2013: Week 44

2013: Week 44, a photo by MAStapleton on Flickr.

I was spoiled for choice to pick just one picture to capture Week 44 of 2013. We went to the Shard at sunset (Ooh!). It was Halloween (Boo!). We kicked the autumnal leaves in the park (Ouch!).

In the end, I went for a snap of the Blackheath Fireworks. It's a huge part of our autumnal calendar, and we go every year (except for last year, when I mistakenly booked tickets for us to see the opera that night instead. I won't be making that mistake again.) They estimate that more than 100,000 people gather on the heath to watch them. It is insane, but one of the many reasons why I love living in London.

2012: Week 44

2012: Week 44, a photo by MAStapleton on Flickr.

It looks as though the clouds are going to invade London. Or the Dementors are on their way.

I took this shot on Friday, on our way to taking our son to his very first James Bond cinema experience. I may have also had Harry Potter on the brain, given that we'd been on the Studios Tour last week and have been watching the films incessantly ever since, and this looked like some sort of Dementor cloud.

As it was Halloween week, I thought for sure that I would pick a Halloween picture. But I didn't like any of them as nearly as much as I liked this one, as it reminds me very much of Magritte's "The Dominion of Light", where it is night in the lower half of the picture and day in the top half of the picture.

Halloween 2011

They can't help but smile because they love Halloween, but they're not in character.

See below for the "in character" photos.

This year marked our 12th Halloween in the U.K. We celebrated in high style: we scored the biggest pumpkin from The Creaky Shed, we had nearly 50 people for Halloween hijinks on Sunday afternoon, and we finished it all off with trick or treating on Monday night.

The costumes the boys created this year were more nuanced than previous years, but believe me, a LOT of thought and discussion went into the assembling of them both. For example, it would appear that Thing Two is wearing only a suit. However, upon closer inspection, his "Hello My Name Is" tag says, "Lex Luther." He spent weeks thinking about the details-- he wanted to wear cufflinks and a tie clip, just like Lex Luther. He had Daily Plant front pages in his pockets which he had marked with an X and had crumpled up in Lex Luther anger. We got him a bald cap, so he could look most like Lex Luther, but after trying it once, he didn't want to wear it. He found it too uncomfortable. (Where is his devotion to his art, I ask?) When I asked him when he wanted to change his large green Green Lantern ring into a Krptonite ring, he said, "Mom, I don't want to provide TOO much detail."

Thing One was a Hard Man, complete with a backward baseball cap, tattooed arm and an axe in his head. Perfect. He too, wasn't too keen on additional accessories, such as scars or makeup. Maybe he wanted to streamline his Halloween operation, knowing that he'd have to rush off to trick or treating following rugby practice and then dinner. The tattooed arm-- or "sleeve" to use the proper tattoo terminology-- was an awesome purchase from Hong Kong earlier this month. It looked pretty realistic, if you didn't look to closely at it.

He's not smiling because he was in character.

So that's another Halloween done and dusted. At this point, we're starting to wonder how many more years Thing One will be up for participating. At least I know I've got three solid years with Thing Two before I need to worry about it. We had a blast on Friday night-- on our way to the Science Museum Halloween Party-- looking at all the pictures from previous yeras. If you want to see the collection yourself, click through to here.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2010

We had a raucous Halloween this year, which is truly the only type of Halloween to have. I present to you here our costume offerings.

On the left you will see The Black Knight from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." His uncle, who made MarathonMum watch said movie countless times in high school, no doubt is brimming with pride. He spent most of the day uttering the phrases, "It's only a flesh wound!" or "I'm invincible!" or (most popular) "Tis but a scratch." The coolest thing about the costume, not captured here, was that his left arm detached, leaving him with a stump to carry around, and a bloody armpit. Very cool. (Thanks eBay!)

On the right you will see our fearless hero, the World War II Fighter Pilot. It's still undetermined if said pilot was fighting for the British or the Americans, but he was definitely on the side of the Allies. The moustache didn't stay on for long, so it's a good thing we captured it on film. The genuine fighter pilot jacket, given to him by his uncle the fighter pilot, just barely fit, but it was good enough for Halloween. Not pictured is the map he drew on the back of his bandana featuring all the notable landmarks of Greenwich's landscape-- our house, school, the park and his best friends houses.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

Halloween 2009

Max from "Where the Wild Things Are" and Einstein get ready to party.

Happy Halloween (London Style)

Yes. This is an actual sign we saw last night while hitting the mean London streets for some Treat or Treating.

As I've said before, Halloween is not a British holiday, it's an American one. It's getting bigger, to be sure, every year. Our first Halloween here in 1999, when Thing One was just one month old, I couldn't even find a pumpkin in our local market to carve.

