Across the Pond with the Loeckens: Royal Ascot

Still haven't had a second to sit and do my own postings...but I just have to share my friend Kate's post with all of you! She attended the Royal Ascot! A "must do" while living here! I am SO excited to join in on the fun next year!! Enjoy her post...it's BRILLIANT! :)


Across the Pond with the Loeckens: Royal Ascot: "The weather report from the BBC: 'A much brighter day with sunny intervals but also showers, some heavy with a risk of hail and thunder, bu..."

David Cameron ~ Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Here's a quick little speech by David Cameron after he was notified that the AMERICAN ARMED FORCES ~ NAVY SEALS ~ took out Osama bin Laden and KILLED the crazy-ass terrorist! First of all, I just want to say THANK YOU to all the Armed Forces of the United States of America! I'm am SOOO proud to be an American and so proud and thankful of them and all their hard work and never-ending commitment to our great nation!

Secondly, I just want to show you this exciting item I received today! I contacted a couple gals who I have dealt with at the Parliament, and they helped me to attain this wonderful bottle of The House of Commons champagne signed by non other than the Prime Minister himself, Mr. David Cameron! :) I am donating this to the school that my boys attend to be put up for auction at the annual charity event they have each year! Let's hope for a large sum of money for this unique and fantastic item! So awesome to be putting every penny toward the wonderful charities that the school has chosen! And the neatest part of this whole thing TO ME....is that it was signed the week that Will & Kate got married! :) A post regarding my trip into London on April 29, 2011 is to come! Check back every few days! I'll hopefully post it soon! :)

Good times living here in the UK! ♥

Ingrid Seward on the Royal Family

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On April 12, 2011, I attended an American Women of Surrey meeting with Ingrid Seward as the keynote speaker. She is the Editor-In-Chief of MAJESTY ~ The Quality Royal Magazine, and has been since 1983. She told us all kinds of great tidbits about the royal family! Here are a few interesting facts and quotes I jotted down:

• "The Queen is thrilled that Kate is a commoner!"
• "She's (the Queen) concerned that Kate comes from a stable-minded background."
• Ingrid says that Kate's Mum is "very glamorous and glossy"! :)
• "The Queen wishes that she would have established a better rapport with Diana."
• "Charles will NOT abdicate the throne to William, because he would want him to have his freedom before he takes on the responsibility of becoming King."
• Ingrid feels bad for Fergie for not being invited to the wedding and that she believes William did NOT invite her out of respect for his grandfather. Prince Philip does not care for Fergie because of the way she disrespected their family. Fergie was a close friend to Diana and the boys were supposedly quite close to Fergie growing up. Fergie's a "busted flush" ~ not liked by the English people.
• "Will and Kate will cut their wedding cake with a sword (tradition)."
  
• "Harry has a twinkle in his eye like Diana had."
• Will and Kate will live in a 6 bedroom farm house on an island in Wales for two years. When they're in London, they'll live in a small apartment in Kensington Palace.

This is one of the two books she was selling that I purchased.

She signed both of them inside for me. See below for an example.

Majesty magazines photo by me, as are the bottom two of Ingrid's book.

What the hell does BOB'S YOUR UNCLE mean?!

When we were preparing to move to England, we all went through "cultural training". One of our sons noticed a common English phrase in his workbook ~ Bob's Your Uncle. He asked our instructor what it means. She told him it means "and that's all" basically. Well...for some reason, he got a total kick out of this phrase and started to use it all the time. So, when I was trying to come up with a unique title to my blog, Bob's Your Uncle just stuck! :)

On Friday, April 29th, 2011, after William and Kate are united in marriage, they've had their reception, and the sun has set...Buckingham Palace will NOT be leaving their lights on all night long like Westminster Abbey....and Bob's Your Uncle! :)

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Here's another great example of the definition of Bob's Your Uncle: This is a well used phrase. It is added to the end of sentences a bit like and that's it! For example if you are telling someone how to make that fabulous banoffee pie you just served them, you would tell them to boil the condensed milk for three hours, spread it onto a basic cheesecake base, slice bananas on top, add some whipped double cream, another layer of banana and Bob's your uncle!

Big Ben ROCKS!

Climbing the Clock Tower is something you can ONLY do if you are a resident of the United Kingdom. A group of expat ladies filled out all the necessary security information in order to go on this incredible experience! I'm going to add a link so you can take a virtual tour and be able to see what we just experienced this past Friday, April 8th, 2011. As you look up the tower, you get this excited feeling as you start to climb the 334 stairs to the top! When we reached the top, opened the door and saw the first of four GIANT faces of the Clock Tower, I got shivers down my spine. It was just such an incredible moment to stand up on the little lip and measure my height to the top of the VI and stretch my arms out behind the face of the world's most famous clock!

