Summertime

Summer is here, and the blogosphere is awash in summer-posts, summer-lists, and my "favourite" summer-survival guides. What do all these things have in common you ask? Well isn't it obvious? (No. I don't mean summer.) They all want to help you deal with those vacationing little monsters also known as your kids. So I decided, because a) I don't want to be left behind, and b) because maybe the real purpose of all these lists is to make sure we even get some summery weather here, and if so, I am so totally in, to add my own Ultimate Guide To Summer!

Summer, officially runs from June 21 to September 22 (from the longest day of the year to the day in which day and night are the same -12 hours each. You really do learn something new every day!), but as every parent knows Summer really runs between the last day of the school year and the first day of the next year (from the day you are excited and energetic to have your kids with you to the day of total exhaustion and willingness to sell them to whomever is willing to pay first).
In that regard I have 6 weeks until Summer, (which will then run for exactly 6 weeks for Ron. 12 more days of vacation for Yon because he is starting Reception, and that is how it goes apparently). First option is to go through those 6 weeks until summer in a desperate attempt to ignore the fact that it is indeed upon us soon. It's kind of easy here in the UK, because lets face it - it's not like the weather is getting any hotter or brighter or anything resembling a proper summer. If you look out the window (most days) you could easily think - hey that's autumn! or even - hey that's winter! Works wonders for the denial-loving souls.
Unfortunately (as we learned the hard way. The really hard way) that doesn't really works and you still get summer, just with two bored out of their mind kids and no plans.
That is why we usually go with door number two and make plans for summer. This year it's important for us
a) because although it's officially our second summer here in the UK, it will be our first one as people-who-really-live-here;
b) because we need to plan the summer-budget & the Hidai-summer-days-off well in advance. Why, do you ask? well, simple, it's bloody expensive to do everything we planned, and Hidai hates it when I spring days off on him. If it's not planned two months in advance  it's not gonna happen. Oh, the spontaneity we live by;
c) because it is so easy for me to just let them be, you know? they are old enough and I am busy and lazy enough, and If I let them, they would sit around all day, each with his own electronic device, swapping them occasionally and coming up for air only when they are hungry or out of battery;
d) because if I won't do fun stuff during the summer then I will not have good photos and stories for the blog. And also, I will not be able to nag my kids later in life with a "you know how much effort and money we put into your summers?!" and guilt trip them into doing whatever I want;
and e) which is the real reason, after all, and every parent knows that, we use our kids shamelessly to do things we want but feel embarrassed to admit - love water parks? cartoons? Zoos? fairs? kids are your answer. Also, kids are a great excuse for why you just "had to" watch the first match of the season - does "it wasn't me, the kid begged me" sounds familiar?

A few guidelines I had to plan according to -
Kids have to leave the house at least 4 days a week otherwise they start bouncing on walls, or crying / bickering / whining / annoying the hell out of me for no good reason.
Yon has to learn how to be able to function without afternoon naps (yes, he still go for a nap every day between 1pm and 3pm. Half of the time he even falls asleep. But since he is starting school full-time in October, he has to get used to not sleeping in the middle of the day. I will also need to get used to being without those two quiet hours in the middle of the day).
As far as I know and could find out throughout the year, there are no organised activities for full days for kids around here (and the ones I did find were only for Ron and very expensive).
Ron does math & reading every vacation (okay, I feel the need to justify myself here. It is not my fault. The kid loves his math. He loves it. And now that he discovered the joy of books he also loves that. I can't say no to reading books now can I?), and now Yon will start too, as he is starting school and it's the tradition.
I hate nature. It is a super important guideline, especially for me. I don't like going to the parks, I don't particularly enjoy Zoos, or petting-zoos, or playing football or sitting on the grass.
Ron has to practice his football, preferably outside of the house. Surprisingly enough less things get broken when you play outside.
Nobody in this house likes arts & crafts. That is, by far, the best thing about having (non-artistic) boys. I don't have to do any arts & crafts that are more complicated than giving Yon a piece of paper and some colouring-pens. That does not stop me buying boxes full of arts & crafts materials, but that is a totally different personality disorder.

