un-bee-lievable

great news from the school front: our little bee rike has participated in her first ever spelling bee across the 240 kids of year 7 and actually won it, therefore also adding another round of points for her house team. not only did she have the nerve to sign up for such a daunting thing but she managed to get a long list of words right that probably even her clever mum wouldn't have done that easily without a dictionary...must be from her father's side...

(or was it because below is her favourite training material??)



(click here for a nice training site from the times)

the empire visits britain

 what a great start into the new year with already a short but stately visit by the empire and her entourage aka pam and stef and as you can see even in only fourty eight hours there are practically no things you can't do in london.

after an elaborate round trip from paddington home on friday night, which is really north west to south east, we tried it the other way again on sunday with a full south to east to north to north west trip from blackheath to hampstead heath via hackney, whitechapel, clerkenwell, islington, holloway and highgate, where our visitors not only saw practically every landmark on offer but also more or less all the places i ever lived in in london.

leaves the questions of what we did on saturday, but that's an easy one: full north to south (or shall i say top to bottom) in selfridges and harvey nicks which left the empire with several new coats, dresses and handbags and more gorgeous stuff even if not in the sales. check the pics (thanks to rike and deac - great job!) on the slide show on the right. 

  

guys this was great fun!  

high up there

not sure that the lovely horse in the picture is getting the full meaning of whom he carries, but let me tell you not many a horses are selected for this important role. nor are many doctors chosen to lead such a significant part of society either and our dear cousinchen is now a woman of real standing - well deserved and well done! congratulations!!!

guten rutsch!!!

a great leap into 2011 with our traditional new years day party. master chef deac did it again - the cassoulet was irresistable - and a nice fish soup to round it up and as always a tasty dessert from rike (this year: creme caramel - hmmm). lot's of lovely guests too, with the kids clearly having fun in their own set up - in the basement...