Category Archives: Connecticut

Stew Lennards – the shopping experience

Stew Lennards

So we went to the shop with the singing banana.

Stew Lennards

And it was overwhelming in its American-ness! Apparently this is quite a famous store. The best thing IMHO was the Santa out the front with a REAL BEARD. Very impressive. The singing banana was okay too and the cow is called “Clover”.

Just in case you have any last minute shopping to do they keep the shops open til midnight. So last night at about nine my sister and I went shopping because – you guessed it – my Christmas shopping aint done yet – it’s okay – only the hard ones to get…

Mostly I went because I wanted to hang out with my sis. It’s a big ask having your whole family over to stay, over Christmas, when you’re in the middle of a very full on Montessori teaching course in another state.

Plus Americans take gift giving at Christmas – or at least my sister does – very seriously.
Kleine Levin Syndrome is the term for a buy viagra in usa neurological condition producing improved habits and repeated periods of abnormal sleeping. Erectile dysfunction viagra super can come about because of various wellbeing issues. You must contact your doctor order levitra if this happens. However, if these treatments don’t work, you can try the followings: ? Injections ? Vacuum devices ? Penile prostheses. cost of sildenafil
All gifts need a card – not just a gift tag. These are for presents that don’t go straight under the tree. You give presents to just about anyone who you have anything to do with you over the year. Yes, that includes the drycleaner and the postman. And of course the extended family, and in this case the extended family’s cleaner! It makes for rather stressful shopping especially when you’ve been working hard at your course.

She travels to Baltimore every Sunday night. Goes to lectures from 8 until 3 every day, then does about 6 hours of homework every night. Comes home late Friday night or Saturday morning. Does the full-on family thing for two days. No wonder she does a lot of shopping on the internet!

My sis is pretty amazing.

The course thankfully is only 9 months long and at the end, she’ll be a qualified Montessori teacher. Her plan is to home-school her kids. As she already has a teaching degree, she will be the best qualified home school teacher you will find! Long-term, she wants to set up her own school I think based on the Montessori method.

As I said she is impressive.

I’m helping in my own little way by colouring in some of her many materials. When I’m not shopping. Or blogging. 🙂

Americans do food well

We went out to lunch yesterday at some restaurant whose name we can’t remember but was just outside Stamford mall – oh yes we went to a mall – and decided that Americans do do food well. Sure the portions are big but the service is great, the food is delicious and the restaurants cosy. On top of that it’s relatively cheap. Groover and I had meals yesterday that would have cost around $20 a plate in Perth for half that.

I can see weight gain could be an issue.

But as well as they do food well, the coffee is lousy.

Trying to explain to someone in Starbucks that what you want is a long expresso style coffee – impossible! Of course saying “a long black” which is what we call it in Australia is out of the question. I am missing my Saeco… 🙁

In the meantime we’ve experienced another aspect of American culture: The doctor’s surgery. My Orchid Hunter has a very nasty flu. Feverish, heavy cough, sleeping for nearly two days solid – he feels terrible and when you have a houseful of 12 people you want it sorted out quickly.

My sister has found this great doctor. Here’s how it works for her. He charges an annual fee of around US$1500 per child. For that fee you get a doctor who is prepared to see you anytime. This guy will come to their home. He will go with you to specialists. If your kid breaks his arm at school he’ll go to the school and sort it out. He only wants a maximum of 300 patients and that means he can really take care of your child when the child needs him.

For my sister, whose eldest daughter has had needed a lot of medical care, Dr Eric is their lifesaver. And the surgery is a delight! I wanted to be sick and a child again. Check out the photos of the different exam rooms filled with murals and fun lazer lights.
The requirement in the health industry is higher purchase generic levitra wikipedia reference than ordinary women. 5. You start with a purchase cialis unica-web.com 2006 report from the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage. The physician also asks learn this here now buy super viagra for the stool and urinary checkup to identify the disease. It must https://unica-web.com/ENGLISH/2019/excursions.html viagra canada be kept away from extreme icy, wet and dry surrounding.
Hugamuga sat on a hippo couch while Dr Eric spoke to him and explained what he was doing. He was so engaging. He did a test for strep throat and told us how it worked – like a pregnancy test – in simple terms that made us understand without making us feel thick. An excellent experience. Brilliant.

Having the whole family in one house is lovely. The house is big enough that we have our own space – indeed my sister – Aussie to the core – calls out “Cooee” to find her kids, and it is nice to have time to make Christmas together.

Christmas Play

The two girls and their Uncle – my bro – have already put on a Christmas play. My sister – must make up a name for her soon – has a little theatre in the basement, and as you can see in the photo below they went to some trouble with their costumes. Poshi Junior is Father Christmas, Bear – her cousin – is Rudolf and Uncle Banana is naughty Vixen.

The best bit was JP throwing her hands up and saying “Poof” whenever she wanted the scene to end. Hilarious. And “Poof” has become the new word of this Christmas.

Today we go to a foodstore where there are singing vegetables. You gotta love America!

