Song of the Day:
Sim/Nao - Caetano Veloso
London Stuff:
Here's a sweet map of London's public transport network. Along those lines, you can watch stations emerge in this city on this
sixty-second map. Someone
forgot how to steer on the Thames this week. And don't let anyone tell you Londoners aren't
nice people.
****
Our plans for the next few months are nebulous and hectic:
I'm flying out to France tomorrow morning for Owen's bachelor party; we'll be snowboarding in the Three Valleys until Monday. Then, on Tuesday morning, Kenz will fly out to Copenhagen with her friend, Ragna, who calls it home. Ragna will show Kenz all around Denmark for the rest of the week as I stay home, catching up on work.
Two days after her return, we'll fly to Hong Kong to visit Sandy, Tony, Sam, Quin, and Zora. We'll be there for ten days, surely touring enough to get blisters on our feet.
In May, friends Papo and Nancy will stay with us for Owen & Celia's wedding. Papo and Nancy are on staggered flights; he'll arrive early and she'll stay late.
By
June, our flat becomes a whirlwind of activity. If everything pans out as we currently expect (it
won't), then we'll have four sets of visitors from June 11th - July 25th (yea,
I wrote that correctly). Kenz's aunt and uncle, Kenz's mom, my mom and stepdad, and our friends Brian & Jessica, in that order. During that time - while my mom and stepdad are in London, we'll fly back to Knoxville for a few days to watch Whitney and Michael get married.
The end of July will see Kenz leave to go find us a place to live in Providence as I stay back in London to pack the flat and ship everything over the Atlantic. We'll reconvene in Knoxville to pull long-forgotten belongings out of storage, load them into a U-Haul, and drive up to Rhode Island. Fingers crossed we make it by the time she starts school in September.
It's exciting. It's awesome. But, I get exhausted when thinking about
it.
****
Kenz and I made it out this weekend for yet another visit to
The Drowned Man as a result of some heavily discounted tickets. It felt like the beginning of a farewell tour: not only is
The Drowned Man in its final few weeks of production, but we've started to get the sense that a variety of activities are "the last time" we'll be doing them. It's bittersweet.
The weather was perfect. We took our time, strolling around favorite streets and alleyways. Tourists and locals alike were out enjoying the sun, the weekend, and the coming of spring.
 |
| A Covent Garden magician entertains a crowd. |
 |
| Neil's Yard |
We popped into
Abeeno Too for the first time in over a year, but quickly regretted it. Having a hot cooking surface on your table isn't a great idea when it's seventy degrees outside and there's no air conditioner to speak of. We quickly forgot the heat once our food was ready.
 |
| Seaweed Salad |
 |
| Spring Salad (lotus root, asparagus, quail egg, tomato, and lettuce) |
 |
| We opted out of getting the pancake this time, sticking to veggies, tofu, and salmon. |
We also tried seaweed snacks for the first time. I loved 'em. Like, so much that I urged Kenz to find them at the local Vietnamese grocery store near her school.
 |
| She acquiesced |
The wood shop was open this week, so Kenz finally began the mould for her rope char:
She came home that day saying, "I had
so much fun today! I can't believe I'm going to get to spend the next three years in a wood shop! All day, every day! I can't wait!" The thrill of getting into RISD has yet to wear off.
Her day got better once she found out her mother had mailed us a springtime care package:
 |
| Kenz's favorite: Little Debbie zebra cakes. She has claimed to have eaten all of the holiday varieties... |
 |
| ...but, upon seeing these, she exclaimed "I've never had the St. Patrick's Day cakes!" |
 |
| "Or BUTTERFLY cakes!" |
****
Random Photo Time:
 |
| I got Kenz some tulips. Before you go on about how sweet I am, know that they're my favorite flowers. |
 |
| Everyone spends their lunch break in the park these days. |
 |
| Shop Cat! |
 |
| The windows on the Underground. |
 |
| Horse Cops! |
 |
| Woman wearing a blanket as a jacket (fashion?). |
 |
| FaceTime with the Oregonians. |
 |
| Lucy has recently found her belly button. |
 |
| FaceTime with the Knoxvillians (I assume Jerry has found his belly button, too). |
 |
| Tulips: good for five days. |
In sum, Kenz and I will be apart for the next seven days (I'm writing this on Wednesday night for all you Friday-folk). We'll miss each other, but both of our trips will likely be fantastic. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of Owen in snow gear and I'll encourage Kenz to take pictures of folks on bicycles.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend.
