The July with the London heatwave

Ah, we're baking in a heatwave here!!  It's been 30 degrees every day for the last 2-3 weeks.  Hard to imagine it being cold!!  Our flat is not well insulated, so that means that over winter it was freezing but now it's baking, particularly upstairs where there's pretty well nothing between us and the black roof tiles.  Toby's been finding it hard to sleep and some nights we stick him downstairs in his travel cot, where it's cooler.

Yeah we need to crank up the icecream maker some more.  So far we've made coffee icecream as per the standard recipe and it was divine.  Watch this space!

We sold Der Bus this month. Toby wasn't included.

The Summer with London heat and Toby growing up

Well, it's now July and Toby is getting all very old - nearly 7 months.  Lots of firsts happening - like first tooth (last week) closely followed by first bite out of Angela while feeding (he drew blood!  Owwwww!), very very closely followed by his first telling off...!

It's been 25-30 degrees here for most of the month, if you're in the Wellington wind and rain right now, it must be pretty tempting to pop over here.

The big news is we're coming to Australia to live.  We leave here Sept 8th and get to Brisbane for a friend's wedding.  Then we drive to Melbourne and move into our new flat.  

Toby is doing very well.  You'll have the chance to see him in Feb 2004 as we are attending another wedding in NZ.  All our friends are also expecting babies - Mike says he's hit the demographic for it.

Ok.  Better go get some things done while Toby sleeps. 

Polly visits Barcelona

My [Mike's] mum Polly spent a few days in Barcelona in March 2003, when she visited Toby and us in London. Here are her experiences, from an email to my Dad and stills from her vlog with quotes from her commentary. Anything not in italics is her words.

It's fascinating seeing a place like this through somebody else's eyes.

Dear Ron,

Here I am back from Barcelona.  In fact I really didn't visit Spain as the city is Catalonian and has a different 'culture'.  Also it's a large city of a million and half people.  It was quite an experience not being able to communicate, as English was only spoken a little and then with an almost incomprehensible accent.  I found the Barcelonians to be proud to the point of arrogance.  The shop assistants had no smiles and impatient with silly old Women tourists like me.  Actually there were no smiling going on.  I've had a hint from the little history I've glenned and perhaps when I read more shall be more enlighted as to why they are so serious.  However I suppose it was because for the first time in my life I felt not able to empathize.  No language - no interplay.  My accommodation was excellent as it was right in the middle of the old and picturesque part of the city. My main impression of Barcelona apart from its people was of the architecture - old and modern - and of the frenetic hustle and bustle.

I'm quite tired - as usual - as the plane arrived into Heathrow at 10-30pm and by the time we took 2 undergrounds and 1 bus stepped inside the flat at midnight.  The original plan was for me to get myself back but when Mike realized that I'd be hanging around Brixton for a bus late at night - not a good idea - came and met me.  Apparently he has a dead line to meet this weekend so it worked out ok that he stayed at work late. I'm looking forward to see the sharp horizon and the bright clear light.  The haze is almost claustrophobic.

Well I have lots to tell you and really wanting to come home and see you and hope that all's well.  Wee Toby is a pet which you will see for yourself on video.

Lots of love,  Polly xxxx

La Sagrada Família
What a peculiar looking thing. Quite grotesque.

On one side you have this ...

.. and on the other - THAT.
[I don't think Polly appreciates large newer apartment buildings]

A bit of exotic flora!

It's like a canyon of buildings

A typical Barceloona road, with its high rises.
Not a place I'd like to live! Listen to all the traffic.

How'd you like to go to work with all that traffic?
What a commotion. I'll be glad to be home.

Güell Pavillions
Here is some more of this grotesque architecture.
Quite peculiar.

Plaça Catalunya - sculpture to francesc macia
Peculiar and absolutely stunning sculpture.
This is just one piece, they're all over the place and their proportions are just right.
Very exciting.
Polly came back here and spent quite some time admiring the stunning statuary
and stolid and mixed buildings around it.

Frieze in the Gothic Barcelona Cathedral
Grotesque. Voluptuous. Almost pagan.

Gothic Barcelona Cathedral - Cloister
Opposite a beautiful garden, we have these sanctuaries.
It really is quite ... tasteless.
It's a beautiful statue I suppose - not too kitsch.

Placa de Sant Jaume
I've shifted to the side because I nearly got run over by a police car!
Here we have a group of protesters against the [Iraq] war.
They became violent yesterday. Not very nice at all.
[Polly was in the Rialto hotel opposite here and on the edge of the Gothic Quarter]

What a filthy mess they've made!
I suppose that's what they're like.
[Somewhat brave to speak loudly at a violent protest group while filming them!]

Placa Del Rei
Selfie in glass

La Rambla Market.
Beautiful market stalls. Really lovely.

Looking down La Rambla
Absolutely chocka with people. People everywhere.

Crowds, noise, traffic!
Everyone hustling and bustling.

Toby is growing and sleeping well

Dear Vivienne,

Life is pretty good (I can say that today as Toby slept from 10:30pm to 7am last night) with the three of us.  He was last weighed at 8weeks old (just before his first jabs!) and was 5.6 kg and sticking to his 75th centile like glue.  I was pleased as I was wondering if my antibiotics had affected him.  Doesn't look like it.  He seems to put on about 200g per week at the moment.

We have some books, but always like to read more.  We shall track down those suggestions.  I remember looking at one in Edinburgh in your house.  It was probably the toddler taming one I think.

Can't wait to see your place again.  It sounds like you're getting through the rooms.  Sally and Andrew also seem to be constantly changing their house too.  It'll be like visiting a new place when we get there next.

