Prague

Daddy gets the weekend off to go climbing! I am in Prague for a few days with the Portmen. In spite of the threatening weather made Matt head out the the cliff this morning to Srbsko,
beatiful little village by a river. Walked along the river bank beside lovely limestone faces for a mile or so and climbed in an old quarry. Lots of ring bolts, short routes (20-30m) and solid rock. It got a bit greasy as the rain squalls came through, but the sun shone in between. After 4 routes (enough for geriatrics) we headed back to the pub and indulged in food and beer - they practically give it away here (compared to England).

Not so easy to crawl back up to the station and catch the train after 3 pints each! The railway system is a bit rickety...trains are fine but the staions and platforms would cause a few passenger saftery concerns!

We hope to head south in a hire car tomorrow to a granite crag called Roviste...with any luck the weather wont be any worse than today and we get a few climbs in. It is supposed to get wet after tomorrow, so then it will be sight seeing time!

Another house...

Mummy is home! After a marathon effort of 3 weeks away M returns from her US junket...I slept in this morning. We have almost managed to get everything packed away somewhere, at lease there are no boxes lying around now (none with anything but packing paper in them anyway). The new place is working out very well, the kids get to see their friends after school a lot more often and they even drop by at weekends from time to time. The corner shop is close enough for the kids to walk up and get milk and bread by themselves! Nice quiet streets, lots of people we know and every second kid is at the same school as them. We havent been able to use the garden much yet, the lawn was resown just before moved in, but it should be ready soon.

and off we go again...

Tomorrow is last day at the Fund. Gave a seminar here today which went pretty well.
Shopped til I dropped, well worked til I dropped then went shopping for a change of scenery - the US is so much cheaper than the UK (and did anyone mention the decline in the $ - US that is not AUD). And it was sale time, though I did manage to avoid buying any shoes cos I dont reeeeeeeaaaaally need them (even though I did want them!). Thats shopping for the next 3 years for me anyway. US is a great place to clothes shop cos unlike the UK everything comes in MEGA sizes and makes one feel almost petite!! Well at least normal.
Next stage of the latest adventure is off to Princeton, where it is forecast to rain for most of the time. Oh well, apparently there is not that much to see other than the University. I will let you know. We apparently have internet back on at the new house now - so hopefully R will get to putting up some more pictures soon.
Looking forward to being home soon.

Changes....

Greetings from sunny Washington DC! I am in DC for a couple of weeks doing some work. Its quite hot here still, certainly a change from Cambridge. Its been a busy couple of weeks, thus no postings. SO here is a quick update. The last few days of August were spent moving to our new lodgings, a Victorian terrace. That was quite good except we find we are suffering a surfeit of chairs - there is a lounge chair in EVERY room which we find a bit difficult. Constantly tripping over them. We are getting to know our new landlords though so hopefully we can suggest that some culling is in order! If it works out we may be able to stay in this place the rest of our time in Cambridge, although they are having renovations done which mean we would need to move out for 6 months the second half of next year. Cross that bridge when we come to it - and see how long we can put up with so many chairs! But now we have more room and all our stuff has arrived today. R says the living room is FULL of boxes so not only do we have surfeit of chairs but also surfeit of boxes. Who knows where it is all going - probably to the tip!!
So just after our move I flew off to DC, which was fine, and I am here for a while. Not much exciting going on. I bought myself a new laptop which is very nice, like that a lot ( a Sony VGN-T370 for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing). Now I am trying to sort out a difficult data problem here. Things always take longer than you anticipate!
Been down to some of the Smithsonian museums (http://www.si.edu), which are always good. Yesterday went hiking along the Potomac with our Cambridge landlords who live here (small world). Saw some great kayaking on the Great Falls, and the rock looks great. Found a few pictures on climbing in the area - 5.7-5.12 apparently, really appealing area, be great fun to spend a few days on the rock - but not going to happen this time!
Off to New York middle of next week, a symposium at Princeton a couple of days visiting data providers in New York and then home. It will be nice to get back and just sit for a while!! At the moment I think we side with the kids - could we just go home and sit in our nice stable house for a while (which doesnt have 3000 chairs).

