Tightie Whities (got your attendtion, didn't I?)

Friday, March 27

Temperatures are dipping here in Londontown; yesterday alternated between light rain, voracious wind, sunny, blue skies and threatening gray clouds. At one point Ava, who was home with me (ear pain resulting from congestion/ a cold), asked why the electricity kept going off. Nothing as exciting as power loss, just the sun turning it on and off.

Speaking of power, one of those things you don’t think about until it goes out (or your bill is astronomical), it’s been nice to be someplace where power is consistent. We’d gotten used to finding ourselves (temporary) in the dark regularly in India. (That said, we were lucky to be in facilities where generators kicked in, unlike so many areas throughout the country.)

Despite ear pain, it doesn’t look like A has an ear infection at this point; the nurse at Claire’s school checked her out yesterday – the kid prolifically produces ear wax, though, so we left w/ info on dropping a bit of olive oil in them , which helps clear out the extra gunk. Who knew? And who knew that you would come to this blog and read about exciting topics such as ear wax? Parent-share syndrome.

I caught up with the ladies (moms) at Ava’s school last night over dinner. Very nice group, and a mix – working, stay at home, British, transplants, ex-pats. All with children except Ms. Hill, Ava’s teacher, who will get married in July. She’s a delightful woman who is wonderful with kids and seems to love her job. She and her fiancé are off to Africa for a 3 week honeymoon, which per some of the other ladies is the norm, even a bit short. Obviously we Americans work too much or think we need to work too much. No doubt we bring it on ourselves.

I sat next to a woman whose family is from Pakistan. She grew up in London but has extended family there and visits less now, as she has a baby and four-year-old and navigating the environment and its lack of infrastructure, political issues, etc. are a bit of a deterrent (how’s that for understatement).

She talked about how much more progressive India is with regard to said infrastructure. This I found startling, as so much of what we take for granted -- power, as noted, good roads, clean water, etc. -- are not the norm in India. Pakistan, then, must really be a reality check. She also said it’s so “have and have not,” which we saw in India, though the middle class has clearly been growing in recent years as India’s economy has gained ground. Apparently her grandfather died recently and was in what was Pakistan’s “best” hospital…with cats running freely throughout and care she referred to as “a joke.” She and her husband had brought medicine from the U.S., where they lived for a bit, to help him.

Crazy world we live in.

Today I’ll be looking at furniture – it’s great to travel light, but we do need beds in our new home, which we expect to move into in mid-April. And I have a morning coffee on my calendar with the Abercorn staff and parents. I must say I drink plenty of coffee and hot chocolate here. Keeping the economy going in Brazil.

Saturday

I so enjoyed coffee with some of the Abercorn parents and staff yesterday – again, a nice mix of people – an Italian woman married to someone from India, a lady from New Zealand, a British woman who grew up in New York…

The kids and I had a London “moment” after school, after departing John Lewis (nice department store) on Oxford Street, where we’d gone in search of a birthday gift. As we meandered back to the tube, Ava curled up in a ball in the stroller needing a good snack (she claimed she ate all of her fish cake at school, and waxed poetic about how spinach would make her strong like “Papaya” – I believe that would be Pop-eye – but I do wonder how much she actually eats for lunch. Probably too busy/or choosy to dig in properly, since she eats a full meal as soon as she gets home every day).

Anyway, the stroller was also laden w/ backpacks and I had a bag of goodies from the food section at John Lewis, so I was doing my best to weave in and out of foot traffic, keep track of Claire and not get run over -- while balancing all this crap and not breaking anything (I need a pack mule, perhaps?)-- when I heard some very LOUD, very upbeat music blaring from Debonshams (sp? - another department store).

A crowd was gathering around a stage set directly in front of one of the store entrances, where two muscular men were wearing tightie whities and black boots. And that’s all. Jockey. Dancing. What a hoot.

Uninspired to drop in and buy underwear (or anything else for that matter) we continued on to the Bond Street tube station to get Ava home and pump her with cheese and crackers.