While walking near Parliament

. . . we saw a car, open,with its contents scattered over the street, loads of police and blocked off roads.  The next morning, it all became clear:

Been Busy . .

Sorry for the silence -- but we've been busy:

Monday:  arrived afternoon.

• Driver met us and took us "home."
• Ooed and awed about our digs.
• Housekeeper showed us around.
• Unpacked.
• Went out for coffee, tea, hot cocoa and pastries.
• Grocery Store.
• Crashed.

Tuesday:

• Ooed and awed over our digs.
• London Undergrown -- i.e. The Tube
• Museum of London.
• Saw a sign that pointed to a Roman Wall we couldn't see.
• St Paul's Cathedral -- Ulys and kids walked to the top
• Skirted the edge of Trafalgar Square & Kids made Brass Rubbings in crypt of St. Martin in the Fields.
• Glanced longingly at the entrance to the National Portrait Gallery (me)
• Saw West End play "The Mousetrap" -- Agatha Christie x 52 years
• Ate traditional fish and chips at renowned "Mr. Fish."
• Crashed.

Wednesday:

• The London Eye
• Walked across bridge -- admired Boudica statue
• Walked around Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Horse Guards
• Saw car that had just been blown up (see above)
• Walked through St James Park -- saw unusual water fowl
• Revisited Trafalgar -- kids climbed on the famous lions 
• Gawked at gorgeous Harrod's food halls -- balked at gorgeous prices
• Toured the Mews (stables) at Buckingham Palace 
• Did not tour Buckingham Palace (Queen is in residence)
• Light tea at French Brasserie
• Walked many many many miles
• Ooed and Awed over our digs -- now Home

Thursday:

• Imperial War Museum 
• Tour of London
• Greek restaurant for dinner ("Greek Affair")
• Digs appreciation

Today:

• Finally adjusted to local time, I awoke at 3 am and have been up ever since:
• laundry, ironed all sorts of things (Tai's t shirts?!), cleaned kitchen, watched TV shows, documentaries, and things immediately forgotten, looked up opening times for all museums and bookstores in central London, checked email a lot, recharged electrical objects
• Everyone else finally got up 6 hours later

. . . So I've got a lot to tell . . . but Gotta Go!

PS.  We never did make it to the Changing of the Guards -- and good thing, too!!!  Looks like it is not age-appropriate!

Special Weather Event

The last 2 days we've been doing our planned
"Outdoor Activities" -- GOOD THING, TOO!



UK Weather: Met Office Warns Of Rain And 55mph Winds

"Once in a 50 years storm."  

So . . . we win???


(Actually the flooding is in the north . . . still . . )

Museum Weather

10 June 21012

In the Air:  Somewhere over Atlantic Frozen Parts

(- 67 degrees outside, better inside)


It's that crucial hour -- do I go to sleep now or just watch movies, bleary eyed, for the next 6 hours?   There are plenty of movies -- just finished "The Iron Lady,"  very appropriately as it is about Margaret Thatcher.  And have been glancing over for bits of "The Help"  (Zahra's screen), and "Cars Two"  (Tai's screen)  -- and on a screen up-two-seats-an-just-across-the-aisle, I finally saw the end of the last H. Potter -- guess who won?!  

We were right to avoid American airline companies, and to take a one-hour jaunt to Vancouver, Canada, then connect with a direct Vancouver-London Heathrow flight.  Imagine this:  a comfortable airline (and we are in the cheap seats this time so it must be paradise in front -- in fact, I think I can see flickers from a disco ball), with a friendly staff and free stuff. Yeah, Free Stuff!!!!  You are allowed to take your luggage with you!  And the ear plugs are free, meals, drinks (it IS in their interest to quell the masses with some mild inebriation, after all.)  Even the bathrooms can be used -- as many times as you like -- without financial penalty!  And did I mention movies, TV shows, blankets and pillows?  AND AIR!!!!  We can breathe AS MUCH AS WE WANT!!!!!  No BYO O2 canisters required!!!  (Ours are in a locker at PDX.)  GO AIR CANADA!!!     


As for the friendly staff -- it appears that this crew has not been shanghaid in a Vegas alley after the bars close!  They actually seem to have agreed to be airline hosts!  It's as if they chose their jobs and so come to work, like many of us,  of their own free will!  US based airlines should look into this voluntary workforce business!   
 . . . just a thought . . 