There were two moments when I choked up just thinking about the opportunity we were

experiencing....(1) Standing behind the face of the clock and, (2) while listening to the chimes of the bells and looking out across London on such a beautiful sunny day, tears filled my eyes. It was just such a great, appreciative moment. Seeing London from a view that not everyone gets to see.

Unfortunately, we were not able to take any photos, so if you want to experience the tour we took, you'll have to click above for a quick version of the tour.

I am so thankful for each and every opportunity I am having living over here in such a beautiful country! England is just beautiful!

Enjoy your virtual tour, and if you want to take a moment and play a little game....have fun and good luck! :)

I'm ending this post with a picture of the London Eye nestled between these beautiful trees.

Today was a perfect day! ♥

~ all photos taken by me ~

Across the Pond with the Loeckens: Big Ben

My friend Kate, from this link I'm sharing, went on the beautiful Clock Tower Tour with me and a group of gals this past Friday, April 8th. I took off for Brussels at 6am on Saturday the 9th (my friend Laura's birthday (HappyHomemakerUK), so I haven't had two seconds to blog yet. I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to it because my week if filled with meetings, appointments, company, swimming lessons, gym, baking (donating to dorm kids at school), more appointments, and school assembly. Whew! I'm not the world's most organized person, so until I get around to my posts about this past weekend at Big Ben and my trip to Brussels with my incredible friends Laura & Sheila...I'm going to share a post written by another MNUKGirl...Kate(not plus 8). :) Thank you Kate! LOVE this post of yours! Enjoy everyone.... Across the Pond with the Loeckens: Big Ben: "I needed a clone of myself today. 1st grade assembly at 9 AM. Tour of Big Ben with a train leaving at 9:28 AM. Sitter drop..."

Happy Mother's (Mothering) Day

The UK celebrates Mother's Day, or as they call it, Mothering Day...on the fourth Sunday in Lent. During the 16th century, it was meant for people to attend their mother church for service. Eventually, people in Ireland and the UK started celebrating Mother's Day on the same day (this all according to my trusty Wikipedia). I think it's great that living here in England, I now get to celebrate being a "Mom or Mum" twice each year! :) I mean, it's only fair, since my two oldest call me Mom and my youngest calls me Mum...right, it's only fair?! :) My "Mothering Sunday" started out with my hubby and my two oldest boys waking me with breakfast (scrambled eggs, toast and milk) in bed. The plate was decorated with a beautiful cut flower from our garden too! :) The boys also each made a homemade Mother's Day card for me, which is ALWAYS the best present to get (besides their hugs and kisses). They were so sweet and proud! :) Once our youngest woke up, we decided to take a little drive south to Littlehampton to see the beach and check out this quaint little seaside village for the afternoon. Check out their great website and enjoy a few of the many pictures I captured today.

Happy Mothering Sunday to all my wonderful UK/Ireland friends! ♥

(Quick little note: I am SO frustrating when going to post my posts, because when I click PUBLISH, my posts get all "jacked up" and don't look the way they do before I click PUBLISH. I'm sure there's some HTML code I could easily put in to help me with this, but I don't know enough about these damn computers. This problem happens with EVERY post of mine and I waste a TON of time trying to go and fix the problem. Sometimes I'm able to, and other times I'm not...like now! My toddler NEEDS to get to bed and I don't have time to play games with my damn computer....so I'm posting "as is" and the paragraphs may separate nicely, or they'll be all crammed together. Sorry if it looks terrible! Must get little man to bed!)

♥ LONDON, ENGLAND ♥

More about these amazing cookies coming up in a post on Monday!

Good Morning! My wonderful friend HAPPYHOMEMAKERUK is hosting an AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY Linky Party today! If you're an expat like us, post a link about where you live and tell us a bit about your host country and your experiences!

Welcome to my blog post directly from Cobham, England (roughly 30 miles south of London). I am an American Expat from Minnesota who moved to England this past July, 2010.

Wow...where does a person begin on writing about England?! The history of this country is overwhelming! Some of the great places we've visited since moving here last summer are:

• London (of course) - the London Eye, touring on a Big Red Bus, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Hamley's Toy Store, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, and London Bridge...just to name a few of our stops in London.
• Leeds Castle
• White Cliffs of Dover
• Chessington World of Adventures Park
• Hampton Court
• The Cotswolds

Every turn you make in this country tells a story! I hope to blog about all of my stops....past, present, and future! I'm just getting started in your blogging world, so please stop by often, follow me and be sure to leave me a comment with your link so I can follow you too! Thank you!

