Day 2 London, Kent, and Dymchurch

Yep, you won't believe all the things I did today. I woke to a hard rain for five minutes, then the sun came out. I went into the kitchen for a great cup of Colombian coffee, and I could hear music coming through the window. It was one of my all time favorite songs, "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys.

When planning my trip, I looked up food in London. One of the things that popped up in the search was gooseberries. I love gooseberry pie and tarts. The only place in the states I have ever seen it is off Hwy 1 in CA. So, I'm flipping through the newspaper and there is a write up on gooseberries. Some people in England call them goosegogs.

 Luckily, there was a luggage store five minutes away, run by a wonderful chap. What I referred to as a rack with wheels is more appropriately called a "trolley" in England.
While on the tube, I sat next to this guy, sharp blue suit, great eye glasses and shoes, wild hair like Tim Burton. He looked like a record producer. He was listening to music with his fancy iPad. I pulled out my mini disc player (circa 2000) hoping for a laugh. He was stone cold.

I went to Notting Hill and Portobello Road. It was fun, but the market is only open on Saturday. I read online that Friday was the vintage clothing day. That was not the case. I went to a Thai restaurant for lunch, red curry prawns. There was a table of four young adults talking about the new Daft Punk song, being stuck in their head. Then, they started to sing, "Stay up all night to get lucky." I went to Jamie Oliver's shop. They have cooking classes there, too.

Only celebrity sighting- Irene from MTV's The Real World, in line at Customs.

Little known facts about England.
There aren't any garbage cans in London. In England they're referred to as bins.
Londoners love ironic t-shirts.
Men in Kent like to use the f-word.
Little towns on the coast look alike and run together.

The trip to Dymchurch was a true adventure. After taking the high speed rail from London to Kent (38 minutes) I took a bus- the wrong bus. I fell asleep, made an entire loop and ended up back at the station. After talking to the bus driver, I realized I was on the wrong bus- and didn't just sleep through my stop. Wait. Take the correct bus to the wrong town, five miles away in New Romney. But, I didn't realize this at first because New Romney has a street named High St. that runs through the town- just like Dymchurch. My B&B is on High St. Walk up and down High St., looking for the Sycamore House. I'm at my wits end in front of a medieval house. A gentleman outside says, "Are you lost?" I explain the situation to him and show him a picture of the Sycamore House. He invites me in for tea with his partner, Janet. He proceeds to tell me about their house, Plantagenet House (french for plantains). There house is 700 yrs. old and one of the oldest houses in England. I'm astonished by their house and hospitality. Malcolm brings me a cup of tea in one of their Wallace and Gromit mugs. He says, "here you go darling." I say, "Wendy Darling." Malcolm has a wealth of information about the history of the coast going back to the Saxons, the beginning of the Royal Navy, architectural styles and so on. Malcolm and Janet used Google Earth to find the Sycamore House. I assumed everyone knew everyone in these small towns. I was informed people on the coast are a little shy, and that is not the case. Wonderful Malcolm and Janet gave me a ride to Dymchurch, up to the front door of the Sycamore House. Malcolm helped bring my luggage in and referred to himself as my porter.

I walked two minutes to the water to watch the sunset. Walked around the amusement park. And, found the most fabulous Indian restaurant for dinner. Really, the best I've ever had.

The highlight has to be staying in Edith Nesbit's holiday home. My room is so cozy. It was a most memorable birthday. I am exhausted.

Hard rain, view  from B&B in London

B&B in London

B&B in London

Portobello Road

Portobello Road

This reminds me of "Five Children and It" when the children are  famished and take food from the rectory.

goosegogs

Jamie Oliver's shop

Jamie Oliver's

"Have a jolly good summer" at St Pancras International train station. Stunning.

medieval fireplace

original beam

Original door to the medieval house.

My room at Edith Nesbit's holiday home.

This little door reminds me of something that would be in an Edith Nesbit book.

The menu had at least eight pages. This is what happens when you ask the server to order for you.

Travel Day 1 to London

Woo ye! What a long day of travel. The day started at 3:30 a.m.: RDU by 4:30 a.m. Flight at 6, land in Toronto at 8, flight to London at 9 a.m. , arrive in London at 9 p.m. Underground to Air B&B one hour, walk three minutes from tube to Sally and Marie's flat.

Amazingly, I didn't get lost- at all. Everything went really well, except on the first step of the escalator going down to the Picadilly Line, the handle of my suitcase broke. It wasn't that bad. I'll try to find a rack with wheels tomorrow. 

Right before this happened, I was walking 1.5 miles through Heathrow, when I looked down and found an Oyster card. No one was around. I couldn't return it. This saved me a lot of time and hassle getting on the tube.  Luckily, I was only one stop away on the Underground to St. Pancras International. This is the big station, where I can store my luggage before going to Kent. In England, they call this "left luggage."

I was mistaken as an English woman in Raleigh. And, mistaken as a Canadian in Toronto. I saw the sunrise while landing in Toronto, and the sunset while landing in London. And, after leaving Customs the first thing I heard is "Live While You're Young" by One Direction. It was a nice reminder of the girls.  Must sleep.

sunrise

Toronto

OMG

Loved the line of Maple leaves.

