zeke and wendy

photos from the US

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:30:29 +0100

we landed in time for maria’s surprise 30th birthday party! this is the long-distance crew:

we stayed the night in concord with friends and the next morning zeke had 3 barbecue sandwiches for breakfast!!!

then we went to VA and visited wendy’s family.

we also played 9 holes of captain’s choice.

milt used his antique hickory shaft clubs

we definitely needed that gatorade after playing in the sun and being so out of practice

then we went to the triangle to visit friends and some of zeke’s family. here we are having one of many mexican meals:

zeke with a root beer and taco salad

wendy and cam with burritos:

our visit has been lots of fun so far and the weather has been great (85F/30C most of the time). we’ll get to see a lot of friends from college tomorrow at a big brunch and then we’ll go to our old church in durham before heading to greenville to see more of zeke’s family.

"sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy"

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:11:17 +0100

the past few days it has hardly rained in manchester and we have been taking these opportunities to go on nice walks around the nearby parks and leafy neighbourhoods between our flat and zeke’s work. on sunday we even played a short game of ultimate frisbee with friends in the park.

though it’s not actually warm yet (56F/13C max), there’s a general permeating happiness when it’s not raining. today it lifted my heart so much to walk past a primary school and see how the children outside were so full of joy, so happy to be playing outside.

here’s my favourite tree-lined path in birchfields park:

and here is our block of flats in the sunshine.

though the rain and clouds are so persistent here, it makes us appreciate the sun so much more. (if you pardon how cheesy it is, i’d say that’s metaphorically true as well.)

cinco de mayo / derby party pics part II

Mon, 07 May 2012 23:38:00 +0100

the piñata smasher with frida

playing horseshoes in honor of the derby

katy got a ringer!

watching them play

like a spanish painting -look at the sky

abi's horse lost at the last minute

and claire's won!

tough odds

abi not liking 2nd place

mint juleps!

cinco de mayo / derby party pics part II

last weekend we took advantage of the fact that the...

Mon, 07 May 2012 23:30:13 +0100

our invite

the thorps doing both themes!

derby girls, una chica, y Frida Kahlo

y un loco hombre

both themes

amazing cinco de mayo costumes!

having a chat

after the taco bar

derby ladies

watching piñata smashing

last weekend we took advantage of the fact that the mexican-american holiday “cinco de mayo” fell on the same day as the kentucky derby and threw a party embracing both themes for some friends here in manchester.

today some nice friends of wendy’s step-brothers took us...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 01:56:10 +0100

today some nice friends of wendy’s step-brothers took us over to an island just past fort sumpter (only accessible by boat). we had a great time with friends and family hanging out on the beach. the weather was perfect and we’ll both be returning to england happily with a little sunburn.

now we’re off for our last american dinner before flying back to the UK tomorrow night.

and another sampling of some of the pictures we took during dave...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 01:35:00 +0100

and another sampling of some of the pictures we took during dave and rhiannon’s wedding weekend (part II)

here’s a small sampling of some of the pictures we took...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:53:00 +0100

here’s a small sampling of some of the pictures we took during dave and rhiannon’s wedding weekend (part I)

Zeke played a round of Captain’s choice with the groom and...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:30:38 +0100

Zeke played a round of Captain’s choice with the groom and company this morning while Wendy got more burritos and coffee with her mom and Jen. Now we are all resting up for the wedding in just a few hours!

After a not so great flight, we had a great evening with friends...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:26:58 +0100

After a not so great flight, we had a great evening with friends in Durham (North Carolina). We’ll post their “hello Britain taste-test video later. On the drive to Charleston Wendy had her first sundrop in over a year! It’s lovely and sunny and warm (mid 80s F is a wonderful shock to the system) and we are having a great time with family.

and here are some pictures of our tour around the palace of...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:21:15 +0100

outside of the palace of holyroodhouse

zeke being HP in the gardens of holyrood

where HM has her june garden party

maybe zeke will be invited to play

old chapel at holyrood

us in the rain at holyrood

this chapel could use a roof

under the eaves

eloquent gravestone with so much texture

how cute were wills and harry?

and here are some pictures of our tour around the palace of holyroodhouse at the end of the royal mile opposite the castle.

though not pictured here (see zeke’s Facebook wall), haggis was tried (by the meat-eaters) and enjoyed.

