Few more discoveries in London

Today, taking the advantage of the warm and sunny weather, I took us to TATE Modern to look at the installation/sculptures in the Turbine Hall. The experience was super enjoyable, because we could touch them. I don't think it is possible to fully understand and fall in love with most sculptures until one can touch them and trace their outlines not only with the eyesight, but with the hands. I didn’t end up taking any pictures of the actual installation and TATE doesn’t seem to have any info about it on their website. Strange.

Next we headed across the bridge to have tea with our hardworking and rarely seen breadwinner and to visit the real goal of the expedition – Fabric & Trimming sale at the Craft Central. I got some fabric and probably would’ve bought even more if I had some time to think about all the wonderful things I can make, but the Little Girl was getting tired and we headed to the King’s Cross/St Pancras station. It wasn’t the closest one, but they have lifts and I wanted to avoid having to carry the pram with not so light child down the stairs.

It was also interesting to see bits of the area that I don’t know very well. On the way to the station I noticed Exmouth Market and will add it to my list of potential London spots to visit.
Ironically the lift at home wasn’t working, so we had to walk up the stairs anyway.

Enjoying London

Last two weeks our Gymboree class was extremely crowded; today I didn’t feel up-to spending my morning in the small room packed full with loud, energetic kids and since we’ve been listening to the first 5-10 minutes of the Paddington Bear narrated by Stephen Fry I took Cat to the Paddington station instead to look at the stature of Paddington Bear, .

Cat loves trains at the moment and was highly impressed with the big loudly humming ones there. Afterwards we walked to the Kensington Gardens to look at the birds and the fountains, chase the squirrels and observe the slow fall of leaves. And we got to see few tractors pulling the wagons with collected leaves. Cat loves them almost as much as trains and even started saying tractor/трактор few days ago.

I’m reading John Holt’s How Children Learn and am surprised by how much I’m learning from this book as a parent. For example instead of seeing dangers everywhere, I am able to relax more and trust Catherine to know her own limits. Today instead of grabbing her to prevent the potential fall into the fountain, I peacefully watched as she first sat on the edge and later leaned in to take a closer look at the water. Free from worrying thoughts I was able to see perfectly well that she wasn’t in any danger. Being a relaxed parent is more fun than constantly worrying one - I'm glad we stopped watching news in the morning as they constantly have conflicting segments on dangers surrounding kids, negative effects of overprotection and various debates on parents failing to do the right thing, whatever it deemed to be on that day.

On a rainy day

I have few quotes to share with you this week; but despite the rain, the wind and the cold we went to the Kew Gardens today, had great time exploring mostly indoor parts of it and now I feel too exhausted to type all the thoughts I have relating to these quotes - so maybe tomorrow.

Multitasking

TATE Modern

Have you ever attempted to push a pram with one hand against the oncoming crowd, to keep an eye on your child to make sure she doesn’t fall off the bridge or get stepped onto and to take photos all at the same time? My multitasking abilities are improving daily. Luckily for me the Millennium Bridge has a small mesh section, though which one can see the shore beneath and while Cat was looking down in fascination I snapped one good photo to remind her about our Friday outing to get Papa from his work place.

Millennium Bridge & St Paul's Cathedral

Short trips during long weekend

We rented a car for the long weekend, but haven’t booked any accommodation. On Friday Cat developed a runny nose and I started to get worried that we’ll be stuck at home for the whole three days. Despite my worries we ended up having a fantastic weekend.

On Saturday I had a haircut and in the afternoon we took a walk along the Grand Union Canal in the small village just outside London, but I forgot to bring my camera.

On Sunday we went to Ruislip Lido, because I love tiny trains and wanted to check out the railway there for ages.


As well as catching the train we enjoyed running on the grass, playing at the playground and building sandcastle, though Cat was more interesting in throwing the sand around.

On Monday we traveled to the Wimpole Farm – a perfect place for a young family like us. Cat enjoyed looking at the animals.

I marvelled at the beautiful flowers

(though I wasn't the only one),

artistic scarecrows

and checked out the contemporary textile exhibition by CHAT.

Clive and I enjoyed looking through the rooms in the Wimpole Hall and all the clocks, specially the ones with pendulums, kept Cat mesmerized.

And we left with a pile of books from their second hand shop (and I have to point out that this time Clive got more books than I did).