Things have changed, but it still doesn't feel quite right. Earlier today, our friend knocked on the door and asked, "So how do you do this whole trick or treating thing?" I answered the question by saying we would all go together. You can see from above that not everyone has embraced the spirit of the holiday. (Thinking about it, though, it's also possible that there's some mean people in the U.S. who also had "No Trick or Treating" signs. Did anyone in the U.S. see something similar?)

We kicked off our festivities by going on a Ghost Walk at the Old Royal Naval College, followed by the fanciest hot dog dinner I've had, or will ever have, in the Painted Hall. We wandered the undercrofts, stood in the old prison and heard tales of ghostly wanderings. Once we had polished off the hot dogs and took our annual Halloween picture (see below) behind the door of the Painted Hall, we were off for our trick or treating adventure.

To see the rest of the annual Halloween pictures, from 2002 to 2007, go here.

Joining us for the trick or treating portion of the evening was our friend Dave, for his first trick or treating experience. He's in his 40s, so that sums up the history of British Halloween nicely.

In the past, I tended to direct the children to go to the houses of friends. But this year, in a bold move, we decided to go to a particular street and see how we did (though we did stop at friend's houses along the way). It was a perfect Halloween night-- cold and crisp. We kept bumping into other friends trying to secure some Halloween treats. One family-- they're Russian, but they certainly got into the spirit of things-- gave out "poo" which I hope was chocolate, though I haven't investigated further yet.

A big group of kids and adults finished the night back at the house playing the Wii Fit and admiring our pumpkins. All in all, it was a wonderful day: distinctly British with a dash of American thrown in.

March Madness, International Style

Like clockwork, every year at certain times, I get a pang of yearning to be in the U.S. Those times include (in no particular order):

• Halloween (So Thing One and Thing Two could experience the true meaning of the holiday);

• Thanksgiving (Though I've become quite attached to our own Thanksgiving extravaganza);

• Any Sunday in January (So we could sit around and watch American football in the afternoon);

• March Madness (Otherwise known as the NCAA Tournament).

I adore March Madness, even from afar. You get 66 collegiate basketball teams, some you know, some you don't, playing their heart out to win the title of the nation's best. The best time of the entire tournament is the first four frantic days, when you get basketball joy from morning until night.

I come by my love for March Madness honestly. I'm a Villanova Wildcat, so I learned from my first year at school how much fun March Madness can be, ESPECIALLY when your team wins unexpectedly and thousands of people rush the Quad to celebrate our good fortune.

But times have changed, and I don't have a quad to rush or a keg to tap any more. Now I have to participate in March Madness remotely, which just isn't the same. Thanks to the wonders of the Interweb, I can still play in a pool, and last year I even held first place for a day! Whoo-hoo!! I also thought I'd be a lock for being the furthest participant, but I was foiled in that title by someone from China. 

This morning I dutifully filled out my brackets and sent in my payment via PayPal. I'm hoping that the CBS March Madness website will actually work this year and I'll be able to watch my beloved Wildcats (they've promised that I'd be able to do so since 2006, but it hasn't worked yet). The sad part is that if we win, I'll probably be the only person in London who cares. 

Halloween Recap

Halloween 2007 received rave reviews from Thing One and Thing Two.

"This was the best Halloween EVER," said Thing One.
"I had so much fun at our Halloween party Mom. Didn't you?" asked Thing Two.

Halloween in the United Kingdom has been an evolving holiday since we first arrived here almost nine years ago. The very first Halloween, in 1999, coincided with the baptism of Thing One. I had asked neighbours if it was a big deal, and they all replied in the negative, so I didn't buy any candy. As it happens, I was also dealing with a brand-new baby, so Halloween was low on the list of priorities. That year, we had few random trick-or-treaters, but there was nothing in the shops to indicate that this was a holiday that was celebrated here.

Things have moved on since then, or indeed, since 2002, when the only Halloween accessories I was able to find in the shops here was one pack of Halloween napkins, found at Waitrose.

This year, you couldn't move for all the choice of Halloween things available in the shops. I even heard less grumbling about the "Americanization" of the U.K. as more children embraced the idea of dressing up and getting candy in return. As I make no apologies about being an American in London, I figured it was up to us to celebrate the holiday fully, so we had a party for 15 children and their parents.

One of the perks of being a foreigner abroad is you get to make your own traditions and rules, but also incorporate the best aspects of things from home. To illustrate: I made the children play "Bobbing for Apples." I could not explain the reason for the game nor why it's played on Halloween, but we did it anyway. The kids got SOAKED, but they had a great time.

By the time the games had been played, the pizza had been eaten and the children were about to burst from excitement, we set out for Trick-or-Treating. Thing One was dressed as Sam, the first monkey to survive space travel. Thing Two was dressed as Harry Potter (and he even has the British accent to say it properly).

