Good Day all,
It has been several very eventful weeks since my last post. As for myself, I have completed my summer studies and received satisfactory marks in all classes. I have a roughly two week break between summer and fall instruction and will do my best to rest as I have been running myself to the ends. I was voted in as an officer in the schools only fraternity/ honor society the Alpha Phi Nu chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. My position will be V.P. of Communication. I did opt out of participating in Student Government Association, Ambassadors, and the Student Activities Board as I was concerned with over-committing myself. I have continued and will continue to participate in the work-study program, however I am scaling back my hours.

My wife was finally able to complete and submit her thesis and the two bound copies have been delivered to Royal Holloway. While she is still unhappily working at the troop store, she is awaiting word from Park University on the military base for her first teaching position. She has been considering taking a few more master's level classes to increase her potential employ-ability as an adjunct instructor.

My daughter has gone to her middle school for about a month now and despite protestations, I believe that she is liking it much more than her previous primary school. At the very least she is enjoying the band and choir/chorus classes. She has stopped her horse riding lessons for now as it has been so hot and humid outside. We intend, I believe, to find her a new riding school in the fall as it cools.

I hope all are well.

There has been plenty of studff going on in the last week for me and the family. Obviously the Fourth of July has come and gone. I took my wife to work that day and then spent the morning with my parents, helping them with their move. It was also my mother's birthday and my parents anniversary. I returned home for a few hours to study and then I took my daughter and had lunch with my wife, we enjoyed that. My daughter and I returned to my parents house and helped them out some more and returned to pick up my wife. 

On Friday past my wife, daughter, and mother-in-law had a girls day out- shopping, eating, and the sort. I spent the morning studying and the afternoon helping my father-in-law move the wood of a tree that fell down in the recent storms.

On Saturday past my wife and I did a lot of running around. Our daughter starts school Thursday upcoming (tomorrow) and she needed some stuff. We took our daughter to her last horse riding lesson for the summer- it is just getting too hot generally for her- even though it was rather cool. Funny thing about her last lesson was the fact that she got a different horse this time-smaller- and probably had her best lesson yet! We returned home and my wife and I packed for our evening out. We headed to Greenville to attend a going away party for her former Master's advisor. We spent the evening enjoying good company. That night we had drinks with her professor (not me I drove) and finally a night cap at a hotel. Sunday saw us potter around a bit. We looked around Old Navy and grabbed a sandwich from the Fresh Market. 

After we returned home I spent the rest of the day studying for my Bio (Anatomy and Physiology) lab practical on Monday past. I fell that I did pretty well on that.

Tuesday past I had a math (College Algebra) test which, while I do not feel as confident as I do about the lab practical, I am sure I did at least ok. 

Today I finished- but did not submit- my CSS profile for Chapel Hill. I am really stoked about going still but also quite nervous. 

Tomorrow my daughter has her first day of 6th grade/middle school so I hope she enjoys it.

That is it for now, 10.30 is past my bedtime.

Good Night

Today: Today will be a short day, as the college lets out early for the July 4th holiday tomorrow. No class, just going to the school to work at my work study job.

Yesterday: Not much in the way of work, got my new work schedule which will already have to be modified to fit my class schedule. Attended a TRiO MAT-161 study session and went out to eat with my wife, daughter, and mother-in-law. Went to Rebecca's and had a fabulous chicken wrap.

Sunday past: Mostly studied for and took my Anatomy and Physiology test. Got a good grade so I was happy. Me and my wife also took our daughter and her friend out to see Brave, the new fabulous Pixar movie. Brave was really good. We spent the rest of the day enjoying a nice storm...

Saturday past: My daughter and I took my wife to work for 5.45. After that we stopped by my parents house to spend a few minutes with them. I took my daughter to horse riding lessons for 9. While she enjoyed the lesson, I decided that since she only has one more lesson and the summer is really roaring in that it would be her last for a little while. Stopped to get her some food and a cold drink since she my daughter was pretty parched. After this we went to the yard/estate sale being put on by the Knights of Columbus of New Bern. It was a great sale but lacking our own place meant actual shopping was minimal but we picked up a few things. I then drove my daughter around River Bend just to look at the lovely area. My daughter and I capped our day off with an incredible lunch at 247 Craven Street. I dropped my daughter off at home and went and picked up my wife. I spent the afternoon studying then escorted my wife to a get together put on by a work friend of hers.

