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!

Weekend of Dates!

Hello! My thought for today: how I wish flights were cheaper between Houston and London. I miss my family and friends! How about we meet in the middle...you buy your ticket, I let you stay with us AND I cook for you? I think that's fair! Sigh....

Anyways, on to more positive things. I had a great weekend in London! I had this revelation that I really needed to see more of this city, and I think that was accomplished. 

On Saturday, I met with my friend Sadia for a girls date. Daniel would probably let me wax his eyebrows off before going with me to see Mamma Mia, so it was nice having a gal pal to go with. 

It was sunny when I left my flat and got on the tube...and then pouring buckets 20 minutes later once I got off the tube in Covent Garden for our show. Typical! So Sadia and I paid for a Pedi Cab to take us the .25 miles from the station to the theater and it was worth every penny (er, pence). I tried to get a picture of it, but the ride was way too bumpy on those cobble streets! 

We both loved the musical. It was light, silly, and perfect for a girl's treat. There were a couple of bachelorette parties (called Hen parties here) dancing along with the songs, middle aged women singing a bit too loudly, and even little dressed up girls there with their moms! Fun, fun, fun! However, it made me really miss all of the ladies in my life whom I know would have loved the musical :-( 

After the musical, we walked (under my tiny little broken umbrella, none the less) to THE cutest and most romantic little French wine bar called 10 cases. The wine list was hand written and the menu was haphazardly scribbled on various chalk boards scattered all around the place. We ate so much deliciousness...cheese, crab, coq au vin, raspberry crème brulee, and tons of bread! And of course drank some red wine to go with all of that yumminess. It was really such a great, much needed day with a friend other than my husband!

On Sunday, Daniel and I embarked on a free date together in London. We've noticed that things in London are either ridiculously overpriced or free. There's no in between. We WERE going to go see Gravity in 3D, but after realizing that the movie theater makes you pay extra for "premium" seats (those are seats that aren't going to strain your neck) and it was going to set us back the equivalent of $70, (40 pounds!!!!...JUST for the tickets) we passed.  Then we were going to go to the Churchill War Rooms, something I would still really like to do, but I'm wondering if it is boring and not worth the hefty price? Can any of you readers recommend it?

So anyways, after all was said and done, we decided to just go check out a free museum- the British Museum. It is massive and has such an abundance of artifacts and a wealth of information. I don't think that my brain could have contained all of the facts that I could have learned while there, so we just walked quickly and stopped at things that fancied our interest (usually naked penis-broken statues and ancient carcasses).

Who took it? WHO???? And can it be glued back on? 

It felt more like we were in some rich dude's library than a museum! Such a cool way to showcase old books and artifacts. 

In person, you could see a few preserved curly hairs on top of his head!!!!!

After the museum, I wanted to find the elusive "Neal's Yard"- a bright, colorful square of old painted shops whose picture pops up on my Pinterest every couple of hours. We finally stumbled across it after aimlessly walking the streets of Covent Garden! And although cute, a little disappointing. If coming to London, don't go to Covent Garden JUST for Neal's Yard. Do what we did, and stop by after a museum or play.

I hope to make more of a point of going out and doing new things, since who knows if I'll ever come back to London once we move. If you've been, what was your absolute favorite thing to do?

Jolly Ol' London!

Hello, all! I hope you all are ready to get back to work this week...I know lots of y'all have had a nice week or two off :-) Just remember....3 day weekend in a couple of weeks for MLK Jr(that's what my dad used to always tell me after the Christmas break, and it always made me feel better).

This weekend has had lots of rest AND a bit of excitement in it- just what we needed after a potentially depressing and homesick departure from Texas.

We have both been permanently jet-lagged, ever since we landed on Thursday. Neither of us slept much on the plane- in fact, Daniel was sick for most of the trip back to London! When we finally arrived, I literally went straight to nap for 3 hours, woke up just for a few hours, and then back to sleep...and slept in until 11:30 am the next day!

Although it felt SO good to sleep SO much, I haven't been able to sleep deeply since then! Most nights since then, I have been laying in bed, awake, until about 3 am, when I finally fall asleep. I am thankful I have TIME to sleep and don't have to rush off and work, but still- I hope to get back on schedule soon!

Saturday for us was a veryyyyyy restful day. Daniel didn't have time to recuperate from the flight since he worked on Friday, so he literally stayed in his PJS all day while I ran some local errands.

I finally have pictures of Daniel's side of our family and needed frames for the pics, along with needing a frame for a vintage map of the UK that I had bought as Camden Market a few months ago. The neighborhood charity shop (what they call resale shops here) was having a 50% off sale and I was able to purchase all of the frames for a rather good price (still not as good as Hobby Lobby would have been, though!). And that, along with working out, was how I spent my Saturday!


Sunday started off really lazy. We woke up at 10, made breakfast, then when back to sleep until 1! I'm telling you, this jet-lag sucks! I feel so bad for all of our visitors whom we made go out and explore the city the day they arrived!

We finally forced ourselves to wake up from our slumber and decided we needed to get out (actually, I decided. Daniel wanted to keep sleeping). We headed to Trafalgar Square to check out the British National Gallery.

 Couldn't have gotten a better picture! The tree, Nelson's Column, and Big Ben...with a red double decked bus to the side! 

Canada has a very nice embassy! Right next to the Blue Cock!

National Gallery

Christmas tree, given as a gift from Norway every year. I'm glad we got to see it, even if it was after Christmas! 

 I really, really loved the National Gallery. If you are in London and want to see paintings, this is the place to go! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures once inside. The interior was breathtaking in itself, only made more beautiful by the paintings. I loved the impressionist wing- tons of Monets, Van Goghs, and Renoirs.

Love this! Painted by Monet while he lived in London...is it lame if I buy the print? It reminds me of life here!

Not in the impressionist wing...still one of our favs. Was captivating in person. 

After our skip through the museum, we stopped at the pub for a pint. What's a weekend without lazying by the fire, sipping a cider, and fantasizing about future travels with your love at the pub?

Night at the Museum

Have y'all heard of Meetup.com? It is kind of like a Match.com, but for making friends. You find a group that interests you and go to social events that the group arranges. On Friday, I went to my first Meet-up ever for American Spouses.

The group caught my eye initially because I knew I could find people that would relate to our journey here, but I was determined to go because the event was held at the  Natural History Museum at night. It kind of reminded me of Elixers and Mixers back home (at the Museum of Natural Science).

The NHM is hands down in the most beautiful building. Unfortunately, my phone was about to die, so I was only able to take this picture last night. I am going to share some other pics that I have taken previously and stolen from the interwebs.

I got there around 6 and quickly found the group that I was there to meet. It's funny because I always think that every American I meet here probably has a similar story to us: expats, moved for spouse's job, most likely oil related. In reality, I haven't met anyone while in London who has moved here thanks to the oil industry. Most of the people that I met last night moved here permanently because their husband's a Brit.

The event was very nice and well done. There was a band playing on the top of the steps, decent food was served, and drinks were not too pricey. It was so neat getting to walk around the museum at night. I found out that the museum does this once a month, so I am going to drag Daniel along next time.

It was a successful meet up and I exchanged numbers with a couple of girls. Since I enjoyed the night out, I am going try again with another meet up for another group of American Women in a couple of weeks in Camden!