Summer in England

I'm happy to report that the rumors are not true - there is a summer in England! We've been enjoying blue skies and 75 degree weather the last five days or so, so I thought I'd better hurry and report on that before it changes for the worse. I was a little bit worried when I got here. I'd said all along that we were not moving here for the weather. If weather was our top consideration, obviously we'd be best off staying where we were in southern California. And for the most part, the weather is fine. The temperature will be pleasant, so even if it rains a little, or is cloudy, it's still fine for going out. However, one day it was so cold I got out my parka I'd bought to get me through the English winter - and it felt about perfect. That had me worried. But now the sun is shining, and we've been enjoying it.

 

This weekend was Cambridge's Big Weekend, a festival that happened to be taking place in a park a couple of blocks from our place. They had all the usual community festival activities - rides, food, sports, booths and live music. We watched Hot Chocolate (can anyone name their one famous song?) and listened to The Kinks (If you can still call it The Kinks when the only original band member in the group is the drummer!) from our yard.

One thing we've learned about the English so far is they seem to be fond of fireworks. The first two nights we were here there were big fireworks shows. (Celebrating "May Week" - scheduled somewhat unexpectedly in June). Then that weekend were fireworks for Midsummer Festival - celebrated since 1211 apparently. Then this weekend there were more fireworks for the Cambridge Big Weekend. The best part of all these fireworks shows is that we could see them all from our house.

This last show was a little blocked from the trees, so I walked over for a closer look. I love fireworks where I can walk over after the show has started, see the majority of the show, and be back home less than 5 minutes after the show has ended.

Day Out London

You know how some people post these family vacation posts where the day was so perfectly arranged, you can tell every detail of the day was perfectly executed, from beginning to end? This isn't one of those posts. I can't tell you how in one day, to have a perfect day out with your kids and get a perfect overview of London. We only tried to see a couple of things. We went to a very popular tourist attraction in the middle of the day on a sunny Saturday in late June; there were crowds.  We ate at the train station (horrors!), an ice cream truck and Tesco Express. But that is one reason I feel so lucky to be living here in England for this year. There's really no pressure to get everything done on a time limit. Our day wasn't guidebook advice perfect, but it was a nice day.

 This being my kids' first visit to a big city, they were impressed with the small things: riding the subway, putting their Oyster Card (subway ticket) into the electric turnstile, riding the train.

 We rode the train in from Cambridge, and guess what train station we rode into? Kings Cross! Very exciting for a family of Harry Potter nerds. Does it look just like the movies?

 They have this fun little picture-taking place set up. I'm really mad that I didn't get the camera angle correct. If I was standing just a little bit more to the right, I could get that door cut out of the picture. Next time! And they also had a cute little Harry Potter paraphernalia shop (of course!). I love the wand display case.

Next stop was Tower of London. Anya had watched a documentary with Mike about it, so that was high up on the list of places to go.

 We took a Beefeater Tour, where they tell dramatic stories from the past - beheadings, escapes, torture. I thought it was really well done. The girls had a harder time with it, due to a combination of listening to someone with an accent they're not familiar with and sometimes having a hard time hearing because of the crowds. Anya preferred the visit to the torture chamber.

 Mike took the girls for a tour of the ramparts. Anya loved the menagerie room, even without the animals.

 While they were having fun, I braved the line so we could see the crown jewels. A little bit of a sacrifice, but much better than waiting in line for an hour with my kids.

You can see Tower Bridge from the Tower of London. So quintessential London. After we spent a few hours at the Tower, and after refreshing ourselves with some ice cream, I had the great idea of taking a taxi boat from where we were, past Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and the London Eye, to Greenwich, where we could then visit the observatory. A couple of problems. One, Greenwich is east of the Tower, while all those other sites are west. We didn't actually go by them. Two, we really didn't have enough energy to go exploring Greenwich at that point. So instead we took the boat to North Greenwich, had a nice snack on the grasses around the O2 area, and then called it a day. We still have a lot to see, so we have things to look forward to for our next visit.

House Camping

One month ago our international movers arrived to pack up our house and send our things off to England. Thus began our house camping adventure. The initial couple of weeks in the U. S. were not that bad, as we were leaving about half our furniture and things in storage - which we didn't pack up until the last day. Now, I can report, it's officially getting old. And it's really not as bad as it could be. We could be sleeping, eating, and sitting on the floor, patiently waiting for our furniture to arrive. Luckily, the owners of the house we're renting left some furniture for us to use. Our place has a basement (grimy, dark, and basement-smelling) where we can store some of it once our own stuff arrives. Still.

Here is the comfortable lounge spot for whoever doesn't get our one comfortable chair.

Mike, enjoying our one comfortable chair, and single computer.

Without dressers, we are living out of suitcases.

We have a kitchen table with one chair. Everyone else either sits on the floor, on this desk...

Or snags our comfortable living room spot.

