Quick Hello From London

Hi all. I am out in London until tomorrow for something called a Joint Study Session. It is pretty cool, as they basically gather up all of the folks here on exchange for briefing and discussion for a couple of days. It has been a lot of fun sharing stories about all of the "fun" bits about integrating into British life and culture... most have a lot the same experiences. Like how when you first get here, you think it is cute and quaint to shop at all of the high streets in all of the little towns, but then at a time like Christmas when you have to actually get some real shopping down, it takes 3 weeks to buy a few shirts and a football because to have to travel to 7 different towns hoping for a store that is selling what you are looking for. My Kingdom for a shopping mall!
The events here are quite nice... last night we went out for dinner with all of the air force officers. A very different meal... I would like to tell you what we ate but I honestly don't know what it was. The appetizer looked a lot like a slice of that balogna you can buy with the alphabet noodles cooked in, but to be honest, I am not even certain if it was meat. Tasty all the same. London has been nice, no rain but a little cool. Tonight is the first and last free night here, so I hope to find some cheap tickets to see a show as our hotel is in the middle of the theater district. A few more briefings tomorrow, then back home. I am sure that Laura is lookin forward to a break! Hope this finds you well... Mark

Happy 2 Months Olivia!

Today Olivia is two months old. Wow, time is going fast. She is growing well as per my blog on Fri. and is changing everyday. Her hair is growing and doesn't look like it's going to fall out. It is even starting to lay down in the back, hard to tell from the pictures but it always stands up in the back regardless of what you do. She has skinny little legs and has a fair complexion, although not as fair as Miah. I think I can safely say now that her eyes are going to be blue. They are turning more blue instead of less, with the other two (Lochlan and Miah) their eyes had started to change by now. I guess we'll see. She absolutely loves her baths and cries when you take her out....even from the age of about two weeks, very unusual for a small baby I think. Most nights she sleeps between 7-8 hrs. which is awesome! Overall, she is a content and happy baby.

Mark headed to London yesterday for work and will return on Thurs. or Fri. night. So far so good. I even managed to get a new hair cut today and have some social time. Although I have to say things are a little on the busy side:) Pancakes and maple syrup for the girls here tomorrow. One of them has never even tried maple syrup! Here is a picture of Olivia and Manni on the quilt that Great Grandma Kotzer made and one of my new cut!

A Nice Day

I woke up to the sound of lawnmowers this morning (although I did not quite muster the motivation to mow my own yard). It was about 14 here today, sunny and nice. I never thought it was too rainy here, but we definitely appreciated the full sun today. Spent most of it getting ready for going to London, so that Laura is set up while I am gone. No one takes away your Christmas tree here, so we finally got rid of that today as well. And for the highlight of our weekend... we picked up a deep freeze. If I haven't said it before, fridges and freezers here are very small... and the freezer bit on our fridge is tiny. It is not too common to have a deep freeze here as it seems part of the culture to go grocery shopping every day... however, with three kids, it is not really practical to drag the whole crew to Tesco each time you run out of bread. Hope this finds you all well. Mark

Canadian Visitors

Big blog day... I think this is the third post... my first one though.

We had some Canadian visitors up for past few days. Back in 1999, when I used to work with Sea Kings at 423 Squadron, I worked for Michel Villeneuve. He found his way into the Cormorant world, and long story short, ended up down here to check out all of the technical issues with the Merlin here in Culdrose.

Michel and Yves ended up over for supper on Thursday, and we had a good time. I always find it hilarious to hear the stories of first-time-driving-in-England-Canucks, and Michel's were as funny as the rest. God knows there have been times when I have closed my eyes (literally) when passing a lorry (i.e. semi) on the road, praising God that by some miracle I was spared during the passing. The moral of the story is that when the Romans were building roads here 1200 years ago, they didn't forsee any need for passing lanes.

