Only at the Pit

(a beautiful church on our walk to Blackheath )

This weekend Rita and I headed to Camden (the town of Amy Whinehouse) to do some black market shopping. It was quite an experience... we went to two markets the first was 'The Camden Market' which at first we thought it was a lot to handle but after we got to the other market 'The Camden Market' was a walk in the park! There was really no one who could fit it because they sold everything primary gothic, punk, and rave clothes... everything Rita and I have ever wanted! It actually got to a point where we were lost in the twist and turns of this underground market that we couldn't think and needed to get out.

Ever thought the undergound world of Camden was a little to much for a small town girl it was still very cool and i'm glad we got to experiences it... just another day of 'living the dream'.

Camden positives = I got a dress of the wedding and I got a new winter coat!!!

Once we left the underground world Rita and I went back to her house and got ready for a night out in Blackheath, the town Rita lives in. It took us a while but we found Blackheath Village (the place with all the bars), we just wanted to find a nice pub to drink at because we werent ready for clubbing or dressed properly. However ironically in England we couldn't just find a nice pub so we make our way to Cactus Pit (which by the end of the night was granted the nickname 'The Pit'). Our night started there because the first classy bar we found closed at 12 and when we left we were stopped but 3 guys who were trying get into The Pit but because there were already too many boys you needed girl with you to get in. So we said we would go in with them because they offered to buy us a drink and pay our cover! SWEET... but althought we were told The Pit was Blackheaths hot spot so we were a little nervous about our attire when we headed down stairs I was reunited with the England verson of PHILS (with an extra added cougar style). It was hilarous Rita and I spent our night people watching and mocking Britians lack of rythme. Anyways the lowlight of our night was when the drunkest of the 3 guys we met ended up telling us he thought he was going to sleep with us and then flashed his penis to the entire bus stop that we were sitting in (to make a really long story short!).

Oh, only at The Pit.

(us infront of the side view of St.Pauls Cathedral)

After our eventful Saturday we got to sleep in Sunday till 11, the latest I have slept in since I've been here! Our plans of going to Greenwich Park was cancelled by the constant mist London brings so we went on an adventure. We planned on going the the Museum of Albert and Victoria but got lost and found our way to Tate Modern Art Collection, the Millenium Bridge and St. Pauls Cathedral. At Tate we got away from the weather at got to see Picasso and Andy Warhol and we became rebels when we took a quick picture of Warhol.

BEST PART OF THE WEEKEND = Going to a Service Sunday at St. Paul Cathedral.

It was the most beautiful place i've ever been and I can't even explain it to all of you. The building was amazing, it was so hard to focus on the service because I was in awe the entire time with the atmosphere. At the end Rita and I lite a candle at the back of the church as symbol of our prayers and left, it is definitly a place I will try to go to as much as I can!

PS : Rita and I booked a weekend in Ireland in March for St. Patricks Day... WOOT WOOT!

Cookie Monster

Today for Olivia's reward for her positive reinforcement chart we got to bake cookies!

On Sunday we decided we were going to make the swirl cookies in her Kid's Cook Book because she had never made them and we got to bake them today. We made Chocolate and Blue swirls, we had tons of fun doing and it was so nice to have a good afternoon with her. Its days like this that make me appricate our times. No matter how much trouble Livy is at so time when shes being good we have great times. After we ate dinner we all got 2 cookies and she said they were very nice! WOOT WOOT, even though I burnt the first batch. We saved some dough for her and Sara to make some tomorrow and when we were putting her to bed she said she was excited to bake with mommy cause she knows how to cook and she won't burn them like we did... but the point of that story is she said "we" and she didn't blame it on me!

She Likes Me.... She Really Likes Me!


(we put flour on our face to look like we were working hard... we may have went a bit over board)

Matilda and I have been talking about accents a lot lately, because althought she has always noticed the difference between English and North American I am now slowly noticing it. It has made me wonder if now that I noticed the differences will I start thinking that how I saw words sounds inproper as well. To the folk here I sound lazy because I said "d's" instead of "t's"... and now that I notice it, it will be interesting to see if I adapt my accent. At first Matilda used to point it out, then I started noticing it when someone else was talking and then today on the way to nursary with Liv I noticed a word I said that I can't remember now that I used "d" instead of the "t" that was in it, and it sounded wrong as I said it.

Oh man I'm becoming a Brit.

Cherrio.

Just Call me Julia

Hey Everyone,

So Rita and I have just had the busiest weekend ever... and it was the most fun. Sorry that I haven't kept you as updated as usually and also sorry in advance for how long this blog could potentionally be.

Before I explain my great and fabulous romantic getaway weekend with Rita I'll give you a quick overview of life. Things are going well here... i'm now at the point where I am developing minor annoyances with my job and situation but nothing major and I just have to remember to step back and count to ten a great teaching method and then i'm back and level headed again. The hardest part of being an au pair is living with your job, and my solution is get out of the house whenever I'm not working, and this also helps me to keep busy and see things. The weekends are definitly my favourite part of this all, but Olivia and Isabella still are great girls and I have a great time with both of them on an idividual level. I cherish our alone time together when its either me and Liv or me and Bell (thats my fav.).

