We are now starting our 6th month at 10 Shakespeare Gardens, East Finchley N29LJ. We continue to be very happy - enjoying our house, the garden, our neighbours and the East Finchley area. We haven't been travelling around quite as much as we were earlier in the year, but do seem to see a lot more than many of the kids' friends do.
The kids have just started their long summer holidays. The cycle of five weeks of school followed by time off has reached its annual climax with 8 weeks off. We will be heading off this week to Cornwall for 9 days dong a combination of chain hotel, fancy B&B and in true Strutt style 5 nights in a holiday park caravan. Mark has organised some 'kid surprises' again to make up for more looking at boring old English stuff.
This weekend just gone Sally organised a trip to Hampton Court ( King HenryVIII's palace) flower show. We had a good though tiring day. As it was the last day of the show most of the exhibitors were going to sell off their display plants at the end of the day. We didn't realise this until we were there. While half of London had arrived with collapsible trolleys we had not. Never mind. We ended up buying some spectacular Fushias and Pelargoniums and then getting them back home on the tube.
As with the Bath & West show there were some amazing exhibits of gorgeous flowers including some 100 year old bonsai trees.
Aisha decided to get a tattoo. Thankfully it is only a henna one which will wear off in a few weeks.
We bought a digital piano a few months ago to allow Aisha to continue her piano practice. She recently performed at her school's piano recitals. It was not a competition and was nowhere near as big as the Miles Franklin Music Festival that is held each year in August. It was great to hear her play gain publicly and to see her steady improvement. Here is a video of her performance.
Sally won two tickets to Wimbledon in a work raffle. She still had to pay for them - just being able to buy some is very difficult. Two tickets, 4 people. How to decide? Mark graciously stepped down. Realising she had already had a chance to do something very special by reading at Westminster Abbey for ANZAC Day, Aisha agreed that William should go with Mum for his 10th birthday! Sally and William had a great time at Wimbledon. What follows is William’s account of the day.
I had a day off school and got to sleep in ! I helped Dad arrange the backpacks because we could only have one small bag per person. Dad took me to meet Mum at work at lunch time and we headed off on the tube to Southfields where we got a special bus that only went to Wimbledon. When we arrived, I was feeling so excited. A security guard checked our bags and then said he would have to confiscate the popcorn Dad had made for me. He was very convincing and for a moment I thought he was serious but then I realised he was just joking!
We went through and there was a crowd waiting to get autographs from players. We luckily got Novak Jokavic’s autograph but not Andy Murray’s because he was not looking very happy.
Since moving in in February we have been told by our neighbours, James & Helen, about a fox that regularly comes through the gardens. It was only this week that we saw it – or rather them. We also spotted a vandal in our garden. Below is a short video of English suburban wildlife.
The vegetative equivalent to foxes in the garden is the nature reserve we went into near Slapton Sands (where the tank mentioned in the last post was). Despite it being a reserve we saw mostly weeds – thistles, ivy, brambles, bracken, stinging nettles, dock and cow parsley. We had to remind ourselves we were looking through Australian eyes where these plants are considered invasive pests - like the fox and rabbits. Here they are all just part of the native flora and fauna of Britain.
Margaret came back from her two weeks solo in Europe visiting France and Venice. She had a great time and had no real problems apart from hurting her back on the last day. We all received presents from Italy - Aisha & William have beautiful Murano glass lollies, Sally a Murano glass vase while Mark received a T shirt. It wasn't one of those " My mother in law went to Italy and all I got was this ....." . Mark has a variety of good quality, long lasting T-shirts, mostly Laos beer ones, that Margaret has given him over the years. This time Margaret gave him a Tshirt of Leonardo da Vinci's 1487 Virtuvian Man.
He has worn it to school and is not sure whether he has had some odd looks as a result. Margaret was a great help to Mark, particularly in the garden, helping to identify for him what is a true English weed as opposed to what looks like a weed to him but actually isn't. She also helped him make his first ever hanging baskets, evermore to be known as the 'Margaret Eldridge Memorial Baskets' - which are so prevalent here and done so very well.
Margaret spent her 2nd last day making apricot jam with the kids thereby making sure we are well catered for in the jam department until her next visit.
