We've Got Elvis Plate Collectors...

I guess they have Freddie Mercury plate collectors.

American Politics

Inevitably being the only American that some of my colleagues know I get questions about the presidential race. There is so much I could say, but we are at work so I just try and keep it neutral. I do get the sense that they blame Americans for introducing the “polished” politician to the rest of the world. Someone here did tell me that they were happy that Obama beat Clinton. They said seeing a woman as President didn’t seem as monumental as having a black President. They said they could never see that as a possibility in England.

Forget the politicians. A has been watching a lot of music videos when she has control of the remote and Green Day’s American Idiot is still on heavy rotation on one of the stations here. As they would say in the UK, I still think the message and the video is “brilliant”.

Where The Americans Are...

My work colleague L met me at the Bloomsbury Theatre Wednesday night for an evening with David Sedaris. I was so happy that the two of us could go to the event together since she is just as much a fan as I am. The Bloomsbury Theatre is not a huge venue, but it did sell out for the event. David read “All the Beauty You Will Ever Need” from his latest collection as well as some things he had been working on and some entries from his diary. For an hour straight we laughed our heads off. He then took several questions from the audience, which revealed how many Americans had come to the event. They asked questions like what he most missed and what he most disliked about the American South, what he thought about the presidential election, and whether his family still speaks to him. His answers were all hilarious and some you probably had to be there so I’m not going to write them down here. About the presidential election though, he did comment that he didn’t really think there were undecided voters for this election. He works for NPR some and he said that they were working on an “undecided voter” show. David thought anyone who could not pick a side in this election must just be looking for attention.

He took great care in talking with everyone who wanted a book signed. I got nervous when it was my turn and just babbled I’m sure. We talked about his last visit to St. Louis. David lives in the London and asked L where she lived. She in return asked him and when he said Kensington, she told him that she used to be a librarian at the local library. He said that he visited that library often, and wrote in her book “To L, I wish you were my librarian. David Sedaris.

On the train ride home I of course thought of all the questions I would have liked to have asked.

Peaceful Wednesday

Wednesday was a really beautiful day to be in London, one of those days that made me stop and think, being here is a gift. The days are getting shorter and some of the leaves in the parks are slightly changing. I had a work meeting in the afternoon, and afterwards a colleague and I sat in the park just to enjoy the nice rain-less weather. This statue of Gandhi sits in the middle of the park.

Split Personalities

There were some tears Sunday night about returning to school on Monday. A says she can't find her way and she feels like she is bugging her "go to" person too often. I gave her lots of hugs and tried to reassure her that everything was going to be fine. Monday morning when the alarm rang, a beast came out of the bedroom, not my lovely daughter. I said very little and let her go about her business of making her lunch and breakfast. On the walk to school, after I suggested we take a shortcut, she snapped that she hated this school and it just went downhill from there. I tried to talk some sense into her but there was nothing I could say to make it better. I think if I could have said to her guess what, you never have to go to school again, she would have still taken issue with that! So instead we walked the rest of the way in silence. My boss and I have discussed the fact that if our kids aren't in a good place, it sets the tone for our days. As I got on the train to go to work, I wished that I could just go back home and pull the covers over my head.

I called home at the end of a busy day and she was all upbeat and in a great mood. Thank goodness!

It's Tuesday morning and she's not in a foul mood, but she did go back to bed. When I go and wake her, I hope it's good personality and not bad!

More English Wildlife?

It rained practically all day today and in the middle of it, A and I made a mad dash to the train to pick up some groceries and some movies for the weekend. As we walked down the sidewalk, we came across this lil guy. Where did he come from?

Family Without A Country

Downers come up here and there that make me pause and think, if I would have known that BEFORE we accepted the offer to move to the UK, would I have passed on the opportunity?

Finding out that getting financing for a car was not going to happen because we haven’t lived here for three years was a bit of a setback. Our U.S. bank will not offer us financing either since we no longer have a U.S. address. We have decided to keep going along without a car for a bit longer in hopes of saving and just buying something outright. I was irritated for a few weeks but now I am moving on.

Before H left the U.S. he got a letter from the university he had been attending in St. Louis encouraging him to come back because he was close to finishing his computer science/math degree. I felt sick when I saw the letter in the mail because I know it is difficult when you are at the end of a program to transfer to another school and feared that he would have to repeat a lot of classes at the school that he transferred to. I never dreamed after lots of research the amount that can be transferred is much lower than expected and that he could not get UK resident tuition rates because again, we haven’t lived here for three years. This answer has been standard at every educational institution and it triples the cost. For cryin out loud I pay taxes here!