Party on, Pompeii

It has taken me a long time to write about our most excellent adventure to Pompeii. (Sorry, Snake is watching Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure right now and it is creeping into my brain). I have to thank Auntie S. because when I was telling her about our upcoming trip to Rome she said we should check out Pompeii. It is really easy to get to by train, it takes about 2 1/2 hours one way. After several days of what seemed like non-stop walking, our feet welcomed the chance to take a load off during the train ride. Chizz & I really enjoyed watching the scenery and seeing the coast line. Of all the days were were in Italy, it worked out that the day we went to Pompeii was the most beautiful. It was about 70 degrees and clear, we ended up carrying our jackets and sweatshirts.

Pompeii was pretty much wiped off the face of the earth by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79AD. "They" discovered the ruins again in the 18th century. That is Vesuvius through the archway. Amazingly enough, quite a bit of this village was preserved. Apparently all the lava and ash sucked the air out allowing for quite a bit of material to remain in a preserved state. You walk around the streets of Pompeii almost exactly as they were the day before the eruption.In the roadways, you can still see the ruts caused by the chariots and carriages. They found statutes, pottery, decorative items that were practically untouched. There is a display where there are just rows and rows of pottery and other items recovered.










Some of it appears to be completely undamaged, merely dirty or dusty. Doesn't this stuff look like it is something you might find at a home center to put in your home or yard? I swear I have seen those lions things at Home Depot. This statue just needs a good hosing off and it will be good as new. It is thousands of years old and it is still in pretty good shape.

They have determined which buildings were homes, shops or other businesses.Many of the remaining intact buildings have their original mosaics still in place. I think one of the amazing remnants is the artwork, the original frescoes painted thousands of years ago still remain. This is the remnants of a bakery in town. You can still see the oven in the middle of the picture. Doesn't it look like a pizza oven?
Apparently they actually found loaves of bread that were carbonized. One of the most popular sites on the tour is the brothel. I had read about it and was skeptical. How could they possibly know it was a brothel? Well, there is very definite proof. First, the building had several small rooms with stone slabs still remaining. The slabs were the beds, one would put mattresses and other pillows on them to make them comfortable. Once you see it, you know they are beds. In addition, there were frescoes on the wall that represented a menu of sorts. These were pictures of what a customer could order. Very graphic, no mistake about what this building is for sure. Now, of course I have pictures of all of those frescoes but I think I won't show them here. This is a family site, G or at most PG. C'mon people! My mother reads this blog. But if you want to see them when you visit, all you have to do is ask. You probably don't even have to ask.

I think one of the most fascinating things at Pompeii are the plaster casts. In the late 1800s they discovered victim bones underneath the ground. Looking at the way the bones were found in the ashes and dust, one of the scientists got an idea to leave the bones there and put plaster in the impressions. After the plaster hardened and they chipped away the excess, they were left with life sized replicas of the victims. Some of the casts are so detailed that you can see the expressions on the faces (usually screaming in pain), the mouths opened in horror, the bulging eyes. In one they found food in the mouth!









These are not the best photos to show the detail that I was mentioning but you get the idea.

Pompeii was great and well worth the visit. Kiki & Snake both place it in their top 3 things we did on the trip, I would say it was my second most favorite thing after the Sistine Chapel. I didn't cry during my visit to Pompeii, not once. Be excellent to each other.

When The Cats Are Away. . . .

The kids went to Zurich Friday morning for their swim meet. So Chizz and I planned some activities! I went down to the 1/2 price ticket booth in Leicester Square and scored some tickets to the revival of Porgy & Bess. It was pretty good. I remember many, many, many moons ago I saw a rendition of Porgy & Bess that featured Sammy Davis Jr. Chizz didn't remember that. I think it was like a Hallmark Hall of Fame Production or something. This is a pretty old musical. Porgy & Bess was first put on in the 1930s and has an interesting history. It was the first musical to be staged with an all black cast and it was the first segregated audience in Washington DC. I also found a funny incident where the play was staged in Nazi occupied Copenhagen with an all white cast. Ridiculous.

