Famous England weather. It is not too cold, just cold enough to be unpleasant, and with wind, dark skies and intermittent rain, it is hard to will oneself to go outside… We still do, though. My parents arrived for their very first visit to England, and I am using my…
If you have not read the first part of our report, you can do it here. Otherwise, read on. The first full day in Switzerland met us with springtime-like weather, warm and sunny. Internet reports told of very little snow on lower mountains, and since our family – Becky excepted…
Well, we’re back! We had a great time, despite having driven more than a thousand miles overall, and entered new year on a high note. Hope you all did the same! (I don’t mean driving) Our sortie to Switzerland ended up being quite a successful expedition (with the unfortunate exception…
This weekend, I watched more NFL than on any weekend on the US. Sky Sports channels broadcast CBS/NBC/ESPN games live, with a recording repeat next day. Because the weekend was 4 days long and we have not had much to do due to everything being closed, I watched 4 games…
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…
School is out! Vacation! I have not been so happy about it since I was a pupil myself. Because it means that I do not have to wake up at 6:45 and drive Becky to school! Actually, I kind of overslept for two days in a row. Well, not really……
On Saturday at 6:45 in the morning, we were woken up by the loud knocks on the front door. I ran down the stairs in my sleepwear ensemble – that’s as far as I am willing to go into intimate details at the moment – and accepted the package with…
You know what we used to employ the flat-iron for? Kids arts and crafts projects. The shirts were dropped at the cleaners and returned back to us pressed and starched. Now, the flat-iron is being used at its most original designation… Over the weekend, I got myself a haircut. Not…
Natasha made a fantastic stir-fry today. Somehow, she disregarded my preference for having meat at dinner… After foolishly expressing my dissatisfaction, I had to work overtime to praise leftover spaghetti with ground beef to avoid going altogether hungry… For the second Saturday in a row, we were greeted by pleasant…
Four days without a post is hardly a way to keep the audience engaged. An article in Economist recently was talking about people who make blogging their main occupation and actually build huge followings by writing about their everyday life. How exactly do they do that? I struggle to find…
I almost appeared in a British tabloid! When we were leaving St Paul’s Cathedral, there was a rush of guests arriving for a wedding in one of cathedral’s chapels. The guests were of the young, bold, beautiful and restless kind. You know, thin leggy women and disheveled cool dudes. While…
Every morning this week was rainy and drab, but Saturday suddenly turned out sunny and not especially cold. We took our time until noon to get out of the house, but still jumped on a train and went to the City. Setting out that late left us with only a…
Technology Christmas party left me with quite a headache, and the next morning my first local hire was starting. I am afraid I was hardly a presentable boss. The only mitigating factor was my own boss, visiting from New York, whom the party left in a much worse shape… When…
The cover story in this week’s Economist talks about British transportation problems. While the angle is more towards fixing the roads, the article also mentions in gory detail the issues with rail networks. Incidentally, I am starting to believe myself that my earlier high marks to public transport were misbegotten.…
Starting with an announcement today (especially for those who may be coming directly to the blog, bypassing my front page): The Guestbook feature of the website has been decommissioned – as writing comments to my posts is a better place for guestbook entries anyway. I also created a separate Guestbook…
Over the last weekend, I triumphantly assembled the new wardrobe that Natasha had bought in IKEA… Well, ok, ok, it was a really pathetic performance, comprised of 36 steps according to instruction manual, that took over 2 hours to complete. But I did raise my arms in triumph when it…
The weather is a bit overdue turning to the worse, but it’s catching up. On Saturday, several downpours alternated with bright sunlight, but the rain won. On Sunday, the rain continued to come and go. It is not really cold yet, but there were a couple of days during the…
No sooner I complained about not having a Russian store nearby that Natasha found one. It is in no way comparable to the ones we loved so much in the States, it does not have hot kitchen – and the owners actually do not speak Russian – but it is…
Taking a break from describing events of our life, I want to let a bit nostalgia in and recite some things that we so gotten used to in America that we never considered their importance. Without further ado, here are some things that we clearly took for granted in the…
The weather on Natasha’s birthday was beautiful – a bit crisp and windy, but bright sunny skies. We did not want to miss an opportunity for a day out, so we decided to take a train to the city, visit a museum and then stroll around… … but the train…