But enough too-much-Folgers-crystals-fueled-chatter. Back to the issue at HAND  To sleep or not to sleep?


. . . .  anticipatory drum roll . . . . 

TIME FOR A LIST:

Sleeping:

Advantages:               Disadvantages:

It is biologically         I'll feel like
necessary                   hell when I wake
                            up

It keeps insanity at bay    My breath will            
                            smell of dog 
                            carcass                                                                                                                                                     

The time will pass quickly  My neck will be
                            permanently
                            tweaked to the
                            left                                                             
                            

Might not get a headache    Might get a
                            headache no
                            matter what I do

Missing CSI &The Help     Missing CSI & 
                            The Help 

Not Sleeping:

Advantages:          Disadvantages:

I won't be groggy        I'll be catatonic
with customs            with customs and   
                         they'll let me in, 
                         then hospitalize me

                                     

Everyone else will       I'll be lonely and
be asleep and can        won't have to pee
take full advantage
of the free bathroom 

option

My breath won't smell    Who am I kidding?
like dog carcass

Ponder: what would I do were I British?

Ah, bloody 'ell, I forgot about the time change!!!!

I  must re-evaluate.

June 11, 2012
Notting Hill, London

We made it.  The trip was smooth and easy, except for the Red-Eye part.  Harsh.
However, as you can see, we are having a blast in London -- so good to be sharing this together.

Junuary --  The Weather in Portland is DISMAL:

 so we're headin' out.  Going far far far away.  Where the weather is . .. hold on . .. let me check:

London -- now.




Never mind we'll only be there for a week, then we will head north to:

Sweden -- now.


Um -- I guess I'll just pack what I'm already wearing.

IN THE MEANTIME . . . 


We must be culturally sensitive:

And prepare to be Temporarily British:

I have been educating our feral children so that they don't embarrass us by doing this:

Or, this!

MEXICO


We Are Very Different:  Part Two:

The Three Mamies

The Three Mamies

9:45 am:  Not wanting to miss any of this glorious paradisical vacation,  we Mamies decide to get up early.   To that end we roll out of bed around 10.  

Forward thinking, we have arranged to have breakfast prepared.  As soon as we shuffle out of our rooms, luxuriating in our comfy robes and drape our respective selves in cushy veranda chairs, coffee is brought to us.  Muchas gracius, gracius!   We all take a sip, then let our heads fall back and moan with joy.

10:00 am:  After the second delivered cup of coffee, breakfast is served in several courses -- so many elegant dishes - too many to fit on our coffee table, and we have to relocate to the dining table -- aaaaallll the way across the veranda.

Of course the maids must wait for us to practice our melodic Southern-belle Spanish before they can serve us. We've been  a-studying how to ask -- politely -- for coffee.    We need to say "Podria tener una cafecita".   So we greet the friendly young women with smiles and enthusiasm, and pronounce confidently,

 Pod-raaaaay-a    ten-noooor    unaaas   tres   coffee-see-tus? 

They understand us perfectly, smiling so much with appreciation that they burst into laughter.  We're getting the hang of this Espan-n-oil.  Our Cuban husbands will be DEE-lie-TED-DA.

10:30 am:  Sunny day.  Beach time!  We agree to dress quickly and head out to the pools.  45 minutes later we are dressed remarkably similarly:  retro polka-dot one piece bathing suits, peaking out from the necklines of colorful pool dresses,  casual canvas slingback heels (same shade of blue as the suits), silver necklaces, diamond rings,  Jackie-O sunglasses and impressively large red straw hats, carrying matching  beach bags.

11:25 am:  Down to the golf cart.  We try to start it but it's not working -- so we call "RAF-- AYE --- ELLLLLL."  He drives down and starts the golf cart.  Oh, we laugh embarrassingly, we have to turn the key!  We pile in and race to the nearest pool.  Funny that Rafael manages to walk there just as fast as we drive.  

12:00 noon:  Arrive at the pool -- the one next to the gym -- sit in the hot tub and discuss what a good idea it would be for us to walk on the treadmill for awhile.  Decide we will definitely do that today.  Definitely.  As soon as we get out of the hot tub.  . . .

. . .  But the hot tub is really hot so we rinse off in the deliciously warm, pool.  Then step back to our lounge chairs to dry off before heading to the gym.   

 A very friendly waiter comes up and asks if he can get us something. 

That is just soooo ni-ice--a!  we say to each other, Sure,  una agua pro favor.  No, tno una.  Unas tres aguas.  Con limon, pro favor. 