I went today and got a National Insurance Number so I'm going into Liv's school tomorrow to see whats the deal with that job.

Oh ya and did I mention I'm going to SPAIN!

And now for the weekend of madness...


Saturday Rita and I ventured into Nothing Hill (thus the Julia Roberts connection), and hit up portabello market. It was crazy cool and Nothing Hill so so beautiful and so what you would typically think of when you imagine London. After a few hours at the market we went for a stroll and found Kensington Garden/Palace which was just as amazing. A tour guide was explaining the Palace and we just joined in for a mini lesson. I can't even discribe to you how beautiful this Garden was it was so beautiful you weren't even aloud in it! Since we had wandered away from the tube we got lost in England Suburbia but asked someone for help and got it!


We tubed back to my house where Rita was sleeping as well Saturday night to get ready for the bar. We had to be in the Zoo Bar before 9:00 to bet the cover and we got there at like 8:30 (PS. who goes the the bar at 8:30!) but it was already packed. The upstairs level was more barish and they had a DJ who played "cheese" music (that is what these English folk call Top 40), we stayed upstairs for about an hour, then ventured down for the club scene. They played good dance music and it was a blast. Since the drinking age is 18 Rita and I felt old but we had to go to a 18 plus and not a 21 plus bar because Matilda is only 18. We danced the night away (and when I mean night I mean until 12:30) then we went to catch the tube... which was closed so we had to take a night bus and due to drunk people and our desirefor food we didnt get home till 3:30. We were ok with leaving at 12:30 seeing that we had been there since 8:30.

It was crazy over and over we just kept looking at eachother and saying "were partying in CENTRAL LONDON!", its pretty much the same. Except all the girl wear dresses, and all the boys are a lot more forward, not in a creepy way because they would back off once you said no thank you lol, but still very forward none the less.


Once getting to bed by 4 we had to be up for 8:30 so we could take an hour train into Brighton. I would compare Brighton to a somewhat England Grandbend. It was a university town with a beach and sweet shopping. Brighton is also known and a gay district, and having a sweet night life, so Rita and I plan on going back to spend a night one Saturday. We just hung out on the beach, sleeping, eating fish and chips and touring around all day. It was a great relaxing Sunday after a very busy Saturday. Surprisingly I was able to tan in September in England so now I have a sweet tanned face :)

I will try to keep up to date so that blog aren't this long!

Have a good week.

BARCELONA BABY

I am going to Barcelona, Spain!!!

Rita and I took our dreams into our own hands and bought plane tickets to Barcalona for the weekend of October 17 to 19th. So pumped... neither of us have ever been so we can't wait. I have to look into what we are going to put into our etinerary (if anyone has suggestions let me know).

Last night Matilda and I hit up a spa, because every last thursday of the month they give all their treatments half off. We went after work and they provided us with free wine and food, and all the staff was very friendly I met a girl there who was waiting to get pampered too and she was very friendly we chatted about the area and places to go etc. Everyone here seems very friendly and if you are ever sitting beside someone alone 99% of them will start a conversation with you. It was a very classy place and I got my toes done and my eye brows threaded. An East Indian woman used a tread she held between her teeth and her hands and twisted out the hair. It was crazy cool and she was really nice, and it was HALF PRICE.

Not much to say about the weeks so I will post again after my excited weekend, just wanted to brag a little about SPAIN!

Love.

Rita Marie Reda is HERE

RITA IS HERE!

Saturday Rita flew in for her year of teaching here. Sara being one of the kindest woman ever offered to pick her up with me on her day off so we didn't have to take the tube around with all of her stuff. It was so nice to see a friendly familiar face :) We met her at the airport around 10:30 after all the traffic and getting lost, and had a huge movie moment where we ran to each other and being very overwhelmed with a new place and experience tears of relief came.

We got everything organized and settled by around 2:00 and we head off on her first LONDON adventure. Lucky us the tube out of her town was down due to engineering so we took a bus instead. I took her to Canary Wharf a nice spot with shopping and dining. We ended up randomly at a place called The Docklands; it is an old huge brick building right off the dock and it is turned into a connected row of different places to eat and drink. So after we read each menu twice we finally decided that we must eat Fish and Chips and choose a good spot. Little did we know that as the night went on the spot we picked turned into a Canary Wharf hot spot and soon the bar was full of girls and guys dressed to impress. It was nice, a few young chaps started conversation with us in a 100% friendly plutonic way, which was reassuring because sadly its a rare occurance. At about 11 we decided to call it a night because we both had to find our ways home in different directions, and we were getting up bright an early the next day.


