Power up!

Just looking into some Power Rangers stuff for Toby's birthday presents. He wants a duvet set but I can't find any that are 100% cotton. So frustrating. I ended up on the official Power Rangers shopping website and found this little tidbit:

"The Brachio Morpher is worn on the wrist and used by the Black Ranger to transform. Turn the Dino Activator key for chomping action and to hear the Brachio Zord roar! You can also attach the interchangeable Zord Callers from the Thundersaurus Morpher (sold separately)."

Uh huh. Well now, who doesn't need a Zord Caller?

Our boy

We were playing 20 Questions with Tobes at dinner tonight. Here are a few of my favourite excerpts:

Toby: Does it have four legs?

K: Yes.

J: Is it a horse?

K: Similiar to a horse.

J: Is it a mule?

K: No.

J: Is it an ass?

Tobes: Dad! It can't be someone's ass!

*****

J: OK, I'm thinking of a person.

K: Are they male?

J: Yes.

Tobes: I know! It must be a postman then.

****

J: Is it an insect?

K: Yes.

Tobes: Does it have lots of legs?

K: Yes.

J: Does it turn into something else?

K: Yes.

Tobes: It must be a Power Ranger!

Good things

I've lost the camera. Arrrghh!! So annoying. I've looked all over the flat and can't find it. Knowing me it'll probably turn up in the freezer or the fireplace. Really hope to find it soon.

It's halfterm here which means that Tobes has a week off school. His nursery didn't always stop for halfterms so this is a relatively new thing for us. The weather isn't great so my plans to spend a lot of time in the park will need to be adapted. We're planning to have lunch one afternoon at Canary Wharf with Elizabeth and Mary Catherine and we'll probably go to the movies at least once. I'm sure there will be an exhibition worth seeing and the museums do lots of special events during halfterm. It'll be nice to have Tobes home a whole week.

Once school starts up again we're going to be very busy. I'm going in to help cut up paper for Creative Week, then we have International Day when I'm making "American food" for our contribution (buttermilk biscuits, BBQ chicken wings and Stars & Stripes cookies), then it's the Summer Fair and I'm going to help out at the cake stall. So much fun! I just love all of this stuff.

I've also booked the flight and hotel to meet up with Nikki in Prague next month. I spent ages trying to find a hotel that had some character, was in a good location and didn't cost the earth. I think I found the perfect place. It's a very old little hotel in the Old Town near Wenceslas Square. Some of the rooms still have the original carved wooden ceilings AND there's a strip joint in the basement. You can't beat that for character!

Arrangements for Toby's birthday bash continue. I sent off the booking form for the Power Ranger appearance today and a big box was delivered last week with all of the invitations, napkins, plates, etc. (I love Party Pieces if you're looking for that kind of thing.)

Lots of good things to look forward to. I think it's going to be a lovely summer. Now, if I could just find that bloody camera.

Hope this works

This is a short video of the children dancing to a singing Mother's Day card that Mom and Dad sent me. I emailed it to them but they couldn't get it to work. Hopefully they'll be able to see it here...

Toby & Rosie Dancing

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Fun Sunday

Had a fantastic time yesterday. Jenny & Kieran came down with Jack and Kate and the boys went off to watch the rugby while the girls had an afternoon out in town. It was Toby and Jack's first time to go to a big sporting event and they had a great time. It was the Heineken Cup and London beat Leicester. Hooray! (Can you tell that I know nothing about rugby??)

While the guys were off watching sports the girls went to lunch at The Texas Embassy and Rosie had her first taste of Tex-Mex. After her most recent allergy appointment we've been able to explore some new tastes and add some of the forbidden foods into her diet. So far she's been fine and it's a huge relief and pleasure to me to be able to introduce Rosie to new tastes. She loved her chicken taco, beans and rice but she especially loved the sopapillas with lots of honey.

After lunch we went over to the Hayward Gallery to see the Antony Gormley exhibition. We had been planning to go see Kylie at the V&A (could you possibly get more girly than that) but the Gormley statues on top of the buildings in central London are so mesmerising that we decided to go and see the whole exhibition. It was fantastic. Elizabeth had told me about the statues, 30 of them, placed on rooftops throughout London all facing the Hayward. Standing in the rooftop sculpture garden at the gallery we could only count about 20 of them, some on nearby buildings and some quite far off in the distance. Quite an amazing and haunting image.