Then one of us says,   Limon's lime, right?  I looove-va limes!  

Our smiles are contagious so the suddenly-very-happy-appearing waiter asks,  You like some lime drink, Señorita?  

We glance at ourselves -- one to the other -- Well sure, that sounds real ni-ice. 

The waiter lists some lime drinks, ending with and, por supuesto, we have de BEST margaritas!  Muy muy buenas!

Oh really?!?  long pause . . . Well  . . okay . . . I'll have one. 

 Yes, me to!

And me -- pro favor!

4:00 pm:  While adjusting my lounge chair my finger gets stuck in the lever and, before I know it, I'm flipped around laying on the ground, rear in the air, trying to get my broken finger out! 

OWIE!  HELP!!!HELP!   

I look like a flopping fish but manage to get my finger out!  It is cut and in terrible terrible pain!  Luckily I have several cups of melting ice by this point -- there are even some ice cubes round like a ring and so I place several on my broken finger,   OW OW OWIE -- IT'S  SOOOOOOOOOO    COLD-DA!   I'M GETTING FROSTBITE!

Meanwhile the second Mamie is holding her arm and grimacing -- she slid in the hot tub and bruised her arm,  It might be broken too!   Ice will  help.  She's pissed because her eye is still irritated from the antibiotic ear drops she put in it yesterday.

OW OW OWIE

And the third is hyperventilating and waving her arm in the air because she's just been attacked by a cactus thorn -- or possibly a dangerous stinging bug -- and is developing a hot huge rapidly-spreading walk over her entire forearm.  She also has plenty of ice cups -- ice in towel, onto arm.

OW OW OWIE

5:00 pm: This has been so traumatic that there's nothing for it but another margarita.  We so order, holding off on another order of shrimp cerviche with guacamole as the chefs will be arriving soon.

Good God-a, how are we going to survive this place?????!!!

5:30 pm: The sun is going down.  Time to go back  But we are clearly too injured to drive, so ask the waiter to please call Rafael and arrange for him to walk down and drive us home in our golf cart.  He does so with grace and we are so grateful to him!

6:00 pm:  The chefs have arrived and are preparing dinner.  Seeing our distress, they hand us margaritas authenticas to take with us while we shower and dress for dinner.

6:45 pm: Calmed down, dressed up, and decked out -- we repose to the veranda and rest our weary bodies in the downy cushions of the oversized deck chairs.   We have pre-ordered coconut shrimp, fresh ahi cerviche, escargot with garlic butter, caviar and foie gras with home-made bread, sea bass Veracruz with a side of lightly grilled baby vegetables.  These are served with flights of perfectly matched wines -- and all is finished with a coconut flan, pomegranate coulis and icy French champagne.  We sigh with pure contentment and regain our considerable senses of humor.

May-be we will make it.

We have the chefs laughing uproariously -- and even convince the elder one to teach us some salsa moves.  Sadly they have to go by 9.

8:50 pm:  Tired but very content, we decide to watch a movie on the enormous flat screen.   Damn, Everything's in Spanish!!!

8:56 pm: We call the concierge, who sends someone down to help right away.  OMG -- all we had to do was to change the audio setting to English!   We offer to make the technician a margarita in thanks, but he seems to be in   a hurry to leave. 

Whatever!  Some people are just so uptight!

10:30 pm: Vow to relax more the next day -- and not to get up so damn early.  After all,  the masseuses aren't arriving until 11:00 am.

Last 2 days!

We are Very Different People

There are four of us here now, and, though we all work in medicine and all live in Portland, we otherwise have little in common.  So, for fun, we imagined what our days would be like were we all the same.  That is, what if there were three Jens, or three Mamies or three of me?  And now we have Nicola, who is Jen's twin.  So here goes:

So What If We Were All Like Them:   Part One: 
The 3 Jen-Nicolas

05:15 am We Jens:  we jump out of bed and stretch.  Then slam coffee.  Then stretch.  Then slam coffee.  Then go for a run.  Then stretch.  Then eat yoghurt.  Then lift weights. Then stretch.  Then go to the pool -- and swim laps. 

