Occasional musings from a Left-coast Canadian ExPat in Oxford.
I just got around to reading Anil’s recent post on 15 lessons from 15 years of blogging. Poignant, since I’ve been thinking about what to do with this site. I’ve been blogging for over 10(!) years, with a few defunct blogger and livejournal accounts before that. The blogosphere has changed a lot since then, but my … Continue reading The personal blog is an important, under-respected art form.
It’s November. Which means NaBloPoMo. Let’s see what happens when I force myself to blog every day for a month, shall we? ———————————————————————————– Now that I’ve been back at work full time for about six months (time flies!), we’re really feeling the pressure at home when it comes to managing the rest of life. Weekends end … Continue reading Care & Feeding
Did you know Anti-social means something entirely different here? I much prefer the UK definition. Here, anti-social behaviour is something that actively goes against society. Something that disturbs the peace, and negatively affects the neighbourhood. Noise complaints, public drunkenness, vandalism – anything that blights the quality of individual and community life. I’ve been trying hard … Continue reading Anti-Social
Everyone loves the Reasons my Son is Crying tumblr. Everyone, except me. I am not usually such a curmudgeon about such things. I am the first to admit that kids, especially kids around 2-years-old (like the one in the tumblr seems to be), are hilarious, illogical, pains in the arse. My favourite episode of Isaac’s … Continue reading ‘Reasons my Son is Crying’ makes me want to cry a little.
I can’t really believe Isaac’s two today! It was a little over a year ago we got the news and decided to move to the UK, and he has really taken this crazy year in stride. He’s grown from a barely-mobile baby with cake in his hair, to a real boy – running, yelling, jumping, … Continue reading Two!
Someone turned into a pumpkin! Happy Halloween! Continue reading At the stroke of midnight…
We just got back from a few days visiting friends in Stockholm, which was also our first experience with RyanAir. Photo by Mikelo on Flickr We’ve flown other discount carriers before, but RyanAir is often held up as the example of how much discount carriers can nickel-and-dime travellers, and exactly how deep the race to … Continue reading The Friendly Skies – 4 tips for flying RyanAir with a lap infant
First, let’s clear something up – it’s not the wrong side of the road. In fact, some would adamantly state it’s the correct side, and the other 70% of the world is wrong! But it is the other side of the road, and driving on it is the least confusing part of this whole process, … Continue reading Baby, you can drive my car
I actually laughed out loud last night for the first time in a while when I was reading Dooce’s latest post. I took this video before we left, and that post reminded me it was lingering on my phone. Looks like Isaac has a kindred spirit in Marlo. Continue reading ‘Maters
Fun kid thing of late: At some point, Neil started reacting to Isaac’s more… impressive… diapers by exclaiming “Wow!” in the midst of changing him. I’m not sure when it really caught on, but now, Isaac exclaims “Wow!” every time his pants come off. Kid, I wish you a life where someone always says “Wow!” … Continue reading WOW!
I was so worried I’d be bored with a year off, and had such grand plans for the time. After a year of maternity leave, yes I was bored a not-insignificant amount of time, but those plans? HAH. I thought I’d play the piano more. Cook more. Have a super-clean house. Read dozens of books. … Continue reading Reflections on a year at home
I have a couple half-done posts in the hopper about our trip to Cuba last month, and how things are going now that I’m back at work full-time (spoiler: pretty good!). But I’m tired, and busy, and tired. And they have been difficult to finish. Then, as I was lamenting my lack of posting, I … Continue reading Isaac O’Watkiss
I can’t believe Isaac is a year old already. It’s hard to put into words what having him around means to us, how much he’s added to the joy and chaos and love and labour and excitement columns in our family ledger. Suffice it to say, he’s the coolest little dude I know, and I’m … Continue reading One!
It’s been a while since I’ve just had a thought or feeling and gone all stream-of-consciousness and blogged it. In the early days of blogging, before blogs became a “crucial component of your personal brand” or a “multi-channel advertising vehicle” or any number of other sets of strung-together buzzwords, that was the norm. After all, … Continue reading WWDKMD