It's been slightly over a week since the last post, and quite frankly, it's mainly because nothing too exciting has happened. Dalton did have an "inset" day last Wednesday - that's a teacher's workday to all you Americans out there, and so he, Maggie, and Michelle went to the zoo with some of our friends. I'll probably post the pictures tomorrow, because I'm trying to multi-task right now, getting the kids ready for bed, so I keep being interrupted and after they go to sleep, I have some more work to do. Anyway, they really enjoyed that - Michelle said the zoo was really neat.
The weekend was simple enough. We stayed home on Saturday to rest up from the previous weekend, and then in on Sunday to church, where we were invited to lunch, so we ended up getting home rather late.
Then this week has been fairly plain. Nothing too exciting - just the stuff that goes on in between all the "more memorable" stuff. We all went to Dalton's Beaver Scout meeting on Monday night, as they were having a cafe, and served us tea, teacakes, pancakes, and hotdogs. I've been working on the family genealogy again for the first time in a while. For family members, I can only say, don't hold your breath waiting for the next big release - I'm trying to do this thing right, and that means it may take a while.
That brings us all up to date. We do have some neat plans for this weekend, but I'll tell you about those when they happen.
Showing posts with label beaver scouts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beaver scouts. Show all posts
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
A Beaver Scout at Hampton Court
Some of you may be aware that this past weekend was our wedding anniversary. A smaller number may be aware that it was our twelfth wedding anniversary, which is really quite amazing to me (in a good way, of course). We decided to go out to celebrate, and after much discussion throughout the past week, elected to go to Hampton Court on Saturday. Please note: I am well aware that our anniversary was on Sunday - however, we chose to go on Saturday. 'Nuff said.
Hampton Court, to begin yet another history lesson, is one of the palaces of Henry VIII, and was one of his favourites. It was later modified by William and Mary, as they began to destroy the Tudor construction and replace it with a Baroque building. They were unfortunately unable to complete the rebuild (or perhaps fortunately, depending upon your personal architectural preferences, and/or predilection for historical buildings), and only part of the building is in the Baroque architectural style, while the remainder is Tudor. Nonetheless, it is an interesting place, replete with royal bedrooms, presence chambers, and gardens. We spent the day there on Saturday wandering the grounds, and learning various facts about Henry and the other later occupants. To his credit, Dalton can now name all of Henry's six wives without effort, and which order they married him in, etc.
Hampton Court has a maze, originally built around 1600, which we navigated, and then we walked around the gardens looking at the various layouts. We then went into the castle - where they won't let you take pictures. Still, you can look at the place here. Check out the pictures of the Great Hall, and the carving by Grinling Gibbons. Grinling also did some of the wood carving in St. Paul's and his work is truly extraordinary. Our pictures will be up later on today, hopefully - although just of the outside and the gardens.
As the evening drew in, we decided to look around for a place to eat and ended up at Zizzi's. Admittedly, we initially were drawn in because it wasn't overwhelmingly expensive and it had stuff the kids would eat. However, I can now name Zizzi's as one of my more pleasant dining experiences. We both got good Italian pasta dishes, and the kids shared a bowl of pasta. We also had a bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - good stuff, if you can find it. The desserts were marvelous - the tiramisu was truly excellent. So that was basically our anniversary dinner. After that, the kids were beat (and so were we, to be honest), and we headed home.
Sunday ended up being a wash. We got on the rail to go in, but apparently someone had fallen on the tracks at Purley, so they shut down the rail. Rather than go into London and get stuck, we took a taxi back home.
Monday night, Dalton became an official Beaver Scout. He now has his little Beaver scarf and all the other necessary accoutrements. He is quite excited about it all. Beaver Scouts is like Cub Scouts, only the ages are slightly different in the UK. They did something with stamps this week, so he now is interested in stamp collecting. I told him we'd go look in the stamp shop here to see what they have. Fortunately, they have the world's largest stamp shop here (so the website says) in Stanley Gibbons. I figure I'll have to take him there to check it out.
Hampton Court, to begin yet another history lesson, is one of the palaces of Henry VIII, and was one of his favourites. It was later modified by William and Mary, as they began to destroy the Tudor construction and replace it with a Baroque building. They were unfortunately unable to complete the rebuild (or perhaps fortunately, depending upon your personal architectural preferences, and/or predilection for historical buildings), and only part of the building is in the Baroque architectural style, while the remainder is Tudor. Nonetheless, it is an interesting place, replete with royal bedrooms, presence chambers, and gardens. We spent the day there on Saturday wandering the grounds, and learning various facts about Henry and the other later occupants. To his credit, Dalton can now name all of Henry's six wives without effort, and which order they married him in, etc.
Hampton Court has a maze, originally built around 1600, which we navigated, and then we walked around the gardens looking at the various layouts. We then went into the castle - where they won't let you take pictures. Still, you can look at the place here. Check out the pictures of the Great Hall, and the carving by Grinling Gibbons. Grinling also did some of the wood carving in St. Paul's and his work is truly extraordinary. Our pictures will be up later on today, hopefully - although just of the outside and the gardens.
