my summer holiday in numbers

34: days away from home



5: cities and towns visited:
Kelowna (BC, Canada)
London (UK)
Halifax (NS, Canada)
Miramichi (NB. Canada)
Ann Arbor (MI, USA)
Shanghai (China)

14: take offs and landings


14 hours 52 minutes: longest flight, from Chicago to Hong Kong
1 hour 3 minutes: shortest flight, from Detroit to Ann Arbor

17: sleeping tablets used in the avoidance of jet lag
12: times I went out jogging in the avoidance of jet lag
6: jogging partners: Pari, Judith, Claude, Nyarku, Andrew, and Katie

4: farmers' markets visited



21 kg: luggage with which I left
37 kg: luggage with which I returned
900: the number of snack-sized zip lock bags I brought back to HK to use in my classroom
1.2 kg: mass of 900 snack-sized zip lock bags

1: wedding attended, for Sarah and Eric


1: bridal shower attended, for Dawn
2: baby showers attended, both for Helen


3: pregnant bumps I stroked, and 1 smaller one that I admired: Sonya, Helen, Sara (below), and Carolyn


1: happy-you-finished-your-PhD party attended, for Micah


1: baby baptism attended: Julia Iris



5: novels read: Room by Emma Donoghue, Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro, Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, Little Bee by Chris Cleave
0: airline movies watched

1166: photographs taken

October trip to the UK

Ant's Nan, Etta, and Rachele's daughter, Kaitlin. She is our first niece!




Rachele helped Kaitin model her Hong Kong fashion.


Helen and I chatting--it was great to visit with her again, and Pari and Geary.


Pari and Geary both liked their new Hong Kong newspaper classified aprons. Early Christmas presents. :)

a series of "lasts"

We are soon moving on from London and the last few weeks look to be quite emotional. We are both very excited to be moving, but saying goodbye is proving to be difficult. Last weekend I went into Canary Wharf for Ant's leaving drinks at work. I know a few of his colleagues quite well and I enjoyed chatting with all of them.


The wharf area is beautiful in the evenings. Even though these shots are from my mobile phone camera, I hope you can still see how pretty it was. We will see lots more cityscapes, though, when we are in Hong Kong.

Ant left last night and this has left me feeling a bit bereft. He has arrived safely and is being looked after by Matt and Bree as I write this. Thanks, guys!


This is the view from the railway platform yesterday morning on my way to work. It's funny how everything seems more poignant when I am looking at it thinking soon I will not be there to see the everyday life in our area.

half term

My half term break last week was a much needed rest. I met up with some friends, visited some galleries, and ate in some cafes. Basically my usual favourite things to do!

I met up with Ellie for lunch in Pimlico and we had a lovely leisurely chat over sandwiches and soup. It's so nice to get to know someone new from our church. She was able to take a long lunch--what a luxury. In the afternoon, after a long walk through Victoria, I visited Ottolenghi, a restaurant I have been craving since I heard about it from food blogger friends. I spent a long time looking at all the delicious food in the window (pictured above) and on display inside. I ordered a caramel and macadamia nut cheesecake with a mug of Earl Grey tea. I ate so slowly, drawing out every lovely bite while I watched other customers ordering delicious food and pastries.


On another day I visited in Whitehall with Pari and we ate lunch at a bustling Italian cafe, of the sort that is so common in central London. The staff were so efficient they were brusque, and the food was fast and in big portions. There were plenty of office workers such as Pari having lunch there and also a good collection of tourists. After our meal I returned Pari to her work and then I visited the National Portrait Gallery nearby.

Naomi came into London for a lunch date and we had a delicious salad and soup (soup is always my favourite lunch choice!) and then headed over to Paul for tea. It's such a nice little French bakery and cafe. We sat upstairs where I could look down on the busy counter and smell the bread baking.


Naomi and I headed over to the V&A after tea and started to wander through the galleries. There is so much there that every time I go I just choose a floor and see something new and interesting. Take, for instance, this hanging display of flattened brass instruments.


Here is an inventive tea pot we saw at the V&A.



