As the photos tell - we left Vienna at the weekend and are back enjoying the final days of our adventure in NYC with the generous hospitality once more of May and her family. In our last couple of days with Annie and family we accompanied her on her first cycle ride - very appropriate that Andy, known by many, well some, as 'Bike Boy', should be the one to attach and test* her bike seat in preparation for her first outing on two wheels. She seemed to enjoy it but sadly her mum's bike seat got stolen whilst we popped into the shops, so it will be her first and last cycle for a while! We also shared another interest of Andy's with her the next day, when we went wine tasting. Shiona kindly drove us to a teeny weeny vineyard where we sampled a variety of reds, whites and fizz. YUM!
Thursday, 24 March 2011
A Tale of Two Cities
As the photos tell - we left Vienna at the weekend and are back enjoying the final days of our adventure in NYC with the generous hospitality once more of May and her family. In our last couple of days with Annie and family we accompanied her on her first cycle ride - very appropriate that Andy, known by many, well some, as 'Bike Boy', should be the one to attach and test* her bike seat in preparation for her first outing on two wheels. She seemed to enjoy it but sadly her mum's bike seat got stolen whilst we popped into the shops, so it will be her first and last cycle for a while! We also shared another interest of Andy's with her the next day, when we went wine tasting. Shiona kindly drove us to a teeny weeny vineyard where we sampled a variety of reds, whites and fizz. YUM!
Thursday, 17 March 2011
More Annie photos
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Springtime in Vienna (VA)
Hello all!
Sorry for the delay in blogging. I’ve been neglecting my blog duties as I’ve had a couple of job applications to do which have consumed my time - and also a lot of Shiona's time as I have passed various drafts of my applications to her for her professional opinion. Thanks Shiona! However, I have still managed to get out and about a bit, mainly wee walks and runs around Vienna during the week, along with a trip to the Museum of American History which was interesting but Native Americans were notable by their absence…So today Rach and I went to the Museum of the American Indian which was much better and had a far better cafĂ© than either the American History or Natural History museums we have visited in DC. I had a buffalo roll, and Rach had a baby octopus salad – yum!
During the week I’ve not really taken the camera anywhere, but last weekend Hamish took us all to Mount Vernon (home of George Washington) and Great Falls of the Potomac River (pretty gnarly at 9,200 cubic feet per second!).
Rach and I have frequented Norms Beer and Wine store, where there are some really enthusiastic staff who give free samples on a Friday and Saturday afternoon…this has encouraged Rach to run to the beer store, with me cycling, then we buy beer and I carry it back on the bike so it’s not too shook up. Many of you will notice that this involves very little exercise on my part, but don’t worry, I have made use of Hamish and Shiona’s rowing machine downstairs in our ‘granny flat’. This place is like a hotel (photos of house to follow!)...but a hotel that comes with child entertainment system!
Auntie Rach here to update on the entertainment that Annie has been giving us. We have not been in charge of daytime childcare, as in New York, but have been 'assistants' to her mum and dad. As she is the youngest kid Andy or I have spent any amount of time with, it has been really interesting (and fun!) to see what she can do. We have been doing lots of stair and walking practice (usually for Annie's benefit, not ours), had any number of chewed-saliva-covered toys thrust in our faces and done lots of singing (as you can imagine this has been far from a hardship for me and I think I have got even worse/better at putting everything I do into song)! She is a delight....although her parents tell us that since we have arrived she has become more willful...not our fault we hope, but rather a reflection of growing up! We will be very sad to leave her and her parents on Saturday, but already looking forward to seeing her and her mummy in the summer and them all at christmas!
As I said, we leave Vienna on Saturday and head back to NYC, where I am sure May will be delighted to see her favourite carer...and 'the other one'.