MrsB

Oskar woke up at 6:19 this morning (he looked at the clock and told me later), Oliver woke up 6:35ish in our bed. We had told them they had to stay upstairs until 7 so they patiently waited and a few minutes before 7 we all came downstairs and opened the doors to the study with the Christmas tree and all the presents.

Upon opening his first present, Oskar fell on his knees and shouted “My first wish has come true! Thank you! Thank you God for making Santa!!”

Oliver opened up all of this presents and of course has been playing with one of the smallest and cheapest items all day. Parents always go just a little overboard when it comes to Christmas :) [...]

10 days until Christmas – life’s still busy but showing signs of slowing down… I even took my ‘rest day’ today seriously and had a long afternoon nap :)

MrB has been coming home before the kids are in bed and it’s been so nice. Sadly I had almost forgotten just how nice it is when he comes home in time to do the boys’ bathtime and bedtime with me. I feel total calmness come over me as soon as he walks in the door and I love when all 4 of us are cuddling in our bed and reading books. It’s visible and palpable how the kids love having him home during workday evenings and I feel a lot less frantic when he’s around (I can be a bit of a stress head, especially when I have to jump straight into homework/bath/books/bed routine after a day in the office). [...]

One week in October my Twitter feed was buzzing from anticipation of letters from the organisers of the 2013 Virgin London Marathon. Some people had received their yeses, some had received their nos, some were still waiting, some planned to leave work early to get home quicker to see what the answer was.

Having applied for a place as well, I joined in the excitement and called my mother and asked her to read out loud the text of the letter. Her English is not the clearest but I only had to understand one word: unsuccessful.

Ughh… not a good feeling. When I got home it only got worse though, the letter said “SORRY! YOU have been unsuccessful at… ” I knew what I read but I heard it as “Sorry, YOU are a looser, everyone else got a place!” (they should not have capitalised that YOU and I would have been fine :).

By the following day I had mostly calmed down, I knew that a lot of people apply for the ballot places. I had also signed up with a couple of charities so I still had hope. [...]

Oskar calls them conkers, I call them chestnuts, Oliver calls them peanuts :)

My first experience of living in an English-speaking country was America, 1993 until 1999. After surviving massive culture shock my brain unfroze after about 6 months there and in a few years I got hang of the American accent – new people I met after that never asked me “where are you from?” and when [...]

We arrived back in London last night and the muggy heat that welcomed us made me so happy (I’m a sucker for nasty hot weather :). Today, however, after mucho unpacking and cleaning and tidying and errands, I’m tired and a bit blue. …

I blew the interview but the sun is shining and I will not complain.

… or should I say “summer”?

As I was basking in 23°C yesterday (I don’t work on Wednesdays, remember? :), I realised how I managed to fend of depression for so long (from my 1st episode in 1998 until 2010) – for most of that time I lived in Australia! …

Nursery Estonian style: Drop off your kid. Tell them what his name is. Pick him up in a few hours. Repeat the next day. Nursery English style: Drop off your kid for his first settling-in session. Everyone already knows his name, where he was born and when was his last immunization. Grandma is not allowed [...]

We’ve been back in London for 5 days now and I already feel so suffocated. I can’t keep track of how many times someone steps on my toes or bumps into me in one day. I feel like I should pretend to be 10 and just windmill with my arms through the crowds. Going home [...]

The train line from Streatham to London Bridge was closed this weekend due to this wonderful event that comes along too often here in London – planned engineering. We were determined to do some sightseeing though so we still made our way to the city both days although it took us over and hour both [...]

When we first arrived in London, we used to go to the city every Saturday to sightsee and to get out of the ghetto. 12 months on and we are very happy with the ghetto and try avoid the city on the weekends. Firstly, we battle the crowds Monday to Friday already and have no [...]

I wasn’t going to bitch about London (much) anymore, but there are some things that I just find so odd here that I am soooooo close to talking to total strangers on the streets (on day I might write about my conversation with 3 music-blasting-black-wannabe-white-boys on the train). I’m sure that most of these things [...]

A couple of months ago we got new neighbors. Just like with the Indians on the ground floor, we are not really sure how many live in their apartment. There are different people coming and going all the time and different cars parked in front of the building. Despite the fact that they smoke in [...]

Sunday morning mission – get to Waterloo station by 12:15 and to a train to Woking by 12:30. 11.35 – Take train from Streatham to Elephant & Castle. 11: 50 – Arrive at E&C and walk to the tube station. Take the lift down to the platform only to hear that there is an emergency [...]