Celebrating Summer

Summer has arrived to London, and not in date only. It's been warm (without the compulsory "ish"), it's been sunny, it's been sportive. Truth be told, I've never been a huge fan of summer. Growing up in a country that sees the 30 degrees mark come May, together with a stickiness that can't be explained or described, you learn to appreciate the winter, or rather those three minutes between winter and 30 degrees. You have to understand, what we called "winter" is what is fondly referred to here in the UK as a "british summer". With less rain. I think life in London made me look at summer differently though. First of all, because I saw what a real winter is... But also because I saw how the British treat their summer. I love it how British people treat their sunny days, so I made a list for you all to see what seems quirky to us expats -

The newspapers have the weather on the front page (unless there's Wimbledon, or a royal baby of course);
Women wear dresses. I know it's not weird for you, but where I come from dresses are for religious people. "Normal" un-religiously-devoted people just don't. Also, it is so humid everything just kind of stick to your body, so it's less fun. In fact, I was just telling Hidai yesterday that it's amazing that I needed to go all the way to the UK to start wearing proper summer clothes. I am now the proud owner of two summer dresses;
Guys take off their shirts everywhere. Or maybe it's just around my house;
People are smiling at strangers;
People say things like "it's too nice outside to be at work";
People sit around with their front door open, to "let the sun in";
People complain about the weather in a very British way;
Every green place is good to pretend you are near the sea - wear your bikini (or go topless), get your folding chair or beach towel, pack a watermelon picnic (and wine. obviously), and go sit on the grass outside the house, or in the nearest park, or on your balcony (I did take a picture of how our central garden looked yesterday, but I don't think it's fit for a family blog);
There are posts like this one;
Everyone posts photos of their weather app, you know, to have proof;

I guess it's contagious, and so we found ourselves outside for most of the weekend. We were lucky enough to be invited to try out some of the activities that are offered on the Love Cravendale Loyalty Scheme. And when I say "try out" what I really mean is "stand around watching the kids do things". Not that I'm complaining, they were so exhausted by the end of the weekend, that today Ron informed me that it isn't fair that the weekend is only two days long. Raised him right.
The loyalty scheme has lots of activities to choose from, so naturally when the (very) nice lady called me, I told her to give me only girly things so I could have fun. As if. I chose three boys suiting activities - football, zoo and golf. The football one we did last week, and you can read about it in last weeks' Football and Life post.
And this week we had Battersea Park Children Zoo and a golf Lesson at the Bush Hill Park Golf Club, and the school's summer fair. Lots to do.
Now, we live in one of the more central parts of London, so we are used to everything being a SHORT tube ride away (up to 30 minutes is short for me). In fact, it was one of the main requirements when choosing where to live in London. We got here from Gib after all, and we were used to everything being in a walking distance. Also, let's face it, we are pretty lazy. That is why we are not used to being the ones that has to travel a long time to get somewhere in London. Last week took us to Wembley area (not to Wembley itself though, to the disappointment of my boys), and this week we went to Battersea and Enfield. All these places are about an hour drive for us, and all of them reminded us of how big London is, how different it is to live in the "suburbs" and not in the centre, how many different things there are to do in London, and how much we hate waking up early on the weekend for anything.

The Battersea zoo is really nice if you have young kids, as it has a really good play-area for them to enjoy, and plenty of benches and places to buy coffee. I don't know if the coffee's any good, but there were many people drinking it, so I asume it is. Yon is animals crazy, and though he was a bit disappointed at the lack of a lion, he enjoyed the monkeys and donkeys. And squirting water at the Emus. It was a lovely day and we were there early enough so all the animals were out and about, and we got to see all of them. It is always a bit heartbreaking going to the zoo with Yon, as there are some animals he just can't see, mainly the ones that has good camouflage colours, or the ones that are up high, or the ones that are too small. It's usually also involves me sounding like one of those too uptight, too protective and all around nag mums. "Yon be careful" "Ron go with him" "look where you're going" etc. I can't help it. It's automatic. And also, maybe because he can't see too well, he hasn't yet developed the tendency to look where he's going...

On the way back from the zoo to school we stopped at our local library, and are now the proud owners of 3 library cards. The kids and I checked out a book each. Yon's isn't really a reading one, but he already went through all of it; Ron chose Goal! (a book based on the movie by the same title) and has already almost finished it; I chose a book also. Because I can't go into a library and not take out a book. It's blasphemy. I haven't even opened it yet. But I did put it rather nicely next to my bed. Maybe that way I will read it while sleeping.

The Summer fair at school was great for those of us who like that sort of thing (Hidai & Ron) and hell on earth to the normal people in the family (Yon and me). Ron is such a big boy already, and he wanted to run around the playground with his friends unsupervised. At least until he found the football competitions. Yon was completely freaked out from the amount of people, noise, and mess. He and I went home after a (very) short time, and left behind the crazy half of the family to help around and enjoy themselves.

On Sunday we once again woke up with an alarm clock. Seriously. And went to try our hands at golf. As absurd as it sounds we've never tried golf. Other than mini-golf (and that was some years ago). We got invited to a Members Only Club, which I was so excited about because... Well I'm not really sure, maybe it's the whole aura around it or something. An aura they are working hard on preserving, and I am guessing the reason they don't have a pedestrian entrance. No one apparently walks in. You drive. Well, we went in behind a passing car. After we got directions from the members only that were playing, we got to the right place and the kids joined a Sunday morning golf course, that was taught by a very very nice young (very young) man, who has infinite tolerance, a good sense of humor and ability to work with special needs children. He is also an Arsenal fan, which is even a better testament for his character according to my boys. 
Ron had a problem because he is still struggling with the whole "you can't be perfect in everything on the first time" thing (it really doesn't help that his ability in the football things he needed to work on from last week, did get better after a couple of serious training session, which he decided to up to 30 minutes a day now), I thought he was rather good, especially if you take into account the fact that he never played it before (apparently the WII doesn't really count). Much to our surprise and delight Yon had a lovely time, he waited patiently for his turn, he let the instructor show him how to hold the club, how to hit the ball, and he was happy for Ron when he did well. They hit some balls, collected them and played a two holes game. They loved every minute of it, and Ron said it comes in second to football. A high praise.

We got home in time to watch the Wimbledon men final on the TV, and once again we were really surprised by how much interest Yon showed and how much he enjoyed it, and of course after Andy Murray won (and gave the best winning interview ever) the boys went on to play golf and tennis on the WII, which was another great step for Yon, who managed to operate the WII by himself for the first time, and whose golf score has improved dramatically.
I am very thankful for the Love Cravendale Loyalty Scheme people because they made us go out and do things we wouldn't normally do (even though we had to wake up early on the weekend), and because those things had led us to see how much Yon has grown, and how much his attitude and behaviour has improved. It's a great way to start any week, but especially his birthday week.