Writers Block?!

That must be what I have...I can't think of anything to write at the moment...back soon! (**,)

Halloween Leftovers!

Something I’ve noticed with all the leftover Halloween sweets is that some of the names are wrong! Wrong, wrong wrong! Now don’t get me wrong, we love our sweets/candy but some things you shouldn’t mess with… for example: they call Maltesers, Whoppers & you’ll find a Mars Bar here but it’s called a Milky Way & a Milky Way is called 3 Musketeers. Smarties are what we call Fizzers & they don’t seem to do what we call Smarties at all! A Twix is …well a Twix but they also do it in a peanut butter version (don’t even get me started on peanut butter version of all sorts of food!) Hershey’s chocolate is weird but that’s probably because I was weaned on Cadbury’s. They do actually do Cadbury’s here but it’s a fake chocolate dressed up in a Cadbury’s coat!
Today I like… all the differences still!
Today I don’t like… weird chocolate!

Trick or Treat?!

So you may or may not know that Halloween isn't my most favourite time of year & we were in all honestly hoping not to have to do the Trick or Treat thing with the girls but Harley was invited to a party & we felt mean not doing something with Nyah. We were invited to the local yearly Halloween street party in a cul de sac round the corner from us & although G didn't fancy it I wasn't totally sure I convinced him we needed to go even if only for a little while! The 'Hosts' set up tables & chairs outside their house & there were long tables for food, desserts & then drinks. Everyone (if they want)can bring something to eat or drink & before you know it there is all sorts of food & drink available! There is also a 'candy table' which has enough for about a thousand kids then all the Dad's take the kids off trick or treating while the 'Mom's(!)sit round the fire pit (yep someone kindly bought one of those along too!)chatting! Everyone was very friendly & there was even someone there who had family visiting from Oxford! There was beer & a fire & food & fun was had by all! Harley & Nyah were on a sugar high after comparing their loot!

Changing Seasons!

Isn't it strange how you don't notice the leaves changing colour as if someone paints them overnight or something!? First is a picture taken at the start of the 'pool season' back in May when our neighbour uncovered their lovely new pool.... & then recently when the pool was covered for the winter...

Graeme's Observation of the month!

Over the last few weeks, we have been to a couple of outdoor concerts at our local town centre. Now when I say town centre, it’s a bit like Orbital district centre in North Swindon, with lots of shops, a big supermarket, some restaurants, bank and a big hotel. There is also a big car park that they transform into a stage area and set up stalls with free food. Talking of car parks, have you noticed in the UK how small the parking spaces are? I always struggle to get in and out of the doors without hitting the car parked next to me and from personal experience, as well as the chipped paintwork on previous car doors to prove it; other people struggle to do the same! Well over here the car parking spaces are huge! Probably to accommodate their huge SUV and pick-up trucks, or it may be that they have so much space that we might as well make things more spacey like, or it could be to help rather large people get in and out of their vehicles without squishing themselves, and we all know how large some of the people here can get! Either way, I like the fact you can get out of your car without breaking them!

Now, as I was saying, I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine that North Swindon council providing 600 free hot dogs, free popcorn, free crisps and drinks for the evening as well as free ice cream and live entertainment. I know we have the bowl at the Town Gardens, but it’s not the same.

Let’s compare the two. First imagine a sunny summer afternoon (well at least twice a year) with a few groups playing music, lots of blokes drinking cider and beer, throwing peanuts (paid for) at each other, shouting lewd remarks at the girls who are sporting tight shorts, with short tops with plenty of overhanging flash, sitting with the obligatory baby in a buggy and piles of empty cans and rubbish strewn around left for someone to pick up at some point over the following couple of weeks.

Now compare this to a hastily arranged stage complete with sound system, lighting with guys monitoring tables of monitors and other music gear (sorry I’m not technical with this stuff), police directing traffic, fire engine waiting for any problems with potentially lethal exploding popcorn, as well as the many people begging you to take all of the free food supplies so as not to waste anything. Then you have people, who turn up with their chairs and blankets, cool boxes of beer and wine, calmly staking a spot for themselves and their kids, chatting to all and sundry! The kids go off running about with friends in little possees even though its pitch black, while the adults singing along and with some doing very strange dance movements (chicken song springs to mind!). When the music stops, everything is cleared away and before you know it, you’d never have known that anything other than a car park had ever been there. There are even portable loos and free standing hand washing machines dotted around to stop the spread of germs.

I’ll let you guess which one is where, but the one we went to seemed to be really well planned and geared up for the family and made us feel contented to just sit, relax and while away the hours without a care in the world!

This month’s observation being that some things in the States are bigger and better organized with family in mind compared to the UK.

