Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day

[Mumtobabyhavoc]

New one!

Previous:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5276546-come-and-tell-us-your-dull-and-unexciting-news-33-calmly-through-the-day?page=1

That’s amazing @caringcarerwell done to your foster son!
Thanks @mathanxietyDS’s results weren’t what he’d hoped but he is in to his insurance choice and is now looking forward to going to study with lessons learned about not coasting and working harder. There were tears all round but getting on with things and sorting out accommodation etc
@Mumtobabyhavocwas a long time ago but remember 24 hour daylight, having a plane to myself, eating arctic char and musk ox and Inuit hospitality!

Hello to caringcarer and rainbowcakes.
Well done to that wonderful young man, caringcarer. MN has a vocal anti religion fringe, rainbowcakes - sorry you ran into them.

Sprouts glad your DS has recovered, and hopefully he'll have a successful time at his alternative choice.

Yes, locusts, havoc. They emerge in the trees around the fourth of July and deafen us with their buzzing until one evening in very late summer you go out for walk and can't quite put your finger on what's different because all you can hear is crickets. One year we all sat out on the deck to sing happy birthday to DD4 and have a slice of birthday cake when a locust decided to join us. They fly poorly, like the game of pong, zig zagging and bouncing off walls, tree trunks, into your hair, into your birthday cake coated in buttercream - we all screamed and quickly ran inside with the cake and plates and our glasses and bottle of plonk.

If it's not cicadas out your way it's locusts and crickets. I think I've said it before... how biblical! 😂😵‍💫😳
I would be freaking out. 😬

Yes, we get cicadas too, and for all I know we have some brood right now, but not a big 17 or 23 year one. They're OK until they invite themselves to a birthday celebration and end up in your hair.

Math, that's defi itely a horror. 🧟‍♀️

Does anyone have any recos for London? I've got a friend staying in Dalston if anyone knows the area. ☺️

@Mumtobabyhavoc what type of recos? Dalston is on the trendier side, having been gentrified relatively recently!

Favourite places or things to do, 😊

Camden Market, and Camden Town generally.

Any and all of the London sights, but they are very spread out.

Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Cabinet War Rooms, Buckingham Palace are close. Start at the Palace, then walk down the Mall or through St James’s Park to the War Rooms, then see Parliament by looking up Great George Street, but go down Storeys Gate to visit the Abbey before going to Parliament Square to visit, then cross the Thames via Westminster Bridge to the London Eye. Or reverse. That would be a long day.

Tower of London and Tower Bridge are much further away. St Paul’s is in the City of London between Westminster and the Tower.

West End theatres, but book in advance or visit Leicester Square to see if you can get reduced tickets.

Borough Market near London Bridge is foodie heaven.

The British Museum has amazing treasures and the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery (take the lift to the top floor and walk down) are my favourites to see the originals of very famous pictures. The galleries are in Trafalgar Square where you can see Nelson’s Column - a mile north of Parliament.

Tate Modern is across a footbridge from St Paul’s. Tate Britain for the Turner collection is in Pimlico.

Fortnum and Masons and Piccadilly Circus are west of here.

This site is good for obscure things:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/london-england

Buy a day travel card or touch in with a bank card for travel on bus and tube. Easiest and quickest way round London.

Math and Havoc, we also get cicadas and locusts in New York. They're so loud I have to sleep with the windows closed. Normally the AC is on so they'd be closed anyway, but we've had some cool nights when I would have loved to have them open but can't because of the racket. We also get a lot of coyotes baying and owls hooting. Such is life in the exurbs.

DS returned rather late last night from his trip to the Midwest. He met up with his friend from uni, and they visited DD and SiL in Indiana on Friday, then drove to Chicago for some sightseeing. We haven't gotten a full report on the trip yet, but I know he visited the Field museum as he left his ticket for it on the kitchen counter.

Is everyone still poorly? We had so many people feeling unwell last week.

Thanks, Myrtle! That was kind of you to share. I looked at quite a few places and I'm interested!

I was out walking around Burnaby Lake again and turtles, frogs and butterflies.

Also took a pic of one of the houses bordering the lake

Lovely photos, havoc. There's a pond in a nearby listed mansion whose grounds are open to the public. I go there for my frog fix every so often.
What a grand old house! Call me weird, but I love imagining all the life and history the walls of old houses witnessed.

We're currently experiencing a very intense thunderstorm. The sky looked like the crack of doom as I drove home, but I made it to my deck just as the first drops began to fall, and managed to put my potted plants on the table to keep them from being washed out of their pots. I had intended to go to Aldi on my way home but that will have to be tomorrow's chore as the storm is going to keep blowing until after 8.

