Here we are again

At the airport (or to be more accurate on another plane). This time we're off to St Louis to celebrate new year.

This is approx the 70th flight Bluet has been on. She is not yet bored of flying, no way (see photo).

The captain just told us its 2h and 8mins to St Louis! Bon voyage

Christmas past

With only the downtown abbey Xmas special left to watch, Bluet's first Xmas is drawing to a close. To be honest, her Xmas is already over and she's fast asleep.

And it started early.

Unable to stay asleep past 6:35, Bluet woke us all with her 'festive excitement'. So we went for a long walk and wound up atop Castle Hill, which Emily can fill you in on the history of. I just enjoyed the sunrise (pictured below)

Happy Christmas!

We're up too early because Bluet woke up ahead of schedule. So excited for Xmas! Here she is opening her stocking; interestingly, Santa woke Bluet at 2am whilst delivering it.

Stupid Santa

it took us 2 hours to get her to go back to sleep.

Happy Christmas Eve

Bluet enjoys a Farley's Rusk

Just like generations of British children before her, Bluet enjoys a Farley's Rusk.

PS they are delicious

In Cambridge

We are now safely ensconced in Cambridge, with time to kick back and relax in preparation for the festivities. This means Bluet and her Gran had more time to get to know each other. Here is Bluet enjoying some home cooked potatoes and carrots just an hour ago. She is now bathed and in bed.

We saw, we conquered

We've been to Scotland. We've hit the north. And now, like conquering heroes we return to Cambridge for Christmas. We're nearly on our final train journey, which is great. But it was worth it as a good time was had by all 'oop north', as they say.

Below, some photos from up north. (dark Satanic mills not pictured)

Bluet meets Della

The first meeting of Della and Bluet is drawing to a close. They went to the railway museum, a library storytime, had a pub lunch, met up with Della's grandparents, and have pretty much synchronised their eating and sleeping times. At the moment they are both asleep upstairs while their parents recover on the sofa with a glass of whisky. It's obvious they've enjoyed meeting each other, and especially each others toes.

For a bit of fun we also got the paint out. The picture here is the result of their artistic efforts - Della in red and Bluet in blue...

(this blog post was written by Uncle Simon)

Today in York

A fun morning so far for Della and Bluet. First, a trip to the library, where Christmas books were read and songs sung. Then, Emily went for a run around the city walls whilst Simon and I took the cousins to the Railway Museum. Della and Bluet were thrilled., as you can see from the photos here.

Liveblog from York

We have arrived in York. Della was asleep, Bluet was hungry. Then Della was awake and Bluet was sleepy. So the big meet up has yet to happen. In the meantime here are some pictures of Bluet meeting Simon and Angela, and Emily meeting Della.

And some pictorial evidence we really are in York.

Stay tuned for more festive updates.

The lost Aberdeen photos

Due to a computer 'incident' yesterday's post lacked photos of Bluet meeting Uncle Nick. Here they are. As I am doing this post on the 15 mins of free wi if available on the train, check back for annotations. Ps we just left Aberdeen bound for York

Bluet in Aberdeen

So here we are in Newmachar*, celebrating Bluet's 8 month Birthday. Video to follow.

Right now Bluet is sleeping, Emily is out running, I'm writing a blog and Uncle Nick is being very hospitable. We've eaten traditional Scottish fare (fish and chips, a deep fried Mars bar for afters (surprisingly nice), some butteries for breakfast (Aberdeen's sole contribution to world cuisine, a bread product. Imagine the taste of one tub of salt, one block of butter and a small amount of flour - traditionally eaten smothered with more butter; we opted for baked beans and eggs). Later we will meet some old family friends, and probably take Bluet out in the snow. She seems to be happy so far - must be the bracing Scottish air.

I will also get to look through all my old stuff. Which is very exciting.

So in conclusion, the 8 hour train ride up here was totally worthwhile**. Some might say we are in the middle of a winter wonderland. The plants are lightly dusted with snow, but the sky is blue, and the heating in the bothy where we are sleeping is working remarkably well. We might even avoid frostbite!

*although I always say I grew up in Aberdeen, really it was a small, quite rubbish village a 30 minute drive from the metropolis that is Aberdeen. Our house is nice though.

