Canada Day, London-style & Wine Tasting

5th evening out in a row (4th one was boring - meeting at the school, but out nonetheless) and we took the kids to Trafalgar Square to see what was on offer for Canada Day.

I suspect we missed most of the best stuff which happened earlier in the afternoon- like the aerialist skiing demo (on trampolines I understand) and the street hockey, because when we got there all that was left to do for the kids was go on the simulator, which after having done all the "Cadillac" of simulation rides in DisneyWorld, was like being in a Model T Ford; and try the hockey shoot-out (line was too long and they shut it early).

I was also expecting a bit more in the way of culinary delights, but all they had were bison burgers, and once I told the girls that a bison is another name for a buffalo, somehow their appetites for 'traditional' Canadian food diminished. So we collected our freebies (pins, balloons, tattoos) and walked over to the Texas Embassy for some Mexican food.

6th evening out was a Wine Tasting event sponsored by Stefanie's school. As I'm on the Parent's Association, we felt obliged to attend, but the obligation was rewarded with what turned out to be a worthwhile event. One of the Year 7 parents is an experienced sommelier from the Stratford Hotel in St. James, and offered his services for the night. We tried some wonderful (and inexpensive) wines and cheeses, all provided by Waitrose, and now have a new favourite wine wine for the summer: Villa Maria's Reisling from New Zealand. Try it if you get the chance, the aroma and taste is very fruity and fresh, without being too sweet.

I just hope I can get it in Canada this summer...

Wimbledon & Hagbane's Doom

3rd busy night (and day) this week and we're at Wimbledon.

We signed up for the lottery in November and managed to win 2 tickets for the first Wednesday of the tournament. Having received these tickets in mid May, we had no idea who we'd be seeing or what the weather would be like during the traditional last week of June and first week of July time set aside.

Who knew it would be "Britain's wettest June since records began"? We got there just before the first match began in the middle of light rain shower, so decided to immediately go for lunch with the traditional Pimms to drink while play was suspended. Andy Roddick and his opponent (a little Thai guy whose name escapes me) were well into their second set by the time we finished our strawberries (not very tasty this year - also due to the massive rainfall) and we watched the rest of the match. It being my first time to Wimbledon, I was actually focused on more than just the play; like the ball boys and girls - how their movements are like a ballet in itself (excellently spoofed in a little British movie called "Confetti", see it if you can); like how narrow the seats are and you are rubbing hips with your neighbour all the time; and the umpires and judges not seemingly being distracted by anything while making their calls - I don't think I could do that job.

Next up was the ladies with Henin beating a tall, willowy blonde Russian (aren't they all tall, blonde and willowy?) whose name was being shouted out by the crowd in encouragement. It was a bit odd to hear "Come on Vera!" in those cockney accents though...

Tim Henman and Lopez then started their match, but after just 2 games the heavens opened. At that point it was going on 5pm and I knew that I'd have to leave by 6pm to make the hour's journey home to catch Larysa performing in her school play. So lucky for me, I didn't miss anything else, because play never got re-started after that. Orest sat there with my friend Oonagh until about 8pm when they called play off for the day.

Larysa was fabulous in her performance as a wizard in her play called "Hagbane's Doom" . She didn't have a lead role (something which really caused her great grief when the roles were first divvied out) but somehow she always manages to shine when on stage. Maybe it's just me being her mother and being ultra proud of her, but when she used the simple of act of her hat continually falling off to turn it into a comedic little turn, it shows that she's got some real acting chops. It really stayed with the audience as well, because all the parents I spoke to, it was the thing that really stood out for them as well. For a kid of 11 to be able to improvise like that...wow, it amazes me.

Shakespeare in Regents Park

2nd night into a busy week, we took the older two girls to see Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream at the open-aired theatre in Regent's Park. A lovely venue set within a part of park enclosed by a forest of trees. Although the actual stage looks small, they made the most of the natural surroundings and had the actors using the grassy bits to each side of where the audience was sitting which made you feel that you were in fact sitting in the forest with the lovers who had gotten lost there together.

A couple of things could have made the evening disastrous:

• It was outdoors
• The girls' complete disinterest in anything Shakespearean. (Get this: Stefa says she's "Shakespeare'd out" after doing her 50 page school project on him last year!)
• Dad bought the tickets, ergo it must be boring
  

But it turned out to be a good night, my pashmina being large enough to keep almost the whole row warm, no rain and the play was amusing enough to keep even 'Shakespeare'd out' Stefa entertained. (Especially the play within the play at the end was hilarious and both girls managed to keep up with what was going on.)
They walked out of the performance with a new admiration for Shakespeare and willing to try another one, but not too soon as Orest found out when he tried to pin them down to going to the Globe in September. "Maybe next year", was the best response we could get.
Fair enough, I say...