Taking all these very valid points and guidelines into account, I sat down to make my summer survival plan. First thing is first, I informed Hidai that I am enforcing our "one day a week" rule, according to which Hidai takes one day off in every week the kids are home, there by insuring that I get one day off a week (actually he is insuring I get three days, because weekends are mostly his responsibility anyway. The joy of an all boys household - they get to watch football, and I get 5 hours to myself - pre-match, match and post-match of course).
By now I felt like I'm half way to a well-organised summer, after all I've just chucked half the week in Hidai's lap. Unfortunately for me, I still had to sit down and chart The Plan. Which I did, and I am going to share it here in a desperate attempt to make sure we actually do about half of it...
Without further ado - The Big Summer 2013 Plan!
Time table that includes time for - a morning movie, playtime, snack times, going out to the park time, reading, TV, meals, maths and various electronic devices.
Library - I am so ashamed to even tell you that, but, we haven't been to the library yet. We've been here a year and still don't have a library card. Ron is going to the library once every two weeks with his class, but as a family thing we still haven't done it. I used to love libraries as a child, and now I found the Summer Reading Challenge which I think Ron would enjoy, so library visiting is going in on the list.
Kids week - after watching We Will Rock You with the kids over Easter and seeing how much they loved it, I've decided to try and use this offer this year and take them to at least one more musical. The only thing is - Yon doesn't like the whole people-dressed-as-animals thing, and Ron isn't big on fantasy, so we will have to search the list quite carefully to find something everyone will like...
Outdoors fun, is something summer is good for, right? So I am hoping the weather will agree with me and we could finally take the kids to Kew-Gardens, Hampton Court, Crystal Place Park, a pick-your-own farm (where Yon could touch EVERYTHING), Brighton Beach, boat ride in the Themes, Water park (hopefully will help Ron's dislike of water), Chessington World of Adventure, Dinosaurs mini-golf, the Ice Cream Festival at King's Cross (we were there last year so this is a maybe), the family festival at the Zoo, and of course how can I forget the first match of the season?.
Indoor fun - if I ever finish my chocolate-free lifestyle and go back to normal life, than I am taking the kids to Cadbury World. Museums - Science, Transport, Childhood, etc., Discover Children Story Centre, and obviously at least one movie (Monster University and Smurfs 2 are a definite).
So basically my plan (as it stands now) is to have Mondays & one other day as Timetable days (unless someone wants to help me clean the house. Somehow that never happens), and all other weekdays are one family fun day and two park / library outings - depending on the weather obviously. Weekends are also divided into two - one lazy day at home and one is meant for family outings.
In about a month from now I will start writing it all down according to precise dates. Like I said, it's all about spontaneity in our house.
There you have it, survival through fun. And military precision.

Read more »

Spring - Facebook, Projects and Fun

I have a Facebook page! I am live on Facebook! And as you can see I am totally cool about it. Please like me on Facebook... If you will like me on Facebook you will get even more interesting insights into my life, insights that let's be honest - you just can't live without! Like the one where I watched the full Lord of The Rings movies for ten straight hours and now every time we wait for the grocery shopping delivery guy to go up the stairs, after we buzzed him through 3 gates, and there is nothing left to do but stand at the door, rolling up our sleeves and taking a deep breath, we recite "you are soliders of Gondor  and whatever comes through that gate, you will stand your ground!"
Please like my page, even though you now think I'm weird...

This is how I spent last Saturday - watching all of the Lord of The Rings movies on Hidai's computer

It seems that Spring is here, at least in spirit if not in actual weather... It's been cold and snowy the whole of March and the beginning of April though is sunnier but definitely not warmer, though there is always hope that by July we will see the double digits again... Then why am I talking to you about Spring when it is so obvious it's yet to make an appearance in the UK? Because like I said, it's here in spirit, mainly in me being in serious "projects mode". You know, like Spring cleaning, just without the cleaning (yet. It was postponed for tomorrow because we woke up at 9 today. Yes I said 9. The kids slept until 9). My first project was the Facebook page. Did I mention that I have a new Facebook page for the blog? no? well...

Kids pretending it's Spring by playing outside

Anyway, the other big project I undertook was the fixing of Yon. As you know we had a really big shock with everything Yon related - medical and behavioural, and because we agreed to ask for a formal psychological assessment, we had to feel some very long forms that details everything in his life. Actually the nursery teacher and school psychologist did that and Hidai & I just went over what they wrote and added / corrected where needed. It was horrible seeing everything in writing, and even though I know it always looks worse in these forms, it was very very bad, it was like another shock to the heart all over again. Also we got word back that the specialist from the outreach program our teacher found will observe Yon on the 15th, which is his first day back in nursery after 2.5 weeks at home. So I embarked on a Fix Your Yon program, and my objective is to fix as many of his quirks as I possibly can - and that is how I found myself sitting across the table from him trying to decide what was the best option to make him abandon the straw and start drinking from a cup like a normal person. I looked at him, while considering all my options - bribes, pleading, threatening, and in the end I opened my mouth and what came out was "well... You will need to start drinking without a straw from now on, so... go for it" and he did! I was so surprised, I can't even explain how much... The thing is, up to that day if you even hinted at a no-straw situation he would freak out and start screaming and crying, and now within 2 days he came to terms with it, and he enjoyes the whole clapping-cheering-"I won"-situation he has going on... After the drinking success I decided to tackle the getting himself dressed issue in which every turn used to be "mummy's turn", and within one afternoon became "Yon's turn".
Encouraged by my huge (and might I add surprising) success, I turned my attention to trying new food, and in the last week he ate whole plates of new things without fighting, shouting, crying or saying "I don't like it"... Lastly we eliminated the whole "not saying what I want, I just point and get it" situation that was becoming somewhat annoying. I am planning on giving back the nursery a new & improved Yon 2.0 (or at least 1.5).
With Ron my projects are easier, we are reading The Hobbit, studying Maths, and working on moderation (you don't have to memorize the whole book just because I asked you to tell me what you read today) and taking life just a little less seriously (well, I don't think the hour long conversation I had with him about budgets, loans, interest rates and savings helped, but he is such a delight to talk to I couldn't help it...).
I got an ice-cream maker from my parents, and my next culinary project is ice-cream! I will totally ignore the fact that we are still very deep into the single digits, and the fact that everyone still has a semi-cold, and make lots and lots of ice-cream because I've wanted an ice-cream maker for ages and I will not let reality destroy my ice-cream dreams (and beside, I keep the house on around 25 degrees Celsius at all times, so it's warm enough to eat ice-cream).

