The Amusement Park Life of Sam and Lisa

Hello all.

Here’s our latest update, sorry it’s been a while.

We’ve had another roller-coaster couple of weeks here in London. 

Work has been consistent.  We’ve both had lots of work.  We’ve been in good schools for the most part, gotten to go back to schools we like. 

February 20-27

We had a pretty relaxing last weekend of break. 

I went for a good run around Tooting and Clapham on the Saturday.

Sunday we went out to Hampton Court Palace area to cheer Laura and Natasha on in their half marathon.  They did great, then we went for brunch after at a pub in the area. 

The first week back from break was a little shaky work-wise.  Sam was booked for 2 weeks with the same class but when she showed up it turned out that it was for the 2 weeks after Easter Break.  That whole first week if we weren’t pre-booked then calls came in later than usual.  It was a bit odd.  Since half-term calls have been later in the morning than we like to get them.

February 28-March 6

On Saturday we met up with our friends Alex and Amanda for brunch in Streatham Hill at a cute little place called Perfect Blend.  It was so nice to see them and catch up.  There’s been so much going on with both of them.

I had a great run from home up to Tower Bridge then took the tube back down and met Sam at the grocery store. It was a gorgeous sunny day.   

We ended up going to a pub in Tooting with Meghan to watch the England vs Ireland 6 Nations Rugby game.  It was really fun.  Super crowded so we had to stand, but there were some great people standing around us that answered questions we had a chatted with us. 

On Monday after work we went to the gym for a personal training session.  It was a really great workout. 

Antonio finally returned from Italy on Tuesday.  We sat down and chatted with him and found out that he was going to have to return to Italy for good and that he just came back to talk to us, try to get in touch with our landlady, and to post an ad online and try to find someone to move it.  We posted the ad and got a message to see it on Thursday.  I went to the gym Thursday after work but Sam wasn’t feeling great so just went home.  She showed the girls the place just before I got home, unfortunately they didn’t take it. 

It was International Book Week this week and both Sam and I got to dress up in a school we were in.  I got to dress up as Where’s Waldo (they call him Wally here) on Thursday with a year 2 class, and Sam dressed up as Fern (from Charlotte’s Web) on Friday with a year 4 class.

Antonio left early Saturday morning for Italy again.  We’ve been unable to reach our landlady so we don’t know exactly how this all is going to work with contracts and stuff. 

I signed up to do Tough Mudder in Dublin July 12^th, Sam is still deciding if she’s going to do it too. But I signed up with Natasha and Jorgin so I’ll have people to do it with either way.

March 7-15

We had the most amazing weekend, our Country to Country (C2C) weekend.  We woke up to bright sunshine.  We watched a couple episodes of Gilmore Girls, had our tea and breakfast and started getting ready to go.  Amanda decided really last minute to come to the concert too and managed to get a seat really close to where we were sitting.  The concert started around 4:30 but Sam Hunt was playing on a pop-up stage before so we decided to go early to see him.  We got all countrified and headed up to London Bridge to get wraps then over to the O2.  Amanda met us there early and we got some pictures out in the sunshine.  We figured out where the stage was and made our way over to it…there were already a fairly big group of people there but a big space right in front, so when we figured that the guy before Sam Hunt was close to finishing we snuck right up in front of the stage and sat down so that people couldn’t get mad at us for pushing in front and ruining their view.  Another large group of girls joined us up front too (most sounded American or Canadian, maybe an Aussie as well).  They were all in veterinary school in Scotland.  Sam Hunt was amazing!  He played for about 30 minutes.  When that was finished we were exiting the crowd and ran into Meghan and Marina and Mar’s cousin and his friend.  We grabbed drinks and appies with them before going in to find our seats.  We were all in the same section which was really nice so we hung out with them until people started to show up.  We had great seats to the side of the stage with a really good view.  Day 1 had more chill openers and energetic main performers.  The opening act was Brandy Clark.  Very good singer but we didn’t really know much of her music and it was a slow for a concert.  Sam Hunt played a really short, full acoustic slot between the first 2 singers.  Again, he was amazing.  Lee Ann Womack was the second opener.  We felt very similar about her as we did about Brandy Clark.  Great singer but just didn’t know much of her music and slow again.  But she finished with I Hope You Dance so that was good.  Sam Palladio (who is on the TV show Nashville) played a short set before the main 2 came on.  He had a cool sound, kind of indie-country.  Then the main two…Florida Georgia Line was phenomenal.  So high energy, even their slower songs aren’t slow.  We didn’t sit down their entire performance.  They were amazing.   Then Luke Bryan came on and was also just amazing.  He has a few slower songs with was a nice change of pace, but we were up and dancing for most of his performance too.  It was such a great night; one of our best in London for sure.  After the concert we caught the tube home with everyone.  It was a long day (didn’t end until around 11), but we had nothing in the morning so could rest up for night 2. 

Sunday was a lazy morning day then we headed for the concert that started at 4.  Day 2 had more energetic openers and although not chill main performers, definitely not as crazy energetic as yesterday.  Day 2 opened with Kip Moore, who was really great.  He kept it high energy and is very country. I was up for his whole set. A UK duo came out for the short set between openers, Ward Thomas.  They weren’t great, looked awkward.  The second opener was Brantley Gilbert.  We only knew 1 or 2 of his songs and he was very rock/indie rather than country.  His performance was very loud and hard to hear words, but apparently he’s huge over here.  Before the main performances came on was a UK country duo, The Shires.  They were quite good, a great sound.  The main two for Day 2 started with Jason Aldean.  He was so good.  Lady Antebellum finished off the night.  They were great too.  I was on my feet for most of both of the main performances again.  It was an amazing weekend.  We had so much fun.

We did our weekly grocery shop on Monday after work and hit the gym Tuesday and Thursday and had great workouts. 

Friday was Red Nose Day in the UK.  The Comic Relief Foundation does it yearly to raise money.  You pay a pound to get a funny nose; the schools let kids wear red and silly clothes when they pay a donation.  It was fun.

Yesterday we decided to go with Ben and Laura and their friend Luke on a day trip out to Canterbury.  It was about an hour and a half on the train to get there.  It was a really cute little town.  The first thing we did when we got there was find a cool looking pub to get a drink.  The pub had board games so we asked each other Trivial Pursuit questions for a while.  When we finished we walked further into town and went by the information center to find out what there is to do around.  We went from there into the Canterbury Cathedral.  There was a huge choir practicing for their performance that night so we got to hear that for a while and that was really interesting.  We then wandered through and entertained ourselves with stories.  After we finished we headed to a pub that was recommended for traditional English pub food, The Parrot.  On our way there we found this really cool tilted building that was a second-hand bookstore.  It was super cool.  We found some really entertaining books.  The Parrot is in the oldest building in Canterbury. It had low-ceilings, hops hung up along the rafters, a little wood burning fireplace.  It was super cute and we had great food.  When we finished we wandered through town to get to the wall on the far side.  It wasn’t super exciting but we walked along it and then up a mound that gave us a great view of the town.  There was a maze playground in the park there so we went through that.  We ended up walking along the water back into town and deciding to head back into London.  It was a great day. 

Today I went on a great run up through Tooting Common Park and Clapham Common Park.  Ran down and met Sam at the grocery store to do our weekly shop. We are relaxing today, making plans, booking some fun events, figuring out money a bit.  

Thanks for reading.

We out.

Sam and Lisa