Take Him Down a Peg

From the Tower of London we find this cup. It was used in pubs a long time ago and you will see the "pegs" along the back of the cup. To drink from another's cup was to "take them down a peg" and was done to intimidate another in the pub.

See more pictures from our trip by clicking on Europe 2007 in the right column. Then select slideshow to see them in the best view. You can see a larger version of any picture in this blog by clicking on the picture.

PRINCE ALBERT'S STATUE

Opposite the Royal Albert Concert Hall is this magnificent statue of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband. I had never heard of it before. Covered in gold, not only is it huge but it is a glowing testament to the accomplishments of the UK during the Queen Victoria era. Clearly, Brittain ruled the waves and profited greatly from its dominating industrial resources. Now our walking here was about 4 miles from our hotel and after several days of long walks and 12 hour touring, we were getting tired in just the first few days of our trip. After a couple days we switched to using city buses.

Amber's Grade 8 Graduation

Last night was the grade 8 Graudation Ceremony for the students at my school. One of the graduates was Amber who lived with us for most of her life. Amber is the oldest of our 3, soon to be 4 grandchildren.

Today is the last day for students at school as we have a ceremony for the Grade 7's followed by a dance.

On July 3rd, we will be winging our way to London for a week followed by Paris for a week.

Working in the Garden

Allan was looking after his flowers this weekend. It has been another dry week but the temperatures here have been quite cool and comfortable. It looks like it will be getting into the twenties this week though with some rain.
It is only about a week to go now before the trip to Europe. So we will be packing our bags tomorrow and weighing them.
One more week of school to go !!!

Wenda at Home

Just had to take a picture of Wenda before Aiden's soccer match. This is the lucky lady that won the jackpot at the slot machines in Peterborough this week. We had spent $20 each on the slots and Wenda was down to her last 50 cents worth in the machine when the bells started rining. She hit the max but was only playing single quarters so it spit out $322. Not bad for an hour at the slots and dinner too.

Aiden Starts Soccer

We were amazed to see Aiden in his first exposure to playing soccer with other kids. We knew he had pretty good talent to start - he can strip the ball from me in the back yard. He was running hard back and forth the court scoring goals. The kids were all pretty tired and some of them just crashed in the middle of the field out of exhaustion.
Daddy was giving him a pretty good workout before the game, and it looks like we have lots of training ahead. When we got home, Aiden showed us a a trick he had seen on TV - a blind soccer pass behind himself - not sure how he did it but pretty impressive for a 4 year old who just picked it up from watching a video.

Retirement Party for Wenda

This was closure for Wenda. The parents organized a party in the town hall of the small village of Newtonville where Wenda taught for the last 20 years. You might say she closed the place as the school will no longer be used after the end of this month.
This was a way for the children to say goodbye and get a big hug from one of their favourite teachers. For Wenda, it was an end of one chapter in her life.