Law, Partially

We expected this trip to the Netherlands to be special, and it was. Our first family trip to the Netherlands, almost two years ago, opened our eyes to the joys and practicalities of family travel with small children. On this trip, I learned yet even more about the joys and practicalities of travelling with children -- this time, doing it without Mummy's help, while she stayed in London to study. I had no expectations for this trip except to have fun. Like diners at an authentic sushi restaurant putting their experience in the chef's hands ( omekase ), so we were all putting ourselves into Gugu's hands, she being the veteran Dutch traveler. Along for the trip with Bob, Gugu, and me were Uncle Kevin, Lincoln (on his first European trip), and Nainai. The itinerary would include Delft, Rotterdam, flowers, and Amsterdam. At the table in our Delft apartment, a little Dutch boy waits for his family to wake up. The street and canal out the window is Hippolytusbuurt, one of ...

As a northern hemispheric country, just as in the U.S., summer's heat wears away and leaves change color as fall arrives in the U.K. In my years abroad I've learned how memories of time and place attach to seasons, with seasons becoming markers on the timeline. Your perception of seasonal change is shaped by where you've spent most of your years, especially where you grew up. Shaped by the American Midwest, the autumnal months remind me of baseball season's end, football season's start, school terms commencing, green leaves becoming red and orange, Thanksgiving, and Christmas shopping. We find some parallels between the U.S. and London. Fall brings cooler temperatures, although summers are never as hot and winters never as cold here as we'd get in Iowa. This year, fall brought Christine's return to school, this time at the London School of Economics, alma mater of Mick Jagger and JFK, both of whom didn't earn degrees there (hopefully Christine will be...

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'...