Feasting in London

Since Derek has definitely retired our blog from Russia I decided to start a new one. Many Browler followers have been asking for more, well at least more pictures of Lev, so this will provide a place to see more of the truly photogenic one of the family. And it will keep you posted on our London life.

Yes, we are back in London...for now. Our life seems to be a bit of a moveable feast. We are beginning to feel settled again, though I'm not sure if our family really knows what that means or feels like. The last few months have been a bit of a whirlwind. We left our dear Piter at the end of May (just when the weather was turning blissful) and were homeless until the end of September. Luckily we have two sets of gracious, hospitable parents (or maybe just keen grandparents eager to spend time with their grandson!) who opened up their homes to us from the end of May to 23 September when we finally moved into our London flat. Needless to say, we were ready to stop living out of suitcases.

I think it is safe to say we are well into routine now. Our flat is beginning to feel like home, thanks to a few trips to IKEA to make it feel less 'Goodenough' and more us (how does IKEA manage to suck in even the likes of us who have voiced our resistance to having our place look like an IKEA catalogue?!).

Derek is working very hard, fighting deadlines as usual. And in our short time here he has already been to Vienna and Berlin on business rubbing shoulders with the German secret service (can I say that?). Next time you see him ask him his preferred way of getting through an airport.

I am back in the British Library on a regular basis and it feels great to have some time on my own and some regular, concentrated work on the thesis. I've also signed up for a Wednesday night 3-hour Russian course. At last I am reading, speaking and writing Russian again and I love it. I was determined not to let the hard work of eight months in Russia go to waste.

And our little Lev (well, not so little anymore) is a schoolboy! He is at Coram Nursery five days a week from 9:30-3:30 and he is thriving. He absolutely loves it. He only took a week to 'settle in' (the settling in period is usually two weeks) - never cried or put up a fuss, never looked back really. He waltzed in there and saw a world created for him - picked up a toy and forgot all about me! So we are happy and relieved that this big transition has taken place so easily and naturally. In future years we will look back and count our blessings - it is an outstanding place and we will be hard pressed to find anything like it again. And to top it off, we can see it from our flat windows - it is less than five minutes door to door.

So that's us right now. I'll dig out some pictures in due course (they're on the other computer) and give you a taste of our moveable feast since the end of Browler...