Self Inflicted Wound

First trip to the ER accomplished on our trip (or A and E as they call it here...accidents and emergencies). I was dead asleep the other night and was woken up by one girl letting out a blood curdling scream in the bedroom down the hall, then the other hearing that scream let out an even worse scream. Then they both chimed in louder and louder. Either a snake was in their bed, Jack the Ripper had snuck into their room, or American Idol reruns had popped on the television.

Anyway, in my funk, in the pitch dark with dad instincts flaring I raced out of our room and down the hall. By the time I got the girls calmed down and into the bathroom (might as well kill two birds...) I felt drips.... I thought Elena had a bloody nose, but then I saw I had gashed my forearm open c
lean as with a knife on one of the antique door latches. 2:30 in the morning, needing stitches. Anyway, all's well that ends well. The British medical system was fabulous...no insurance, no hassle, just into the room and boom. Done. Thank you taxpayers of the UK!



Anyway, spent the day on Sunday going to the church down the road. Walked there through the blustery wind all dressed up, with the church bells ringing letting us know how much time we had to get there. The girls were way too wound up by that approach to settle into church in a super old, echo chamber church. But right away the rector (or pastor) came over and kissed them, and some other ladies brought over books and crayons and stuff. Very nice people. So no one seemed to mind as Elena wandered all over the place and stole toys from another boy. She is something else right now....

And the cutest thing, which I can't believe I didn't get on camera, was at the end of the service, as I was about to walk out of the church, I saw the old rector in his black robe, holding a girls hand in each of his and was jumping up and down, while they did the same, outside. So anyway, the girls had fun at English church...although I had a hard time not hearing Monty Python every time someone said, "Deahh Lohhhd". Brent couldn't have handled it.

Went back to Aylebury today for a tour of the Roald Dahl museum and a walkabout of the old town streets. Pretty cool place. Old houses, and tiny streets. Also, very old graves that Elena kept trying to play balance beam on.





Even though it's been raining for days, we tried out one of the public footpaths that cross the landscape here. One of them runs right passed the cottage here. We were on a hunt to find the fox that keeps showing his head around here over the past few days, and ended up trying to find our way to the sheep pasture behind my moms cottage. Never got there, becuase Marina stepped into a bog, and Elena wouldn't walk in the tall grass. Need to go buy some "Wellies", or rubber boots in pure English. Very pretty out there though....

Jace and the Giant Peach.....

Had a quite an interesting walkabout today, with nothing going as planned, but everything working out to a very memorable day. Things started bad when we travelled to Great Missenden, where Roald Dahl lived and wrote in order to go to the library for the girls. But it was closed. So, we walked off around the town and looked at the places that my mom and Lance used to live and haunt there as residents. We were lucky enough to happen upon a statue of the Beatles.



Eventually we found ourselves hiking up into the hills above town where we looked at some spectacular estates, horse pastures, and beautiful vistas of the town itself. It was nice to be way up here because my girls could for once yell and sing their brains out at will. I'm coming to think that my kids are the noisiest kids in the UK....but they are having a blast.



After visiting Roald Dahl's grave on the way down the hill, we went to the park where my mom used to walk Dylan her dog, before he passed, and there was a disco party for a little girl's birthday party. Marina and Elena danced like crazy at a distance to the party, just hearing the music, and pretty soon had people from the party watching them and laughing. Show off American girls. Then we got thirsty, and decided to head to a beer festival going on in the village of Haddenham. The trouble was, that after journeying there through windy roads, we go in and found out that they had run out of beer. 47 kegs of beer in 5 hours. I looked around and saw why. Not only does everyone drink imperial pints as a rule (20 oz), but the women throw them back as strong as the men. My kind of people



So away we went, in search of beer. My mom piloted the car to an out of the way pub that they had never tried. When we went in we got icy stares by the lady of the house behind the counter, who was serving some worker guys at the bar. All the tables were "reserved" although empty. Lance explained that all we wanted was beer then we would be on our way, and got us some pints. But it was close. So we happily kept a low profile in the corner and kept the girls from wrecking anything, and feeling much more human rolled out of the "Plough" pub in a better mood.



Back to Stoke Mandeville and to a really nice pub right down the road from Magpie Cottage called the Wool Pack. Alas, nothing on the menu at all for Marina, so I after getting our food, I and Elena wolfed down some chow and the three of us left the restaurant to run back to the cottage so that I could make Marina some corn on the cob that I had gotten at a farmers market in Aylesbury earlier in the day, along with some other of her favorite things in payment for her tremendous will power and patience. And I got more beer from the fridge for me. Do you see a theme about me and the UK?