Friday past: Wild day!! I got up at 4AM and took my wife to work. I returned home and got my daughter up for our day. My daughter elected to participate in a 4H/Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium boat trip. We met up with the 4H'ers at the Aquarium and then drove over to the Duke Marine Lab. From there we set sail aboard the Susan Hudson, a Duke Marine owned research boat, that is used to monitor water and marine life conditions. It was great to get out on the water, something I myself have not done in years. The boat performed a dredging and a trawling to bring up sea life for the kids to see and touch. We all saw many cool things including lizard fish, sea robins, puffer fish, squid , and more. My daughter enjoyed herself a lot and would definitely go again. After returning, my daughter and I drove to pick up my wife and I took the girls for Dairy Queen.

That is all the time I have for now, I will try to fill in more of the year gap in the following few posts.

Thank you and have a great day.

Far too long.

It has been far too long since my last post and a vast amount has occurred in my life and that of my family. In my last post I mentioned the three of us spending the day at Lego Land in Windsor and we did. It was a ripping good time and we all had a blast. It was truly amazing as you could still see Windsor castle from the park.The attractions were really awesome, particularly the mini cities of the world. The gift shop, really just a lego store, is really cool and we each got a lego key chain. I will try to go about posting interceding events in the future as I can recall them, however I will have to find the time. One of the most major things that has happened has been our return to the United States. While we all definitely loved the British Isles, we are happy to be home closer to family and friends. For sure, we are taking all opportunities to advance the position of our family in whatever way possible. I hope to begin making posts much more regularly than in the past and for sure more than in the last year (which was nothing). To all friends and family, I love you and wish you all the best.

wow, what a month part deux

Happy Memorial Day,

another great month come and gone. The start of May began the the blowout ending of April, thanks to other planned events we had and other bank holiday's I still have not had much "full time" work so great.

We spent the several weeks after daughter's birthday party mostly recuperating from the vast amount of stuff we had been doing and preparing for our trip to Chessington World of Adventures. We were there for daughter to do the zookeeper for a day... thing. She had a blast, even cleaning up after them, so maybe she really will be the vet she has wanted to be since three. We stayed at the hotel on the park grounds which was very nice. We picked daughter up on Thursday right after school and went straight out. Arrived at the hotel which was quite nice and got bumped up to an executive suite!! Supposedly nicer and more luxurious but what it did have was a great view of part of the park with the ostrich and zebra, right outside the window!
I went downstairs and booked a table for dinner, we freshened up and had a fabulous though expensive dinner. The next morning we all woke up and had the breakfast included with the room (very nice brekkie, full english and more) and daughter was collected by the zookeeper and went to work. Partner and I were then free to wander around the park, arm in arm together, how romantic. Picked up daughter about 2ish and went for lunch then had a wander around the park. Did a few rides and went to have an amazing supper. Next morning was checkout but we left our bags with the front desk and had a real nose around the park after breakfast. Because we stayed at the hotel we were allowed to go to the theme park bit earlier than the "general public," so we got to enjoy even more rides and do a lot more stuff. We had lunch, had our caricatures done and came home.

Though I guess that was really only one thing it was so great that it seemed like we did more.

Today we went back to Windsor Great Park and had a picnic with some friends, which is always nice. It was quite nice and we left before it started raining. Unfortunately while walking back it decided to release the much needed rain on top of us. We all stopped off at the Savill Garden entrance nearby, partner and I  decided we might go back after she drops off daughter with grandparents, to wait for the rain to move on but it started back up again after we started walking again. Though it never rained hard the walk was long enough that we were quite wet by the time we got home.

As for upcoming stuff, we are planning on going to Legoland this Friday after I have a dentist meeting (to discuss filling my remaining cavities) which should be quite fun. Partner wants to get the big passes then and possibly take daughter back every other weekend until she leaves, which would be super cool. I am thinking that then maybe we will take in the new X-men movie which looks quite good.