Ice-cream maker! So exciting!

The Birthday Season has officially started yesterday with Hidai's birthday, then in May I have Ron and myself and in July it's Yon's. Each birthday requires one heart shaped chocolate cake with chocolate sauce, writing and decorations; 10 "Birthday Boy" balloons; 3 birthday cards; and gifts. Hidai got to go to the Arsenal match (they won, an added bonus), he got a manly bookmark and chose to choose his own birthday-present-clothes, so it was a relatively easy birthday to organise. Ron is a different matter all together. He is by far the most difficult to shop for or to organise things for. He is the most amazing child, but asking for things is not his strong suit. I know a lot of people will trade places with me but when it gets to his birthday it can be a bit problematic. He doesn't know what he wants, he doesn't want a party but he wants to celebrate, he only loves football and there isn't a match close enough to his birthday, my parents are coming from Israel especially for his birthday, and it's a bank holiday. It ends up being a military operations, or like I wrote yesterday in my scheduling email - there will be shirts in the end saying "I survived Ron's birthday" :). All his presents have been chosen and are either hidden away in the house or on their way, we chose to take him (and all the rest of us also) to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter tour as a birthday celebration (which leads to another project - watch all 8 Harry Potter movies with Hidai so he knows where we are going. I already watched them of course), he chose which cake to take to school, and there is a 4 days tight schedule for everything and everyone. Thank God I have 2 months before Yon's birthday...

Mazal Tov Hidai :)

Have fun this Easter. Yes, it's a project, because for me everything is a project... I need to prepare the venues, the budget, and the time-table. We decided that Easter is a great time to go out and about, to remember that yes, a 20 minutes tube ride will get you to the heart of London, and there is so much we haven't done or seen. So much fun things we still need to do in London, and Spring is the best time to do it. Also, we won't have another long family-holiday until Christmas, so we can't pass up this opportunity. I won't elaborate, first because we still haven't done much - between the Bank Holiday, and some weather-health-work-cleaning the house issues we still had one more indoor day, and second because I am hoping to have a whole post just for Easter things because of all the fun we will have.

Easter fun has to start with Easter eggs right?

And lastly, I bought flowers. Daffodils to be exact, because they are yellow, and lovely, and so so Springy. They came all closed-up and disappointing, but I put them in water and within a day I had Spring in the house. I wish other things in life were like that also, but I don't care - I have yellow sunny girly flowers. All is good in the world.

My flowers

Oh, yes, did I mention I have a Facebook page?

Read more »

Valentines, Pancakes and Sunshine

This week was such a lovely week. We had Pancake Tuesday, we had Valentine's day, we had actual Sunshine.
I will not use this post as an excuse to tell you all how wonderful Hidai is and all about our unending and undying love for each other. First of all because if you know Hidai you know that it's true. And second because he chose the day (evening) before Valentine's to pick a fight with me. And so lost the lovely and touching post I was going to write about the greatest person, husband and father I know (it doesn't matter that we made up and had a lovely Valentine's. he is still not getting his post. because I am not as good a person).
And also I kinda feel like the Valentine people are telling me what to do.
Which always goes well with me.
Lastly, because I took my anger and annoyance at Hidai out on the house, otherwise known as I cleaned the house (maybe "cleaned" is not the right word. The house was sparkling when I finished), I hurt my very temperamental wrist, and my right hand now needs to be in a splint so that I could have almost no movement, which incidentally makes typing almost impossible.
All that leads us to.... Photo posts.
By the way, English speaking people, why oh why can't I use photo and picture correctly? Why?
So, this week began with snow.
Like every good week should. It was the nicest kind of light snow that melts without really making a mess, and you get to enjoy the snow and not fall down in the street. Win-win situation.

Isn't it nice to wake-up to that on monday?

After that we had Pancake Tuesday. Well, I do know that it has actual religious meaning and it's not just the pancakes thing. But do you really see me giving up something for 40 days? The only thing I should give up is chocolate, and I have never succeeded in more than a week without it. Beside, we are only celebrating the fun parts of our own holidays, so I don't really see us going all the way with other religion's holidays. Anyway, we absolutely love pancake day around here, I mean how can you not love pancake day? It's a day that "forces" you to eat pancake. For dinner. Doesn't get any better than that, and since I mastered the three pans technique it takes me very little time to make all the pancake. It takes my boys even less time to eat them...

Yes we ate it all. And by "we" I mean Hidai

 


On wednesday Ron handed-in his Israel presentation, on which he worked really hard and for long hours and got 15 out of 15 (5 for research, 5 for quality of work and 5 for delivery). He also had an assembly about France (very sad seeing all the Eiffel Tower photos without being able to go...) in which he had 2 sentences, one of them was the opening sentence and he was very excited about it, but actually he was less terrified than at his first assembly, so I figured it means he is feeling more "at home" in school.
I represented me, Hidai and Ron's best friend's mum (who couldn't make it because of work and our school's tendency to let you know about things a day before).

