included ABBA's music. Erik has had a bad cold for a week now, so we took it easy. We did go to a Pancake flipping race on Tuesday for Shrove Tuesday. Quite a funny tradition. I guess traditionally people couldn't eat sugar, flour and fat during lent so on Shrove Tuesday they would clean out their cupboards by making pancakes. Lots of pancakes are still eaten in London on Shrove Tuesday and there were several races around the city! We also went to Southwark cathedral, pronounced Suh-thark, and saw a new art exhibit there and the famous Shakespeare stained glass window.
On Valentines day we went downtown to do a laser obstacle course race. (Except Jared, whose back was bothering him) Ryan won, with Kari in 2nd. Then Kari and Ryan got their feet nibbled on by fish, it's a thing they do in Turkey. It tickled them quite a lot at first, was funny to watch them. We did a little souvenir shopping and then Erik and Ryan came home and we went to the British museum. Erik cooked an amazing Valentines dinner, we had a yummy meringue cake to top it off. Then Kari, Jared and I spent time packing-they took some of our souvenirs, etc home with them. Thanks.
It was so very wonderful to spend the week and a bit with Kari and Jared, such wonderful people whom we all love! I'm sure they are having a wonderful week in Illinois right now. They will be home to Portland on the 21st.
I'll write about Oxford in my next post, it's time for dinner.
Monday, February 11, 2013
London life, mid February
Yay, we all got healthy before Kari and Jared's visit. They arrived on Saturday, Feb 2nd, late in the evening. It was so great to see them and hear more about their adventures. I think they will have visited 13 countries by the time they get back to Illinois on Feb 15th! They are pretty tired out, so we've had a nice mixture of activities and hanging out in the flat playing pinochle, reading and playing D&D.
On Saturday morning, Erik went to Lille, France. It was an optional trip as part of the Food and Society class that the students are taking.
Erik and 8 LC students went. He came back Sunday night, loved the trip and all the food. I'll have him write a bit:
Lille was wonderful! My first trip formally devoted to food, but certainly not my last. We started off on Saturday morning with a speedy trip on the Eurostar from London to Lille in less than 2 hours! Upon arrival, the sun was shining and it was beautiful. 5 minutes later the wind whipped hail in our faces as we began a 2 hour walking tour! We walked A LOT! 10 miles the first day and 15 the 2nd day were recorded on my fitbit activity tracker. The first walk ended at a wonderful little creperie. I had a ham and cheese crepe for my savory, complete with buckwheat flour crepe and accompanied by cider (with a bit of kick). Cider is the traditional French accompaniment for crepes and there is a tradition that the last person to pour from the jug will either be married or hung by the neck in 1 year's time! Our guide told us this just after one of the students was emptying the jug! Here is to hoping for a wedding in Hannah's near future! On the tour we learned that Lille has been occupied by many different countries over and over in the past 1500 years, but always kept it's own identity. Dinner that night was a 5 course 3+ hour meal with Rabbit pate early , 4 types of stinky cheese in the middle and delicious chicory ice cream in cream-puffs for dessert, magnifique! Another highlight were the amazing patisseries. I lost count of how many we saw, but the highlight was one named Aux Merveilleux! There were people lined up outside it halfway down the block. We had to see what the draw was and in the window we saw 3 mademoiselles creating these cream filled, chocolate covered meringue cannonballs that are the eponymous specialty of this shop worthy of a holy pilgrimage! I bought 2 large ones (reputed to serve 8) and we ate one of them on the train ride home on Sunday and the Nilsen horde polished off the other one on Sunday night (with a smidgen left for b-fast on monday). One last food highlight was a meal on Sunday afternoon. The town is renowned for their "mussels and fries" meals. In fact, every August they have a festival and competition between the restaurants where they pile up huge mounds of shells outside to see who can make the biggest mountain of mussel shells. The 5 ladies who accompanied me and I made quite an impressive stack on our table as well! Last, but not least, I will leave you with a teaser in french for you to translate if you have an inquisitive mind: saucisson de cheval! Erik
The "cake" Erik brought us home was wonderful and there was even better news. One of their shops is opening up here, their first in the UK, today!! So we are off for their grand opening. Will write more later.
On Saturday morning, Erik went to Lille, France. It was an optional trip as part of the Food and Society class that the students are taking.
