If you haven't caught upon our European invasion then click below to see some thrilling videos of car crashes, speeding speed boats, public nakedness in Denmark and predatory slugs !
Aisha also made her UK guide promise a few weeks ago. This was significant in itself but was made even more so by being made at Pax Lodge in Hampstead. The lodge is one of the only four centres of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS). Her troupe was visiting the centre to participate in activities there and decided to use the opportunity to induct Aisha into Guides UK. Coincidentally, a group of Australian visiting guide leaders were there to witness the event. It was nice to see the Australian guide uniform again so far from home.
William also defected to the enemy.. .....rather he also made his Scout promise a few weeks ago. A cub in Australia, he became eligible to become a full UK scout once he turned 10. Up until recently he had steadfastly and proudly hung onto wearing his Australian cub uniform to the mild consternation of his leaders here. Now a Scout, he has agreed to wear the UK uniform but still prefers the Australian one!
The pictures below are of the last couple of events both kids attended wearing their Australian uniforms. The first few are at the recent Commonwealth Countries League reception. The kids were asked to represent Australia at this very low key function. Attendants were supposed to dress in traditional costume, always a challenge for Australians. We considered tracky dacks and ugh boots, maybe stubby shorts & thongs, or perhaps speedos and sunscreen. We settled on the kids wearing their respective Guide and Cub uniforms. We all went along, as well as Mark's mum, and enjoyed the casual organisation of the night.
http://struttingaroundlondon.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html
We are about three weeks behind on events so we'll sling this post out and get to work on pulling the pictures and information together on our recent trips to Oxford and Suffolk.
About a month ago Aisha went to her first ever live pop concert. Her Dad saw ABBA as his first concert at the Sydney Cricket ground in the early 70s. Sally saw Australian Crawl in Hobart in 1982. Aisha's first concert experience was at Wembly arena where she saw the likes of Pixie Lot, Olly Murs, The Wanted, Ed Sheeren, Alexis Jordan and many more. Apparently they are the latest singers here......
We are about three weeks behind on events so we'll sling this post out and get to work on pulling the pictures and information together on our recent trips to Oxford and Suffolk.
About a month ago Aisha went to her first ever live pop concert. Her Dad saw ABBA as his first concert at the Sydney Cricket ground in the early 70s. Sally saw Australian Crawl in Hobart in 1982. Aisha's first concert experience was at Wembly arena where she saw the likes of Pixie Lot, Olly Murs, The Wanted, Ed Sheeren, Alexis Jordan and many more. Apparently they are the latest singers here......
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| Olly Murs |
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| Ed Sheeren |
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| The Wanted. |
She went with her guide leaders and about 10,000 girl guides from around the country. Each year the Guide 'Big Gig' rotates around three different cities in the UK. It was in London this year and would not return until after we leave in 2013. Despite it being a long weekend we decided it was yet another 'opportunity too good to miss' so stayed in town. Aisha was pretty happy.
Aisha also made her UK guide promise a few weeks ago. This was significant in itself but was made even more so by being made at Pax Lodge in Hampstead. The lodge is one of the only four centres of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS). Her troupe was visiting the centre to participate in activities there and decided to use the opportunity to induct Aisha into Guides UK. Coincidentally, a group of Australian visiting guide leaders were there to witness the event. It was nice to see the Australian guide uniform again so far from home.
William also defected to the enemy.. .....rather he also made his Scout promise a few weeks ago. A cub in Australia, he became eligible to become a full UK scout once he turned 10. Up until recently he had steadfastly and proudly hung onto wearing his Australian cub uniform to the mild consternation of his leaders here. Now a Scout, he has agreed to wear the UK uniform but still prefers the Australian one!
The pictures below are of the last couple of events both kids attended wearing their Australian uniforms. The first few are at the recent Commonwealth Countries League reception. The kids were asked to represent Australia at this very low key function. Attendants were supposed to dress in traditional costume, always a challenge for Australians. We considered tracky dacks and ugh boots, maybe stubby shorts & thongs, or perhaps speedos and sunscreen. We settled on the kids wearing their respective Guide and Cub uniforms. We all went along, as well as Mark's mum, and enjoyed the casual organisation of the night.
Despite the far more elaborate costumes of other nationalities the kids were in demand for photos. There was a catwalk parade of the costumes which the kids led off. Later a pair of Tongan dancers performed and the audience was invited to stick pound notes to the dancers glistening oiled bodies. William was chosen collect the money, £260, at the end. Oddly, he ignored Mark's instructions to bring the money straight to him. Will was also chosen to present flowers at the end to the organiser.
The last public event at which he wore his uniform was the church parade held once a month at the local Methodist church where the scouts meet each week. He carried the Union Flag and led the group of scouts into and out of the church.
In the last post we referred to impending arctic blasts. They arrived for a few days and had us rugging up in jackets for the first time since March. While the days have remained fairly cloudy and windy the weather has returned to unseasonably mild temperatures.
Late September and early October were even more unusual as refered to in our Indian summer post http://struttingaroundlondon.blogspot.com/2011/09/indian-summer.html Mark took a few photos of the walk through the park that we often do either on the way to or back from school.
The park, Cherry Tree Wood, is part of the remnant medieval Finchley Wood which stretched approximately 8 kilometers from Highgate to Whetstone. In the 12th century it formed part of the hunting grounds of the Bishop of London. In the 1700s it was known as The Dirthouse Wood as the 'night soil' and horse manure cleaned from London's streets was brought as fertiliser for the hay meadows of North London. It was stored at The Dirthouse which is now the White Lion pub next to the tube station.
The extension of the tube line in the mid 1800s cut the size of the wood as well as blocking up the brook that flowed through it. The result then, and today, is that in winter the park and many of the gardens in the area, including ours, become quite boggy. So boggy was it in the late 1800s that watercress was grown in the park in winter.
Today the park is a decent 4.5 hectares in size and has two tennis courts, a basketball court, a little kids playground and a small cafe. During the summer and late autumn literally hundreds of people would come down to the park to enjoy the sunshine. One of those was usually William, who for the last 6 or 7 months has spent a good half of his life down there riding his bike, making friends and joining in soccer games. It takes W about two minutes to walk to the park through the locked gate at the end of our cul de sac. A great bonus in London !
That exceptional late September weather had the kids in the back garden enjoying the sun as Aisha made use of the tea cup her Grandma (Mark's mum) had bought to facilitate Aisha's newly acquired desire for tea drinking - Lady Gray tea only mind you !
It also saw Sally in the backyard sunbaking in her red bikini. Mysteriously though, the photos of that cannot be located.....at present.
Who knows what might turn up though so stay tuned....
same strutt channel, same strutt blog.
