Thursday, November 22, 2012

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Crazily, the 4th anniversary of our being abroad passed quietly last weekend... and not one of us even noticed.

It might be because we've become so accustomed to our expat bubble that we don't even note these little milestones anymore.

Or it could be because we're already laser-focused on Le Retour scheduled (actually, not scheduled) for sometime in 2013.

Another anniversary, another Election, and now another Thanksgiving. 

Boy, I'm thankful today.



I'm thankful for my wonderful and hard-working husband, who took us on this wild ride through Old Europe.

I'm thankful for my two delicious children who surprise me every single day. I'm thankful that in the wake of Hurricane Sandy's devastation we still have a home in Nyack to return to. I'm thankful to have wonderful friends to celebrate with tonight.




I'm thankful to have two zany siblings and two wonderful parents - and a whole mishbucah of great in-laws. I'm thankful to have Saint Claire, who makes my life work from day to day. 

And sorry to drop a political note in here, but I'm thankful that after the hours slaving over my computer and away from my children, that Barack Obama is still president and that he will be joined by the highest number of women to ever serve in the United States Congress. Boo-yah!

I'll touch on each of these briefly in this quick update.

Crazy Josie turned five in early October, flanked by both sets of adoring grandparents and an increasingly bothersome younger sibling. We celebrated with a little Hello Kitty Dance Party at home and a trip to London with both grannies to see Matilda the Musical. I think she was appropriately dazzled by all.

Hello Kitty birthday!

Make a wish!


Train to London with Hannah to see Matilda!

Jeff and I also threw a joint 40th birthday with heaps of great friends old and new -- my dear friend Pat, with whom I've been friends for nearly (urp) 20 years, trekked over from London, and all our Bathian friends gathered as well. We sipped cocktails made by our "mixologist", swayed to coffeehouse jams from our acoustic guitarist, and generally threw down at Jika Jika, the cafe where everybody knows our names.


Me and my Bath girls, and great old friend Patrick 

Granny Nom ended up staying for a couple extra weeks, and she and I took a girls' road trip to London to eat Fancy French Food and hit the Portobello Road Antiques Market, which was apparently a major Bucket List item for her. It was my first night away from Hugo, and everyone survived! It was terrific.



 Mostly liquid lunch at my fave Notting Hill cafe, Bumpkin


We spent a day at beautiful Westonbirt, seeing the fall foliage, enjoying a picnic and getting as wet and muddy as we possibly could (sigh).




We also took a great day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, so that the former English teacher could see Shakespeare's birthplace. I highly recommend a visit - the "Visitor's Center" has been recently renovated with an audio-visual presentation, clips from all the recent Shakespeare films, etc.

We also visited Shakespeare's house AND his daughter's farm. From petting goats to watching falconry to toothbrushing archeological remains, Josie loved the whole day -- and we've spent the weeks since reading, play by play, an entire children's Shakespeare collection.




Not that much happened otherwise, or at least not that I can remember, because I was glued to my computer for the six weeks prior to Election Day. I'm really lucky Granny Nom stuck around, because she was a real trooper with the kids. While I wasn't looking she even taught Josie how to read!

After Nom left, we tried to celebrate the soggiest Halloween in history. Wonder Woman suited up in mackintosh and umbrella and we waded up and down the street to the approximately four houses open for business. I tossed in enough of our own candy that she appeared satisfied with her haul, so we returned to our (dry) home for a Thriller/Ghosbusters dance party with the new social-smiling Nemo, er -- Hugo.

Happy Halloween, Wonder Woman and Nemo!

Election Day this year was a surreal one. After staying up all night watching the returns on the couch, I decided to go to London on November 7th to see my Parisian friend C and her gorgeous custom bikes at the Country Living Christmas Fair.

I suffered through a train ride full of election-mad Brits and ended up scrambling around Northeast London, bleary-eyed, barely knowing my own name, for a WiFi connection to write post-election emails! Found myself in a smelly pub, banging away at my laptop and wondering when my life got so wonderfully, stressfully bizarre.

 But I did have time to spend a small fortune
on this dress for Josie!

