Undocumented hazards of taking your nephew out in public.

Friday Margie, John and I went into Henley. 

Our last stop was Waitrose for groceries.  Margie had gone back to look for a magazine so I had John in the checkout lane.  The clerk looked up at me, looked at John and then said, with a concerned look on her face “when is this one due?”  I quickly explained that John was my nephew here for a visit, and not mine.  She was audibly relieved.  

So, be careful pregnant ladies, toting a baby while your pregnant is likely to induce concerns from random townsfolk.

Margie and John visit England – day 1 – travel and jetlag

My sister Margie is here for a visit from Houston, Texas.  She is a brave woman, bringing a 7 month old nephew John over 5000miles by herself.   She has a great writeup about travelling with an infant here.  I picked them up Thursday morning at Heathrow – and they both looked great.

We just laid low on Thursday, and John went to bed before 7pm, but then up to play at 8.  Margie hadn’t slept on the plane and was toasted, so Steve and I tag teamed the rest of the night.  I grabbed a catnap while the boys played. 

*

I got the fun bit.  John hit the preverbial wall at 9pm and just laid in my arms crying, poor thing.  He was just exhausted, but confused about why it was dark at what felt like 4pm to him, and why he was not in his familiar surroundings.  He cried until he finally gave in and fell asleep close to 10pm.   This was followed by a full night’s sleep – he didn’t even wake up for a bottle – so we all consider it a success.  (45 minutes of crying after a 10 hour flight and 5 hours time difference is pretty stinkin good)

* Please note: Uncle Steve was not letting him play in the garbage bin.  Margie told us not to bother buying or borrowing any toys – that household items were fine – so I’ve been laying aside water bottles, yogurt cups and sturdy little boxes and threw those in a basket along with some kitchen spatulas.  These, along with the radiators and chairs have kept him entertained for 3 days now.

Baby Schrock’s First Blog Post

I suppose it is time to update you all on how we’re doing and how the baby is coming along.  I know I don’t post much baby news here – I just don’t want to bore folks.  If you didn’t read the Monaco posts I suppose you may not have known we’re expecting.  So – surprise!  We’re expecting!

We’ve passed the 5 month mark – under 4 months to go now.  Baby Schrock will be joining the party at Schrockthehouse in February.  We found out earlier this month that ‘it’ is really a ‘he’!  We’re both very happy to know we’re having a boy – they’re so much fun – although I do have to admit I was a little sad that we can’t have a girl also (since they’re pretty fun too).  No – we’re quite sure there is only one in there.

The boy is starting to make his presence known, kicking around a bit, but all in all I think he’s going to be a pretty laid back person like his dad.  (I can hope!)

I’m feeling really quite well.  I was lucky in the morning sickness department, almost none at all.  I did have a pretty major dose of exhaustion, and spent most of June, July and August camped out on the sofa when I wasn’t struggling to stay awake at work. 

Now, a little FAQ

Q:Are you still travelling?
A: Yes, we had to postpone a couple of trips this summer when I was so tired, but we’ve been making up for lost time.  I’m not planning on flying anymore though, so our remaining trips will be via car or train.

Q: How many countries has the boy been to already?
A: 6 (England, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Italy, France, Monaco)

Q: How many countries will the boy have been to by the time he’s born?
A: 10 (add Wales, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg)

Q: Are you going (coming) to Illinois for Christmas?
A: No, don’t want to be flying 8 hours home 6 weeks before I’m due.

Q: Will you have the baby in England?
A: Yes. 

Q: So, the baby will get a UK passport and be a British citizen, right?
A: No, not automatically.  It’s a long story, which I promise to cover in a separate post.

Andy Williams at Royal Albert Hall

As I started telling you yesterday, my friend Brandon plays bass for Andy Williams.  Most of the year this means playing almost daily shows at the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri.  But, fortunately for me the show was on the road and booked a one-night-only show in London at the Royal Albert Hall.  The RAH is big time.  I’m just tickled to get to say I know someone playing on that stage.  I was already in London on Monday for a work meeting, so I left a bit early (walking out on Steve Ballmer) to make it across town to the concert. 

 

Mr Williams brought his rhythm section and backup singers from America, but hired a full horn section of local studio musicians, as well as having the musical director of  Strictly Come Dancing playing the string parts on keyboard.  The show was really enjoyable.  The first half was good, but things really got rolling after the interval.  He did a string of his most popular standards, which the crowd really got into.   When he did  ”Can’t take my eyes off you” the crowd was singing along, swaying back and forth and quite a few hands were in the air.  This from a 60 year+, relatively stodgy looking British audience.  I’m pretty certain the drinks consumed at the interval helped.