September 28 2009

Hello all…can you believe it…I know I say it a lot but I can’t believe it’s the end of September already & in a month’s time we will have been here, Stateside a WHOLE YEAR! So what’s been happening? Well G is actually in Amsterdam for a meeting as I type & I’ve just heard from him…he’s very very busy, busy out drinking beer & eating steak! Honestly sometimes I despair…it’s not as if I’m sat around here watching TV with my feet up or sat on the deck in the sunshine…well actually sometimes it is! I hear that you are all getting an Indian Summer, right now, right this minute…hope it’s still there by the time you read this!

We’ve recently been downtown to the ‘Fabulous Fox’ theatre…they actually call it that & I just thought they were being a bit pretentious but once we got inside we could see why they call it that, it REALLY is FABULOUS… the foyer was wow with amazing fixtures & ceilings etc all art deco style(e) & totally ‘fabulous darhhhhling’! It’s unusual to see old buildings here & I suppose in the UK we get a bit blasé about old & historical stuff…but being here surrounded by pretty much everything new-ish (in comparison…the Americans don’t really have history like we do, do they, I mean come on!) you forget how nice some of that ‘old stuff’ really is…anyway I digress…we went to see Mary Poppins & it was a great show but theatre is sometimes wasted on kids isn’t it…they tend to take it pretty much all for granted the fact that it’s a play & the Nanny is floating about above the audience so it was left to G & I to watch opened mouthed in amazement & clap excitedly while they sat watching calmly! We of course listened carefully to the British accents in case any of the actors were thinking they could let it slip a little … who’s gonna notice in an audience of yanks eh?! (meant in the fondest possible way!) I must admit I was surprised, all accents were pretty good…there was just one bit, for those of you who know the Mary Poppins story, the bit with the old down & out lady who sells the bird food for ‘Tuppence, tuppence, tuppennnnnccceee a bag’ well she couldn’t say tuppence right & you have to say it A LOT of times in that song, it grated on me I don’t know why & I was sat there listening getting more & more irate…again, don’t know why, it’s not like me (stop sniggering back there!) but I couldn’t take the ‘tuppence’ (I’m singing the song in my head as I type!!!) it was just W-R-O-N-G! The song finished & the show continued without further ado until later on, you know how they do in theatre shows sometimes, they sing the song again…maybe a slightly shorter or slower version (why do they do that?) & guess which song…yep…TUPPENCE A BLOODY BAG… I thought I was going to have to stuff my hand in my mouth to stop myself from shouting out…ENOUGH ALREADY! MAKE IT FIVEPENCE SOMEONE, A SHILLING? A FARTHING? ANYTHING BUT TUPPENCE, BOOOOOOOOOOOO GET HER OFF THE STAGE!!! As I said don’t know why I felt so strongly about it, I just did!

We’ve also been to an outdoor concert locally that was lots of fun…you turn up with your chairs (bit like July 4^th) & your cooler (cool box to translate!) if you wish…but you get given a free hot dog, soda (can of pop!) chips (crisps!) ice cream & kettle corn (sweet popcorn, if its savoury they just call it popcorn!) & did I say it’s all free? Oh I’m repeating myself aren’t I?! But how cool is that…they ask you along, ply you with food & drink, then make you sit & listen to the free music show! Love it! The night in question was a Beatles tribute band… they came on all dressed up & ‘in character’ & when they spoke G & I just looked at one another & couldn’t help grinning…they were the funniest liverpudlian (is that actually a word?!) accents ever…we found out later that it was probably because they all actually came from Chicago but it was a great night & the girls first ‘gig’…they loved it too, they ate lots of hot dogs & kettle corn, Nyah amused herself with her posse of chums & Harley & her friend were much more sophisticated & queued sedately at the end with napkins (serviettes to you & I!) to get ‘John Lennons’ autograph!

Something strange has been going on here in the shops & also outside people’s houses…there is a distinct ‘orange’ feel about everything & I mean everything! OMG all things Halloween/Fall (autumn they mean, what’s all this Fall nonsense!) come out to play with a vengeance at the end of Summer i.e Labour Day which is at the beginning of September which means that even though it could still be 80 degrees outside & in no way looks like it’s the end of Summer it is & you have to put all things summery away & bring out everything & anything orange/Halloween inspired/vaguely leaf patterned or pumpkin shaped. One of our neighbours has taken down his ‘Stars & Stripes & replaced it with a Halloween design flag! When you are in the UK you know that Halloween is a big thing over here but you really have no idea just how big… for example all your normal food you buy gets replaced with an ‘orange/Halloween’ version for the duration, so you don’t have cornflakes for breakfast between end of August & end of October you get a bright orange box with something called ‘Hallow-flakes’ instead…jest I not, the store resembles the orange crowd when Holland play in the world cup! Now don’t get me wrong it’s not that I dislike it exactly & I like Autumn as much as the next person, when it follows a long hot Summer...it’s just that it’s a little too much…we have neighbours with pumpkins on their doorsteps already & it’s not even October yet!!! Enough already!?

