Ava's birthday

Following was written on March 12 (I'm just a bit behind the 8-ball in getting this posted!)

Ava’s Birthday!

It’s a big day at our house -- Ava turns 5!

On the agenda: cupcakes at school. I went on a mission to find the mini-versions yesterday and low and behold, Marks & Spencer came through! They must be trying to make up for the return policy confusion that so did not make my day.

Now armed with vanilla and chocolate cake, the day can begin auspiciously.

Birthdays are or course huge here; I’ve noticed that at British birthday parties the slice of cake accompanies the party-goer home. So for example at the most recent party Ava attended, everyone had ice cream after lunch, then left with goodie bag and neatly wrapped up piece of dalmation cake.

I’m not sure we’d ever get away with the waiting.

Our life post Cinderella on Ice included more work on the inside of the house. Oh if only the handyman had listened when I told him I didn’t think copious amounts of rain coming in the house was normal, even if it was the rainstorm of the year…
That said, walls are coming along nicely. I did notice myself getting loopy on all the chemicals and dust from sanding last week as I attempted some writing. Maybe I should read back over what I wrote see if makes any sense.

Last Tuesday I took my 2nd cooking class at Divertimenti; this one was a fabulous two-hour course w/ an American chef who’s made her home in London for the last 20+ years.

Her recipes were fabulous (she fed them to us for lunch) and easily accessible, she was witty and engaging and of course I left with her cookbook. I’ve already used it (bonus) plus it looks good added to my rather wimpy selection of cookbooks here.

My Bronte class has now wrapped up with the last session a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Horace Walpole exhibit.

Apparently he was the most important English collector of the 18th century, bringing together and cataloging very carefully a wide range of objects belonging to people of power, fame or wealth. i.e. a hat worn by a Cardinal, gloves belonging to King Charles II, portraits of a number of the kings (he was intent on having one of each), etc.

This exhibit pulled together a representation of the original collection, which is dispersed among private owners and museums – so some of the things we looked at included tea cups, chests, suits of armor and swords, lanterns, curios, jewelry, letters, books, a vase his cat drowned in…

From Walpole we went to lunch at a lovely English pub nearby – ambience over risotto, I’m afraid.

And I then hustled it to ASL to retrieve Claire for the resumption of horseback riding lessons. Sadly, it was no warmer than our last one in December BUT one can only put off so long what one’s child’s heart is set upon.

Bouncer was in fine form, Claire worked with Miss Sarah, stable owner, and they only started 15 minutes late. So all in all, a good experience.

In other news, last week was ASL fund raiser wine tasting. Since Joe opted out, I joined a group of ladies and one token male (we made him team captain) in tasting and guessing at various wines. It was great fun and very un-pretentious, with our master of ceremonies for the night looking and acting like Richard Simmons in a red suit.

Lots of laughter, jokes and food, not much wine, so we continued the party at a neighborhood bar. And on Friday, in between grocery run and some writing work, I beelined it down for a tour of the Royal Academy of Music’s museum. It houses very valuable violins, pianos from the early 1900’s and, currently, photos and
memorabilia regarding Weber, Mendelssohn, Wagner and Richard Strauss. Our docent for the visit was a very dramatic music librarian who ooh la la’d and rolled her eyes at everything she shared with us.

That evening we ended the week with pizza from Papa Del’s, which I must say has again impressed.

Saturday Joe and I had a day-date to the matinee Love Never Dies, sequel to Phantom of the Opera. I loved it. Top notch talent, music is fabulous though not haunting like Phantom’s (this show departs from the ethereal main character). Afterward we had a glass of wine at a lovely little wine bar near the Adelphi Theatre. Very nice date and home for lamburgers with the kids!

School-wise, the past week has been busy – Ava’s 2nd teacher/parent conference, which went very well. She seems to thrive at Abercorn; the environment is cheery and nurturing and with 14 students to two teachers, she gets plenty of attention.

Claire had a Weather the Weather concert, wherein second grade sang a number of (you guessed it) weather-related songs. Great performance, fun music and intermingled were some video shots of kids reciting poetry related to weather.

The day after the concert I got to play math games with her class for an hour. Math is far more fun in her 2nd grade class than when I went to school, I think. The everyday math ASL uses makes it more approachable, at least at this age. I do hear conflicting remarks about the program as kids reach 5th grade but since I’m not in that space...

From the math games I hightailed it to the White Chapel for a quick visit to an exhibit of photography by Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi artists. Very well done.

After all that art and culture I may need to detox with some sitcom re-runs and coors lite.