The Year 3 France Model

 


Which brings us to Thursday and Valentine's day. Of course we celebrate Valentine's day. First of all because we celebrate every stray holiday, second because we have boys that we need to educate, and teach how to treat women and you know what they say - the best way to teach is through demonstration. And third, it's pink and hearts and chocolates. How can we say no to that? what are we animals? (actually, the last time I asked Yon that, he answered with a resounding "yes" so you know...). We had all the things needed for a good Valentines - a card, a good bottle of wine (Israeli wine I bought last week in Golders Green and we saved), chocolate mousse (store bought one, because I don't bake or cook on "my" holidays), and pizza (that I was disappointed to see was not shaped as a heart). Oh, and kids that were in bed on time.

 


So this is Friday, Ron had an Ice-Cream Party at school because they had 100% attendance last week, we had lovely, warm, happy sunshine (okay so the warm part was an exaggeration), kids are off school for half-term, and we have Challa for Friday night dinner, Jaffa Cakes for the kids (it's the new hit) and my new favourite thing - Pita Chips.

A sunny Yon

Yes, this is me when my hand hurts and I am having difficulties writing.

Read more »

I'm a survivor

Hi everyone, miss me? :)
I was feeling under the weather for the last couple of weeks, with a few different things that all amounts to the same thing - I wasn't here writing, I wasn't at the gym exercising, I wasn't at my computer working, I wasn't with the kids...
I was, however, feeling sorry for myself.
So I did what any sane person would do. I wallowed.
It wasn't fun. Well, it wasn't fun for everyone else.
So while I was busy wallowing, we still had some time to try and do other things to take my mind off of it and so other people in this family will have some fun also.
We decided to tour Upper St. which is kind of our new Main St. It has almost everything you can want, including around 6 Starbucks, which is a necessity with the Chocolate Brownie crazed children around, restaurants that we never eat in, bakeries that we almost never buy at, and clothes stores that explain our reluctance to frequent all those lovely restaurants :).
There is also an Oasis store. Oasis is one of my favourite shops in the UK (despite their outrageous pricing system), and after a long search I recently bought a new bag there. It is a very long and hard search process (don't even get me started about how long it took me to find a watch), so I was extremely happy with the bag I found. First of all it's red. Second of all, it has so much space inside, with a lot of different compartments, but without appearing too big. And I got it on a 15% off. BUT after a week or so, while we were in Starbucks, it broke (okay so it was just a little thing - one of the metal things holding the straps popped out). So I went back into the store all unhappy and the most amazing thing happened - they exchanged my bag, they didn't want a receipt, they didn't care when or where I bought it, they even gave me a new receipt for the new one. I was so amazed and dazed I think I stared at the saleswoman open mouthed... My new bag is holding just fine, and now more than ever I totally recommend Oasis.

my bag! (and me of course)

We also toured Westfield mall, since the weather was under the weather :), and it was the first place in 2 months that we heard Hebrew in (well, except for our place). Other than that, not a lot to say - it is big. No. It is huge. And it has everything you can want in a place like that. Except maybe a soul (but why would you look for a soul in a mall?). I don't know when I got so used to the English (and Gibraltarian) way of  shopping streets instead of shopping malls, but now I find it really hard to be in one... And in the end, it took us around 40 minutes and 2 tubes, to be able to go into the Disney Store (Yons favourite store), the Build a Bear store, the Lego store, a book store, and another toy store (and of course a Starbucks and a Boots). All in all, not an experience I am waiting to repeat (at least until it rains again).
After that we stayed at home.
Well, we stayed home because we were having Uri & Ev over for coffee, cake and football, and before they came over we just had to reorganize the house. Don't get me wrong, the house is great, the complex is great, but it is tiny. So so tiny. And it's not that we went from 3 bedrooms to 2, because all the kids things fit perfectly inside their room, it's the living area and the fact that I just never understand how works the mind of an architect. And that of British people in general. Don't they cook? bake? live inside a house? It might be a London thing. Or it might be a young people thing. Anyway we spent Sunday morning trying to find a space to fit another cupboard in the living area (later decided to be a sideboard, which is a completely new term I learned this past few days) since I wanted to start baking again (more on that later) and discovered what I chose to ignore when we unpacked. Baking supplies take up space. Which we don't have. Also since the fridge is the size of a small ice-cream box (seriously, it's around the size fridge we had when it was just the 2 of us and we were living on take away), we needed to find a place for an extra freezer (ideally I would replace the whole thing with a decent size fridge, but I can't first because there is no room, and second because it's not mine ant I have a feeling the landlord won't like it very much). Thank god Uri & Ev brought cookies from Gail's, a very good bakery I also discovered 2 days before while trying to find Israeli / Jewish food outside the Jewish areas. The bakery isn't really Jewish, but they do have rude service people, Challa and very good chocolate cookies (and apparently an award winning carrot cake). We felt right at home, and ate half the Challa on the bus.
The last week of August finally arrived and with it Late Summer Holiday, our first London Holiday, which we celebrated with not going to the Notting Hill Festival. Hidai did take the kids to Clissold Park, which he prefers because it has a petting area and a very good size playing area for Yon, and I don't like much because it's further away from home (did someone said lazy?) they ran into Aunty Jo's family (without the Aunty Jo part), and had a great morning including petting animals, playing in the sand and getting wet in the inevitable rain shower.

