Trick or Treat

London does Halloween just fine. The streets of St. John's Wood were teeming with families tonight: kids dressed in all sorts of costumes, moms keeping tracking of the kids, and dads alternating between checking Blackberries (come on, we left work at 4:30pm to be there) and wondering how in the hell people can afford these houses.

Wearing the same costumes from the birthday party (previous post), our kids raked in the loot. Both boys were true to form. After a while, Ben decided that he had gotten enough candy and quietly rode on the back of the stroller. Zack could only have been happier if we gave him a small shovel to scoop up even more candy at each house. His bag was about 2 pounds heavier than Ben's, though I'm helping (sic) to even things out. My only gripe is toward the person who I'm assuming is the local dentist who decided to give out 2-foot long Pixie Stix (or I believe they were called Rainbow Dust). I know all this candy the same thing in the end, but it still feels gratuitous to hand out large tubes of colored sugar.

SJW feels more and more like a community to us. We were out tonight with some other families and then ran into a number of others we knew, including a couple (with their three kids) with whom Tracy and I are going out tomorrow night in South Kensington for what it is supposedly London's best Spanish tapas. (Hell, if I had to endure rubber chicken in Barcelona, I may as well try to true up here.) Post-kindergarten, most of the kids in the neighborhood go the American School of London (ASL), which is about a 10-15 minute walk from our home and exactly the area we were walking around tonight. We were told that they had a huge Halloween bash today and we think that many of the scores of kids out tonight are students there. ASL is supposed to be a pretty amazing place in terms of facilities and curriculum. Ben is currently in the oldest grade that his school offers, so he's got to attend somewhere else next year. Our plan is to apply for both Ben and Zach to attend ASL starting next year. We want to keep the boys together - they won't say that they are best friends but do claim that they are "best brothers." That's cool, and I think they like knowing the other one is just down hall at school. These private school applications can be nail biters - more applicants than slots, essays and interviews, etc. Wish us luck.

Ben's 5th Birthday Party!!!

We had Ben's 5th birthday party today and it was a lot of fun. We had about 25 kids (mostly from Ben and Zach's school) and 40 people in total to our home. We've gotten to know a number of the families from the school/synagogue and it was really nice to have most of our new friends over. We did, however, miss our "usual suspects" from Chicago (you know who you are) plus of course The Grandparents.

Tracy did a super job planning all the details - from the soccer cake to the goodie bags to the magician that entertained the kids for quite a long while. As you can see from the photos, it was a costume party - as all of Ben's birthday parties for the next few years are destined to be. We ordered in Pizza Hut, which is as tasty as it is at home but the size of what they call a "large" borders on scandalous. It might pass for a medium back in the heartland. Let's just say that we didn't have any leftovers....

Ben's actual birthday is Tuesday, which we'll celebrate with just the five of us here at home. The next real event is on Wednesday, when we'll try trick-or-treating UK-style. Tracy and many of the other mothers have been calling/texting/emailing/whispering to coordinate on the best street(s) in St. John's Wood to prowl for candy. We think we know our target but of course would not want to publicize it on such a public forum.

The Family That Eats Together...

One of the highlights of our trip to Venice was the food. Stick-to-your-ribs pastas in thick tomato sauce with a hint of basil, thin crispy pizzas with the cheese still bubbling when the pie came to the table, and of course ice cream (gellato!) at every possible moment. Zach and Ben were biased to pistachio gellato (or "stipachio" as Zachy calls it) while their old man lives and breathes chocolate (though in one session I surrendered to a cup of tiramisu-flavored). There were no low-fat, low-cal, skim options on anything, so I'm pleased to report my wife ate food that actually tasted delicious. The hot chocolate we enjoyed with our pizza at a little place (second photo) on the small lagoon island of Murano (10 minute ride from Venice and world-known for its glass blowing factories) was without doubt the best any of us has ever had. It was as if they melted a bar of chocolate in a cup and added some cream. On Ben's first sip his eyes shot wide open and he exclaimed "Oh my gosh! That's amazing." The open breakfast table at our hotel (Casa Nicolo Priuli - a centuries old home of a wealthy Venetian family converted into a hotel) had a dozen different things to choose from and we more or less covered it all. We ate like kings - or more precisely like truckers, but no matter. Eating well and relaxing (last photo) is what vacation is about.

Venice

A small sampling of some of our Venice photos. I'll try to post more later, but 5 was as many as Blogger.com would allow me. You can see that we didn't have the greatest weather, but it was actually nice - not that many tourists, short lines and generally easy to get around. The boys loved feeding the pigeons in San Marco square, running up and down the little bridges all through town, and screaming "Gondola!" at the top of their lungs every time they saw one, which was often. It was cute for at least the first dozen times or so.

23,000 Miles in 19 Days

It was a helluva ride. London-Chicago-London-Barcelona-London-Shanghai-Hong Kong-London. It ended about a week-and-a-half ago and it whipped me pretty good. Typically a one week business trip to Asia is pretty exhausting, so putting a trip home to Chicago/Michigan and a quick jaunt to Spain ahead of it was a sure way to get totally knackered. And pretty fierce cough that I can't totally shake. This was the kind of cough that makes your ribs sore because of the hacking and the fact that my malady started while I was in China did not provide much comfort. No more raw bird meat, I say, no matter what that nice waiter says.