Sunday we (Rita, Matilda, Matildas friend Ebby and I) ventured to Hyde Park (one of Londons famous parks) to see The Horsemans Sunday. However, we only saw horses go by us for about 2 minutes and never found the festivities. Instead we made our way to Speakers Corner, it is a place where every Sunday the path turns into a center for debate and personal thought. Individuals can stand on ladders or other things and express their thoughts on topics such as religion, politics and war. Some of these thoughts are very contraversal and heated arguments occur. We listened to a few people who had quite 'interesting' veiws on things, but their was one man whos ideas and thoughts were very educated. He explained that he was the man who created the first documentary that the movie "Blood Dimond" was based.

After almost 2 hrs listening to different people talk we headed out to Oxford Street to show Rita some real shopping, and I feel in love (Sorry Daniel) with Primark. For all of those who don't know what Primark is its just the best and cheapest store EVER. I bought so much stuff and it only cost me 25 pounds! LOVE IT!

But now my weekend is over and I dont know where it went, I find that days here go by SO fast its going to be Christmas in no time! Tomorrow Rita is coming over in my off time to see my town and to use the internet!

Hugs and Love
<3

Down in the Dumps

(a picture from our regular bath time fun)

I have caught my first England cold and I blame it all of Bella, it has been going around at nursary and she has now succeeded in passing it on to all the adults in the house. So althought today was one of the few beautiful days we get I spend my extra time curled up in bed with a permanant tissue attached to my nose. I am hoping that it will pass by the weekend seeing that Bell is better and I have plans this weekend.

Friday Matilda has invited me to go out with her Swedish friends (althought I was suppost to meet them at the Thames Fireworks, I didn't get a chance to go to them because I was running late). We are going to go into Central London for dinner and drinks. It shall be low key seeing that its an Early morning Saturday because I'm pick Rita up from the airport! Sunday I am planning on going to Horseman's Sunday in Hyde Park, with Matilda, Rita and maybe Kaily (the new Aussie nanny, who replaced Ula).

Waking up sick was not pleasant especially when this morning Bella gave me such a treat as to poo in her pants! So literally my day started in the DUMPS. I must think of the possitive and at least it was a solid shit and therefore it was minimal mess. Oh the joys of toliet trainning, I can only hope that I will love my child so much that things like shit won't bother me. Since I started my morning off with such excitment it was hard to top.

As everyone probably knows Wednesday night is date night with Daniel on SKYPE so today with being sick, dealing with poo, and missing home more than usually I was in a semi emo state... but... Matilda is great and when Im with her I don't miss home as much and when I do I have someone that can relate to me and listen to me.

We have planned to do a shopping trip in Leeds/York at the end of November for Christmas etc. So I am going to start planning that soon! Us two are closest out of all the Au Pairs, whenever I'm not at the house with the girls the 5 or 6 depending if Bell is in nursary are always together. Its great because Mia and Liv are the same age and Anna is just one year older than Bell so its great, we plan activities and things together.

Tuesday = sweet day (when Matilda and I are aloud dessert with our coffee)
Wednesday = when Mia and Liv play football (note we saw her coach close up and hes not as attractive as we thought, mildly disappointing)
Thursday = if the girls are good we get ice cream
and lucky Matilda doesn't work Fridays :(

Days are flying by, and Weeks are disappearing
Home in exactly (well probably) 3 months today <3

PS. Happy Anniversary
PSS. Happy Early Birthday CASSIE! (sorry I can't be there)

Midday Assistant

(thats an image from Sunday at the Thames Festival, its a view of the London Eye - take note Cassie)

I have EXCITING NEWS... that most of you don't know, I am in the middle of getting a part time job at Olivia's school as a midday assistant!

A midday assistant is someone who basically does lunch duty. I'm incharge of courtyard duty as well as the lunch room duty. I am there with the students from 12:00 - 1:30. Today I did a shadow day with a woman who thought she was queen of the courtyard, slightly ripping all the other parents or community members who do this job. So I get about 12 pounds a day 5 days a week... which is sweet because I wasn't going to get a part time job because I wanted my weekend free so this is the best of both world, and I am employee by the London school board with is great for me C.V.

So today I was helping out some students at lunch and we had a yogurt explosion... so I was helping a boy clean of his sweater but we decided to take it off because he had a golf shirt underneath. He left but then returned because we noticed there was some on his trousers, I said well we will have to wash that off because we can't take off your trousers and he was like "No, then they'd see my penis" aww it was so cute, hahaha I LOVE KIDS!

As I was on my duty I was just observing that there are NO FAT KIDS in England... there was the occasional cute chubby child but no fat kids like we have in North America! It was crazy I had never even noticed this until that moment, and it may sound like an odd observation but its kinda shocking once you think about it.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO ALL WHO CARE: I TALKED TO SARA AND SHE HAS NOW SAID THAT I FOR SURE GET TO COME HOME AT CHRISTMAS AT LEAST FOR 10 DAYS AND WE ARE STILL WORKING ON 14 ... AND IF ITS 14 I GET TO MAKE THE WEDDING, CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS!!!


WOOT WOOT

I will keep you posted on the job :)
Life here is working out great... minus the whole in my heart for all of you <3