Wednesday, June 4-Kew Gardens

Wednesday saw us head to Kew Gardens with Charlie and Adam. I've been to Kew a couple of times before, but everytime I go, I seem to find something different. In a place this big, I'm sure it would take you many, many visits to cover it all. Highlights were some of the largest trees in the UK, a black ebony tree-the one they make black piano keys out of, black pepper vine, and all sorts of other tropical plants in the Temperate House. This place is truly amazing and beautiful. We could not have asked for a more beautiful sunny day.

Trains and Really Old Things

Mom and Dad took their first train ride today. Here they are proudly displaying their Travelcards. We journeyed into London Waterloo via train and then hopped onto the Northern Tube line to Tottenham Court Road, where we disembarked and walked to the British Museum. I think they enjoyed the train ride and I was very proud of their enthusiasm and go-get-em attitude.

The British Museum has some really, really, old stuff in it. When I go to places like the British Museum, I play a little game where I try to find the oldest thing I have ever seen. Up until today, my personal best was some Ancient Egyptian artifacts in Paris's Louvre Museum dating to 32ooBC. Well, today I saw neo-lithic statues and a human skull from...are you ready for this??? 7200BC!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know if I can top this one. Those things were 9200 years old! I guess the quest will continue....

Tomorrow will hopefully bring a sunny day to enjoy our walk through Kew Gardens.

Strolling in the Park

I absolutely love Richmond Park. It isn't any wonder that it was the first major place I took Mom and Dad. We kind of got a late start this morning as we lingered over breakfast, bags got unpacked, and people got settled. We finally left the house and headed for the park in the afternoon. It began lightly raining just as we pulled in the parking lot, so we headed into Pembroke Lodge (above) for afternoon tea, coffee, and scones. When the mist subsided, we headed outside to admire the beautiful gardens, trees, and magnificent views in this part of the park. We then drove the entire loop of the park taking pictures of the deer along the way. I think they liked their first day here. Flowers, bunnies, birds and deer are always a crowdpleaser.

Tomorrow we are headed into the city for the first time. This will be a biggie...their first time ever on mass public transportation. I can't wait to show them everything!!!

The Eagles Have Landed

Safe and sound. It took them quite a while to get through customs and we were starting to get worried. But just before I was about to call in the troops, there they appeared through the swinging doors of Arrivals. After a welcome cocktail, Mom headed straight for bed (not related to the cocktail), I cooked lunch, and Edgar, I and Dad ate and had great conversation. Dad said he was going to stay awake to help him through the time change. He is now snoozing on the couch. I know how they feel and will let them sleep as long as they need to. This is going to be a great month!!! I still can't believe they are here!

They're On Their Way!

My mom and dad will be here tomorrow!!! Their flight takes off today at 3:30pm Austin time and they will be here tomorrow morning 9:35am London time. I am so excited!!! They will be here for a month and I have so many great things planned. The biggest of which is a trip through Ireland and France.

I am busy cleaning and getting everything ready for them. Pretty soon I will make the grocery store trek. How I hate going there on the weekends...maybe I'll wait until the evening when things have calmed down a bit.

I'll have lots of fun posts in the next month. I can't wait to revisit all the wonder that goes into seeing something for the first time, being in a brand new place, and seeing things that you have only previously seen in books or on TV. It's always fun to have people over who have never visited this side of the world. The little quirky differences become commonplace for Edgar and I and it's fun to watch someone else discover them again.

I hope to post quite often over the next month, but if I don't, you'll know why. Have a wonderful week!

Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Have any of you ever heard of the Eurovision Song Contest? I had never heard about it until last year when we moved over here. This thing is huge, garnering as many viewers or more as the Superbowl-between 100-600 million! Basically, each country who is a member of the European Broadcasting Union submits a song and the top 25 are chosen to compete against one another on live television. The countries take turns hosting the event with this year's contest held in Belgrade, Serbia. The first show was in 1956 and the ESC is one of the longest running shows in the world. It has introduced talent such as the Swedish Abba, with their winning single "Waterloo". Even Celine Dion was a contest winner in 1988, but she did not gain international fame until some years later.

I watched the show at the Wharton's house. It is a true tradition for Charlie as, growing up in Sweden, she's been watching it her whole life. Some of the songs were good, some were OK, and some were, well, just questionable. Most of the entries were sung in English, but there were still plenty sung in the country's native language.
My favorite song was Denmark's "All Night Long". It's a fun, uplifting song with a catchy tune. Enjoy it here.

The funniest had to be Latvia's pirate song "Wolves of the Sea". See it below.

This is the winning entry from Russia. Apparently the singer is pretty famous in his part of the world, but I thought the song was only average and the ice-skater did nothing for me. What do you think?

Steel-Toed Boots

We have a running joke in our family about wearing steel-toed boots. Not because we want to work in construction, but because we can sometimes tend to bang our toes around on household objects...some of which may have not moved position in years. I've done pretty well with this unfortunate genetic imposition throughout the years, only harboring the occasional stub here and there. That is until Wednesday evening.

We live in tight quarters here. Our furniture is not placed in a sprawling living or dining room. In fact, our living and dining room are one in the same. To pass into our kitchen, you must walk between our table and a small couch. I had our computer perched on the end of table closest to the kitchen entrance because I was cooking a recipe that was in metric units and I had to google all the conversions. In addition, I made the fatal mistake of pulling out the chair to get a better view of the screen. You may recall that Wednesday was the BIGGEST GAME IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, and I was in a flurry to prepare dinner and get my Manchester United war paint and red shirt on. I didn't push the chair back in, and in one flash of a moment, upon leaving the kitchen, I whacked my right pinky toe on the chair leg. It hurt like a son of a.... But I kept going, adrenalin pumping, nothing was going to take my excitement away. I was hoping the pain would subside, but it didn't. The bottom of the toe went numb and I couldn't walk on it.

When I awoke the next morning to a swollen and bruised toe, I decided evasive action was needed. I was in no position to drive (you kind of need a fully functioning right foot to do that) so Edgar "worked from home" and took me to a minor injury walk in clinic. This was our biggest experience yet with the NHS (National Healthcare System), apart from small visits to gain antibiotics for bronchitis. I was kind of nervous because I've heard horror stories when you allow the government to govern and manage your healthcare. But I have to say, it was a very clean, sterile, streamlined experience. We waited about an hour to see the nurse practitioner, who decided an xray was needed due to the fact that my toe was awkwardly pointing out and to the side. We waited about 10 minutes for the xray, which showed a clean break in the top joint of the toe. Only a tiny thread of bone was still attached. The good news was that it wasn't dislocated. The prospect of the NP having to not only touch the toe, but pop it back into place brought tears to my eyes. No, it really did. I started crying right there in the exam room when he told me he might have to do it. Luckily, Edgar was there to sing me songs and keep me distracted until we found out it wasn't dislocated.

So now I am icing 3 times a day for 20 minutes. My pinky toe and the one next to it are taped together so that there will be limited mobility. I'm keeping it elevated and walking around as little as possible, so hopefully it will begin to heal very soon. I hate not being fully mobile, especially when my entire lifestyle revolves around walking for everything. I guess one good thing about it all is that it has forced me to sit still long enough to plan our upcoming trips. And maybe I'll finally finish that book I started a week ago.

I would like to thank my wonderful husband for taking off work all day long to take care of me. He brought me some really great surprises when he returned from the pharmacy run with ibuprofen and tape: 3 beautiful stems of lillies and my favorite gelato! Thanks, Babe! You're the best!!!