Yesterday Madeline had her first set of exams for secondary schools, but the way I'm feeling you'd think it were I who was under all the pressure.
OK - let me explain how this all went down yesterday:
- Madeline and I walk down High street to get the car share car. The GPS is ready to go, we know the way, never mind I haven't driven here in over a month, but have driven all over the place in the States on the other side of the road all last month.
- Traffic jams extraordinaire, misbehaving traffic lights, inattentive pedestrians leads to my running a red light while Madeline was on the phone with Sue. (See below to learn why that's a really stupid thing to do …)
- Feeling a little too confident at one of the more nasty roundabouts, I missed my exit, hesitated, couldn't go around again, so took the next exit. I was immediately beeped at and flipped off by an angry Brit who couldn't get over the fact that I was … momentarily confused.
- No worries, the GPS knew what to do, but sadly it didn't know it was going to put me on a road with a 1.5 mile, single lane, traffic jam. Luckily we left ourselves 3x what I thought we would to get there, because … it's me …
- … except because it's me, we got close a little too early. So I tried to park in a park parking lot only to discover that once I went in, there was no going out the same way. A gate which lowered into the ground on the way in refused to lower again on the way out, so I had to go through a traditional gate on the other side to get out …
- … but it wanted money and I wasn't in the mood! So I squeezed out the gate behind the other stupid car that was also in there, peering anxiously over my shoulders to make sure it wasn't going to come crashing down on me …
- … only to go around the rather large block to discover that we were now at the end of a rather long line of cars and now in danger of being a little late…
- … which didn't matter because there were a million cars behind us, too!
Naturally I was completely calm during all this. Just ask Madeline.
Madeline just turned 10, but I drove her to this place at 7:30 in the morning, to spend the day until 3pm taking 3 exams that will have a big impact on her future here in England. I and 400 other parents were dropping off girls, and I do mean dropping off. I am grateful I was allowed to the stop the car before a kindly gentleman opened the door and escorted Madeline to the front of the building where the older girls who had already been through this years in the past were waiting to take her in, make her feel comfortable and happy and relaxed. I didn't get to park and walk her in, there were too many people.
By the time I got home I needed a drink, but, I knew in a few hours I had to turn around and make the same trip all over again. This time I practically begged Sue to keep me company, which she did, and there was only one mishap involving getting on the M1 and being forced to drive 3 miles in the wrong direction before I could turn around.
I hate driving in the UK.
Madeline was all smiles when we picked her up at the end, feeling quite confident that she did pretty well in what is likely her most difficult exam.
Tomorrow morning I take her to what will be her most important exam because it's for a number of schools she has applied to (they share exam results for some schools) including her number one choice. So, we're keeping our fingers crossed. Madeline seems to excel under pressure though.
A Going-Back-Home-To-California Crisis
OK, the crisis has been averted but I was freaked out and depressed for weeks once I heard about this. To sum it up, out with the old:
and in with the new:
Yes, the butcher announced he was closing after 35 years here in Hampstead. When the butcher is closed, we go hungry … or we go out, and I routinely would run out to the butcher 10 minutes before closing time to grab something to eat. I really liked the place, even if it was insanely expensive.
The closing did not come without some drama, as clearly I was not the only devastated Hampsteadian in the neighborhood. Also, why didn't Mr. Steele hand down the establishment to his son, Barry, whom I had had many a happy conversation about MacBook Pros and accompanying software. Well, there are all sorts of theories to that one, but I don't want to go into them at this time, because I am not a gossip ;-)
Happily the new butcher is just as good, if not better, and also is cheaper than this one. The only bad news is that it's 1.3 miles down the hill and 1.3 miles up the hill so the days of last minute runs to the butcher are long gone. I am going to have to - oh my GOD! - plan ahead.
Espresso Madness
Just before we got on a plane for our 3 week trip to the States my trust little, cheapo, espresso maker died on me. Now despite the cheap price, this thing made an excellent espresso every time, and was a very capable steamer as well. It took just one lousy minute to warm up and had an infinitely supply of steam because of the clever way it produced it: one little squirt at a time. The thing produced 1 second tiny squirts of water into a clearly hot steamer producing steam instantly, once the machine was warmed up after just one little minute, and continuously produced steam until I was done. I loved my little machine (whose name I can't remember - but it was still love!).
Anyway, my little Briel (the name just came to me) basically burst at the seams and trying to fix a £120 machine just doesn't make sense.
Besides, one of our guests had put the bug of manual, Italian espresso machines into my head, something had been tempted by many a time buy couldn't justify the price. Well, ladies and gentleman, I have just justified the price:
(I take all my pictures with the iPhone now - scary)
So this puppy costs … an arm and a leg and it's a manual transmission so you really develop a relationship with this baby, as one should when making espresso. And the steam wand is much longer so I can steam enough for 4 or 6 or maybe more lattes at a time with this baby!
That's the good news.
The bad news is: I cannot steam milk to the proper consistency to save my life with this steam wand. And believe me, I am a professional. It has three holes at the bottom of the wand, but the wand cannot be placed in the absolute vertical position, so one of those holes is pointing higher than the other two … which causes splatter and too much air at the wrong time … oh, I am …
OK, time to stop whining. I am working on developing a new technique.
The espresso part is fine but I am not able to produce as reliable a shot as I used to with my old machine. Still, there's hope for that.
1984 in England
While in the States I received an email from Whizzgo, the car sharing company that we used to drive around from time to time, stating that I received a ticket while driving one of their cars. I didn't recognize it as something I could have done, because it sounded like it thought I was driving the wrong way on a one way street! So I wrote back a message saying, "I am not sure I had the car that day and I don't think I would have done anything like that because I am very conservative driving in the UK."
Then the Whizzgo guy sent me this (which he meant to send in the original message):
In picture #1 I can be seen sitting at the intersection all pleased with myself for finally having the guts to drive down such a narrow road near our house, but outraged when I found out that I couldn't make a right turn. Seconds go by until picture #2, where I clearly remember saying (after looking carefully for cops), "I don't think this is an issue, this seems perfectly all right to me, SCREW IT!" Picture #3 is a close-up of my license plate. Picture #4 is proof that I went through with it.
So I wrote back to Whizzgo and said, "Ohhhh - THAT intersection!" And that's £60 down the drain.
So now it's no longer OK to make a calculation along the lines of, "Can I do it safely and are there any cops around?" It's really just a question of, "Do I want another ticket?" I am fully expecting a ticket for my little red light mistake I made taking Madeline to school yesterday morning. This one might be more serious.