Hope your DS had fun in Chicago, MissC. It's been very humid and hot here.

Me, too Math! There are some very nice houses in that area. I hope you're not on tornado watch. 🤞

No tornadoes, thankfully. The storm lasted on and off well into the night, though. At the risk of sounding like Mary Poppins, I'm very excited that the wind has switched to the north, and it already feels drier and less oppressively hot. I made it to Aldi this evening, and baked a loaf in the bread machine after dinner.

So good to hear, Math. I always wonder about that out your way. It's cloudy and humid here at only 20c, or so. The cooler weather has been so nice these past days, but looks to be going back up to 29c starting this weekend.
Had a busy day: laundry and bedding, baby to doctor, lunch, dc to spray park, home and baths for all, snack, Havoc to sport, Costco. Will be busy tomorrow as dc have back to back lessons, so I take one, then go home after lesson and pretty much turn around and take the other.

Math, he did have a nice time in Chicago. He had Chicago style deep dish pizza, which is almost impossible to find here in NY, and went to two baseball games, in addition to visiting the Field Museum. He was very impressed by the dinosaur exhibitions.

Hurricane Erin is heading up the east coast, and we're in for some much needed rain today.

This Maiden Silvergrass plant in our side yard is the tallest I've ever seen it. And I spotted a very small but ferocious looking lion on top of the loveseat cushions yesterday. He's either yawning or about to attack something.

Thank you @mathanxietyDS is feeling much more positive now.
Loving hearing about what everyone is up to. Chicago sounds great For DS @MissConductUS- I’m fascinated about how different all the different states and cities in the US are. DS is very interested in American history and politics and so I am often subject to detailed explanations about it from him. I think he would like to come to US sometime.
we had a second set of results today for DS2, his early Y10 part of GCSEs, so all new to him. He has done well, especially in science, and worked hard, so we are proud of him. He is always comparing himself to DS1 but I have told him his work ethic will stand him in good stead, even if his results aren’t quite the stellar ones of DS1’s GCSEs. It’s been a very stressful week!

I have been watching TV, knitting squares and resting my leg.

I completed the 30 squares in one set of patterns for a blanket, and found a new set of 48 patterns which I began this evening.

I am also slowly sewing together 9 squares from a set of 30 or so I knitted earlier into a small blanket to be sent to help premature babies. I have completed about 60 squares in total so far.

Hope you'll continue to rest and recover, Myrtle.

The northerly breeze is incredibly fresh and refreshing. The humidity has dropped to comfortable levels. DD and I had a local delicacy for dinner, Italian beef sandwiches, to celebrate her return from a visit to Dublin. Chicago definitely has its own culinary culture.

Sounds great, Math. I love a good sandwich. 😛
Glad your dd had a good trip. I bet your mum was thrilled. 🩷

Took dc up Burnaby Mtn again this evening for a walk around and watch the sunset. Lots of people had the same idea.

I'd have the same idea too, if I were there, havoc. That's a spectacular sunset.

Enjoying a very lazy Saturday here. It's so nice to have the windows open after the weeks of AC and the misery of humidity. I decided to skip the Farmers' Market and catch up with my book instead. DD still hasn't surfaced.

I have a suspicion that the hummingbirds have decamped to points south. I will google the usual date of departure, but I seem to remember they left around the time school was starting last summer.

If you enlarge my sunset pic:
Vancouver Island on the horizon, left
Stanley Park, left
Water is Burrard Inlet/Salish Sea
West Vancouver on the right

Took DC to Rocky Point in Port Moody late yesterday. It is one of my favourite places here. Had some excellent fish and chips (salmon) from Pajo's. It's the only place I ever get that and it is a rare treat. 😍
On the way back drove through an area in Burnaby known for crows to meet at dusk. Pics don't do it justice. There were likely thousands. Every now and again the news will report on it. My pic was from the car, but there were people on the sidewalk taking pics, too.

Looks like it will be quite warm and sunny for the next week.

https://www.portmoody.ca/parks-recreation-and-environment/parks/rocky-point-park/

https://www.pajos.com

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/short-film-follows-crow-migration-1.7084151

Took dc to bouncy park this morning where it was about 35c inside. 🥵 Kids had a great time and so did I, though. Stopped for a cupcake after. 😋
Now home and have had baths, I'm going to throw some laundry on, make Havoc a milkshake and pancakes with strawberries for a very late lunch. Big treat day. Have made an iced latte for myself to get going. 😋

funbox.com/vancouver-canada