To be honest, before Brandon told me he’d be in town I had never heard of Andy Williams.  I’m just too young.  I read up on him, and his music on Wikipedia so had an idea of what he did. During the concert, it was great to hear lots of songs that sounded familiar.  I’m sure I had heard them before, and was actually familiar with his voice, I just didn’t ‘know’ that they were sung by Andy Williams.

After the show I got to go backstage.  By the time I got back around to the stage door a small crowd of fans was gathered, waiting for the star to emerge.  I felt very strange pushing through the crowd to go in. 

I got a skeptical look from the woman at the desk, but when I gave my name she handed me an envelope with my pass.  I had to soft of stumble around to find Brandon, getting wary looks from all the security guys along the way. 

My post-concert conversation with Brandon revealed a few insider tidbits – and a unique perspective of an American musician playing their first English gig.  We discussed the decided change in tone of the concert, and the crowd, after the interval.  Besides the fact that the big ‘hits’ were designed to build to a climax in the second half of the concert I suggested that interval refreshments likely helped the mood of the audience.  Brandon and the band had not been briefed about the British drinking culture and were pretty surprised when the horn section hit up the backstage bar at the interval to toss a couple back.  (Drinking while on duty in Branson is a no-no.)  Seems both the audience and the act were getting loosened up over intermission!

After Brandon packed up we headed outside, so he could catch the band’s van back to the hotel.  He had to push through the crowd, which had now grown to quite a big one, and I pressed through following behind.  No one took our pictures or asked for our autographs.  I was a little bit disappointed, I have to admit.

Anyway – it was a great time getting to see my old bandmate play on such a big stage in London.  Congrats to Brandon and hope to get to see you in another show soon!

Entertaining an international music sensation

This past weekend a good friend from high school was in London playing a gig at the Royal Albert Hall.  Brandon plays bass for Andy Williams – and they had a one night show at the RAH.  Brandon used to ‘play changes’ for the Morton High School jazz band – where I mostly faked my way in the trumpet section.  Brandon was obviously much more talented and is a professional musician these days, aren’t we all proud of him!

I was flattered that such an international music sensation would want to spend his free day with me.  He arrived in London Sunday morning, and we met at 1 for a walking tour of the city.  We took the tube to Tower Hill tube station and walked all the way back to Westminster.   I am a rookie at giving tours of London, evidenced that I drug a jet-lagged musician, who was going to have to stand in rehearsals all the next day, 4 miles across town.

We saw:

• Tower of London
• Tower Bridge
• City Hall – Brandon is a modern architecture buff and he really liked it
• The Tate Modern – we both enjoyed the thought-provoking piece consisting of a rope hanging from the cieling, threaded with lots of half used bars of soap.  Fab.
• The Millennium Bridge
• St Paul’s Cathedral – we sat in for the first 15 minutes of evensong.  Brandon enjoyed it but we were sitting way in the back which didn’t really do it justice.  Hopefully he’ll get to return to London someday and get the full experience sitting in the choir.
• Fleet Street and The Strand
• Trafalgar Square
• Downing Street
• Westminster Abbey
• Houses of Parliament
• The London Eye

Wow, that really was a lot!  We headed back to Kensington and found a pub for dinner.  It was a really great day getting to catch up and see the sights.

You can read my concert review here.

Tourist Guidelines

LOVE the tourist guidelines in Monaco.  No Speedos and keep that hairy chest covered up.  (well, at least when you’re not on the beach)

Nice and Monaco – Days 2&3

Saturday we went to see the Russian Orthodox church in Nice and then made the quick trip over to Monaco for the afternoon.

We stopped at a cafe near to our hotel for coffee and pastries for breakfast.  The cappuccinos were served with chocolates.  For breakfast.  Susie would be in heaven.

The Russian Orthodox church in Nice was worth a visit as we had never been to a Russian Orthodox church on our travels.  Steve went to the Christian and Byzantine museum in Athens last year and learned a lot about Orthodox iconography, so it was fun for him to get to see a lot of that in situ.  He is quite a tour guide, explaining the nuances of the various poses of Mary and Child.  I should hire him out.

 

Monaco was a fun place to visit.  You hear so much about it, and it is so tiny.  The train from Nice is a real bargain at less than €7 return.  We grabbed a sandwich picnic on the train and were in Monaco by 1.  We headed down towards the harbor, where the Monaco Yacht Show was in full swing.  My brother Lowell would have been absolutely beside himself.  So many shiny boats and swanky cars and stuff.  The harbor was absolutely packed wall to wall with boats, many of which were probably for sale.