On Saturday we went on a tour of Marlyebone put on by London Walks. I have written about that organization before. Marlyebone (pronounced mare lee bun) is a very upscale neighborhood that runs behind Oxford Street and through Regents Park. We saw the church where Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barret were married. It was a great walk and as usual with any outing with Chizz, it ended up at a pub. I didn't know it but it was a big rugby TV day with a tournament called the Six Nations. I think it was sort of like their Superbowl but all of the teams play each other so it lasts longer. The big matchup of the day - England v. Ireland. We were at the pub and had gotten a table for the first match (Scotland v. Italy) but the pub was jammed packed by the time the main event rolled around, I am certain we could have sold our chairs for a quid or two. I have no clue what rugby is about, it is sort of football but on steroids and very many strange rules. They actually lift people in the air to catch balls, forming a pyramid like cheerleaders do at football or basketball games. After watching some 100 minutes of rugby, I don't understand it one iota more than I did when I started watching it. Although that might have more to do with the many beers I was having. By the way, Ireland kicked Englands tail. Hooyah!!

We ended it all up having dinner at a very nice restaurant we have been wanting to go to for some time (The Formosa Dining Room) and the food was amazing. The kids came home. The teams did well. Kiki swam for the Seniors and they took First Place overall, Snakes's Junior Group took third place, giving the combined team second place in the standings. They brought home trophies for the school and were very proud. Swimming is not huge in England on a whole. In fact one of Kiki's friends asked her why she was missing school on Friday. She told him she was going to Zurich with the swim team and he says "Wait, we have a swim team?" No respect!

All in all a good weekend.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Blog to Bring You This Special Bulletin

MY MOM IS THE BEST!!!! I received a package from her today. I was expecting it because she told me she was sending a few items for Snake's upcoming birthday. But what I didn't expect was some of the stuff she included. She has been paying attention folks!! She heard me when I said I couldn't find a pitcher larger than 1.5 litres. Mini-pitchers for mini-fridges. It is hard enough to make iced tea in this country let alone find a pitcher large enough so you don't have to make it every day. I love iced tea but I don't want to make it every day and I drink alot, especially when I am trying hard to reduce my diet coke intake. (Another day, another blog.) I searched high and low for a large pitcher but couldn't find one. Today I got a super large Rubbermaid pitcher from her. Yahoo!! Iced tea tomorrow!! She also somehow knew to send us stuff we were missing but didn't know. Rice-A-Roni (c'mon, we are Bay Area citizens folks!). We love Rice-A-Roni and do miss it but I didn't tell her that. How did she know? She also sent us several packages of a certain Japanese Curry mix we love. I never told her that I couldn't get that here, but somehow she knew. Mom knew to send more of the staples as well, Hidden Valley Ranch dressing packets, Orville's popcorn, Kraft Mac & Cheese. But the freakiest thing of all. Today I was talking to Mom on Skype using our web cams (well actually Auntie S.'s web cam and mine) and she asked if she could send anything. I told her no I didn't think I needed much of anything but if she was going to send us anything, maybe some chocolate chips. Auntie S. brought some over in November when she came and Snake just made a batch of cookies yesterday and we were down to our last bag of chocolate chips. I told her I was going to have to ration it. You can get chocolate chips but they come in little teeny, tiny bags and it would cost me $20 for the chips alone. So I asked her if she thought about it, if she was sending anything else, she might include a bag or two. Three bags came in the box this afternoon. I just told her that today, how did she know to send those back in January when she mailed this box? Freaky. Maybe we should listen to Mom's crazy stock picks more often. She sent other stuff too, syrup, pancake mix, some yummies for the kids that I am not going to mention so I can dole them out accordingly.

Thanks Mom. I always knew my mom was the best. Now the rest of you know it too. I love you!!!

And The Winner Is. . . .

I know I am going to go on and on about the things we saw in Rome and I apologize for that in advance. However, in order to help you, my faithful WTF readers, I will give you the highlights in "award show fashion". Just like the Academy Awards, you can make a snack, go powder your noses or fall asleep during the awards that don't interest you. I will try to limit the acceptance speeches.

"Most Inspiring View". Winner: Our Hotel. This is the view from our hotel entryway. To say we were in the shadow of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican was a slight understatement. Since we arrived after dark, it really got us excited for the coming days to have this greet us on our first night. Although all we did the first night was get dinner and go to sleep. It was a good thing, we needed it for all of the walking we did and did and did. Rome is not really a large city but a few years back they decided to cobblestone most of it and that is pretty hard on your feet. At night we imagined our feet doing the cartoon thing of throbbing two sizes too big and red. I could almost see it.



