I'm looking for sleep and sanity

So when the kettle blew up it blew the breaker and fried an electrical outlet. (I didn't discover this until Ben came home) but luckily it did not wreck anything of ours that was plugged into that outlet.

We went out for dinner.Being a Sat night with a baby and no reservations and it was 9:30 before we were on the street walking to dinner made it a bit tricky to find a place. We finally found a place, it seemed quiet enough and looked half full.
Turns out the kitchen was havin issues keeping up with the orders and dinner took an hour to come out once we finally ordered. It was good when it made it to the table though. And then at 11pm on the dot the MAGIC DISCO BALL came down and it turned into a dance club. We had finished eating, I had wanted dessert but we were out of time :( so we packed up and paid and in the time it took us to do that the place was suddenly PACKED. We came home and Ben fell into Bed and was asleep instantly. I changed and fed Evelyn took her to bed too. Just after midnight and all of us were sleeping and happy.

UNTIL 4AM
Evelyn wakes up and is cranky! I get her a bottle and try to get her back down to sleep. But she wakes up even more and decides to play. And who better to play with than the strange man in the bed with the shaggy brown hair. I'm sure Ben LOVED waking up to that ;) Evelyn was laughing and cooing and making all kinds of happy sounds. she played on the bed bothering one of us (although mostly Ben) for about an hour before snuggling into me and going back to sleep. I started this blog at 5:30 and it's now 6am. The sun is up and trying to peak through clouds.

Ben apparently has us going someplace nice for dinner tonight and a girl he works with is going to look after Evelyn for us. I'm looking forward to it.

hmmmm I finally feel a bit sleepy... maybe I can go back to bed for a bit. gah the horrible bed. this is another reason I am not sleeping well. You can feel every spring and the wooden slats and the blankets are yucky :(

ok sleep time.... wish me luck

Jetlag Day

Today was not a great day and that was because last night was a rough night. I feel partly sorry for Ben because he had to go to work today after not getting much sleep and what sleep was had by him I think wasn't great. But on the other hand I go through nights like that all the time.
Basically it's the time zone change that was the big thing that caused last nights issues. Evelyn was wide awake and playing, or poking, or kicking or hair pulling or crying. I had to get up with her and finally play with her from 2am to 5am. but there was still lots of crying and crankiness.
And in the middle of everything last night I was trying to lay down with Evelyn on the couch and she got mad and threw herself off the couch and hit her face on the coffee table. Lucky no bruises or scratches this morning.
We finally both fell asleep in the morning around 8am and slept until 2pm. We ate, got dressed and went for a walk. Unfortunately today was a grey cold day :( and most of the shops were already closed at 4pm! So it wasn't that great for a walk or shopping. But I stayed out for an hour. Came back fed Evelyn again and let her have a tiny nap (an hour) and then I showered, ran the dishwasher and did a load of laundry. The laundry is now hanging around the apt drying.... I miss having a dryer, or really even a sunny place to hang things. Yes we have a small balcony but we are on the 5th floor and its windy and well I'd rather not loose my clothes.
As it turns out I did not bring enough warm clothes I think. Apparently next week is going to be warmer/sunnier I hope so.
Oh I was going to make some tea but the kettle just blew up. Seriously blue sparks everywhere........
I am looking forward to Ben having the day off tomorrow. It really sucked that he had to work today.
Anyways he is home now. Gotta go have dinner!

Blogging in Budapest!

I left my house for the airport at 2pm and our plane took off pretty much on time from Canada at 5:30pm on Wednesday April 13th. We are here until Tuesday April 26th. Ben is currently filming a movie called 47 Ronin starring Keanu Reeves. In May the production will be returning to England to film and we were join for a few weeks. But for right now we are having a little visit. So adventures in England is currently Adventures in Budapest.

Our 7 hour flight to Frankfurt was uneventful. Thankfully Evelyn fell asleep before the wheels of the planes had even left the runway and slept the whole first 2 hours of the flight. This allowed me to watch a movie and eat my dinner without interruption. Evelyn then woke up and played a little and she ate and then went back to sleep for the last 90 mins of the flight including all the descent. At 1am 'ish we had to get off our plane. (German time was now 6 hours ahead the same time zone as Budapest) and go through security and passport control in Germany and board a tiny little HORRIBLE airplane bound for Budapest that whole experience and going down MANY MANY flights of stairs being exhausted with a little cranky person who wants to be sleeping.... UGG.... FInally loaded on the plane and both Evelyn fell asleep right away did not wake up until the plane was bouncing along the runway.

