London, Whitehorse Hill and Grandma's Visit

Hello again everyone! Although it's hard to believe, this place is starting to feel like home. It doesn't feel weird to be driving on the left side of the road anymore, we've all given in to saying 'jumper' instead of of 'sweatshirt', and to buy groceries I go to the 'shop' instead of the 'store'. Every once in a while I have an oh-my-goodness moment, and it hits me that I'm actually walking on English soil instead of Canadian! The kids have all settled into their activities, and Tom and I have managed to find the occasional night out. The pace of social gatherings here is incredibly intense. I think we could go to a social event every day if we wanted to! And that's not including of the ferrying kids to and from their things, and all of the coffee mornings and school events that go on during the daytime. Tom's course seems to be shifting into a more intense level, he's actually had some papers due, and has his first exam next week.

We have, however, managed to keep sightseeing, and experiencing British life. It the past few weeks we have had our first visitors (Grandma and Grandpa Dave), visited Blenheim Palace, Stonehenge, Whitehorse hill, and, this past weekend, we made our first trek to London! There have also been some rather exciting events for the children, and we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with style. I'll try not to bore you with too many details, but will give you a taste of how things went

Grandma and Grandpa Dave's Visit

Our first visitors arrived at Heathrow on Sept 16th. Tom and Shane went down to pick them up. Although a little dazed from the jet lag, Marilynn and Dave managed to make it through the day and had some very happy grandchildren to welcome them to England. They were great house guests, and very adventurous as they managed to take the bus to Oxford one day and the train to Bath another! One of the days we were here we went to Blenheim Palace (check out http://www.blenheimpalace.com/ ). It is a beautiful (and huge) house and park owned by the Duke of Marlborough. We went on the 'Ghost Tour', had a lovely lunch, and had a quick tour of the rest of the house. Unfortunately I had to be back to get the kids at school, but it will definately be a place for future visits!.

While Marilynn and Dave were here we also went to see Stonehenge. Very big, very old rocks. Also very interesting, though, when you consider how very big and very old they are. We all enjoyed the audio tour. On the way back we stopped at The Bell pub which was really nice, but, I have to admit I can't remember where it was! As there are hundreds of Bell pubs here, I'll have to get back to you as to where it was.

Whitehorse Hill

If you go on Google Earth and search for Uffington, you'll see that very close to it is a large, old white horse made of chalk. It is quite close to us, and until the end of September we'd been looking at it and saying we should go up onto the hill to see it. Finally we planned a Saturday visit and took a picnic snack with us. It's quite a walk from the parking lot across the hill to the Whitehorse, but just as we got there the rain stopped and the sun came out... the vista below was beautiful. Green fields, grazing sheep, quaint villages and manor homes... England as you would think it should look. The kids were real troopers and walked the entire loop, down to Dragon Hill (which is where St. George supposedly slew the dragon and buried it), up along the Horse to the Ridgeway Path (a path which follows the ridge for 80 miles I think), and over to Uffington Castle, which is now just a raised circle with a ditch outside it. I can't remember the exact details, but it's about 1000 years old. It was a very wise place to put a castle as you could see in every direction for miles and miles. We all enjoyed the walk.

After our walk we ventured to the Whitehorse Pub, which is just below the whitehorse in a little village. It was the quintessential English pub. Check it out at http://www.whitehorsewoolstone.co.uk/ . The owners were very friendly and helpful, and the old saggy beams and fireplaces were charming. We will definately go back.

London

This past weekend was Tom's birthday weekend. To celebrate, we took the kids and headed off to London to see 'Mary Poppins' the musical. It was an absolutely fabulous weekend. We started by parking in Didcot and taking the train from there to Paddington Station. The kids loved the train ride, and it avoided the parking and congestion charges in London. From the station we walked down to Hyde Park and along inside the park to the Victory Services Club, which is a military members' club about a block away from the corner of Hyde Park. Our rooms were great, and the staff were excellent. We decided to take a quick open top bus tour for the rest of the afternoon, and hopped on at Marble Arch. We hopped off at the Houses of Parliament and walked past Westminster Abbey, then back on to head towards the hotel. From the hotel we hailed a cab for the Theatre District. Our cabbie was wonderful, and we all enjoyed our first trip in a London cab. What was really cool about the cab ride was that there was seating for all of us-- Kate even had a flip down booster seat to sit in.

The cabbie gave us some recommendations of where to eat, as well as where to hail a cab afterwards (which was good advice as I'll elaborate on in a minute). We had supper at La Porcina (I think) which was a lovely Italian restaurant right across the street from the Price Edward Theatre. Serving authentic italian pizza, it was a real cultural treat. We met a really nice family while eating there, who we found out had their own jazz duo. Their little one chatted with Kate, and we enjoyed chatting with the adults. I just checked and they have a website-- http://www.saxandhoney.com/ . Who knows? We may meet again sometime!

We finished supper just in time for a dash to the theatre and into our seats. Mary Poppins was absolutely amazing. The kids recognized the storyline, and loved all of the songs and effects. Shane's face when Mary took her first flight was priceless. It was very well done, and we had a great time. When the show ended, however, we were in for a bit of surprise. The theatre emptied onto a PACKED street, which emptied onto another packed street, which emptied onto Picadilly Circus. It was 10:30 at night on a Saturday, and England had just won their semi-final rugby match to move forward to the finals. The pubs were full to overflowing, their were people everywhere, and not a cab to be seen. Luckily it was a happy (if slightly drunk) crowd, and we all managed to keep together. One of us spotted an empty cab up a side street that looked like he was just starting his shift. A quick query and we were off to our hotel. The kids were exhausted, and we all fell into our beds for a well deserved rest.

Sunday was spent with more sightseeing on the double decker busses, a ride up the Thames on the boat cruise tour, and a ride on The London Eye. I'll admit, I was a bit nervous about going up on a 135 metre, about 450 feet, tall ferris wheel. The ride, however, was incredible. A must-do if you're ever in London. I'd go early though, as the crowd and line ups were huge. You can see more at http://www.londoneye.com/ .

Dunne Children News

The past few weeks have been eventful outside of sightseeing as well. Shane competed with a team of boys from his school at a regional cross-country running race last week. His team came fourth overall which was quite an accomplishment! Delaney and Kate have both been doing lots of horseback riding... last week Kate had her first 'falling off' incedent. She was fine, but I needed a good strong whisky. All three children have been earning lots of house points for 'Drake House', their school house. I think it's a fabulous system, as the House Cup is up for grabs every week, so the kids work really hard on their homework and at school to earn points. Last week the three of them all came home with house points for their homework assignments! They all have been doing extremely well at school.

Thanksgiving

Although we missed our friends, family and Canada in general, we managed to have a fun (and filling!) Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving dinner, we had invited our neighbours, Kay and Jim Crawford (from Scotland) over to share our turkey. Considering I hadn't cooked a turkey in years, it went relatively well! We had all of the trimmings- turkey,dressing, potatoes, veggies, pumpkin pie and apple pie... as well as a few bottles of wine for the adults.

The next day, Monday, I co-hosted a Thanksgiving Coffee with the other Canadians moms who have kids at our school. We all made a few 'traditional' dishes. There were yummy turkey meatballs, pumpkin cheesecake, butternut bread, squash pie, applesauce cake, cheese, crackers, cranberry punch... as well as coffee and tea! I didn't count, but there must have been at least 30 people in our small house. It was wonderful. It was a great chance to 'show-off' things Canadian to people from other countries.

Well, once again I should head off and try to get some housework done. I hope this finds you healthy and happy!

Oh- thank you for all of the comments-- I do read them!

Brenda