Posted by Cottontimer on 18 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: London
This doll is THE creepiest thing I’ve ever seen floating down the River Thames. We once saw a huge dead rat but I wasn’t quick enough to get my camera out and document it. Perhaps it’s all for the better.
Posted by Cottontimer on 04 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: London, Stephen
Stephen’s going back to school tomorrow after a week and two days off for half-term holidays. This was probably one of the best vacations we’ve ever had. Here’s what we ended up doing:
Friday, May 25 – Local High Road for a special McDonald’s lunch, followed by a visit to Woolworths where he got a set of Transformers Mini-Con and hung out at the park for a little while so that he could play.
Saturday, May 26 – BFI IMAX to see Roving Mars (see the picture on the right that he drew as part of his vacation homework assignment), picked up Fireman Sam and Transformers DVDs at Virgin, and finished at Hamley’s toy store where he lucked out with an Underground Ernie Jubilee train.
Sunday, May 27 – Stayed home and made cupcakes.
Tuesday, May 28 – Tate Modern with Lilian and the boys, crossed the Millenium Bridge.
Wednesday, May 29 – Royal Air Force Museum with Stephen’s classmate and mother.
Thursday, May 30 – London Science Museum
Saturday, June 2 – Hang out at Lilian’s
Monday, June 4 – Dim sum at Chinatown
I’ll be sad to send him to school tomorrow. Sometimes when I go around town on my own and see mothers with young children dining at restaurants and walking around, I miss the days when we didn’t have any schedule but our own. Then I go and enjoy a nice quiet coffee without any interruptions. 
In any case, summer vacation is just seven weeks away.* Eek!
*I’m not sure if the London school calendar qualifies as year-round school but they have half-term holidays that break up three terms and that are usually about a week-long. In between terms, the holidays are about two weeks long. The school year starts in September and ends in July.
Posted by Cottontimer on 04 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: London, Reading
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Posted by Cottontimer on 27 May 2007 | Tagged as: London, Our World, Stephen
We brought Stephen to his first movie in a theater yesterday. And it wasn’t just any theater, it was the British Film Institute IMAX where they were showing Roving Mars, a movie about the NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission.
The movie started with an explosion of sound showing off all that IMAX cinema can offer. The worst was being in the eye of a hurricane with the cacophony of cows mooing and houses splintering around us. I thought Stephen would freak out and demand to leave considering how sensitive he is to noise but he hung in there and only asked to leave one time. When I explained they were only showcasing the speakers’ capabilities, he stayed fixed in his seat.
He was enthralled with Roving Mars as soon as it begun. When we “flew” over the surface of Mars, he turned to me and said, “We’re moving!” and looked around to see if the theater was spinning. My favorite part of the movie was when the control center received the first green rover signal from Mars. I was so touched I had tears in my eyes. Yes, I cry over strange things.
Here’s a video of that moment and a review of Spirit and Opportunity’s first year on Mars:
And, of course, no experience would be complete without Stephen commemorating it in LEGO.
BTW, if you’re ever curious what Stephen’s been making lately, there’s a slideshow in the middle column towards the bottom you can watch or click on to see the entire picture album.
Posted by Cottontimer on 21 May 2007 | Tagged as: London, Thoughts
One of the weirdest things about living in a house in London is the mail slot in the front door. I have never had mail shoved directly into my home. CHING! KERTHUNK! Each morning, the noise of the metal flap flying up to hit the door and the mail thudding to the ground make me jump out of my seat.
In California, we had a mailbox at the end of our driveway. In Baltimore, I had a box in the lobby of the apartment building. Same goes for Taiwan and Japan. In Vietnam, we got so few pieces of mail that they were slid under the door or hand delivered. Half of what we received had to be picked up from the post office anyway because they’d been opened for inspection in case we were trying to smuggle in who knows what contraband.
Today I came to another realization. This is the first time we’ve gotten junk mail in years. From my estimate, my parents in California get around 10 pieces of junk mail a day. We get about 2-3. Today, an envelope arrived from Oxfam with a free sachet of fairtrade coffee, a Sky TV advertisement, and some sort of home learning college brochure. The only junk mail I find remotely helpful are the delivery menus although most of those restaurants are absolute rubbish.
What junk mail did you get today?
Posted by Cottontimer on 01 May 2007 | Tagged as: Knick Knacks, London, Shopping
Of all the household chores I have to do (and that is ALL of them), I hate vacuuming the most. The hand-me-down Sanyo vacuum I’ve been using for the past year is so old that I can only get replacement bags online. At some point last year, I noticed the wiring in the plug was loose so I pried it open and tried to rewire it without a clue as to the proper configuration. I promptly shocked myself and didn’t feel quite right for the rest of the evening.
I survived and managed to get the vacuum working again, but I’ve had to repeatedly rewire the plug because one of the wires inside broke and is too short to stay connected properly. Anyway, I don’t know why I’m going on about this except that vacuuming is the bane of my existence.
So when the old vacuum had to be rewired for the balumpteenth time last week and I was down to the second-to-the-last vacuum bag, I threw a fit and said that I MUST HAVE A NEW VACUUM. Preferably one that is capable of sucking up hair because the old one was utterly useless. (And it’s plain old human hair no less, not from furry fuzzy fizzy pets.)
Marv said, “OK. We can go compare prices this weekend.”
To which I replied, “I don’t want to compare prices!! I want to get a @#! new vacuum cleaner.”
