Will's Blog

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In the realm of quite surprises, the variety and cost of things to do with children is better than we knew in the states. Now, we only lived with children under the age of two, so our experience was not exhaustive. Britain has many indoor children play arenas in our area. People described them to us as "Chuck E. Cheese" places, but anything could be further from the fact. They are not the substandard food & money pits like Chuck's place.

Recently we went to "The Wacky Warehouse", which is a play area attached to a kid friendly pub named "The Squinting Cat". They had two-for-one meals and Liam loved jumping in the ball pits, bouncing off of walls, and sliding down slides. The food was good Pub food and served the best steak that we have encountered in the country. So it was a win all around for the Schermer Family.

Of course, when Aine was ready to leave, she let everyone know. She grabbed Liam's shoes and preceded to tell him that it was time to go. Of course, Liam having so much fun, did not listen to his half-sized sister no matter how insistent she was.

This was the second "soft play structure" that Liam has encountered in as many months. He is growing out of his shyness, bounding joyfully through the balls minutes after arriving. Last time it took him more like 20 minutes to warm up to the idea.

Lessoned learned, there are some great things to do with kids in Britain and the children are still jockeying for the third spot in the pecking order (although they may argue its for the second spot).

I once read somewhere that little girls are "sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of." I looked very much forward to having a little daughter of my own. So much so that I thought that I wanted our first child to be a girl. It ended up that God blessed us with a boy, Liam, first. I would describe him as sugar and spice and everything nice. He is a sweet little boy (although kind of quirky and crazy sometimes). I thought "Hey, if a boy is THIS easy, a girl should be a breeze!

Then along came a little gift named Aine...

She could be described as stubborn, fiery tempered, and opinionated. She keeps you on your toes and laughs at you when you punish her. Some may tell you that Liam is like his mother and Aine is like her daddy. Do not buy into the propaganda!

After seeing the kind of little girl my daughter is, I stepped back and took stock of all of the little girls that I have come into contact and know. I wondered if Aine is one of a kind and destined to become a snare to some poor husband. I would say that pretty much all of the girls are little pistols and Aine is on the "nice" side of the scale.

BOTTOM LINE:

"Sugar and Spice and Everything nice..." is just propaganda.

New pictures are up on the server, linked off the main page at http://schermerties.com/Gallery2/main.php?g2_navId=x8a1d9118 , You need a password to enter and you can register with an email address. We recently had a friend take some posed pictures of the kids, since Britain does not have any cheap "Sears" type photo studios. You can order pictures straight off of our gallery or, for the technically challenged, let me know what pictures (plus sizes) and I can snail mail them too you. We are automatically making some up for the grandparents, aunts, and aunts (why didn't our parents have more boys?).

Now planning out the year's vacation schedule! We are looking into taking a few trips around the area. If you have interest in visiting the UK this year, let us know approximately when. We have an guest room with a queen bed with its own bathroom.

Living in the UK opens a vast number of opportunities for travel to never before seen locations. Its amazing that Europe is just as close as traveling back to our home town use to be:) (If you listen closely on a clear night, you can hear the sounds of what appears to be bull frogs in the distance.)

We sat down the other night and drew up a budget for our expenses (and pleasure). We calculated the cost of a trip back to the states to visit all of our family and friends as part of the budget. Wow, the cost was a little more than I was expecting. Especially when you compare it to the cost of travel on the continent we have never seen.

We are still contemplating our travels (and the money thingy) around the world. We hope to see all of our friends and family when the time permits, but we only live in Europe for a short while...

Football games over here are a little bit different. They use a black and white ball and you do not get hit quite as much. The good thing is that the matches are at times convenient to one's schedule.

OR ?

Game time is never really an issue for the devoted fan. A fan whom lives his sport. How late would you be willing to watch an event that you were a die hard fan of? I know that my friend Cotton would respond, "9pm. Anything past that is cutting into sleep time." How about 2330 until 330? Yes, the game of all games, the Superbowl did not start here in jolly old England until 2330 local time. It was a great all night affair. Sky sports broadcast the game with original US commetary, but the commercials left something lacking. Too bad Sky did not rebroadcast the American commercials, because it would have been a lot better filler. (Who does not watch the Superbowl for the commercials?) Sky showed a few local commercials, but included a lot of British commentary on the game. The lead pundit looked like he mugged a couch and I am not convinced that any of them understand the game of Football. They were still wondering when the black and white ball was coming into play.

Bottom line: New England is not the "Greatest Team Ever", Brits can't commentate of American Football, and I still hate the '72 Dolphins.