Jer!

For the third act of visitors, we had Jer!

Jer arrived three days after Susie left. His first day was opening night for Sam's show. He somehow made it to the show with me and the boys - after sleeping a couple of hours on the plane. It was UNBELIEVABLE. I truly couldn't believe it was a middle school play. It has the resources of a high school auditorium and private school technology, so the stars were all mic'ed, you could hear everyone. The music was high school band members. The kids were SO talented. Sam did awesome - sooooo much practice, and they made it and did great! We loved the show. I went twice. Elie went twice. Jer went twice. Matt went once and Koby went THREE times. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. We now know every word to every song.

Jer's first day we went to England's Lane for brunch. Excellent. His second day we went to one of Ottolenghi's restaurants, Nopi. It was some of the best food I have ever had. AMAZING. LOVED everything in the meal. What a treat. His third day he went to soccer, I read torah, I don't think we had an amazing food. And he coughed a bit at the show on Saturday night. And on his fourth day in the morning, he didn't feel quite right. I asked him to test for covid, though NO ONE here tests (even doctors are like "why would he test?"). There was a faint line. He didn't even see it, but I'm the Covid czar. I will make everyone covid miserable. So up he went to my bedroom for the next ten days. It was his first time having covid, and he did get quite sick for a few days. I'm glad he was here and not alone. Matt was away, so I moved into the guest room downstairs - basically as a flatmate to Sam. Jer stayed up here, we brought him things. We went for walks when he was up for it. He got stuff he needed with a mask. And on day 5, he joined us with a mask. Day ten he took off the mask and we moved him out of our room. It felt RIDICULOUS, because guidance here is basically not to test and to move on, but I KNEW he had covid, and it was pretty hard to just ignore that and pretend like I am not the covid czar. He understood.

The night he tested positive, we had reservations for Din Tai Fung, and the boys still wanted to go, so we went and brought back a lot for Jer. The boys tried everything and Elie LOVED it. Koby liked a few things. Jer appreciated and enjoyed as did I.

During this week that Jer was sick, it was crazy. Matt was in Angola and South Africa. I had been on a committee planning an event for the PCA's Auction (like the PTO here). They have an auction with hundreds (thousands?) of items, a raffle, and two big events. The first is on a Friday, and it's free and for teachers, families and kids. The second is on Saturday night, fancy gala, definitely not free and it includes the live auction (the top item was an Arsenal Suite that went for 65,000 GBP. No joke). The whole weekend brought in 1.1 million GBP. Holy shit, right? Another level over here. I worked on the Friday event, running the logistics. It was a weird role, but that's a story for another time. I did it to meet people, and I did meet people. And the event went super well. I had to set it up, and I left covidy Jer with my kids for hours and hours. Then on Friday I couldn't pick up my kids and my first two back-ups fell through, so I had to send a desperate SOS text to Elie's class to ask someone to grab the boys and bring them to the event in the school (a super nice dad did). Good news is that I wouldn't have felt comfortable with that SOS text a few months ago, so we're making progress building community. There may have been a thousand people at this event. It was INSANE and I heard it was fun (I was busy being completely overwhelmed by my senses, running the music and being harassed by my 7 year old who couldn't find anything to do, and I couldn't help him).

Jer's visit had a lot of rain. A few minutes of sun. We had a few other good meals - outside. :) And after day ten, we were able to move our Dishoom reservation and super enjoyed their breakfast menu. Many overlaps with Susie's visit, but man I don't mind indulging for a few weeks in a row. It was absolutely lovely. And delicious. The kids had a half day this week, so we went to lunch and then the transport museum (Sam wasn't interested and hung at home). We enjoyed that. Jer was able to extend his ticket (and rather than paying, he was REFUNDED $10!), so he left this morning, after a bit more than two weeks. We had a great visit. He got to see our life, did the school walk many days. Saw the kids' soccer practice and games. Hebrew school pick up. Toured their school. Met many of their friends. Played a lot of soccer. Bench pressed Koby. It was a good visit.

Sam after the play, with Oscar (the friend from Singapore!)

Jer at Nopi. SOOOOOO good

The boys were excited Jer was here. They basically sat on him.

Holi celebration in the open space near our house!

These boys. They have the whole house, and they always do their ipad things RIGHT on top of each other. sharing what they're doing the whole time. It's pretty darn cute.

