One of the things that Natasha remarked upon her return from Rostov is that people you see on the streets appear to be better dressed over there than in London. I was obviously skeptical, instantly recalling that I even made an argument in the past that women in London looked…
It turns out that there are German Christmas Markets right under our noses in England. Only a week ago we were touring the real thing, and today we spent time at one in Hyde Park, smack in the center of London. Actually, as markets go, it was less than impressive,…
As if to make sure that my complaints about general inactivity were unfounded, we have decided to entertain ourselves in the middle of the week. We went to the seasonal attraction called Lapland UK, in Kent. As the name suggests, it is a Lapland-themed little village that holds a number…
On our first weekend back together, we couldn’t just stay home, could we? Suppressed for the last couple of months, the urge to resume our explorations dominated our thoughts and ultimately led to a couple of excursions. If you’ve been following our adventures for the last year or so, you…
There is nothing quite like a classical music concert to take your mind off mundane happenstance, even if the first piece of the program is somewhat disturbing Also sprach Zarathustra, by Richard Strauss (which has been immortalized by Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey, but is more likely to be associated with…
Saturday Got a haircut, then spent all day in front of the PC, working through the list of computer-enabled errands. Stock market has been beyond depressing. Watched a previously recorded movie – crap. At least, the football season started, caught some games on the late-night re-cap. Sunday Woke up at…
On our excursions with cousins to the central London over the weekend, we have been talking about the advantages of living in a big city. Now, it should be noted that they live in a small town well north of Los Angeles, while we spent the last seven years before…
Weather again. Some portions of England have experienced the worst flooding in 60 years over the last couple of days. Watching the news last night, I’ve noticed a clear convergence of events. Deluge in England… Floods in Texas… Inundation in Bangladesh and China… Is it too late now to start…
Getting up in the morning full 40 minutes later that normal for an otherwise regular arrival at the office did nothing for my customary beginning-of-the-day discontent – I still felt denied the pleasure of staying in bed a bit longer… I also ended up staying late at work. Hope there…
Becky’s school year is over. A bit more sleep in the morning for me until September (although I was foolish – that’s another word for professional – enough to agree to an 8:30am meeting on Monday, signaling to all those willing to notice that I no longer have the drive-daughter-to-school…
Of the newly selected Seven Modern Wonders of the World, I’ve only been to one, the Colosseum – and actually was left underwhelmed by it. I have been to a few places that did not make the final cut – Alhambra, Neuschwanstein, Eiffel Tower, Red Square, plus a tour boat…
Resuming our London-based activities, we went to the Taste of London festival on Saturday. Several dozen tents have been erected on a large cordoned-off lawn in Regent’s Park. About 40 restaurants, over a hundred food, drink and appliance vendors, and 20 sponsors have set up exhibition booths under the tents.…
In our many years in New Jersey, we cannot recall ever having a breakfast outside. Barbecues, parties – yes, but never a breakfast. There were several excuses for that, such as absence of a deck and complicated logistics of carrying stuff down wooden steps to the patio, but the fact…
It has been a while since we managed to stay active on both Saturday and Sunday of the same weekend. Winter weather is hardly conducive to outings, and you can only go on back-to-back museum trips so much. But with spring-like weather, hundreds of places that we want to visit…
Sincere apologies to my faithful readers for such a long gap in my posts. I was not in much of a mood for writing. My family in New York has suffered through an inconceivable loss, and a beautiful little girl has never got a chance to open her eyes and…
I forgot to check with the groundhog this year. Did it see its shadow or not? To be honest, it would not make any difference. The winter never really came to England. Late fall lingered… and gradually morphed into early spring… I will be first to admit that for a…
It seems as if every other weekend or so, there is no train service at Mottingham, “due to planned engineering work”. As inconvenient as that is, it is a common occurrence with London rail transport (subway included), and you can find out in advance which lines will be closed. Unfortunately,…
He woke up, got out of bed and moved his bowels. If I could find a daily narrative as gripping as that, I swear I would post daily as opposed to once in a few days. I am reading the fourth installment of George Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire.…
I drove my parents to the airport in the morning, and we are all by ourselves again. Time to get back to work, school and otherwise routine existence. Time to resume our grand plan of Old World exploration, too. Upon returning from Switzerland, we did a few things with the…
If anybody has a chance to go see Mary Poppins on Broadway – we highly recommend it. Going by our Travelog ratings system, ♥♥♥. Magnificent production, great songs, fun all around. In a word, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!! We went to the city rather late last night, so as to not tire the…