Quotes, talking and our trip

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.
But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?"
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince"
--
Polina, Driftwood and Katy, thank you for providing other suggestions for what this drawing could be. I'm looking forward to the day when The Little Girl will be able to tell me herself what she is drawing, feeling and thinking. Though she may choose to keep the explanations to herself believing that:

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince"

There isn't very much progress with talking, though recently The Little Girl started answering my questions with very loud and clear Да (Yes) and on Friday she said Baby in very happy sing-song voice, so throughout our car trip to Stratford-upon-Avon she and I would burst into chanting Baby-Baby to the amusement of everyone else. We also enjoyed eating delicious food at the King's Arms in Mickleton; looking at (and smelling) the myriad beautiful flowers; and exploring Warwick castle, cute Cotswolds villages and old houses.

Photo of Anne Hathaway's Cottage

However the biggest highlight of our trip for me was the visit to the Mary Arden's Farm (childhood home of Shakespeare's mother ). The guides there are dressed in the replica Tudor clothing and are happy to chat about the daily farm activities they perform in the same way as was done in the 16th Century. I found them very knowledgeable, friendly, enthusiastic and interesting. And there were various farm animals to keep The Little Girl entertained - she loved patting and feeding the sheep and chasing after the chickens.
Few more photos are on Flickr

Trip to York

It’s been about three weeks since we went to York, but I guess better late than never. So here is a long and not very exciting story of what we did.

Our trip to York started as a study in how not to travel: rushing to pack, not having enough time to wash dishes (and I hate leaving dirty dishes sitting around even for few hours, let along few days) or to feed the child, printing out details of the wrong hotel.

Luckily I was organized enough to prepare some food to take with us, so Cat got something to eat on the way to the train station (is it strange that she now eats boiled carrots only while on the move and completely refuses them at home?). On the train we were fortunate enough to sit opposite a cute young couple, who I thought totally adorable, especially because Cat found them mesmerising and therefore didn’t require much entertainment from us.

It was on our arrival to York that we realised that I printed out the details of the wrong hotel. And for a change I was thankful for Clive’s work blackberry and soon we were on the way to our friendly B&B. We tried to put Cat down for a nap, but she was too excited about her new surroundings and after 40 minutes we admitted defeat and headed into town. Of course once in the pram she fall asleep almost straight away. We walked around the town admiring the old houses, visiting few shops and finally stumbled upon a bead shop (Bead Hive, 11 College St). See how disorganized we were – I didn’t even have time to google the location of local beadshops before our trip. Of course I got few more beads to add to my growing collection.
At this point our little sleeping angel awoke and turned into screaming monster. She brightened up a tiny bit (or at least stopped screaming) once I picked her up, but was still highly irritable until we got some food into her in a café that was ok, but far from brilliant. It also didn’t have baby changing facilities (but had high-chairs); therefore our next stop was Art Gallery. Of course you know that I wanted to look at the paintings anyway and not just use their facilities. I assumed that well-fed child would be happy to admire pictures, particularly the ones with dogs or other animals in them, while being carried around. In our daily walks she preferred to be carried around to walking, hence I had no reason to think otherwise. And how wrong I was! She decided that walking around gallery, trying to climb the stairs and touching all the walls is infinitely more fun. So my gallery experience turned into brief glances at the painting while trying to keep an eye on her.

Since she was so eager to walk, we went to the park around the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey. The wind was so strong that it kept knocking her over and eventually we were back to carrying her.

After a short walk along the river, we decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel to have some food (roast beef sandwiches prepared in the morning) and rest. In the evening it took 40 minutes to get Cat to sleep – she was happy to be in the cot, singing and clapping, while I was next to her; but screaming if I moved away. She didn’t sleep very well and eventually ended up in our bed.

Since breakfast was served from 8, we had some food up in our room at around 6:30 and I reminisced about old good times when I occasionally struggled to wake up early enough to make it to hotel’s breakfasts. During second breakfast Cat surprised us by saying pretty clear “Tick-Tock” while pointing at the clock. After breakfast we headed to the National Railway Museum, which was the main reason for our trip.

Cat fall asleep just as we arrived there, so we had one hour of peaceful looking around with many stories and explanations from my husband, who is a total nut than it comes to engines, submarines, trains, etc. One of our friends still has nightmares about spending a day in Science Museum with Clive and almost drowning in all the information. Since I like trains myself, I was happy to have a personal guide. Once Cat was awake she also enjoyed looking at trains, specially the miniature railway set. My favourite was seeing Flying Scotsman being repaired in the workshop.

