More in London

Today a crazy thing happened-- at least for this Oregonian. When we woke up it was cloudy, overcast and slightly drizzling-- and I was so happy and thankful!! (Bet you never thought you would see that!) After the heat of the day before, the cool overcast morning was a welcome relief. Hallelujah for clouds! It warmed up by afternoon, but I enjoyed the cool while it lasted. 

We had a quick breakfast at our hotel and then toured the State Apartments at Buckingham Palace. 

After a look in the queen's backyard, er, uh, royal gardens, we walked out to the front of the palace near Victoria monument. We made it just in time to catch the last few minutes of the Changing of the Guard ceremony. 

We walked along St James Park to Tragalgar Square. After watching tourists get their pictures taken on the huge lion statues we walked north, stopping to take a peek in St Martin-in-the-Fields church. Then we kept walking towards Covent Garden, stopping at Dishoom- a delicious Indian restaurant- for lunch. 

We meandered our way through various street performers (including a floating yoda, a floating man balancing only on a stick he was holding on the ground

and a magician trying too hard to be funny tied up in chains.

I took Megan's picture in front of the clock tower featured in the opening scene of My Fair Lady.  

We browsed the many stalls and shops-- from a kitchen gadgets store featuring dolls with cheese grater skirts to the cutest store full of teapots, tea accessories and loose leaf teas of all types. 

We made the mandatory stop at Ben's Cookies (one of Jen's London favorites) -- so good! The triple chocolate cookie with cold milk is the stuff of after-school snack dreams.

We then waited at a bus stop to catch the second half of our Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour from the day before. We breezed through The City and financial district and then hopped off at The Tower of London to catch the views of Tower Bridge. We weren't going to go to the Tower of London (I had been before), but after being there we decided we needed to make it there (unfortunately they had already ended all the tours for the day). 

We took the tube back to St. Paul's (including a two-station loooong transfer), arriving hot, sweaty and panting just in time for the Evensong service (yes, it's true that we were trying to avoid paying $22.50 just to get in to see the place and not just zealously displaying our 'Anglican' devotion). The service was a great opportunity to sit and enjoy the cathedral (and did I mention sit?), but unfortunately the choir wasn't singing that day. :(

We went back to our bus tour to catch the remaining highlights. Here is the clock tower with Big Ben. 

Houses of Parliament (from the bus). 

We then made our way through Kensington to Royal Albert Hall for a BBC Proms concert. It featured the world premiere of a new work ("Cosmic Dance" by Narsh Sohal) and an amazing performance of Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto.

We were in the choir behind the stage so we got to look at the conductor over the shoulders of the musicians. This was especially cool during the world premiere work-- it had a lot of percussion and we were looking right over the shoulders of the percussionists. From at position, it seemed more like a ballet than a musical work. You could see each musician moving in their turn. We also had a fantastic view of the pianists hands during the concerto. 

Apparently in London you have to pay $6 to get a printed program. Not needing extra paper, I decided to pass. Having a mystery pianist isn't the end of the world, right? It wasn't until later we realized that because of our lack of program we left early and missed the Tchaikovsky symphony played during last 45 minutes of the concert (apparently there were two intermissions, not one and it didn't end at 9:30pm -- oops). 

After the concert-- er, uh, second intermission-- we hopped on a bus that took us to Notting Hill Gate and then back on the tube to our hotel for a quick wi-fi connect with the world back home before going to sleep. 

Bashing About London

We caught a train from Bath to Paddington, catching glimpses of countryside during the trip,

and then took the tube to Bayswater. I brought the beautiful (but heavy) flowers that Dave sent me in Bath for my birthday. 

London is hot. Our hotel doesn't have a/c (not so good). It is a cute London townhouse, but it has no elevator and we are on the third floor. Our first official London activity after checking in was laying on our bed in front of the fan for half an hour.

We then summoned he energy to go to Marble Arch where we caught he first half of a hop on hop off bus tour to Leicester Square. We hopped off to get half price tickets but instead decided to fulfill Meg's lifetime dream of Les Mis in London when some last minute seats became available. 

Afterward we celebrated my birthday with Peruvian tapas (and a pimentolada-- piña colada with puréed red pepper)

and made our way home through Picadilly Circus and Regent's Street. 

From Bath to London

This morning we had breakfast in the original kitchen of our 1790's Georgian townhouse.

We then walked through the winding backstreets of Bath to the Assembly Rooms and the Fashion Museum.

It's hard to get used to looking the opposite way when you cross the streets. I still haven't gotten used to the flow of traffic here. 

Back in Jane Austen's time, the Assembly Rooms were used for holding balls and parties, playing cards and having tea.

After a walking through the rooms we went to the lower floor to the Fashion Museum. Maybe bonnets and corsets are on their way back in? Maybe not. 

We went to the Jane Austen centre but didnt have time to catch a tour so we had tea in their regency tea room before heading back to our B and B and catching a cab to the airport. 

Bath! Jane Austen! Bath!

Today Megan and I touched down at London Heathrow for the beginning of our European adventure. Our flight for in two hours late, after which we took a train to London and another train to Bath. 

For those of you who are not Jane Austen-ites, Bath is a setting in many of her novels and a place of pilgrimage for her fans. We are staying in a Georgian townhouse that was here during Jane Austen's lifetime (built in 1791). This is our personal sitting room, decorated in the style of the period. 

Bath is a great place to explore on foot.

We crossed the scenic Pulteney Bridge into the historic centre of Bath. 

Then we went to the Pump Room (yes, the same one in Persuasion!) and had a spot of afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream. 

