Sunday, December 9, 2012

Meeting Someone New





Image courtesy of Bippity Boppity Boo


It's been an interesting few months.  I've been spending a vast (if you ask my friends) amount of time with Steven, but I just can't help it.  It's what you do, isn't it, when you're in love and finally can admit that both privately and publicly.  It's a pretty cool time.

In addition to this, I've met and spent time with his 8-year old son and despite the fact that the quote, "Don't be surprised if the child says to you, 'You're not as pretty as my mom'.  This is normal." keeps making me giggle every time I think about it, we have had two very successful encounters. A couple weeks ago, everyone's stomachs in knots, as none of us had done this before, we met for some skating at the Natural History Museum. Quite a spectacular idea, if I do say so myself.  We met for coffee, watched the other skaters, then gave it a whirl ourselves.  Thankfully they were figure skates, so I could actually get a grip on the ice.  Calum was not so lucky, poor thing.  Anyway, dinner followed and our nerves were certainly calmed.  Big day, big deal, non?  We thought so.



Yesterday, Steven and I brought Calum to the Science Museum where we traipsed around gleefully, despite being dramatically hung over from the night before.  Oh, there's so much to tell!  On Thursday, Kathleen, Sam, Aleisha, Kat's Laura, Ron (formally known as Ron) and I went to see Florence and the Machine at the O2 in Greenwich.  It was a far-less-screaming concert than I anticipated, and I must admit, she was spectacular.  As Mark Beaumont from the Guardian put it, 


"...it is Florence's stage antics that really enliven the night, as she rushes around like an interpretive dancer portraying fire, twirls like a marionette, offers herself as a sacrifice to some ancient god she has spotted in the lighting rig and tries to start an arena-wide snog-in..."


The day after the gig was pretty awful, after getting home at 1 am and relying on precious little sleep.  We were all struggling to keep our cool with the children...less than two weeks now until Christmas holidays :)  Naturally then, come Friday night, I wanted nothing more than to just lie down in a horizontal position for a loooong time, but Steven had a work do he needed to attend.  Would I come?  How could I say no?  

So, bedazzled in my Lululemon leggings (read: fancy track pants), artsy white t-shirt (read: a little too big, but in all honesty, it really did work), tall boots, and scarf, I hob-nobbed with the policemen in their fancy garb.  I felt a little ridiculous, but had a good time, nonetheless.  Saturday morning was pretty, pretty rough.

Back to it then...

The Science Museum would keep us busy for an hour, two tops, I reckoned.  Lo and behold, Calum is a thoughtful child, who finds interest in all the things and listens about how things work.  Not a bad match, thinks I.  We were about ready to fall over dead after the longest afternoon in history and no sleep leave, when a kind young lady asked if Calum wanted to try his hand at inventing something.  Well hot dog, you'd think he was asked to watch the best fireworks display EVER, judging by his excitement.  And so we retired to a bench to get to work, but not before she asked me, "Would you like to make a snowflake?"  She held up three options: the one us Canadians make in kindergarten, the one we make in the 4th grade, and this impossible one; the one labeled, "tricky".  Bring it, lady.  In actuality, I said, in all my Britishness, "Go on then", joined the fellas on the bench and got to work.  There is something about tactile activities that really appeals to me...and my inner child loves a challenge.   











It's been a busy little while, as you can see.  Surrounding myself with people who spread all sorts of joy make getting four hours of sleep and running all over London all worth it though.  

I left Steven and Calum at Victoria and headed to Hackney for the Pig's Ear (which I have discovered is Cockney rhyming slang for 'beer') Festival.  



Did you know they have a street in Hackney called Murder Row?  Not so delightful, if you ask me.  But the four-day event took place in The Round Chapel (an old, converted church), and had some really great product that could all be sampled before jumping in and purchasing.  Though it was short-lived, much fun was had by all.  I endured the longest journey in history after leaving the group, thinking I could take the fast track train back to Dartford: wrong.  It was an arduous journey, leaving me absolutely drained, sure I'd sleep until noon today and spend the rest of Sunday in my onesie.  Though I managed to get up slightly earlier (10 am...whoot whoot!), and changed out of the onesie right after I started cleaning my house, it certainly does feel good to decompress, relax, and recharge for the 9 teaching days ahead.  Yeah!!!

Roll on, Christmas!

 

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