Of course, we're all thinking this year of the thousands who remain without homes, possessions, belongings, and sadly some without loved ones in the wake of last month's devastating hurricane. I think we were all surprised by our chief reaction to the storm which was: homesickness.  We were acutely missing friends and family, missing our house, wanting to pitch in and help in some way. I have a feeling that those opportunities will exist for some time.

Today I'm just thankful for everything I have, for all the wonderful places and events we've been lucky to experience, for the friends I've made and even more for the ones I've kept.  As I burn my second pecan pie in my authentically British ^%$#*&!@ AGA oven, I'm taking a moment to appreciate all that's good in my life. And there's a dang lot.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Next year in Nyack!




Tuesday, September 18, 2012

September mourn...

Hey, Summer? It's Bath. Ever planning on heading this way?

If you somehow missed the Weather Channel analysis, the sailboats blowing over during Olympic squalls, the complete absence of any tan lines on Prince Harry's backside in Vegas, let me fill you in.

This was the worst.summer.ever.

If it wasn't raining, it was drizzling. If it wasn't drizzling, it was misting. If it wasn't misting, it was cloudy, and we were quickly slathering on the Nair and pulling on the short shorts because hot damn, it wasn't raining!

Apparently "Europe" also got some of this bad weather (I recently picked up on a tour of Bath Abbey that Britons don't consider themselves part of Europe. This turned into an argument with my husband who demanded to know which continent Hawaii was in. North America? No? I really drank too much in college) but we really, really got it something awful.

We did catch a bit of Olympic fever -- watched loads of diving, swimming, gymnastics, you know, everything that took place inside and wasn't cancelled or postponed 5 times. Josie in particular LOVED the Olympics. When she started school last week she informed the school administrator that when she grows up she's going to be an Olympian and compete in Diving, Cycling, Gymnastics and Speed-Walking. (um, what? BTW who knew that my year-plus of stroller walking in the Palisades Center could have prepared me for Olympic Gold?!?!)

Oh, quick aside - Josie's school had a mini-Olympics this week, and she killed!  She medaled in 5 events, pretty much everything but bean-bag-on-head-relay. She has a really round head. Check out her hurdling event, in which her hurdles are three times the height of everyone else's!



Anyhoo, back to August....while we were feeling the Olympic fever, and rooting for both Team GB and the Americans, we still took the first chance we got to bolt the sodden United Kingdom for sunny Stockholm.

Stockholm, where do I start?  Amazing. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, just get there. Especially if you have kids as it is the most kid-friendly place ever. And especially if you do NOT have kids b/c it has multiple Michelin-starred restaurants and some kind of IceHotel bar where everything I guess is made out of ice and has hot and cold running vodka. Alas, I will never find out.

Stockholm -- another European destination so expensive you have not only pass go, you also have to pretend everything is priced in Monopoly money. That said, there are deals to be had -- no one under 12 gets charged for anything, and Jeff and I bought a $225 "Stockholm Card" that got us into absolutely every museum, every attraction, every public transportation mode for the entire week. We also had free breakfast at our hotel, though we unfortunately didn't realize that until the day we checked out. 

Yes, that's Tony Bennett sitting behind Hugo. 
I bet he knew brekkie was free.

Our trip started with a teary-but-happy reunion with Josefin "Nonny" Noren Almen, our Swedish babysitter from Paris. We spent the first 2 days in Stockholm with Nonny as our guide, seeing the completely amazing Junibacken, or Pippi Longstocking World, the Gamla Stan, or Old Town, and lots and lots and lots of sun.

Josie and Nonny reunited

 
Our own little Pippi

Villa Villekulla in the amazing Pippi museum

There was a music festival happening on one of the islands, so one night Bjork was singing right into our hotel window. That was pretty freaking cool.

Oh, we also did a self-guided "Millenium" tour which was also pretty cool. We had coffees at the bar where Blomkvist eats all his hundreds of sandwiches. We walked around the uber cool "Solder" neighborhoods.  We'd gone from the original Ville Villekulla to V. Kulla.

