First thing: Justin Timberlake.
That’s right, I got to go to a Justin Timberlake concert. Jealous? You should be. Fergie was the opening act, and Timbaland joined Mr. Timberlake for a few numbers. Timbaland also got half an hour to himself to just spin some phat beats during this weird intermission which I think was just to allow Mr. JT$$ (JT Money) to take a rest because not only was he singing and dancing, he’s also learned how to play both the piano and the guitar. AND THE KEYTAR. Yep. That’s right. The keytar. A white one. I almost peed my pants.
Lost respect for him though when they did a tequila shot onstage and he made a face after it was over. Come on now, don’t drink tequila if you can’t drink it without making faces. You’d think he’d be able to afford Patron if he can't handle Cuervo Gold.
Anyway, the concert actually was completely entertaining, and I had an awesome time. I didn’t get to shake my bum like I normally would because I was there with both Conrad (the kid) and Julian (the dad), so I didn’t want to do anything that would cost me respect points. Like showcasing the tricks I learned from Neena and Veena’s Bellydancing for Beginniners (woot). I bought a concert t-shirt and a button, and Conrad and I both had cotton candy (which they call “candy floss” over here, and it comes in a bucket, not on a stick…poo). I was also excited to hear American accents again (hadn’t heard any since I got off the plane…)
And the sexy was brought back. I’m so glad it had gone missing, because otherwise I would not have been able to experience its return.
Okay, so that was Sunday, July 8th. Today is Wednesday, July 18th. Ten days to cover. I’ll sort of gloss over things and make a promise to go into further detail about the following topics: Northcote Road, Kings Road, the age of everything, being a grownup, and swim club. For now. I’m sure there will be more.
So. After ending/starting the week with JT$$ on the 8th, it was time for Conrad’s last week of school. The painters came by again on Monday and finished up, so I rolled up my sleeves and got to work cleaning the house after I dropped Conrad off at school on Tuesday morning. Six hours of nonstop cleaning later, it was time to get Conrad, and I had just finished the downstairs. Here are pictures of the living room and kitchen, which are the only two rooms downstairs:
Yeah. Not a whole lot to clean. But I had been told by everyone that Sonja (the mom) is a ridiculous neat freak, and she was due back from Morocco on Thursday, so I wanted to get everything nice and sparkling before she got back (the cleaning lady that comes on Thursdays does a crap job). I oiled the wood furniture and polished all the metal, swept, vacuumed, mopped, washed windows, bla bla bla. My mother taught me how to clean. I was exhausted by the end of it all. Find out that Wednesday is the school’s sports day, so Julian’s mom picked me up after I took Conrad to school that morning, and we trundle off to one of the commons to watch the kids compete in a few different track and field events. I meet some of the other parents, but they deserve their own post entirely, so I’ll save those details for that…
We froze our asses off at sports day. I had half a dozen cups of instant coffee from the PTA’s refreshment table, plus a double espresso from the semi-ritzy Italian pizza joint across the street. Suzy (Conrad’s grandma) and I chat about child psychology as it pertains to Conrad, her fussy digestive system, and she asks about my tongue ring and whether or not I’ve noticed anything strange in my body functions since everywhere is an acupuncture point and she wonders which one the tongue ring has gone through. Had fun, but was glad to get out of the cold once it was all over. Had my first batch of English fish and chips for dinner. Fan-tastic. I think I’ll have to have another post about the food I’ve had since I got here……
Thursday is open day and prizegiving. Basically, it’s a big open house lasting most of the day, with a sort of awards assembly in the evening that all the parents sort of dress up for. The open house was fun, until Conrad ditched me at lunchtime and I sat on the curb, reading one of the books I picked up at a local thrift shop (I have made it my mission to go visit more thrift shops, as they are wonderfully fabulous, and once I’ve made it to a few more, they will get their own post as well). I don’t mind being the only one reading a book, but I felt a bit awkward with all the kids running about and the parents chatting with one another. I did meet another au pair, but we didn’t really get on that well, and there’s a bit of a language barrier (I don’t speak French).