They do things a little different in Canada.

Everything in Canada is in French and English. EVERY announcement on the plane is in French and English. 

sunset

Welcome from the Tower of London!

Epilepsy

I had another seizure on April 25th.  I was diagnosed with epilepsy during the middle of May, for the second time in twenty years. Then, I had another seizure on Memorial Day. Two days later, I fell down the stairs. I can't drive until December. So, I've spent most of the last three months stuck at home with the girls. Not to mention two solid weeks of rain. We spent a long weekend at Fontana, and I spent a week at my parent's house. Both events were wonderful and relaxing.

 I'm having much more success on Lamictal. The month on Keppra was a nightmare, and I feel like I lost a month of my life. I still have symptoms that rotate from headache to stomachache and back again.  The concern now on the Lamictal is my liver function. I've had my blood drawn weekly for the past three weeks. The tech always comments on my beautiful veins.

All this time at home has created some Agoraphobia. This seems especially odd to me because, I am a social person, usually always on the go. I find my anxiety attacks at Weaver St., of all places, to be even more odd. Except, the original meaning of the word comes to us from the Greeks, and it meant "fear of the marketplace". I believe this response/behavior will become less and less. 

A positive thing to come out of this experience is addressing a problem I have had for twenty years. And, I have made a shift in my job. I am now working as an afterschool teacher. This job with it's few hours and little pay is fabulous. The girls couldn't be more thrilled to have me at school. And, I love being a part of the school community. I'm excited to go to work, love the children, and have fun planning activities. After three days of work with the entire afterschool group of 80 children. I was asked to take my own class of ten Kindergartners, in my own classroom! I will meet my new students today.

Here are a few photos from Tennessee.

We made Mimi's strawberry cake for the Fourth of July.

Writing letters to friends

Making egg rolls

Fireworks with cousin Ian

We found a frozen yogurt shop that added little Cinnabons to their toppings..

Tuesday, October 11th

Harper: "I'm an indoor kitty."

As I was leaving the driveway this morning, one of Harper's tied up contraptions with a piece of red fabric on the end, was hanging out the car window.  And for a brief second, a hummingbird followed along side our car.  I was the only one in the car.  The only one you witnessed this magical event.

Arugula, garlic, potatoes, butternut squash, carrots; these are the things I want to grow.

August 10, 2012

We finished the first book of Edith Nesbit's trilogy, Five Children and It. And, I immediately went to Amazon to order the second book, The Phoenix and the Carpet. I can't say enough about Edith Nesbit's magical style of writing. And, upon reading her books you can't help but realize how many writers she has influenced.

August 9, 2012

Nine months later, and I'm back! I'm in a very different position in my life, now. Harper started Kindergarten, and I have a lot of free time. Housekeeping has not become a daily part of my routine. As much as I love the idea of Homesteading, I haven't become good at it, yet. Our volunteer tomato garden is flourishing. We're probably two weeks past the start date of our Fall garden. But, we haven't given up on it. Colin is a genius with fixing the lawn mower, and he did it again. The girls are happy to be in school. Although, the long day is draining on Harper. However, Harper will never complain about anything. I feel sorry for her, it is a long day for a little girl. She is handling it beautifully. She appears to be the kind-hearted leader in this class as well. Ava loves 4th grade. She was so thrilled to get Aaron as her teacher. They will be studying the state of North Carolina this year among other things. Her class has a trip planned to Hanging Rock State Park next week. Ava's art work from 3rd grade was chosen to hang at the Credit Union.

My schedule desperately needs to change. With the girls being in school all day, I only see them for a couple of hours before I go to work. Not to mention, feeling like two ships passing in the night, when it comes to Colin. The family consensus is for me to get a job at Weaver St. and work during the day. That all sounds good, I'm just doing some soul-searching to decide if a bigger goal should be tackled at this time. I just celebrated my 38th birthday. It was perfect. A small gathering of friends at my third place, Weaver St. Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands performed and we all loved their bohemian, gypsy style. I made a list of 38 good deeds to accomplish on my birthday. I'm still working on that list. I'll blog about it at a later date. Colin and my parents bought me a wonderful Leica camera. I'm enjoying learning how to use all the features. I have wanted to start a street photography blog for a long time, titled Buffalo Stance. I think I have the camera to take decent portraits, now. This is a whole different kind of photography for me, and I have missed several shots so far. This blog will require a lot of sitting and waiting. I may not have the patience for it. I would also like to take photos of Hillsborough and sell them as postcards.

I have been hiking quite a bit, learning about wild flowers and such. I have have been enjoying my correspondence with Ken Moore. And, my friend Sally Heiney seems to always be there to answer all my questions. I ask the girls lots of questions about school, to get them to talk about it. Harper told me yesterday, "This little boy Benjamin is driving me crazy." I said, "What is he doing?" Harper replied, "He gets down, right next to me, and says, "What's fun? What's new? What's fun? What's new?" It made me realize, I guess we all have that person in our lives.