A Lotta Chompin' Goin On

Scratch Scratch Scratch. Itch. Itch. Itch. Ariana and I were both eaten alive last night - our feet and ankles grew swollen and red with each passing minute. Antihistamine, ibuprofen, even little Ampanman mosquito stickers didn't help the itch. Try to imagine the effort involved in trying to get a 5 year old, who had already slept 3 hours in the car, to go to sleep at a regular time. Now imagine that child whining and writhing in pain as the scratching she was doing was not helping one bit and every time she fell asleep, she would then wake, having been bitten one more time. What is most annoying is that we couldn't see the little culprit. Finally, after midnight, she was sleeping peacefully.

This summer has been mostly mild as far as bites go. Other than a couple of feeding frenzies on my feet - one at the beach and the other at a friend's house, I have not been uncomfortable. Ariana has not suffered at all.

Until last night. Comfortably on the couch watching TV, we were time after time, gnawed on by something - spider perhaps? mossie? who knows? At first I thought it was poison ivy, as my toes started to itch furiously and I couldn't see any bite marks. but then, I found first one, than another. Ariana's were easier to spot. Searching the air for anything flying, I couldn't see a thing. Staring at the couch, perhaps to spot something crawling, I found nothing.

All I do know is that here I sit, 6am after getting up around 5am because my feet were on fire. Already ingested the Benedryl and Ibuprofen and patiently waiting for either of them to kick in. Thankfully, Ariana is still asleep.

Somehow, I don't think it is going to be a good day......

Fish and Chips and Croissants and Pies and lots and lots of walking to make it all go away...

Soaking up culture, getting ideas for the house and generally luxuriating in the multi-cultural paradise that is London and Paris, our vacation has been an infusion of soul-feeding sights and sounds.

It has also been a reunion of sorts, meeting up with old friends from Tokyo as they visited with family and celebrated birthdays. We were glad to be able to share in some of these celebrations, which ranged from a large family and friend gathering outside of the city of London to a posh dinner party at the trendiest of restaurants and finally to a small gathering at a Vietnamese restaurant in Paris.

Some of my favorite sights....

I think they made these road signs just for me......

Arny wondered why they didn't just say "Exit", but we are in the UK and mostly we saw these "Way Out" signs. The subway and Underground are not the same thing, as we discovered as we were looking for one to take us back to the hotel and saw a "Subway" sign, only to discover that after making our way down the stairs, down the path and up the stairs on the other side, we were not at the train, but merely across the street.

I loved this - even Londoners with no back yard find space for a garden - this one happens to be in the river on a plot of floating land.


And yes, we have been doing the tourist thing - my own Holmes and Watson.

I tried to get Ariana to go to Hogwarts, telling her she could meet up with Harry and the gang, but she was having none of it.

We are off today to the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood and the Spitalfields market, after a brief stop at MI6 headquarters - can you tell who wants to go where??