In Budapest we collected our baggage and didn't have to go any passport control (?) we just walked out and there was our driver waiting for us with a sign. He helped load all our bags and drove us to our apartment. I will take photos of our apartment today and our immediate surroundings and post them later.

We got into the apartment I drank some juice and gave Evelyn a bottle and we fell into bed for a rough 3 hour nap. It was early afternoon when we got to the apartment and around 6pm when we woke up got up, I fed Evelyn some cereal & another bottle and unpacked alittle.

Ben came home around 7:30pm from work and we went out at 8:30 pm for Italian food and I had some really good pizza. After traveling for almost 24 hours with an almost 1 year old (from the time we left our house until we got to our apt in Budapest) pizza and wine was exactly what I needed. We came home I fed Evelyn some mixed fruit & veggies and then gave her a bath and a bottle and we all went to bed around 11:30pm.

Right now it is 6:30am in Budapest. I have been awake since 5am. I have showered and made tea and had leftover pizza for breakfast. And I am now totally unpacked into the apartment.

Today is just about exploring the immediate neighborhood, finding the pharmacy, corner store and that sort of stuff. The weather here is cold and rainy today about 10 degrees. But looks sunny and in the high teens beginning on Sunday.

Okay that's it for now!

Last day in London....

So today I treated myself to lunch at Fortnum & Mason :) and did a little Christmas shopping there before heading back to the flat to start the big pack!

I have just finished packing at 12:15am... and we are waiting to hear that the plane taking me home (hopefully) tomorrow is about to take off from Pearson Airport in about 5 mins..... I say hopefully because for the last 2 days Gatwick has been closed due to snow & ice. They have no deicing equipment. So I have been a little stressed out to say the least. Also we had troubles booking a car to take us to the airport since many companies won't drive in bad weather apparently... AND the Gatwick Express train from Victoria Station hasn't been running also due to ice on the rail lines. Oh what fun little snow does to England!

Anyways so I have left a lot behind for Ben to drop off a children charity shop clothes wise. We are donating, the playpen, the big toys and the Moses basket Ben is going to have it all picked up.
It was very difficult to pack tonight through tears of frustration and sadness now it's all done. plane we HOPE will indeed take off at 9:10am, the airport is hoping to open at 6am.
The car will be here at 4:45am to pick us up since the ride is an hour and a bit in decent weather, not sure what it will be if we get more snow overnight?

So I guess perhaps if I lay down in bed now I will get about 3 hours of sleep. At least Evelyn is sleeping and is happy tonight (so far).

Final thoughts on this home away from home. It was wonderful I loved every minute of it and will miss it all very much. BUT I think I will be back :)

The Queen was home but didn't come to see us...

Windsor Castle, Stonehenge & Bath

So today was bitterly cold, like seriously the coldest day I have experienced so far. London was warmer than where we went sightseeing today. The wind chill factor I do not know but Stonehenge was freezing, interesting to see but too cold to really take it all in and enjoy. Poor baby had wind burnt cheeks after the day out & about outside.
We left at 7:45am from the flat to be at our pickup point to leave at 8am and off we went on the bus trip first we went to Windsor Castle. The state apartments at Windsor Castle were of course gorgeous as to be expected. The Queen was there but we didn't see her :(
What made the WHOLE trip to this castle simply awesome for me was that I saw the original painting of Queen Elizabeth I when she was still a princess around the age of 14 or so (I have uploaded an image of it below)

I have wanted to see this painting pretty much since I was about 14 or 15 myself and first saw a copy of it in a book I read. I was standing just a foot or so away from it and it was totally stunning.

Then onward we went to Stonehenge. There was snow here in London (it didn't stick) but it was sticking a bit out in the countryside where Stonehenge is. I am affected by the damp and wind here quite a bit and was very cold and wasn't able to enjoy myself properly at times today because of it.

Then we went to Bath. Which was really good. I would have liked more time to wander around the town of Bath. I would defiantly go back there and spend a night and a couple of days visiting. The Roman Baths themselves are very beautiful and I really liked it I think Ben would enjoy it. Oh well next time I guess.....

I am beyond exhausted today after all our sighting seeing and yet ANOTHER NIGHT of being up with the baby pretty much the WHOLE night. I nearly killed her at around 4am. I think I cried around 5:15am when we both fell asleep finally only to hear Ben's alarm go off for work :(
Seriously I need some sleep tonight.