Prizegiving is ridiculous, and will have to wait for its own post. Sorry.
So that brings us to Friday the 13th. Last day of school. Things are a bit of a blur now because Sonja is back. If you know her, then you understand what I mean. If you don’t….well….Hard to explain.
Grocery shopping on Saturday. I’m now starting to get the hang of grocery stores. Hooray! Barbecued for dinner, and had amazing sausage along with my ever-popular mashed potatoes.
Made one of my famous cheesecakes Sunday morning (used crème fraiche instead of sour cream. I think I’m one step closer to the perfect cheesecake recipe…although I will never use a springform pan for cheesecake ever ever ever ever ever again…should’ve listened to Alton Brown on that one…..)
Also went to Kings Road to go to a shop to order more shelves for Conrad’s room. More on Kings Road and the posh shops later….
New carpet got installed on Monday, so we spent Sunday afternoon/night bringing everything from the bedrooms upstairs to the living room downstairs. It was 75 degrees with 80% humidity at 11:30 on Sunday night. Ridiculous. And not a breeze to be felt anywhere, even though we had every window in the house open.
New carpet on Monday, then have to bring everything back upstairs. Not fun, and also very sweaty. Again.
I also got introduced to what ironing is like with Sonja. Basically, I’m supposed to iron everything. Except for knickers (underpants) and bras. And that includes ironing bedsheets, duvets, pillowcases, and towels. Took me half an hour to figure out how to successfully iron a fitted sheet!! This is what my pile looked like when I was half finished:
I still have ironing to do. It’ll probably take me a couple of hours to finish up. Crazy. I have a super-nice iron to work with though, which is wonderful. If I had to iron that much with a crappy Wal-mart iron, I think I’d commit suicide with the power cord.
Now. Tuesday Conrad and I go back to Kings Road to go to Peter George, to exchange Conrad’s John Lewis school rugby jersey. Peter George is a department store, and John Lewis is a brand name. I want to meet John Lewis, he’s everywhere from all-purpose cleaner to shower curtains to school uniforms and everything in between.
Conrad and Sonja both have decided to make a project out of me. Sonja claims she’s going to get me away from beer and over to champagne, with nice posh boyfriends who drive ritzy cars and buy me nice presents. Conrad seems to have the same designs. We’ll see. I’m not saying that I won’t let them influence me at all (because let’s face it, working at Sole Technology really put me into a jeans and t-shirt rut), but I’m going to do my best to resist any snobbery they may try to impart upon me.
So that brings us to today, Wednesday, July 18th. Conrad and I walked forever to go to the fabric store and get the things needed to make me a new purse (I think it’s going to be really cute…). The weather was gorgeous, and he and I only got into one major power struggle/boundary test/battle of willpower over setting the table for dinner. It’s getting better every day….Although next week we have to start our daily tutoring sessions. That’s going to be like pulling teeth for at least a couple of weeks.
In other news, I am starting to get pictures uploaded onto http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/
Here is a link to the latest ones…..
http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/I.jsp?c=92h06vdp.6xh4zep9&x=0&y=ie0j24
As always, I am keeping up with posting pictures on facebook.
It is now very late, and I am very tired, so I’m going to end it here. Either tomorrow or this weekend I will work on the individual topics that I’ve promised separate posts on. We’ll see how busy Conrad keeps me.