On finishing with the museum we did a bit more walking around the town, looked at the Clifford's Tower, but didn’t go inside and went back to hotel to try to get Cat to sleep a tiny bit more. You can guess – it didn’t work. So we went out for another walk and of course she fall asleep.

Next morning we had two leisurely breakfasts again and headed back to the train station. Our football curse struck again and on entering London underground we were greeted by a huge football crowd, so had to miss few trains before finally getting home with Cat asleep on my shoulder. She opened her eyes for a second when I was taking off her clothes, but I doubt her brain registered that she was back home. Once she was awake, she was unhappy again until she saw all her soft toys sitting on the window ledge waiting for her.

We keep on talking about having a leisurely nature holiday, but our next one in May could be even more tiring as we will be heading to Japan for one week.

Edinburgh

(photo taken by my dad)

I fall in love very easily – with houses, cities, lakes, books, people, ideas. And from the first steps in Edinburgh I knew that I’ll love that town. Before our holiday one of my friends mentioned that she dreams of living there and I found myself repeating her sentiment. Edinburgh has everything to make it perfect for me: the beautiful skyline, the proximity to the sea and the hills, the wealth of history and culture, the cute little shops, the abundance of knitwear and relaxed atmosphere.


(another photo taken by my dad)

I drooled (figuratively) over all the beautiful designer knitwear and had to console myself with getting this little brooch by Hume Sweet Hume from Gifted exhibition at National Museum of Scotland. While there I again saw the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2007 exhibition and again I was totally mesmerized by Yoko Izawa’s work.

We visited the other standard tourist destinations, walked around a lot, Clive and I took advantage of having two very good babysitters and saw Elizabeth: The Golden Age and had a nice dinner at Mexican restaurant. Knowing that too soon I’ll be back to busy, frantic London I savoured every second of feeling happy, relaxed, comfortable. And to keep our relaxed mood, we decided to stay in Edinburgh for the whole week – so our trip to Scotland ended up being trip to Edinburgh.

Some of my photos are on flickr

Driving around Suffolk

Short Version: We drove, we ate, we saw, we drove some more and more and more. (repeat)

Long Version: On Saturday morning we piled into a hired car and went to Suffolk. At first the M1 was deceptively empty. Enjoying the high speed we missed the M25 exit (M25 is a circular road around London) and soon hit the roadworks. The exceptionally slow pace forced us to take the first exit and drive on smaller country roads. It took us almost the rest of the day to get to our destination. But Clive loves driving, I love being in the moving vehicle, both of us love looking at the cute tiny English towns & villages and so we enjoyed the drive. We also enjoyed some nice food at the Royal Oak pub (I wish I could remember where exactly it was) and I decided that blues and greens are the best colours for Cat after seeing her in their highchair. Eventually we arrived to our destination - The Pond Farm.

The next day started with delicious English breakfast made from the local produce: Clive raved about the bacon and I loved the sausages (often I’m highly unimpressed by the taste of English breakfast sausages). We piled into the car again and drove to Framlingham to see the town (very small and sadly most of the shops were closed on Sunday) and their castle. The view from the castle wall was beautiful and while Clive learned some historical information from the audio-guide, Cat and I looked out for the flying birds in the hope of preventing her from eating my audio-guide.

At this point poor thing became really tired, so we went on another drive to give her a chance to nap and eventually ended up in Aldeburgh – a costal town full of people as it was fantastically warm and sunny day. We were told that the fish & chip shop there is great and this fact was confirmed by the long queue stretching along the building and around the corner, so we opted to eat at the pub. We also got a chance to see Suffolk Craft Society exhibition – Clive fall in love with Toby Winteringham's wooden mirror frame and furniture and I with Sally Pirkis' felt & silver bracelets and Lin Patterson's bright quilts and pillows. After a pleasant walk along the beach we drove again in search of The Crockery Barn, where Clive got some jam and I another highly impractical handbag. After another nice meal at the Old Mill pub, we came back to the farm to look at the cows, chickens, horses and pigs.