Also most of the day today I carried the baby around in the ergo carrier since it was pretty much all NOT baby stroller friendly. So I can really feel it in my back right now, and just that general feeling of irritation I get with everything and everyone around me when I am overtired. So it's 10:45 and it's really past my bedtime.
Not sure what we are doing tomorrow yet, I need some sleep tonight, and I think the baby needs a rest day and Kristen kinda deciding what she is interested in. Okay I will try and post some photos tomorrow.

Long & cold but good day sightseeing....

So Kristen arrived on Friday and we basically just rested, went grocery shopping and she got adjusted to the time zone difference. Saturday we went shopping on Portobello Road and we went to the Organic Kitchen for lunch. Kristen surprised me by ordering fish n chips I didn't know that she ate fish! Anyways she loved it surprise surprise. (for those who don't know Kristen she's a pretty picky eater)

Sunday Ben had the day off we so went for a drive out to Hampton Court Palace, it's a little ways out of London, so was nice that Ben could drive us all instead of taking London transit and the overground trains. Hampton Court was really good I really enjoyed it quite a bit. Although I think Ben is a bit "castle/palaced out" by now...

Then we went to a pub for a late lunch and then drove back to London. Ben and I went out for a late dinner at Nobu which is a Michelin starred restaurant here in London, it's Japanese and was really incredible! Kristen was nice enough to babysit for us.

Today there was a tube strike here GRRRR.... it really cramped our day :( but we finally made it to Westminster Abbey which was really interesting and both Kristen and I enjoyed it alot. And we also did The London Eye Kristen loved that and I liked it too we went at a different time of day then when I did it with Jeanette, and also it was a lot less crowded so I was able to enjoy it a little more. Plus I just saw different things than the first time.

Tomorrow is our bus day trip to Windsor Caste, Bath & Stonehenge. We have to be up and going pretty early so I really hope the baby sleeps tonight. I was up with her from 1am until 8am EVERY hour rocking her/holding her etc... she is getting over a bit of a cold, teething like crazy and she didn't eat properly yesterday so decided in the middle of the night that she was starving to death. It was a rough night to say the least and I have a bad feeling about tonight too.... still a cranky baby, and still not eating/napping like normal :(

Today was pretty windy and cold, I guess it's the damp here that makes it seem colder than the temperature reads, and also the wind off the river is very biting.

I think tomorrow I will also dress a little warmer than I did today, I didn't expect to be so cold! But although the temperature read a couple degrees above freezing Ben even agreed with me that it feels more like -10 because of the dampness. Also we are all feeling the lack of daylight here... the one thing about home is that it's actually to be daylight for longer! YAY for that :)
The darkness just makes you feel bleh. It's seriously dark here by 4pm right now. Streetlights on and DARK. The shadows get long at 2pm so you feel like heading home and curling up into bed.... weird feeling so early in the day. I am not a fan of such a lack of sun.....

Okay I should really see to the baby and try and to get to bed for our big day ahead....

The last guest arrives...

So I was SO sick Monday & Tuesday. Wednesday started feeling much better thankfully.
I am currently waiting at the flat for Kristen to arrive she is currently in the taxi on her way here from the airport. And then the 3 of us are flying back all together one week from now...... but I AM NOT TALKING about it. That's the official response when anyone starts to ask me questions about going home. I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT IT. Possibly because I get really emotional and stressed and start to cry so ya...

So tonight I am having some people over for a simple dinner just to hang out and whatnot because next week is SO busy. I am looking forward to tonight it should be nice a nice and relaxing night in!

Yesterday I took Evelyn to see Santa... it was very disappointing... the santa the setup and the photo omgg horrible gold lamme a flash ick.... and to top it all off the most smiley people loving baby ever cried ! I think I will take her again when I get home to Canada at Yorkdale or something early one morning when other kids are at school and hopefully avoid very much of a line....

Tomorrow we are going to Portobello Rd shopping and have lunch. Then on Sunday Hampton Court Palace. Ben can drive us being his day off. It's out of the city a bit I've been wanting to go for a while and this should hopefully be a nice day out.
Then next week we will do one day- Tower of London another day, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye, Big Ben
We have one special day trip planned to Windsor Castle, Bath & Stonehenge.
and Thursday I need to stay home and pack and get organized so I will help Kristen plan her day and I will stay back with Evelyn.

That's pretty much the plan....