after we left to come back to work in manchester, mom and milt went up to st. andrews and milt got to play a round of golf! we look forward to seeing those pictures soon… because we’ll see them in 2 days!

after a really fun weekend with friends here in manchester, we find ourselves packing to leave tomorrow for a 4.5 day trip back home to see wendy’s step-brother david get married in charleston. we’ll soak up the sun, gorge ourselves on american food, and get to see some friends and family before jetting back to work again next week.

here are some pictures from our trip to meet wendy’s mom...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:00:01 +0100

macpherson hunting tartan for a wee one

milt getting the kilt accessories

in front of the milton school

not the whiskey we bought

whiskey shop in old town

more scottish get ups for wee ones

here are some pictures from our trip to meet wendy’s mom and stepdad in edinburgh a few weeks ago. the first set is of our time strolling around old town in kilt and whiskey shops.

Seeing Casablanca (Zeke’s first time!) on the big screen...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:17:26 +0100

Seeing Casablanca (Zeke’s first time!) on the big screen at the Cornerhouse Theatre.

last pics from america

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:38:13 +0100

just a few pictures from the weekend

at the rehearsal dinner

the beautiful couple’s first dance at the wedding on saturday. lots of joy and happiness at this celebration.

friends at our table video chatting with Zeke back in England!

after the wedding we headed to the sports bar nearby to watch basketball…

and play big buck hunter (note: i did win, in case you were wondering).

then we went back to cam’s to eat just a little bit of the wedding leftovers…

today before ash and maria headed back towards concord/charlotte, we went to our old church in durham (where cam still goes). it was such a blessing to be there. then we went for more burritos!

i’ll head to the RDU airport soon and then on to philly and will land in manchester monday morning.

more pics

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:28:11 +0100

i’m having a great time in NC with friends.

first the foursome went to top of the hill for drinks and dinner (notice my 2009 national championship shirt)

then we walked around UNC’s campus afterwards and reminisced on old times. we ran into a group of freshman girls who took this picture in front of the old well (below) for us and in exchange we gave them some sage advice

the next day we went for more burritos(!) and to the mall, like proper american girls

then we had cat’s bachelorette night/lingerie shower at cam’s (note that the bride-to-be is actually taking the picture)

after everyone left we had a grand time drinking wine and prepping the wedding programs while singing old country songs- a lovely nostalgic time

lots of photos from the US (part I)

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:10:13 +0100

i (wendy) came to the US last wednesday to give a talk in DC at the Renaissance Society of America’s annual conference. the night i arrived i got to have dinner with a friend i hadn’t seen in 12 years and her husband. they both teach at the University of Mary Washington and we had plenty of nerdy things to talk about. it was great to visit with them, but by 10pm the jet lag was hitting me pretty hard (especially considering the crazy week i had before i left manchester).

after my talk on thursday (which did go well, despite feeling like i might vomit) my mom came up to meet me and take me out to celebrate. (also, having a starbucks inside the hotel- greatest idea ever!)

here i am outside of the hotel after meeting mom

yay, first big girl talk. we met her cousin diana for a nice dinner at an swanky asian/american fusion restaurant.

the next day i was so excited about the sunshine. it was 85F/30C in DC! i wanted to walk around the touristy/historic sites.

after breakfast we walked by the white house, which was only a few blocks from the hotel.

then on to the cherry blossoms on the mall

then on to the washington monument

then the WWII memorial

and then the lincoln memorial

here’s the place on the steps of the lincoln memorial where martin luther king jr. gave his “i have a dream” speech

mom standing where dr. king stood

me standing where dr. king stood with a view back to the washington monument

i love the overly meaningful architectural planning that happens in the layout of city monuments. the lincoln memorial faces through to the washington memorial with a reflecting pool in between, and the other side of the washington memorial faces the capitol building with the mall in between. it’s also why the walk to buckingham palace in london is my favourite.

more pictures from the lincoln memorial

then when we were walking back towards the national mall (british friends, this is not a shopping mall, but a public outdoor park-like space in downtown DC) we saw this hilarious looking mascot of george washington, who has something to do with the baseball team in DC.

then we met my uncle ed and cousin diana for ed’s birthday lunch.

after lunch we drove about an hour southwest from DC to visit my brother jeremy at his new job at the philip carter winery.

