Stella Artois: Surprise, It Rained

Last year, when I realized that Wimbledon tickets would be impossible to get, and that I was not going to queue for tickets with the kiddies, I entered a lottery for Stella Artois Championship tickets. The Stella Artois is the warm-up tournament for the men preparing for Wimbledon. It's held at the Queen's Club, an amazing facility, that was featured in the Woody Allen film Match Point.

We were lucky enough to get four tickets, and brought our friends, Tracy and Paul Longhurst. We arrived just in time for the skies to open with torrential rain. It poured buckets of rain for three hours.

The delay enabled us to experience another British tradition, Pimm's cocktails. This beverage is almost as much a tradition as the cup of tea, and the British down the gin-based drink by the gallon during the summer months. To make the cocktail, take one slice of orange, lemon, apple, cucumber per person and one sprig of mint and add to two parts lemonade (in England, lemonade = Sprite) to one part Pimms. It's quite yummy, and we'll bring home a bottle for happy hour at the beach.

Any-hoo, after three of these cocktails and watching the privileged set in action, the rain stopped and we returned to the courts. We watched Andy Roddick dispatch with Dmitry Tursunov in an hour. Unfortunately, our babysitting time was running out so we had to leave. Roddick ended up winning the tournament the next day. I'm not sure he's ready for Federer.

The Colonel's Review

Today I went to a dress rehearsal of Trooping the Colours, a military ceremony commemorating the monarch's birthday. It is a huge undertaking, and they conduct two full dress rehearsals so that they don't screw up in front of QEII. Apparently, she really knows her stuff and if it's not perfect, well, I imagine they get sent to the Tower of London brig or something.

Our rehearsal was called the Colonel's Review; he stands in for Elizabeth. There were one-thousand-plus troops, both on foot and on mount. First, "Elizabeth" arrives promptly at 11am in her horse-drawn phaeton and inspects the troops. Then, they march around a lot - in slow time and in quick time - to the various marches played by ten different bands. They are in full ceremony gear - meaning most have that giant woolly hat on. After various formations by the foot and mounted soldiers, the queen promptly departs as the clock strikes noon - much like Cinderella. Not sure if her phaeton turns into a pumpkin if she stays any later.

My friend Chris entered a lottery for tickets and happened to get great seats. We would have been far away from the actual queen, but we had a great view of all the soldiers and their synchronous steps. I was personally obsessed with this one soldier who served as a marker for the others; they all marched around him. He couldn't move for the entire ceremony, and it did get a bit hot. Tracy, our one British attendee, told us that one year a soldier passed out from the heat. They're not allowed to move him so he just lay prone on the ground for the remainder of the ceremony. I imagine Elizabeth was not pleased with that performance.

We were also concerned with all the horse poop. I really expected there to be some sort of ceremonial, golden pooper-scooper, but the soldiers just had to stand in it and march through it. Ugh.

It was really a spectacular event. As Tracy said, "this is what the British do best. It makes you proud to be English." I can see why.

Here's what Chris blogged about the event.

Leete's Island: It's a Done Deal

Can you hear that? It's the beer chilling and the Bob Marley tunes playing in the background. We're officially owners of a cottage on Leete's Island. We'll be there in less than a month!!! Yippeee!!

London: One Year Down

We've officially been in London one year now. I have to say it started out a bit rough - hello, Chelsea? But, we've settled in, made some great friends, Owen has arrived and we're feeling more at home. We still miss family, friends and New York A LOT, but we don't regret our decision to come one iota.

We started out with ZZ, in Chelsea, amongst the beautiful people. We ate chicken shawarmas every other night from our favourite Lebanese place and hung out at the St Luke's playground with the Spanish children in their pressed linen playsuits. We were overjoyed to get out of the dismal corporate apartment on Draycott Place and settle in Hampstead. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep ZZ with us forever.

We figured out the healthcare system through trial and error. The pregnancy care here was worlds better than the care in the US - my consultant was fantastic, the midwives at the hospital were top-rate and the food at Portland, yummy. We survived the NHS and Owen's visit to the hospital.

We've had lots of visitors, coming to stay or just passing through:
Lindsay Kerby (ZZ)
Jeff Kerby (2x)
Mom and Dad Fitts (2x)
Leslie and Natalie Kerby
Brooke and Jen Schmoll
Amy Bess
John Kuhn
Mike and Lauren-Beth Kassinger
Bill Fitts and Blake
Mimi and Daddy Russ
Kurt Stemhagen
Paige, Jim and Lilly Burton
Buck Wachtel
Pete Geary
Jake Ward

We've had some fun road-trips:
Brighton
Wales
Florence
Paris
Edinburgh
Isle of Skye

Margot kicked the bottle (milk), upgraded to a big-girl bed, potty-trained, became a big sister, made some friends, and starts nursery in the Fall. Owen, well, he arrived and ate and cried a lot. He had his first solids this week. (He's much happier these days.)

We're looking forward to our extended summer vacation in the US, but know we'll be ready to come back to our life here come August.

Check out our most recent photos.

Cheers.