Speaking of future blog posts...be sure to visit me at the end of August for a blog about our visit to Althorp (Princess Diana's Childhood Home and Burial Site). I know that's quite a ways into the future...but don't forget, ok!?! :) Especially those of you who adored her like I did!

Today however, I'm going to blog to you about my most recent adventure....a tour of the 2012 Summer Olympics location in London! On Tuesday, March 15, 2011, a bunch of friends embarked on an adventure into eastern London. The Statford District of eastern London is quite an old and worn down industrial area of London. The city is currenly in a regeneration phase of this district. They are tearing down many industrial buildings and will be creating a 1,500 acre parkland (3x the size of Hyde Park) that will run from the Olympic Park down to the river Thames.

During our tour, we walked past the 3 Mill Studios which is currently where Danny Boyle (who is known for his role as director of Slumdog Millionaire), and his team of 300 people are working to prepare for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic Games.

The main stadium of the Olympic Games is supposed to house 80,000 people. The West Ham United Football Club will take over this structure once the 2012 Olympics are finished.

We walked to a point where we could oversee all the work being done. Only 500 days left until the Olympics start, from the day we toured this site!

Since it was such a huge milestone, there were some former British athletes who were up at the site with us. I managed to speak to a couple of them. The first gentleman's name is Chris Tomlinson. Chris was a former long jumper. Matt Skelhon is a former shooting gold medalist from the 2008 Paralympics. Click on their names to get more information about these ambassadors!

I'm super excited about applying for my tickets! I hope I get some really fun events to attend! If you're interested in applying yourself, click HERE to fill out your applications! You have until April 26th, 2011! Good luck and thank you for stopping by to read my post!

Cheers!

Red Nose Day ~ March 18, 2011

Lately, I've been noticing all these red noses that you can buy to literally "put on your nose" here in the UK. I know Christmas is over, and it can't be about Rudolph....so what's the deal!?!?! The boys and I went to Sainsburys to pick up some groceries, and they started BEGGING for a red nose. All I could think about was that these things were going to just lay around the house like every other toy. They'll play with them for a few minutes...and then be done. I just kept saying "NO"! As they stood next to the big red box of noses at the checkout, they put their heads together to come up with a plan. :) My oldest finally pops up and says that they would each give me a "pound" (I don't have a British keyboard, so I can't type the sign) from their allowance if they could buy it themselves. So that's what they did. After getting home, I decided to Google RED NOSE DAY to see what the hype is all about.

Well, here in the UK, Red Nose Day is on Friday, March 18th. It's a day each year, where everyone gets together to raise money for the poor and disadvantaged people in the UK and in Africa. The money is spent to:

Treat the Blind, Mental Health, Education, Treat Malaria,

and Infant Health (according to the website above).

I believe that there will be comedians and celebrities on BBC on Friday night to use Comic Relief to make us all laugh, dig deep in our pockets, and help out our country and that of Africa!

I feel terrible for not buying like 40 noses for them to take to school for each of their classmates. :) If I get back to the store, I might just do that! :) Maybe next year I'll dye my hair red like Rihanna and raise some money for a good cause! :) Hmmmm....sort of sounds like a great reason to get crazy! :)

Victorian Era

Being an Expat in England brings some exciting adventures and fantastic educational experiences for our children. Yesterday, our middle child went on a field trip to a Victorian Museum. He got all dressed up in some Victorian-type clothing (the best that we could put together anyway). :)

<---Here's a photo of him writing with a pen and an inkwell. So much fun!

The Victorian Era was the period in the UK when Queen Victoria reigned from 1837-1901, which was a very prosperous time for Great Britain. The population in the UK more than doubled during her reign, affected mainly by fertility and mortality rates. England was also the first country to undergo the Industrial Revolution during that time.

Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Germany). They supposedly had a very loving marriage in which 9 children were born. Queen Victoria's reign as Queen has lasted longer than that of any other British monarch.

There is SO much to learn about Queen Victoria and the Victorian Era. I could write forever about her and this period in the past.

On the flight here to England this past year, I watched a movie titled The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria and Rupert Friend as Prince Albert. It was a fantastic movie and I highly recommend you rent it if you have not yet seen it!

[Source: Queen Victoria portrait-Pinterest and Movie Photo - Yahoo Movies]

God Save the Queen! ♥