"Most Annoying English Translation". Winner: Daniel, tour guide at the Coliseum. We took this tour mainly because being in a tour gets you to the head of the line. Truthfully most of the lines in Rome at this time of the year were not that bad, I understand they are hellish starting in April.
But this was one of the few lines we encountered and it was worth the price of the tour to get to skip it. As he gave us the information about what we were seeing, it became apparent that his English skills were limited. He kept saying the same facts over and over again but in a different way. For example, "Gladiators fought many different types of animals. We know about lions and those kind of animals, but did you know they fought hippos too?" Several minutes later, "Guess what types of animals gladiators might fight here? Lions and Hippos!!" Then a few minutes after that, "Surprising - gladiators would battle against lions and hippos". One of the things that he would say that drove the kids up the wall (but we repeated it throughout our remaining days in Rome) was the way he pronounced "marble". He would say "mahbul". "Look at these columns, imagine them covered in 'mahbul'". Later, "All the mahbul is gone now, but look at the stripped down columns". After a while Snake started counting how many times he said "mahbul". I think he lost track.

"Weirdest People in St. Peter's Square" Winner: Strange Clown Type People with Bells Sewn On Their Clothing Wearing Masks. (Whew is that a mouthful). I don't know who these guys were but they lined up and kind of danced/pranced through the square and the bells on their clothing made kind of a rhythmic jingling sound. I was also excited to see (and confirm by the way) the two windows of the Pope's apartment. Almost two years ago (I can hardly believe it has been that long)they showed these two windows on all the news shows when Pope John Paul II was ill and close to death. These lights seem to be on all the time. I guess no energy crisis in the Catholic Church. Hmmmm.

"Most Embarrassing Moment for Teenagers". Winner: Wendy at Sistine Chapel. We had a great tour guide at the Vatican. He really taught us alot about the time frame historically and pointed out some interesting pieces. Interesting fact? You know how all the sculptures you see are white or some version thereof? In the days the sculptures or statues were first created, many of them were painted. They painted flesh tones on the parts that were supposed to be skin, they painted the clothing in vibrant colors, and they painted the faces specifically the eyes. All of those statues that have that vacant look because the eyes are all white? Most likely wouldn't have been that way when they were created. Sometimes when you see a particularly old statute or sculpture and it has a rust color on it,(that I always attributed to age or being in the dirt a REALLY long time), nope it was a remnant of the color they put on the statue many years ago. The tour takes you through the museum and you wind your way to the Sistine Chapel. In the Sistine Chapel itself, the tour guides are not allowed to talk. A few minutes before we entered, our tour guide gave us some interesting things to look for and that was great. When I got in the Chapel, I was surprised. It was a bit smaller than I thought. For some reason I thought it was huge and long, which I think it is but it really gives off an intimate feel. Of course, it might have felt that way because there were quite a few people in there. I can't even begin to describe it. You can't take photos in the chapel, so you have to commit it to memory (or buy the postcard in the Vatican gift shop). It is more beautiful than words can describe and I was pretty moved by it all and became somewhat verklempt. I am not sure why, but I think it had something to do with seeing something that I have known for a very long time that I wanted to see. A highlight, a culmination, a dream. So I had tears in my eyes. I wasn't sobbing, I wasn't screaming about how beautiful it was (well at least not on the outside). But both of my kids saw my eyes, and were surprised and I think I can say embarrassed judging by the way they quickly moved away from me and only came back later when they had determined "my moment" had passed. Did you know about the mistake in the Sistine Chapel? One of the scenes on the chapel ceiling is Michelangelo's interpretation of the biblical story of Jonah and the whale. Problem? He had never seen a whale so he painted what he thought one would look like based on the description in the bible and what he knew of sea creatures already. Yeah, so apparently Jonah was swallowed by a large carp.

"Weirdest Thing We Saw in A Church". Winner: Immaculate Concepcion Church, Rome. This church is founded by the Capuchin Monks. Now I had never head of this particular order of Monks but had heard of Capuchin Monkeys, which apparently were named for the monks because they look like them when the monks are in vestments. Alrighty. The Church itself is pretty usual, although most churches in Rome are fairly spectacular. (On a tangent, you could walk through the smallest little street, enter a non-descript church from the outside and then discover the most beautiful church on the inside with beautiful mosaics, or sculptures or such.) Now the interesting part of this Church is in the basement, the crypt. The crypt is decorated with the preserved bones and skulls of over 4000 previously deceased capuchin monks.
The bones are decorations, made into light fixtures, put into patterns etc. Very freaky. You can't take pictures but I found a picture on a website so you can take a look. All those items on the walls? Bones. I also noticed that just about every other group in there had a teenaged type person with them. It either changes your perspective or drives you to do the strangest things on vacation.