The other highlight of the exhibition was Blind Light. The artist describes it best:

'Architecture is supposed to be the location of security and certainty about where you are. It is supposed to protect you from the weather, from darkness, from uncertainty. Blind Light undermines all of that. You enter this interior space that is the equivalent of being on top of a mountain or at the bottom of the sea. It is very important for me that inside it you find the outside. Also you become the immersed figure in an endless ground, literally the subject of the work.’

It was extraordinary. You walk into a big glass box full of cold white mist with only about 18 inches of visibility. I was carrying Rosie so I stayed close to the perimeter for fear of getting lost in the middle and not being able to find my way out! People were lining up around the piece for their turn and as we worked our way around we would get up close to the glass and be able to see people outside but just one step back would make them invisible again. Rosie loved it and I think people were surprised to see such a sweet little face smiling out at them from the mist. People in the queue were putting their hands on the glass for Rosie to touch and she was laughing and reaching out into the mist. When we finally made our way out again Rosie turned around and started shouting "Again! Again!". Definitely a big hit with her. There are some good links on the Hayward site with images and videos. Nikki would love it so we'll definitely go again next month.

After our days out we all met up for coffee and the train ride home. After a dinner of toast and cheese Jenny & Kieran left for the drive back to Cambridge and the children finally crawled into bed after 10.00. That could be why we all overslept this morning and jumped out of bed 45 minutes before Toby had to be at school. I'm hoping for a slightly calmer morning tomorrow.

Filming, Shopping, Planning

So, I did the second half of filming for the TV show yesterday. Needless to say the slim patch is no miracle diet aid. They did some individual interviews and hopefully I'll be on TV and won't look like a total doofus.

I was paid in cash after filming and went straight to Oxford Street and spent the lot! I had lunch at the 5th floor restaurant of Waterstone's at Piccadilly then hit the shops. I bought the cute little dress above at Top Shop and a few other bits and pieces for J and the babies. It's so interesting being in Top Shop midweek when you see all the silver-haired sugar daddies with their sweet young things grabbing everything in sight. The Kate Moss collection was like a tangled mass of hair extensions and fake tan as girls came close to punching each other over the hotpants. It was something to see.

Today I finally booked a hall for Toby's party, ordered the napkins, invites, etc and even found a company that can provide entertainment AND a Power Ranger (Andrew, you're off the hook). I also booked the carpet layer to come and do the carpets, got a quote for a storage unit and moved the bedroom furniture around to accomodate Toby's new bed. The children like to sleep together but their rooms are too small for a double bed so we bough a trundle that pops up to make a full size bed. That way they can sleep together and we can put the trundle away during the day. It's been a busy day but we still managed to go to the park after school. It seems to be a Friday tradition because virtually every child in Toby's class was there too.

And speaking of Toby's class, I got the class list today in order to do the party invitations. It's such an interesting mix of children. From the very British - Hermione, Hugo and Archie. To the more exotic foreign families - Habeebah, Solar, Kouros. And the straightforward traditional names - Edward, Emily and Hannah. Going to be nice to get to know them all.

My Super Babies

Tobes at Costa

Rosie and James at Costa

Toby, James and Rosie playing in the cubbyhole under the stairs at Costa.

Busy but not much happening here at the moment. Lots of organising going on. Toby's birthday party is in July and we've decided to throw a bash since it's his fifth and his first year at big school. We're inviting the whole class plus all of his other friends so we're looking at about 35 - 40 children plus siblings in one space. I'm going to hire a hall and some kind of entertainment. I'm trying to find a Power Ranger to come to the party (that's the theme, of course) but they're really expensive. What I really need is to get a friend to dress up for us. I can think of loads of Americans in the States who would do it, Jon would be brilliant at it, but no one here. (Andrew, are you reading this??)


