My Coldest June Yet

It's almost the end of June and the weather still bugs me.  It just doesn't feel like summer.  Yesterday I was playing softball for part of the day in shorts and a T-shirt, and the rest of the day in pants and a hoodie with the hood up!  And cold rain is the worst!  June is the time for warm rain if any.  The highs have been mostly 50-60.  Once in a while we'll get a nice day that's about 70-75 for a few hours before the clouds cover the sun.  The worst is when it rains cold rain at 6am when I'm biking to work and the seat of my pants are all wet when I arrive.  So I'm just cold and miserable for an hour or so at an ungodly hour while I dry off and warm up.

Tim has been teaching first aid courses unrelated to St John lately.  A friend recommends Tim for the jobs.  His friend said that the company is short on first aiders and will probably need to use Tim more often.  He's currently preparing for a course that runs this Monday-Wednesday.

I had a softball tournament yesterday all day.  Between 9am - 6pm we played 7 games.  Yasmin came along because Tim was planning on spending the day preparing for his course.  She had a great time meeting new friends and getting loads of affection from my team and the opposing teams.  She loves the softball people 'cause they give her tons of attention.  I think most muscles in my body are sore now.  Even some in my back because I got knocked hard by a guy running to 2nd twice (the same guy both times)!  I mostly played 2nd base, but a couple games on 1st, and half a game as catcher.  We were short on girls so there were no breaks for us.  The first 5 games we played back-to-back, and with no break I was starving and exhausted by the time we finally finished the 5th game around 2 pm.  My team came in 3rd overall.  I have no idea how many teams were there.  We only played one team twice.

I gave my month's notice to the parents I work for last week.  They keep forgetting to tell the boys.  I sure don't want to tell them, and I don't look forward to all the questions they'll ask once they know.  Here's a pic I took last week when they asked to play on my scooter.  They both jumped when Jack pushed the horn.  It it kind of loud for such a small vehicle.  Jack's in front and Jude in back.  They switched off being in front and back.

I signed the contract with my new employer.  I'm working there for a few hours on July 7th for the first time.  I'm supposed to read up on The Baby Whisperer and Noel Janis-Norton beforehand 'cause it's the philosophy they want to use in raising their kids.  I've never had to read up on child rearing for work before, but it's a full-time job so I shouldn't mind a little bit of homework.  I do think the Baby Whisperer might have come up with a more original title, though.

Since I don't have much longer of having extra time in the middle of the day once I start my new job I'm trying to do driving lessons and brush up on the theory section of the British driving test.  I have my next lesson Monday.  After my lesson last week Tim and I rented a zipcar to practice with on Friday so I could practice without the instructor in the car.  Zipcar is a company that has regular looking cars parked all over London and the UK.  I think the company is in other countries also.  You pay a membership fee yearly, then you can book a car close to you for a few hours, or as long as you want.  It's very useful.  We used it when moving and rented a van.

Something I pass everyday on the way to Jack and Jude's house.  I think it's supposed to be the prime meridian.  We do live 6 miles South of Greenwich after all.

New job...again, and lots of St John

I realize it's been a while since I last posted.  I was waiting until I might have some news about a new job.  I think I finally do.  I have pretty much landed a full-time nanny job that starts in July.  It's 50 hours a week looking after two little boys aged 3 months and 2 years.  I'm very excited because I'm hoping with this job Tim and I can move into a bigger place, bring Guinness over, and visit the US for Christmas.  I'll still have weekends off so that's fine by me.  Now we are going through the process of agreeing on hours, holiday time, showing her all my official documents, etc.

I'm getting better with my scooter.  I can now always get home without the use of a map now.  I still need to tape the directions to my dash (just hiding the clock) to get anywhere new.  Medical tape is awesome for that!

Laura is visiting London for about a week and a half.  We went to Oxford yesterday and I invited friends over for a movie night tonight.  We're planning on barbecuing.  I'm trying to take lots of pics for facebook so more updates will be on there.

Tim and I have been going to a lot of duties lately.  I went to a parade in Chelsea a few weeks ago that was of great interest to the boys I look after.  They're huge football (soccer) fans.  Chelsea won some cup over lots of teams in Europe and there was a huge parade in Chelsea.  It reminded me of the Spurs parade I went to on the Riverwalk in 2007, except there were far more drunk people here.  Thankfully they were all friendly since they all were there to support Chelsea.  You just had to dodge the flying celery.  Chelsea has some song that is slightly crude involving shoving celery into the orifices of their opponents.  I was slightly surprised to see children throwing celery into the crowds also.  They were all waiting for the team to drive by on a double decker bus.  Anyway, I showed the pics to the boys and they told me the names of all the players on top of the bus.

The team on top of the bus with the cup

See that balloon the baby is holding in the shape of the cup? They were selling those balloons for 7 pounds!

Tim and I also went to a Coldplay concert last weekend.  It was my first rock concert ever! I was so cool.  It was even better because we went for free with St John Ambulance.  People were so considerate too! They only got ill before or after the concert.  I don't think I would have paid for it, though.  I liked going with St John so I could go into the treatment center if I got tired of standing in the cold.  I could warm up with a quiet cup of coffee and go back out.  Especially since I don't really like crowds.  But I really want to sign up for more concert duties this summer.  It was fun.  There's the O2 Wireless concert in July with different bands playing, Wimbledon tennis, and of course, the Olympics!  I'm sure I'm missing something, but those are the main duties coming up that I want to go on.