"Best Food Item on Vacation" Winner: Three Way Tie. The competition in this category was stiff. We had many entries but we needed to narrow it down to a deserving three with one honorable mention. First, can we really say anything new about gelato? Except maybe that it is possibly the best ice cream on the planet. We tried many flavors during our time there. The kids had a minimum of 2 gelatos per day. That's right, 2. But remember we were on vacation and we are very bad parents. (See the many, many bad parent posts) We also learned the Italian word for Chocolate Chip (stracciatella)the very first day. Our second category is Pizza. Snake decided on a quest, to discover the very best margherita pizza while in Rome. He had it for every meal except two not counting breakfast. After much contemplation and chewing on it for awhile (ha-ha), the winner was a pizzeria called Wanted. Not to be outdone, Kiki decided that she would judge tiramisu while she was there. I don't think she had the stamina Snake did but she did manage to have quite a bit of tiramisu while she was there. I only know of one she didn't like (too much alcohol - is there such a thing?). The runner up? The little Baci chocolate put in the room by the hotel every night. The kids would fight over ours every morning unless Chizz beat them to it. We bought some to take home with us as well as some Limoncella, a lemon liqueur that I particularly liked. We also had bruschetta,red wine, risotto, red wine, penne, red wine, pepper steak, red wine, fettuccine, red wine, veal, and red wine. So much to judge, so little time.

Well I can hear the annoying "cut to commercial music" starting now but let me just finish by saying I will be doing a separate blog soon on our side trip to Pompeii. This blog only mentions some of the highlights, we also walked up to the top of St. Peter's Basilica, saw Trevi Fountain, sat on the Spanish steps, walked into just about every church in Rome, walked through the Forum and Palatine Hill, toured St. Peter's, heard a cheesy lounge singer in the Hotel, and . . . . (cue applause - cut to commercial).

Overheard on the Tube

We are back from our trip to Rome. Great trip, I will post details and photos later. We take the Tube back and forth from Heathrow, it is economical and only takes about an hour door-to-door. Loads of people do it and the trains can be quite crowded at times. Last night it was a full train but not too crowded. As is usual for me, I like to "people watch" my fellow passengers, try to imagine if they are coming here for a visit, or maybe coming home, where they came from, where they are going etc. I noticed a couple, well it was hard not to notice them, they were kind of hanging all over each other. I think He had just met Her flight at the airport and they were excited to see each other. They weren't kissing but kept touching each other's faces, hair, patting knees. I am guessing they were in their mid to late 30s, and they were really into each other. They were hanging on each others every word. Their faces werethisclose the whole time. Most of the time, I couldn't hear their conversation because the tube can be quite loud with the train noise and people talking back and forth. Snippets of their discussion filtered through, who She saw on her trip, a few details of His important business meeting last week etc. One exchange went something like this:

Her: (Sincerely) I missed you so much.

Him: (Just as sincerely, but gazing deeply into Her eyes) No, I missed you more.

Her: (Vehemently shaking her head) No, it can't be, I missed you more.

Me: For Goodness Sakes. We aren't talking teenagers, these adults should know better. I am momentarily distracted by the two girls who get on the Tube at Hammersmith. Very blond, very cute, very black tights, very high boots, very short skirts, very drunk. They could barely stand up. Except for when their very high heeled boots were stepping on my feet. Ouch. They kept apologizing "Sorry, sorry, sorry" but kept stepping on my feet. Finally they moved over and leaned (barely) against the wall.

Attention back to weird couple. Another sickening display:

Her: (In very British accent) "I was looking all over for the corkscrew. And I simply could not find it anywhere".

Him: (Completely riveted and very serious looking). "Did you ever find it?"

Her: "Oh yes, I was searching through the bottom of the box and there it was!" (Completely elated)

Him: (Incredulously)"No? In the box?" (Eyes wide open to prove he could barely believe it was in the box all along.)

Her: "Then, when I was getting ready to open the bottle, I remembered. . ."

Him/Her: (In Unison) "It was a twistoff!!!"

Him: (Throws his head back and laughs very LOUDLY as if this was the funniest thing he had ever heard)

HER: (Smiles smugly in the knowledge that she was the one who related the funny story that made him laugh ever so loudly.)

They kiss. I am not sure whether it was in celebration of finding the corkscrew, or relief that she didn't need it all to open her cheap bottle of wine or finally lust overcoming them. By this time, the seats open up next to me and the drunk girls stagger their way over to the seats and sit down. Still managing by the way to step on my feet while sitting!!

