Well, we did have to look it up and it turns out that the Tweed Run is an annual thing that raises funds for the World Bicycle Relief and looks like quite the event! If I had some tweed, I would definitely try to take part! Check it out here!
Just a quick update on something interesting that Sarah and I saw yesterday as we were out running errands. We noticed from the lobby of the bank we were in, that a lot of cyclists were queued at a red light with traffic. We would normally notice this amount of cyclists, but all the more so given their particular brand of dress, and the vintage of bicycle that they were riding. So many cyclists and all of them dressed in early 1900s tweed, riding old bikes - many with baskets on the front - and a lot with Sherlock Holmes-esque style hats on. It was incredible, and we watched in amazement as 300 cyclists passed us by in one long trail; unfortunately we had no idea what this was: whether a fundraiser of some sort or just a bunch o like-minded people getting together on an unseasonably warm November afternoon.
Well, we did have to look it up and it turns out that the Tweed Run is an annual thing that raises funds for the World Bicycle Relief and looks like quite the event! If I had some tweed, I would definitely try to take part! Check it out here!
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I can't believe that Chris is 4 months old today! He has been turning into a real little person and learning quite a lot. He has been showing Bryan and I that he really does realize that his hands and feet are his and that he has (some) control of what they do. He is also enjoying longer and longer playtimes in his Bumbo chair as his neck muscles get stronger and stronger. Rosie is yet another fascination to him. Sometimes he will start getting fussy in his chair or on his mat and all it takes is Rosie to walk by to catch his attention and he will be interested and happy for another couple of minutes.
Chris is also sleeping longer during the night and is starting to go to bed in his cot in his own room. Ewan has been helping to make the transition easier for Chris. He clearly finds Ewan comforting and a reminder of his bassinet in Bryan and My room. As a little "birthday" treat - mostly for myself =) I went and bought Chris a new woolly hat and mittens that are sure to keep him toasty as the weather here starts to cool down. Even though we have a warm muff for his stroller he insists on keeping his hands out so the mittens are a must. Now we just have to figure out a way to keep him from shoving his hands in his mouth, mittens and all... With the end of November in sight I am reminded that Christmas really is just around the corner. I am very much looking forward to picking up our Christmas tree and doing a little decorating and celebrating the season here in London. On a final note, I want to say hi to Grandma and say how glad I am that you had a wonderful 80th birthday party. I was so disappointed to miss it but hope that you enjoyed the photo album from the family. I hope that all of you back home are looking forward to the holiday season and hope that the weather doesn't get too cold for you in the next few weeks. Well, life goes on here without too much in the way of updates. You can probably tell though, seeing as it's over a week since we've updated this page, that Chris continues to keep us busy. At the moment he is thoroughly interested with two new appendages he's found - his feet! They amaze him to no end and he keeps us entertained by laughing at them every time he spots them. It's also pretty special because he's started to have real laughs - real little giggles at things rather than just infantile reactions to stimuli. It also means that for me (it's Bryan writing here) that I get to see Sarah's eyes light up when she sees her little guy developing his own personality and generally enjoying life. And that makes me happy, so the circle that goes around - beginning with Chris - is fairly complete! No complaints I'll say!
