Swan Lake

Ingrid, my best friend from work, loves to go and see shows. She loves it so much that she will organize groups of people when she sees a show that will be 'great fun' to quote her! Last year she got the maths department to go and see Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall. It was a real spirit lifter for me to feel a part of my own department and to have an outing.

This year, she saw the Matthew Bourne production of Swan Lake coming to Sadlers Wells Theater. I later learned this was her fourth time seeing this ballet- that tells you how much she loves it! For what ever reason, we tend to have work outings where we don't bring significant others, but this time I could bring Lenny. There were 13 of us in total and this was Lenny's first time meeting several of the people that I work with.

This version of Swan Lake first came out in 1995 and it was rather shocking because he changed some of the story line to include modern topics and he focused on a duality in the swans by using male dancers. Now, this version of Swan Lake is one of the most performed versions internationally! I thought it was really powerful and wonderful to see the movement that Bourne choreographed. The music was much more moving that I anticipated. But, it is good Lenny and I have seen so many seasons of 'So You Think You Can Dance' because we were knew how to be a good audience... and judge! If you get a chance to see this version of the old classic, I encourage you to go. There are several new messages for a modern audience to ponder after leaving...and the dancing is beautiful. I was still thinking about the production as I walked to work on Monday morning.

Greenwich

We had a little outing last weekend with the Frank family to Greenwich (make sure not to miss Becca's little face looking at the camera from the lower right corner-bless!). Lenny had been there years ago, but it felt like a first for us all. We walked through a few markets. (I picked up an adorable skirt- my new favorite type of clothing! I am addicted to the wonderful British style of boots and a skirt. It is just sooo cute and practical.)

We wandered through Greenwich Park and around the observatory. Not as nice as Richmond Park, but it is a wonderful park. I read in my little tour book that Greenwich Park is the oldest park in London. Another little bit of history: Greenwich Mean Time was founded at the Greenwich Observatory from a little guy who was given 500 pounds to build a building, study the stars, and staff his observatory! He was able to build the building, but then he needed to make all his own instruments. In the end, I bet it worked out well because he invented several key telescopes and instruments. The location of his observatory later became the Prime Meridian (Longitude 0 degrees) and you can see the line when you go visit. There was a cue to take a photo at the Prime Meridian sculpture. The observatory has now been turned into a museum about time. There are so many things we take for granted that were once brand new technology!

Speaking of great technology... on the train ride back Emily got out a new Trivial Persuit game she has on her iphone. We had a blast playing boys against girls. I know I don't even need to mention that the girls won! Opps, did I type that here for everyone to read?

8 out of 10 Cats

There is a popular show out here called '8 out of 10 cats'. It is a questionnaire show a-la Family Feud. They have questions that they asked people and the guest panelists guess what the most popular responses were.... I don't really think they are guessing. Mostly, it is just a comedy show with 3 permanent members and 4 guest panelists and they just talk about the topic in a humorous manner. We got to go to a live taping of the show because Dave is on the list to be a audience member for some BBC shows. 1. Fun/interesting to see something new. 2. Amazing how they tape 2 hours just to get 20 minutes of actually funny live footage. 3. Amazing how many not funny things they have to say in 2 hours to get 20 minutes of funny live footage.

As a side bar, I will take just a few minutes to talk about some interesting British stuff that would not come up otherwise: National Public Television. Brits pay a TV tax called a TV licence. Everyone pays it. (Apparently you can get a waiver not to pay it if someone comes out to your house to verify that you don't own a TV, but mostly everyone pays it.) That means that many of the tv channels and most of the British programming is coming from tax dollars. Several things come out of this.. no commercials is one of my favorite parts! It also means that they try to keep a better standard to their programming and still appeal to the viewing interests of the nation. I feel that people really watch the shows that are British produced. They have a nice mix: there are several talent shows that we have later used as our own-America's Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars, a cooking show where people have dinner parties-Come Dine with Me, a show about the intelligence agency MI5- like 24. I now love watching BBC Breakfast news as I am getting ready for work in the morning. Just in case you didn't catch this earlier, I'll say it again....no commercials.

