Winter Most Welcome

I am certain that there has been snow on the ground at some point nearly every day since we arrived and, right now, it is lying thick and white and pristine over everything in the street. I love it. I have so missed snow — snow that is not remarkable, snow that does not stop [...]

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Calling Time

Yesterday was a very difficult day. I’ve had enough. I’ve enjoyed my time here, but I am ready to go home now. We have return tickets because they won’t sell one-way flights when you use frequent flyer miles. Our return flight leaves on Thursday. We were talking last night about how we are both so [...]

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Of Pawprints and Possibilities…

When you have grown up with it, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal — but to someone who has always lived in a place where the most dangerous animal you’ll meet is likely to be an irritated bull while you’re out on a country walk, the myriad large and often threatening wildlife that [...]

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Time Marched On, Un-noticed

Everyone is so old! You leave the country for a few years and, when you come back, everyone has aged so much. David Letterman, Brooke Shields, Vanna White, Dan Rather, Jay Leno… I haven’t seen any of these people in 15 years and the change is remarkable! When did everyone get so old?!?!?

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Four Hours Later, They Emerge with One Bag of Shopping

I am struggling with the whole food thing here in the US. Again, it’s something that I assumed would be natural to me — having grown up in America, I thought I’d be familiar with American supermarkets — but it’s got me all perplexed and, given that food is major component of day-to-day life, it’s [...]

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You’ll Be Left in Pain for Weeks! …And Other Scary Stories

At one point during my recent Adventures in Extreme Breast Pain, whilst we were trying — and failing — to find a breast specialist who could see me without months of waiting, I said to to my mother, in fear and frustration, that I wished I was back in Britain where at least I understood [...]

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A Glimpse of the Future — and It’s Normal

Yesterday was a fabulous day. I got the girls up myself, I made E2′s food from scratch the way I always do, the girls and I danced to jazz on the radio, we watched the squirrels in the snow, and we sorted laundry… well, I sorted laundry and they made the job take twice as [...]

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The Thrill, as It Turns Out, was Still There

I thought I’d lived in Britain for so long that I’d become completely used to it — blasé about it, even — but coming back to the US has made me realise that wasn’t true at all. There have been moments that I have forgotten I am not still in the UK — usually while [...]

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Think!

So I cut out the soy and what did I replace it with? Lactose-free milk. My mother bought it and I just said thank you and started using it. What was I thinking? E2 has a dairy allergy, not a lactose intolerance! As a result, the last three nights have been miserable — she’s been [...]

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Hello, Guess Who This Is…

It dawned on me today that I will never have the luxury of anonymity again. When I moved to the UK 15 years ago, I first experienced what it is to really stand out. In those days, it was my clothes and my mannerisms as much as my accent — Americans dress very differently from [...]

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