 We also ended up with a Jewish New Year celebration with Uri & Ev and Aunty Jo & family. I am so excited. I know, it doesn't go with my oh-so-cool image, but I really hate sitting alone in the holidays. When you live in Israel it's kind of tradition and expected of you to either have a big family holiday meal, or be abroad. But since the kids don't really care about any holiday except Christmas, and are not very good at eating celebratory dinners, we usually found ourselves sitting at the table alone while a "holiday songs cd" is playing in the background. Fun as that sounds ( I know, i know, you all wish you were in my shoes right now), after last year's Rosh H'ashana Debacle (also known as Jewish New Year disaster) I swore that never again will that happen, and true to that we had had such a lovely time with all our holidays up until now with friends and family, and even the kids enjoyed themselves and showed some intrest. So I was really worried that in the move to London, together with losing so many other things, we will also lose our holidays again. I honestly don't know how we will fit 6 adults and 4 kids into the house, but I am so happy that everyone's coming, even though it won't be a proper holiday dinner, it will center around sweet food (for a sweet year) and the menu (for now) is - 3 kind of cookies (2 honey ones, 1 chocolate), 2 cakes, sweet pasta pie, sweet Challa, bureks and mini-pancakes. Hopefully it's enough food, and I already started perfecting all my receipts...
This week, after surviving the hardest August EVER, we decided to treat the kids. They deserve it. So instead of going to the Islington end of summer boat fair (original plan) we took them to buy some new underpants and socks. I take full responsibility for all that happened from here on. I decided on Primark. Even though I don't like Primark. And it's always too full of people and not so good clothes. But we just moved to a new country, so we have no more money. And so Primark seemed like a good option. And even worse, I decided to not go to Oxford st., but to a closer one. The Primark in Hackney. It's about 20 minutes drive (or 45 on the slowest bus ever) from here, and it is... I have no other words to describe it other than... different... We will not be going back there any time soon. It wasn't even the Primark itself, though it did have a very small selection of boys clothes, it was the vibe of the neighbourhood. I know it's definitely not the worst neighbourhood in London, but it made feel a bit unsure of myself and out of place. I guess we are not ready for hard-core London yet. Next time I have the urge to buy cheap underpants, I'm going to Oxford st. with all the tourists.
We did go to an Ice Cream Festival this weekend, which was amazing. We've never been to King-Cross area, so we got a bit lost on the way, but it was totally worth it. They had plenty of ice cream trucks, with organic ice cream, sheep milk ice cream and also, you know, good ice cream :), an ice cream ice sculpture, some fake cows, how to make ice cream thing, and for us the 2 best things - a small petting area with cows, sheep and goats, and a cow milking station, where you got to pretend milk a pretend cow. All my boys took turns, Yon found it funny, Ron found it wet, and Hidai found it very nostalgic. We also ate ice cream from Gelatorino, which was so good that even Yon ate (he is not a big fan). We chose that particular ice cream stand because it had a long queue, and it is a known fact that a) it you see a queue you have to join in, and b) the longer the queue the better the quality. Ron took one glance at the guy's card and immediately knew that Russel St. is near the Transport Museum, after all, we've gone past it like 3 weeks before. How can you NOT know that?!

milking a cow

Petting a goat

And eating the ice cream

So that is it. Today is the 4th of September. It is Ron's last day of Summer, and to celebrate we took everyone to the dentist. I don't get dentists. They are the only kind of doctors that you go to feeling just fine and go out of feeling like the worst person alive with rotten teeth that are about to fall off any minute now. It's a miracle you got to this point in life with all your teeth. Ah and also, they all have different reasons and diagnostics to everything. The doctor in Gib told me - only use Sensodyne (really sensitive teeth here). The doctor here says - Colgate. The doctor in Gib blamed my sensitivity on my Coke habit (it was called for. You know it was. Drinking Diet Coke for the sense of humourless among us), this one, on grinding my teeth. Anyway NOT a fun visit, but at least it's done and the kids are fine.
I survived another summer.
I am crazy with worry about tomorrow.
I can't wait to be after. After Ron settles in. After Yon goes to nursery. After they have friends. After.
I don't want tomorrow to arrive. I can't bear the thought of my baby going to a new school, without knowing anyone. I almost cried today when he said he's a bit nervous.
I am, as usual in these situations, a train wreck.

Read more »

