Kai's Debut at the Royal College of Art! Bravo!

Kai's school had a fund-raising event earlier this month, where pictures by the students were auctioned off to raise capital for under-funded public schools (yes, the problem exists here, too...). It was pretty cool to see his painting hanging on the wall of a real gallery.

This was the venue - a huge gallery near Hyde Park.

The place was absolutely packed with people... I could barely move, and the crowd blocked the pictures.  You'd think this was a Monet exhibition or something....

Narrowing in on Kai's work - can you guess which one it is?

Here it is!  Kai's painting - a jubilant fencer. Your's for only $500,000 (just kidding, but it's worth it).

Visit from Mom and Dad in April

Hiking in the Ashdown Forest in Sussex with the Coopers. Ashdown was the original "100 Acre Wood" created in the books of A.A. Milne.  Kai has spotted Eeyore.

Mike and Kathy Cooper! Providers of wonderful hospitality (Kathy, I have dreams about your sherry trifle) and great friends to Mom and Dad, and now to us. Hip, hip, hurray!

Hiroko and Kathy taking a break on our Ashdown Forest walk.

Getting a taste of Mike Cooper's "Country Squire" lifestyle. It's exhausting - no joke, you should see Mike wrangle the sheep. Dad, however, is probably just sleeping off lunch.

At Leeds Castle in Kent.
This was a really fun trip for all ages, we all had a blast.

"But.... but... oh, man..."  
Kai learning that sometimes life is unfair.

Mom and Hiroko on the grounds of Leeds Castle. 
(Try to spot Kai...) 

Halloween!

Halloween is not big in England, basically just a chance for adults to dress in a costume and go to a party. No trick-or-treating going on (I'm told they do it in Ireland, but the rest of the UK, not so much).

Our friend, Nixi, is part of a group of parents who volunteer to offer candy to trick-or-treaters.  So off we went to Highgate (Hiroko was under the weather, so it was just the two guys), Kai dressed as a Roman soldier - he made the costume for history class at school, and we recycled it for Halloween.  The tube ride was an interesting sociological experiment - his costume got lots of sweet smiles from several young women, but the men stoically pretended not to notice anything out of the ordinary (this being Britain after all).

After that we went to a party at Nixi's apartment, which abuts a school grounds.  They school had piled high a stack of brush for burning after caretaking the grounds, and Nixi had permission to light it up on Oct. 31.  Awesome to wrap up Halloween with a bonfire!

A Roman legionnaire on the tube, heading for Highgate

Changing trains - the shield really made the costume, but Dad ended up carrying it most of the night...

Trick-or-treating in Highgate

The wrap-up: eating a hot dog and feeling pagan. It was a great Halloween!

Tower of London

These were taken in late August.  We visited the Tower of London, but it was going to cost nearly $100 for the three of us to go in (when I was backpacking here in the late 80s, I think it cost me $5 or so....)

Showing the Tudor side of me.

I like rivers, and the Thames is world-class. And they found bronze-age pilings still poking out of the mud not too long ago, not far from this spot near the Tower Bridge. How can something be over 2000 years old and still be sticking around (literally) like that?  I thought Kyoto was old - London has it beat.

Our Flat

Kai was jazzed to see a London taxi parked right in front of our place one morning. 

Here is our building. The steeple you see poking up from behind is a little Armenian church built in the Victorian period to look medieval - in other words, its age is faked, but it's still really beautiful. 

That's our flat. The window looks into our (only) room.  It's small, but so is our family.

Natural History Museum

Queuing up - long line. Probably cause it was still tourist season (and it's free admission!)

Giant Ground Sloth bones.  Kai's mind in full-boggle mode.

Proof of Darwinism.

Oh, about the title…

These are mushy peas - they're often served with fish and chips, they're made from "marrowfat peas" which sound horrible. I admit they don't look like much, but they are actually pretty good! The title reflects my hopes that similar pleasant surprises await us over this coming year.