Stupid name but great nonetheless

I'd been hearing a lot about that Toronto-grown production, "The Drowsy Chaperone", since it's been showing here in the West End, so when I had a chance to pick up some cheap tickets, I thought why not?
Why not, indeed? What a great show! I was laughing, nay guffawing, almost all 90 minutes of it. I can't tell you exactly why, but it's send-up of old musicals really tickled my funny bone. And Bob Martin, the "Man in the chair" or narrator, cracked me right up! I really laughed when he forced us to watch his intermission of a Nutrigrain bar while we had none, and then him leaving us to run for a pee (although I think he said "wee" for the British audience) while he set the wrong musical running. The character of Adolpho makes me laugh just thinking about his ridiculousness.

It originally started off as a sketch for a stag party for Bob's forthcoming nuptials in Toronto and quickly was fleshed out into a full musical and pronounced a sleeper hit on Broadway. The story surrounds the idea of this gay man who loves old fashioned musicals imagining one coming to life in his studio apartment. He constantly stops the action and gives us a reality check, such as this one:

"Everything always works out in musicals. In the real world nothing ever works out and the only people who burst into song are the hopelessly deranged."

Anyway, enough of me telling you all about it....go see it for yourself, you'll have fun!

School discos and Home invasions

Friday evening we had a school disco with an interesting theme: The London Underground Disco.


In other words: "Come as your favourite tube stop". I tried to convince Larysa to go as Cockfosters (using a rubber glove painted red strapped onto a can of Foster's beer), but whether she just didn't get it or was afraid of getting in trouble for showing up to school with alcohol, she decided to get her Canadian gear on with a water sprayer and went as Canada Water. Adriana was one of a multitude of girls who came as Angel (but at her age, they don't want to be original, they just want to be pretty), but there were quite a few interesting get-ups that night. Like High Barnet: using the English slang for hair and gelling it up really high. Or a girl dressed as a rabbit for Warren Street. The winner was I think Highgate, dressed as a high gate, of course, and a little girl with ribbon bows all over her coming as Bow Road. Lots of fun was had by all the children, especially Larysa who was in her element, dancing all night long.


All was well until 6:45 am the next morning when the motion sensor alarm went off. In my sleepy-eyed state I ran downstairs to shut it off (cursing the dog as I went - thinking she had gone downstairs and set it off), until I realized that there was an open window in our back lounge. We'd been robbed! I then screamed for Orest to get his clothes on and come and join me to investigate, as there was no way I was going to get clobbered by myself. At first, we couldn't find anything missing, so we assumed that the alarm had done its work and scared the burglar off, but then 1/2 hour after the police arrived, realized Orest's mobile and brand new Blackberry were missing. They had been on top of the CD changer, in full view of the jimmied window. Surprisingly enough he had left the portable DVD player sitting right next to them, and left Orest's bike (which he'd taken out of the shed) behind as well.


The next day, I had a freak accident which left me thinking that we were in for a run of 3 in the bad luck department. I was trying to get out of the car while talking on the phone, got my foot tangled in the straps of my bag and went down like a sack of potatoes. As I'm laying there trying to figure out if I was still alive, my helpful husband calls out to me from the driver's seat "Don't just lay there rolling in the mud, get up!" Nice! It was as if I'd consumed a bottle of Southern Comfort and had fallen in a drunken stupor, such was his lack of sympathy and care. Then I think he realized that I was unable to get up myself, because the automatic side door of that van opens up and I can hear him say: "Girls, help your mother up." Picking out bits of bloody stones and tarmac out of my leg, I didn't feel any better until our friend Jim leans over to Orest and says: "Mate, you're supposed to be driving faster when you push her out!"


So when friends warned me that I should expect a 3rd unlucky thing to happen to me, I was at least praying that it wouldn't be anything more serious than what had happened already.

Luckily, we then noticed that that our Jeep had been keyed over the weekend, so I was willing to count that towards our 3 and stopped worrying. Phew!

Very naughty girl

Dear friends,

It's been over a month since I've blogged....

Yes, I hit the proverbial writer's block (as well as time restrictions) and am now faced with trying to catch up on a month's worth of events. So you will find many new posts in behind this one that I've conveniently back-dated for the sake of the time-space continuum.

I can't explain what happened really, but it seemed to be an all-over 'funk' which extended into all parts of my life, including the one which allowed me to do the simplest of tasks....shopping.

I couldn't make any decisions on anything and nothing was getting done. But I added 'liquid plumber' to my soul diet, and kick-started everything with the purchase of shoes. (As any woman knows, shoes are the easiest, least-stressful purchase a girl can make!) I've since moved onto bigger and better things, having made a decision (finally!!) on which mobile phone to upgrade to and am hoping to get that camera and laptop we need purchased by the end of the month.

Hence the re-start of my blog...I feel invigorated and refreshed and able to communicate with the world now that my chi is balanced by a pair of sky blue deck shoes. Thank you Cotton Traders for giving me back my mojo!

English Opera is not for the proletariat

We had our first opportunity to see a Mozart opera here in England, and here I was thinking: "Oh goodie...I haven't seen opera since we were at the Mozart Festival in Warsaw 5 years ago."

