Bonds Do London

I have a lot of backtracking to do! Daniel's parents, brother, and sister came to London on June 12...Can't believe it was over a month ago! We were SO excited for them to visit and I think we woke up around 6 am that morning and waited outside for their car to drop them off. It is a red eye flight to London from the Houston and it is nearly impossible to sleep on the plane, but surprisingly, they didn't seem too jetlagged! We hooked them up with some coffee and crumpets and we were off to explore! 

Side note- these pictures are a mix of my cell phone, Nanette's (Daniel's mom) camera, and David's (father in law) camera. David is a really great photographer, so it is probably obvious which ones are his and which are ours!

Us in front of our flat. David I think took this picture right when they arrived

They were only in London for a few days, but we did SO much. It all kind of runs together! The first day, we walked around Picadilly Circus, to Trafalgar square and St Paul's Cathedral. 

First Cider! Yay for an 18 year old drinking age! 

Bad choice to break in new shoes that day. 

I had to leave to go nanny, and I came home around 6ish to everyone passed out on the floor and couch. They were running on 36 hours of no sleep! I'm really surprised that they were able to last as long as they did. Everytime I come to London from Texas, I physically cannot function for at least a day. 

I cooked dinner that night since I knew everyone would be way too tired to go out

The next day, Daniel had to work so I was the main tour guide. I cannot believe how much we did! We went to Buckingham Palace, met Daniel at Borough Market, went to Greenwich, took the boat from Greenwich to Tower Hill, and then walked to Tayaabs to meet Daniel for dinner. I'm tired just thinking about it! 

I saw the changing of the guards for the first time! Not impressive, but it was a beautiful day and fun being with family!

We needed a jumping picture. Kristen gets bonus points because she was able to manage while eating ritz crackers. 

LOLOLOL My face looks like an evil scheming child's. This is in Greenwich, overlooking the naval college and Canary Wharf

Boat ride rocked! 

Everyone loved the Indian food! Tayaabs is the bomb.com

 The next day was our last day before Rome! We went with the family to Westminster Abbey and then to Tower of London. I had never been to the Tower before and I'm really glad we went! The building is 1000 years old and there we saw old dungeons, the crown jewels, and where traitors used to get beheaded!

Parliament before the Tower

Clearly the girl behind me didn't enjoy the Tower as much as I did! Oh and Mason is photobombing

If you go to the Tower of London, you absolutely HAVE to take one of the tours with the beefeaters. It is included with your entrance fee and I think they run every 30 minutes. We learned so much about the history of the building and the tour was the highlight of our time there. 

That's all for now! Next post will hopefully be about Rome! 

Lasts

My favorite mug that I drink my coffee out of every morning. 

The sun has been shining brightly for about 18 hours of the day. It sure is hard to leave London when the weather is this perfect and the city seems to be so infectiously alive. 

It's funny comparing this time last year to this time now. The year has flown by, and we are both so thankful we made the choice to move here, even if it did end up being only for a year. All of the sacrifices (moving is very stressful, not to mention I quit a job I loved and we had to be apart from family and friends) that we had to make to spend a year in London were definitely worth it, and the idea of us saying "no" when the question to move here first arose makes me sad to think about.

What keeps coming to my mind is how everything just seems to fall into place- there is no need to worry or bust your butt to force things to happen. Last year we were so stressed out about moving- would we find renters for our house? What would it be like losing my income? Will we hate London? I see how having those worries didn't help anything and made for some unneeded anxiety. Remembering this is keeping me sane while preparing to move back to Houston, knowing that what needs to get done will get done and everything will just work out. 

So, that's where my mind has been recently. Reminiscing on this past year and legitimately excited to find out what will happen in this next chapter of our life! Also, I don't tend to be a sentimental person, but I find myself lately being one of those people that starts every activity with "This is the last time I'll ____". 

This weekend was my last weekend to be alone with Daniel in London, as his family arrives tomorrow!!! And my brother comes in a couple of weeks!!!