On Monday the breakfast was as delicious, but poor Cat wasn’t too happy as she is still (again?) teething. She didn’t sleep too well during the night and fall asleep almost as soon as we started driving. So instead of looking at the shops in Framlingham we drove to Woodbridge, spent few hours there walking around, having relaxing cup of tea and looking at the birds before heading back to London. By the end of our trip we stopped noticing the pink houses – there seems to be disproportionate number of them in Suffolk. Here are some examples from Woodbridge:

Beauty on the gloomy day

Since the sky was gloomy with clouds again and I’m weary of getting wet on our daily walks to the park, we hopped on the Tube and went into town to see Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2007: Jewellery exhibition. It is a very small exhibit – two rooms of works by 6 artists. But I still managed to spend 40 minutes in there marvelling at the imagination, craftsmanship and beauty of each item on display (the maker’s profile pages have some pictures of the work). I loved the airiness and muted colour combinations of Yoka Izawa’s work and elegance of Susan Cross' metal weaves. The exhibition is in London until 22nd of July and it is right next to the Tate Modern, so you can always pop in there afterwards, if you want to extend your cultural outing.

We on the other hand went right past Tate Modern to see the man, who we can never get enough of.

Paul, French bakery, opened a shop next to St. Paul’s Catherdral. So my dear husband treated me to a lovely lunch and I got to take home this beauty to prolong the pleasure.

The brightness of Brighton

On Friday we went to Brighton. As usual getting through London took a long time, so we entertained ourselves the best we could. Cat tried to get her socks off – unsuccessfully.

Then she tried to get her hat off – successfully


And eventually she and I slept. By the time we arrived to Brighton I was starving and as some of you know I become very unpleasant and dangerous when hungry. So after registering in the hotel and changing Cat’s outfit, we went in search of food. Ended up in Pitcher & Piano bar (surprisingly they have highchairs) and I finally had a good pub burger, which I was craving for awhile. Despite gloomy weather forecast the sun was shining brightly and the sky was mostly blue, so we took a nice stroll along the beach. My previous Brighton visit was in the middle of winter and I was able to compare the stark difference the winters and summers bring to the seaside town. It is so lovely in summer; there are things sold on every corner (freshly made donuts smelled very tempting), people everywhere and so much light.

Noel was brave enough to wade the water, while we looked in admiration and I wondered if my dad would be insane enough to go for a swim (he usually is). I miss them - my parents. The sound of waves crashing against pebble beach brought memories of our summer vacations at the Black Sea when I was little. It is totally different sound from the one waves makes against the sand.

Eventually we had to go back to hotel to feed the little one and put her to bed. On entering the room we were blinded by the brilliant light and had to close the curtains. They were heavy red one, but the sun still got through them creating Dracula’s cave atmosphere. Cat went to sleep surprisingly easy considering how weird and different the surroundings were. Since it was still very early Clive and his dad went out for a pint or two and I enjoyed reading Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth, which made me interested in visiting French towns of Toulouse, Carcassone and Beziers.

The next day Cat was up at 5 am (*cringe*) so I took her to the beach. There were just us, seagulls and a bunch of praying (? Studying? ) whitely clad Muslims. I felt so peaceful and relaxed and was happy to experience the magic of morning breeze, beach and water.

Once everyone else awoke, it was time for Cat’s morning nap (occasionally I find it amusing how much we manage to get done before other’s day starts). Noel was kind enough to babysit, so Clive and I had uninterrupted breakfast. And then we went to Royal Pavilion. I was happy to revisit it as it is truly stunning inside.

Afterwards we had time to look around the shops and finish buying presents for Cat’s Cape Town cousins. Toby Tiger had lots of wonderful brightly coloured items and now I regret not getting anything for Cat (but we really don’t have any more space for her clothes and most toys were for older kids). For lunch we decided to take the easy option of Carluccio's. And then it was back home.

How did this post become about sleep?

The weather this weekend was totally unlike previous one.

When I came to England many people asked me if I was missing Australian weather. And the answer always was no. Melbourne weather is very similar to London - warm and sunny one day, cold and rainy the next. Except in Melbourne it doesn’t change from day to day, it changes from hour to hour. One of Melbournians’ favourite sayings is “Melbourne is the city of 4 seasons in one day”. I’m actually one of those rare people who like London weather (most of the time) as I don’t handle hot weather very well.

My father-in-law is visiting for two weeks so we took him to Geffrye museum on Sunday. It is a lovely museum of English domestic interior and furniture. Friendly staff, stair-free access, highchairs in the cafe and its small size (1-2 hours are enough to see all of it) make this museum a perfect place for visiting with a baby. Their front lawn is wonderful for relaxing on a warm day. Oh, and the entrance to the museum is free.

