7 years ago
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
I miss Seasons
apparently two days ago was the first day of autumn. I'm sorry, but did I blink and miss Summer?
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Bright light city gonna set my soul.....
Mr H and I went to Las Vegas early September, to celebrate Mr H's 40th birthday.
We had such a good time, no children, no time constraints (apart from two days where we went on tours), no dieting - making up for it now though - and just able to enjoy each other's company for 6 days.
Las Vegas is phenomenal. To say that it's gaudy and tacky is not fair, it's beautiful and spectacular, the hotels and casinos are amazing, the food is tremendous, the weather was fabulous (averaging 102oF), customer service is brilliant and you are made to feel so welcome and wanted.
We did two day tours - one to the Grand Canyon which was just breathtaking and one to Hoover Dam which appealed to Mr H's architectural side of his nature. I liked the fact that at the Hoover Dam you can stand in two states at once, Nevada and Arizona, as the midline of the Dam is the state line between them.
We stayed at the Bellagio hotel which was spectacular, you can see where they easily spent $1billion. We upgraded our bedroom for a suite for a nominal amount which was money well spent as we had the most spectacular view of the fountains outside the front of the hotel through a huge picture window. We laughed about the fact that the bathroom was the size of our bedroom back home and the separate toilet/bidet was the size of our entire bathroom back home! Everything about the Bellagio is sumptuous, the decoration inside and out, the polished marble floors that shine, the designer shops in the boutique walk, the restaurants. The fountains are amazing, anyone who is visiting Las Vegas must see these perform (which they do on a daily basis) as the way they get the water in time to the music is brilliant. On the Friday night we saw one of the Cirque de Soleil shows which is resident at the Bellagio, "O" (clever use of the French word "eau"), which is performed in a massive theatre on a huge floating stage which can be both flat and solid and deep and pool like at the same time. Absolutely amazing, I wish we had had enough time to see one of their other shows in Vegas - at last count, I think there's about six running at different venues.
We also went to see La Cage at the Riviera on the Saturday night and to say that these "drag queens" are (ahem) better than the celebrities they are portraying, is doing them a dis-service. The way they look like their counterparts and capture every little nuance of them is amazing. We were also due to see Cher at Caesar's Palace on the Sunday night which we were both very excited about, but she cancelled the show with 10 minutes to go til performance time! Fortunately it was a spur of the month decision to buy tickets so it wasn't as bad as if we'd bought them back home and it was a reason for our visit - that would have been worse. Still, there's nothing like a bit of Diva behaviour to put a dampner on your evening!
Flying out was ok, flights were on time and it was lovely to be picked up by a limo at the airport and driven to our hotel. However we were delayed en route home in Chicago and had to stay overnight, catching a very early flight through to Washington DC and then back home to Heathrow. So whereas we were due to be home the following Tuesday morning we only got home that night. The only one of the children we saw was daughter #1 who was very excited to see us home, even more excited upon receiving her new clobber from Abercrombie & Fitch (spoilt!). The following morning, the kisses and cuddles we got from the other three made up for the delay in returning home a hundred-fold. Son #2 has been exceptionally clingy to both myself and Mr H since our return, I think he's a bit worried we're going to leave him again - albeit in the more than capable hands of his grandparents.
I loved Vegas, I want to go again and soon.
A couple of pictures then, one of Mr H on the "Easy Rider" Harley at the Harley Davidson Cafe and one of the two of us outside our new home (not really, it's a tipi at a stop off point on our Grand Canyon tour).
We had such a good time, no children, no time constraints (apart from two days where we went on tours), no dieting - making up for it now though - and just able to enjoy each other's company for 6 days.
Las Vegas is phenomenal. To say that it's gaudy and tacky is not fair, it's beautiful and spectacular, the hotels and casinos are amazing, the food is tremendous, the weather was fabulous (averaging 102oF), customer service is brilliant and you are made to feel so welcome and wanted.
We did two day tours - one to the Grand Canyon which was just breathtaking and one to Hoover Dam which appealed to Mr H's architectural side of his nature. I liked the fact that at the Hoover Dam you can stand in two states at once, Nevada and Arizona, as the midline of the Dam is the state line between them.
We stayed at the Bellagio hotel which was spectacular, you can see where they easily spent $1billion. We upgraded our bedroom for a suite for a nominal amount which was money well spent as we had the most spectacular view of the fountains outside the front of the hotel through a huge picture window. We laughed about the fact that the bathroom was the size of our bedroom back home and the separate toilet/bidet was the size of our entire bathroom back home! Everything about the Bellagio is sumptuous, the decoration inside and out, the polished marble floors that shine, the designer shops in the boutique walk, the restaurants. The fountains are amazing, anyone who is visiting Las Vegas must see these perform (which they do on a daily basis) as the way they get the water in time to the music is brilliant. On the Friday night we saw one of the Cirque de Soleil shows which is resident at the Bellagio, "O" (clever use of the French word "eau"), which is performed in a massive theatre on a huge floating stage which can be both flat and solid and deep and pool like at the same time. Absolutely amazing, I wish we had had enough time to see one of their other shows in Vegas - at last count, I think there's about six running at different venues.
