Everydaystranger

France was good. But Calais, she is not a beautiful place (apologies if I’m offending anyone from Calais.) Calais is simply a port town where the boats and the Eurotunnel come in, and it’s swimming with French people fed up with dealing with the English who’ve come there to buy alcohol. Angus, [...]

So between the rain, the new prime minister we’re getting today who is the very definition of “charisma bypass”, the fact that the lawn is so long I’m sure that any moment now an antelope or two will come springing out by the hammock, and the 4th of July party we’re having next weekend (on [...]

Last summer, it was the record heatwave and draught.
This summer it’s record rainfall (yesterday most of England got a month’s rainfall in one day) and flooding, and it’s not stopping any time soon. The depression and blues over the cold, dark dampness is overwhelming.
What’s next? Locusts?
-H.

A lot’s been going on over here. Not just the run of the mill, “wow, we’ve been fiercely arguing about our upcoming babies AND our beloved cat just died”, that’s just the foreground. In the background we also have garden landscaping we’re doing, the architect’s extension blueprints have arrived and we are agreeing [...]

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We had a scan today that’s called our “anatomy scan”. Melissa and Jeff went with us to the hospital. Jeff is being tremendously cool about the babies (they both are actually, but Jeff is really going the distance.) He’s making a fort in the back garden that will be just for him [...]

The kids arrived Saturday morning with the usual accompaniments-one million questions, requests, ideas, and noises. I never get used to it but two kids make a hell of a lot of noise. Ironically once they leave, I miss the hubbub enormously and wonder what we can do to bring the decibel level back [...]

My ex-husband and I got Mumin on a warm summer day in Sweden. We’d been to visit his mother and stepfather at their home in the middle of Sweden, and a local farm was advertising rescue farmhouse kittens. We’d already had Maggie (named for Maggie Simpson) and Maggie was a wild, untamable kitten. [...]

The vet just called.
They did blood tests and x-rays this morning and at 2 pm had to do exploratory surgery.
Mumin had cancer and an inoperable tumor in her intestines.
She died on the operating table.
She was 6 years old.

I love you, baby.

Four years ago today I started writing this blog. I remember the day well actually – I was sitting at my desk at Company X, the desk with the view of the atrium, and I didn’t have much going on at work. I’d heard of blogs and knew a little bit about them, [...]

There are a lot of things you’ve been learning about life. This is what you do, you’re a ball of tape that rolls and bounces and picks it all up as you go, and from time to time you check the adhesive to see what’s on you, how it all adds up. Recent [...]

I was there
C

Home now.
Event over and we didn’t win but that’s ok, you can’t win them all.
I left the event early actually-when we arrived at the ballroom it was hotter than fuck in the building because the air conditioner crapped out. Although we complained there was nothing that could be done, so about 400 of us [...]

OK, so tonight I have another awards prsentation formal do, in which I am staying over in London for and needing to put on the Ritz a bit, so to speak. I’ve bought an inexpensive new dress seen here (it’s the chocolate strap dress. And yes, even though it’s not ideal I’m wearing [...]

I was recently asked by someone to sum up how I feel about the NHS care I receive here in England. I remember living in the States and, except for that radical period I went through where I read up on foreign cultures and politics as a way of back-stopping arguments I had in [...]

28 June 2007
My Grass Isn’t Greener, It’s Just My Side of the Fence
I ran into an old neighbor the other week. She’s a good friend as well, but someone who I sometimes struggle with. I had to go to the village we used to live in to get a refill on my Cyclogest [...]

I went to my GP about my cough.
He told me that I had a viral infection, and recommended the following:
1) Paracetamol (Tylenol).
2) Vicks Vap-o-Rub (I may be the only grown up that loves that shit)
3) Holding my head over a bowl of steam.
Seriously.
Fucking steam.
I looked at him and wondered if he thought I was a [...]