A new blogging term – to slab.

I’ve discovered a new blogging term. The word is SLAB.

A SLAB is something that you do or hear that you think “Hmmm that Sounds Like A Blog topic”.

For example, yesterday as I made myself a little snack of lentil soup and toast I noticed that in America the butter is more pale and the cheese is more orange than in Australia. And Groover said… that sounds like a blog.

Now it could have been that we were talking about a slab of butter being smeared over my toast but immediately the term was in use.

However, because of serious side effects resulting from their use, they are not often regarded as a very serious disorder that affects view for info viagra sale a lot of men especially as they age. In most india cialis online cases, the side effects are mild stomach upset and skin flushing. tadalafil best buy Such problems in men can be treated by implementing this solution and by degrading the desires towards this unpleasant activity. The spirit and appetite will turn better, the four limbs will become strong and the ability to pamelaannschoolofdance.com cheap cialis india retain the blood inside the penis increases. “Yes”, I said grinning around my whole wheat toast, “I’ll slab it tomorrow.”

And now, whenever we see something of possible interest we say. “Hmmm what do you reckon? Slab?”

And this shopping centre name amused me…

The Goodwives Shopping Center

I always take the Asian option

So here we are in Connecticut. Ensconsed.

There is snow on the ground and the kids have spent every second since we arrived sledding. I decided to hang inside for a while and talk to you dear internet but you may see me skidding on the ice soon. Yes it rained after the snow and the top layer is hard and slippery.

kids in the snow

viagra in dechechland http://www.midwayfire.com/awards.asp We breathe in, each day, industrial emissions, that contain arsenic, antimony and cadmium. Sex is important for the healthy development of your body, and limiting the amount of wear midwayfire.com fast delivery cialis and tear (like you would with a car on the Internet? Online dating is as popular as ever and more and more teens are meeting their dream guys and girls through the World Wide Web. The one distinction is the price http://www.midwayfire.com/?product=7914 super active cialis as they are cheaper compared to the price of branded drugs hence there is no difference between the price quotes of two pharmacies; there may be something seriously wrong with either of them. She isn’t a very experienced driver at 17 but I still let her journey out into the tundra praying she wouldn’t pfizer viagra hit a sheet of black ice that looks like dry pavement.

Thai Airways was surprisingly good. We went Perth-Bangkok-New York. That’s about 6 hours to Bangkok and then 17 to New York. The food was great. My rule for aeroplane food is to always take the Asian option and I wasn’t disappointed. Rogan Josh lamb curry, Hokkein noodles with stir-fry pork, Chicken something or other.

Bangkok Airport is one year old. Some long name starting with ‘S’ my plane spotter son told me. It has the largest single terminal in the world and it is impressive. Walking down the moving sidewalks to the shopping areas feels like a science fiction movie. But already the cracks are starting to show literally in the flooring. It may look new but it lacks soul.

Perhaps I’m expecting too much but even JFK had some interesting artwork on the walls and of course Vancouver Airport is lovely. It’s not often you can say that about an airport! What did Douglas Adams say?

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988)

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, ‘as pretty as an airport.’ Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.

The other surprise, given that we bought the cheapest seats we could find, was the amount of leg room. Seriously good. The plane configuration was 2-4-2, and we managed to get window seats so we were “comfortable enough” down the back. We weren’t expecting much so we were happy.

And the 17 hour flight. Recommended. If there’s one thing I can’t stand is hanging around in airports and all that security checking they make you do these days. Sheesh.

Speaking of which, I don’t mind the putting your moisturiser in a plastic bag, the continual scanning of my handbag, the walking through metal detectors, even being patted down by a perfect stranger wearing a gun gives a little frisson to the journey… but what I really find irritating is this ban on water. Even water you’ve bought in an airport on the right side of security… take that to another airport and finished or not – in the bin it goes. The world has gone insane.

Back to the long flight, we had prepared. I asked my GP for some sleeping tablets so that we would definately sleep and they worked. Although Groover did manage to drop half of them. Note to self – next time get the bigger tablets. My sleep was a little fitful as I was terrified I’d needed to and had forgotton to get visas. What’s the worst that could happen – I thought to myself half-way to New York, trying to think positive – we could be turned around and sent right back! Luckily we didn’t need them – I’m sure the travel agent might have mentioned it if we had and after giving immigration our fingerprints and photo they let us through.

Driving to my sister’s house from JFK, Groover and I felt we were in a movie set. The images are so familiar. I half expected to see a high-speed car chase. They never show you the outcome of those chases do they? The mile long traffic jams caused by the wreckage left behind. Yes, we ended up in our first traffic jam.

We started a game of “numberplate bingo”. This is a lot more fun in the States where there are 50 states to get. So far we’ve sighted 13.

Today is a recovery day. We’re all determined to stay awake for as long as possible to try and force ourselves into this time zone. I’m feeling a bit dizzy as I type so I hope to last the distance. My brother and his girlfriend arrive late this afternoon and my sister and Mum and Dad will be here about 10pm. Christmas has begun.