Seven years ago, I was travelling to London (with a side visit to Paris) to visit some friends. As I was in London, the city was bidding for the honour to host the 2012 Olympic Summer Games. On my side trip to Paris, which was also vieing for the honour, it was announced that London would host the Games. I was excited for London, but I never really gave it another thought. And now, by a twist of fate, I'm here to celebrate. And let me tell you, it's AWESOME!!
I vaguely remember the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. It was the summer after my first year at college (university). I remember paying close attention to the women's soccer (football) team and of course I remember the bomb. But, other than that I don't remember much else. I feel so lucky to be here and be a part of it all. I've watched this beautiful city transform over the past year. Signs started going up in the tubes a couple weeks ago.
And despite all of the rain, the flowers and the city itself look wonderful!! In my work, I have been working on a variety of Olympic related issues for about a year. You'd be surprised how much goes into preparing for the games. Deliveries are suspended, routes are blocked and trains and buses will be delayed and crowded. Despite all of this, I feel like it's a small price to pay for all the FUN!! And the ability to cheer on our favourite athletes from our City.
Needless to say, the three of us are very excited! We're eagerly anticipating the 23rd, when the Olympic Torch comes right past our house!!! We'll be celebrating with lots of flags, our Olympic Tees, some lovely local friends and fresh British Bacon Sandwiches!! The following Friday will be the opening ceremony and we plan to watch it with some lovely friends. Then, on Saturday, we're heading out with a 3rd Galbraith, Grandpa George, to watch the cycling. There are some really great Brits, vieing for a medal and I'm sure they'll be some Americans too (don't worry, Evie and I have both flags). So, bring on the games!!
But, that's not the only thing that's happening/happened this summer. I know for most of my fellow Americans, the summer is almost over. You're in your last couple of weeks before the schools start back. We still have one week left of school here, but our summer fun started a month and a half ago with the Queen's diamond Jubilee.
For the past several months, as the City has been getting ready for the Olympics, you can see the Union Jack everywhere!! This is very uncommon. British people aren't quite as patriotic as we Americans. It has been a lovely change though. As the Queen's Jubilee neared, the flags started to come out in abundance! One day as I was walking to my schools, I happened to notice this in one of the store windows:
The words are all done in fresh English Roses!! All of the stores in that area had windows with fresh flowers for the Queen and some were just unbelievable!! It made me so excited for the holiday weekend to come. And what a holiday it was! We started with a BBQ at our house. All British food: some lovely British Sausages, British Pork Ribs on the grill and lots of Pimms! We had most of our NCT friends and kids were running everywhere, just the way a garden party should be. The next day, we went with our lovely neighbour Joan, up to London to see the flotilla. We couldn't see a lot, but it was so much fun to be in the company of 20,000+ happy people celebrating Her Majesty. The weather didn't cooperate too much, but it didn't dampen any of our fun. The next day, we went to a BBQ with some of our other local Americans. More babies and more fabulous food! Finally, we ended the weekend watching Her Majesty's service on the television and once the weather cleared up, we took a trip to our local city farm, Mudchute.
From the park, we walked under the Thames via the Greenwich tunnel over to see Grandma at work. Evie loved walking in the tunnel although she was a bit timid at first (it's a bit dark down there). Evie and I spent the rest of the half term playing and trying to avoid the rain. I had a big certification audit the next week with work, so I was furiously going over notes to make sure I had everything in place.
On Evie's first day back to Yvonn's, when I went back to work, she was a bit unsettled (very unusual for her). The next day wasn't any better. By the third day, I got a text around midday that Yvonn had found a spot on Evie's leg and then a couple more when she'd woken up from her nap. Yvonn's daughter had the chicken pox about 4 weeks before. So, it was FINALLY Evie's turn to catch them.
Evie caught the chicken pox. It was without a doubt the mildest case of chicken pox anyone has ever had. The picture above was the first and only day she actually felt bad and laid down. I was not completely convinced it actually was chicken pox and I took her to the doctor on the 5th day to make sure. But, alas it was and now it's done and we don't have to worry about it anymore!
Ian also ran his first 10K during this time. He did brilliantly! He's definitely on his way to his first Triathlon.
During Chicken pox gate, we celebrated Ian's 2nd Father's Day and an early birthday. We had to celebrate his birthday a week early because on his actual birthday we went off on the most fabulous trip!
We had a long weekend in Dorset with 13 adults and 11 kids. My lovely friends, Liam and Sarah, celebrated their 40th birthdays this year. In order to mark this milestone, they invited some friends down to a MAGNIFICENT house to celebrate with them. We had a welcome BBQ on the first night, a fancy dress party (costume party) on the second night, and a fabulous roast dinner on the last day. It was the most fun I have ever had with that many children and one of the best weekends I've had in the last 10 years. This is just one photo of the house:
There were 14 acres of surrounding property including an indoor pool, outdoor pool (where we swam with ducks), campsite with tree swings, trampoline and campfire (where we roasted marshmallows with the kids), a river and waterfall just to name a few things. It was magical!
We then managed to catch our breath and get a few things done for work and basically have a nap, the following weekend. But, there is no rest for the weary and we were so excited for our next events: Evie's first Wimbledon and a visit from Uncle John and Tante Marina!!
Fortunately, we had a break from the rain and we were able to enjoy Evie's first Wimbledon in the sun!! It was made even better by a stranger giving us his tickets for court 1 (after we were inside) and Andy Murray's very cool rise to be the first Britain in a Wimbledon singles final match in 74 years. Also, very cool was our fellow American, Serena Williams' rise to a win. The whole venue was buzzing and it was a wonderful day. Here is Evie explaining that you have to be quiet whilst watching tennis:
Although it wasn't exactly 4th of July (booooo for the holiday being in the middle of the week!), we still got to celebrate with our fellow Americans. Uncle John and Tante Marina arrived on Friday with Marina's mother and niece (4 Americans, yeah). We toured London by bus (with an appropriately timed stop at a pub, it is Uncle John, you know). We then had the most fabulous and inexpensive dinner in London at Tayyabs (seriously, if you're in London go here) and finished off with some drinks before heading off home to get ready for our 4th of July BBQ. That's right, I have continued my tradition of having 4th of July BBQs in London. We had burgers and Sausages and lots of other yummy stuff. We decorated with the red, white and blue, we waived our flags, we drank some cool beers (thanks uncle John) and we relaxed and enjoyed being free in the land of the people we fought to be free from. Hey, the irony is not lost on me.
We then spent another day seeing the sites of London, walking along the Thames, checking out the Olympic rings on the Tower of London, enjoying Fish and Chips in Borough Market and ending with an evening of good wine and food with Auntie Jo! We headed out to Windsor the next day and enjoyed seeing the big castle!
And here we are, enjoying our final weekend before the schools break up for the summer. Evie and I spent the afternoon at the Museum of Natural History yesterday. It was really cool. Did you know that we only discovered dinosaurs in the last century. Somehow, I thought we had known about them for ages.
We hope to see Grandma and Grandpa on their return from a fabulous biking holiday and after that, we're just going to be counting the days until the Olympic festivities begin!
A Great British Summer indeed!
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