I might've even been able to shake this thing sooner had I been able to navigate the National Health Service labyrinth, but I couldn't. I literally have no idea how to get in touch with my doctor. In fact, I don't know my doctor's name (probably because I don't "have" one). I had a dinner with a fellow expatriate the other night who has a private doctor he's going to refer me and my family to, so that we might be able to receive medical care should we need it. The whole situation would actually be quite funny were it not so dangerous.

As some of my loyal readers have noted by email to me directly, the blog has been inactive for a while and that obviously corresponds to my lengthy business travels as well our family vacation to Venice, from which we just returned a few hours ago. We took a ton of great pictures, so hope to upload those in the next couple days and say more about the trip. The short of it is that we had a really nice trip to Italy - Tracy planned a great trip, the kids did really well (hard for them to get too upset considering we ate little but spaghetti, pizza, and ice cream for three straight days), and I just loved seeing Venice. It's one of the few places on the planet you can honestly describe as unique. Ben's birthday party is this Sunday, so between that and the Venice pix, I'll hopefully have a lot to post in the next few days.

The Typhoon in Shanghai

Not getting so lucky with the weather during these business trips. It was a proper typhoon in Shanghai this week, meaning violently gusting winds, sheets of rain coming at you sideways, steel grey skies. How the plane from Hong Kong to Shanghai actually landed in this weather was beyond me and I'll attribute our on-time arrival as much to control tower negligence (why did we try to land?!?) to pilot skill. The taxi ride into Shanghai was, well, scary. Nothing like an unexpected 1.5 hour taxi ride through a typhoon at the tail end of a 18 hour journey. If only I was traveling to Rangoon I could have at least preserved the lyrical quality of recent weather-related posts, but even that didn't work out. But as they say, Burma can wait.

The Rain in Spain

Barcelona was a bit of a dud. Good conference, good to see people, etc. But the two-day trip literally comprised of: aiport to taxi to hotel to taxi to airport. I would've loved to shatter that palindromic schedule - if only for 90 minutes! - with a hot plate of paella on Las Ramblas or some tapas washed down by a local Tempranillo. Alas, it rained nearly the entire time, making grabbing some fresh air challenging enough, let alone even a glimpse of any of my favorite locals like Gaudi, Miro, or Picasso (I can't stand Dali). Oh well, John and I covered a ton of ground at the conference, which was the name of the game. My modest ambition in China, where I will spend the next five days, is to eat at least one meal that is not being simultaneously served to 300 other people.

Home & Away

I think one of the things Tracy and I did quite well during the summer transition was overcommunicate with the boys about the move. We tried to make it clear that the London trip was not a vacation, it was a permanent move (even if that's not true), and that while we still had friends and family in (or near) Chicago, it wasn't home anymore. If anything, Ben got it and had never once questioned that we now live in London. Even Zach's transition was just about seamless; I believe there was one moment a couple weeks into the trip when he asked when we were going back to Chicago.

The Chicago trip was probably a setback for the kids' transition, though likely a minor one. Thankfully, the jetlag has been limited. The kids haven't been on a great schedule regardless, so with regard to sleeping, their last few days in Chicago have not been perfect but haven't been that bad either. More importantly, I question whether they're now more confused than before. Probably not, but it was certainly a challenge to explain in Chicago that even though we were back in the same house, we didn't live there anymore. It wasn't the easiest for me either - I fell asleep on the couch one night and when I woke I was totally disoriented, looking for visual shortcuts from the London home and taking more than a few seconds to latch on things I would've recognized in a heartbeat not that long ago. For what it's worth, I also looked the wrong way while crossing North Avenue and the uncoming bus seemed unconcered that I had over-conditioned myself to look right when first crossing a street lest I get clipped by a British driver. Transition, indeed.

The bromide that home is where the heart is has newfound relevance for me, but that cloying sentiment is almost too obvious and not worthy of further commentary. What's perhaps less obvious and worth further introspection is that home is also a place - a physical, unmoving place - and the lack of a singular anchor can play tricks on your mind. The debate to be had is probably over the word singular. In my odd business of itinerant souls, I get the sense that there is not consensus on this issue. Context drives questions, and I myself am in the midst of spending meaningful time in London, Chicago, St. Joseph (Michigan), Barcelona, Hong Kong, and Shanghai in less than three weeks. Upon my final return and settlement (ha!), I wonder whether much of this will continue to resonate.

Happiness Is....

- 24-hour Walgreens with drugs you can by brand rather than underlying chemical compound - and a dozen different versions of Tylenol or Advil at that
- Tivo - with many back episodes of Entourage, The Office, and Flight of the Conchords
- A car (and drive-thru windows)
- The authenic cheesiness of a Bar Mitzvah entertainer - long live the Chicken Dance!
- A weekend of NFL football, upset-rich college football, and pre-playoff baseball - and no mention of either cricket or the Rugby World Cup
- Early autumn sunrise in the midwest - dew-covered lawns, the incipient hustle of a completely unextraordinary work day, the aromatic waft of a large Dunkin' Donuts coffee, and more or less total quiet
- Running at sunset along Lake Michigan during a perfect sunny day
- Seeing Ben & Zach play with their older cousins
- Seeing Evan & Alex (the older cousins) growing into such nice young men
- Seeing so many friends at working and recognizing once again how much you enjoy your colleagues' company

I'll say this, though. The States has convenience and familiarity in spades; it felt almost too easy to be back. But I missed London while in Chicago, for reasons I can explain as well as those I can't fully, and I'm happy to be back, if only for a short while before I depart for the next trip.