Since the last post, life hasn't been too interesting. I have spent a LOT of time trying to research travel (booked Paris for October break, Athens for Thanksgiving, Michigan for April and working on December and February), lots of time researching broadband, cable, mobile and also a trek out to IKEA to sit on some couches. We are temporary (we think...), so we are going full IKEA on furniture we need here. Time has also been spent on measuring our new house (the boys' bunk bed WILL fit in the room we had hoped it would, Sam's room will NOT fit all of their things), a leaky sink in our air bnb, finding physio (that's what they call physical therapy here) for me - I start Tuesday, and a dentist for all of us. So it's been a busy but boring week.
Sam was sick over the weekend. When we went to go home from their friend's house on Friday night, they all of the sudden were non-functional, and didn't really get out of bed until Sunday night. I got them early from school on Monday, but by Wednesday they were back to normal. Koby then got it Wednesday night and missed school Thursday and is still coughing. Following the NHS advice, we are not testing for covid. But I don't believe it's covid anyway - I think it's a straight up cold.
Matt went on his first work trip from here. He went to Cairo from Sun until Wed. He had a good trip, and I survived. I texted the one friend I had who was already here and asked if she would be my SOS. I spent a long time building up my SOS network in Newton and had to put it into action multiple times with Matt out of town (Nancy helped when my dad had kidney stones. Sarah helped with Koby needed stitches and when Sam ate rubber bands - WTF. Caroline took all the kids when Matt sliced his finger). It's hard to be in a new place with no network. And also no car. I keep wondering what will happen when someone is truly sick and can't walk to school with the others. Can I leave Koby home alone for a few to walk the others to school? If he can't walk and he shouldn't go on a bus or tube, I'm not sure what I do if I don't have another adult...Stuff to figure out.
I went to Borough Market on Tuesday, just to check it out. It had lovely cheese, olives, stuff like that plus some amazing stalls of "eat now" food. I got a lovely flat white at one stall, the best spinach feta roll I have ever had at Bread Ahead and I got croissants for the kids for an after school snack, and then I got two kubbeh from an Iraqi stall. All was truly delicious. I had nothing else to do that day and didn't have to get the kids for a few hours, so I walked to check out all of the hoopla at Westminster Abbey. It was the day they were taking the Queen's body from Buckingham Palace to Westminster, so there were people lined up EVERYWHERE waiting for that to happen. There were load of people. Loads of security. Announcements that asked people to leave the area as it was "full." I got nervous they would stop the tube coming to Westminster, so I hopped on it and went home just in case. Life has felt pretty normal otherwise, though nearly every store has a sign up that says they're mourning the queen or something similar to that. Oh and the kids don't have school on Monday (I think Matt also doesn't have work, but I forgot to ask). EVERYTHING will be closed.
The kids started after school activities. Elie is doing self defense, taekwondo and 3-d printing. Koby is doing fencing, taekwondo and something with computers. Sam is doing homework club, swimming and ice skating. There was a little bit of disappointment, but all in all, it was a good start to those.
Wednesday night was back to school night for Elie and Koby's classes, so we got to visit their classes. They provided childcare for new families, so BOTH of us got to go. It was Matt's first time in the school, other than when he went to play basketball last week, so that was a bonus. Their teachers, classrooms and the school continue to impress us. A lot.
We had an interesting night on Thursday night, as the rabbi had some new families at his house, and it was a super intense round robin of who we all were (probably about 15 people?) and one person who has had an impact on how we got to where we are. The goal was to have some familiar faces for Rosh Hashanah services next week. It was so nice, and we will indeed have some familiar faces. The shul is interesting. Once I learn more, I'll post more about it. In the meantime, Sam and I should probably leave for shul to catch the torah reading...(boys are at football with Matt). We also left all three kids to go to bed on their own. That was interesting. Luckily we got three babysitter numbers at the rabbi's house. We were only a four minute walk away, so it felt not super risky. And everyone survived. (barely)
No comments:
Post a Comment