here we are in their tasting room

jeremy gave us a tour of the winery and his office.

the weather was so lovely we drove with the top down to dinner and to see jeremy’s new house.

then mom and i continued on to the cabin, with the help of a triple grande from starbucks.

we did some hunting creek vineyards business over the weekend. it rained really hard and there was even a tornado watch, so most of our work was inside the winery.

i also got to visit with my dad, stepmom, and stepbrother and their cute new puppy. my stepbrother luke told me about some of the cool engineering projects he’s working on at university.

i’m so proud of all of my brothers! jeremy got a great job right after finishing his degree in CA, luke is engaged to a sweet girl and is doing really well in college, adam has started his own business right out of college and has travelled extensively for video projects, and david is a successful engineer and will marry a really great girl next month in charleston!

then on monday i went to charlotte to meet maria (after some errands with mom) and we got mani/pedis at this great place that serves wine and shows the food network. it’s like they read my mind. i wish abi collins was here, i think she’d love it.

we caught up over dinner and then ashley came to meet us.

ashley and i are in concord for a few days before heading to durham/raleigh for cat’s wedding this weekend. before all of that fun begins, we’re doing a bit of work:

i’m having a nice time so far, and i’ve had at least 5 different mexican meals already! i miss zeke, but we’re happy to have video chats in the meantime.

in the capital

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:57:00 +0000

i (wendy) made it safely to DC to give a talk at the RSA’s annual conference.

here i am on the program (the guy i speak after already has 3 books… yikes)

the hotel is swank (a legit starbucks in the lobby) and the weather is amazing! when i landed at the airport i immediately bought a sleeveless top and put it on in the bathroom because it was so warm. no gloves and coats here!

i will hopefully give a few US updates over the next week.

Watching Zeke play in a staff match. I think some teachers are...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:33:00 +0000

Watching Zeke play in a staff match. I think some teachers are working out their aggression. (Zeke is number 6 up by the goal) the MGS staff won this match that was a practice for next week’s match against the MGS parents. despite how grey it looks in this picture, it actually was quite fun to be outside at the school.

smith update

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:12:35 +0000

(disclaimer: no new photos, all of these have been posted on Facebook already)

the past two months have sped by. the last blog posts were from wendy’s trip to venice where we kept in touch having Skype dinner dates.

wendy brought back a few ingredients for our valentine’s dinner. a couple of years ago we started a tradition of making a nice dinner together instead of going out to a crowded restaurant. it’s especially nice now that we’ve become better cooks.

this year we started with ciabatta and delicious balsamic vinegar from venice, and then chilli pepper heart-shaped pasta with a mushroom and shallot cream sauce. (soy cream, that is)

before dinner wendy baked a chocolate cake that we iced with pink champagne icing, pink sugar and candy hearts. and zeke put his cookie-decorating skills to use decorating valentine cookies.

we had plenty of sweet treats that week.

wendy also brought back another treat for zeke from her layover at the airport in amsterdam. zeke loves these dutch sprinkles that they put on buttered toast. (yes, people are allowed to eat this for breakfast!)

he also grew a beard. (that was shaved into a moustache last weekend for his cowboy character in the murder mystery dinner party hosted by the thorps)

february was also a hard time as wendy’s grandmother passed away. wendy had a wonderful last visit with grandmama at christmas, but was still very sad to not be there with the family and to be instead busy with things here in manchester. a cheery present from ashley arrived at just the right time.

ashley mailed a few friends these glittery shoes (a la sisterhood of the travelling pants). wendy wore them around the house with pjs and ate chocolate cake and remembered grandmama.

we also had a bit of snow in manchester in february.

other than that, february was a busy month with zeke’s work load increasing at the school and wendy preparing to turn in her 3rd chapter for a phd panel and being a teaching assistant for her advisor’s class. there were a fair amount of migraines, stressful days, and sleepless nights in february. despite this, we were really grateful for the time we were able to spend at brunches, lunches, murder-mystery dinners, bible studies, american tv nights, and manchester united matches with some great friends here in manchester.

and now that it’s march, if you know zeke at all, you’ll know it’s just the beginning of a continuous stream of basketball-watching in this house.