This month I’m loving… Faux British accents!

This month I’m not loving… the colour orange!

August 2009

Graeme’s Work & UK trip

You probably don’t know this but work was beginning to take its toll on me and therefore making me ‘not me’ at home so something needed to give! I’m glad to say home life won and work has started to get better over the last month or two as things weren’t quite going to plan and I was doing ‘stuff’ that I wasn’t brought over to do, which was stopping me doing the things I should have been doing! Well things came to a head while back in Blighty, while there for some meetings with one of my many boss’s who needed me to commit to producing more.. More, I said?! You having a laugh, I said?! I don’t have the time to do the things I’m supposed to do, I said?! And so the start of a bright new future started! Many discussions amongst my many bosses and I, came to the conclusion I needed to be freed up to do what I came here to do and hence now, things have become more exciting (in a workie sort of way) and I can do the challenging things I’m good at! Apparently.

As you know, I’ve travelled back to the UK 3 times now, twice with work and once on holiday to meet Dee and the kids. With the work trips I actually find that I want to get in and out as quickly as possible.. no smug comment’s from my wife or my friends please and anyhow, this is a clean blog unlike your minds!! The reason being is I actually want to get back home and as much as it’s nice to visit friends and family, the bits in between tend to drag on. However, I do plan the trips so that I fly in on a Sunday lunchtime and can drive straight to my mum’s for Sunday roast.. some things are worth coming back for!!

Now as Dee mentioned, she and the girls went back to Swindon a week before me for holiday, so while the cat was a way the mouse could play.. or so I thought! Beer, parties, BBQ’s films and all sorts of shenanigans could begin.. The slight flaw in my plan was a ginger fluff ball of a dog and work! My day would start at 5.30am to get ready, take the ginger thing out for a walk and feed her, make my breakfast and my lunch before starting off on my commute at 6.30 to work. On leaving work for the day, I would come home and take the dog out for a long walk as she had been stuck in the house all day (we do have a doggie door so she can go out and have a pee, we’re not that heartless!), get home, do a workout, shower, cook, eat and if I’m lucky I would have enough energy to have ‘a’ beer and watch some TV or a movie!! I’m sure it wasn’t this hard being single before I met Dee, but then, that was a long time ago and the memory isn’t what it used to be!!

Well eventually, after putting the dog into kennels and the long flight back, I met up with the family and it was good to see them all. Feeling better knowing I could actually still look after myself on my own, it was none the less good to be back as a family. The question we all had on our minds though, was ‘How would we all feel being back ‘home’ with family and friends in a town we had lived all, or most of our lives in?! Although, Dee stayed with her mum the first week, we decided to stay in a hotel for the second week and because of a good deal we got, stayed at the Express by Holiday Inn, in central Swindon. We checked in around 5pm and decided to go into town to get some water to be confronted by approximately 30 policemen with truncheons marching into town in front of us. As nice as it was to get a protection squad for us, I never expected to need one in Swindon! However, we found it wasn’t for us but was for a raid on the Flag pub (formally the Lamb & Flag) and for whatever sins were happening inside, they piled in leaving us to battle through new Eastern European quarter of Swindon centre just outside BHS on our own.! My how things have progressed in our short time away!!

After returning to the hotel, we decided to look at the views over the town (we were on the top floor) and noticed something going on in Fleet Street by all the pubs there. Lots of pointing, crying and staring.. What could it be?! A police car soon turned up with sirens blaring and a police man got out and walked to the corner of the street. Saw what was going on and decided to get back in his car!! It turns out that rival football fans from Cardiff decided to fight Swindon fans and for the next 20 minutes running battles and fighting took place while the lone policeman sat in his car! Until that is a policewoman decided to try and break it up, at which point the policeman thought it prudent to show his bravery (well you can’t be shown up by a woman now can you!!) and decided to do his job! At last after 25 minutes, the Calvary showed up in the form of two police vans full of policemen (and women) to take charge! “It’s just like TV” said Harley leaving me and Dee thinking that we all watch the wrong types of programs you typically find on Tru TV and the Bravo channels!!!

Safe to say that we were under no illusions about our home town and there was no way of looking at the place with rose tinted glasses anymore and once we had done all the nice things of family, friends, Curry & Chinese (not necessarily in that order of preference) we were in fact happy to come home to the safe and sunny haven of St Louis. Well, what I mean by safe haven is that Wildwood where we live seems safe, but we all know that East St Louis and Downtown is a different matter!

