This Expat's Life.

Tom and I decided that we needed to visit Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is a short drive from us.  I checked the weather forecast and found that it would be another nice day (6 sunny days in a row is a record around here right now) so we loaded up the car and headed out.  Although we were a little disappointed in the entry cost (Adult £7.90) it was a nice day.  We walked through the abbey complex and down to the lake and water garden.  I brought us a blanket so we could lie in the grass near the lake and relax.  Tom took some photos of Sofia which turned out pretty well except for the dust on the CCD of the camera.  Instead of backtracking, we had to go straight up a hill with the pushchair into the sun for about half a mile and then another half a mile down a partially shaded path which made us both a bit cranky.  Luckily Tom's car is air conditioned (unlike mine) so we could cool off. 

National Trust.  Before we left I went online to check into a National Trust membership.  An annual membership for two adults costs £77 if you purchase at a National Trust property or online directly.  If you pay by direct debit (monthly installments directly from your bank account) they give you a discount of approximately £20 and it is only £57.75 which is only available for your first year of membership.  But, if I purchase a Royal Oak membership in the US, which gives me exactly the same benefits, it only costs £40 for two adults.  They will even ship the membership stuff to you overseas for an add'l cost of £7.50 which still saves you money.  I ordered a membership packet to be sent to Tom's parent's house in NC where we will be visiting in a couple of weeks.  Just a little hint about how to save some money in this country commonly known as RIP OFF BRITAIN.

 

Some photos:

 

 

Why?  Because I am ill and lethargic and still have to care for a busy baby.  And, I have been trying to spend what time I can enjoying the sunshine.

Loves: 

• Sunny days.  The past two days here have been brililant!  Sunshine, no wind, Sofia and I have been spending as much time as we can outside.
• Two magazines in the post yesterday.  National Geographic Traveler and National Geographic.  Now, time to read them...
• Visit yesterday from a work friend.  She brought me organic Scottish shortbread and dark chocolate Jaffa Cakes from Marks and Spencers.  Double Yum!!
• Wandered past my neighbour's house yesterday and she came out with a box of Guylian Belgian chocolates for me.  Why?  Someone gave them to her and she doesn't like them.
• Flower festival at our local chuch this weekend.  I brought Sofia over to see the flowers.  Beautiful.  (I brought my camera and forgot to take photos.  D'oh)
• I asked builders for advice about a clothesline yesterday.  They offered to put it up for me.  Very exciting when you don't have a proper dryer.  Yay!
• Hot tea on my throat.

Loathes:

• Getting sick.  Congestion, sore throat, general blah feeling.
• Landlord didn't tell me our house exterior was getting painted this week.  Painters show up yesterday morning.  Can't really leave the house for too long because they need to be in and out.  Plus, the paint smells bad.
• I have a "friend" who I met last year.  We hung out a few times with and without our husbands.  Kept in contact via email, myspace, etc.  She always has an excuse why she is too busy to get together.  I just realised the other day that I haven't seen her since the week before Sofia was born.  That was nearly 7 months ago.  Time to let go?
• These damn stretch marks.  And this baby weight that WILL NOT COME OFF. 

Things I Loathe:

• We had our first major baby spitting up incident this morning.  An entire feeding came out like a fountain as Sofia lie sleeping.  She had milk in her hair, ear, through two blankets, on her clothes, all over her face, etc.  Not nice.
• A ganglion cyst on the top of my foot that makes it hurt to walk.
• Not being able to take a long walk due to sore foot
• The price of petrol right now.  Unleaded right now is about 1.10GBP per litre. (~$8.30USD/gallon)  Diesel is about 1.20GBP (~$9/gallon)
• Very expensive tickets to the US.  I want to take Sofia to visit family in the US this summer but can't believe the prices.  I just can't afford $1200-1500 for me and nearly $1000 for Sofia to have her own seat.

 

Things I Love:

• Lovely sunny spring days
• Tulips, daffodils, all of the colourful spring flowers
• Getting Sofia's 6-9 month clothing washed and ready to wear (she isn't exactly there yet, but at least clothes are ready to go)
• Baby cuddles
• We may be going to Scotland this Bank Holiday weekend.  Free petrol, free accommodation...is there any reason not to go?

 

I am rubbish at giving directions for these sort of things, that is probably why origami is often shown in drawings rather than in words.  Hope the photos make things clear.  I have also included, at the end, the instruction sheet I used which may be easier for you to follow than my instructions.

Instructions to make the easy Five-Pointed Star:

I have sheets of 6x6 inch paper that I cut into four squares to make four 3x3 papers.  Any size will do as long as they are square.  You can use all one colour or a variety of colours.  Make sure you have enough paper for your project before you begin.  You will need five sheets for a five-pointed star.  Six for a six-pointed star, etc.  You can also experiment with different sizes.  I have done full 6x6 sheets all the way down to 1.5 inch sheets.

I fold each sheet in its entirely before moving on to the next one to avoid confusion, but do as you see fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First you want to fold your large square in half two times to make a small square.  Once you are done with this--unfold it back to a big square.  The folds are really only used for guides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next you will fold three corners into the centre.  Try to do the folds as exact as possible to make things go together perfectly when constructing modular origami.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, unfold the third corner as shown in the photo to the left and then fold your paper down so it looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have one more fold left to do before you are done with this paper.