Omaha Beach, Amiens and Home

Portmans wanted to go to the Omaha beach museum (so did I) so we drove up to Omaha beach in driving rain...there is a little museum in every town oddly enough so working out which one we thought we were going to was quite tricky. Tipped down when were getting out of the car and all got pretty wet. M&M didnt want to go to the museum so they wandered down towards the beach in the rain...when we came out we found them holed up in a seafood restaurant finishing off some of the nicest mussels I have ever tasted. Note that there are no photos from this day...just too wet!

Headed back to the cottage and spent the afternoon tidying up and packing. Weather cleared up a little (of course) once we were back packing and cleaning.
Headed off early on Saturday - lost the key to the cottage about 5 mins before we left, so after frantic search decided to leave a note and 5 euros! Raining of course, but stopped at Honfleurs at the mouth of the Seine for coffee and petrol. A very pretty little port town, but very busy. From here we made a big push to Amiens where we spent the night. Amiens has an impressive cathedral with the head of John the Baptist, tastefully displayed on a gold plate. Apparently if was half inched from Byzantium by a French knight and brought back to Amiens. According to sources we could find on the web JtB had just 3 heads, all of which are held in churches and mosques!
Other than the heads, Amiens is an interesting town, wish we had longer to spend there. The bit along river is a bit like Venice or Amsterdam - lots of really old houses along canals. They have a very interesting botanic gardens which you can only see by boat, but we were too late to see it. More police per square inch than anywhere else we have been.
Dropping the car off in Lille on Sunday morning presented more than the expected difficulties, they have an extensive one way and pedestrian only system in the city centre which meant that even thought we knew where we wanted to go we couldnt actually get there! Eventually reduced to asking directions at a service station (not as easy as it sounds when the locals dont speak your language).
Uneventful trip back to Cambridge and a boring couple of days of rain for the Portmans as we started getting ready for the move this weekend. R is heading over to Prague at the end of September to go climbing with the Portmans, M is heading to US for a couple of weeks after the school holidays and we move on Saturday. Renee is visiting (just to help us move?) for a few days.

Falaise

An adventure to Falaise, which was southeast of where we were staying. Falaise was the birthplace of William the Conqueror and has a very impressive castle. The castle has two keeps, one of which was built for Eleanor of Aquitaine. The castle has been renovated with an audio visual display inside, which I liked, but R wasnt so keen on. He likes his ruins as ruins. The castle is really impressive, sits on a big rock near the river. Really huge walls, very naturally defended. The town was really lovely, lots of beautiful little streets. Another very warm day so back to the pool for more swimming!

And a rest day...

Too much activity is bad for you, so we had a day of rest. Well I did anyway, and the other adults went to Viller Bocage (home of good bread and excellent vegetables). We found all the people in Normandy really friendly and patient with letting us try our pretty poor French on them, even though it was quickly apparent they were all very fluent in English. But we had lots of fun (and unlike in Dordogne I didnt have to say 'Je suis Australienne' before anyone would talk to us). The kids and I hung out round the pool and the villa for the entire day, reading and playing. So here are some shots of the ambience! A note for anyone contemplating this type of excursion, the farmhouse we stayed in we chose from the web, but the final price we found on the owners website was about half of that we first saw on one of the agent service websites. Once you find your place its always worth searching for that place independently!

Granville

Having abandoned Mt St Michel as being incredibly crowded (as well as beautiful) and it being quite hot we nipped up the coast to Granville. Just on a whim, I had read somewhere it was supposed to be nice. It was certainly popular - took us ages to find a car park, but then of course we found the virtually empty one just down the road!! A walk around the point through the old part of town to the beautiful beach.... a lovely few hours in the warm water toasting ourselves. Trying not to disgrace ourselves by getting too sunburnt.




The tide goes in and out a long way here - see the Mt St Michel pictures below - and so as the afternoon wore on there was progressively less sand. We beat a retreat back up the hill through the wall and into the old town. Really beautiful old streets for wandering around. The old Norman church was fascinating, lots of bits and pieces regarding fishing, with one of the side altars containing a small fishing boat. It is a really heavy old building, with small windows, and these things must be very solid as often the churches were the only things that withstood the bombings. There were bunkers right behind the church - R thinks probably Napoleonic maybe a magazine. Lots of more modern bunkers right up on the point. Incredible views each way up and down the coast. Then back to the villa for an evening beer and more food!