Weekend in the Sun

I've been sitting here awhile now trying to figure out how to start this post. I was supposed to take the kids out for some errands and their beloved Starbucks chocolate muffin this morning, but they informed me they prefer to stay at home and play "Buffaloes and Rhinos"  and have now apparently closed the door to their room...
As it turned out I don't complain nearly enough in this Blog (feedback from the last post) so I am going to do nothing but complain from now on, so that everyone will know how hard it is to be me...
Okay, so not really, life really isn't that bad and after I will finish writing about the last few days you won't believe me anyway, so let me just say this - I have both my kids at home, with me, all the time, for every activity, and every hour of every day, for the last 2 months and I have 2 more weeks to go. Oh, and they are judgemental. And opinionated. I don't know where they get that from, but they keep telling me what to do. It's like having 2 little bosses that follow you to the bathroom and keeps telling you what you are doing wrong...
The good thing about this I think is that when the time comes to start school in a whole new place with new people, new rules and new expectations of them, they will be so happy to get rid of me that they won't care about any of the scary stuff. I, on the other hand, will get to go have my hair cut for the first time in...
One of our main problems with going out with the kids is the fact that there are 2 of them. They are different in age and taste, while Ron wants football related things but is willing to tolerate other places of interest, Yon is still young and is not used to London life and the whole stay close to me, sit quietly on the bus, you can't run here thing. Life in Gibraltar were a lot easier in that regard... He is such a nature loving child, all he wants is to run around, play in the grass and feed his imaginary animals. So it is very hard to find places both of them will enjoy...
On Friday the sun was shining and I was trying to mark the beginning of the weekend in a fun outing, so we tried the Tower Bridge Exhibition tour because a) it's cool, b) it's a closed environment so that Yon can run around relatively free, c) Ron thought it was a great place to visit. We picked up Hidai at work and took a taxi to the bridge since it's quite inconvenient to get there with public transport and also because they close at 6:00 p.m. and the last entrance is at 5:30. You get to walk around inside the bridge, which is really cool and to see lots of pictures of famous bridges and Olympic cities (and connect them to famous football players from the same cities). You can also see a great view of the city, but unfortunately the windows were too high for Yon, who did have fun running around and also they are very good with kids there, the people working there were all so nice and helpful with the kids, they have pages with stickers, questions, throwing hoops, answering questions, and medals (they were out of gold medals, so they gave the kids the silver and the bronzed ones). The last part was the engine room with the big steam engine and the gift shop with all the really cool things we did not buy (okay I did get Ron some pencils with the tube map on them, but they are mostly for me as he already forgot about them). That's were the evening got a bit muddy, we were hungry and thirsty and a bit lost and tired so it took us awhile to find our way back from the fiasco part of the outing, to Pizza Express where the menu was nowhere close to the one in Gib, and we ate half of what we ordered (as usual) and took a taxi home watching all the young professionals enjoy their Friday evening out.
Saturday was the first match of the season for Arsenal, and Hidai & Ron had tickets (of course), so the plan was that Hidai will take the kids to the park in the morning while I stay at home (alone!) resting my knee and after that we will eat lunch (traditional for Saturday - fries and sausages) and all go together to see the ambiance before the match, leave Hidai & Ron at the stadium and go home with Yon. It all went really well actually (surprisingly even), and it's a gorgeous thing to see, the streets of Highbury turns red and white, everyone has on their shirts (there were no van Persie or Song ones), there are lots of food and memorabilia vendors, everyone was so excited and happy, and Yon got plenty of pats on the head because he looked super cute in Ron's old Arsenal shirt (a huge thank you to Uri for buying us one every year since Ron was 3). Ron and Hidai had a great time at the match (well except for the fact that we didn't actually win the match), and Yon and I got to see a policeman on a horse and hear all the noise from the stadium. It is crazy, because the windows were open we could hear the music, the announcements and of course every time the crowd did a collective "AHHHHHHHHHH". I know it should annoy me, but it really didn't. I found it so.... Fun I guess. And I'm sure with the windows closed you hear a lot less. But seeing as to how we are living in the old stadium, I think it's only fitting that we get to hear them play :).
On Sunday, which was very sunny indeed, I reached the sad conclusion that I finished all my unwatched TV from the last couple of months, and that if I will stay in bed for one more day I will become a grumpy troll, so we decided on a change in strategy - just walk the streets of London instead of organized activities we went for organized stops -  Starbucks and Mcdonald's (or Pret because Yon likes their sandwiches) and everything else is left unstructured. So we started in Covent Garden Market and of course discovered that there is also a Food Network Cooking show there, We stopped at some stores and introduced Yon to the "see more stuff" concept in which he gets to touch almost anything in the store and we get to not buy it for him :), then bought a cooking apron for me, since Hidai is fed up with me ruining all my clothes when I bake and also, the aprons were really cool, the salesman was really nice to Yon who insisted on reorganizing his chairs all the time, and Ron saw one that said something about forget the cooking lets go straight for the sex (not a direct quote) so naturally he asked me what sex means. Avery good question. Go ask your dad... He did and got an answer that did not include the make babies part... So from there we went straight to Starbucks and drank the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappucino. Drink it. Seriously.
After we recirculated enough from the impromptu sex ed. lesson we continued through the market which is one of the only things that both kids loves. Markets. They are definitely NOT related to me.   From there we made our way slowly to Leicester Square and stopped for some imaginary animals time at the garden, until it started raining, so naturally we ran to the M&M shop, another of Yon's favourites, and decided to pop into the Rainforest Cafe instead of McDonald's. The store itself is so lovely! Yon thought he died and gone to heaven, he got so excited he didn't know where to look first, what to do, where to go... So we went downstairs to the restaurant itself, but it was a disaster... First of all the noise level in that place is out of this world, second of all the people dressed as animals scared Yon, and third, the menu is disastrous. I don't understand why everything has to have a weird name, and weirder ingredients...  It's food for kids for god sake. Now I know mine are particular about their food, but still, why is there no simple pizza, or pasta, or nuggets and chips... So eventually we left, crosed the road and... Ate at McDonald's :).
Yon did not forgive us for taking him outside and is still asking for "more stuff" :)
Just to finish our weekend and this post - you know how I love my Domino's Pizza right? So on Sunday evening my knee was killing me, I was feeling blue and also we really wanted to, so we decided on pizza. But we were very adventurous and tried Papa John's. What can I say? The site is terrible, we got the confirmation mail after we finished eating the pizza. But the pizza? OMG Ron even said - better then Domino's... And that is not something to be taken lightly in our house :)

