Law, Partially

We had several goals in visiting Paris this fall: introduce the city to our new travel buddy, hazard a trip to the Louvre with a toddler in tow, and find some parks, pastries, and wine. In all regards, the trip was a delirious success. Paris is the most favored city -- after Tokyo -- for Christine and me. We both studied here: me during the autumn several years before Christine in the spring. We also passed some time here with my family during another deliriously successful trip in 2014 (also in the autumn). Bobby even visited the city when he was just a little pain au chocolate  baking in his mum, and she and I came for the French Open during the famous spring 2016 floods in central Paris (lots of rained-out tennis that week...). The Louvre is a particular favorite of mine. As a student, I had class in the Louvre most Wednesday nights. It's easy to dismiss it as "touristy," but it is also an unrivaled trove of the world's cultural artifacts kept in one of the gra

Already into November, London doesn't so much feel like summer. But we felt it in the streets, on a day like this (below), summertime. July 8, on the deck with his summer friend, Ee Ee. Within the month Bob would be saying good bye to his sweet toddler mullet. This post and the ones to follow narrate our summer in London. British people will remember the summer of 2018 as one of a remarkable and sustained heat wave and a surprising abundance of sun and lack of rain. British people like to say on sunny summer days that this will be the last one for the year, but that just kept being not true this summer. You can see in the chart below that while the winter was particularly cold (when compared to historical averages, called normal, below), the summer was particularly hot. My apologies that the data is in Celsius. The temperatures are also for the UK as a whole. Twenty degrees Celsius is sixty-eight Fahrenheit. In London it was hotter, up past 95°F in July. The below

Strutting into one of the first sunny days of the season, in the courtyard of our building, 10 May. Highbury Fields is a big park near our house. This curved street along the park's edge is called Highbury Crescent. We all like the stately old houses along the crescent. In this photo, Bob, sporting his jean jacket from his cousin-in-law Beth, is strutting toward the Highbury Fields playground, where we passed many a sunny (and not sunny) summer morning. 11 May. The FD Linges' ongoing European vacation, with this 26 May stop at the Colosseum. For Mum's and Baba's anniversary this year, 8 June, we ventured to the biggest grocery store in the neighborhood, Waitrose, where we had some coupons, and bought ingredients for a special family dinner. Bob was tearing through the store, filling his shopping basket with whatever the hell he felt like, Baba trailing behind and placing those items back on the shelf. The next day, we went to Lord'

Eating french fries and watching England play Colombia, 3 July. The match ended in a draw with Harry Kane scoring England's only goal. England lived to play several more matches, eventually making it to the quarterfinals. It was a very fun time to be in London. Bobby would agree. He got to watch a lot of football and have a lot of fries and cheeseburgers  at Ley Ley's  over the summer. Too bad Ley Ley's closed at the end of August to seek a lease in a higher traffic spot. One way to beat the heat is to get wet. Here is Bobby in the fountains at Granary Square; he's dressed in high-tech sports clothes courtesy of his nainai. Granary Square is part of large urban redevelopment site near King's Cross station, where Victorian industrial buildings, having fallen into disuse, have been refurbished into a modern consumer playground with restaurants and shops. This big building was formerly a store for grain, and from here it could travel by barge (on the Re

The FD Linges shared a few last hurrahs before Mum started school and Bob began going to nursery four days a week (up from his previous two). Having fun with soccer in Hyde Park, 1 September. September 1, we visited Hyde Park, in particular the Serpentine, in which sat this colorful pyramid made by the installation artist Christo . It was a fun day where we also played soccer in the park (see video above), and Bob got up close with some Serpentine swans. Sunday, 2 September, we spotted a sunny day and thought we better head straight for the shore before it's too late this year. Many, many others had a similar idea. Above, Bobby and I in Brighton Station just after we alighted from the Thameslink. We're both smiling in anticipation of the fun awaiting us on our day trip to Brighton. Brighton Beach has no sand, just rocks. I did wade into the English Channel; those rocks on the bare feet are uncomfortable, and the water is cold like the Pacific