The kids say....

The best thing about our trip to France was Mont St Michel according to the kids. We really liked the crowds, the spiral towers and looking at the little gardens as we were going up the stairs. We also liked the HUGE beach we could see. We saw a bicycle riding on the beach and he made tracks. His front wheel got stuck, and J thinks that might be where the quicksand was. Someone had drawn Mickey Mouse face in the sand and we could see it from the towers. They spelt it Mecky Muss.



Parking was easy, but there was lots of traffic already by the relatively early morning we arrived!! You had to park in the bit the tide wouldnt come in on - we were there at dead low tide.

Bayeux Tapestry and the beach!

Today was a public holiday, which turned out to be really good because there were no crowds at the Bayeux tapestry, or maybe there just arent crowds there anyway. This is the photo of the museum building. The tapestry was fantastic, an incredible thing to see in real life. Even the kids were impressed. One trick was that only by a quick read of the brochure did we realise that the tapestry was at the END of the museum tour - and we didnt think the kids would last the total museum, so only did the tapestry. Really good exhibit, they provide a audio tour which works well, which the kids liked. Little M was very impressed with Queen Mathilde - which turned out to be a recurring theme later in the week. We saw the horse with an arrow in it (a Dun gee - terrible family joke propogated by DD).

After that we wandered over the the Bayeux church, which was amazing, and the Assumption Day service was in full swing so we couldnt explore fully.

Went on from Bayeux to Arromanche, saw the remains of the false harbour. When you see the sea wall there you wonder how they managed to get anything up those walls. There are lots of bits and pieces left around the beachside from the war years. R was in his element looking at old cannons, tanks, and barricades. The beach itself was lovely, kids thought it was fantastic. A lot to recommend it as a day out! Next time I want to stay in the room with the turret! The kids had icecreams and as you can see the weather was beautiful. A nice drive back through the countryside and fresh blackberries with meringue for tea. A hard life.

The long drive...

signposted and straightforward until you hit the DIVERSION - TRAVAUX...we only had to reverse back up a slip road once before we got onto the autoroute in the right direction. Around here if you get on the wrong road you end up in the wrong country! But pretty easy nonetheless (we didnt end up divorced so it cant be too bad).


Went to the Australian memorial at Villers Bretonneux and then on to Normandy. We discovered why the cottage was empty for this week...big French holiday this weekend and huge traffic jams, no one who knows any better was going to France this weekend. Enormous traffic jams crossing the Seine and in Normandy around Caen.
All worth it once we found the cottage beautiful old stone farmhouse (really creaky stairs) in the middle of nowhere. Had cats and a pool so the kids were happy.
Sunday was a rest day and we walked to the local village for croissants and had a quiet day.

Across the channel (1)

First adventure was to get across the channel - having carefully shopped around for all the best deals we were almost sunk when National Rail wanted to charge us 186 pounds for the Cambridge-London tickets - more than it cost us to get to France!! But after missing a few trains we found the right combination and got it to a mere snip at 80 pounds return (for 7 of us thats not so bad - scarey right). Survived that OK, then after a pleasant Eurostar crossing complete with English sporting louts in our carriage who demolished at least 4 bottles of whisky and umpteem beer cans on the crossing we arrived at Lille. Very easy car pick up and then found our hotel - R even managed to ask for directions at the local hardware store to find it. The hotel decor was excellent! Note madam reclining on the best lounges we have ever seen. We really want some for our next decorating drive. But it was a great hotel for families as the rooms were centred around a courtyard with bar where the adults could sit while the children were sleeping. Great arrangment and of course quite a few families there as a result.

