Sabbatical

 

Yesterday I edited for much of the day, full of nerves. 

I love this tiny mural, above and below, over an ice cream store. 

 I had coffee and pistachio cake with a very nice colleague.

Then my late-afternoon talk--a couple of friends came and it was so nice to have them there. And other people came, too! I wasn't at all sure that they would, but they did! And I had so much fun giving my presentation--I made the audience participate a bit with drawing and diagramming and it worked out more or less like I hoped, so that was fun and different. And after the talk one of my friends took me out for ice cream before I headed back to the city. 

I feel in perpetual awe and undeserving of the fun I'm having here this year. (After my talks, the anxiety lifting is euphoric.)

Sabbatical

Francisco is exactly right--I get super grumpy a day before I share my work. My poor family. I snapped at Francisco because the coffee shop we went to only had outdoor seating left and the young guys at our table were too loud. 

But before that, we walked down one of our favorite canals and after that we strolled through a little flea market street. 

The evening was quiet--we watched some Zorro together. 

A poor picture of gorgeous tile (above). 

I had a million emails to write in the evening before doing my best to shorten my presentation (as usual, I failed). I haven't slept well this week because of too many balls in the air. (We're talking 7 hours instead of 8, so I know I'm still very lucky when it comes to sleep.)

On a train--cannot turn back now. 

Will spend the day before my presentation editing my next chapter. I guess the rubber is hitting the road now? 

 

Sabbatical

 

I'm a bit overwhelmed--I'm taking on too many things at once just now. Too many balls in the air, I guess, as they say. Not sure what to do about that. 

Above: some writing snacks for second breakfast. 

This morning--mass to pray for a friend from St. Louis who died. 

Yesterday: I got really caught up in my presentation (tomorrow!) preparation. I worked too long on it (more to do today), but it was so fun. I'm trying something new--having the attendees sketch the ideas I'm expressing as I go. Could be a big failure. We'll see. But it was so fun and led me to some good thinking. By the time I left the coffee shop, I was starving, so I stopped for the stuffed Turkish flatbread (spinach and cheese)--so good in the cold misting rain. 

Then I went shoe shopping. It appears my feet are too big for the UK. The staff was not super helpful so I just moved to looking at men's shoes, which may be the way to go. Then I wanted new clothes for my date that evening. Plus my jeans are mostly too big or have an enormous hole in the inner thigh, which I have to admit is a problem. So I stopped at a couple of thrift stores and found a new outfit for the evening. 

I picked up the kids and fed them tacos and hopped on a zoom. Our neighbor came over to babysit and we walked two blocks to a very hip and fun dinner in an old garage. We made a reservation for 6 so we could be home in time to put the kids to bed, which meant we were the first ones there by a long shot. We ate mussels, broad beans, lamb in a really good mint sauce, and cavatelli with asparagus. And a sweet vanilla custard for desert. Very nice--we wanted to get an evening at this restaurant in before we have to leave. 

Blaze is studying what I guess in the UK they call "minibeasts"--I think this means insects plus? 

Every night when Blaze climbs into his bed with me to read and cuddle, he giggles happily. A delight. 

Today was a local feast of Sts. Erkenwald and Mellitus, ancient bishops of London. The latter really sounds like an illness. 

Sabbatical

Yesterday was a very good day. Well, most of it--I had a slightly frustrating work zoom in the evening before bed about something I'm proposing to my institution that I've hoped for a long time, which may or may not get picked up--it may not get picked up now; it may not get picked up ever. I'm trying to remember to hold on lightly and just accept that God's will will be done. But when you spend time working toward something, it's also impossible that you don't get emotionally invested, right? Francisco is so kind and supportive. 

Okay, but the wonderful parts of the day--I did my writing: I'm working on chapter 6. I have this ambitious self-deadline, which I'll probably miss to finish it in a week and a day. Almost everything is in (perhaps everything will be in it after today?) it but right now it's in a gigantic morass of roughly sketched language. I'm also working on a presentation I'm giving Thursday to probably a very few (3?) people. 