We were blessed with sunny 80 degree days, so on Saturday we went up to Hampstead and enjoyed some beer gardens. 

Unfortunately I forgot how to smile, and look derpy in ever single picture. We also went to a new burger place that just opened and followed that with dessert from Louis, a Hungarian Confectionery. So good! 

On Sunday, Daniel went to see a movie with a friend while I did some chores around the flat. Then, we did one of my favorite things- walked along the canal to Regent's Park. The Queen's Rose garden in Regent's is blooming in full force and has been something I have been wanting to walk through for awhile. It is only blooming a few months out of the year, so I'm happy we got to walk through there one more time. 

   

Speaking of blooming flowers, the Hydrangeas in our front garden are beginning to bloom! So exciting to see that some beauty has come from the past 8 months of cold, dark and rainy days. The parks are so lusciously green and it's like the streets are lined with different flowers.

 This week has been my last week to nanny for my little loves, too. I am pretty sad about that one. I have bought them each their own stationary set, complete with gel pens in every color and stickers. I also went ahead and stamped/ addressed some envelopes to myself to ensure that they'll write me!

On a lighter night, I am also counting down the days until I can say "This is my LAST TIME to have to hand wash dishes!" Cannot wait to have a dishwasher again, along with my large kitchen and oven. Because my kitchen is an overwhelmingly disaster of grimy dishes every night that I cook.

Primark

If you go to London, you will undoubtedly walk by a huge building with bright blue lettering called Primark. You might be curious to check it out, but before you do, here is my experience with it. It ain't for everyone.

What is Primark? Imagine the dingiest Ross in Tijuana, and then combine that with Walmart the day after Thanksgiving, and add 3,000 foreigners all dragging rolly carts literally packed full with random things like 13 pairs of baby shoes, 4 sets of sheets, and enough underwear to keep a small country commando-free, and you have Primark. I hate myself and everyone in it when I go, but it is dirt cheap. Bra's for £4! Shoes for £6! Dresses for £10! The two big Primarks are along Oxford street and it's inexpensive goods might be a welcomed surprise after walking through Selfridge's and Liberty.You just have to handle staying in line for 40 minutes and dodging obstacles, like women trying on clothes in the middle of the aisles or screaming children running through clothes racks.

I've successfully been twice. The first time, I bought a bra, hangers, coco butter, gummy bears, and a £24 puffer jacket. Last week, I bought another bra, towels, and pink wedge sandals that I at first thought were cute, but then later on realized they screamed "Made in a sweat shop by a 4 year old in China", so I took them back. When I took them back, I attempted to try on clothes for the first time. HA, that was fun! I nearly ripped the paper thin fabric of the first dress I tried on, and I kind of felt like I was getting closer to catching a rare but serious disease with every new garment I tried on. I nearly bought this as a joke, but then came to the realization that no amount of bleach could kill the bacteria living in it, so I passed it up.

I say, if you're curious, poke your head in, but don't waste more than 30 minutes there (which you will if you plan on buying anything. I swear I've waited longer in line at Primark than at Disney World). Going to Primark twice this past week has given me a new profound appreciation for Target. 

Lately...

Happy Summer to most of my teacher friends! Here, there are a lot of breaks during the school year, so summer is only from July 18- Sept 1 for kids. I think I prefer the longer summer and less breaks. There is something so nice about knowing you have a solid 2.5 months of watching Live with Kelly, drinking margaritas at 4 pm, and reading the day away.

I have been keeping myself very busy, and I've been bad at documenting everything with photos. These past several days, I...

--Saw 1984. I loved it. My pal Erica slept through all of it. Literally, all of it.

-Ate delicious tapas with the other Xtina and complained about terrible landlords in London.

