Olga give me a little fix of Lara though today with these video clips she recorded of Lara playing with Mishka and his toys.
Monday, 20 October 2008
Lara & Mishka, best friends!
I've not seen Lara since I got back from the US, Olga had taken her to nursery already by the time I got home from the airport. One thing I've noticed is how much I want to see Lara, and want her to see me. It's a different feeling from how I miss Olga - I can, and do, talk to Olga regularly on the phone, so that feeling of separation isn't the same. So I bought a very cute little Reindeer doll on the plane (not that Lara's spoilt! The cheerleader dress and the tracksuit are practical things :-) ) and will give that to her when we go to collect her this afternoon.
Olga give me a little fix of Lara though today with these video clips she recorded of Lara playing with Mishka and his toys.
Olga give me a little fix of Lara though today with these video clips she recorded of Lara playing with Mishka and his toys.
Home safe and sound
I arrived back this morning into Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Despite having this lovely new, modern terminal, they still park the incoming planes away from the stand so it takes ages to get people off the plane and onto buses to take them to the terminal. However, that meant that my bag arrived on the carousel at the same time as I arrived, at least they hadn't lost it ;-)
I only came back this morning so as to save Geotrace money, the flight was three times as expensive if I was to come back on Friday, so I stayed for the weekend, and Geotrace will have to pick up my extra expenses. Houston's not the most exciting place to stay for the weekend, and I had a hire car, so I drove to Austin on Friday evening, two hours away. Olga and I visited it briefly during our 2005 Tour of the USA and so as not to give Olga the impression I was away enjoying myself too much without her and Lara, I stayed at the same motel we stayed at, and went to the same bar. It helped that the motel is walking distance from the entertainment district, so I didn't need to bother with a taxi - something else that Austin has over Houston!
There was a big college American Football game on in Austin too - they take their intra-university sports very seriously. The University of Texas in Austin has a football stadium that holds around 90,000, and it was full on Saturday night for the visit of Missouri State University, and the game was shown live on ESPN, the big American sports channel. Earlier on Saturday I'd gone to a shopping mall for a wander around and everyone - ok, well maybe 95% of everyone - was wearing something that represented the UT "Longhorns" football team, so I felt that if I was going to watch the game in a bar that night, I ought to wear the right thing. "When in Rome" and all that. There was a shop in this mall dedicated to Longhorns merchandise, so I bought a t-shirt for me and 2 outfits for Lara, one tracksuit for when she's crawling around and one adorable cheerleader's dress. You could buy the strangest things - team branded pushchairs, glof bag covers, pool balls, watches, mats to put your dog bowls on (I nearly bought that!). I could go on, but really if you can think of it, I bet they sell a Longhorns version of it! In fact, take a look at their website and you'll see what I mean: http://www.eteamspirit.com/.
The Longhorns were expected to win, they're currently the number one team in their league, and they trounced Missouri 56-31. Given that there were 90,000 in the stadium and lots more Longhorn fans in bars, there was no trouble at all, it seems there there never is. 3 disappointed Missouri fans wandered into the bar I was in ("Stubb's") just after 11pm, looking for somewhere to eat, but they were very politely told the kitchen had closed at 11, and the staff helpfully directed them to a place down the road that was open until 2am. I'm not sure visiting fans would get the same treatment in a pub in England.
On Sunday I checked out of the motel and made the three hour drive to Houston's international airport, stopping en route in the car park of a McDonalds to use their WiFi (sadly not free! It is at Burger King, I found out later!) to check in for my flight - you've got to love technology!
Here's the motel - if anyone's seen No Country For Old Men it's soooooooo much like the motel at the end of that film, it's uncanny! I do recommend it though, it's the Super8 on 12th Street & I-35, in case anyone will be passing through Austin :-)
I only came back this morning so as to save Geotrace money, the flight was three times as expensive if I was to come back on Friday, so I stayed for the weekend, and Geotrace will have to pick up my extra expenses. Houston's not the most exciting place to stay for the weekend, and I had a hire car, so I drove to Austin on Friday evening, two hours away. Olga and I visited it briefly during our 2005 Tour of the USA and so as not to give Olga the impression I was away enjoying myself too much without her and Lara, I stayed at the same motel we stayed at, and went to the same bar. It helped that the motel is walking distance from the entertainment district, so I didn't need to bother with a taxi - something else that Austin has over Houston!
There was a big college American Football game on in Austin too - they take their intra-university sports very seriously. The University of Texas in Austin has a football stadium that holds around 90,000, and it was full on Saturday night for the visit of Missouri State University, and the game was shown live on ESPN, the big American sports channel. Earlier on Saturday I'd gone to a shopping mall for a wander around and everyone - ok, well maybe 95% of everyone - was wearing something that represented the UT "Longhorns" football team, so I felt that if I was going to watch the game in a bar that night, I ought to wear the right thing. "When in Rome" and all that. There was a shop in this mall dedicated to Longhorns merchandise, so I bought a t-shirt for me and 2 outfits for Lara, one tracksuit for when she's crawling around and one adorable cheerleader's dress. You could buy the strangest things - team branded pushchairs, glof bag covers, pool balls, watches, mats to put your dog bowls on (I nearly bought that!). I could go on, but really if you can think of it, I bet they sell a Longhorns version of it! In fact, take a look at their website and you'll see what I mean: http://www.eteamspirit.com/.