Love..

wow, what a month

Talk about going out with a bang. The last month has seen us take heavy advantage of the great number of public and bank holiday's over here and do many of the things we had been so wanting to do.

Daughter left school for her end of term (in the UK there are generally three terms to the school year September to December, January to April and April to July) on 8th of April for two weeks off. My holiday from work started the 10th through the 17th, thanks to careful planning of days off. Our first trip was one by train through Great Britain, from London Kings Cross to Inverness (Highlands Capital) in Scotland. If you wanted to tour Great Britain and arrive (you most likely will fly) into any of the airports in London, I highly recommend traveling the country by train. The country is so beautiful and you can see incredible things from the train not least of all the changing landscape of the land.

Our purpose for going to Inverness was to visit Loch Ness which is a 20 minute cab ride from the city. We stayed at the Clansmen hotel, one of surprisingly few hotels to have their presence nearly on the water. With a room with a balcony t made for spectacular viewing, especially when the sun came up. Our obvious reason for going to Loch Ness was to search for the monster, Nessie, and so we obviously brought binoculars along. We spent the remaining daylight of the day interchanging between the windows and the balcony (it was very cold and windy) looking for the creature. Our only full day was spent touring the several museums dedicated to the big tourist draw as well as the town of Drumnadrochit the closest to the many sighting of Nessie. We had thought of doing a couple of the other things including touring the local castle ruins and the boat tour of the loch but the weather could not make up its mind. The hotel was average and the food at the hotel was hit and miss, the dinners were uneatable but the breakfast (I had haggis and black pudding) was good on both days.

The trip on the train again was amazing, we got to see highland cows, nuclear power plants, the coast of Scotland and England and massive fields of flowers. Truly Great Britain.

The rest of the week was spent recovering from the trip and relaxing at the house. Though I went back to work the following Monday, daughter still had time off and partner did some hanging out, including going to the local pleasure grounds. The next Friday (the 22nd) we took a trip, again another by train, to the town of Great Missenden, the birthplace of the beloved and renowned children's author Roald Dahl. The town is tiny but lovely and the museum is amazing. Roald Dahl led a very interesting life and the museum is well worth the visit. Did you know that on top of the vast amount of children'e literature that he wrote he also had a successful radio series in the US prior to that. He was a member of the RAF and wrote the screenplay for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and You only live twice. The trip was fun and the food had at the museum was great.

A week later and I have a four day weekend thanks to the banks and of course the Royal Wedding. I have become a bit of a Royalist since being here, I like the thought of it and properly administered can be a great thing. So I had been quite excited about the wedding. I originally intended to see it in person but, when hearing the volume of people that planned to come out, I decided I could get a better view from my television. So I watched the entire thing from the first moment that Prince William rode out and down the mile to after the couple went back inside after a couple of sadly underwhelming kisses, he should have grabbed her and tipped her over and shared that fairy tale smooch. The whole event was lovely and as someone who is trying to re-ignite my own personal image it was great seeing all the well dressed people.

Afterwards, we went to a small "block party" that was really more of a large garden party and only really ok.

Saturday we decided to take in a Movie and saw the first showing of the day of Thor. Thor is an amazing and enjoyable telling of the God of Thunder's story and was well worth the trip.

The Royal Wedding was not the only celebration this weekend. My daughter also had her birthday on May 1st, yesterday. This was perhaps a far more important celebration and we decided to spend it taken in the views at Windsor Castle. Entry is not free but it is reasonable, even more-so when you consider the ticket lasts a year. The inside is amazing and you get to see a surprising amount of stuff. It is open the entire day even on a Sunday and luckily the only thing we did not get to see was the changing of the guard (wish we had). The Queen Mary doll house was amazing and the St. George's hall was really cool, as was the guard room. You get to see fantastic art and priceless artifacts. It is definitely worth the trip. Since the tickets last we will probably go back again, especially for changing of the guard and to see St. George's Chapel. The castle was so amazing that we walked through once, went and had tea (lunch) and went through again. The second time we noticed stuff we had not before.