And Chizz just read his book!

Adios, Au Revior,Goodbye, Arrivederci

Not leaving forever, just six days. To ROME!!!!!! Very, very, very excited. How it came about is this. The kids have a week off in February. It has always been our plan to go skiing that week. That is what we planned, however, the snow gods had slightly different plans. This week notwithstanding, there is not very much snow in them there European hills. Quite a few of the resorts are only operating at 30-40% lift capacity. We didn't want to spend a whole lot of pounds, dollars or euros and then not really be able to ski alot. So we decided to postpone the ski vacation, hoping that there will be more snow in early April and we can do a long weekend then. Who knows? So where to go, where to go. Rome has been high on my list since I found out we were moving to London. I knew that I would not return home from this experience without having visited Rome. So the rest of the family agreed and the rest is history.

I am thankful that the illness that plagued our family last week appears to have moved on. If Chizz had become sick when we were in Rome, 1 of 3 things would have happened. (1) I would have had to leave him alone recuperating in our hotel room or (2) drag his sick body all through Rome and that might slow me down or (3) (and the most likely scenario) I would have had to ask to the Pope to either cure him or kill him because I had things to see! I am doing research and checking each attraction and historical site we want to see, plotting each day to get the maximum out of each hour. Yeah, it is pretty much not going to be any fun for the rest of my family. Who cares -- I have a schedule to keep! Ciao!!

Oops! It Did It Again

Snowed that is. Now contrary to popular belief and all those versions of "A Christmas Carol" that you've seen, it doesn't snow that often in London. It is a rare event. Well we have had snow 2 days in the past 2 weeks. More importantly? No school today. The kids are out of their minds. The way teenagers show being out of their minds? They slept in. I don't think it snowed much more than it did a few weeks ago but apparently they expect that it will still be snowing heavily during the morning rush hour. They were anticipating difficulty getting the school buses through their morning routes. So they cancelled school. I got a telephone call from Snake's teacher this morning letting me know. Personal touch. She also said that they might cancel it tomorrow if it snows again. I think that might have to do more with it being the last day before February break (the kids are off school next week) than with it being too difficult to commute in the snow but who knows.


This is a picture of our block this morning. Our flat is in the building with the white bowed window on the right. We have the top two floors of that building. The kids are definitely enjoying their "day off" to the fullest - snow ball fights, shopping, movies etc. They will be back soon. Right now it is pretty quiet in our house and I am enjoying that.

Still The Cute One

Today I went down to the Starbucks on the high street to have coffee with a friend. I got there first and decided to add some money to my Starbucks gift card. Although Starbucks cards have been around forever in the US, they just started in December here. They are a very new animal and because of that, the young baristas at our Starbucks here are not that experienced dealing with them. I added UK20 to the card and wanted to pay with my debit card. Unfortunately, the checker pushed the cash button instead and hilarity ensued (not really but I am trying to look on the lighter side). Actually angst ensued, no one at the Starbucks knew how to correct this problem even though every single person behind the counter worked on the problem. For about 5 minutes, no coffee was made or served at the fairly busy Starbucks in St. John's Wood. I had no cash on me (c'mon everywhere else in world things are pretty much done on an electronic basis!). Finally I suggested I run to the ATM on the corner and get cash and just pay for card that way. The Starbucks employees were visibily relieved.

So off I went down to the bank. As I walked down the street, guess who I saw walking toward me. PAUL MCCARTNEY!!!!! OMG! OMG! OMG! That's right, the one I have been stalking for almost 6 months. Walking right toward me. He was coming out of Panzer's, a local deli/store in the neighborhood. A few weeks ago, I saw a picture of Sir Paul in the local paper, and he looked bad. Well, I thought at the time, I guess this divorce business is really taking a toll on him. I mean how long can you be known as the cute one in the Beatles? He is 64 for goodness sake. Poppycock! He looks pretty darn good. I think he probably colors his hair, but there is a salt and pepper look to it - totally appropriate for his age. But he looks great! He was fit, color good, bounce in his step. It just goes to show you that you shouldn't always believe what you see in the news. That photo was probably taken in bad lighting and at a weird angle because there was no trace of the newspaper guy in the guy I saw walking down the street.

I got my cash and was hoping that he was in the Starbucks but I knew he probably wasn't there. I had heard he has breakfast quite a bit in the place next door. Of course, he wasn't there. I paid for my card and told my friend about my encounter. She was envious.