Erik and 8 LC students went. He came back Sunday night, loved the trip and all the food. I'll have him write a bit:
Lille was wonderful! My first trip formally devoted to food, but certainly not my last. We started off on Saturday morning with a speedy trip on the Eurostar from London to Lille in less than 2 hours! Upon arrival, the sun was shining and it was beautiful. 5 minutes later the wind whipped hail in our faces as we began a 2 hour walking tour! We walked A LOT! 10 miles the first day and 15 the 2nd day were recorded on my fitbit activity tracker. The first walk ended at a wonderful little creperie. I had a ham and cheese crepe for my savory, complete with buckwheat flour crepe and accompanied by cider (with a bit of kick). Cider is the traditional French accompaniment for crepes and there is a tradition that the last person to pour from the jug will either be married or hung by the neck in 1 year's time! Our guide told us this just after one of the students was emptying the jug! Here is to hoping for a wedding in Hannah's near future! On the tour we learned that Lille has been occupied by many different countries over and over in the past 1500 years, but always kept it's own identity. Dinner that night was a 5 course 3+ hour meal with Rabbit pate early , 4 types of stinky cheese in the middle and delicious chicory ice cream in cream-puffs for dessert, magnifique! Another highlight were the amazing patisseries. I lost count of how many we saw, but the highlight was one named Aux Merveilleux! There were people lined up outside it halfway down the block. We had to see what the draw was and in the window we saw 3 mademoiselles creating these cream filled, chocolate covered meringue cannonballs that are the eponymous specialty of this shop worthy of a holy pilgrimage! I bought 2 large ones (reputed to serve 8) and we ate one of them on the train ride home on Sunday and the Nilsen horde polished off the other one on Sunday night (with a smidgen left for b-fast on monday). One last food highlight was a meal on Sunday afternoon. The town is renowned for their "mussels and fries" meals. In fact, every August they have a festival and competition between the restaurants where they pile up huge mounds of shells outside to see who can make the biggest mountain of mussel shells. The 5 ladies who accompanied me and I made quite an impressive stack on our table as well! Last, but not least, I will leave you with a teaser in french for you to translate if you have an inquisitive mind: saucisson de cheval! Erik
The "cake" Erik brought us home was wonderful and there was even better news. One of their shops is opening up here, their first in the UK, today!! So we are off for their grand opening. Will write more later.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Friday, Feb 1st
Just a quick update. Not too much has been happening this last week and a half since Bryn, Ryan and I have
been feeling pretty sick. We're so glad Erik has been spared, he's taken good care of us. On Sunday, I wrote that I thought I was
getting better, but that wasn't true. I had a fever thru Tuesday morning. 3 days with a fever really wiped me out, the highest it got was 102.4 and that was with meds every 4 hours. Yuck. The last few days have been better, except for the cough that keeps me awake at night. Thankfully, I slept nearly normally last night. Ryan is still quite miserable and he has also got his awful nose infection back. It's not bothered him much the last few years, but a few times it becomes quite inflamed. So he's still taking it very easy, reading lots and playing lots of video games and listening to lots of music. Thank goodness for technology! Bryn has been sick over a week and a half and felt better today, so went to work out with Erik. I guess he could only work out for about 15 min before he had to stop.
Monday, Ryan and I both had fevers so we had to stay home from the Billy Elliot musical. Bummer. But 2 of the others from FIE that are in our flat here were able to go, so that was good. Joyce and Carol loved it. Erik says he'll take me another time.
Wed, my first day out of the house. Bryn's 18th birthday. We ate dinner at Wagamama's, which was a great place for all of us to gather. They had 2 large tables for us and the food was awesome. I got a chicken ramen soup and it tasted great. After the game, we met Ryan (he wasn't up to too much) and headed, along with about 12 of the students, to the footy. It was a soccer game with Fulham vs West Ham. There were about 25,000 people there, on a work night. It was very exciting with lots of cheering. I only saw one fight on the field and it was quickly broken up. You can tell they have had troubles in the past, there were lots of security there and the away team had a certain area, where they could only go, etc. It didn't seem too rowdy to me, thankfully! On our walk there, we saw the cutest British boy, about 8 years old, selling "Homemade flapjacks and sausages". So sweet-I hope someone bought from him.
I can't believe my Bryn is 18! What a joy boy! As Erik said at the dinner on Wed, "Bryn is the chillest of our children". He is unflappable. He is such a pleasure to be with here in London, never complains, always up for an adventure and very helpful. We're really glad we've had this time to be with him before he heads to Graceland in August. What a cool son he is. It's also exciting for him, he finished up all his school work for the 4 classes he was working on. So now he's officially got the correct credits to graduate on June 12th!
All for now, more exciting posts coming up!
Just a quick update. Not too much has been happening this last week and a half since Bryn, Ryan and I have
been feeling pretty sick. We're so glad Erik has been spared, he's taken good care of us. On Sunday, I wrote that I thought I was
getting better, but that wasn't true. I had a fever thru Tuesday morning. 3 days with a fever really wiped me out, the highest it got was 102.4 and that was with meds every 4 hours. Yuck. The last few days have been better, except for the cough that keeps me awake at night. Thankfully, I slept nearly normally last night. Ryan is still quite miserable and he has also got his awful nose infection back. It's not bothered him much the last few years, but a few times it becomes quite inflamed. So he's still taking it very easy, reading lots and playing lots of video games and listening to lots of music. Thank goodness for technology! Bryn has been sick over a week and a half and felt better today, so went to work out with Erik. I guess he could only work out for about 15 min before he had to stop.
Monday, Ryan and I both had fevers so we had to stay home from the Billy Elliot musical. Bummer. But 2 of the others from FIE that are in our flat here were able to go, so that was good. Joyce and Carol loved it. Erik says he'll take me another time.
Wed, my first day out of the house. Bryn's 18th birthday. We ate dinner at Wagamama's, which was a great place for all of us to gather. They had 2 large tables for us and the food was awesome. I got a chicken ramen soup and it tasted great. After the game, we met Ryan (he wasn't up to too much) and headed, along with about 12 of the students, to the footy. It was a soccer game with Fulham vs West Ham. There were about 25,000 people there, on a work night. It was very exciting with lots of cheering. I only saw one fight on the field and it was quickly broken up. You can tell they have had troubles in the past, there were lots of security there and the away team had a certain area, where they could only go, etc. It didn't seem too rowdy to me, thankfully! On our walk there, we saw the cutest British boy, about 8 years old, selling "Homemade flapjacks and sausages". So sweet-I hope someone bought from him.
I can't believe my Bryn is 18! What a joy boy! As Erik said at the dinner on Wed, "Bryn is the chillest of our children". He is unflappable. He is such a pleasure to be with here in London, never complains, always up for an adventure and very helpful. We're really glad we've had this time to be with him before he heads to Graceland in August. What a cool son he is. It's also exciting for him, he finished up all his school work for the 4 classes he was working on. So now he's officially got the correct credits to graduate on June 12th!
All for now, more exciting posts coming up!
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