The royal weekend...

Most of us will remember this weekend past as a Royal Weekend.  The last time I experienced this type of royal pomp was with Diana and Charles wedding some, many, a lot, a long-time, ago - methinks I was a fledgling 11 year old watching on a colour TV at a public event (we did not have colour TV at home in 1981!).  So this weekend, I had to watch the event with a few other royalists...and thoroughly enjoyed it.

My week has been busy, financially mostly.  My portfolios have been going well but it was all getting rather tricky and laborious with five portfolios and a mix of currencies so I took the leap and combined them all.  My spreadsheeting skills had not rusted up and I quickly recalled my IFSUM functions and VLOOKUPs.  I am pleased to report that my overall annual performance for a financially challenging year on the markets has not disappointed me even though that dang USD:NZD exchange rate is not running in my favour (although, I did manage a lucky pounce in March when the NZD dipped).  Does anyone remember my conundrum over PFE?  If so, so far so good, my dividends are coming in and the share price has appreciated somewhat now just to wait for a drop in the NZD - or more correctly, a recovery in the USD - and I can gain from the exchange!

Knitting, yes it is still fitting in nicely.  I posted a few weeks back about a couple of jackets I had either finished or was in progress on; well, I had to take a side-step to prepare a gift for some wonderful holiday hosts we had in Wiltshire.  It was a B&B that went well beyond the call of duty in hosting us.  Accordingly, and fittingly (as they are avid gatherers of tea-cosies), I have knitted a vintage cosy for them using some NZ wool (pattern link click here).  My problem now is that Ross wants one for our tea pot.  I guess, the Findlay jacket will have to wait for its hood for another week!

As for the delectable realm of food.  I have managed to keep up the baking, albeit a little sneakily.  Whilst I love baking (rather than cooking meals), I find that our household do not "pick".  Thus it takes a while to empty a tin (WHAT!!!).  To manage this, keep variety and keep it all tasting fresh, I put it into mixed tins.  If I have selected my recipes well, and stacked well, an entire tin will freeze and thaw beautifully....mostly, always (oxymoron there), we will have a variety of baked goods in the kitchen.

Now for the dinners.  I DO NOT LIKE cooking meals.  Unfortunately, I have to.  With Ross's current health issues, it has actually become more interesting e.g. I cannot just use stock anymore, I have to make stock.  When I buy ingredients, I cruise all listed items - as for a side, I cannot believe the amount of palm oil going into American origin foods!  But I have found my saviour recently;  Mr Oliver has come my way through his rapid 30 minute meals.  I do have to be tad creative as many ingredients are not available but we are none the wiser....the current household favourite is now his lamb and vegetable platter (see the recipe here click here).  Now I have to dive downstairs to see if I have been successful in trying to make my frozen spinach look like it is fresh spinach for another of Mr Oliver's recipes (supposedly a great way of getting children to eat spinach?!!).

ANZAC day here in Qatar...for a 5 year old...

 A dawn service is held in Qatar for us to remember the fallen and think about the meaning of ANZAC day.  However, with a 4.45am start time and on a school day, it is not really a workable option for us.  So we have talked to Teagan about what ANZAC day is:

"It is when we think about the people that got dead"
"Why did they get dead, Teagan?"
"Because they were having wars and they are not good"
"What is the poem about Teagan?"
"The people that got dead don't get old and wrinkly like we do and we think about them a lot"
"Mum, doing the war is not a good thing to do, I think it is a bit silly because Daddies and other people get dead, maybe even cats and children!.

Here is Teagan's fractionally brushed up tribute to ANZAC day: Laurence Binyon's "For the Fallen" Stanza four  you can hear this if you click on the following link:  Teagan reads small part of "For the Fallen"

Home again....

Holiday over and another term to contemplate!  It was a successful holiday with no major problems save a flat tire and the resulting GBP119 charge by Hertz!  I must say that it has been hard to settle Teagan down inspite of the small time difference...bah humbug!

Some quick notes on the good tips we encountered this time for our London portion:

(1)  definitely buy the Oyster card!  Even if it is not for a week's travel card as the prices are so much less and the buses etc become so much easier.  We got the 1 week travel card and kids are free until 11 years so that was easy!

(2)  use the Hammersmith station as the change point instead of Earls Court.  SO much easier with luggage etc between District and Piccadilly line as the trains are on opposite sides of the same platform...a blessing with kid and cases attached.