 We climbed up the hill to Monaco-ville, the old town.  (Tip for the next time – take the bus up.)   We wandered about, enjoying the views and the diverse gardens.  The cathedral has a very beautiful altar area. 

I was dragging, but an ice cream cone quickly perked me up. 

There is an intersting museum at the palace (about 100m to the left of the main entrance) , focused mostly on Napoleon, but also with some Monaco history.  An nice little museum and a great way to get out of the sun for an hour in the afternoon.

It would have been great to see the casino and the posh shopping district (across the harbor from Monaco-ville) - but I just didn’t have enough steam.  By the time we got back to the hotel in Nice I was feeling rubbish, so it was early to bed for me and Steve went out and picked up some groceries for us to have sandwiches in our hotel room.  Not how you want to spend your holiday on the French Riviera, but you can’t always be in top health on holiday.

Sunday we had a not quite so crazy morning flight home, and we were at our house by 1:15.  Good thing as my apparently temporary reprieve from the cold/flu was over and the rest of the afternoon was spent with Steve running out to get groceries and flu-medication.   Welcome home!

Overall Tips for Nice/Monaco:

• Nice is a quick and easy hop from London, so a good place to get a shot of sunshine if the dreary English weather is getting you down.
• Nice is a pleasant city to explore on foot.  Much more accessible and less overwhelming than Paris as a way to get to see French town life.  Food options were plentiful and not terribly expensive, if not particularly fabulous or ambitious.  You don’t have to get very far outside of the old town to get into real work-a-day parts of the city.
• A day trip over to Monaco is well worth the time.  Just really interesting to see a little place you’ve heard so much about.  Lots of big mega-cruise-ship groups – dodge carefully or just enjoy observing…
• 

Nice and Monaco Trip

This past weekend Steve and I were in Nice, France for a short weekend break.  We also took a short hop over to Monaco to see what it was like.

Steve was ill the first day, and I took ill the second day, so there are not a lot of photos and we didn’t rush around trying to see everything, but we were still happy to have the chance to go see the French Riviera.

Our flight left Gatwick at crazy o’clock, so after a 3:45 wake up call we were in Nice able to start sightseeing about 10am.  We wandered around the flower market, which was nice, but not really as fabulous as people made it out to be. 

We grabbed brunch then headed over to check out the beach. 

At the beach we quickly realized that our pasty-white English skin shouldn’t really be out at noon (even with a generous portion of 50+).  The other beach deterrent is the topless sunbathing.  It must be written down in the ‘topless sunbathing code of conduct’ that only middle-age and older, slightly overweight women can sunbathe topless and only old men and men with really hairy backs wear speedos.  It is really sort of disturbing.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  One interesting feature of the beach at is the small ’sandy’ area.  The beaches at Nice are quite rocky and look quite uncomfortable to walk on (judging by how gingerly people were walking in and out of the surf).  They have created a sandy area, roughly the shape of a sand volleyball court and twice as big right across the quay from the old town.  This patch was quite busy, with young people, most of whom were speaking English and I would bet were students visiting Nice on break from semester abroad.  There seemed to be no locals on the sandy bit.  They laid on the uncomfortable rocks as a badge of honor.  (they were also prepared with nice padded mats…)

After our encounter with the beach, we decided to grab a bus up to the Matise museum.  Our €4 bus ticket used to get from the airport to the hotel was good all day on all Nice public transport, which was quite convenient and efficient.  Nice has several interesting looking museums and all but a couple are open free of charge.  The Matise museum was small enough to be digestable, but big enough to be worth the trip.  A 90 minute visit felt about right.  It was located in a park planted with olive trees, which are always beautiful and interesting to look at.

We could check into our hotel at 3pm so we headed there for a much needed nap, which we tore ourselves away from just in time to enjoy a bit of the sunset.  It was a beautiful eveing, absolutely perfect temperature for strolling, which it seems everybody in town makes sure to get out  and do.

 

Dinner was at a small restaurant/cafe.  I had a very good steak and steve had a three course meal of foix gras, duck and peach tart.  We both had buttered, herbed new potatoes as an accompaniment to our main course, and they were heavenly, especially the ones at the bottom of the dish or pile, that were slightly crushed and absolutely soaked in butter.

 On our way home from dinner we stopped for a bit to watch a Michael Jackson impersonator on one of the squares.  He was a good dancer.

Will post again with photos from our Saturday afternoon trip to Monaco.