Our kitchen supplies are also very spotty. I've bought some things, but I hate to repurchase a whole kitchen worth's of stuff, when our own things are coming soon. So here is the inventory:
4 knives
4 forks
4 spoons
4 bowls
4 plates
1 frying pan
1 pot
1 wooden spoon
1 spatula
1 toaster

Perhaps that seems like a big list, but I'm constantly annoyed by what I don't have. We've been going through Bonne Maman jam like crazy (Anya barely likes any of the food here, except for fruit and PB&J sandwiches, but that's another post). We use the leftover glasses for many purposes: drinking glasses, rolling pin, grinder, ladle, scoop, approximate measuring cup, etc.

In retrospect, I would have brought a few more items along in our suitcases and packed less clothing. Here's what would have been smart to have brought for immediate use:

measuring cups (I'm not interested in buying UK versions and recalculating all my recipes)
power converter (why I didn't think I'd need that immediately I'm not sure)
rain coats (of course I could buy here, but we just bought some in the US)
comfortable walking shoes (and put the flip-flops on the slow boat)
cat snacks (They don't sell any of the brands of food or snacks here that we purchased before; she's having a hard time adjusting to the food too. It would be nice to have something she's familiar with)

Counting down the days until July 12th, when our belongings will finally arrive!

English Rose

We arrived during rose season. Even here in the city, there are roses everywhere. They make walking around extra nice, because they are so fragrant. You can see from my pictures that we're coming to the end of the season; I've waited just a little too long to take my pictures. You can still see how pretty they all are. Not your spindly little varieties - full storybook quality lushness. 

Day Out Cambridge

We spent our first family weekend in England exploring our new hometown of Cambridge.

 Mike and I started off the day with some shopping, so the girls could spend their Saturday morning in their pjs. I was most excited about this oilcloth material we saw at John Lewis. We were practical though, and instead bought a mixer, blender and microwave from one of the many charity shops nearby. I still might go back and buy something for a tablecloth though.

 Just strolling down a cute little path in central Cambridge.

 By the time we went back home to pick up the girls, the weather was looking a little iffy, so we decided a trip to one of Cambridge's many museums was in order. The Fitzwilliam is a great museum, with famous impressionist paintings, and Egyptian and Roman collections, among other things. Camille was able to show me that she had learned a few things in her social studies Egyptian lessons last year.

 

One of my girls enjoyed our museum trip more than the other.

 Resting our tired feet. We are needing to build up our muscles now that we rely on walking to get everywhere we go. The end of every day, I am tired. And it's not just from my jetlag.

 

I just like this statue. I didn't even note who did it or anything about it.

 Trekking home from the museum.

 

We had to stop by this shop that sells Japanese erasers on our way home, so Anya could spend some money that was burning a hole in her pocket.

And lastly, here's Camille in the park Jesus Green. Speaking of, I'm so enjoying being surrounded by green again, after spending the last 7 years in dry (but sunny!) SoCal.

We still have a lot to see in Cambridge, but next weekend we might be adventurous and try something a little farther afield.

Welcome to my Neighborhood

Although the original plan was for me to come to England to help pick out our place, it just didn't work out. So I put my faith in Mike and our realtor, and I have to say, I couldn't be more pleased with their work. I had decided I wanted to prioritize a central location, and I just love our neighborhood. Here's a little tour:

 When you walk out our door and turn to the right, this is what you see.

 You turn the corner and walk down this alley.

 This street is one block over. The two pictures below are just a little farther down, less than another block, where the school is located that I'd like Camille to get into. Fingers crossed. We'll find out mid-July.

 This street of adorable houses is a couple blocks down.

From my house, turning left, you walk down the block and come to this little shopping area. We are going without a car, so it's been super handy to be able to leave the house for short spurts of shopping every time I think of something we need. Which is often.

That's it for now. Now that I have wifi (hooray!) and am slowly getting away from spending my daytime hours in a sleepy daze, I'll be able to post more.

Cheerio from Cambridge! (Sadly, no one has said that to me yet.)

Transition

 I think they make moving so awful to make it easier to leave. I could have got all emotional about leaving my nice life in California behind, but I was instead counting down the minutes until all this mess was over. By the way, I'm completely converted to the wonder of Space Bags. It is amazing the amount of stuff we were able to get in those suitcases - at least twice as much.

 I took this picture of our storage space with our belongings and car, just because I was so amazed and grateful it all fit. When I reserved it I thought the space seemed about perfect. Then as the movers started packing and the boxes started piling up, I became quite worried. When the movers saw my space though, they said no problem, and for them, it wasn't. It was like a live version of the best game of Tetris ever played. Cube Moving is the best!

 As  you can see, we abandoned all pretenses of packing light. I felt like a 19th century woman with my overflowing cart of trunks with all the luggage we had.

And, the fighting's begun. (Kurt and Shannon, recognize this spot? Or is it still too soon?) Actually traveling with older kids with electronics is a dream. If only I could figure out how to sleep sitting upright on a plane, I'd have been all set. With a total of 10 minutes of sleep, I was pretty much in a daze my first day in England.