Rainhats & Carbombs

Still raining here alas. But just like in Oregon, we aren't letting it slow us down. First off, Kyle, back to your questions on the cottage (here is another photo). It is roughly about 400 years old. Made with crazy, wiggly beams all over the place, gathered up from the surrounding lot all those years ago during construction. I can't figure out how you make a house out of windy wood, a roof out of straw, and walls made out of horsehair and lime plaster survive in the pouring rain for four centuries. We can't even get our houses to last 50 years without major maintenance. Hmm...



Well, it's not all that easy I suppose. My mom and Lance have undergone a pretty dramatic restoration of portions of the house already. Below is the master bath, completely done by them. The space before was just 4 centuries of dirt and spider carcasses they said. Now it's pretty cool. But watch your head.



We went swimming yesterday, as promised to the girls, for hours at this place with a cool section of pool that just pushed you around and around in a circle. No swimming required. ;) Very relaxing, except that Elena had a death grip on my neck the whole time.



Played on a Swedish playground afterwards. Weird equipment. This one wound up a seat on a pole that you could then sit on and spin down. Sit and spin. Swedish style.



Lori and I rode the bus into Aylesbury last night for the big Friday night out. Little old village not far from my mom's place. We barcrawled the town, and mingled in crowds ranging from beer bellied soccer hooligans to punky Brit kids wearing bling and super super mini skirts, to toothless guys in nice suits...not sure what that was about. Great time, but the music being played and enjoyed almost killed us.... Shania Twain, Michael Jackson, Nellie...we didn't get it.

Rode the bus back home and heard a bunch of yelling from the pub across the street (the Bell), so we went over there. Karaoke party. Very drunk people singing equally horrific music.... "Can you feel the love tonight?", "I got you babe", "We are family".... yipes. Sucked back some warm cask pints of the Old Spotted Hen and wandered home. Need to take my bath now. More later... ;)

Oden's Hammer.....

Nice, just reading about the Blazers. Oh man, can I really come back to the Blazers after losing to the Lakers in Game 7 way back in 2000..... still haven't recovered. I remember it like yesterday, sitting with Brent & fam in a diner in Dayton Washington watching the Blazers squander an enormous lead from halftime...to the GD LAKERS!. AHHHHHHHHHHH! There it IS AGAIN!!! The PAIN!!!! Anyway, good for them. Let's exorcise the Sam Bowie demon with another big man.

Still raining (and flooding up north) in the UK today. But no matter. Going swimming in indoor world and such with the youngsters today. First full night of sleep. Feel much better.

John, thought of you when I saw this door. An alley door. Strange thing.

Amersham in my sights......

Ventured out to find the skatepark at Amersham, where I will hopefully discover my hidden abilities that will negate me being a barney at the skatepark back home. To be continued. On the way there we passed "Checkers", the retreat of the Prime Minister (i.e. Tony Blair, until yesterday). Beautiful joint on major acreage. Very British.



Stopped in old Amersham and let the girls burn off some steam in an old cemetary and garden area outside a church. The fun you see being had here was abruptly crushed when Marina bit it on a path outside the old church when Elena ran into her at full speed.


Anyway, we spent the rest of the day at the cottage, in the sun for a change, watching the girls hunt for fairies in the weeds. They never saw Brad though. ;) Going to rain big time the next few days so my skateboard party will have to wait. Probably going swimming and to some storytimes at the libraries with the chicks until the sun comes back. Jolly old England....;)




At least the beer is tasty and comes in big bottles......what I'm enjoying right now....mmmmm beer.

LIVE from Buckinghamshire!!!

Cheerio from the UK. We arrived safe and sound in Stoke Mandeville, BUCKS a couple of days back, and are slowly coming off the jet lag. The girls got up at 2:30 last night asking to "play"....Ugh.....but today looks promising. Sunshine and a trip outside this morning to hunt for the bunnies that inhabit my mom's garden. This is her house...."magpie cottage", built about 1650, and from what I can tell, the people back then were about 4 foot 5, as I've been banging my head on wood beams and doorways since we got here. A walk down the hall to the loo in the dark night may cause brain damage..... Anyway, more stories to come as we get on our feet here in the Queens country. Cheers!

Tuesday? Again?

I couldn't sleep the other night. Stuff kept rattling around in my brain about all the stuff I continually leave undone....simple stuff....stuff that in my mind everyone accomplishes. Alas, maybe I am kidding myself. Maybe mid 30's guy with 2 little girls under 4 hanging on his every move, including taking a pisser....maybe he's just screwed and needs to hold his breath and swim. Or maybe I'm a big pussy with bad organizational skillz. I liked my first explanation better. So I stopped there and fell asleep. I'll try again tomorrow. Viva la revolucion! Life is sweet.