This week has been medically active, meaning I've been at the health clinic a lot more that I would have liked. I went to check if Big Munchkin nosebleed is anything serious. I took Little Munchkin for his Prevenar shot. I went for a 'well-person' check up myself, and I took Big Munchkin to see a doctor again to make sure that red spots on her face are not chicken pox. They were not. I think I am well on the way of earning a reputation of a panicking mother. I do subscribe to a concept of 'better safe than sorry'. Going to the clinic is a very stressful affair. They insist on you coming on time, but when you do you still end up waiting for up to an hour. With two kids it is very painful.

On Wednesday we went for another dance class with Big Munchkin. Parking at that location was significantly easier. Hence, I will be going for that class from now on. On Thursday a friend came to visit with her two kids. It is very nice to be able to talk to someone with vocabulary bigger than 50 words. Friday I went to see a house that is being sold nearby. It is another placeholder, meaning that this house should be completely redone (including removing some of the walls) before it would become livable. We'll be seeing a few more houses this weekend.

I am really glad I started driving. I hate driving, but it does give me a sense of freedom. It also increased opportunities available for Big and Little Munchkins' classes. So far I signed up Little Munchkin for a Music class and Swimming (in September). I signed up Big Munchkin for a Dance class and will be signing her up for Swimming and Gymnastics. I am still uncertain whether I want her to go two or three days to daycare. She is going to daycare four morning a week right now and I am quite happy with this arrangement. But the chain that owns her current nursery made a 'business' decision to close her branch down and I had to find a new place. Unfortunately, none of the available nurseries takes kids for half-days. I put her on a waiting list for three days a week, but I still don't feel comfortable with giving her for a full day. At the same time, I do need her to be in daycare for some time, so I can take Little Munchkin for his classes.

Today, Little Munchkin started his Kindermusic class. He loved it. So, now we will be going there every Monday. Big Munchkin went to the swimming pool last Sunday with her daddy. She loved it as well, and I had a very relaxing and quiet morning.

Today we went to Bodiam Castle, approximately an hour and a half drive from London. From outside it is a perfect fairy tale castle. Inside the castle is in ruins. We had a very nice time there - nice walk around the castle and a nice picnic. Big Munchkin had a good time running around and climbing the towers. It is not as child friendly as Leeds Castle or Penshurst Place, but very pleasant nevertheless.

After we returned to London, we dropped in to check out the local Summer Fair. I expected a lot more from this event, after all it was heavily advertised for a past month. In reality, it was just a big garage sale. Later in the afternoon we did a bit of toy shopping for Big Munchkin - just a couple of toys for her and a gift toy for tomorrow's Birthday Party. First time in her life a boy invited her for a Birthday Party. One of the boys in her nursery is having a paddling pool party for his Birthday. We went to get a gift for him. In the evening we all went for a meal of dosa in a nearby South Indian restaurant. A perfect ending for a perfect day.

This week has been a very long one. On Tuesday afternoon I took Big Munchkin for a dance class. Can't say that she loved it, but she did have a good time. They are not learning any particular type of dancing there, but just a few basic movements. Most importantly it is a great class to learn to follow simple instructions. I signed the Big Munchkin up to this class for the next six weeks till the end of term.

Wednesday was a write off. I was feeling so unwell that I had to call a friend to come over and help me. I did not think myself being able to take care of two kids. Luckily, she did have time and came over. I spent the whole day in bed. Three years of pregnancies and breastfeeding took toll on my health. After giving birth to Little Munchkin I have been unwell quite often. Nothing is seriously wrong, but general tiredness and weakness. Wednesday was particularly bad. Fortunately, it did not last. Thursday I was back up and running.

Last weekend was very busy. Saturday we went to Tunbridge Wells. A suburban town just south of London. To add some purpose to this trip we made an appointment to see a house in Tunbridge Wells and two other houses in Sevenoaks, a slightly bigger suburban town a bit close to London.

Overall, I can say that we are coming to conclusion that we should buy a house outside London. There will be a commute, but then the current commute for my husband is around 40 minutes. Moving to Sevenoaks would add another 30 or 40 minutes to it, but it might be a small price to pay for a quality of life. If in Toronto people generally move to suburbs because they can't afford or can find an equal house in downtown, here people move to suburbs because they can afford it and to achieve a certain quality of life. In London, outside of few central boroughs, people with kids move to suburbs. They do it because of better schools, better health care, and better social environment. The area where we live right now is very convenient from the point of commute, but it is so full of council housing (subsidized government housing estates) that it looks a bit like ghetto. So, we are looking for a place to move as I don't think our current place is a good area to bring up kids. There are many good people here and we've made some friends, but overall, the social environment here is not the one I want to have my kids to be exposed to. There are couple of good private schools here, but government schools are a disaster. Plus, the government schools are not multicultural enough. I don't want my kids to go to entirely Caribbean school. Government schools are out of question.

Out of our last weekend trip I can say that we like Sevenoaks. Tunbridge Wells was a bit too far. We are going to continue to narrow down the location of our house search. Hopefully, by the end of summer we would have a clear idea where we want to live.

Sunday,we had a Birthday party for Big Munchkin. This week she is turning two. She really is not a baby anymore, but a little person. She enjoyed all the gifts and attention. I enjoyed all the take out. I hardly cooked anything. Most of the food was picked up or delivered. I am very happy about that.