We also went to see La Cage at the Riviera on the Saturday night and to say that these "drag queens" are (ahem) better than the celebrities they are portraying, is doing them a dis-service. The way they look like their counterparts and capture every little nuance of them is amazing. We were also due to see Cher at Caesar's Palace on the Sunday night which we were both very excited about, but she cancelled the show with 10 minutes to go til performance time! Fortunately it was a spur of the month decision to buy tickets so it wasn't as bad as if we'd bought them back home and it was a reason for our visit - that would have been worse. Still, there's nothing like a bit of Diva behaviour to put a dampner on your evening!
Flying out was ok, flights were on time and it was lovely to be picked up by a limo at the airport and driven to our hotel. However we were delayed en route home in Chicago and had to stay overnight, catching a very early flight through to Washington DC and then back home to Heathrow. So whereas we were due to be home the following Tuesday morning we only got home that night. The only one of the children we saw was daughter #1 who was very excited to see us home, even more excited upon receiving her new clobber from Abercrombie & Fitch (spoilt!). The following morning, the kisses and cuddles we got from the other three made up for the delay in returning home a hundred-fold. Son #2 has been exceptionally clingy to both myself and Mr H since our return, I think he's a bit worried we're going to leave him again - albeit in the more than capable hands of his grandparents.
I loved Vegas, I want to go again and soon.
A couple of pictures then, one of Mr H on the "Easy Rider" Harley at the Harley Davidson Cafe and one of the two of us outside our new home (not really, it's a tipi at a stop off point on our Grand Canyon tour).
Thursday, 28 August 2008
The results are in
Actually they came in last Thursday.
2 A grades
4 B grades
2 C grades (in the subjects she was most apprehensive about)
To say Mr H and I were very proud of our clever daughter is perhaps the understatement for August.
2 A grades
4 B grades
2 C grades (in the subjects she was most apprehensive about)
To say Mr H and I were very proud of our clever daughter is perhaps the understatement for August.
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Needed....
another pair of eyes, ears, legs to run and arms to catch.
Not only is son no.2 walking, but he's RUNNING everywhere - who taught my almost 15 month old to run? and get into literally everything. His favourite "toy box"? the warmer drawer on the range which holds all sorts of noisy pots and pans to bash with a wooden spoon or drag around the house like a beloved comfort blanket.
And discovering chocolate spread mixed with peanut butter on toast......which ends up smeared all round his mouth, hands, hair, highchair, anyone who happens to pass at that time. But it is delicious mama......
Not only is son no.2 walking, but he's RUNNING everywhere - who taught my almost 15 month old to run? and get into literally everything. His favourite "toy box"? the warmer drawer on the range which holds all sorts of noisy pots and pans to bash with a wooden spoon or drag around the house like a beloved comfort blanket.
And discovering chocolate spread mixed with peanut butter on toast......which ends up smeared all round his mouth, hands, hair, highchair, anyone who happens to pass at that time. But it is delicious mama......
Friday, 15 August 2008
....once again
I am unable to sleep. However, this time, I'm watching the first episode of Series Two of Life on Mars (a birthday present). Genius writing and acting. I love the absolute political incorrectness of Gene Hunt - or is it? after all in 1973 he WASN'T politically incorrect - versus the "modern day" correctness of Sam Tyler, and the way the two work together.
Friday, 1 August 2008
Insomnia musings at 00.28am....
as I sit here typing away in the early hours, unable to sleep but loathe to watch some dire rubbish on tv to make myself sleepy, I am pondering as to why I am unable to sleep yet again. I've always been described as a "night person" but this is not truly the case, I developed insomnia, which night after night renders me unable to get to sleep much before 2am. It all started this time 16 years ago. Then I was 38 weeks pregnant with daughter no.1, it was an incredibly hot and humid July/August and I had swollen feet and ankles that my wonderful mum would massage with a peppermint massage cream twice a day to ease the pain. In one more week, my pregnancy was over, as she arrived 8 days before her due date, but the sleepless nights and insomnia has remained ever present.
She's still my baby, but I look at her now and see a young woman. A young woman who goes through the same angst I suspect we all did at 16 - whether I fit in with the crowd, whether this boy/this girl* likes me as much as I like him/her* (delete as appropriate), whether the clothes I have on today are going to be out of fashion this time next week and most importantly, how did I do in my exams. As of today, daughter no.1 has 20 days to wait until her first experience of that nervewracking moment when you get your exam results and you finally discover whether it was really all worth it or not. When I was waiting for my O Level results many moons ago, I was an old hat at it, having taken one a year early - Religious Ed, possibly my easiest subject. But I remember standing in the school hall, waiting for our RE teacher to call my name and feeling slightly sick, not at the actual result, but at the fact that I was third on the list thanks to my beginning with C maiden name. And that my RE teacher was expecting a high grade from me, thanks to my Irish Catholic heritage. Upon hearing my name being called out and receiving my result slip (no envelope - so the old devil knew what result we had achieved before we did), he informed me that he had "expected nothing less" than the grade I ended up with, an A. Needless to say my Irish Catholic parents were thrilled, all those years of going to church/confession/catechism/catholic primary and secondary schools had paid off - I suspect if I had failed everything else they would not have minded that much, at least I knew my stuff religiously, so to speak.