Rosie is doing well. We've had an unbelievable stroke of weather lately with no rain in the past three weeks, so she's been out for regular walks almost every day over the last while. And for her this is an exceptionally good thing, because first and foremost in Rosie's mind right now is whether or not she can catch a squirrel. Every time we take her out, she ignores all the other dogs that are walking by and want to say hello, and instead puts her nose to the ground and sniffs out the squirrels. She is 100% in hunting mode. As soon as she spots them she proceeds to chase them up trees and into bushes, all the while baying like a madwoman and sounding, generally, as though someone is beating her to death. We actually had a few people stop us over the weekend because they thought that Rosie was in distress, and they wanted to know if we needed help. This week I'm working at home the entire week prior to my move to Canary Wharf, so that's a nice treat; but then comes my horrible new commute! Oh wish me well on that one. And really ... that's about it. I've missed every single Canucks game to date and didn't get to watch a single shot of the President's Cup, but I'm coping Well, we didn't get a day off from work (can you tell I'm still bitter about not having a holiday until Christmas!), but we did celebrate nonetheless. Now, I am not at all familiar with Guy Fawkes Day other than he was a guy who with his friends tried to blow up Parliament back in the 1600s. Sarah did a bit more reading on it and informed me that despite its name, the night is actually in celebration of the fact that the King escaped assassination. This is why it's tradition to burn an effigy of Guy over a bonfire, and why it's also referred to as Bonfire Night over here. I was picturing a big fire something akin to an overgrown campfire. Oh no ... We made our way across the street to Battersea Park for Wandsworth's fireworks celebration. They lit that fire you see in the background with remote detonators; they meant business with this one. They had shipping crates piled about 20 or 25 feet high, and it must have been the largest fire I have ever seen. The fencing around it kept people back about 25 feet, and you could feel the heat from this behemoth for about 50 feet! It was incredible. For reference's sake, in this photo we're at least 125 yards away from the fire where we took this picture. HUGE, it was. I thought the Fire Brigade must have had a heart attack all over London as these fires were lit all across the city! After the fire was done burning (ours didn't actually have an effigy put on it, and burned quite quickly as the shipping palates burned through rapidly) everyone turned their attention to the skies and waited a few minutes with eager anticipation for the Fireworks to go off! It was just like the Celebration of Light in Vancouver, with hordes of people (estimated around 60,000) packed into a smallish space to watch fireworks. And just like Vancouver, this was a top quality show. They lasted about 20 minutes and were expertly timed to music. We really enjoyed the performance, and so did Chris! At first he wasn't so sure about being out in the park that late and with so many people, but once the music started and the first firework went off, he calmed right down and seemed to love it! We know we definitely have an urban baby when loud noises calm him down! (He'll probably grow up to be one of those people from the movies who, in quiet places, have to fall asleep to recorded city noises of car horns and sirens!) Well, we really enjoyed the show but one of the best things was the fact that when it was all over and we were walking home, we only had a few minutes' walk to get home. We saw all the people lined up to take the bus and the platform at the train station was absolutely jammed - we felt pretty smug as we passed them all and made it home in no time flat! This must be what people in the West End feel like on a fireworks evening, eh Fogarty? Well, Bruce & Gayle are back home in Canada now. We had a great time visiting with them, and we all miss them already, including Chris. It was great to have them here, to show them where we live and to explore the city some more with family. They also really enjoyed meeting Chris and visiting with us! Towards the end of their visit, we all went out and toured through Greenwich together. It was actually because of Doug & Debby's visit there and there glowing review, that we decided it was a place to visit. It wasn't the closest place we could have picked to get to, but it was definitely worth it. We got in to the area and immediately were greeted with an atmosphere of small-town within a town. It felt like a totally different area of London despite still being London. It could be because there's no tube station, just the DLR out there; it could be because the place is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site; or maybe because the town centre is quite small and actually dominated by a college, university, and its students; but it definitely oozed charm. Sarah and I were taken straight away. We toured the maritime area on our own for a bit, and explored the museum, and then we took a guided tour through the Heritage Site, including the Painted Hall and and the chapel. Then on through the Queen's House designed by Inigo Jones, up into the Royal Park, and onwards to the Royal Observatory. And the Royal Observatory was awesome! We stood at the "centre" of the world! The place from where all time and longitude are measured. (We are, of course, too cheap to pay to go into the actual Observatory, so this is us outside the fence, straddling the Prime Meridian. And yes, I'm proud to wear my Olympic gear and stand out like a sore thumb in my new country!). The visit also afforded us a chance to get a view of Canary Wharf, which is where I'll be working from later this month. Gone will be the days of premium views of the Thames with the London Eye in the foreground, and Westminster Palace and the Abbey in the background. No longer will be able to avoid commuting on the tube! (While before we moved I would have scoffed at someone who lived here complaining about the tube, I totally get it now. I'm not really looking forward to traveling on the crowded trains that are hot and stuffy, and on one of the lines most noted for breaking down at least once each week.) All in all though, Canary Wharf looks like a decent place, and while not the place that Shell Centre is, it's not worse it's just different. It's much more modern with many more amenities around so it should be good in that sense. We'll see how it goes I guess. On the family front, there's not too much that's new. Chris is enjoying the spoils of a neighbour's move, as we picked up a lot of baby things that they didn't want to take back to America, so that's been nice for him. Sarah has been taking him out lots during the day and I've been enjoying as much time with him as I can when I get home in the evening. All in all, the family is good! |
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