The party is going to be fancy dress as your favourite super hero and Toby is going to be a red Power Ranger. I've seen a little pink Power Ranger costume that I'm very tempted to buy for Rosie but I don't know if she'd wear it. She has very firm ideas about these things.


And speaking of Rosie, please bear with me for a moment and just let me get this out... Today at Rosie's music class Rosie walked over to the piano and started pushing down the keys. Most children in the class do this at some point but everyone stopped to listen to Rosie because she was almost making a little tune. After class the teacher showed Rosie how the keys made different sounds and taught Rosie to make a bird sound (very high notes) and an elephant sound (low notes) then said that Rosie was a natural! I was so proud. We left class and I rang J on my mobile and told him we had to buy a piano. One of J's grandfathers was a pianist so maybe Rosie has inherited that talent. I know I'm being silly since she's only 18 months old but still...


Last weekend St Margaret's held an auction evening to raise money for the new playground. Local businesses and parents donated items and services and then parents could bid on them. I thought I might be able to get a bargain and give some money to the school so I went along with a bit of cash and the promise to be back home in a couple of hours. Four hours and sixty pounds later I rolled in full of red wine and high spirits. The whole evening was not what I had expected at all. Rather than bargains parents were paying well over the odds for items because it was for a good cause. Things like twenty pound grocery vouchers were going for double or more! I ended up paying fifteen pounds over the asking price for a memory foam pillow. There was wine and bread and some lovely cheeses donated by the local deli and everyone was getting quite sloshed by the end of the evening. Not quite how I imagine PTA meetings going in Texas.


And I've made a new friend. Her little boy is in Toby's class and they live on Quentin Road. We went over to their place for tea after school today and it was lovely. She has what I consider to be a very English home - beautiful things though well worn, with no pretentions, no design other than comfort. I loved her kitchen. It's all made from mismatched reclaimed pine units painted cream years ago and now rubbed around the edges. It's the kind of kitchen that's warm in the winter, full of sunlight in the summer and is perfect for a cozy cup of tea in the evening. Lovely.

Snapshot of my life

I was bathing the children tonight and trying to get Toby to clean his willy. He's at the age when he needs to start retracting his foreskin and cleaning underneath, which he hates. I can understand that it might be scary or uncomfortable but it's got to be done because he keeps getting infections and an itchy willy. Toby and I were starting to argue about it and then he decided that he was bursting to wee. I lifted him out of the bath and while he was weeing I got Rosie out and dried her off.

Once Tobes finished his wee we went back to trying to clean his willy with me offering to do it (which was met with a very loud "NO!"). So I was standing there trying to encourage Tobes to pull back his foreskin and Rosie was pottering around the bathroom naked. Toby finally got frustrated and started shouting at me and I started shouting back that "WE NEED TO CLEAN YOUR WILLY". Our neighbors just love us. It was at this point that Rosie, without pausing in her play, dropped two corn-studded poops on the bathroom floor. I just managed to swoop her up before she stepped in it.

Thankfully, the poos broke the tension and Toby and I started laughing then he managed to clean his willy while I cleaned Rosie and the floor. Oh the glamour of motherhood.

Satan's saleslady

Almost forgot to post about my experience with a saleslady at John Lewis yesterday. I've been looking for a decent sports bra and I had picked up a couple from the rack plus some everyday bras that looked nice and was headed into the changing room. As the attendant started counting up the items the saleslady asked me if I was looking for anything in particular. When I said what I wanted she looked at my chest, obviously sizing up my boobs, and said "None of these are supportive enough for you. You don't want to get more saggy do you?" I was shocked into silence and just stood there with my mouth open.

She then looked at my stomach and said "Oh, and you need maternity bras!". I tried to laugh it off and explained that I wasn't pregnant. Instead of apologising or backtracking or quickly changing the subject she actually pointed at my stomach and said "Oh, I thought you were." Holy shit.

I didn't know whether to come home and drown my sorrows in four pints of ice cream or drive straight to the gym and spend four hours on the treadmill. I told J the whole sad story as we were getting in the car and then swore that I would never eat again, would live on water and would consider taking up smoking.

I do feel better today but what a way to make a girl feel like crap.

