What's Been Happening

Life. It's just been going on. Even here, across the ocean, far away from family, friends and all that is familiar, life goes on. I still don't have a real routine - I'm looking into some volunteer opportunities and perhaps even a class, but for now, I just sort of take things day by day.

I've joined the Hampstead Women's Club which has been good. I've attended a few of their monthly coffees and a lunch and have met some really nice women in all stages of life: younger, older, younger kids, older kids (none as old as mine!) and no kids at all. Some from the UK and many from the US. It's actually through the HWC that I got the tickets to Royal Ascot. And just last week they hosted the UK Charity Premiere of the movie The Brothers Bloom with Rachel Weisz, Adrian Brody, and Mark Ruffalo (what a cutie!) The theatre was right in Hampstead, and the director, Rian Johnson, was a special guest. He did a Q & A after the movie too. (Reviews were mixed of the movie but I really liked it and would recommend renting it - it's sort of a quirky caper con artist story.) All proceeds from the ticket sales went to The Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Haiti. It was a fun (and worthwhile) event.

This Saturday, Chris & I are attending the Trooping of the Colour and the Queen's Parade. I'm not even going to try to explain all that it is, but it will be a lot of pomp & circumstance and it's in honor of Liz's Birthday (which is actually in April.) Dress for the occasion is a suit or "day dress" (??) with a hat as optional. Oi. I figure I'll wear whatever I'll plan to wear to Ascot, although I don't yet know what that is. This type of shopping totally intimidates me and I have no good friend or sister to bring along with me to help. We got this weekend's tickets from a member of the LMUK Board (I already spoke of Lord Patten) who is not able to attend. I must say that it's when these types of opportunities arise that I'm able to put aside my current homesickness and melancholy and appreciate how fortunate we are to be here. (And I know the homesickness and melancholy are only temporary... even tho we've never moved out of the country before, we've moved plenty and I'm familiar with the brain pattern.)

Since I last wrote, Chris & I have ventured to Highgate - a neighboring village to Hampstead - and toured the really beautiful Highgate Cemetery where a lot of "famous" people are buried, most of whom I've never heard of, with the exception of Karl Marx, who most of us have heard of. On the way home we walked through Hampstead Heath and knew exactly where we were going. :-) Last Saturday we traveled to Chelsea which is a great neighborhood with great shopping and lovely homes. We went to see the "Untitled Artist's Fair" - the artist who we bought some work from at the Greenwich Market gave us tickets - and it was a nice way to spend a Saturday. It was a warm day, which really only is an issue when you're inside or on the tube, as you don't find a lot of air con (as they call it) here in London.

A few weeks ago when Chris was away for a few nights Kyle & I went to Covent Garden, which is sort of like Faneuil Hall in Boston - market, restaurants, street performers, and a lot of fun. Then we went to the Royal Drury Lane Theatre; didn't see the Muffin Man but we did see the musical Oliver! which we enjoyed... I was a bit disappointed with the overall production but you can't help but to love the music in that show.

So... you'd never guess from all we've had going on that I still have moments of sitting around wondering what it is I'm supposed to be doing. But my attitude is slowly switching from "what the hell am I doing here" to "time to figure this out" which is definitely a good sign.

http://www.trooping-the-colour.co.uk/
http://picasaweb.google.com/swronsky/ThingsWeSaw#