We hit the mean streets of London for only about an hour, and we only visited the houses of friends, but that was enough. The kids got a bag full of candy and (hopefully) a head full of fun memories.

Halloween Through the Years

2002
2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

A big thanks to My Most Excellent Friend Kirstin, who was the photographer for most of these pictures, and who also provided the front door setting and created this Halloween tradition.

The Season

In London, "The Season" refers to the myriad of events that take place roughly from April to August and includes the Chelsea Flower Show, Royal Ascot, Wimbledon and Cowes Week.

In our house, "The Season" refers to the myriad of events that occur between late September and December and includes Thing One's birthday, Halloween, MarathonMum's birthday, Thanksgiving, St. Andrew's Day, St. Nicholas' Day and Christmas.

It is, in short, an exhausting time of our lives.

But we love it. While we might not get to wear fancy hats or our finest finery, autumn and early winter proves to be a whirlwind of fun, activities, and most of all, laughter.

Having enjoyed the first event of the season-- Thing One's birthday-- we're now preparing for one of the greatest days in a young child's life-- Halloween. I will keep you posted as events warrant, but so many events in so little time make my postings less frequent than I would like.

By the way, anyone can participate in the events in Our Season, not just those families listed in Debrett's.

More Halloween

Responding to public outcry (OK, one person asked), here's a picture of the boys with Andrew's No. 1 girl Ella dressed in their Halloween finery. For those not familar with the Pixar's ouevre, Nicholas is Jack-Jack, Andrew is Mr. Incredible and Ella is a (non-Pixar) witch. Intense social obligations this week-- Nicholas had two birthday parties in one day!-- prevented me from posting this sooner.

Happy Halloween!

As an American child, Halloween is simply one of the best days of the year-- right up there with Christmas. You get to dress up as whatever you want (pending parental approval, of course), take in some fresh autumnal air, then knock on doors, say "Trick or Treat!" and people give you candy. It's so beautiful, it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it as adult.

We are, however, not in America. This fact is never so apparent when holidays like these roll along. Now, to give credit where credit is due, the British are trying. Every year, Halloween seems to be getting bigger and bigger, along with the cries about the creeping Americanization of the culture. Our first Halloween here, in 1999, I couldn't even find a pumpkin for my infant son (now the strapping young lad in the middle above). Now, with U.S.-based Wal-Mart owning Asda, one of the largest supermarket chains in the country, it's becoming much easier to find the crass orange-and-black accrutremonts that are essential for enjoying the holiday.

But it's just not the same.

In an effort to maintain a high level of fun and frivolity on our family's life, we hosted our Fifth Annual Halloween Bash on Sunday. We ate pumpkin cookies and pumpkin donuts (the shape, not the flavour), played Pin-the-Nose on the Pumpkin and enjoyed other seasonal (for the U.S., anyway) goodies. [Kudos to Ella (far right in photo) and Kirstin, who have attended every Halloween party we've had here.]

This afternoon, we will attempt to do some trick or treating. But don't be fooled. This is not the fun event of mapping out where all The Really Rich Families Lived so the quality of candy improved. Instead, I have asked many friends and acquaintances if they will be receiving trick-or-treaters today. Some did say no, but I don't hold it against them, because really, it's not a British thing. An older British woman said to me once, "It's just like begging for candy." Looking at it that way, I'd have to agree.

But the boys and I will do our best to make our little corner of London a little like the U.S.-- for today, at least.

Wallace and Gromit Fever: Catch It!

The boys and I are under the spell of Wallace and Gromit at the moment, the Most Excellent Dynamic Duo now at a cinema near you.

It is half-term week here (for all of you non-Brits, that means all the schools nationwide are off, meaning the streets, museums and parks are filled with those under five-feet tall). To celebrate its first day, we set off to our newly reopened cinema Greenwich Picturehouse to see "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Ware Rabbit."

It is a brilliant film, with loads of funny gags that amuse 2-year-olds, 6-year-olds, and 36-year-olds. Nick Park described it as, "A horror film for vegetarians," so it's even seasonally appropriate, with Halloween less than a week away. Crucially, it passed the Nicholas test, which means the 2-year-old sat still through the entire film, a feat repeated only one other time, at "The Incredibles."

Monday's outing was the 6-year-old's third (!) viewing of the film (one at a Leicester Square special showing and another at a birthday party) and he said, "It was great! My favourite bit was the big burp!" Outsize humour always appeals, no matter what the age.

We spent the morning watching the three previous Wallace and Gromit outings, ("A Grand Day Out", "A Close Shave" and "The Wrong Trousers"). You have to love movies where the dog sits in his chair reading, "Electronics For Dogs."

Wallace and Gromit Fever: Catch It!