I had a very long day. Two Munchkins were both fighting for attention, and they were doing it the only way they can - by crying. Nearly every minute of today was filled with crying. It is very hard to handle and I don't know how to deal with it. Including them into each others' activities is possible only up to a certain degree. They are simply too little for that. By dinner time I was crying myself and trying not do hit either of them. They are finally asleep and I feel like I've been run over by a very big truck (or two little trucks).

Last couple of day I have been feeling a bit better about NHS health care. NHS stands for a National Health Service and my opinion of it was a particularly bad one till now. Fortunately, when the critics say that the system is geared towards middle class, they are right. What the critics mean is that if you know what you want and if you can coherently argue in favour of whatever you want you can actually get it.

This week Big Munchkin got her BCG (tuberculosis) immunization even though she is almost two and there is a waiting list even for newborns. Little Munchkin got a Prevenar vaccine prescribed. In Canada it was a routine immunization. Here no one has even heard of it. As all prescriptions are free for under 16 years old, I feel quite good about not having to pay for it.

We continued our discovery of Kent by going to Penshurst Place today. It features a 13th century castle and a garden. Big Munchkin had another busy day running around. Even though we did take a stroller, she refused to sit in it and insisted on running (and being carried) around. She had a good time and so did we.

On a negative note - it is getting ridiculously hot. I hope it does not last. Our house, as most of British houses, does not have air conditioning. I don't understand how people live here. We had air conditioning in Canada and we have it in India, but not in the UK. Both Munchkins have problem sleeping. They are simply too hot. I, with all my fear of insects, allowed windows to be opened pretty much permanently. The house is filling up with spiders, mosquitoes, and other assorted crawlies, but it is still impossibly hot. Talk about realities of global warming! After heated debate we decided to add to it by buying a portable air conditioning. Unfortunately, so did few thousands of other people. Most of the on-line retailers are out of stock or delivering in no less than a month. I hope my husband is going to find a reasonably priced air conditioner. At this point reasonable is within 200-300 pounds and it might increase with the temperature and my desperation. Wish us good luck.

We went to Leeds Castle today. We had a great time. The drive was unexpectedly fast. It took us about an hour to reach the castle. We did not travel anywhere for some time. As inexperienced 'travellers with kids' we managed to forget one very important object - a stroller. Big Munchkin had to walk - a lot. We spent most of the time trying to coax her into walking, while she spent a lot of time trying to coax us into carrying her. She got so tired that she fell asleep in the car on the way back. I especially appreciated to find Leeds Castle has a very nice and clean baby changing room.

I am glad that we finally decided to go somewhere. I had lived in London for a whole year in the past and the only place I had gone then was Bath. In the last three years of living in Canada the furthest we'd been was Niagara. We really need to get out more. I don't know how long we are going to live in the UK, but I would really like not to regret the missed opportunity of seeing the country after we move again.

It was a huge surprise for me to find out that in the UK the immunizations for babies are done at 2, 3 and 4 months. I am so used to 'normal' Canadian arrangement of 2, 4 and 6 months. I find all these differences between the UK and the Canadian systems to be very annoying. Poor Little Munchkin got his second round of immunizations done yesterday. He was not amused. I am trying to have his Prevnar immunization done as well. The Big Munchkin had hers done in Canada and I keep feeling that the Little Munchkin is getting a rotten deal because we moved to the UK before he was born. He is not being seen by pediatrician every month as the Big Munchkin was. We simply can't afford to pay 150 pounds per child per visit. At least, I am trying to get him all immunizations as the Big Munchkin got. For that I need a permission from the GP. Hopefully, the GP is not going to argue with me about it.

We moved to the UK with the hope of providing a better future to our kids, but I keep feeling that they are worst off because we did it. Even though my husband is making more money, our standard of living went down. The neighbourhood is a lot worse, the health care is worse, the education is a lot worse, everything is worse. I know we did not have much choice about moving as the jobs in my husband's area in Canada are in short supply, but I really miss Toronto. I miss our house their, our friends, YMCA family programs, the nearby Jewish Community Centre, having Royal Ontario Museum at my door step, having Baby Gap nearby, having a pharmacy that is open till midnight around the corner and not thinking about it as something extraordinary, having pediatrician within 5 minute walk and being able to see her anytime for free. Canada was boring when there were just two of us. With kids it was a wonderful place to live. I doubt that we will be going back any time soon, but I miss it a lot.

Last week I went to see a doctor who promised that I will feel better by Monday. Thankfully, he is right and I am feeling better. Unfortunately, as a result of my being sick last few days, I let the house work slide. Now I feel like I am drowning in household chores. There is a pile of undone laundry, a pile of not-ironed clothes and a dirty kitchen. The house looks like after a major student party. I have no idea how I am going to get it all going again. Hopefully, the new cleaning lady, whom I am interviewing tomorrow, is good and ready to start working soon. The house is crying for a clean up.

My post-natal class is also over. I have enjoyed it, but it occupied every Monday morning for the past 6 or 7 weeks. I am glad to have that time back for other exciting things, such as laundry, ironing, cleaning, etc ...

I had a very miserable day today - a headache, a sore throat, a sprung back muscle, and a stomach flu. What a joyous day! I spent the whole day running back and forth between living room and a loo. I also have been washing my hands every fifteen minutes as I am panicking about spreading the joy to my kids. The last thing either of my munchkins need is a dehydration. Hopefully, I will be better tomorrow.

We were supposed to accompany Big Munchkin on her nursery trip to the city farm. I doubt that I will be feeling well enough to go, and she is too small to go without me. So, tomorrow I will have both of them with me the whole day. Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!