Half-Term and a Six Month Update

Yikes!!! Hard to believe that it's been almost a week since the last post, and I still haven't uploaded the pictures. That being said, this week has been somewhat crazy for me - I went to Bracknell on Tuesday and Thursday, and Bristol on Wednesday. Bracknell is probably about an hour and a half on the train, while Bristol is about three hours. (That's one way, by the way.) That's meant that I haven't gotten home until late most nights, and other than work, I haven't had a lot going on.

Dalton has been on his half-term break this week, so he's been home with Michelle and Maggie, and they've gone around to visit friends a couple of times. Today, we all went to a birthday party for one of our neighbors at "Wacky Warehouse" - kind of a giant indoor playground - and the kids like it (they've both been before for another birthday party), so that was good. Afterwards, we went to watch Ratatouille at the cinema in Redhill, which was also quite enjoyable.

I did realize earlier this week that I've now reached (and passed) the six-month mark. It has now officially been over six months since I first arrived. I quizzed everyone this morning about what their five favorite things have been since we got here. Dalton named a few things, but then when we reminded him of other things, he kept saying, "Yeah, that too," until the list of his five favorite things was probably about ten to twelve things long. I think that the trip to Paris was definitely one of the big highlights so far, as was the Evensong service in St. Paul's (the first one, where they were singing), and Dalton even said he liked the pictures on the walls at St. Paul's. (I have to admit, this was a bit of a shock to me, although I'm glad to hear it.) Warwick Castle was definitely cool, as was driving through the Cotswolds, which we still would like to get back to explore some more. Michelle, of course, really enjoyed her trip to Dublin as well, and we also enjoyed our outing to Hever Castle. I think I've mentioned the Big Bus Tour a couple of times now, but we all really enjoyed that also. Personally, I've also liked when we've just spent time in the parks - I liked walking through St. James' Park this past Saturday, for instance, even if we were just on our way to somewhere else. I also want to go back to Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park to rent a boat for the afternoon.

So, anyway, that's pretty much it for now. I'll try to post a little more frequently in the future, although I will say that this next week isn't looking too promising... more of the same for me, I'm afraid.

Stratford and Warwick Castle

A quick update:

The weeks seem to be falling into a more structured routine now, which I think is good for everyone. It also means that there is frequently not much to report on a day-to-day basis, other than - "we got up this morning, and when I went to work, everyone else stayed home. The kids played and Michelle did laundry. When I came home, we ate dinner." I did manage to finish Sense and Sensibility, so I'm now on Pride and Prejudice. So, while there are still adjustments to be made, the fact that we are getting into a routine is both a good thing (for us), and possibly a not-so-good thing for anyone out there yearning for news of us on a more frequent basis. (Of course, I'd never know that there were any such persons, given the distinct lack of comments/responses, despite my very open prodding.)

That said, this past weekend, we rented a car in order to avail ourselves of the free night that I had earned with Marriott. We basically had to plan our time around what was actually available, due to my waiting to the last minute to book the hotel, but as we were able to do things we wanted to do anyway, it wasn't really a hardship. We left on Saturday morning and drove around the M25 and then out to Stratford-on-Avon. While I think the M25 bothered Mich a bit, I didn't find it to be that difficult to drive. The kids put up with my little journey into Shakespeare Country quite well, all things considered, and got to learn a bit about my favorite playwright. We went to Shakespeare's birthplace, and "New Place" - the house he built once he had made his fortune, except that "New Place" is now No Place, as it was taken apart several hundred years ago. I did find it rather interesting that Shakespeare's birthplace was actually a tourist attraction a mere 100 years after his birth.

On Sunday, we did something decidedly more kid-centric - Warwick Castle. Parts of the castle date back to 1086, as I recall, and it has several exhibits, including a recreation of several period rooms for the 1890's, some of which are truly exquisite, the Great Hall, with numerous examples of swords, shields, and armor, and the Dungeon. They also fire a trebuchet (catapult), have bowmen exhibitions, and exhibitions on falconry, which included a North American bald eagle who swooped down only inches above our heads. So, us grown up kids had great fun as well.

That evening, I wanted to try to see part of the Cotswolds, and we did make it into a couple of villages, although, more than anything, it just piqued my interest to go back, drive around some more, and get out and walk in some of these places. The Cotswolds are an area in the Midlands where there are several villages in which the houses are made out of limestone. Some of these villages have retained their character even after a couple hundred years, and have several stone houses and stores. There's a few pictures below, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then hopefully you'll be able to see how truly beautiful some of these little towns are.