Pretty warm here yet, and pretty green. The lawn definitely needs mowing but it will have to wait for a week at least. Next week, I will be in London for meetings with the other Canadian officers in England. Part social event, part work event. Keeping the fingers crossed that Olivia's passport will be ready when I arrive so I can get her a Visa, otherwise I will have to go back to London (6 hrs by train... a long day there and back). Hope this finds you all well... Mark

The Kiddies

Olivia had her 8 week doctor's appointment today. She is doing well. She weighs 9lbs 14oz.and is 22" long. She is smiling and cooing and has even giggled a couple times this week, sooooo cute (I'm allowed to say that as her mother). She also had her her first shots today and wasn't really happy with the experience (can't say as I blame her) but calmed down quickly. Miah is getting a little less shy in front of strangers(for those of you who don't know, our litle aggressive red head can actually be quite shy in front of strangers)although she seems to be coming out of that fairly quickly. Her new phrase lately (I think partially learned from her older brother) is "No..can't". Usually when she is doing something she isn't supposed to and told to stop. Isn't that cute? Mommy doesn't think so. Lochlan seems to be taking on the roll of big brother a little more. He likes to hold and burp Olivia and even fed her first bottle this week, which she didn't take to as well as I would like (seeing as that is my freedom tool)... although Lochlan thought it was great. So here are a few pics of the kids and a video of Olivia's first bottle with her big brother.

Bacon Butties and Fresh Flowers

Yesterday I was invited for bacon butties otherwise known as a bacon bap or bacon roll at a friend's place. Essentially it was a roll with butter, bacon(which is a lot better than the fatty stuff at home) and brown sauce. Pretty good. Brown sauce from what I can tell is just HP sauce, however, I think it tastes a bit different than the stuff at home, more melow. Anyway, it is quite popular here. Miah also liked the bacon butties as she ate her whole roll.

Another thing I have grown to like here is the flowers. They have beautifully fresh flowers that seem to last forever, and those are just the ones from the grocery store. They are often on sale and can be pretty reasonable priced. So here are a couple of pictures of the bacon buttie experience and some beautiful lillies I bought about two weeks ago that are still thriving.

Laura

"Man-flu"

So I have contracted a disease only present within south-west England, a horrible maladay known as "man-flu". Man-flu is more or less like the flu in Canada, with the exception that if you get it, you are allowed (nay expected) to whine like the process is more painful than childbirth (and trust me, it is...). Poor Laura has had to look after all three kids for the last 3 days. Hopefully I will be back to normal tomorrow. Thanks Laura! Mark

Pork Scratchings...

I was out with the lads for a pint on Thurdsday (OK, maybe 2 pints) and I was introduced to something that I have never seen before. A culinary delight named "pork scratchings". Just like a pharmacy has "behind-the-counter" drugs, pork scratchings are definitely a "behind-the-counter" snack. What is a pork scratching? It is, as far as I can tell, deep-fried lard. The smaller bits taste like crispy bacon fat. The bigger bits have that crisp coating with the lard in the middle. They don't even display them at the bar... the bartender had to go to a special room upstairs to get a bag everytime we ordered one. I still can't believe I ate 3 bags :) Take care... Mark

Happy Belated New Years and More!

We were expecting a quiet evening but the neighbours changed that! Four of our neighbours knocked at our door around midnight. It is Scottish tradition to be the first over the doorstep with a bottle of something (usually Scotch I think) to bring good luck in the new year. So we happily partook, at least Mark did:) We had a great time and didn't hit the hay until 4am. Needless to say Mark was a little rough when Lochlan got up at 6:15am.
Since then we've managed to take all the kiddies out for dinner at a great pub in Porthleven (a small town about 5 mins from here). Olivia also had her one month check up... a little delayed ....on Jan. 3rd. She weighed 9 lbs and was 21 and 1/4 inches. She smiles and coos now and has real tears! She is awake a lot more during the day and slept through the night for the first time last night (8 hrs.)! I don't expect a repeat too soon but she is starting to consistently go 6 to 7 hours through the night. My best baby yet!
Lochlan is attending preschool 5 mornings a week and is now fully potty trained (thank goodness - poor little guy). He enjoys his new scooter and still likes playing with his trains and cars, especially the new ones he got for Christmas from the movie Cars.
Miah misses her brother a little in the mornings now but manges to talk Mommy's ear off instead. She talks A LOT her favourites being "watch this", "I did it" and "Gochgan where are you?" . She enjoys wearing her new wellies (rain boots), rain jacket, colouring and doing everything herself whether able or not. She's also in a big girl bed and has adjusted really well.
Mark is back to work and is trying to catch up. I'm at home and trying to catch up on sleep! Ha! A little hard as Lochlan is starting to cut out his naps and doesn't always sleep in the afternoon now. Below are some new pics! Hope everyone has a fantastic 2008!

Miah Loves Her Sister

Need I say more...?