As the evening drew in, we decided to look around for a place to eat and ended up at Zizzi's. Admittedly, we initially were drawn in because it wasn't overwhelmingly expensive and it had stuff the kids would eat. However, I can now name Zizzi's as one of my more pleasant dining experiences. We both got good Italian pasta dishes, and the kids shared a bowl of pasta. We also had a bottle of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - good stuff, if you can find it. The desserts were marvelous - the tiramisu was truly excellent. So that was basically our anniversary dinner. After that, the kids were beat (and so were we, to be honest), and we headed home.
Sunday ended up being a wash. We got on the rail to go in, but apparently someone had fallen on the tracks at Purley, so they shut down the rail. Rather than go into London and get stuck, we took a taxi back home.
Monday night, Dalton became an official Beaver Scout. He now has his little Beaver scarf and all the other necessary accoutrements. He is quite excited about it all. Beaver Scouts is like Cub Scouts, only the ages are slightly different in the UK. They did something with stamps this week, so he now is interested in stamp collecting. I told him we'd go look in the stamp shop here to see what they have. Fortunately, they have the world's largest stamp shop here (so the website says) in Stanley Gibbons. I figure I'll have to take him there to check it out.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
China Smash!!
Earlier this week, Dalton attended his first Beaver Scout meeting. For those of you who didn't know, Boy Scouts was started by an Englishman, and the English have long ago extended the idea down to quite an early age - the Beaver Scouts are for boys too young for Cub Scouts. So, anyway, Dalton attended this Beaver Scout meeting, and he seemed to really enjoy it. At the meeting, his Scout Master told him about a Merstham "Street Party" (their terminology, not mine), where he would have pancakes and "China Smash".
Michelle and I talked about what "China Smash" might be - crushed noodles, squashed wontons - we were clueless. After all, this is the place where "I'll have a lemonade," means "I'd like a Sprite," and a lemon squash is the equivalent of a lemonade. So, today we went to the Merstham Street Party.
The Merstham Street Party was tame, at least in comparison with the moniker. However, it was still pretty neat. There were games and rides for the kids, a magician who also did balloons, and they even provided a free "tea" for the kids, which comprised a sandwich, a couple of biscuits, and some squash. (As in blackcurrent squash or raspberry squash - i.e., Kool-Aid, or the like.) And yes, Dalton's Scout Master was also there, selling pancakes (crepes) and running a china smash, which was Dalton's favourite. Basically, you pay a pound, and you get four balls to throw at the china plates, cups, and saucers. Thus, china smash. Dalton wanted to play, so we let him throw the ball and break things. He was still talking about it afterwards, saying that if he had two pounds, he could have gotten eight balls, and then he could have broken a lot of things. Typical boy.
We also had a brief discussion of his lifetime goals after we left. He now wants to be a person who blows up balloons when he grows up. I'm not certain whether this is an improvement or not - previously he had wanted to be an unmarried policeman (the unmarried piece is very important to him), but he apparently decided today that policework is too dangerous, and blowing up balloons is the way to go. Maggie, of course, just wants to be a ballerina princess. Then there's the boy we met at the street party today who apparently is aspiring to be a busker. He approached us and showed us his plate-spinning skills - he was actually quite good, and probably about ten years old, and then stated that in a few years he would soon be spinning plates 24-7.
Me, I haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up.
Michelle and I talked about what "China Smash" might be - crushed noodles, squashed wontons - we were clueless. After all, this is the place where "I'll have a lemonade," means "I'd like a Sprite," and a lemon squash is the equivalent of a lemonade. So, today we went to the Merstham Street Party.
The Merstham Street Party was tame, at least in comparison with the moniker. However, it was still pretty neat. There were games and rides for the kids, a magician who also did balloons, and they even provided a free "tea" for the kids, which comprised a sandwich, a couple of biscuits, and some squash. (As in blackcurrent squash or raspberry squash - i.e., Kool-Aid, or the like.) And yes, Dalton's Scout Master was also there, selling pancakes (crepes) and running a china smash, which was Dalton's favourite. Basically, you pay a pound, and you get four balls to throw at the china plates, cups, and saucers. Thus, china smash. Dalton wanted to play, so we let him throw the ball and break things. He was still talking about it afterwards, saying that if he had two pounds, he could have gotten eight balls, and then he could have broken a lot of things. Typical boy.
We also had a brief discussion of his lifetime goals after we left. He now wants to be a person who blows up balloons when he grows up. I'm not certain whether this is an improvement or not - previously he had wanted to be an unmarried policeman (the unmarried piece is very important to him), but he apparently decided today that policework is too dangerous, and blowing up balloons is the way to go. Maggie, of course, just wants to be a ballerina princess. Then there's the boy we met at the street party today who apparently is aspiring to be a busker. He approached us and showed us his plate-spinning skills - he was actually quite good, and probably about ten years old, and then stated that in a few years he would soon be spinning plates 24-7.
Me, I haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)