It's Berger. Nielssen's been shot!

After a right-wing shooting everyone needs a sandwich and coffee

A lucky thing about Stockholm is we avoided some of those triple-digit restaurant bills by mooching off of friends, like the wonderful amazing Bergmans who have known me literally before I was born, and the Deckers, fellow American expats living the Socialist Dream, who had us to their gorgeous home in the 'burbs for a gorgeous roast chicken and a great play for Josie with their two adorable daughters. 
 
With Maj, Ulf, and their adorable grandson Tom, we toured the outdoor museum, Skansen, toured Stockholm by boat and had an amazing home-cooked Swedish meal (oh, their daughters Carin and Sissi whom I have known since THEY were born, and Sissi's husband Daniel, were there for the last one too).

 Tom, Josie and Hugo enjoying an International 
Delight - Ice cream - at Skansen

 My second trip on Ulf's Boat, the CarMajSis

Some other highlights:

 Josie in Gnome Man's Land


 Drottningholm Palace


Future Geniuses with Current Doofus 

 Absolut Cute at the "SpiritMuseum"

 Narrowest street in Sweden

 Sad to go

Here is how I know this was our best trip ever. While I consistently plan excellent vacations, around Day 5 Josie always expresses her strong desire to go home and sleep in her own bed and play with her Polly Pockets. When on Friday we told her it was our last day in Stockholm there were tears! Real tears! It may have been because she knew she would never see the sun again until next May or June, but I also just think it's a magical, incomparable, totally fun place. It's super-cosmopolitan, a great blend of modernity and history, sunny (when it's sunny), warm in summer (if it's sunny), super-liberal (there were Gay Pride flags flying from every museum, theater, government building, etc).

But we did have to go back to rainy dreary England, and we did, in time for the end of the Olympics (you know we were deep in Olympics withdrawal when Jeff tried to change the channel from Speed-walking and Josie shrieked, "Hey, I was really enjoying that!")

Thanks to St. Claire we muddled through the school-free month without too much collateral damage. We closed the summer with a jaunt back over to Cornwall, to the same kid-friendly hotel we visited with Anne and Lew in May. I booked this bank holiday weekend literally at the checkout desk last May, thinking "August Bank Holiday Weekend will be gorgeous, surely, and there's a Regatta, how perfect!"

As you either know or can guess, I was yet again.... wrong. We did have one lovely summer's eve, which thankfully we seized to go crabbing on the docks. We caught quite a few crabs ourselves, and escaped a complete horror film when the kids next to us set all 5,329 of their crabs free -- on the dock -- at once:



Although, Josie herself had a bit of a tough time saying goodbye...



The rest of the weekend was basically a soggy mess. We did check out a cool shipwreck museum with yet more Titanic memorabilia - along with two 17th-century schooners. We had lots of lovely meals and cream teas and local lagers, but mostly just had to dodge the bucketing rain. **SIGH**

On September 5th Josie woke us by bouncing into our bed at 6:45 a.m. proclaiming, "this is the day I've been waiting for my entire life."  The first day of school - of "Reception" which I guess is like kindergarten though the curriculum - reading, writing, phonics, basic maths, cookery, swimming, gym, ballet, science - looks more like first grade. She has a new uniform and a new outlook on life, though she has proclaimed her new class "absolutely exhausting."  It's really amazing to see how quick she is learning, though she would still rather draw and watch Peppa Pig than do her homework!



We trekked to London to see E, C, Baby Brains and Belgian Dad for C's 5th birthday. We got to see E and Belgian Dad's fabulous new Maida Vale house, enjoy a becoming-habitual roast chicken lunch, toss back a few glasses of champagne, dance to Jessie J and collapse in a heap on the train home. Always so much fun to hang with those crazy Belgiafranglaisers.

 Happy Birthday Mademoiselle C!


We also had a great visit from "Chelle and Butch" aka Michelle and Rich, which included lots of fun sightseeing, local beers, killer curry and an awesome raclette spread. It is a rare friend who is up for all of those elements in one weekend.... which why Michelle is and will always be my girl. We had a great time and Josie always LOVES having an extra man to boss around!