The Longhorns were expected to win, they're currently the number one team in their league, and they trounced Missouri 56-31. Given that there were 90,000 in the stadium and lots more Longhorn fans in bars, there was no trouble at all, it seems there there never is. 3 disappointed Missouri fans wandered into the bar I was in ("Stubb's") just after 11pm, looking for somewhere to eat, but they were very politely told the kitchen had closed at 11, and the staff helpfully directed them to a place down the road that was open until 2am. I'm not sure visiting fans would get the same treatment in a pub in England.
On Sunday I checked out of the motel and made the three hour drive to Houston's international airport, stopping en route in the car park of a McDonalds to use their WiFi (sadly not free! It is at Burger King, I found out later!) to check in for my flight - you've got to love technology!
Here's the motel - if anyone's seen No Country For Old Men it's soooooooo much like the motel at the end of that film, it's uncanny! I do recommend it though, it's the Super8 on 12th Street & I-35, in case anyone will be passing through Austin :-)
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Back in Houston
I'm back in Houston, although my curse nearly struck again for bringing bad weather with me, there was a huge storm over Houston last night, and it nearly meant my plane was diverted to Austin, but apparently some clever routing work from Houston Approach Centre got us down just before the thunder and lightening struck. It was that close that the thunder started when I was still in the immigration queue at the airport!
Anyway, my presentation seemed to go OK this morning with the client, and I'm kind of at a loose end for an hour or two this afternoon before my MD and I attend an awards dinner at a hotel in Houston where Geotrace is in the running for a prize... we'll see, but I'm hoping the bosses don't pick on the youngster (me!) to give the speech if we win!
Anyway, my presentation seemed to go OK this morning with the client, and I'm kind of at a loose end for an hour or two this afternoon before my MD and I attend an awards dinner at a hotel in Houston where Geotrace is in the running for a prize... we'll see, but I'm hoping the bosses don't pick on the youngster (me!) to give the speech if we win!
Sunday, 12 October 2008
What a weekend!
It's such a lovely weekend here, misty and atmospheric in the mornings for Mishka's walk, then sunny and warm in the afternoon. I really should give the lawn a mow (and finish the job I started 2 weeks ago!) but yesterday I had to finish some work before I go back to Houston on Wednesday (cue another hurricane, I'm sure!) so I went to the office, and today it's Olga's turn to get some work done in peace and quiet, so Lara and I should really go out for a walk in Marlow while Mum works, but instead we're in the office, at least while Lara sleeps. She did wake for a while and needed some cheering up, but putting her in one of our office chairs didn't really work:
Maybe we'll go out now and do a little bit of shopping; we'll be getting some fresh air later this afternoon when Chris & Cara come round for a few games of table-tennis!
Maybe we'll go out now and do a little bit of shopping; we'll be getting some fresh air later this afternoon when Chris & Cara come round for a few games of table-tennis!
One crawl forward, two steps back
Poor Lara! She seemed to be getting better at the start of last week, her runny nose had pretty much stopped, and whilst she still had a cough, it didn't seem as bad as it had been. There were still broken nights, but we were putting this down to teething, there definitely seems to be 2, if not 4, upper teeth on the way through now.
On Thursday Olga took her to London, as Lara's Russian Citizenship has arrived, and we can therefore apply for her Russian passport. By the time they got home, Lara wasn't a happy bunny, and since then she's been having periods of high temperature, over 39 degrees, which we've been treating - successfully - with calpol, but she's certainly not been well. Whether this is because of another bug she's picked up, or the result of a little bang on the head when she tumbled over while sitting on the floor, or just from teething, we're not sure. It might be a combination of those things; it's upsetting for us to see her when she's clearly upset herself, there are times when she doesn't cry, but she looks at us in such a way that says "Mum, Dad, I'm not well, help!!" and she looks so sorry for herself. However, there are moments when she seems fine, and that reassures us that there's nothing seriously wrong we should be worried about, like here, when she enjoyed crawling around in the hall and kitchen on the nice floor Mum had just cleaned for her:
We've not given her any calpol today of course, as she's been on it for three days already, and her temperature has actually been more stable and not over 38 degrees (famuos last words) and when she has been getting noticely hotter, just taking a top off her and letting her cool down naturally seems to be working, and all this up-and-down in temperature is wearing her out, she's actually sleeping more during the day, which is a silver lining to this cloud!
On Thursday Olga took her to London, as Lara's Russian Citizenship has arrived, and we can therefore apply for her Russian passport. By the time they got home, Lara wasn't a happy bunny, and since then she's been having periods of high temperature, over 39 degrees, which we've been treating - successfully - with calpol, but she's certainly not been well. Whether this is because of another bug she's picked up, or the result of a little bang on the head when she tumbled over while sitting on the floor, or just from teething, we're not sure. It might be a combination of those things; it's upsetting for us to see her when she's clearly upset herself, there are times when she doesn't cry, but she looks at us in such a way that says "Mum, Dad, I'm not well, help!!" and she looks so sorry for herself. However, there are moments when she seems fine, and that reassures us that there's nothing seriously wrong we should be worried about, like here, when she enjoyed crawling around in the hall and kitchen on the nice floor Mum had just cleaned for her:
We've not given her any calpol today of course, as she's been on it for three days already, and her temperature has actually been more stable and not over 38 degrees (famuos last words) and when she has been getting noticely hotter, just taking a top off her and letting her cool down naturally seems to be working, and all this up-and-down in temperature is wearing her out, she's actually sleeping more during the day, which is a silver lining to this cloud!
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