London in summer

Big M has been doing numerous trips to London this trip to get a visa organised for a forthcoming trip to the US. On Monday little M came too and was very well behaved - we had lunch in a restaurant, bought some 'stuff' on Oxford St and then came home. So on Thursday J and little M both decided to come. We picked up our documents then went to Kensington Gardens to go to the Lady Diana playground. Of course we got lost and took the very long way round the gardens - big M was a bit concerned we were off the beaten path when semi-naked men in pairs kept scattering out of the long grass in front of us, hurriedly reclothing!! The kids didnt seem to notice at all. Or thought this was quite usual behaviour for a London park I guess. We got to the playground which really was quite fun - very overpopulated with nannies and darlings when we arrived, and gradual change of shift to parents and children later in the day. There was a huge pirate ship which J thought was wonderful. And a storytelling session. Of course little M stubbed her toe and had to be bandaided in the first aid centre, which she thought was wonderful (best ever Mum). Then we had to make the decision to beat rush hour or not, and they opted to stay. So we went for a paddle boat ride on the Serpentine, only half hour as otherwise main paddler (big M) might expire. Of course the world nearly ended when J lost his hat in the water (Ben gave me that hat - I cant lose it!), but big and little M performed a miraculous hat resuce using superior boating skills. All very funny for big M, but very serious for J who said afterwards 'you and M were really good - but I was a bit hopeless wasnt I' nough said! Then home again on the late train and straight to bed - still tired!! Meanwhile R went to see the illuminated manuscripts currently on display in the Fitzwilliam Museum, fantastic by all accounts. There are a number of books currently unbound for restoration that are on display. We are packing for Normandy this weekend, and big M is off to Netherlands first to see a colleague. Then when we get back we move to the new (larger) house.

Summer punting!

M is safely back from Oz, and we all had a pleasant work summer party on Saturday. R had his first try and punting, and of course wasnt too bad at it at all (too much time in boats). So we are now all set for punting with visitors without it costing an arm and a leg. Though I think R had tired legs afterwards! Kids are on school holidays now, and enjoying themselves. Both pretty tired though. They are embarked on a reading 'medal' program at the local library - if they read 6 books by the end of holidays they get a medal and certificate. J has already done 2 books by day 2! He will probably want extra medals knowing him. Little M has read her first book too. Holiday plans are afoot, big M off to Netherlands for a couple of days, then all to France before we move to our new accommodation in late August. Then our furniture will arrive - hurrah! And of course a special photo of little M skating to match the Portmans!! She goes quite fast now, preferred outfit pink skirt and shirt of course!


Skate queen. 

Whoops!

Uh oh...trip to Oxford for the weekend wasnt as much fun as we planned - we rear ended someone just before the M1 near Milton Keynes. Everyone is fine, the kids dont even seem to be a little bit traumatised, not as much as their dad for sure. But then they dont have to pay for it!

Sports Day

Today was the school sports day - and as you would expect it was about 35 degrees and bright sunshine. What else do you do on such day but make children run around in the sun for 2 hours? The kids apparently had a good time, I cant comment on what the events actually were as there is a policy in the UK of not telling parents anything...we were encouraged to come and watch, but not given any information on what the kids were doing or how the competition was set up. A bit mystifying, but fun and I took lots of photos! We are off to Oxford for the weekend to catch up with our friends there, hopefully the weather will continue fine and warm - Abingdon has a great 'water park' down by the river.

Only one more week till mummy comes home...

M is still in Australia, 1 week now till she heads back. The kids are being very relaxed about the whole thing, no complaining and they havent even kicked up a stink at the unfairness of Mum going to Australia while they stay in England. The weather continues to be pretty good, nice sunny days. We have been roller blading in to school in the mornings this week (signing the late book once or twice too!). Little M had her drama class production on Monday, she did really well being the first one up. Her costume, hand sewn by mum, was a hit - lucky she chose to be Cinderella BEFORE the ball! This morning we had to dodge the cows on the common - they were making a good attempt at completely blocking the footbridge access.

New Show Opening in West End (of Cambridge)...

J's drama class performed their end of term show today to a packed house of parents and younger sisters/brothers. The papparazzi were out in force to snap pictures of the stars. Audience reaction was wildly enthusiastic, although at times the show was scary! M&J were treated to Pizza Hut after the show (dad couldnt be stuffed cycling home and then cooking dinner). Little M's show is next week.