Mike is busy at work.  He has a project due in April or sometime then.  So it is frantic already.  I think they were behind before they even started.  Typical software development.

I seem to have little time for anything.  Even reading emails is difficult.  Toby seems to be starting a pattern of sorts.  He likes a midday snooze.  That is what he is doing now.  I eat then do geeky things while that happens (unless I am tired then I sleep with him!).

Toby is a lot of work but he is worth it

Dear Ferrida,

Thanks for your good wishes. Toby is a lot of work but he is worth it.  The labour was relatively good (compared to horror stories you can hear about).  I was taken to the labour ward at 2am and he was born at 8.30am.  I was already in hospital because my waters broke the day before.

We are hoping to have Christmas in Wanaka this year, so hopefully we can catch up with you some time then.  Although with your parents in Wellington, there is nothing calling you back to Dunedin.  However, with Mike's sisters in Wellington there is plenty calling us there.

Hope you enjoyed the new year celebrations - we had a quiet one at home but with spectacular views of midnight fireworks from our bedroom window over London (we live on top of a hill).

London Snow

Woo hoo!! It's snowing right now - it snowed yesterday in Brixton (about 3cm), and now it's snowing in central London!

Not huge amounts of snow - but the shower while I was walking to work was 'proper' snow all right...! I've never seen it settle in central London before...

Ok, back to work now. Just wanted to share that with you...

From Vivienne in Wellington to Angela (and 'bump') back from Orkney to Brixton

From: Vivienne
To: Angela & Mike
Subject: How's it Going?
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 12:42:34 +1300

Got your post card, Angela, displayed on the fridge: wasn't Orkney fascinating? We only had a couple of days there, but managed to get around all the main sites, if briefly. We were very impressed with the degree of preservation, and as there were very few other tourists, you got a haunting feeling of life and times of the original inhabitants. Though when we were there, the weather was perfect - warm sunshine and no wind - and perhaps we didn't get a true impression of how they really lived with the wind howling and the sleet blasting through the winter dark!

We are waiting for spring to arrive: it's mid October and still the Wellington weather continues windy, wet and cold (John had to chip the ice off the windscreen on Tuesday). Today is Walk the Kids Home from School day, and of course it's raining and blowing a gale. It's not looking good for a hot summer... Not that we care: John's used up his holiday allotment, and we're broke. Might manage a couple of nights in the tent up the Wairarapa in a DoC (free) area but nothing more.

While I remember: your birthday and Christmas presents are in the post (as of last Friday), and should be arriving imminently. They are for this year, so you can open your birthday gift (only 9 months late!) and not wait until February. You never know, I may get something into the post in time (but don't hold your breath!). 

How's "Bump"? Thrashing and kicking? Names sorted yet? Got the moses basket / cot? Bath? All those 101 things you need for a new baby? And that's just the nappies! Are you going to antenatal classes? Guess it's a bit early to pack the bag... What's your due date? Not that they ever do the decent thing and arrive when they're supposed to...

Well, guess I should stop procrastinating and Do Something like sort the laundry...

Love from
Vivienne :)

From: Angela
To: Vivienne
Subject: RE: How's it Going?
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 

Hi Vivienne, John and Benjamin!

Orkney was great fun!  I got to see the major tourist sites on Mainland and will definitely take Mike there next summer.  The only things I missed were puffins (all out to sea already) and Mine Howe (a relatively recent site to open to tourists but not so recent archaeologically speaking)!  So I still have an excuse to go back.

Our weather was slightly wintry.  Summer ended the day we arrived (and we arrived too late to notice it that day!).  I was hoping for the aurora but it was quite cloudy the whole 2 weeks.  They had a good display two weeks before we arrived though.  Still, I have seen it with Mike in Iceland.  But the marvelous thing was our two crossings of the Pentland Firth were calm!  With stormy weather either side of both of them.  In fact, the new ferry from Orkney to Aberdeen took 16 hours instead of its 5 hours one day and generated a huge amount of complaints from angry Orcadians!  Made reading the letters to the editor entertaining for a while.

Bump is thrashing around a fair bit.  And having been away in Orkney for three weeks, Mike has noticed a change in size while I was away!  Mike had to go to our first antenatal class by himself, but we both got to last night's one together (albeit late because of a landslip north of Berwick on Tweed that meant my train home was a bus replacement service from Edinburgh to Berwick - at least I got to see your old street on the way past!).  The class was actually quite good.

We have inherited a few baby items from friends here.  But we do need to go shopping soon.  Bag packing may become important in about a week or two. Due date is December 7th (day after wedding anniversary).  If it arrives on wedding anniversary we will be happy as Mike may have someone (eventually) able to help him finish a celebratory bottle of wine each year.  Hehheheheh.

My Mum arrives Nov 22nd or thereabouts.  So maybe we can plan a bit of shopping then before heading up to Scotland for the birth (well, that's the idea - whether bump co-operates or not remains to be seen).  I'm looking forward to seeing her.  She's just cross it's going to be winter!  She thought she was going to avoid Scottish winters for the rest of her life! ;-)

Ok.  I also have to get going.  Give Ben a hug from us!  And John too. Although they both may squirm a little.  Enjoy your birthday in a couple of weeks too!  I must get onto Mike about that (his family - his responsibility - I just nudge a little).  I have an arrangement that means no birthday presents to my family - just phone calls.  And just have to remember Christmas that way!  So I'd better get onto that!  I won't have time to sort that out soon.  Oh dear.

Take care.  Hope the weather breaks soon in Wellington and summer appears.

Love,

Angela (& Mike) xxxx (one for Nuisance)