This and that

Had a very nice weekend. It was a long weekend here which was especially good since J didn't get back from Palm Beach until Saturday lunchtime. We went out for lunch every day, did some shopping, took the children swimming and had a lovely time. Tobes is settling into school well but has been more tired than usual so we've been taking it easy. It's a big change for him.

The weather has been cold and wet most days, which I don't really mind. It's cozy and great baking weather. I'm sure I'll be wishing for the wind and rain once the hot days of summer do arrive.

The big news this week is that Dad has retired! His job has been getting him down for some time but it was still a surprise when I received his email saying "I am now retired!". I think he and Mom are really going to enjoy their retirement. I'm hoping it means they might come over more often. So much easier to fly the two of them here than take the four of us there. We'll see.

Rosie had her music class at the conservatoire this morning. I was a bit disappointed with the first class but I think the teacher was just new and a little nervous. It was much better today. Rosie's favourite bit was when the children were given different coloured scarves and danced around to Mozart while the teacher blew bubbles above them. A bit poncey, but the children loved it. I've signed Tobes up for the Saturday theatre class. His friend Elliott is in it and it sounds fantastic. We'll see how he gets on. Jude Law is actually from Blackheath so perhaps we'll have a little movie star in the house, though I hope Toby is sensible enough not to sleep with the nanny.

And it's official, I'm turning into my mother. I read back over a few entries on the blog the other night and found so many malaprops that it made me blush. My favourite is when I called the hotel in Budapest the Kandinsky... it's the Kempinsky. I thought about going back to correct them but decided to keep the mistakes as a record of my decline. Ah well, it had to happen one day.

Bag tagged

I've been bag tagged by Elizabeth so here is my handbag and it's contents at this very moment:

I have so many lovely bags but I seem to come back again and again to my knackered Kangol bag. It has such handy pockets which hold my phone, library and gym cards and pens from Sopwell House and the Kandinski in Budapest.

Other items are:

A small hairbrush
Compact mirror
Lip balm
Lip gloss
Lipstick
Depuffing eye gel (?!)
Sunglasses
Japanese soap leaves - I'm fanatical about handwashing.
Hand cream
Moleskine book full of lists, a tube map, receipts, a Munchkin cooking school flyer (must remember to post off that booking form)
Wallet with money, bank cards, drivers licence, etc
Keys - car, house, one unidentified and a key chain from Rainforest Cafe with my name on it that Dad bought me when we all went there years ago.
Hairband
Mints from Cafe Rouge
Homeopathic teething remedy
Battery from my pedometer
Empty pillbox

Now, I tag Nikki and Annelouise because I bet they have some interesting things in their bags!

So excited!

I've been a bit down because we were planning to go to Texas this month but can't get permission to take Tobes out of school. I got some great news today. Nikki is coming to London at the end of June!! She's going to be in Prague for Scenofest '07 where she's showing one of her stage designs and I'm planning to meet her there for a few days. I thought that would be it but, after spending a few days in Croatia, she's coming to London for a week. Yay!!!!

We had such a great time last year (that's me, Nikki and Rosie melting in Budapest in the photo) and Toby is really excited about showing Nikki St Margaret's. There was talk this morning of taking Nikki as Toby's show and tell item but he decided that she's probably too big. Can't wait.

Damn young 'uns

OK, I do not consider myself a fashionista by any stretch of the imagination but I must admit that I've been looking forward to the launch of the Kate Moss collection at Top Shop. It came out yesterday with a special 8 - midnight shopping preview frenzy the night before. Now, I am far too old to go down to Oxford Street and elbow a bunch of teenagers and stylists out of the way for the sake of a pansy print tunic dress (at least without Nikki to protect me) but I did get up early yesterday morning in order to buy a few things online. Almost everything was already sold out!

When I tried to buy a few things that were available the website crashed. Talk about frustrating. I tried again today and everything I wanted is already gone. The teenagers and stylists have cleaned it all out. Grrrr. So instead I channeled my shopping energy into buying myself a gorgeous Lipsy maxi dress for the summer. Whew! For a minute there I thought I wasn't going to spend any money.