But if you can picture the Mozart Festival in Warsaw, it was definitely very Soviet-like in its atmosphere. Everyone in sturdy shoes and their Sunday best, going for the cultural experience, not to be 'seen', in some cases, children attending, sitting attentively and enjoying the sights and sounds. Even the intermission was utilitarian in its offerings: tea, coffee and I can't remember if they had wine or beer for that matter. But the performances were first-rate and the ambiance of the small 100-seat theatre it was held in was magical.

Now picture our outing to the Garsington Opera just outside Oxford to see Mozart's Il Re Pastore (see photo above). The dress code was listed as 'formal', so I drove the Jeep in my evening gown and strappy sandals, only to discover that I was sinking fast into the earth on the grounds of a lovely manor house. (Luckily I had packed another more sensible pair of shoes.) The atmosphere was as formal as the attire, wandering around the lovely gardens which were soon to be used as part of the stage in the opera. After a quick glass of champagne, we took to our seats in the open (but covered) auditorium and were instantly engaged by the live sheep being paraded across the stage into the adjacent gardens. Then the leading lady who was playing a man (a role originally intended for a castrato - of which there are none) came out and started rolling around on the ground with his lover, another woman, professing his (her) undying love to her. Goodness! It was all a bit much to take in! Thank God there was a long break after the first act, where we were allowed to finish a 3-course meal in the adjacent barn and marvel over the performance we had seen. By the second act, we were somewhat immune to the theatrics until they set off fireworks to cap off the performance for the finale.

It was obvious to us that the major difference between Warsaw's Mozart and Garsington's was the showmanship in providing visual stimulation in addition to the aural. I guess here in England, you have to justify the high price of the ticket somehow...

Aah Mickey you're so fine, you blow my mind...

In the planning for 9 months, we finally went to Disneyland Florida. We had promised Stefa and Larysa that as soon as Adriana was old enough to cope with long days of walking around, we'd take them there. The last time I was there was when I was in high school, so I needed to wrap my head around having 6 and 1/2 days to cover all the parks and maximise the amount of fun time, and minimise the waiting time.

So I was given the "Unofficial Guide to Disney" by a friend who said back in November: "Start studying it now." But being the least anal person I know, I couldn't bring myself to seriously dive into the planning of the trip until 2 weeks before our flight.

So considering the lack of effort on my part to create a 5-page per day itinerary, we had a pretty decent time. We stayed at the Grand Floridian hotel, which is directly across the lake from the Magic Kingdom and we were able to see the fireworks show on the grass outside our hotel. (Stefa was volubly freaking out about the ducks which seemed to get closer and closer to us, so she didn't enjoy the fireworks quite as much.)

The highlights of the trip?

We went on an early morning opening with the other hotel guests and Adriana and I did the Buzz Lightyear ride 3 times in a row (with no line-ups) trying to increase our score every time. And then next door going to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, where the animated characters interact with the audience and create jokes on the spot.

Expedition Everest (according to Larysa and Stef - because I had to sit that one out with Adriana) at Animal Kingdom. The "It's tough to be a Bug" show was also pretty decent, with creepy crawlies special effects seeming to be on your legs and on your head. Adriana, of course, saw none of this, having perfected the crouching down under the seat manoeuvre as soon as anything remotely scary appeared.

Epcot was the most varied of the parks, and I think we missed out quite a lot even though we spent 1 and a half days there. But still the Test Track, the simulation rally driving ride which everyone else loved (I once again bailed - I have motion issues). Same with Mission:Space, apparently you pull up to 5 g's on the ride, and for someone who has trouble with the Mad Hatter's Teacup ride, it was definitely not for me. Turtle Talk with Crush was another fine example of using live actors to fully animate a character, in this case, one form Finding Nemo. Larysa was able to have a great conversation with Crush, it went like:

Larysa: "What to you eat?"
Crush: "Like we eat algae, man. Like what do you eat, Larysa?"
Larysa: "Whatever my Mum and Dad make."
Crush: "Well that narrows it down! So you're on the seafood diet...like you see food and you eat it?"

Two reasons why this was funny, one being obvious and the second being that Larysa rarely eats 'whatever mum and dad make'. HA, HA! I wish.

Soarin' was also a favourite. Imagine being practically inside a film, flying through the air. It was cool!
We spent a day at Disney-MGM where Rock n' Roller coaster and Tower of Terror were favour ties with the non-motion challenged in the family, including Adriana. The Indiana Jones Stunt show was spectacular enough that we didn't feel the need to see the other stunt show with the cars. We had the best time drawing our own Donald Duck and Winnie the Pooh in the Magic of Disney Animation and Disney-MGM has the best light and firework show in the evening called "Fantasmic" (even better than Epcot's Illuminations).

Then there were the 2 water parks, which we agreed that Blizzard Beach had the best rides (the raft ride, the body slide and the toboggan racers), but Typhoon Lagoon had the best body surfing wave pool. too bad they couldn't merge the two together. It would have saved us a day.
So that was it, our 7 day trip to DisneyWorld Florida. We know we probably missed some of it, but I think there was just so much there a week doesn't do it justice.