Now I just have to figure out how to hang out with him, become best friends and get an invite to his birthday party this year. Baby steps, my friends, baby steps.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Well Snake wanted to stay up last night and watch the Super Bowl. The problem? The game didn't start until 11:00 p.m. here. Of course, just like everywhere else the pregame started much earlier - like 9:00 or so. It was about 6 hours of football, most of it after it was usually lights out in our house. But "everyone" at school was staying up and he didn't want to go to school and be the only one whose mommy wouldn't let him. We tried the old "well, if everyone else jumped off the Golden Gate bridge, would you want to do that?" ploy but who ever dreamed up that little scenario never dealt with teenagers because they are very much like lemmings. Yes, if everyone else did jump off the Bay Bridge they would want to jump as well. So we did what any good parents would do, we negotiated. We negotiated very strict terms with him. IF he finished all his homework due on Monday and Tuesday, IF he took a shower at half-time, IF he took a nap on Sunday, IF he went to school and swim practice without complaint on Monday no matter how tired he was, then he could stay up and watch the Super Bowl. Of course he agreed to those terms.

Kiki didn't really care about the game and she is still fighting the cold/flu going around here so she went off to bed at about 10:00 p.m. Chizz made no pretense of even trying to stay up. He was recording the game and with a little work might be able to avoid finding out the score. Actually normally that would be pretty easy as American sports get very little coverage here on the TV, radio and newspapers. I am not sure if that would be the same for the Superbowl but based on our experience so far, we were thinking he might be able to put it off. I didn't want Snake to be up all by himself so I told him I would stay up with him. Quite frankly, I thought for sure he would fall asleep at some point and I would still be able to pull off 5 hours sleep or so. Well, he didn't fall asleep and neither did I. We managed to watch every minute of it. Until 3:00 a.m. I will admit, I might have nodded off for a play or two but I was awake for most of the game.

Unfortunately, we don't get the commercials here so I don't really know about those. But Kiki found a website this morning that has all the ads so maybe we will get to see some of those later. Right now, I am pretty bleary eyed and tired. I may have to do some "research" for our next trip, in bed, under the electric blanket, with my eyes closed. Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone.

Take 2 Aspirin and Call Your Realtor in the Morning

We have been sick in the WTF household this week, with a cold-like viral thing. Well actually, not everyone has been sick. Snake started us off last week during our Stonehenge/Bath trip. He decided to stay in the car and sleep when we did our walk through the amazingly cute Bradford on Avon village. At some point during our walk, we heard a car alarm go off and off and off and off. Then Chizz’s cell phone rang. Snake had fallen asleep in the car and turned over. Apparently the act of turning over jostled the car and the alarm sounded throughout the used-to-be sleepy town. He was a real trooper through the rest of the trip. He missed three days of school and was finally able to drag himself back on Thursday and finished out the week. He is just barely recovered.

Then Chizz came down with the same thing about Tuesday but soldiered through work for three days. He came home early on Thursday and went to bed at 6 p.m and then called in sick the next day. In our 22 years of marriage, I think I can count on one hand the number of times he has been too sick to go to work. I don’t think he got out of bed more than 2 times on Friday. He is finally feeling better today.

Kiki has also been feeling poorly since Friday. Had a swim meet Friday night and she anchored the free relay. When she got finished with her race, she started coughing, coughing, coughing. She asked if she could get out of the water but the stroke and turn judge wouldn’t let her. It is a rule in the league here that no one, NO ONE, gets out of the pool until each racer has finished or you are disqualified. Kiki stayed in and was finally able to get out and catch her breath with a glass of water. (As a side note, when she dove in the water her team was in second place. Kiki had an amazing race and the team took first with an incredible time which is why she had to wait in the water so long.) She is still feeling sick but feels she can’t miss any school because she has a big project due Monday, swim meet Monday and a huge Math test on Tuesday. Hopefully she will live that long!

Me? Nothing. I am not allowed to get sick. Actually I have been making sure I have been taking care of myself. Getting a lot of sleep and just the right amount of white, wine, purely for medicinal purposes of course and I have been feeling fine. I am keeping my fingers crossed and my necklace of garlic on just in case.

The house next door to our flat went on sale yesterday. It is a single family home (it hasn’t been broken into flats, like our building). It’s four stories, has a nice backyard and a small little studio house out back. They are marketing it as a tear down. The ad says that it has local government approval for remodel and retrofitting. The price? 7,000,000 UK pounds. That is a $13,761,000 tear down. Wait a minute. I am starting to feel ill.