**Bluet survived a bus ride to Cambridge station, a train to Peterborough, another train from Peterborough to Newcastle, a train from Newcastle to Aberdeen, and then the bus ride to Newmachar. She didn't sleep much, but didn't fuss much either.

To Aberdeen and Beyond

Bluet is on the train to Aberdeen. We are almost there.

Bluet has landed!

Hot off the press, the first photo of bluet in the UK taken in the heathrow baggage claim. We are now using the free train wi fi. Soon(ish) we'll be in Cambridge. Then we can rest our weary limbs

We are on the plane!

It's almost film watching time.

We're all going on a Christmas Holiday

Here we are all packed, ready to leave our apartment. In the next ~17 hours we will then walk to the subway, take the subway to the airport, wait hours at the airport (fingers crossed no delays), get on the plane; here Bluet will fall asleep as the plane lifts gently into the air around 19:30 tonight, allowing us several blissful hours of movie watching as we fly towards the Old Country. Then, we'll land around 7.50 in the UK, breeze through customs, get on the heathrow express to Padington, take the Underground from Paddington to King's Cross, get on the train at King's Cross to Cambridge (pausing briefly to purchase either a triangular sandwich or a cornish pasty and a Cafe Nero coffee I expect), meet my Mum at Cambridge station, and take the bus to her house. That is a lot of travelling. I'm betting Bluet will love every second of it.

At the bus stop

Waiting for the bus. It is a little nippy. You'll no doubt be pleased to know we are now on the bus.

Back Crawl

Well, you could say the preparations for Christmas are in full swing*. We have just 4 full days left before we leave for the Old Country, so our bags are well and truly packed**.

In the last week, Bluet has mainly been trying to crawl. Unfortunately she has not worked out how to go forwards, no matter how hard she tries, or how desirable the object in front of her. Instead, she can push herself backwards with her hands, often for several metres at a time. However, as this is in the wrong direction of travel, she ends up getting frustrated, especially when she winds up stuck under the sofa. This activity tends to wear her out, so she has been sleeping late into the morning***. It also doesn't make for the cutest video because of the frustration. Instead, here she is playing vigorously yesterday in a break from crawling backwards.

*But you'd be wrong. We've seen a tree being lit, that's it. For some reason Emily won't let me have my own tree this year.
**Or, more accurately, we know where our empty bags are
***i.e. 7AM. Unfortunately we still wake up at 6.15AM, in preparedness.

Oh Christmas tree

Thanksgiving Blog

So the second big family event for Bluet was Thanksgiving. As most of our British readers won't know all the ins and outs of thanksgiving, I thought I'd provide a handy, cut out and keep Q&A for future reference.

Q: What is Thanksgiving?
A: From what I have picked up (so possibly riddled with inaccuracies) this is the story of Thanksgiving:

In the olden days, brave pioneers from the Old Country arrived in America. During the summer months, the living was good, with food and drink plentiful. However, these brave pioneers didn't realise that winter was just around the corner, so rather than setting aside some supplies like squirrels, they gorged themselves like pigs. So winter came and they had nothing to eat. Fortunately, there were some very helpful native people already living in America who helped out these poor, starving pioneers. To say thanks for this generosity, Americans now meet up once a year to gorge themselves on food and watch sport.

Unfortunately, the native people contracted many diseases from the Europeans, or were shot by the Europeans. However, the native people who are left carry on this tradition of helping the descendants of the pioneers get through the long winter months by running casinos and selling cigarettes.

Q: When is Thanksgiving?
A: It is an annual event, the last Thursday of November. The pioneers travelled thousands of miles to get to America, so to celebrate this most Americans like to go home to be with their families, and take the Friday off too. This means that on Wednesday, all roads and airports are rammed with people (probably not the trains, though, as you can't really get anywhere on American trains). Airlines, realising this, charge an enormous amount to fly on that day. So we left New York early Thanksgiving day. It is a bit like travelling on Christmas day in the UK, except that public transport is functional. As you can see, Bluet loves the travelling:

(actually, she was extremely well behaved, and slept for an hour and a half on Emily's lap on the plane).