-Ironically enough, the next day, I had a call from the realtor showing our flat. Side note, it sucks living in a rental property and having to leave for the flat to be shown to other potential renters. Daniel likes scattering ear plus around the flat in an attempt to warn them all, but I want everything to look perfect so that new tenants can be quickly found and I can stop worrying about leaving the flat at random hours for it to be shown. So, anyway, realtor calls and says, "We have found someone who is interested in moving in! I just want to make sure that you are moving out June 21st. That is what the owners listed as your moving date."

I could feel my blood boiling at this point. We have our flat until July 21, not June, although I move out a few days before then. NOT ONLY is this in our written contract, but I verbally told our landlords AND our relocation agent sent them an email reminding them of this a few weeks ago. Especially because we have a rental property, I just cannot believe their stupidity in making a pretty big mistake. So, these past couple of weeks, I have been leaving the flat for absolutely no reason, since the people seeing the flat wanted a June move in date. And if the realtor wouldn't have double checked with us, there would have been new renters trying to move in while we were out of town with Daniel's family.

We have had so many issues with our landlords this past year, and I cannot wait to be in my house again. Did I tell y'all about the time, after 4 crazy days in Madrid, we came home so excited to sleep...we walked in to our flat, and ALL of our stuff was out of our laundry room, scattered through out the flat (including my lacy underwear!) and there was a strange man painting the inside of the laundry room (because of all of the repairs that need to be done, I suppose they thought the color of a closet was the most important thing)?!? When I called the landlords, they apologized, saying that they figured we'd be gone longer, totally missing the point that it is the coming-in-to-our-flat-while-we-aren't-home-without-telling-us-and-then-moving-all-of-our-crapthat was not okay! Ok, moving on!

-Saw Fatal Attraction with Sadia. Fun sitting up close and seeing Charlotte from SATC and Karen from Californication!

I'm going to miss pubs

- Met Daniel at a pub. Also ate dim sum at Yauatcha until we felt sick.

-Went on lots of runs to calm my moving anxiety and renter rage. Plus, it has been sunny and 70 degrees. Love it!

Ok, I think that covers all of what's been going in. Have a great week, everyone!

Sick Girl

Hello all,

I had plans for a nice long post about our trip to the Cotswolds over the weekend, but I have come down with an evil flu that incorporates a nasty stomach bug with extreme lethargy and headaches. Fun! And I just don't have the energy today to do much more than drink chicken broth and lay in bed without falling asleep every 10 minutes. So, here's some random pictures and I promise I'll write a longer post once I feel better.

Last week I took the kids to Cafe Rouge (a french chain here in the UK) for dinner and we got to sit outside and enjoy the gorgeous sunny weather. They always want me to take pictures to put on my blog :-D

 Miranda wanted you readers to know that she recommends this book, called Wonder. It about a boy who has some physical deformity, but the reader never really learns what it is. Each chapter is a different character's perspective. Sounds pretty good!

 My family friends Carol and Jim came to London, along with their friends Teresa and Pat. We went to have some ciders at a cute pub by where their hotel was, and then had some delicious tapas. A great lunch!

On the way home from dining with them, I rode by Kensington Palace. Had to stop and take a picture!

Ok, sorry for the random post. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better!

Sunny Skies and Full Bellies

Hi! I know I'm a day late....I babysat all day yesterday and was too tired to blog once I finished. 

This weekend was great. I feel like we were all over London. Side note: I've been playing around with Retro Camera on my phone. It makes some of the photos cool, others lame. Sorry!

On Friday, I met my pal ToniAnne on the South Bank for some celebratory prosecco to start off our weekend. It was a gorgeous day with perfect weather, but we couldn't hang out for too long, since we both had plans with our husbands for later.

Daniel and I had a date night to eat loads of pizza at our favorite neighborhood joint, and then go for a couple of beers at our pub. Nothing too exciting!

Lame. Hate the frame around this picture. 