Fold the lower left corner up to meet the top of the paper so it looks like the photo to the left.  Now unfold it.  Again, it is only to form a crease in the paper for later. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After you have done five papers like this you must assemble the papers into a star. 

Join one piece at a time doing the front like the picture shows and then turning it over and inserting the loose corner as well (shown in the picture as well).

It gets sort of tricky once you have done a couple of pieces.  I generally accordian the papers as I do each one and then unfold it to put the last two pieces together.  This is what two papers should look like (ignoring the dotted lines at the bottom there, that is for a Chinese Bell Flower, which is exactly the same as the star but also doing this one fold). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have all five papers together your star should look like this:

 

If you haven't tucked the papers in the back it won't look like this, it will be falling apart all over the place.

Here is the instruction sheet I used:

 

Don't waste your money buying a book if you are just starting out.  Google origami and you will find loads and loads of patterns available.  Many of them can be saved as Adobe files or you can print them out, etc. 

Have fun!

Things I love:

• Pretty spring days.  I think it is finally getting to be spring here.
• Long countryside walks.  I took Sofia for a 4.5-mile walk on Monday.  It was lovely.  Too bad I didn't have a charged camera battery to use.  I will have to repeat my effort another day with a camera.
• My lovely daughter, Sofia
• Naps, that rare time I get one
• Generous family members (I think I said this last week, too)
• Origami
• Getting my hair cut.  I haven't had it cut since August!  It was time.
• Living in Yorkshire

Things I Loathe:

Flaky neighbours

Hubby being away for work and working late hours

My hair falling out.  It hardly fell out at all during or after pregnancy and it has been falling out at an alarming rate for a few months now

Landlord and trying to get things fixed

No sleep.  Night after night after night.

I haven't been to sleep yet and it is 2:30 am.  I decided to get online since I couldn't sleep anyway.  Sofia has been up several times since I decided to go to sleep around 11:30.  I haven't even managed to fall asleep once.

How the heck do I get Sofia to get herself back to sleep?  She falls asleep with her dummy/pacifier and will happily spit it out once she is asleep.  After a few hours she wakes up in complete and total panic because she doesn't have it.  I let her cry for a while and she just gets more and more worked up and starts crying louder and louder.  I can pick her up and try to give her a little cuddle and she will latch on to whatever body part is closest and start sucking, looking for her dummy/pacifier.  It is total panic until I give it back to her.  During the day she doesn't spend as much time with the pacifier/dummy as she used to.  Also, it is around 2-3am that she wakes a few times and squirms and whimpers or cries until she can pass some gas when she settles back down again.

I have been told to just close the door and let her cry, but I really struggle with that because she never seems to calm.  Maybe I am doing too much transitioning at once?  In the past two weeks she has stopped feeding during the night, started sleeping in her cot/crib in her bedroom instead of her Moses basket in our bedroom and I am not hopping right out of bed now to see what is wrong when she cries. 

She was getting up to eat around 3am every night and that has stopped.  She will usually go from 8-9pm to 5-6am without eating now.  She has to be asleep before I can put her down for the night either in her cot or Moses basket so I don't think it matters where she is actually sleeping.  I normally swaddle her at night for two reasons.  One, to keep her warm in our drafty house and two, to keep her arms in check.  I think her arms keep her from sleeping sometimes because they are swinging all over the place.

I am getting very little sleep at night.  I usually try to get to bed by 11---then this whole night routine starts.  She is up always by 6am when she is fed.  She will usually go back to sleep around 7 or 8 for about and hour or so depending on how much sleep she had the night before and naps very little throughout the day--maybe 30-60 minutes at a time a couple of times during the day depending on what we are doing.

Any suggestions or will this just all pass?!  Sorry if this is incoherent and not well written.  I am sleep-deprived!

 

When I was in the US in February I bought some origami paper to make a paper crane mobile for Sofia. I never got around to doing it, but today I made stars. I made four stars to hang over Sofia's changing table. I used five different colours for each of the four stars. I used a yellow thread to hang against the yellow wall. They aren't perfect but they are pretty and so colourful. I'm sure they will catch her eye when she sees them.

Things I Love:

• generous family
• lazy weekends
• smiling Sofia
• making travel plans
• Oreo cookies and milk

 

Things I Loathe:

• this awful spring weather.  go away cold and wind and bring me some sunshine
• trying to get off of this island for a reasonable price
• paying so many bills this time of year--council tax, car insurance, house insurance, tv licence, MOT, car service, water bill, etc.
• procrastination, which I have mastered

Going through old photos for a little project I have to do...

This is a group of a few favourite photos from a few years back.  All the way back in 2003, that is.  Tom's sister came to visit us from the US so we decided to take a little trip.  It was a bright sunny October week in Switzerland and France.  The first three photos are Lucerne/Luzern, Switzerland.

On top of the world.  It felt like it anyway when we were on Mount Pilatus.

We then went to Varenna, Italy on Lake Como.  Walked a path up the hill behind the town.  This is where I found out that you don't eat olives right off of the tree!

 

 

Next was the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix, France.

 

Then it was some time at the beach before we had to catch the ferry home.

I love looking back at old photos and remembering holidays we loved. 

I always find Paris's monuments so large and surreal when we go there. The Arc de Triomphe just looks like a movie backdrop or something, doesn't it?