07:59 am We Nicolas:  we jump out of bed and stretch.  Then slam coffee.  Then stretch.  Then slam coffee.  Then go for a run.  Then stretch.  Then eat yoghurt.  Then lift weights. Then stretch.  Then go to the pool -- and swim laps. 
 10:00 Lay by the pool and discuss all the things that we would normally be worrying about.  Make lists of these things so that we remember NOT to worry about them.  Though the Nicolas amongst us DO NOT DO LISTS -- but she does have plenty of well-thought-out suggestions.  Then organize these into categories -- several times.  Swim some laps.  Stretch.


11:30  Back to the house for salad -- no dressing. 


12:00 (Noon)  Stretch


12:30 Back to pool.  Add items to the but-we're-not-worrying-about-these-now list.  Read a computer manual about how to more efficiently manage digital photos to save time (the manual ends up taking 58 hours to read).  Share tips on efficiency in general.


2:00  Hike in the desert.


4:30  Stretch


5:00  Chef arrives to cook for us.  We order salad.  (Nicola channels Portlandia and asks about the growing conditions and soil content in which the lettuce was grown -- as well as the possibility of contaminants in the ground water.  And exactly how many minutes ago was it all harvested.)  Lively discussion about the need to start a recycling program at the resort.  Someone gets a pad of paper.  Someone starts writing.   Pretty soon petitions are printed for distribution among resort guests (200 copies).


7:00  After dinner walk, turning off lights on the grounds "since no one is up this late anyway."


8:00 Discuss activities for the next day, organizing then reorganizing them to maximize efficiency.  (All the while doing ab workouts on our respective exercise balls -- Jens and Nicolas.)  Redo the list three times.    Alphabatize it for cross-referencing ease -- and upload it to our smartphones, (just the Jens).

9:00  Go to bed, smiling, "What a fantastic day!  We got so much done!  Man, why can't everyone be more like us? It's not that we're perfect but we just make so much sense!"

9:05  Get up to stretch.

9:15 Go to bed.

Mamie's Eye (aka JUST CALL RAFAEL!!!)

JUST CALL RAFAEL

When we arrived our gracious concierge, Rafael, introduced us to our golf cart and gave us a whirlwind tour which left us incredibly impressed and thoroughly lost.  He assured us that he could be reached at any time and to just call him if we needed anything.  He was graciously emphatic. 

As is our norm, we half-listened, smiling and nodding.  Then proceeded to try to do everything ourselves.  Jen and I spent 30 minutes at the wrong main entrance, eventually involving 3 increasingly worried Mexican valets chattering frantically on walkie talkies trying to find a rental car in their garage that didn't exist, almost certainly suspecting that we thought "coche" meant golf cart rather than car.  How long they spent looking for our golf cart, I do not know.  Finally we gave up, walked home and called Rafael.  Within the 5 minutes it took us to stroll to the correct main entrance, our car had been found, air conditioned and made ready.

Did we learn?  No.  Not much.

Next morning Mamie awoke with crusty eyes.  Time for antibiotics.  No problem.  After all, we saw a pharmacy on the highway close by -- it had huge signs in English advertising antibiotics, along with a variety of pharmacological happiness aids for the elderly.  I offered to drive her there.   We did CALL for the car.  Quick and easy.  Then headed off for the Mad-Max-highway dash.  Mastered that.  Check.  

Feeling flush with independence and confidence, we pulled up to the pharmacy.  Rats.  Not open for 40 minutes. Details.  Oh well. Check out the neighboring grocery store.  Drive around a bit.  Back at 9:50, hoping that the pharmacist might arrive 5 minutes early.  A groundskeeper (?) wanders by, hosing off the parking lot, sees us, stops and says (in Spanish), "It's not open yet."  "Yes," I reply, "10 more minutes."  He grins,  ". . . or 20."

Being kind, he walks behind the pharmacy and knocks on the door of an old car,  "You have clients.  CLIENTS!"  Door open, a disheveled, brightly tattooed young man stumbles out, stretching half-heartedly, and shuffles up, rubbing his eyes.  He unlocks the door, the alarm goes off, Mamie screams, alarm goes off.  Mamie grasps her heart, breathes rapidly and exclaims loudly,  "THAT SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!!!"  No reaction from pharmacist.

Mamie walks up to him -- lets say, to be generous, 8 inches nose-to-nose -- "Conjunctivitees.  Infectionnaise.  My EYES," fully subscribing to the longstanding linguistic belief that increased volume = increased understanding.  