August 09

So, how are you all & what have we been up too? Before I begin… if you see these messages appear in your inbox or you get a notification from facebook telling you the news is in, all fresh & shiny, ready for you to read & it fills you with dread you do know it’s not a legal requirement to carry on reading don’t you?! Someone recently mentioned to me about how they look at it & give a groan to how long it is…YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ IT YOU KNOW! I write if & when I feel like it & then put it out there for anyone who wants to read it, simple as that.

We are thinking of moving from facebook to an actual ‘blog’ site which I think may put it in an easier format to read so watch out for news on that!

So back to business… I can’t believe it’s August already…. the girls go back to school in just under two weeks. Now we’re almost at the end it’s speeding along fast, it’s scary how fast actually but I still think just over 11 weeks is waaaaaaaaay too long to have off & they need to go back to school for their sanity as well as mine!

I’m sat out on the deck (under the umbrella for a change!) & it’s just after 11am & it’s a beautiful day…a hot but not too hot 79 degrees, sky is blue & there is a slight breeze… girls are in the playhouse & not arguing (that will only last about another 5 seconds) & the dog is here at my feet…she’s going to have to go in, in a minute though because she has a fur coat on & is panting like a sprinter already…she loves the sun so much but doesn’t recognize when she’s well done & needs to stop cooking! Stoopid dog!!!

It feels a little like the end of summer where the girls are about to go back to school but I have to keep reminding myself it’s nowhere near over yet! God I hope by the time you’re reading this you’re having some nice weather again too! As most of you will know we were back in the UK for a mini ‘vacation’ the last two weeks of July…we picked these two weeks purposely & for a few reasons, we wanted to visit the girls school before they finished for the summer, to break up our school holiday this end (the girls were ready to kill each other before we came out!) & at the hope that we may also carry on with the summer there…I mean HELLO it was the middle of July! It rained everyday apart from one & it was very strange being fully clothed again (not that we spend any time here naked you understand!) fully clothed as in jeans, socks, cardigans etc as we didn’t realise how much we’d been in shorts, vests & flip flops! But the weather didn’t spoil our time & to be honest it probably would have made it hard work as it’s not exactly as air conditioned as we are now used too! (**,)

It felt very strange flying back to the UK & ‘home’…it didn’t feel like coming home though & it also didn’t feel like we were on holiday either…it felt very strange to be honest & not as I expected. The first week the girls & I stayed with my Mum (G flew over & joined us for the 2^nd week) she was brilliant even though I’m sure it felt like she’d been invaded! She lent me her car, her bed, her food…everything & we really appreciated it! THANKS MUM! Big love to my fabulous Sister who picked us up at ‘cosy’ Heathrow & never seemed to tire of me moaning on endlessly about being jet-lagged (yes I’m still tired Sis!) I felt & how small everything looked & for a fab trip out to Malmesbury for a proper morning of English-ness & also for the closest I’m ever going to get to a festival as we drove past the car park for WOMAD! I caught up with the other two musketeers Elke & Tash, (felt like I hadn’t been away girls!) & it was great to see Louise & Ian (am so in love with the new kitten!) & Claire & Brad (funny how Tala wanted to eat Nyah!) I had my brows threaded to perfection & a long overdue pedi with the beautician to the stars (well stars of Swindon anyway!) the fabulous Jo! It was great to catch up with lots of friends at Catherine Wayte School & see everyone again… we also loved visiting our old street Arley Close & catching up with friends there & in Abbey Meads! It was funny seeing people do a double take when they didn’t know we were back visiting & we thought it a shame Borders was closing but loved the new M & S! We saw G’s Mum & Dad & it was Elsie’s birthday when we visited & instead of being waited on herself…she cooked a yummy roast dinner complete with my fave dessert rhubarb crumble which was the best ever (& Elsie you really are the greatest Mother-in-law!!) I had a lovely evening with girls I went to school with many many years ago & saw some funny photos & we also caught up with the (in)famous Nige & Jules…it was great to see you ALL!

The two weeks went so very fast but after all the visiting, shopping & I’d eaten all the foods I’d been craving such as toast (MMmmmmmm proper toast!) chips (just a couple with salt & vinegar did the trick) curry (& it was oh so yummy!) & a few Cadbury’s crème eggs I was pretty much done & ready to get back ‘home’ again! We couldn’t get to see everyone due to lack of time & in the end money...OMG it cost a bloody fortune & that was with the free flights!!

This month I’m loving…smiling to myself when thinking about friends & family!

This month I’m not loving… saying goodbye all over again!