Michelle lounges in Parade Gardens

And last but not least, I got to try my hand at Stage Mothering when I took Hugo to London to film a commercial for Cow and Gate, a baby food company at which my husband may or may not allegedly work. There were dozens and hundreds of adorable children there so Hugo may well end up on the cutting room floor, but we had fun anyway!




In a couple of weeks the whole crazy mishbucah, including Nom, Pee-Pa, Anne and Lew descend for Josie's 5th birthday and our joint 40th birthday -- as one of our guests has pointed out, our "collective octogenarian celebration."  OUCH.

There's a small presidential election coming up as well on November 6th so I may be a bit swamped but will try to check in at least with some pics!  Cheerio!

I'll leave you with some Austen Powers - the JA Festival started this week and all of Bath becomes a Georgian Playland!

Sweet Janes



Thursday, July 12, 2012

This babe was made for walkin'....

And that's just what he did.... on American soil!



We had just arrived on gorgeous Kiawah Island to join the rest of the Rothman clan to celebrate Anne and Lew's 50th wedding anniversary, and on Day 2 Hugo just up and walked... like he'd always known how, he just hadn't felt like it.  And thus ended life as we knew it.

We had been not concerned exactly, but a tad surprised that the boy who sat up, stood, crawled, and cruised so early was lagging behind his sister's walking age by 2 months. I guess he didn't have anywhere important to be! And now, oyyyyyy. He walks everywhere, across rooms, in the tub, into the crashing surf of the Atlantic Ocean. If he's anything like his sister he'll soon be RUNNING away from me as fast as possible, so I suppose I should pause and count my blessings while I still can.

But let me back up - it was a crazy exhausting month of travel and activity. In early June we tooted over to Le Beaux Paris for the Queen's Jubilee weekend -- treasonous, I know -- hoping to escape the rain and grey for good friends and great food. Sadly the weather didn't cooperate for long, but we did reunite with les filles Bell (Virginia Mom et famille) in the Luxembourg Gardens for carousel, ice cream, and sand pits. While they initially stood around staring at each other, fingers in noses, they quickly got comfy and chased each other around, sharing ice cream licks and flinging sand at each other. Ah, the good old days.

The Three Horsemen

 La glace! Oh la la!

 Hugo looooves the sand

Good golly, Miss Molly!

We stayed not too far from our old 'hood, on Boulevard Montparnasse, in a holiday flat that was sadly not air-conditioned nor equipped with that modern convenience they call a fan. Still, it was a hop-skip from most of our old haunts, like La Coupole, the Raspail market (where Jeff still had to wrangle hot cakes in a bag from Cranky Potato Pancake Man) and all the great shops around Boulevard St. Germain and Rue de Rennes, which Jeff let me have an afternoon to explore.

We had a great time with C, my British and first Parisienne Pal -- a surreal Sunday afternoon was spent watching the Queen's flotilla on their Sky network dish, eating treats from the new Marks and Spencer on the Champs-Elysees, while her son W taught Josie some classic Jedi maneuvers.


It was great to be back in Gay Paree, but honestly for the first time we all felt like tourists. Lots had already changed as far as shops, etc., a few of our friends had left as well, and Josie really didn't remember anything, which felt so shocking! But I still loved it more than ever. Loved strolling through the Luxembourg Garden -- an especially French afternoon as it was "L'Exposition des Jouets" or something, which was basically all these dorky guys and gals in matching T-shirts demonstrating various sports (Frenchies playing b-ball - something to see, lemme tell ya) to BLARING LOUD horrible French synth-pop. We ate les macarons at every opportunity, yelled at mothers of kids with no socks, and cringed at every loud American in white tennies (which don't get me wrong, in Bath I am happy to be, yoga pants, scrunchie and all!).

(you'll notice I am borrowing heavily from my homegirl MJ in this post, but what can I say, she noticed and noted way more wacky French sh*t than I did!)