And this is what we came back with:
An Electrolux PowerPlus 1900W Z4494 (the vacuum in the picture is the same color as ours but is only 1800). It’s tons lighter than our old machine, which is especially important in our four-story house. And the suction power is fantastic.
But does having a new vacuum make me want to hoover it all up? Does a new vacuum give me joy and hope for a cleaner tomorrow? Does a new vacuum that hums instead of whines bring a song to my heart?
Nope. Vacuuming still sucks.
Posted by Cottontimer on 27 Apr 2007 | Tagged as: London, Schooling
Remember when I mentioned last year that Stephen’s school district is exceptionally strict about absences? We missed four days at the start of this term because we returned from California late and had bad jetlag as well. Today I received a letter from the Head of Service Education Welfare & School Attendance (sic).
An excerpt:
The School and Local Education Authority are very concerned that you have taken Stephen out of school during term time.
…..
It is out of concern for Stephen that I write to you in this way. We think it is important that all parents should be aware of the implications of holidays during term time, the lack of continuity of education and reduced progress for their child, the disruption for other pupils in the class who may suffer as a result, the additional work and planning for teachers and the demand on school places in [our school district].
Please don’t throw me in jail! I figured it wouldn’t be a huge deal because he’s only four years old….
Posted by Cottontimer on 26 Apr 2007 | Tagged as: Food, Health, London, Schooling
The Institute of Medicine has issued new guidelines for the kinds of food American kids will be offered at school.
In the UK, the School Food Trust emphasizes the same. Here are a few notes from a newsletter Stephen brought hom from his primary school where he eats lunch every day.
Most interestingly, they’ve removed sandwiches from the menu! When Stephen first started school, he would tell me he ate a chicken sandwich for lunch every single gosh darned day. Then suddenly, he began telling me that he ate macaroni, fish cake, cold pasta, baked potato, and all sorts of other stuff he normally would never try. Whoopee! The main reason I like having him eat lunch at school is to get him to try different things and FINALLY he was doing it! Could the cooks have read my mind?
Posted by Cottontimer on 06 Apr 2007 | Tagged as: London, Thoughts
Thank you to the man dressed all in black with the salt-and-pepper hair who cheered up a grumpy Stephen as he was riding his bike home. You encouraged him and played a chase game with him that snapped Stephen out of his funk and had him flying. When we got back, Stephen said, “That man cheered me up! He had a good plan.”
Thank you to the woman in the little silver compact car who offered us a ride in the pouring rain while we were walking to school one morning.
Thank you to the worker doing some sort of repair work under the sidewalk who took the time to step aside with all your equipment just so I could walk by. I could have easily stepped into the street, but your courtesy made me smile all day. (A half-thank you as well to the construction workers who’ve made some “nice” comments to me on my errand runs.)
Thank you to the gentleman who caught me on the bus when you thought I was falling over. I was actually catching my bag!
Thank you to the bike shop dude who helped adjust the brakes on Stephen’s bike even though it was an insurance liability. Oops. I mean, I adjusted the brakes with your guidance.
Thank you to London for all the green parks and walking/biking paths. Spring is wonderful here!
Posted by Cottontimer on 25 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: London, Me, Our World, Thoughts
In response to my post earlier this week about ethnicity, both Busy Mom and Liz Ditz told me to go read State of Grace who tackles it from a more personal approach. She wanted to know:
1. Is it okay to ask of someone’s racial background?
Sure! In fact, you might want to ask before making comments like this one – “I think Korean women are the most beautiful.” Huh? Did he know that I’m actually CHINESE? Yes or no, it’s a horrid comment. Butthead.
2. If you are okay with asking someone about her or his ethnicity, how do you pose the question? (Frequently used queries include – “What’s your heritage?” “What’s your race?” Or, the oft-asked but incorrectly worded, “What’s your nationality?”)
This one’s tough. Just cut to the chase. “What’s your ethnicity?” is ok with me. “Where do you come from?” is not so good. In Japan, I’d get that question because people couldn’t understand why I looked Asian but spoke English. Then if I said I was from California, they’d look even more confused and ask where my parents were from. If I were fourth generation Chinese (which I’m not), just imagine how much more I could mess with their minds.
3. If you are curious about someone’s racial background, but hesitate to ask her or him to discuss it, what prevents you from posing the question?
I don’t want them to think that’s all I notice about them although our skin color/ethnicity/race is clearly one of our defining characteristics. In fact, even when I’m describing someone I shy away from using any race-connected terms which is dumb because it detracts from painting a complete profile.
4. If you are of color/not white*, is it okay for a white person to ask about your racial background? If you take issue with a white person asking about your racial background, please explain why this presents a problem for you.
I don’t mind if people ask me. It’s far better than assuming I’m something other than I am.
~~~~~
Political correctness means that we’re to assume everyone is equally the same – men and women, white and black, Asian and Caucasian. Reality tells us that’s not true. We’re different!!! Just that the differences shouldn’t be preset at good or bad.
Yesterday I had someone ask when I came to London. London’s a fabulous place because there’s a mix of ethnicities, cultures, and nationalities in almost every corner of the city. I’m not sure where the woman who was asking is originally from but her English is heavily accented. When I said I had come to London about a year ago but grew up in California, she said, “Oooh. That’s why your English is perfect.”
I was not offended in the least that she wanted to know more about me. My appearance sets-up expectations while my behavior shatters them. As long as people accept me for who I am, it’s all good.
