Tag: York
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Stormtrooper
We just finished watching The Mandalorian with the kids and loved it. Who’d have thought a baby version of Yoda could be so cute. It reminded me of the time Daniel had his photo taken with a Stormtrooper in York back in 2013. I went looking for the photos on my blog but couldn’t find […]
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Christmas dinner in York
The UK-based Automatticians got together last night for an ugly jumper Christmas dinner in York. Last year we went to Keswick which was really nice. This year we went to one of my favourite cities, York. Dinner was at the Guy Fawkes Inn which is very old and characterful and supposedly the birth place of […]
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A beautiful frosty morning
I have been longing for some snow but there has been none. We haven’t even had a proper frost, that is, not until this morning and the first real frost did not disappoint me. I used to love frosty mornings when we lived in Christchurch with the sound and the sensation of crunchy grass beneath […]
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A few things: York, the bicycle and the IPCC
I spent the morning wandering around central York today. I took my last walk down the Shambles, sat and enjoyed a pot of tea at one of the cafés there and generally felt a bit teary about saying goodbye to my fair city of York. Then I transported our living Christmas tree to a friend’s […]
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Falling in love with inanimate objects
My last precious days in York are flying by. We have a crazy couple of weeks in store as we must now pack up six months of our lives and condense them into three suitcases. This is not going to be easy. On top of that, we have to empty our rental property. We could […]
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Viking poo
The photo below is an exact replica of a 1000-year-old Viking poo found beneath the city of York, or Jorvik as the Vikings called it. This poo and real ones (not replicas) can be sampled (held rather than eaten) at the Archaeological Museum in York, called Dig. We took the children there today and it’s an […]
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Yorkshire’s Winter Wonderland
I stacked it (stack it = Aussie phrase for fell over) big time at the outdoor skating rink today which is at Yorkshire’s winter wonderland. It’s a superb rink by the way and much fun was had by all. But I got a little bit overly confident in my abilities and tried one of those […]
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Clifford’s Tower
Finally, after almost all of November on my own, I have my husband back and I’m very happy about that. I have a lot of respect for single parents and for parents where one of the couple spends much of their time travelling. I will only be on my own for about a week this […]
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State schooling in the UK
I thought I would write about my experiences with the UK state schooling system now that Daniel has been at school here for a good three months. Note that my experience relates to just one school in the UK which may or may not be representative of others but I think it’s still worth talking […]
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Quality of life in York
People in York are shocked when I tell them how much I love living here. Why is that? There’s an assumption that life is better in New Zealand and Australia so I’m going to challenge that assumption with this blog post. Quality of life is partly subjective and so the things I love about York […]
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Busby the Bakfiets
Our lovely niece, Frances, came to visit us for the weekend. She is studying in Winchester and she arrived in York by train on Friday evening. I did what any proud bakfiets owner would do: I picked her up on my bicycle and she rode in the box with her luggage all the way home. […]
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River Ouse
Last week the river Ouse looked very full. Yesterday I thought, wow, it’s even fuller. This morning it is double WOW! Here’s a photo of the river, taken from the bike path, yesterday afternoon. Here’s a photo taken from the same spot this morning. And here in portrait mode so you can see […]
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York Minster with kids
We finally got around to venturing inside York Minster today with two small children in tow. Yes, it is beautiful and magnificent, but unlike other cathedrals we’ve been in, York Minster has hands-on activities for adults and children. There was this thing inside (called an orb apparently) that looks a bit like a cancerous growth, […]
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Soccer and cycling in York
Every Saturday morning, Daniel plays soccer. He is 6 years old, mildly autistic and has Tourette’s syndrome. We have tried many extra-curricular activities for him before, including soccer, but he never enjoyed any of them. But he loves the soccer coaching in York because it’s run by the mother of someone in Daniel’s class who […]
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Leicester
We went to Leicester for the weekend. Leicester, I have learned, has something of a bad reputation in the UK. When I tried to find out why this is the case, it is simply that there is a large immigrant population there. This is certainly true but I did not feel unsafe there, the people […]
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Yorkshire Museum of Farming
We cycled to the Museum of Farming on Sunday. It was just outside York so a fair distance for me on the bike but easily manageable and very, very enjoyable. I feel truly alive at the moment with all this physical activity. The museum itself was a great deal more than just a museum. There […]
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I have great legs!
I have great legs. Is it a bit conceited of me to say this? I don’t know, but I do know that cycling around for a month on Busby (my bakfiets) has given me really great legs and I don’t ever want to say goodbye to them. Why, oh why do the politicians of Auckland […]
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Le Tour de York
The Tour de France in 2014 will start from North Yorkshire and the people of York are starting to get excited about this. When I first heard about it I was puzzled because I thought this famous French cycle race was always held in France. It is called the Tour de France after all. And […]
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