Hardly Surprising...

... that my lofty goals of actually sticking to a posting schedule got derailed. It's a busy week, leave me alone.

The wifi at Costa totally sucks, so lets hope this actually works.

Three significant memories from your childhood...
Not exactly significant, but nice!

When I was 9 or 10, my grandparents lived in a town called Bicester, in England, and by their house was a big chunk of farmland called Slade Farms. It was full of fields and paths, and also had a giant thicket of raspberry bushes.
There were lots of other kids who lived in the neighborhood, and it was over the creek and through this prickly thicket that we had The Village. It probably looked like a hobo shantytown, but this cluster of forts made of scrap wood, corrugated tin and twine was just plain awesome. It was completely tucked away, hidden in a circle of big trees. I'm not entirely sure what we did when we were there... probably played games and pretended to be soldiers or something, but I do remember there was a "bad guy", aka an angry older kid who bullied us, and it was our job to defend our village from him and his gang of hooligans from taking it over and destroying it. Typical kids stuff.
Local government decided to develop Slade Farm (typical). There were lots of petitions and us going door to door asking people to protect it, friendship bracelet sales and even probably the lowest-earning benefit concert in someone's garage (kids don't tend to have lots of money to chip in, I'm sure most of it went to packets of Hula Hoops and Fox Party Rings to munch on while we were rockin' out), but sadly, our little group of miniature conservationists were unsuccessful, so now there is probably a family living on what was formerly the coolest place in the world. Will have to dig out the photo of all of us when I get back to the states.

My second memory isn't really a specific ting, but it's Amersham. Amersham is the village my grandparents lived in when I was really little, and it was amazing. They lived on a farm and it was absolutely the best place to spend summers as a kid. There was a trio of goats behind the house who escaped and ate all the fruit off the apple trees. There were fields full of sheep, cows, horses. The garden was full of roses and ponds that Grandad threatened to dunk me headfirst into by holding me by my ankles. There was an honest-to-god outhouse that skeeved me out (spiders!), and a pool at the neighbors that to get to, you had to walk past three wild boars, who I was completely petrified of after my NY cousins let me watch a movie with them where a guy has his head nearly completely bitten off by a boar and yet is still able to walk, talk, and get into sword fights. There were chestnut trees and field after field of clover and poppies. There was a creek to paddle in, a dried out lake to explore, and a fallen tree to climb over. There was a dusty lane that Bo Nanny used to always say needed a good sweeping. When you looked out the upstairs windows, you could see hot air balloons landing. Sheep shearing, horse grooming, country life. It was just idyllic... Would kill to go back (for a day anyway, probably be a bit dull after that!).

My grandma in NY kept closets full of my aunts' old clothes from the '60's, which were excellent dress-up supplies (and probably would look really chic now). They were packed into cramped, giant closets that you could hide out in and dig around and find these treasures. One day, after too many games of How Many Monkeys Jumping on the Bed got boring, my cousins, my brother and sister and I decided to play a big game of dress up (come to think of it, my cousins must have been far too old for dress up at this point... what were you thinking??), which resulted in Ben in a giant suit and Jenna in an old dress, housecoat and funny hat while we officiated their wedding. There is also photographic evidence of this... will need to dig it out.


If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
Do I get a cute superhero outfit? Or is this more like a Misfits thing?

Easy - teleport. First I'd swing home for a visit, and then I'd be off to Paris, Capetown, Rome, Barcelona, Phucket, Bali, Dublin, Dubai... But realistically, I'd use it to zap myself to class on time so I could sleep in a bit longer. :)

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10? 15?

Five years - Hopefully, I'll have a job that I can look forward to going to, preferably at my own company. I will have a rigorous Pilates regime, a discerning wine palate, be able to make a perfect Cointreau creme brulee. I'll have a darling little Frenchie who comes to work with me every day. I'll vacation in fabulous places. I will get over my fear of skiing and that a hassled mother will one day ask me for help getting her pram on the tram. Maybe I will be that hassled mother. (No, no, will avoid public transportation until my child can walk.) Five years seems like an awfully long time from now, so who knows?

Ten years - By now, my company will be wildly successfully - franchises all over the place! I will have a fantastic flat or house with a big kitchen and double oven and fancy espresso machine. I will have learned how to drive stick. I will probably be freaking out about turning 40 in a few years, so pilates will have turned into multiple weekly sessions with a personal trainer and a zealous anti-aging routine. My maybe-baby will now be able to walk (so can start using public transport again!), and will start to be interesting so I can use all those crazy parenting crafts you see on Pinterest (moon sand! expanding soap! make your own bouncy balls!).

Fifteen years - My company will have been so successful that I can sell it off and retire early to a life of making beautiful things and raising boston terrier puppies full-time. My maybe-baby will by this point be a hormonal pubescent nightmare, so I'll probably be researching foreign boarding schools to ship it off to and give myself a bit of peace. But fifteen years from now is hella far, and I can't really think about what I'm doing next week, let alone for a significant chunk of my life. Yikes!


Off for a full day of teaching, followed by Thanksgiving prep for Saturday.

I hope all of my fellow Americans have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Eat a lot for me, I miss you guys!