Long Term Goals

They say that it is important for people to have the conviction and patience to make long term goals. Some people are only in the 'now' and they are not able to look at the big picture. I don't think I have a problem with that. But I'll let you be the judge of that... here is my story.

4 years ago I was standing in New Pieces, a quilt store in Berkeley, when a group of red fabrics called out to me from across the store. I don't know if it was the lighting or the delicious lunch I had just eaten... but I was inspired! I decided that ruby red was the most amazing color I had ever seen and I was going to make a quilt staring my new best friend~ red. It took a few months for me to come up with the perfect pattern and complementary colors but I finally started collecting fabrics. I wanted to make a quilt that looked like 3 colors, but actually had tons of different fabrics for each color. The big winners: red, purple, orange-ish yellow. The fabrics are really beautiful. I am in love with some of the reds and purples. I think I needed (or made an excuse to use) 30 different fabrics. Each amazing and beautiful in its own way. (Most quilters are addicted to the fabrics. That is the real reason we quilt!)

Quilting has many stages. Three years ago, I got most of the fabric cut into the little pieces that would eventually get pieced together. This quilt has at least 12 different sizes of pieces. They all live in little labeled baggies.

Two years ago, I made most of the star blocks that make up the center of the top.

This year, I finished making the other pieces and got the entire top center put together! It feels amazing. I can't even begin to explain how much more there is to go, but I finally feel confident that I can finish it.

Since the magical day when the reds called out to me from across the store, I have married Lenny. I can't tell you how funny his expression was when he said, "oh, you are making this for us? Like a wedding quilt?" Bless him. You know what he was really thinking. Needless to say, the quilt would have turned out differently if we had planned it together. Should I call this my bachelorette quilt? The last quilt I picked out all on my own. Whatever we call it, I hope it will find a little corner in our future home. Lenny has been very supportive as it is all coming together.

My current goal is to make sure this quilt is finished before we have children. Any guesses about total time? My bets are on '5 years' start to finish!

Snow Day

I went to elementary school in Minnesota. Minnesota is a very snowy place. It was so snowy that some years we didn't meet the quota for minimum number of required school days. Because of that, they padded the school year with a few extra days! If it snowed hard, we would wake up and run to the stereo to listen if our school was closed.

Today, London has snow! Everyone is going crazy. Tube, trains and buses have spotty service. We were all hoping that school would be closed. In modern ways, I woke up and rushed to the computer to check the school web page.... school was open. Just another normal day. But, at 3:00 the most beautiful huge fluffy flakes started pooring down. I have never seen anything like it! Stunning. A true "oooh & ahhh" moment.

After school everyone went to the park to play in the snow! What fun! Lenny and I walked down to the Roebuck to see the snowy hillside and riverbank. It was breathtaking.

They are going to make the decision about school tomorrow at 6:30am. You can picture me back in front of my computer checking the school web-page.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve is a wonderful evening. It is the chance to reflect on the past year and think about what you most want to make out of the next year. It feels so powerful to me. Apparently this year was extra special because it was a blue moon and the change of a decade. It was supposed to be a very powerful evening.

Our local pub, the Marlborough, had a James Bond themed evening. All the guys got gussied up in their tuxedos. They looked dashing. The ladies had long gloves and boas~some of my favorite things. For two old married ladies, we looked fantastic!

I was a rock star. I stayed awake until 2 am (something that hasn't happened in years!) and was my usual life-of-the-party self while we were out at the bar. I have to admit, I amazed myself. :)

The best part of the night was spending it with friends. Even at the start of the evening, I knew we were going to have a great night. It was such a wonderful way to usher in a new year and I felt so filled with love and joy when we did our New Year toast... or two toasts... or three toasts! Yes indeed, it was a fun night!