Then Francisco and I went for a lovely bike ride to a canal, so nice to bike together. I love to see the canals--there are so many peaks into life there on the boats' little porches, on the boats' roofs, through the windows--I saw on the bikes, grills, gardening stuff and plants, a stroller, a graphic t-shirt and socks handing to dry, clothes hanging inside the windows, too (a glimpse into a closet?), a disused tea kettle, something that looks sort-of but not quite like a keg, a stuffed chair outside covered in paisley blue and brown, a solar panel on the roof. 

What in the world?! (above)

Blue paisley chair, above.

  

Chestnut trees in bloom

After picking up the kids, I ordered a surprise bag from that cheap app (we had no plans for dinner and our groceries weren't arriving until late) and we headed to a spot in the park to pick it up--it turned out to be 3 large sandwiches for 4 pounds. Francisco was so happy! (The kids refused to eat them because they had more than one ingredient--I ate one big one. Francisco ate 2.) Evidently I'd been depriving Francisco of fancy sandwiches, so I'm glad we could remedy that. We tucked into a nearby grocery story for sausage rolls for the boys. 

Then we enjoyed the park's waterfowl, which a woman was feeding, so was all gathered near us. We especially liked seeing the little goslings, which cuddled up under their mothers' wings. And the dad goose that really went after anything of the same species that came near them. Actually all the birds were pretty territorial, so we watched them all fly at each other. 

Now I'm going to head back to my  work from a comfy (well, not completely--my knees don't actually fit under this desk) coffee shop. 

The Weekend, Part 2

We sent Q out to pick up some waffles at the off-license for him and his brother. I made the adults breakfast burritos. Then we headed to mass (our church pictured above). Such a kind priest. Such a nice church. 

 

After church we picked up some grocery-store snacks and headed to the park where Francisco and I chatted and shivered (no wonder the British constantly drink tea) and the boys played heartily. 

When we came home the boys entertained themselves without screens, because they'd been so terrible they'd lost their screens, which turned into a pretty happy day. They were both in a good mood and refused to complain about the new dinner I made, which was pleasant of them, though they also refused to eat the dinner, which was tricky. And for our 30 minutes of family movie in the evening, we let the boys choose, which was agony for the parents. 

The Weekend, Part 1

The weekends, the kids leave me reeling. But in addition to surviving, we also had some fun. The boys made French toast for all of us for breakfast, with me mostly helping from my position on the couch. That was a huge success in my book.

I read Blaze a book he got from the library with Francisco, who nicely took them. Wow--the weekend all really blends together in a mass I can barely untangle. Anyway, for whatever reason (I don't get it), Blaze is totally fascinated by Egypt. So I read him his Egypt book. 

I took the boys to a free Apple-store workshop on emoji making, which I rightly suspected they would love (photos above). They made parents join in, too.

Then we hustled over to Westminster Abbey for evensong. The beauty of music and architecture is ... what do I say? I feel totally undeserving of such confluence of majestic beauty. And, on the other hand, mad that we have to leave all this behind, as if beauty is my right. (But I mean, it is particularly sad when God is not allowed any proximity to beauty as is the policy in our town.)

Above: Isaac Newton--this globe!

Perhaps I was just in a good mood because I was at evensong, but I even liked this modernist Dr. Seuss thing with broccoli trees and saxophones. 

Sabbatical

The view from my office floor--so many skylights in this house--which are fun with puffy spring clouds. 

We took ill-fated advantage of the British Museum's Friday evening hours to take the boys to something they'd each enjoy--Blaze likes Egyptian stuff; Q likes Greek stuff. 

Above: Cobras on a Pharaoh's clothing. 

We learned about the Rosetta stone together. 

The problem is--we're all tired on Friday evenings. 

Greek gods--above and below, exquisitely carved. 

 

Female gods. 

The sign pointed out that there are different fabrics in her dress and in the cloak across her knees. 

Nereids. 

I loved the fabric details in their clothing. 

The sleeves. 

We had been contemplating Athens to fit with Q's interests--I'm glad we didn't go because all 35 minutes we spent in the museum were eristic. I think we're done traveling for this year. 

More spring clouds.