(3) glad to have a spare rug with us.  As we had great weather we did a lot of morning tea picnics and finished off with fish n chips for dinner in the many parks.  Added to this the small thermos was great for a cup of tea following!

(3) with the small travel blanket (fleece) we were able to have Teagan sleep on the couch rather than between us in our budget hotel bed (used a jacket as her top blanket).  We had more room in the bed and the room had more space as we did not need to pull out the couch....

(4)  still stuck with the stroller, although we had stripped it down to just the seating part.  This meant we could still spend the whole day out without having a complaining child.

(5)  do not go to museums with Teagan and Ross without a good book to read - I will go mad!

(6)  if you don't want to lose your kid, put contact details in a name badge and stick it on them.  If you do this, you are guaranteed that the kid won't stray as they will become quite focused on NOT getting lost with the constant reminder.  That said, make sure they know what hotel they are staying in...the current one....not the one they stayed in at Christmas time!

A fairy in V&A Childrens and a fairy in Harrods.....

It is certain that any little girl fluttering around in a fairy dress will bring a lot of attention to herself. Teagan was successful in this endeavor today both in Harrods and The V&A museum of childhood. Her greatest achievement was bringing a bit of a smile to the many Harrods employees as she fluttered to music through the department store and brought near heart failure to her stressed parents as she delicately flew through the fine china and luxury glassware departments - surprisingly, it did not seem to worry the staff!

London days..

We have had a few days in London now and I am sure we must have brought the sun with us! Following spring glory in Hampton Court, we experienced spring glory at Kew gardens. There was no way we could possibly have seen everything in the eight hours we spent there. At least two hours was spent in the kids experience area and playground; we wandered the woodlands behind Queen Charlotte's cottage, through the British bluebells and spent some time up in the treetops (Teagan did that bit "all by myself") and picnicked on one of the tree lined vistas. Needless to say, it was still bright, warm and sunny as we left close to 6pm.

Of course, with Teagan and Ross, no holiday is a holiday unless I endure hours of museums. Today was no exception as the two thoroughly enjoyed selected parts of the Imperial War Museum and the Natural History Museum. I did the kid friendly tour of the War Museum and am currently suffering the 1000 and 1 discussion on being a war evacuee and why people fight each other when both sides "people get dead", "aren't they a bit silly!". Ross then picked up on Natural History covering Darwin and evolution as I sat and sat and sat. I do like museums but I don't think I was born with the passion that comes via Ross!

24 hours of glorious spring in London

Since arriving in London we have experienced a glorious spring. Daffodils are standing tall, the blossoms gently falling and the sun keeping us warm - possibly a tad too warm! In eagerly anticipated and much surpassed expectations we had our first dinner in Eelbrook common; drenched with vinegar and far too much salt, soggy and stuck together we enjoyed every last mouthful of our fish n'chips London style. Today as Ross and Teagan enjoyed the splendour of Hampton Court (Teagan had waited so long to take her Dad), I walked many miles along the Thames pathway content with a thermos, an assortment of snacks and less than one pound in my pocket. Needless to say, I am absolutely exhausted and dinner could not do my hunger justice! Mind you, this blog is intended to introduce the glory of spring and Ross and Teagan's day at Hampton Court, only photos can start to do it justice!

Happiness is....

Running downhill, very fast, in Royal Cresent, Bath.



Talking to interesting Romans.




Visiting Jesus, Wells.



Cooking, Glastonbury.



Going to school, Sherborne.

This is just for my Grandma

Grandma,

I went to Sally Lunn's house today and sat on my bum. It was fun because I ate a bun.

Love from Teagan

Nearly at our 4th sleep in England

It is late at the end of our3rd full day in England. I am sitting quietly on the bed in our room while Teagan sleeps. She is exhausted and asked to be excused from dinner with our B&B hosts so she could go to bed! She now sleeps with her day dress on, PJ pants and a new bear. Mind you, she has had a very busy day today visiting sheep!

Which brings me to our activities. This is variable depending on who you ask. Life according to Teagan says that yes day we played with ducks and today we visited sheep. Technically all is correct but it is far more interesting if we add on the locations of these animals. The ducks were in the long Victorian locks and the sheep were found at both Avebury and Stonehenge!

I am including a few photos of our trip over. Thankfully our flight was not a Doha special (departing in the wee small hours), but rather a late afternoon flight getting us into Heathrow and onto our hotel by midnight - far more civil. We picked up a rental late the following morning and drove into Devizes in the Wiltshire area. Our accommodation is in the delightful Rosemundy Cottage.