Today we went to the National Art Gallery. Luckily Noel was happy to see only part of the collection as Cat wasn’t impressed by Art and only lasted about an hour before needing a change of scenery. So after observing the tourists and pigeons at the Trafalgar Square we went back home for a nice long afternoon nap. After all the complaining I did about Cat’s sleeping habits, I have to admit that I got to the stage where I sleep better in the afternoon next to her than at night. Sleeping through the night is becoming a very distant unreal memory as I certainly had to wake up few times at night during the last stages of my pregnancy to go to the bathroom. I’m struggling to remember how it feels to sleep for a long stretch of time since I never really paid very much attention to sleeping – I just slept. So my dear childless friends please savour the tiny miracle of uninterrupted sleep!

Woodstock & Blenheim Palace

Since previous weekend was a long three day one we hired a car and went to see Woodstock and Blenheim Palace. It looks like we are under footy curse as we encounter football crowds everywhere we go. This time we came across them while trying to have a quick break at the roadstop just before Oxford. At first I attributed the huge car park queue to the tourist popularity of Oxford. But once Clive got out of the car he discovered that the place was full of footy supporters. The road to Oxford was also packed so we decided to try an alternative route. And on B4027 the sign advertising scones and tea enticed us to stop at the farm.

We had some nice tea with scones, jam and brilliant clotted cream (it was almost like butter) and Cat go to see goats, pigs, rabbits, peacocks and a sheep for the first time in her life.


After checking into the hotel we went for a walk to admire cute buildings and salivate over marvellous items in the antique shops. In return all shopkeepers and many older women on the street admired Cat and tried to get a smile out of her (no luck, she regards strangers with very serious looks and the only sign of how much she likes or dislikes them is how fast her legs are swinging). Eventually Babe got tired so we went back to the hotel for the nap. In the evening she got to try a wooden high chair in the restaurants bistro.


And after she fall asleep I had a good soak in the bath getting high on the wonderful L’Occitane smells. I totally forgot how much I love their products.

The next day started with the lovely breakfast – they serve such wonderful dishes as buttermilk pancakes and green eggs & ham (bread, prosciutto, egg and pesto source). After Cat’s morning nap we headed to Blenheim Palace - the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.


The interiors were stunning and the gardens looked beautiful on the photos, but the weather was horrid (both cold and wet) and so we missed out on exploring the outside. Inside I learned few things about the great English prime minister, but one fact struck me the most – did you know that Hallmark used some of his paintings for their greeting cards? I didn’t even know he liked painting – I remember seeing photos of him with the easel, but my mind never registered the significance of it. I think I’ll get a book on him out of the local library as he sounds like very interesting human being (and politician).

Later in the day we went for a drive and stopped to see the Rollright Stones.


Awful weather drove us back indoors and the rest of the time was spent relaxing in the hotel.

Trip to Stonehenge

We rented a car to take Anya to Stonehenge, since it was one of the places she dreamt of visiting. It took us awhile to figure out how to work the baby car seat (the instructions found on the web helped as the woman in the car-rental place had no clue as well). Catherine wasn’t impressed with being woken up and put into weird car seat. Thankfully she stopped crying once we were on the move, but sulked for another 20 minutes before falling asleep. I followed her example and slept most of the way.


Cat wasn’t greatly impressed by the big old stones, but I think she liked looking at the sheep and the grass. Sadly she started crying every time I stopped for the photo. Sometimes I feel like a horse, who isn’t allowed any rest and has to keep on moving ;-). BTW Stonehenge site has baby changing facilities in the disabled toilet even though they are missing from the facilities list on English Heritage website.

We drove to Old Sarum; but since it was raining, Cat was peacefully asleep and I’ve been there before I stayed in the car with her. Anya and Clive braved the mud and the rain to explore the ruins.

Again Cat and I slept on the way back.

I have great respect for all parents, who manage to travel extensively with their young children. It does require additional planning, extra preparation and mental strength. This was our first long trip away from home (well, long in this case means further than 30 minutes walk from home). I find it very difficult to stay calm when Cat starts crying in public. Panic is my first instinct reaction to the perception that everyone is staring and judging. It helps a lot to have supportive family members nearby. So I think for the next few weeks I’ll stick to staying close to home when I’m on my own and will practice longer outings on weekends with Clive. Anyone knows of any baby friendly places I should try? And my dear London friends, please keep an eye out for restaurants, cafes and pubs that have baby changing facilities.