May Day Weekend

Last weekend was May Day Bank Holiday (England speak for long weekend). Nick and I went to the May Day celebrations at the Downton Cuckoo Fair. I had my beloved freshly made cotton candy.


And we watched some traditional Clog Morris dancers.





They danced to the rhythm of a band made up of different antique accordions and a few other instruments.


This picture is for Jim. Wouldn't you love to have a go on this!


We also watched a few dances down by traditional Morris Dancers (the non-clog kind)


and the Maypole Dance (a folk dance preformed all over Western Europe on this weekend since the 1700's. Although I bet it wasn't originally done to the music from River Dance like ours was :)


The next day we went to Cambridge (not too far from home). This is the sighing bridge (like the one in Venis). This bridge provides a walkway from the students' residence to their classes.


And went on a guided punt on the river Cam.


Wondered around the campuses.



I didn't realize that Cambridge isn't just one university. It's actually 20-some different totally separate colleges. All of which make up of a population of only 22,000 students. Which is less than the population of U of C.


It is a beautiful city filled with great buildings and a calm student-coffee-shop atmosphere.



The residence are so studious that the Waterstone's book store is open late and needs security to man all the people going in!

Week 15

I'm at week 15 now. Many of you have asked for a picture of the 12 week ultrasound. Here's the precious little one:

Now little one is a bit bigger, as am I. We'll find out the gender during the 20 week scan if we're lucky and it's facing the right way. I'm feeling much better now. But still not great. I'm nauseous from time to time throughout the day, VERY tired, and dizzy due to my low blood pressure. But, I'll live.

The other weekend, N, the kids and I went to see the London Marathon. N's brother Tim was running in it. Our camera packed up just before Tim ran passed, but we did get a picture of this wonderful fun runner!

He's meant to look like Borat. (BTW, the actor of Borat (who exposes the gross prejudices that humans hold in a very teenage boy way) went to my school once upon a time ago.)

I also saw the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey. To whom which I screamed, "GORDON!!!!" like a love-sick school girl. Me??? I honestly have no idea where that came from. Maybe the pregnancy hormones. (This is not my photo but it is from the same race.)


Tim was very excited to see us, and we were excited to see him. We managed to see him on two different spots of the course and then we battled the tube ride home.

I haven't shown a pix of N for a while, so here he is on his bike the day after the awful tube ride. Down on poorly managed public transport!

Long Time no Type

So Marc and Kylie (long-time friends of mine) came to visit Nick and I. Marc gave me flack for not blogging often enough and for blogging too long. Then, a facebook message from my cousin Shannon said the same thing! So, my April's resolution is to blog less more!

I thought I would start with some big news. I'M PREGNANT!!! Oh my goodness. Due Oct 19th. We're very excited but I must admit that I'm really really scared.

This is what I looked like when we found out at 5 weeks: (I can only pray that God blesses me with a flat stomach like this someday again!)



Then a little larger at 10 weeks:


















And now... I'm fat at 13 weeks and wearing maternity clothes! (Or very tight trousers) I try to suck it in as much as I can during the day, but by the evening.... so this is me relaxed. And, I'm sure the picture looks stretched???

As they'd say in England, "who ate all the pies?" The problem is, I have been too ill to eat anything other than crackers. I can only wish it was peacan pie followed by Oma's cheesecake followed by... only wish...

Those that are in awe at the almost-nude pictures... chill. Things are A LOT more carefree in England/Europe and this is nothing compared to what's in the newspapers! And, when in Rome...

So, Nick and I do have to apologize to Marc and Kylie. When they were visiting Nick was bed-bound with an awful flu. And I was all-day sick (I refuse to call it "morning" sick), nauseous all day all night all week all month... Morning my arse! I could barely bring myself to eat crackers never mind cook a meal and sightsee. So, for the record, we are not lazy or boring and we do eat when we're 'normal'. It was lovely to have you and we look forward to seeing you again when we're not at our worst.

A memory of the two of you (taken on the day we kicked you out of the house and sent you to the London Science Museum).