Read more »

Stay at home and hide under the covers... Or not

Well, I am slipping again aren't I? It's only the beginning and already it's 2 weeks without posts... Sorry everyone, but I've been unable to write (physically) and the time did not wait for me to feel better :).
I am better now (hopefully) and my hand is back to normal (damn joints) and writing is once again possible!
The last 2 weeks saw the end of our unpacking period and the beginning of the settling down period. It's like the middle part of the beginning, and for me it's the hardest part. It's the part in which the "life and death" feeling that surround you at the very beginning vanished, leaving you with the "what the hell am I doing here?!" feeling... It's the part where everyone wants to know how are you enjoying life, especially in London, and you just don't. Not really. It's the part in which not knowing fills the biggest segments of your day - not knowing where to go, what to do, what to buy, what to do with the kids, with your time, etc.
And mainly it's the time in which you have to take action. And I don't like taking actions. I have reservations. And fears. And abnormalities. I hate meeting new people, I am not good in groups, I do not like going to places I don't know, I hate overcrowded places. I don't especially like tourists. Or buses. Or the Tube.
But this is where I am now. In the city of overcrowded touristy places where every time I go somewhere one of the people working there asks me if everything is ok.
No it is not, thanks for asking.
So of course the right thing was to stay at home, close the blinds and drink some hot coco (what IS going on with this poor excuse for a summer anyway?).
Almost what we did. Not quite but almost (ok, not even close):
1. Met Ev's aunty Jo, her husband Adrian, and their 2 boys that are in somewhat similar ages to Ron and Yon. Ok, so you know those abnormalities? We (I not we) have to give people nicknames (it's a disease according to Hidai, not an abnormality), so around here they are collectively known as Aunty Jo. It took me a few days to make sure Ron won't call her aunty by mistake, only Jo. He didn't call her anything in the end as he was too busy playing :). They invited us for dinner (is it called tea here? I thought I heard someone say that), a very important event since apart from Uri & Ev they are our closest family here, and they also live 2 streets from us... And a very stressful one as Uri (are you reading this Uri?) was under the impression that we will embarrass him. US? really? We did try our best to behave as the most uncivilized Israelis as we could, but they liked us anyway :) and I know that for a fact because not only did we exchange phones and mails (ok, obviously only Hidai did that. Really, how long do you know me for?), but they invited us for a play date that same Sunday, that went beautifully and closed with a shared pizza for dinner in the pizzeria next to our homes (in which they paid for us because I only took 10 pounds when I left the house for coffee and cakes at the park...)...
2. Went to the Gym. To do group Pilates. 4 times. Each time it's a different instructor and a different group. It's been great until I broke, and now I have to take some time off of all exercise until I am whole again. The problem is that it is not a real Pilates studio so the instructors are not real Pilates teachers but people that come from many different disciplines like Yoga or dance, so they put less of an emphasis on fixing problems and correct breathing (the fundamentals of Pilates) and more emphasis on exercise) so when your joints, back and knees are not ideal (like me) you have to be very careful in what and how you do. But they are really nice, and the gym is better than I thought (again with the reservations. Don't like gyms), so I will go back when I feel better (hopefully next week).
anyway, if you care, this is our gym -
http://www.fitnessfirst.co.uk/gyms/gyms-in-london/club-222/
3. Went to an Arsenal Stadium Tour. Seriously, it was magnificent, and if you're in London, that is definitely something you don't want to miss (especially since if you are in London you are probably visiting me and it's a 10 minutes walk :) ).  This is the link to the tour - http://www.arsenal.com/tours
We didn't do the big fancy "legend tour" first of all because it was book solid until September, and second because we don't know anyone of them. The regular tour includes a recording that explains everything and also some video clips so it was great for us, except for Yon who misbehaved through the whole day and even broke his headphones :(. Nevertheless we tried to not let one Yon ruin everyone else's fun and we got to see all the places you will never get to see unless Ron actually goes to play for them when he grows up - the manager's chair, the players benches and dressing room, the director's box, the press room etc. It was really great, Ron (and Hidai) enjoyed themselves very very much, we took plenty of photos and finished in a pouring rain with a very delicious and nutritious meal of Tesco sandwiches (actually, because Yon was behaving badly, he wanted everything I was eating and not his food, so we got him to eat an egg sandwich, a real success as usually he's all "I don't like eggs / vegetables/ fruits, etc.").
You can see some of the photos on Facebook (trust me, it's definitely some and not all).
4. Gave Yon a haircut. It's a form of torture and punishment both to him and for us. Always a delight Yon. I really don't know how he came to be known as The Monster.
5. Found a GP (a doctor). We waited because I thought we needed the social insurance numbers, but it turned out we don't. We did need the council tax bill though, so after we got everything we went to the NHS website and permanently today you can actually read and write ratings of your GP.
We have 2 clinics in Highbury, and we chose The Miller Practice (http://www.nhs.uk/Services/GP/Overview/DefaultView.aspx?id=44192), which was the one Jo recommended and got the best ratings. They were very helpful and after we finished filling the 10,000 forms needed (I especially liked the one asking how much Ron has to drink everyday), we booked an appointment because we need to get Yon back into regular eye checks and to do that we have to go through the GP (on a side note, I was very surprised that there are no paediatricians in the UK but kids go to the same GP as adults.), the doctor we saw on Monday was so very young and had just joined the practice herself, but she did say she will refer us and we should get a letter with an appointment from the eye hospital in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully she is right because we really need to change Yon's glasses as they are 1 year old and are too small for him,, but we can't do it without a prescription from a London doctor, and our GP can't give us one...
