How dependent we are on internet access....

Sorry for the long delay in between posts but we have been without home internet access for about 10 days and don't expect to have it again until this Friday. It is amazing how many things we need the internet for and I have therefore been forced to give Starbucks money in order to use their excellent wireless connection. Anyways hopefully beginning next week we will be able to make our regular blog posts again. Thanks to all you family & friends who read this and make it all worth it!

20 Enjoyable Miles

Neat loaf of bread we saw while walking (you can see us peeking in the background)

Another cool loaf of bread

Section of Portobello Market

With Olly's new health insurance, there are very attractive incentives offered if members reach a certain amount of points each year. One way to earn points is to walk 10K or 12.5K steps in a day so with his new pedometer we set off this weekend to see new parts of the city & just how many steps we could take. Saturday we walked to & from Portobello Market in Notting Hill (which was ok but not our favorite as Borough Market still holds that title) and Sunday we moseyed around a few parks in our area. Total we managed to walk roughly 44,000 of Olly's sized steps this weekend which we estimate to be around 20 miles...not a bad way at all to enjoy the gorgeous weather we had, see some new areas, and get some exercise!

Summer Festivals & Fun Have Begun

The different summer festivals in Ealing have now officially begun. This week until Saturday is a Beer Festival in Walpole Park with 200+ cask beers to try, ciders, perries, foods from the around the world, games, and more. This Saturday is the Acton Carnival which will kick off the actual Ealing Summer Festival that spans the rest of July. The remaining weeks of July will have Comedy, Opera, Blues, Global, and Jazz shows all in Walpole Park. Then all the surrounding places will host different local  Blues & Jazz gigs throughout the month.

Also, last weekend we signed up for a 1-year Membership to the Historic Palaces in the area. There are a few exciting Members Only events coming up this month: one is this weekend which is a Palace Party at the Kensington Gardens where there will be dancing lessons (everything from Baroque to Swing), live music, storytelling, arts, and more. Then in a few weekends there is an Archaeological Dig at the Tower Beach to give people their own chance to excavate (and I am sure you can all imagine how awesome that is especially for me).

Mix all that along with some additional invites to barbecues as well as a planned trip to Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor and I am sure you can imagine how excited we are about the rest of this month and all that it has to offer!

77 Boxes Later...

So we received our Sea Shipment last week consisting of 77 boxes from our previous home in GA. Before receiving the shipment, we both made comments to the effect of "not even sure if we really need all that stuff that's coming in the shipment". I can definitely say, though, that once we received the items, put them in their place, and to use we were certainly very very happy to have all of it. Could we have lived without it, yes...did we want to, no! Amazingly only 1 glass broke during transit and the handle on a Greek vase that can most likely be fixed, so all in all a very successful move over :-)