Sunday 10 June 2012

Back to the Blog

SO... after a prolonged sabbatical, time to bring back our quaint narrative of Howell life in Britain. I cannot claim that this comeback is due to "popular demand"... as our readership, never enormous at its height, has probably by now mostly forgotten about this blog.

But nevertheless, even if this little record is mostly for internal consumption, here goes. It has been a busy spring of 2012 for the HowellinginLondon set. We've visited France (Brittany), France again (Loire valley), Greece (Crete) and Northern England (Lake District). Plus short weekend trips to Liverpool and (for me & Karen) Straford-on-Avon. We have had some great visits (my parents and Jessica/Peter/Jasper/Josie; cousin Addie from Nashville; Karen's ex-future-parents-in-law Frank and Linda and their son Dan). Too much to recount it all... but fortunately Karen has put the highlights in a quick video. 

A few more words on the main trips:
 - Brittany, France: a fun week visiting Aunt Martine and (briefly) Bernard at her lovely abode in Quimper, lots of exploring of this historic and gorgeous region of France, joined by my mom (who was en route to South Africa: highlights: great food, neolithic megaliths. Lowlight: a little chilly, although the weather help up much better than weather.com suggested! 
 - Loire Valley: long weekend visit to Jennifer, Andreas & Theo at their beautiful and relaxing country house south of Tours.  
 - Crete: a week staying in my friend Sergey's condo in village on the north coast of Crete. Wonderful spot, wonderful people, wonderful food. Really a great place to visit and the kids were superbly well behaved throughout, we all really enjoyed this. Highlights: carriage ride in historic Venitian town of Hana, hiking in Lambros gorge, quiet Panormo beach, water park.  Lowlight: Knossos Palace. Historic but not kid friendly. 
 - Lake District: for Jubilee weekend we headed north and had a nice few days staying in a Mongolian yurt and exploring this striking part of Britain. Highlights: Muncaster castle, their owl collection and gardens. Lowlight: almost perished driving on the country's steepest road (by accident) but took in some striking views.

And then a few words on life in London, which has been, generally speaking, pretty good. We are now feeling at home on Eton Avenue, and life is much less stressful and tumultuous as it was in year one. Kids are healthy and reaching the point where they are more independent and occasionally even cooperative. Sadie is 4, reading 3-letter words, obsessed with Wizard of Oz and pronouncing "party" (but not "banana") with a posh British accent. Parker is approaching 3, weighs about as much as Sadie, loves BMWs, euro coins (I told him not to get too attached!) and the song Yellow Submarine. Neither of them remembers much about life before London. Karen has been studying medicine and getting to know more folks here. I have been enjoying work, traveling quite a lot and becoming "#1 rated". 

And now time for a few complaints (which will be typically British of me): in case anyone reading this is unaware: the weather here stinks! It was a quintessentially cold, wet spring (although for some inexplicable reason we are considered to be in a drought and on those rare warm days they don't turn on the fountains), much worse than last year. And although the kids have been pretty healthy, neither Karen nor I can really say the same. I've battled colds for much of that chilly spring, while Karen has had digestive issues that seem to be associated with London-specific food intolerances. Both of us tend to feel miraculously better within a couple of days of leaving London. And life here does come with frustrations: poorly functioning transport (God knows how they will get through the Olympics) and some very expensive aspects of living here.

In all, though, it's good. We're still figuring out for sure how much longer we'll be here, but the most likely scenario is about one more year. Regardless, we're determined to continue to make the most of it...

Thursday 22 March 2012

Blog? What blog?

How is it even possible that neither of us has written a word since September? I swear our lives are not THAT boring. In fact quite a lot happens. OK, so perhaps that's the reason we haven't been blogging. We're just too darn busy having fun.
Well, some fun anyway.
Major events: Sadie started a new school in September of 2011 - she loves it. Parker will start there in September of 2012. And thankfully, Sadie can continue to attend the same school for an additional year. It's the Oxford of nursery schools (with a price tag to match, unfortunate
ly) and I expect that by the time we return to the states the kids will be able to name every English monarch ever to sit on the throne. (With a cute little accent, of course).
Andrew has been traveling a lot in 2012. If I can recall correctly, he's been to Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Georgia (the country), NY, Washington, Chicago, Des Moines....I'm sure I'm missing a few. He's grounded for now and soon we'll start traveling more as a family. We have springtime trips booked to France (two separate times), Crete, the Lake District...stay tuned for pictures of these adventures.
And me: Now that the sun has decided to reveal itself, my seasonal fog has lifted and I'm enjoying life. I still sing with the Belsize Community Choir, I've finished the Biomedicine course, am still plugging away at the Naturopathic Studies course, and I've started taking ukelele lessons.
Oh, and our cargo bike arrived in January!

It's quite a lousy picture of it, but you get the idea...