Saracens v. Harlequins???

This past Saturday, Abby and Sammy had the opportunity to dance for the half time show during a big rugby match at Wembley Stadium in London. It was the Saracens v. Harlequins game. Do you think we had ever heard of these teams before? No. Do you think we know anything about the game of rugby and how it is played? No. It was all a new experience for us. The girls were very excited though because they were dancing with the famous Shanay Holmes. Do you think we knew who that was when we first heard her name? No. Apparently, she is the big star of the West End show "The Bodyguard" here in London. The girls also got to participate in an exclusive workshop with Shanay a few hours before the game. (You see, we know her so well now, we are on a first name basis.)  Abby really wanted her autograph but got too shy in the end to get it.

If you are not familiar with Wembley stadium, here is a view you might see as you drive by it. When we lived in London, we saw this view all the time. It is especially cool to see at night all lit up. Of course, we had never actually been to the stadium until now.

Here is an aerial view of the stadium. The Saracen v. Harlequin game was apparently a really big deal and was being called "the biggest match in world rugby." I guess these are two really big rival teams. It was interesting to watch the game. Charles and I were impressed by the size of these guys. They were HUGE! However, being uninformed and uneducated in the ways of rugby, we kept asking each other, "why did he do that?" "What just happened?" "Why is everyone cheering?""Why are they lifting a guy up when they throw the ball back in bounds to catch it?" The one thing we could understand was when one guy seemed to have "intercepted" the ball and ran to the end of the field where the goal posts are and slammed down the ball and the stadium went wild. Apparently, that is called a "try" and he scored! Wooohoo!!! Wish we could have sat by someone who could explain the game to us clueless Americans... In case you are wondering, the Saracens won 39-17. I think the Saracen team is from Watford (which is just outside of London and about 20 minutes from our house). I know it as the place where I go to shop the endless aisles of Costco. I will cheer for that! The Harlequins are a team from somewhere down south of London where I am sure there is NO Costco. Boo.

Sammy was very excited to be in the stadium. This was an hour before the game started. When it started it was announced that 83,889 people were in the stadium. For me, that is HUGE since the biggest stadiums I have been in seat around 30,000 or so. The girls were so excited to dance in front of such a huge audience. However, in the end all Abby noticed was that they were dancing in front of four drunk men who were mimicking their every move. She was a bit annoyed by this so she didn't seem to get caught up in the energy of the 300+ dancers she was with and the crowds watching.

Being goofy!

Waiting for what Alex said was "ages" for the game to start.

Eating our "Divine burgers" on the curb after the workshop with Shanay and before the big game started.

The tube ride to the stadium. Lots of pent up energy in these two...Hooray for rugby, half-time dancing and a great day out!

Greenwich, London

My lovely friend Andrea Weist was in town this past weekend. We have been friends since kindergarten and her mom even attended my parents' engagement party way back in the day. So we have a long history together. It was so nice to see her, as always. We decided to do a day out in Greenwich and the weather could not have been better! I had not been to Greenwich since 2003, when Charles and I lived in London for the summer during grad school while he did his summer internship for the first law firm he worked for. Back then I did all my site-seeing (at least during the week) by myself. So it was much nicer to see Greenwich with a friend the second time around. Here we are just off the water taxi in Greenwich. Her sister Cathy, who lives here, came with us too.

On the top of the hill you can see the Royal Observatory which is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian of the World.

Very large ship in a very large bottle in front of the National Maritime Museum.

The view from the Royal Observatory hill top out to part of London (Canary Wharf, to be exact).

Andrea is standing with a foot in each hemisphere at Longitude 0°0' 0” in the Meridian Courtyard of the Royal Observatory. It was so lovely to take my time for once (I had no children with me complaining they were bored) in the museum and actually read everything and learn about the scientific discoveries that changed our understanding of time and space. We got to see how the Astronomers Royal used to live and work at Sir Christopher Wren's Flamsteed House.

The bright red Time Ball on top of Flamsteed House is one of the world's earliest public time signals, distributing time to ships on the Thames and many Londoners. It was first used in 1833 and still operates today. Each day, at 12.55, the time ball rises half way up its mast. At 12.58 it rises all the way to the top. At 13.00 exactly, the ball falls, and so provides a signal to anyone who happens to be looking. Of course, if you were looking the wrong way, you had to wait until the next day before it happened again. We could have seen it drop but chatted too long over lunch in Greenwich, so we missed it. Guess we'd be some of those Londoners who would have had to wait for the next day. Before this time, only the richest people could afford to buy clocks and watches of their own. Most people relied on public sundials to tell the time. This led to different local times across the country, with clocks on the eastern side of the country about 30 minutes ahead of those in the west.
The difficulties created by everyone using their own local time eventually led to the creation of Standard Time based on the Prime Meridian at Greenwich.

Another view from the hill top. It was an absolutely perfect spring day.

Here is a closer view of that ship in a bottle.

I didn't get a good picture of the National Maritime Museum so I got this from the internet. It is such a lovely building.

This is the University of Greenwich which has two campuses, one in Kent and the other on the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London. It is the largest university in London by student numbers and the greenest in the UK. The university dates back to 1890. The buildings were originally constructed to serve as the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, which was designed by Christopher Wren and built between 1696 and 1712. 

 

 

Here is a better picture from the internet. Gorgeous building! None of the buildings at the University of Utah looked like this! I want my money back....

Here is Andrea disguised as Lord Nelson in the National Maritime Museum.

Here is Andrea and I in front of Cutty Sark. The Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship, built in 1869. She was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propelled boats. Hooray for girls' day out with no children!!!

World Book Day

This past Thursday, March 6th was World Book Day. The children were all asked to dress up as their favorite book character. Sammy was Pippy Longstocking. I am proud to say, it was a completely homemade costume, complete with coat hanger through the hair for crazy braids!

Abby was Granny from Gangster Granny by David Walliams or Granny from Tony Horowitz. She couldn't decide which.

Alex was Winnie the Witch (she is a nice, silly witch).

Here they all are together!

Just for fun, I had to throw in these adorable pictures Alex drew at nursery school recently. This is a picture of Charles and I.

Here is a picture of the entire family complete with names. Well done our little artist!

More Bad News from Syria

For all who are interested, my friend Areen in Damascus sent me an update on her situation yesterday. It continues to get worse. Thank you for all of your prayers in her behalf. Please continue to pray for her. This is what she said:

Hi
I am in a bad sercomstanses (circumstances)
You know I live in qudsaya near Damascus in Gouta (the specific area of Damascus that she lives in)
We can't go out of Qudsaya (her city within Damascus)
Sens (since) 10 days
And no net (internet) and no electricity exept afew taim (except a few times) on a day

Here is an article that refers to where she lives and what happened just last week:
http://aranews.org/en/home/syria/1084-at-least-10-killed,-dozens-injured-in-damascus-attacks.html

Please help by continuing to include her in your prayers.

At least 10 killed, dozens injured in Damascus attacks

aranews.org

Damascus, Syria− The pro-regime air force carried out several raids on the town of al-Nashabiya in Eastern Gouta in Damascus countryside on Tuesday, killing 10 civilians and injuring dozens.