Looking slightly afraid and definitely awake, said very-non-English-speaking-almost-assuredly-not-a-pharmacist wanders off to the bar shelves and selects a small bottle of drops.  I look at it but cannot read the font 0.04 words. Mamie, though, can still see out of her left eye and says, "Oh, polymyxin -- PERFECT."  Turns to non-pharmacist,  "what's the dosage?"  No response.  So I help, "1-2 drops each eye q 6 hours today, then q 8 thereafter."   No reaction.  "Dos gotas cada seis horas . . ."  She looks at him, "dos drops?"  He nods most unconvincingly.  We leave.

Back at the palacio Mamie goes in her room and starts screaming.  "Narda, Narda,  put the drops in my other eye.  It hurts too much.  I can't do it."  Now Mamie is a person who screams  when her hair is pulled (really, \ask Jen), so . . . needless to say my reaction is badly blunted.  I put a drop in her other eye.  Now not only is she screaming, "IS THIS NORMAL!?!," but her eyes are streaming and she cannot open them.  No, not really normal, I think to myself, not even for you.  Squinting my best I examine the bottle and somehow, with atavistic xray vision, I read, "otica.:"  Hmmm, I bet otica is otic.  "Mamie!  These are for your ears!  It's the lidocaine."  

'Cause I'm sure you have other things to do today, I will not describe the "I'M GOING BLIND!! OH MY GOD!!!  BLIND!!! BLIND!!!!"  Narda reassurance, given repeatedly and repeatedly discounted, "WILL I SEE AGAIN?"  scenario.  Why do I even bother talking?  But the end result is that she wants to go BACK to that same pharmacy, get a refund and the correct drops. I refuse.  REFUSE.

"Let's just call Rafael."

An hour later, he delivers the appropriate antibiotic to Mamie -- now recovering in her lounge chair at the beach club -- and tells her that he's consulted with a physician who assured him that the topical lidocaine will definitely burn, but it will be a temporary effect and she'll be fine.  

Seriously, why do I even bother talking?

First Morning

Someone's in the kitchen making a Mexican breakfast, Jen is balancing on her neck with her feet on an exercise ball, and Mamie is sprawled asleep in the princess suite with strict instructions not to be woken before 8:30 -- which represents a compromise:  Jen and I 7:00 (sleeping in an' all),  Mamie 11:00.

Last night we had massages and water treatments  and so now look 10 years younger (in our own minds) and are actually daring to feel Relaxed!!!!  Though Jen is still runnng around turning off lights to "save the envrironment."  (Not that flying on fossil fuels to a resort resplendant with superfluous lights and extravagant water features -- damn the dessert -- impact anything.  There are pools, swim up bars, fountains and hot tubs every where -- we get totally lost and just jump in any ole place and trust we'll swim our way home somehow.) Hopefully, by the end of the week she will develop some semblance of humor over the issue.  

Mamie, "Good God , Narda, why don't you come here every year?  Or every 6 months?"  And honestly I'm just as baffled.


We have seen loads of whales spouting and leaping -- from our porch ----  tis the season.  Very considerate.  

Weather?  Perfect

Golf cart? Speed racer, baby, speed racer.  I mean I've floored that puppy and, swear to God, have pushed it beyond 8 mph!  (Another thing Jen is worrying about.  "We need to walk.  WALK.  WALK! ")  Now she's pointing her toes suspended over the exercise ball -- but I don't think she's working that hard because, damn the girl, she can still mutter and scold.  Whatever will we do when Nicola gets here? 

Well, enough of this,  I am extremely busy and must get on with the overwhelming task of doing nothing in particular,

WHERE YESTERDAY?

Okay -- left the country again -- so here I am!

Needed to escape the dreariness of rainy ole Portland (don't get me wrong it is THE best place to be July through October -- but this is not even close . . . . sigh).

My diehard girlfriends said, "Hell YES!"
And so we find ourselves in heaven!   AKA Auberge Private Residences @ Esperanza -- Cabo!  (Baja -- muy baja -- Mexico).  We have an "in" cuz this place would otherwise be way above our pay grade.  So we are using our very best grammar . . .

It's going to be a LONG day! Gotto fuel up for this one!

Wow! Welcome!

I can now add:

Singapore

Bulgaria

New Zealand

to the list of places where people have looked at this blog.  Maybe I'll have to start writing again.  I have two trips (local) to describe, but it is VERY HARD TO DO when it is sunny and 85 degrees out!  Speaking of which, I'd better get back outside -- who knows how long our mini-summer will last!!!