I digress, back to my almost 16 year old daughter no.1. Since she was 14 she has known what she wants to do with her life, she wants to go into architecture like her father. To that end she has chosen to do Maths, Physics and Graphic Design at A level. Nice easy subjects then....... but I have no anxieties about her doing these subjects as she as always shown an aptitude towards the more mathematical and scientific subjects. I did English Lit, Maths and Law at A level and did them dismally, but that was because the only subject I showed any interest in was English Lit and even then it was because I enjoyed a good argument with my teacher. The other two subjects were "because you can't do any others in the group". Maths A level may well have been a foreign language as most of the time I really didn't have a clue what was going on. Mr H confesses to having been "completely rubbish" at maths in school as well, so where daughter no.1 (and co-incidentally son no.1 is showing all the signs of being a mathematician as well) has got it from I'm not sure - I suspect it's from both her grandfathers as they're quite clever old fellas.
When I turned 16, my parents threw me a little party at home, a few friends and boys were invited, we all drank fizzy drinks, had some cake, listened to some music, people went home and that was that. Daughter no.1 is going out to dinner with some friends. Out to dinner when I was 16 consisted of going round your "aunty's" house for tea - and when I say "aunty" I mean your mum's best friend who wasn't related to you at all but you still called her aunty and her husband uncle.
If daughter no.1 was given the choice of going round to friends house for a dinner on her birthday, she would either look at us scornfully or laugh so hard she couldn't breath - I suspect she would probably do both.
Times have changed, but one thing remains the same 16 years on, I should be sleeping.
She's still my baby, but I look at her now and see a young woman. A young woman who goes through the same angst I suspect we all did at 16 - whether I fit in with the crowd, whether this boy/this girl* likes me as much as I like him/her* (delete as appropriate), whether the clothes I have on today are going to be out of fashion this time next week and most importantly, how did I do in my exams. As of today, daughter no.1 has 20 days to wait until her first experience of that nervewracking moment when you get your exam results and you finally discover whether it was really all worth it or not. When I was waiting for my O Level results many moons ago, I was an old hat at it, having taken one a year early - Religious Ed, possibly my easiest subject. But I remember standing in the school hall, waiting for our RE teacher to call my name and feeling slightly sick, not at the actual result, but at the fact that I was third on the list thanks to my beginning with C maiden name. And that my RE teacher was expecting a high grade from me, thanks to my Irish Catholic heritage. Upon hearing my name being called out and receiving my result slip (no envelope - so the old devil knew what result we had achieved before we did), he informed me that he had "expected nothing less" than the grade I ended up with, an A. Needless to say my Irish Catholic parents were thrilled, all those years of going to church/confession/catechism/catholic primary and secondary schools had paid off - I suspect if I had failed everything else they would not have minded that much, at least I knew my stuff religiously, so to speak.
I digress, back to my almost 16 year old daughter no.1. Since she was 14 she has known what she wants to do with her life, she wants to go into architecture like her father. To that end she has chosen to do Maths, Physics and Graphic Design at A level. Nice easy subjects then....... but I have no anxieties about her doing these subjects as she as always shown an aptitude towards the more mathematical and scientific subjects. I did English Lit, Maths and Law at A level and did them dismally, but that was because the only subject I showed any interest in was English Lit and even then it was because I enjoyed a good argument with my teacher. The other two subjects were "because you can't do any others in the group". Maths A level may well have been a foreign language as most of the time I really didn't have a clue what was going on. Mr H confesses to having been "completely rubbish" at maths in school as well, so where daughter no.1 (and co-incidentally son no.1 is showing all the signs of being a mathematician as well) has got it from I'm not sure - I suspect it's from both her grandfathers as they're quite clever old fellas.
When I turned 16, my parents threw me a little party at home, a few friends and boys were invited, we all drank fizzy drinks, had some cake, listened to some music, people went home and that was that. Daughter no.1 is going out to dinner with some friends. Out to dinner when I was 16 consisted of going round your "aunty's" house for tea - and when I say "aunty" I mean your mum's best friend who wasn't related to you at all but you still called her aunty and her husband uncle.
If daughter no.1 was given the choice of going round to friends house for a dinner on her birthday, she would either look at us scornfully or laugh so hard she couldn't breath - I suspect she would probably do both.
Times have changed, but one thing remains the same 16 years on, I should be sleeping.
Good news
which I was previously unable to divulge as there was a date restriction on it, Mr H has been promoted to Technical Director. I'm so proud of him, he works so hard and deserves it.
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