Even sharing a chair

Din Tai Fung - without Jer :(

Elie LOVED it. Koby - eh

At the event - me and the ASL eagle. Do you see my face? I was dead.

walking on the canal towpath

Borough market. buying cheese. we ate a lot of cheese in the last two weeks.

and a dosai

At breakfast at Dishoom. We got sat at the same table I had with Susie, which was a bit weird. It's not a small restaurant.

Jeremy and Terese were in town, and we got a quick walk with them! So nice to see them and their kiddos

Transport museum. OLD omnibus

later trolly

sign with way too many words and messages, but I love it for some reason

Koby the bus driver

Spring has sprung! Thank god!!

we went to hear a holocaust survivor speak this week. But we had 1.5 hours after school before the event. We tried to go to the park, and we played football and ping pong for a while, but then the constant light rain turned to pouring, so Koby and Jer played games and Elie read at school. 

On our way to school. So SO pretty

SO much rain. We even had hail twice today. This is the way home from school today. 

and a rainbow at the end of our mews street!

Susie

My soul was just rejuvenated with a visit by Susie. 

Susie and I met when I became the Executive Director of the World Toilet Organization in Sept 2009, right after I finished at INSEAD. I won't go into the whole story here, but Susie had written a few grants for them, and when I came into the position, I read these grants and was like, "WTF!!! How is any of this possible??" and it all came down to, "ask Susan Margolin, but she's on mat leave right now." 

Once Susie was far enough into her mat break to meet with me, we super hit it off (and I promptly left the World Toilet Organization, which really had potential, but that's another story). We got very close quickly as we shared professional endeavors and also personal ones. I had Sam exactly two years after Teo was born. Then Susie had a super high risk pregnancy and then I did - with the same doctor. 

Susie's family was looking to move to the US, so right when we moved into our new house in Newton, but we were away for a few weeks in the summer, Susie and her family stayed there, and they loved it. So they moved to Newton too. 

I only had one friend in Boston whom I had known before we moved there (Sarah Grafman from Otzma, a super good friend), so this increased that amount by 100% - SUPER win for me!

While in Newton, Susie and I met regularly. For the last year or so we had a regular weekly am meeting at Cold Spring, where we would do at least one loop - two if we were lucky. Sometimes she did Rainey's neighborhood walk with me. We walked and talked and talked and talked. We have really shared a lot in these intense years of having kids, moving internationally and everything else that is life. Susie knows me - probably the best of any friend - and challenges me in hard ways. She helps me think deeply about everything and understand why I feel the way I do. A bit like a therapy/coach/friend, but mostly a friend.

A couple of months ago - I think in early January, I was struggling, and in a conversation with Susie, she said, "think I need to come." (Basically the same thing happened with Dena - they knew I needed them, and they somehow made it happen. I have the best friends, and I am so so grateful). She was here from Thursday morning until this morning. And holy cow did we talk. We walked, talked and ate.

England's Lane

Roni's 

Borough Market

Dishoom

Din Tai Fung

We walked 9-11 miles each day. It was so so so good for my soul (and her's and also Matt's). It was like being on vacation - I had very little kid responsibilities. Just school drop off, pick up, provide food, but no dishes, soccer, hebrew school management, missed a birthday party drop off etc. Almost no work. Loverly. So grateful.

The Columbia Rd flower market on Sunday. When we were approaching it and Susie saw what people were carrying away, she got so excited and was nearly dragging me, running. Wish we had more time

It seems like it might be spring sometime soon

England's lane breakfast/lunch

Unrelated to Susie's visit: Koby's card for his teacher who is having a baby. "Dear Ms Darcy. I hope you, Sonya and the baby have a grate life. LoveXX From Koby"

Wall in London, opposite parliament, that has a heart for everyone in the UK who has died from Covid. It seems to go on forever. People write in the hearts and dedicate them to their friend/family member. Heartbreaking.

The garden museum. Susie's mecca.

Really beautiful inside

Bourough market - I had sabikh. SOOOOO good

Hamentaschen baking

Cherry and chocolate

Din tai fung! First time since each of us left Singapore! The flavors were the same and AMAZING

Just hanging out with the kids. Susie, can I show you this? Susie, can you look at this thing I made. Susie, can you come to my soccer game? (And she did - at 8:40 in the am!)

Susie arranges flowers and bought all of this at the flower market and then arranged it - with extra mimosas (the yellow balls) in two separate vases in other parts of the house. BOY does this make me happy. In Newton, Susie always brought me her flowers, and we LOVED having them. She grew some in our garden.

The mimosas reminded me of something dr seuss. I figured it out. It's this from the sleep book