Channel Sam

8 April 2010 Balcony

Apr 8, 2010

It was warm enough today to have lunch on the balcony.

Do you see Instructor David leaning over Sam in the picture? I could tell he was asking her something, but I couldn’t hear what. After class I asked her about that and she said, “Oh, David said, ‘I like your shirt, Sam. Where did you get it?'” Sam was wearing the London 2012 Olympics t-shirt that her father had brought …

4 April 2010 Easter Egg Hunt at Devil’s Dyke

Apr 4, 2010

Legend has it the Devil dug the Dyke so he could fill it with water and flood the churches of West Sussex. But his noise awoke an old woman who lit a candle. A rooster saw the light and crowed, and the devil, hearing the cock crow, believed it was morning and ran off, leaving his trench unfinished. He’s not been back …

3 April 2010 Waves

Apr 3, 2010

2 April 2010 Good Friday

Apr 2, 2010

It didn’t start out good. I went to the post office to buy stamps for a letter I really needed to mail and it was closed. I was dumbstruck for a minute. But it’s Friday? Good Friday. That’s a “bank holiday” in the UK. Apparently a postal one as well. Then I went to the grocery store and got caught in a downpour. It was …

1 April 2010 Hove Museum Lunch

Apr 1, 2010

After touring “The Wizard’s Attic” at the Hove Museum, Sam had lunch with two of her new Brighton pals.

30 March 2010 Sliding into Easter Hols

Mar 30, 2010

Instructor David watches Sam as she comes down the big bouncy slide at B&H Gymnastics Club. They set the inflatable slide up as a treat for the kids since this week begins the Easter Holiday, or “Easter Hols.” I love the ways that different languages truncate certain words and expressions. My favorite English ones …

28 March 2010 Brighton Dome Theatre

Mar 28, 2010

This afternoon I took Sam to see a one-man show called “How the Koala Learnt to Hug.” And yes, that’s not a typo: “learnt” is the acceptable past participle for “learn” in British English, and also, unsurprisingly, in Australian English. Steven Lee, the one man of the one-man show, is Australian and so we spent an …

Into the Wild

Mar 27, 2010

On Friday I felt the need for forest. Brighton isn’t a large city, but it is bustling and dense, and since the sun was shining, it seemed like a good time to get out of the city and into some green, far from people. A look at the map revealed an enticingly titled “Moulsecoomb Wild Park” green blob, north of the city on …

25 March 2010 Bus Stop Beer Advert

Mar 25, 2010

Sam and I wait for the bus after an afternoon at the Hove Home Ed playgroup. She’s leaning against an ad for Bombadier beer–an English brew. These ads are everywhere and they feature a hodgepodge of English icons like Queen Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, and Winston Churchill, all mashed up with other symbols and in poses …