My last lunch of the week was spent with Helen near her work and we had a tapas meal at a little spot near her offices. So many new things to try and we were both so pleased with the plates we shared. After lunch she took me to her work and I got a little tour of the mixing rooms, the editing suites, and met some of her colleagues.


What a great half term. It was relaxing and enjoyable. I also did some marking (as always) and some work around the house, so it was a good mixture of rest and chores.

visiting the south bank

Today it was a wet and grey London day. But I had a lovely wander around the South Bank anyway. One of my favourite places to while away time in London is at the used book market nestled under a railway bridge near Waterloo station.


The tables are groaning with books and your can browse there for as long as you want while the sellers perch on their stools next to the Thames and read. I don't always buy books, sometimes I just walk up and down and enjoy looking at them!

Also at the South Bank this weekend is a slow food market. Many stalls were selling hot food that smelled delicious: steaming sausage rolls, lentil soups, and hot mulled wine. I bought a couple of cheese straws (to take home for Ant) and some hummus for Pari and I. I mused over clotted cream butter--what an idea!


I stopped by at Pari's new flat on the way home to give her hummus, and convince her to come home with me for roast chicken, roast potatoes, and cabbage cooked with Worcestershire sauce. (Thanks to Geary for lending me the Jamie Oliver cookbook that taught me this cabbage recipe.) Ant whisked up some gravy and we ended the night with tiramisu that Pari brought. What a great weekend.

galleries and museums

Over the past two days I have been wandering around London. Just as I so much enjoy, I have been popping into shops (mostly used book shops), finding museums to visit, and drinking tea in cafes. For example, on Tuesday I drank this delicious fresh mint and cinnamon tea. Such an easy idea--it's little wonder I suppose that fresh leaves give a really vibrant taste when steeped in boiling water. I was at a little vegetarian restaurant recommended by one of my guide books called Eat and Two Veg.


I visited the Wallace Collection on Tuesday. It's a small, free museum in Marylebone that is less well known. But the rooms were beautiful and there are lots of important and interesting paintings there. I wasn't allowed to take photos inside, unfortunately.


I was quite taken with the fabrics in the rooms. Each room had a single fabric that was used for the curtains, the upholstery on the chairs and sofas, and also for the wall covering. (You can see it a little bit in these small pictures.) I wonder how difficult it is to hang walls with fabric. It was really lovely.

Yesterday I was walking around in the City and saw something that I think is so typical of London. Next to a group of office buildings there was this ruin with a little plaque explaining the dates and uses of this fort. There were lots of men and women in suits rushing past as I took this photo.


I went into the Museum of London, another smaller, free museum. I wish I had learned from past experience, though, not to visit any family-friendly places in half term. The Museum was very interesting but thronged with families and running, yelling children. I'm sure they were all enjoying themselves and relatively well-behaved. I just want a break from them. Sigh. I saw a reconstruction of a Roman pantry.


And here is a Roman dining room. This one is the reconstruction from a merchant's house and has vibrant wall painting (since the rooms were quite dark owing to poor lighting and a very small window). There's a small fire for heating the room in the bottom left of the photo.

Here's a monument outside commemorating John Wesley's conversion on May 24, 1978.


I met up with Bree for coffee after that, and we had the most delicious hot chocolate I believe I have had the pleasure of tasting at Manon cafe. It came with a free chocolate!

Barbican

Yesterday I went into the city to see my friend Dave. We had lunch at The Cloister Cafe in Great St Bart's Church. The food was delicious and it was enjoyable to catch up with Dave. We had a very relaxing lunch.

Then Dave walked me over to the Barbican Centre where he now lives. It's a big council housing estate unlike any other I have seen. It's built above the streets of the area with raised walkways and communal gardens.


There's a lake with a small waterfall and it is very quiet even though the busy streets are nearby. I walked through the Barbican Centre, an arts venue which is part of the estate.