6. Found a cleaning lady. It is a very important thing, a cleaning lady. Especially now, with the kids at home, Hidai working long(er) hours and me being broken, the house looked... Well, let's stay with bad. So we turned to our go-to guy Julio, who is actually a part of the complex's cleaning crew and the guy we gave all the things that we didn't need here to, and asked him if he knows someone, and so we got Gloria, who speak almost only Spanish. Seriously. But she cleans soooo well, and now we set a time and day for a weekly clean (hopefully next week she will not be an hour late though), and I have a clean house. 2 problems with this house - it has a wall of windows, and I am very sensitive to my windows, and it accumulates dust like you wouldn't believe, and Hidai is sensitive to dust. So big problems. But now we have Gloria, and I can try and remember my Spanish lessons, few as they were...
7. Went to London Eye. On Friday I had so much guilt over the fact that I am neglecting my kids that even the fact that Jewish people thrive on guilt couldn't counter it, and I decided to "kidnap" Hidai from work, and take him and the kids to the London Eye. I cleared it with Hidai first (very spontaneous of me) and ordered tickets in advance, including paying a bit more for the fast track, and off we went. It is still crazy for me that you take the bus and after a few minutes you are in London. Tourist London, where you can get Starbucks, and see the palace, and shop... Actual London... It was a VERY wise decision to book the fast track tickets as there were so many people there! and the fast track lets you skip the whole queue and go straight inside. Well worth the extra money, especially we don't like to wait (another one of those charming oddities. Yes I decided abnormalities doesn't have the same ring to them as oddities), if you've never been to the London Eye, then go it's really cool. The only thing is - look at the map they give you. Otherwise you. like us. will probably only recognise the Big Ben :). And second, you get on and off the bubble (is that the correct term? I am not sure) while it's still moving, because it never stops... It doesn't move quickly at all, just good to be prepared to things like that... The ride itself is really nice, you almost don't feel like you're moving at all so it's not scary being so high, and when you go make sure you have clear skies.  Anyway this is their website - http://www.londoneye.com/.
After that we went on a stroll toward Waterloo Station on the south bank, and we ate at Giraffe restaurant, which is known for being family and kids friendly, but the truth was they weren't and the food was too much - too spicy, too greasy, too un-kid friendly. The desert was good though :).
8. Went to the Olympics. Well, actually, we wanted to see the Queen's horses, but when we went out of the Tube on Green Park, we literally fell on the 5,000 run-walk (or something like that) at the Mall, so we stayed :). I think we are the only people that got to the Olympics by mistake, but I have to admit in the end it was so much fun, and we got to see the contestants really up close (we are Israelis after all, and if we're there...) and Yon got to enjoy himself at Green Park (he is such a nature loving child, I don't know where he got it from. Seriously I don't). After that we strolled along Piccadilly toward the square, passing some really nice buildings, mascots, museum, church fair (we did go inside, they had a fountain) and the Fortnum & Masons store (we did NOT go in), stopping at Starbucks (mandatory when you are out in London, and also if you register with them, they let you pay using your mobile!)  and of course finishing at McDonald's (again - mandatory).
9. Went to a tour of Buckingham Palace. It was gorgeous! Very recommended and also you get a return visit within a year of going for free. Yon of course was on his best behaviour mode (NOT) which meant he knocked down the rope, thank god not on the statue it stood in front of, and whined the whole way through. But if you go without a Yon, it is lovely and not very long, you get to see all the formal rooms, see a collection of the royal diamonds, try and snick-pick the queen (didn't see her), eat some very pricey but delicious royal cakes, buy way way overpriced royal merchandise (we bought royal chocolate naturally, to eat with the closing ceremony. It was heavenly) and take a tour through the gardens. Ron, I, and Hidai enjoyed it very much. It takes around 3 hours all together, and you can't take any photos and they actually make you shut the phone, so no pictures of the inside I'm afraid, but I will try and upload the Royal Weekend photos to Facebook today.
Anyway, this is the site, and of course - book in advance!
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/buckinghampalace/
10. Went to M&M World store on Leicester Square. I took the kids there alone (damn guilt) and although it was nice, it wasn't as nice as I thought it would be, and we were only there for an hour or so, in which Yon disappeared twice so maybe that contribute to my not having so much fun... But even if you are going without a Yon, it is still a very large store that has 4 stories filled mostly with the same things, so the variety isn't that good. Ron bought an M&M football, and Yon a blue M&M soft toy, and of course we bought some M&Ms but keep in mind it's very overpriced... From there we went to Piccadilly through Trocadero Centre (lots of Japanese manga & anime stores, very good to the Super Mario lovers) and ate... At McDonald's :). The kids said they had fun.

So like I said at the start, stay at home and do nothing. That was the strategy. We have until the 5th of September before Ron starts school, and we got a letter saying Yon's house visit will be on the 7th and then we'll know his starting date, so it's still almost a month of kids at home... I like to finish on a positive note, so let's all pretend I just did.

Read more »