Happy Birthday Handsome Hubby

We celebrated Joe's birthday on Tuesday. Spencer decided to wear a Yankees shirt (that I bought in error, thinking it was just a nice tshirt that said "New York" not noticing it was actually a yankees shirt. It's like buying an Arsenal shirt for your kid and their dad is a die hard Chelsea fan. Oops! Spence refused to take it off so I had to take a photo of the first and last time him wearing it!!

And for his birthday I arranged for the USA/England teams to get through to the next round so keep things exciting around here. Thanks Landon!

Most amazing World Cup so far

I am not even going to comment on the England/Algeria game as I was so gutted and who wasn't quite frankly. I had a sneaky suspicion at half time it wasn't going to go anywhere and cracked open the box of rose in despair. The flag hanging in our living room is getting close to being pulled down I fear. Actually, I guess I just did comment on it!

BUT onto other matters, after watching pretty much all of the games so far, which is hard with two small children, Joe and I got the opportunity this w/end to stay at his sister's apartment downtown Philadelphia and after sleeping in (bliss), a lovely grown up brunch at an amazing restaurant, Amis, we then got to watch the New Zealand/Italy game. I took the side of NZ as I always love the underdog and plus Cab lives there so I'm biased. WHAT A GAME!! We were on the edge of our seats. That was when I wasn't screaming at the tv for the pathetic dramatics from the Italian team - come on, the entire world is watching and it's drama central.

The game was gripping, suspenseful and actually brought tears to my eyes at the end when you saw how emotional the players were. They had real fire in their bellies and I can't wait for the next game against Pargaguay...

Meanwhile, the North Korea/Portugal game is on... 7-0...Dismal!

41 taking a Drivers Exam...

First of all, if you have any out of state license (in my case, California), do NOT ever ever ever, EVER (Margaux watching Princess and the Frog so the language is wearing off on me) let it expire.

I did. And what a fool I was to do so. New York has to have the most asinine system to procure a license. Which is nuts because so many drivers on the road clearly have no idea how to actually drive.

After 5 hours out in Coney Island, taking a written exam, (see previous posts) then a mindless, FIVE hour class from 9-2 on a precious Saturday with 7 other bored out of our minders... I then took the exam. I went through a local drivers school and that meant sharing the car with another girl taking her exam. In this case a charming French lady who had been driving for 2 entire months at the grand age of 37. In her defense, she had lived her life in Paris and NYC - two places where you don't really need to 'drive'. The driver from the school taking us out there was this mad, chain smoker called Carlos that was weaving in and out of traffic on 495 so much I was beginning to think we were on candid camera, this guy is an instructor?!

As you can see in the pic, we had to wait in this ridiculous long queue in the middle of nowhere Queens for over an hour. That hour is what made all the difference. We rolled up and I was like 'this is simple, round the block, parallel park, 3 point turn, can do that in my sleep'. But then when it was time to get in the car with the examiner (in this case a really cranky girl who was about 20), the nerves set it. My knees were buckling and my mouth was so dry! Crazy!! I did as she said, turn right, left, always indicating, and she had this piece of paper as you get penalised for certain errors. You are allowed up to 30 points to get a pass. I got 20... I got 20 that she pulled out of her ass. Hideous experience but thank goodness it's over and I no longer have to suffer the humility of handing over a 'Learner's Permit'! I never want to go through that ever ever ever EVER again!

World Cup Fever in Brooklyn...

So I woke up soooo excited about today's match. We were all set (thanks to Hayley). She sent t-shirts for the girls, paper plates, aprons, sweeties, etc etc... And then we had a party. We invited all our UK/USA friends over (and their 8 kids) for a party. SUPER fun. First goal 3+minutes in - wow, way to get a party started... then nothing.. Then Butterfingers, Robert Green (who has ever even heard of him before) and wow.... way to deflate a party!!!

Ok, so we were four Brits, four Americans, I suppose a draw was in order to keep the party atmosphere up, but I don't know.. I wanted more from our Boys...

Please put Peter Crouch in original line up!!! And more shot of Beckham please!

And dismiss olive oil fingers Robert Green, then we may stand a chance!!

We have outdoor space, Four years later!!

Four years we have lived here and we've looked out at an ugly roof that we had access to via climbing out of the window. Ok, not so glamorous but it was all we had. Joe spent the w/end (when not in Coney Island) building the deck into a little Brooklyn paradise. The kids love it and so do I. He did it in three days, he's really amazing with stuff like this so I can't complain when he leaves his dirty socks and underwear every morning on the floor can I? Or yes, I can...!

On other news, my dishwasher broke. No more nirvana. I have to wait until next Tuesday for a meile technician to come out. This is after throwing $50 away yesterday to a dodgy plumber who told me he could fix it, Joe told me not to call him, the guy came, charged his call out fee of fifty bucks, told me he couldn't do it and bolted. I may as well have handed the money to a homeless guy. lesson learnt. Another lesson learnt is the money we have spent on this damn machine second hand, we could have got brand new... Major grrrrr's....

More pics and dodgy strawberries

Ok this is a boring blog, but I want to 'blog' about life in New York.. and NOTHING frustrates me more than the fruit and vegetables here. Perhaps coming from England I am spoilt, but there, fruit and veg is good. REALLY good. Here it seems to be all processed, and huge and disgusting. Strawberries the size of my daughter's fist and weird white insides (shouldn't strawberries be 'red')? Onions can be the size of my fist... Oh well. here is a picture to demonstrate. I cut each strawberry FOUR times and this was the result...

Also, not to bore you entirely, here are more photos from Philipsburg Manor as I couldn't load too many last time. Where's Brom when you need him??

More pics from Memorial Day W/end 2010

Nicole took some great photos of our two days hanging with them and so here they are. The beach ones are Coney Island and the farm ones are this historic manor - Philipsburg Manor - that was used as a trading complex in the 18th century. Pretty old for America!! It was right on the Pocantico River (not the Hudson like I first stupidly thought!) and really pretty. The boys wanted to go back to the beach but we (mums) wanted shade and the country as it was 90+ here all w/end. Two great days.