Brick Lane...

We were excited to learn that the Brick Lane Market, which is held on Sundays, was just around the corner from our hotel. 

I was especially fascinated by all the crazy graffiti...

...which was around every corner.

We found some cool stuff. Ashlynn bought orange construction overalls (which she and Sophie decided not to wear for Halloween, so Jimmy and I squeezed in them instead) and an old-fashioned camera that uses film. I bought a hat: a traditional black pork pie. 

Shoreditch is So Cool!

Probably not surprised that I couldn’t resist taking photos of Ashlynn with that powerful mural, both directly in front of it...

...and across the street so she could be reflected in the mirrors above the hotel entrance.

Also made her pose with Homer and Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons.

There’s our hotel in the background.

On our second day in London, we went across town to Vegfest UK. I was worried that an entire day at a vegan festival would get tiresome, but I really enjoyed it. It was much better laid out than a similar festival that we attended in Utrecht, plus we could understand the lectures. We’ll have to take Veronica along next year as she couldn’t join us since she was at an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament.

Mother-Daughter Time in London...

Instead of catching the bus back from Dorset to Holland, Ashlynn caught a train to London. I also got up early that morning to catch a flight to London City Airport. I had just enough time before meeting her at Waterloo Station to drop my bags off at the new CitizenM in Shoreditch, which was across from this massive mural topped with painted tram cars.

We both loved Shoreditch and its crazy graffiti. 

Don’t think I could have timed photographing Ashlynn at the hotel entrance any better as I managed to catch a reflection of a passing bus. That afternoon, Ashlynn popped into the IMG Models office to say hi and we did some quick shopping; she was especially thrilled to be offered a model’s discount at Brandie Melville.

After a nice Italian dinner, we went to see The Woman in Black, which has been performed since 1989 at the Fortune Theatre, a rather small and funky theatre built in 1924 near Covent Garden. Ashlynn was thrilled to see it as she studied the book for GSCE English, and had gotten me to read it and watch the movies as well. The play differed from the book and movies by being a play within a play with just two characters. We both really liked it.

The Jurassic Coast...

After a long bus journey, the Year 12 Geography classes arrived in Dorset, England, a very scenic area known as the Jurassic Coast.

Ashlynn felt very spoiled to spend four nights at a five-star golf resort. The house she shared with five other girls was bigger than our home. 

They spent one day recording data on dune succession. 

Ashlynn and her partner Stas recorded data on vegetation alongside the dunes. 

Ashlynn enjoyed meeting Rebecca and some other new IB students that she normally doesn’t encounter at school.

For the other two work days, they traveled to nearby villages to collect data on tourism and coastal defenses.

The quality is poor, but here’s a photo of the whole group. It was Ashlynn’s most relaxing school trip since the teachers were really “chill.”

Freshers Tournaments...

Veronica was very excited about getting back into playing Ultimate Frisbee once she got back to UEA.

First up were two tournaments for freshers. Although Veronica is no longer a freshmen, she was still allowed to play. They didn’t do so great in the Skunks Mixed Tournament in Southampton...

...but kicked butt at a women’s tournament in Nottingham...

Our sleeping beauty

...where they walked away with the first place trophy. Check out Veronica’s video here.

Honestly, I never expected to share naked photos of my daughter, but I just can’t resist. Here’s this year’s Aye-Aye entry for UEA’s naked charity sports calendar. Can’t tell from the photo, but it was raining and only 45°F (7°C).

My First Amsterdam 8K...

It felt like another major milestone to run my first race after breaking my head just four months earlier. In fact, it was my first race since moving to Holland. Before the race it was fun to dress up for a superhero photo at the Amsterdam Marathon Expo.

I am still slow as hell, but I was determined not to walk during this 8K (5 miles) race and other than stopping for a water, I never walked. Jimmy and Ashlynn were much faster than me, but they surprised me by sweet talking their way back onto the course so they could run with me for the final portion into Amsterdam Stadium. 

They were very surprised when I sprinted ahead of them for the final leg to the finish line. After watching Jimmy and Ashlynn come around that final corner in year’s past, it was really special to finally be completing a race there myself. Afterwards, we met up with Sally, John and Andrew, who came in an incredible 13th out of 4,647 runners, to watch the first marathon runners cross the finish line. Afterwards, Sally took these photos of the five of us racers.

Honestly, I was really hoping that I could finish in under an hour, so you can imagine that I was really pleased with my time. Ashlynn and Jimmy finished in 37:21; not Ashlynn’s best result on this course, but great considering she hadn’t trained at all. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed sitting outside for lunch. That evening, Jimmy and I did even more running at the FILTH Hash in Sassenheim.

Our Girl with a Pearl Earring...

In mid-October, I was thrilled to get an invitation for a special event at the Mauritshuis from my friend Abbie who works there as a painting restorer. In addition to working on a group painting together, we got to a dress up for a photo. Probably isn’t a big surprise that we chose for Ashlynn to be the Girl with a Pearl Earring from Vermeer’s painting...

...and I was a random lady.

Here’s the finished work of art.