About the tea, we decided that for Daughter's birthday we would go to the Crooked Tea House. The Crooked Tea House (the current building) was built in the 1600's and is crooked because when built they used unseasoned green oak, which warps over time. The tea sandwiches were ok but the coffee and tea were great. It was quite pricey but since it was someone's birthday it was worth it.

I mentioned that I could also thank the banks, well in the UK if the banks miss having a day off because the holiday fell on a weekend then they take the following or previous day off. Hence my posting this on Monday as May Day, is a bank holiday here. We originally had no intention of going out today but some friends invited us to the park. It is nice and sunny out but the wind is strong and chilly.

We have been amazingly lucky with the weather as well, the past few weeks or so has brought incredible weather.

So as you can see, a great month. Still have more to do though.

half term

Well, both the half term and my co-inciding break are nearly finished, though daughter has another day with which to chill, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of it has been spent relaxing on the home front, building and re-building forts and playing games, reading and just chilling.

Me, partner and daughter plus some friends took a day trip to Covent garden, pent about half of the day in the amazing Transport museum. It is a wonderful blend of modern, classic and antique vehicles associated with London and particularly Transport for London. You get the history of the buses in the capital, the black cab and the tube and trains and so much more. There are character actors and volunteer's with immense knowledge topped off with one of the most fabulous gift shops. Luckily that was not the end of our day, though partner did have to break off to attend academic duties. The friends, daughter and I then had lunch and walked down to Trafalgar Square, which is huge. With two massive ponds with monuments of a ship in a bottle and several others as well as a large bronze statue of Admiral Nelson getting pride of place. After this a quick pop around the corner and you can have a relatively peaceful and relaxing stroll down The Mall, a road leading from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace. Dotted along the Mall, which is used for many royal processions like the funeral of Princess Diana and the upcoming wedding of Prince William, are many monuments and memorials. Finally we reached Buckingham, which pictures and movie/tv screens just do not do justice. While not particularly spectacular there is just a presence to it. A great experience and one we will repeat to allow for partner to enjoy.


The next couple days were spent relaxing at home to allow daughter to charge up for spending the day in Kingston upon Thames, a relatively close town known for a large shopping center. Though lacking the charm of Woking or the class of Reading, Kingston has a much larger shopping are than either and while the affordable Primark is a bit out of the way (like Reading but unlike Woking) many of the name brand and high end shops are there. Plus many old building and a decent sized outdoor market. Spent quite a few hours poking around but did not do any spending myself except for kunch and a few ties. Daughter spent a little of her own money. I saw a few nice cardigan's but lacked the money to buy, which is ok.

Saturday the girls had their belated manicure and pedicure appointment (originally it was supposed to be for Valentine's but daughter was invited to a party) and they were quite happy about that. I nosed around the charity shops in town and ended up finding another winter coat, a two piece suit and a blazer for 30 GBP which is not bad. I will definitely miss the charity shops here, the quality of products you can happen upon are just worlds beyond what you generally find in the states. Plus people here in general tend to dress quite nice (it is not uncommon to find people wearing suits, or suit pieces, in places other then just the office; like the shops, the movies and so on).

Spent most of today chilling as well, did some laundry and have some ironing to do after my shower later.

Partner has had a very busy week, starting off with spending three days at a Lodge in Windsor on a Learn to Lead seminar, which will look great on the resume at least. Tuesday after spending the first half of the day marveling at the Transport museum with us she had to abscond and attend her usual academic duties, small sessions and post-discussion. Wed and Thu was spent mostly relaxing at the house, though about the first half of Wed we went on a whirlwind adventure of Surrey county searching for the correct hospital to have daughters blood drawn, to test for anemia, and ended up on three separate buses to do it. Thursday afternoon partner met up with a friend who will be returning to the US shortly and picked up some stuff she wanted from his place. Friday partner again left the group of me, daughter and friends to attend a meeting with colleague's from another university to finish up a project with them and again with the friend leaving soon to finish a project with him. So despite having a hectic week she managed to get a good bit of stuff knocked out which she is happy about.

For me it is back to work tomorrow.

Peace,

Chris