From London to Barcelona, and Off Again

Somehow the days fly by now without a moment for blogging.  I am finishing fieldwork, working hard on a paper with Manuel, Amalia and Joana, spending 6 hours a week rehabbing my knee, and doing all of the million little things that need to be done when you pack up a house, prepare for a six week trip, and organize an international move.

So my trip with Milo, despite being a work trip, was a respite from much of this.  When we arrived in London, I made a silent pledge to try and move at Milo’s pace, to check myself when I found myself about to say, “Keep up,” “Let’s go,” “Hurry.”  I checked myself a lot.  Like most 6 year old boys, Milo looks at everything, touches everything, takes the long way around mailboxes, garbage cans, and streetlights.  So we did not do as many things in a day as I would have.   We spent more time in our hotel than I would have.  We stopped to rest on more patches of grass than I would have.  In the end, it was just right.

On Sunday we went to Margo and Gregory’s place—Gregory is teaching a course with a group of UT students—had some lunch and then strolled to Regent’s Park.  Unlike our first two days in London, which were unusually warm, dry and sunny, Sunday presented us with more typical London weather—grey and drizzly.  We wandered, took shelter at an ice cream stand when it began to drip, found a playground and, when it truly started to rain, caught a cab to Harrod’s.  Milo calls Harrod’s “the Gruffalo store” because it is there that I bought him the children’s book by Julia Donaldson.  Check it out, and also be sure to see the recent BBC production of it, which I think you can download.  It’s terrific.  We loaded up on a few more Donaldson/Scheffler books and then went to the Wagamama at Harvey Nichols for more noodles.

Monday I had a meeting with the head of the well-being group at the New Economics Foundation.  Margo picked Milo up and took the two boys to the Natural History Museum, where they got activity backpacks and pith helmets and did some exploring.  Meanwhile I had a terrific meeting with Charles Seaford—NEF has done some very interesting work on creating measures of well-being.  David Cameron recently announced his intention to measure and work toward well-being, instead of focusing so much on GDP.  Other governments at all levels are doing the same. 

I met up with Milo and the boys for lunch, and then we set out for the airport.  We finished reading the first Harry Potter book on the airplane; Milo is hooked.

After that it was a short week—two long days of work, and now we are bound for Sardinia, one last mini-trip before we leave Barcelona.  We had planned to do something this weekend with our friends Vibeke and Eirik, and their sons Andres and Peter (Milo’s best friend).  When Alec saw the incredibly low fares to Sardinia, we couldn’t resist.  So, in true Spanish style, we turned a 3 day weekend into a 5 day weekend, bought tickets, rented a house and a 9 person hooky van (Andres’ friend Dmitrios joined us), and packed up again.