wendy’s panel this week went very well. (if you ever wondered what wendy’s advisor meetings looked like, see this scene from the disney movie tangled)

yes, i do often have this unsure look on my face, but i feel very blessed to have such a supportive advisor. (though i don’t think she’s just using me for my magical hair)

now i’m grading essays and preparing to give my first 1 hour lecture to undergrads next tuesday and then wednesday i head to D.C. to give a talk at my first (as KG and i say) “big girl” conference. luckily i’ll be able to stay in the states for a few days and even go to a friend’s wedding in the triangle. zeke, however, will be in manchester doing lots of work and watching lots of basketball. i’ll be sure to eat enough mexican food for us both!

vaporetto strike

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:55:00 +0000

so the vaporetti (water buses) that are a main source of transportation around Venice were out of commission today because of strike action. i had read that they would operate the main services between 7am-9am and 5pm-7pm, so i thought i’d be ok to get to and from the museum (which is directly across the canal from the vaporetto stop near my flat). so i got up earlier to get to the stop by 8:30am.

sunrise over chiesa di frari from my window.

then when i got there it seems they were only running vaporetto line #2 and not the #1 that goes between my stop and the museum. so i had to do what the locals were doing and taking the traghetto instead. supposedly this isn’t supposed to be a scary thing… traghetti are basically stripped down, retired gondolas that take you only directly across the grand canal. they have no seats, but usually so few people ride the traghetti at a time that you can sit on the cross beams. since there was the vaporetto strike many more people were having to use the traghetti. so picture 20 people standing up in a gondola cutting across the canal while boats zoom by (motor boats, garbage boats, constructions boats…). an italian woman near me grabbed onto my arm for stability… and then after laughing i grabbed the man in front of me who then laughed at the two of us. it was actually quite terrifying. i was thinking “this is it. i’m going to fall into the lagoon with my laptop and lose all this research.”

but of course it was fine and i had an hour before i had to be at the museum so i stopped for coffee and made more notes for my next 2 chapters. the women working the coffee bar were singing along loudly to every american song on the radio. the best might have been the love ballad from top gun (take my breath away) or “if you don’t know me by now”, especially because they didn’t know all of the words but sang confidently anyway.

one of the shops i passed on the way from the cafe to the museum had these:

the glasses lots of people are wearing in venice, i’ve noticed. think zeke would want some?

then i spent the morning researching more of Mariano Fortuny’s albums of collected reproductions and photographs.

for my lunch break i didn’t want to try the traghetto again to get back to my flat, so i ate at a touristy restaurant near the museum and upped my caffeine for the home stretch of researching.

though i wouldn’t wish the inability to eat cheese on anyone, this pizza was actually pretty delicious. and i think i scared people with how quickly i ate the whole thing. (do you see its size relative to that normal-sized butter knife?)

i went back after lunch to finish looking at the selected albums. the archives director graciously agreed to send me more photographs of Palazzo Fortuny.

this is the ground floor of Palazzo Fortuny very near the water.

after leaving the museum, the vaporetto still wasn’t operating on my stop so i decided to walk the long way around (up to the bridge at the Accademia and then back down to campo dei frari) instead of braving the traghetto again (though i’m not sure it was easier as i had to deal with some, ahem, ‘chatty’ young italianos on the walk).

yesterday’s research also went well. i had an italian translator help at the museum who had studied in oxford and written her dissertation on the Scouse accent! (that’s liverpool for you american readers) we chatted about england for a bit. i also met with a professor of fashion history/theory at the university of venice whose book i had just read (and, like a nerd, asked for as a christmas present). she was enthusiastic, encouraging, and helpful.

i’ve had a wonderful time here in venice this week. the staff at museo fortuny have been excellent and i feel much more inspired for the last 2 chapters of this thesis.

day 1 at museo fortuny

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:26:40 +0000

so this is what researching looks like…

because i’m not allowed to take pictures of the cool stuff. but they did say they could provide pictures for me of some things i’ll write about in my 4th chapter, and the head of archives told me that no one had written on these pieces before (an art historian’s dream) or exhibited them. i also met a co-curator at the museum who was very helpful, friendly, and interesting.

the museum is in the middle of being closed for 2 months, so the atmosphere is a bit strange with lots of construction and staff busy working on the next show. but with it being closed to the public, i was given privileged access to pieces i’m writing on in my 3rd chapter.

tomorrow i go back for more notebooks and a painting.

and from this evening’s trip to the grocery store- here’s more proof that venetian ladies love their fur.