Q: What do you do on Thanksgiving?
A: When the pioneers arrived in America, the only bird available to eat was the wild turkey (bald eagles are a bit stringy). Therefore, for Thanksgiving, Americans traditionally eat Turkey. They accompany this with 'trimmings'; so it is basically the same as Christmas dinner, except for some reason many Americans like to eat sweet potato with marshmallows on top. (Although not the Corse family). Although she couldn't eat the Turkey, Bluet was able to eat her first mashed potato.


After one is full and slipping into a food coma, it is traditional to watch 'the big game'.


Q: Who won the big game?
A: I have no idea.

Q: Should we have Thanksgiving in the UK
A: well, it is fun, a good family occasion without the stress of buying presents or anything like that. But if you are still sitting on the fence, the best thing about Thanksgiving is that it marks the beginning of the festive season, so unlike the UK where shops start playing Christmas songs in August, there is no sign of Christmas until Thanksgiving is out the way. The campaign to bring Thanksgiving to the UK starts here.

Although we ate plenty of delicious food, we skipped the big game (and in fact celebrated Thanksgiving on the Friday). Instead we enjoyed Bluet's Grandparents marvellous new cabin on their cattle farm in the Ozark mountains in Missouri (as seen in the film 'Winter's Bone'). The cabin is ideally located for activities such as canoeing (our pre-thanksgiving feast excursion sans Bluet) and also for gathering around an open fire.

Wild Cows Roam Free

We also went on a brief hike at the Sam A. Baker State Park. This was not Bluet's favourite activity. Maybe she got cold or cramped in her carrier? Who knows.

Briefly before Bluet's Patience wore out

Much happier, back in the cabin

We had a long journey back home - mainly because the bus ride from the airport to our house took AGES. Still, Bluet enjoyed it.

(Thanksgiving was documented by Bluet's American cousin Nate in pictorial form:

First Things First

Whilst I'm on hold with the cable company (stupid internet is being slow), there is time to catch up with the blogging. There is more to come on Thanksgiving (if you want a sneak-peak look here).

In two weeks time we're all off to the Old Country so Bluet can meet most of the rest of her family for the first time, and be schooled in the British Christmas traditions. However, her British Grandfather (please let me know what you really want to be called, probably not that, I think) is off to New Zealand for the next 3 months, and before he went he stopped by for a 3 day visit, in order to meet Bluet before she gets really big. 3 days is not long, but both Bluet and her grandfather like to do lots of things, so here is our weekend.........

There were some issues on the subway ride. So when he finally arrived it was too late on Friday night to see Bluet.

However, we were able to capture their first encounter Saturday AM. Where they each appeared to make a good first impression:

We then went for a Saturday morning breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien in Central Park. 

Back home (see hair pictures from last week)

Then an afternoon trip to some bookshops sans Bluet and Emily, where we found some old AA Milne books, amongst other things. I hope Bluet enjoys them as much as me (and my Dad before me) did.

A quiet evening falling asleep in front of 'The West Wing' followed.

Then Sunday morning came early. Me and my Dad were left In Charge and everything went well. In all honesty I cannot remember what we did in the morning, but it was something fun, no doubt. Later on, we all headed into Park Slope to have some food and beers with old family friends, Charles and Diane, (not pictured) in Brooklyn. It got dark and Bluet and Emily went home, whilst the rest of us enjoyed a pleasant evening, with Grandfather/Dad/Andrew admitting he actually rather liked New York.

Later, hell froze over.

At the Park Slope Ale House in the dark

On Monday, we went on the train downtown to buy Bluet a thing for her Christmas (no spoilers) and then we stopped for lunch at a very trendy downtown cafe on Union Square. Whilst the food seemed good at the time, the fish soup gave me and my Dad 'issues'. As Anthony Bourdain said, never eat fish in a restaurant on a Monday. A lesson learned, as they say.

Trendy restaurant Ahoy. NB Don't eat the fish soup on Mondays.

Waiting for the train back up town

Waiting for the train is very tiring/boring

Eventually, we arrive at MoMA and look at some art.

Bluet is more impressed by her Grandfather's jumper

Although eating the fish soup at the lunch venue was a Bad Idea, it was also the first time and place where Bluet tried to drink out of a cup like an adult. Although she didn't know exactly what to do with her tongue (of course, she wanted to stick it out, which is unhelpful in these situations), she enjoyed it and was happy to practice further when we got home.

Coming soon, thanksgiving pictures (and an explanation of Thanksgiving for the Brits reading this).