Macarons on the steps of the Opera Garnier 

Dinner with Virginia Mom at Hotel du Nord

Without much of a break, we were again packing and trekking to Heathrow for our long-awaited 2-week sojourn to the States. As aforementioned we started in gorgeous (hot! sunny! Thank God!) Kiawah Island. Our 22-hour itinerary looked something like this: wake up at 5:30 am, 2 hour drive to Heathrow, 9 hour flight to Miami, 3.5 hour layover (with Miami Spice and family, thank goodness!), 2 hour flight to Charleston, 1 hour drive to Kiawah Island, arrival around midnight! You can imagine what we looked like when we arrived.

Despite warnings about alligators (and severe penalties for "taunting them"), three-inch "palmetto bugs" (mm-hmm, that's Southern for good old cucaracha, mi amigos!) the resort was gorgeous and comfortable. Our three-building complex  had its own pool, which Josie in particular never wanted to exit.


Both kids had an amazing time with their grandparents, aunts and uncles and crazy cousins.  Anne and Lew were celebrating 50 years of marriage, so we serenaded them to a bastardized version of James Taylor's "Goin' to Carolina in my mind" and they in turn re-enacted their first date, dressed in character.

It's true... after this long you do start to look alike! 


The beach was also gorgeous, and Hugo quickly demonstrated a strong and horrifying affinity for the ocean, skuppering as fast as humanly -- or more accurately crably -- possible towards the waves.


Out of my way!!!!

There were no shortage of activities -- we biked all over the resort, got ice creams and massages and painted pottery and generally soaked up all the sunshine we could since it had been about 34 weeks since we'd glimpsed that elusive orb in Merry Olde England. Just what the doctor ordered.

Then after a week of Southern Hospitality (I even got to eat grits!! mmmm!) it was another psychotically early wake up (4:30 this time!) to catch a 7:15 flight to Martha's Vineyard via Washington, D.C.  Other than shop for really cheesy crap in the airport store (I got some awesome Michelle Bachmann Tea Party mints) there wasn't much to do, so Josie cruelly decorated her snoozing brother.


Though we didn't go "home" this vacation, the Vineyard felt pretty close. Nom and Pee-pa were waiting at the arrival gate, ready to whisk us off for our first lobster rolls of the season. We stayed in a great condo complex (where we'd stayed back in '08) with its own pool and tennis court. The weather was super HOT again so as much as we love the Vineyard's gorgeous beaches it was also great to have a pool.

 Gorgeous Gay Head Cliffs (yeah, no lame Aquinnah nonsense for us!)

 Placid State Beach

 Idyllic Menemsha (I took a 2 second break from 
stuffing fried oysters in my piehole to snap this)



Hugo loves da pool 

Though it was actually our third Fourth of July on the Vineyard, we'd never before been to the famed Edgartown parade. Edgartown is small, uber-preppy and already kind of a parking nightmare, so I guess we'd never felt it worth the pain and effort, but once you've got 2 kids, you gotta hit the parade! Sooooo glad we did. The day was classic Americana. Bunting everywhere, flags, everyone dressed in their most patriotic Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren shirts (plus one old, weird-looking guy sporting that classic "Harvard: the Michigan of the East" but even my mom thought he looked too kooky to approach with a "Go Blue").  

We had to grab prized and shady curbside seats and chill for about an hour, but with sandwiches from a completely classic old deli and a grassy yard to play catch, it wasn't a terrible wait.

 Edgartown Deli....classic Americana!

 Waiting patiently for the Main Event

Here come the Rebels! (I hope they're not coming for us! 
Cover Hugo's Union Jack T-shirt!)

No one enjoying the parade more than Hugo

Though Josie had been to the Vineyard twice before, this was the first time she could really remember... so we've promised to return every summer that we can! We just love this place. Biking, beaching, lookin' for wild turkeys, shopping for cool folk art and antiques, it's got everything this wacky side of the family needs!

Now it's back to gloomy England, where the rainiest June on record followed the rainiest May followed the rainiest April. Sheesh!!  But between chasing Hugo, work and Olympic fever, the weeks before our next trip (Stockholm!) should fly by.

Just like Josie's kite flew high over Oak Bluffs Memorial Park