Then we explored a bit on foot, first to Bath Abbey, then to "the circus" (Latin for circle-- a giant circle of buildings), the Crescent (same concept, different shape) and some gardens. 

After a quick stop at Boston Tea

party (yes, in Bath) for smoothies and Butternut Squash Feta Salad with Pine Nuts we were off to see the ancient Roman Baths (fed by a natural hot spring), lit by torch at twilight. 

In our meanderings we came across the first place to sell "Sally Lunn" bread (one of Camryn's favorites). 

We finished our day by wandering back to our bed and breakfast and enjoying an elegant Jane Austen-like repast of beef jerky and chocolate covered pretzels whilst amiably enjoying a brief repose in our sitting room. 

Remember Me

I think I have officially accepted that I am not currently using my time to blog ("I don't have time to blog anymore" sounds like I suddenly realized there was life beyond my computer, so I won't go there...)

I spend a lot of time in the car these days driving kids to lessons and such. Piano is the hardest-- two hours at the teacher's house between the two older kids. Getting an in-car DVD player has saved my bacon here. We manage to make it through the lessons sitting outside in the car with some jaunts to the park thrown in for good measure. I even manage to sneak in to hear snippets of the lesson.

Today I was sitting inside listening to part of Camryn's lesson when Jared tapped at the front window to get my attention. I came outside and he told me that Jackson needed to go potty. Jackson was standing outside the car doing a little dance that confirmed the veracity of Jared's words. I told Jackson to hurry inside to use the potty, but it is hard to move quickly when you are doing the potty dance.

As he writhed his way toward me, he said, "I'm not going to make it!", followed by "I pooped in my pants." The words every mother longs to hear standing outside the piano teacher's house. I will spare you the details of how I managed to clean up poopy pants out in front of the piano teacher's house in the rain. It may or may not have involved throwing underwear in the garbage. But I somehow survived the experience and many others like it. Now if only blogging regularly survived along with it....

Last Tuesday, or The Vomit Comet

Last Tuesday Addy slept in, which was not terribly surprising, considering that we were up late for Memorial day. She awoke with a bang with vomit in her bed, but Dave said that it didn't look like vomit so I made the mistake of trying to feed her a juice box. While my back was turned it squirted all over the floor (or so I thought) so I gave her another one. This time within 10 seconds of finishing it, it was all out on the floor again with a momentous puke. Yuck. So yoga was definitely going to fall off the radar for the day.

Unfortunately we were totally out of groceries (including Gatorade and saltines) and the cleaners were coming so I needed to be out of the house for two hours. So once Jackson was to preschool (I was pretty sure Addy's stomach was emptied) I braved a trip to the store (Yes, I am one of those evil parents who takes her child to the store when she is sick. This is one of those things you're not supposed to admit to on your public blog....) I returned some things to one store, drove around to while away some time and then stopped to get groceries, including the requisite saltines and Gatorade. Addy was fine (sigh of relief), I got my things done and I was happily driving home when I got a phone call from Jared: "Mom, why aren't you here to pick me up at school? I've been waiting for 10 minutes. I have piano today." Jared has piano on Wednesday, not Thursday-- I checked my phone calendar and the phone agreed with him. I realized his lesson had been switched but in all of the vomit excitement I assumed I would be staying home or doing nothing of consequence all day and didn't check my calendar. Usually I have a friend watch Addy, Jackson and Camryn on piano days and complete a complicated and circuitous pick up/drop off process.

Instead I had totally spaced it and had to figure out some plan. I was in the car with Addy, Jackson was still at preschool, Jared was at school waiting and Camryn on the bus on her way home. I did not have time to get the kids picked up and dropped off at my friend's house (let alone the fact that Addy was sick and couldn't be left at a friend's house anyway), so I picked Jared up from school, raced home to get Camryn and his piano music, had Jackson stay in preschool afterschool care and drove off to his lesson-- which is 30 minutes away in Portland-- with the two remaining kids in tow. We managed to make it only 15 minutes late (his lesson is an hour long, so that's not as bad as it could have been) and I sat in the car with the other two (very bored) kids instead of sitting in on his lesson like I usually do. Whew.
----
Internal commentary: Hooray for me, I just wrote another post about vomit! Why exactly do I feel the need to publicly record my exciting adventures with throw-up, the fact that I will take my germy kid to a grocery store when they are sick and yet another instance of me being scatter-brained on a public forum? Who exactly is itching to read about this? Is this really a productive alternative to following Addy and Jackson around the house, cleaning up the trail of play-doh, marker art on their faces or appendages and the massive mazes of Scotch tape left in their wake? Or cleaning and wiping all of the counters only to have them clobbered by Play-doh? Or diligently sweeping the floor only to find another wad of dog hair in a corner? Some questions are better left unanswered....

Hey there! Remember me?

Probably not... It has been about three months since I've posted anything. I've realized that preparing for a Cantico concert and active blogging cannot coexist at the same time. The concert (May 18th) came and went successfully--honestly I think it was the best concert we have done yet. I was very, very happy with it and again very grateful to have the opportunity to direct a group of such talented musicians.

Meanwhile, I haven't written on my blog or read any of my friends' blogs for months. Clutter has accumulated throughout my house and in my head. I've been doing lots of mental processing, but (obviously) not much has made or to my blog. Again I'm asking the perennial blogging question: How much of my life do I want to broadcast over the interwebs anyway? Does anyone actually read this? Is a blog too public to write anything worth reading? Is there any point to recording, in painstaking detail, the mental roundabouts of an overly obsessive thinker-- especially when those thoughts are laced with my dealings with vomit and diapers?

Or, in fewer words, is this blogging thing really working for me anymore?