Sadly the Eucalyptus in our back yard has had a major haircut. Apparently it was a gift many years ago from the son of the original owners of our house, before the current landlord bought it 5 years ago. For the last few years it has been casting long and increasingly dense shadows over our neighbour’s James & Helen’s yard and they have wanted it cut down completely. Luckily they understand our desire to keep it and we have agreed to give it a trim. It looks very forlorn and will do so for the next few years. Being a Eucalyptus though, it will bounce back fairly well - but it does look pretty sad. On the up side there is more light coming into both our and next door’s garden.
After such a fantastic late autumn and spring we have had a much cooler and wetter June. The hot weather mentioned in the last post came and was pretty good – it was just like a Canberran summer’s day. The poms seemed to cope well with it – no reports here of people falling over. Interestingly though after the ‘heatwave’ there are now posters up on the tube stations advising people how to keep cool in the heat. Drinking water seems to be a good idea. Apparently June saw the weather go from a low of 12 one day to a maximum of 32 which was the warmest day in 5 years. While we have had quite a bit of rain last month it is not enough to break the drought. See the link for a summary of the weather in June. JUNE WEATHER
The kids have just started their long summer holidays. The cycle of five weeks of school followed by time off has reached its annual climax with 8 weeks off. We will be heading off this week to Cornwall for 9 days dong a combination of chain hotel, fancy B&B and in true Strutt style 5 nights in a holiday park caravan. Mark has organised some 'kid surprises' again to make up for more looking at boring old English stuff.
This weekend just gone Sally organised a trip to Hampton Court ( King HenryVIII's palace) flower show. We had a good though tiring day. As it was the last day of the show most of the exhibitors were going to sell off their display plants at the end of the day. We didn't realise this until we were there. While half of London had arrived with collapsible trolleys we had not. Never mind. We ended up buying some spectacular Fushias and Pelargoniums and then getting them back home on the tube.
As with the Bath & West show there were some amazing exhibits of gorgeous flowers including some 100 year old bonsai trees.
Aisha decided to get a tattoo. Thankfully it is only a henna one which will wear off in a few weeks.
We bought a digital piano a few months ago to allow Aisha to continue her piano practice. She recently performed at her school's piano recitals. It was not a competition and was nowhere near as big as the Miles Franklin Music Festival that is held each year in August. It was great to hear her play gain publicly and to see her steady improvement. Here is a video of her performance.
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WHOSE SIDE IS HE ON ? |
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MESSAGES ON MURRAY'S BAG. |
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| Novak Jokavic signing my tennis ball!! |
We went through and there was a crowd waiting to get autographs from players. We luckily got Novak Jokavic’s autograph but not Andy Murray’s because he was not looking very happy.
From there we went to find Centre Court. Everywhere was crowded with people – lots were on Henman Hill watching the big screen and there was cheering coming from all the different courts. When we got to our seats, Andy Roddick and Feliciano Lopez were playing and we watched until Lopez won. It was a really good game! The next match was between Victoria Azaranka and Daniela Hantuchova and it was very noisy! I thought their whinnying was very funny and so did the whole crowd!
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DOES HE PLAY TENNIS ? |
We left this match and went to see the awesome Aussie Sam Stosur playing doubles with wildcard Sabine Lisicki who had just knocked number 2 seed, Li Na, out of the womens’ singles. The match was on Court 4 and there were no stands, just a row of seats on either side, so we were right by the side of the court. It was an amazing match and they won. Jelena Jankovic wasn’t happy! I ran around to get their autographs for me and Aisha and told Sam how well she played.
As we headed back to Centre Court, we saw Ron Weaslie from Harry Potter and Mum took my photo standing in front of him!
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| We were happy it rained because we got to see the roof on centre court go over and watch the precision work of the groundsmen getting the court cover on and off! All other matches were rained off - including Rafael Nadal on Court 1! |
Since moving in in February we have been told by our neighbours, James & Helen, about a fox that regularly comes through the gardens. It was only this week that we saw it – or rather them. We also spotted a vandal in our garden. Below is a short video of English suburban wildlife.
The vegetative equivalent to foxes in the garden is the nature reserve we went into near Slapton Sands (where the tank mentioned in the last post was). Despite it being a reserve we saw mostly weeds – thistles, ivy, brambles, bracken, stinging nettles, dock and cow parsley. We had to remind ourselves we were looking through Australian eyes where these plants are considered invasive pests - like the fox and rabbits. Here they are all just part of the native flora and fauna of Britain.