Saturday was our day of nothingness. The highlight of it was homemade enchiladas! My friend Erica gave me a can of verde enchilada sauce (that stuff is a rare commodity here). I paired that with some hard-to-find corn tortillas (no, really. tortillas aren't sold here like they are in America. I had to go to a speciality store) and presto, pure greatness. We ended up with the most delicious enchiladas ever, and ate 'em all up in one sitting. Oops!


Sorry for the hipster frame. Ugh. But I still want to share these pictures. On Sunday, we went to Shoreditch, a neighborhood in east London. I'd been wanting to explore the area for some time now, and I really enjoyed it! It is the cool place to be for the young, urban crowd.

 A little grittier than our 'hood, but that just made it more exciting. It was a great place to people watch- an ecclectic assortment of folks roam around Shoreditch. We went to the Columbia flower market (fail- way too crowded) and then explored the Spitafields market and Brick Lane market (both wins, but I wish I brought more cash).

We went back to our neck of the woods to enjoy the rest of our beautiful Sunday. We explored the nursery in Little Venice- much less crowded than the Columbia Flower Market! And I could relax on this cool TeePee swing. 

Lastly, we went to one of the surprisingly few restaurants on the canal to enjoy a couple of drinks, along with the rest of Northwest London. We wanted to eat there, too, but after waiting nearly 2 hours, we gave up...bought a baguette and some stinky cheese from our local delicatessen shop, and called it an early night!

This is a short week, but I hope to write another post before we go to Amsterdam for Easter!

Successful Half Break

Here, the school calendar is just cray-cray. Summer holiday is very short- about 6 weeks. Because of this, kids have so many breaks scattered around the school year. For Easter, they have two weeks off! Which means I am doing LOTS of nannying!

Yesterday I think marked the beginning of a fun break.

My kiddos are very easy going. They would be perfectly content staying home in their pjs and reading. I just cannot do that, though- I'd go crazy!

I got there Monday morning at 9, we played a bit, and then went to the Transport Museum. I highly recommend this for kids! They get in free, adults are £15, but it's good for a year.

It was understandably packed, but still not terrible for a holiday. I loved it- I could just sit down and drink tea while my kiddos ran around and had fun.

 The museum itself was actually really cool. It had old trains, subways, taxis, and buses in it that the kids could run around in. It was very nicely done. But don't go there if you aren't with children :-)

The museum is in Covent Garden, so afterwards we walked around and looked at all of the antiques. It was highly entertaining trying to explain the different items and what they were used for to an 8 year old. I got to show him Trolls, Beanie Babies, phones, typewriters, and records.

I am hoping that the rest of this holiday is as fun as yesterday was!

Back to London

Ok, after a week of writing about Madrid, I guess it's back to London!

This past week was packed with lunches, dinners, and coffee dates. At yoga, I spotted a girl wearing a Cane and Able's on the Lake shirt (a restaurant in Austin, for those that don't know). Because this is just what you do in London, I ran up to her and found out she was a fellow UT alumni, although younger than me, and then asked her to get lunch afterwards. Small world!

On Saturday, I went super far east to Stratford. It is pretty suburban, and I felt like I was walking through Sugarland Town Square! My South African pal Bailey is getting married, so we went to brunch and then wedding dress shopping with her at David's Bridal. Yes, those stores are surprisingly not only in America. But I'm not sure if the American stores sell such cool hats?

Saturday night, we went to the neighborhood theater and saw Good People, starring Imelda Staunton aka Ms. Umbridge from Harry Potter. The play was fantastic- about a single mother in Boston trying to desperately find a job. We just love this theater- it's very small and impossible to get a bad seat. Plus we could walk there. Afterwards, we pulled a Spain and went to dinner at 10 pm at this tiny little Italian Food restaurant. The kitchen is closet sized and behind the counter, so they only make one meal at a time pretty much. Everything on the menu is about £6-9, so it's worth it! 

This week is jam packed with nannying. The kids have off the next two weeks, so this week I am with them from 9:00- 6:30 everyday! I'll try and keep up with the blog though!

Have a great week everyone!