We froze our asses off at sports day. I had half a dozen cups of instant coffee from the PTA’s refreshment table, plus a double espresso from the semi-ritzy Italian pizza joint across the street. Suzy (Conrad’s grandma) and I chat about child psychology as it pertains to Conrad, her fussy digestive system, and she asks about my tongue ring and whether or not I’ve noticed anything strange in my body functions since everywhere is an acupuncture point and she wonders which one the tongue ring has gone through. Had fun, but was glad to get out of the cold once it was all over. Had my first batch of English fish and chips for dinner. Fan-tastic. I think I’ll have to have another post about the food I’ve had since I got here……
Thursday is open day and prizegiving. Basically, it’s a big open house lasting most of the day, with a sort of awards assembly in the evening that all the parents sort of dress up for. The open house was fun, until Conrad ditched me at lunchtime and I sat on the curb, reading one of the books I picked up at a local thrift shop (I have made it my mission to go visit more thrift shops, as they are wonderfully fabulous, and once I’ve made it to a few more, they will get their own post as well). I don’t mind being the only one reading a book, but I felt a bit awkward with all the kids running about and the parents chatting with one another. I did meet another au pair, but we didn’t really get on that well, and there’s a bit of a language barrier (I don’t speak French).
Prizegiving is ridiculous, and will have to wait for its own post. Sorry.
So that brings us to Friday the 13th. Last day of school. Things are a bit of a blur now because Sonja is back. If you know her, then you understand what I mean. If you don’t….well….Hard to explain.
Grocery shopping on Saturday. I’m now starting to get the hang of grocery stores. Hooray! Barbecued for dinner, and had amazing sausage along with my ever-popular mashed potatoes.
Made one of my famous cheesecakes Sunday morning (used crème fraiche instead of sour cream. I think I’m one step closer to the perfect cheesecake recipe…although I will never use a springform pan for cheesecake ever ever ever ever ever again…should’ve listened to Alton Brown on that one…..)
Also went to Kings Road to go to a shop to order more shelves for Conrad’s room. More on Kings Road and the posh shops later….
New carpet got installed on Monday, so we spent Sunday afternoon/night bringing everything from the bedrooms upstairs to the living room downstairs. It was 75 degrees with 80% humidity at 11:30 on Sunday night. Ridiculous. And not a breeze to be felt anywhere, even though we had every window in the house open.
New carpet on Monday, then have to bring everything back upstairs. Not fun, and also very sweaty. Again.
I also got introduced to what ironing is like with Sonja. Basically, I’m supposed to iron everything. Except for knickers (underpants) and bras. And that includes ironing bedsheets, duvets, pillowcases, and towels. Took me half an hour to figure out how to successfully iron a fitted sheet!! This is what my pile looked like when I was half finished:
I still have ironing to do. It’ll probably take me a couple of hours to finish up. Crazy. I have a super-nice iron to work with though, which is wonderful. If I had to iron that much with a crappy Wal-mart iron, I think I’d commit suicide with the power cord.
Now. Tuesday Conrad and I go back to Kings Road to go to Peter George, to exchange Conrad’s John Lewis school rugby jersey. Peter George is a department store, and John Lewis is a brand name. I want to meet John Lewis, he’s everywhere from all-purpose cleaner to shower curtains to school uniforms and everything in between.
Conrad and Sonja both have decided to make a project out of me. Sonja claims she’s going to get me away from beer and over to champagne, with nice posh boyfriends who drive ritzy cars and buy me nice presents. Conrad seems to have the same designs. We’ll see. I’m not saying that I won’t let them influence me at all (because let’s face it, working at Sole Technology really put me into a jeans and t-shirt rut), but I’m going to do my best to resist any snobbery they may try to impart upon me.
So that brings us to today, Wednesday, July 18th. Conrad and I walked forever to go to the fabric store and get the things needed to make me a new purse (I think it’s going to be really cute…). The weather was gorgeous, and he and I only got into one major power struggle/boundary test/battle of willpower over setting the table for dinner. It’s getting better every day….Although next week we have to start our daily tutoring sessions. That’s going to be like pulling teeth for at least a couple of weeks.
In other news, I am starting to get pictures uploaded onto http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/
Here is a link to the latest ones…..
http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/I.jsp?c=92h06vdp.6xh4zep9&x=0&y=ie0j24
As always, I am keeping up with posting pictures on facebook.
It is now very late, and I am very tired, so I’m going to end it here. Either tomorrow or this weekend I will work on the individual topics that I’ve promised separate posts on. We’ll see how busy Conrad keeps me.
Hope everyone is having fun….
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