Life in Leicester

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Posh

So often we hear the comment “posh accent.” We looked it up just to check. Funny.

Posh defined as:
Smart and fashionable.

As usual for VW and I, they often assume we are Canadian. We have heard that often over the years when we traveled.

Water World Craziness

We had a great weekend (a 3 day bank holiday). We swam all day Saturday and Sunday at two different water parks. The kids had a blast. Although, I am not sure I have ever seen X that tired. Poor kid. He fell asleep at 6:15 while VW carried him to a nearby restaurant (about a mile). He slept through dinner, walking home and a diaper change until 5 am! At which point, he woke up and I followed him around the hotel for 2 hours. Many people took pity on us (me?) A maid gave us cookies, some workmen gave us coloring books, and the buffet restaurant (not open yet) gave us coffee and juice. I must have looked pitiful. I hadn’t slept that night at all.

Speaking of sleeping, my insomnia has been pretty active as of late. I am not sure why. We are more settled and feeling better, yet I am sleeping worse and worse.

Anyway, the third day we spent at a place called Trentham Estate. No longer an estate, it has a garden center, large Italian garden, train and boat rides, restaurants and a monkey forest. The monkey forest allows the monkeys to move freely around the forest area. No fences or cages. They walk right by you. S loved the baby monkeys. They were so playful wrestling, climbing trees and jumping. X slept unfortunately and he loves monkeys so much. When a worker asked the crowd (200 people or so) if any one had questions, S’s hand shot right up. “How do they get their food?” Shocked me. She can be so shy one day and so outgoing the next.

Overall it was a great weekend. Water and kids seem to be a great mix.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Good, the Bad II

The Good
Great Cheese
Great Strawberries
Having our desk set up. (It is the small stuff that makes every day life better.)
Having less stuff~overall. It is easier to keep clean and organized. Especially as I figure out my organization system.
Sense of taking a risk in life. Trying something new and scary.
Wonderful care packages, email and notes from home.

The Bad
Everything is always closed. (We tried to swim on a Saturday at the family pool. Closed at 5 pm. Then we went on Sunday, for $21 you can swim 1 ½ hours, then must leave~which is really about an hour after standing in various lines.)

The rain. I have that stir crazy feeling we have in the winter, only it is August. There are less child friendly activities as well. ECFE-I miss it so much. I am sure I will get more tuned in this fall. However, there are lots of indoor kids playgrounds.

Lack of kid friendly options. We have been trying to join a health club but the creches (daycare) are only open 2 or 3 hours in the morning, during the week. S is generally too old to go to them. One of the creches at a club we liked was $10 per hour per child. Another was only $4 per hour, per child. However that club only allowed children in their pool a few hours each weekend.