Margaret came back from her two weeks solo in Europe visiting France and Venice. She had a great time and had no real problems apart from hurting her back on the last day. We all received presents from Italy - Aisha & William have beautiful Murano glass lollies, Sally a Murano glass vase while Mark received a T shirt. It wasn't one of those " My mother in law went to Italy and all I got was this ....." . Mark has a variety of good quality, long lasting T-shirts, mostly Laos beer ones, that Margaret has given him over the years. This time Margaret gave him a Tshirt of Leonardo da Vinci's 1487 Virtuvian Man.
He has worn it to school and is not sure whether he has had some odd looks as a result. Margaret was a great help to Mark, particularly in the garden, helping to identify for him what is a true English weed as opposed to what looks like a weed to him but actually isn't. She also helped him make his first ever hanging baskets, evermore to be known as the 'Margaret Eldridge Memorial Baskets' - which are so prevalent here and done so very well.  |
| SMASHING THE APRICOT KERNELS. |
Margaret spent her 2nd last day making apricot jam with the kids thereby making sure we are well catered for in the jam department until her next visit.
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| THE VIEW OUT OF OUR BEDROOM WINDOW. |
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| THE VIEW FROM OUR DINING ROOM BEFORE THE TRIM. |
Sadly the Eucalyptus in our back yard has had a major haircut. Apparently it was a gift many years ago from the son of the original owners of our house, before the current landlord bought it 5 years ago. For the last few years it has been casting long and increasingly dense shadows over our neighbour’s James & Helen’s yard and they have wanted it cut down completely. Luckily they understand our desire to keep it and we have agreed to give it a trim. It looks very forlorn and will do so for the next few years. Being a Eucalyptus though, it will bounce back fairly well - but it does look pretty sad. On the up side there is more light coming into both our and next door’s garden.
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| AND AFTER. |
After such a fantastic late autumn and spring we have had a much cooler and wetter June. The hot weather mentioned in the last post came and was pretty good – it was just like a Canberran summer’s day. The poms seemed to cope well with it – no reports here of people falling over. Interestingly though after the ‘heatwave’ there are now posters up on the tube stations advising people how to keep cool in the heat. Drinking water seems to be a good idea. Apparently June saw the weather go from a low of 12 one day to a maximum of 32 which was the warmest day in 5 years. While we have had quite a bit of rain last month it is not enough to break the drought. See the link for a summary of the weather in June. JUNE WEATHER
As we have just passed the summer solstice the days are starting to gradually shorten. Sitting down in the living room looking out at twilight at 10 pm is still a strange experience, as is waking to sunrise at 4:30am. We have had these long days and been in shorts and T- shirts for months now. We don’t look forward to the return of the bitter cold and 4pm – 8 am darkness we experienced when we first arrived.
The kids always enjoyed their school trips away – Warrambui, Barambula etc. In 2007 we sent the kids away to Tasmania to visit family on their own. We were hugely anxious but it all went well and the kids, especially Aisha, came back very happy and confident. Going into yr 7 here meant Aisha missed out on the usual North London school yr 6 trip to New York, (William will get to do this trip in 2013 ). She also missed out on the North London senior school ski trip to Italy in January this year. What can we say ? They are both booked into the 2012 Ski trip to France – 8 days without parents skiing for the first time ever.
As mentioned on the last post, the kids’ school had their annual fete. It was much smaller than the Miles Franklin fetes and, despite threatening clouds and heavy rain the day and night before, it was dry for the fete day. Aisha introduced the chocolate toss game (borrowed from Miles Franklin) which was a good little earner for the school.
There is just one week of school left before the 8 week long summer holidays. Once the kids go back on 5th September William will be in Year 5 and Aisha will be in Year 8. A scary prospect ! Mark has just put the finishing touches to the next trip away - 8 days in Cornwall partly for Aisha’s birthday. Sally will join them for just four of those days. He now has to sort out the two weeks in Europe for August......
The final match we saw on day 5 was Andy Murray playing Ivan Ljubicic. The whole crowd was on Murray’s side because he was the only Brit left to win and Britain hasn’t had a men’s single winner for a very long time. It was unfortunate that Ljubicic lost because he was a very good player and he deserved to win, especially since Murray wasn’t playing happily.
We went home after doing some shopping at the Wimbledon shop! We got home at 12.15am!! It was a very long but very good day!! Dad was still up waiting for us and we had lots to tell him. Since then we followed the tennis and watched the women’s, men’s and boy’s finals. We were sad that Sam Stosur missed out in the finals, but really pleased for Luke Saville. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi, Oi!!!
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