My main plan over half term is to eat in cafes. Cafes with friends, or with a good book, or with marking.

loving London

A couple of weekends ago I had the pleasure of attending London Fashion Weekend for an afternoon. Kirbie was lucky to go on Saturday and she brought back some free entry tickets for Sunday afternoon. I went with Pari and we didn't see any fashion shows, but we did browse to our heart's content through all the designer stands. It was nice to feel as though we did not need to buy anything, and just to enjoy all the weird and wonderful things. There were some stunning handbags, and both Pari and I were seriously tempted. But a lot of the clothes were so "designer" that I couldn't imagine how they could fit in to any part of my life. Pari bought a gift for a friend, and I did too. Other than that we just took pictures and amused ourselves with giggling.

Easter and the rest of life

A bit of a more comprehensive update today!

Spring has well and truly arrived--woohoo! Last Sunday Ant and I hosted a big Easter lunch and afterwards the boys went to play snooker round the corner and Pari and I took a nice walk around the neighbourhood. This is a picture of a magnolia tree in one of the front gardens on a street nearby. So beautiful! There are other trees also blossoming at the moment. When we eventually own a house I desperately want to have a magnolia tree.


I have spent my Easter holiday doing quite a lot of work related things. I went to work for two full days of revision sessions and also for one and a half days of my own work. But I feel relaxed and more organised.

Yesterday after lunch I went into the city and headed for Sir John Soane's Museum. It is a little gem of a museum--it's the private house of John Soane (1753-1837), an architect who collected everything realted to architecture and design. It's full of busts, statues, parts of columns, decorative stonework,and so on. I wasn't able to take any photos inside, but you can see some of it on the website.


I visited there for the first time last month and took this photo. Today I saw all the things I didn't have time for before, and afterwards went to a cafe around the corner for a bowl of soup and a pot of green tea. (I was also reading maths education articles and making notes!)


After my little lunch I headed to the nearby British Museum. I have been there lots of times but always find something new to see. Today I visited the India rooms and then went up to the far back corner for a special exhibition about intimate portraits. The smaller drawings and pastels were fascinating. I liked that the expressions of the sitters were often very frank. Unlike larger oil paintings, designed to flatter and impose, these were smaller sketches which generally showed affection. Here are two of my favourites.

snow!

A snow day in London. Who would have thought it? This is the most snow London has had in eighteen years, apparently. As the sun came up we could see that a thick blanket had landed. There are no snow plows here and no winter tires, so London has come to a standstill. The trains are severely disrupted with some lines closed. After about 45 minutes of calling and internet checking I found that school had been cancelled. Now Ant and I are both doing a bit of work (there is always marking to do!) and drinking tea, warm inside with no desire to go out.

Out our back window we can see that there is even snow balanced on next door's washing line. It is very still outside and flakes are falling intermittently.

brief update

My friend Tawnya is staying with us again for a couple of weeks while she is here in London auditioning. On Wednesday this week we went out with my bookclub girls to a pub in Camden to hear some folk music. Although, it I'm honest, I really went for the international vegetarian tapas! It was delicious. The music was suitably folky--the band we saw had a guitar, a banjo, drums, other percussion (including donkey's teeth) and a small keyboard with a blow tube attached--which made it sound a bit like an accordion. It was very much foot tapping music.

I'm off to do some tutoring this morning and then Tawnya and I are going to head into the city for the Cologne Christmas Market near Waterloo. We also are hosting house group tonight and in between all this I hope to make some gifts and also mark a set of books. Here's hoping. Oh, and some cleaning, and relaxing, too.

visit with Raye

My friend Raye was here over the weekend and we went into the city last night. We were walking along Regent Street and saw these amazing lights strung over the road. These are my kind of Christmas lights: simple, monochrome, and geometrical.

We turned onto Carnaby Steet and saw that it was hung with huge snowmen and snowflakes.


We got tickets to see Sound of Music at the London Palladium. (We got ripped off, though. I will happily give several useful tips to anyone hoping to buy cheap tickets for a show.) The show was really good and we both enjoyed it loads. We were sitting in the top row of the Upper Circle and actually had a decent view. We bought the theatre ice cream (£3 each!) at the interval.