This week was the school trip to the beach Old Hunstanton...the weekend was spent purchasing buckets, spades etc. Both had a good time, although little M had the best weather (it wasnt actually raining) - poor J, who's class went the day after M's, had a day of rain and wind. It didnt seem to greatly affect their enjoyment of the beach though.

Big M is in Australia for the next couple of weeks, so a chance to leave the washing up till tomorrow and generally be slobs! Today I locked myself out of the flat for the nth time...only problem was the spare key was gone from its hiding place! I had to ring around the estate management people to find someone with a spare key then borrow sandals and a bike from next door to head into town and get it. It must have looked pretty funny - Alejandro is a fair bit shorter than me and it felt like a kids bike.

In case you are wondering none of us were anywhere near London, although there are plenty of people from Cambridge who work in London and wont be getting home tonight with the transport system in chaos. I know 2 people who are stuck there tonight.

Dancing Queen

M is having a lovely time exploring dress ups. This week we have made a spangly dress of beautiful purple (not too bad), paper dresses out of large sheets of tissue paper (problem in the rain and a bit breezy) and a costume for cinderella which she is doing in drama. And of course she has the whole back yard to make shows in for her loving audience. Lots of fun. This weekend has been a round of barbeques and not much else. Big M is off to Oz on Monday. Kids are tired with end of school year approaching. J is getting his front teeth back, the end of another cute stage.

Paper dress designer wear! 

Cinderella in waiting - could cash in her jewels? 

Last chance to see - gap toothed boy! 

Royal ballet next - pink raffia is all the rage. 

And gone again.....

Well that was summer, back to cooler days, though quite humid still. Amazing thunder storms last night, really good lightning displays, which is quite unusual for this part of Britain. How do I know how good the lightning was..... because the points for the train I was on got hit and we got to sit and watch it for an hour at 10.30 pm.... eventually arrived home at 12.30am. Not impressed. I seem to be jinxed when it comes to travelling back to Cambridge after conferences. My first memorable experience involved Dundee - which is only in Scotland, not far at all. No problem they told me, take a train to City Airport and there is a direct flight to Dundee. Got the train OK though it was 1.5 hours and 3 changes to City, arriving at a leisurely lunchtime check in, only to find that nothing had left since 6am that morning due to fog. Utter chaos. Eventually flight left only 2.5 hours late and arrived in Dundee. That was great - they have Scott's ship there (it was built in Dundee) and a great Antarctic exploration centre and it was absolutely fascinating. Recommended if you are in the area. Next day was on a 5pm flight back which didnt leave until 7pm (fog again), got the LAST bus to Liverpool station and didnt have time to get to Kings X to take the last train from there. Get on the train from Liverpool and find it turned into a bus a few stops out. This was a complete nightmare as the bus goes to every station on the way. So, at 1 am I arrive home it having taken over 8 hours to get from Dundee to Cambridge - I could have gone to Thailand for that!

Yesterday was a return trip from Frankfurt where I have been at the European Central Bank (ECB) giving some papers and the usual. Great trip, nice bunch of people. Then of course the plane was delayed, got on the train to Cambridge and 10 minutes out of the station points are hit by lightning. To add insult to injury it was only the point just in front of us, so all the other trains streamed past us for the next hour. Oh well, at least it wasnt pouring rain as I walked home from the station.

J had a tummy bug this morning, but by tonight is driving us all mad with incessant talking. M climbed up quietly to the special shelf to find interesting things like a razor with which she promptly tried to shave her tongue. Thankfully no real damage done, but I think it hurt like nothing else. Somewhat swollen tongue. We are worried about what she will be like as a teenager. Need a higher special shelf and a lock. Big M goes back to Aust on Monday for a couple of weeks to finalise a few house things and attend a conference at her old employers, the RBA. Then back here and its end of term time. Summer holidays. But it feels like it should be Christmas!!! Kids are getting all ready for end of term events, including being dracula and cinderella at their drama class plays, guess which is which!! Big M is busy making costumes of course - amazing what you can do with iron on hemming tape, running stitch and lining in appropriate colours.