Category Archives: bath

Ukulele in the Park

I first wanted to take the time to acknowledge all of my readers who took the time to comment, tweet, and email me after my Wednesday post: Marriage, In laws, and Cross Cultural. I was surprised by how many people reached out to me after dealing with very similar cultural issues with family. It is not something I would wish on anyone else but it comforting to know we are not alone. It is just another facet in our life as expats and global nomads. Thank you also for those who reminded me why I love blogging and that we should blog for ourselves. Thank you for the lovely comments on how the subject matter was approached.

The one word that came up most frequently since Wednesday was the word ‘honesty‘ and how you as readers love that aspect most about coming to the blog. Thank you, I greatly appreciate that feedback. With being a Third Culture Kid and having to fit into to so many different cultures, situations, countries, etc it is nice to have a place where I can be me. I hope that you reading this blog know that you too can be you. You do not have to be living in fear of the expectations of others. Be proud of yourself, love life, and live your life remembering how precious and beautiful it is with you in it.

This semester my son Ronan has been learning to play the Ukulele in school. I was actually tickled when we first visited his classroom and realised this was the instrument his year was learning how to play. My youngest son was born in Hawaii, where we lived for three years. Being the longest place my sons have lived anywhere it was a nice ‘home’ comfort to have a bit of Hawaii here with us. We were able to get Ronan his own Ukulele in his favourite ~~colour~~ shade black. For a kid who always has a song humming off his lips it has been a great next step putting a musical instrument in his hands. He is always practicing his cords, asking me to teach him new songs, and waking us up in the morning with his songs of serenade. He recently learned how to play the beginning part of Sunshine of Your Love by Cream and I may be biased, but it is so cute to watch him play it.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch him play in a multi school wide concert at the Pavilion in Bath, England. Unfortunately my husband was not able to get away from work so I was busy taking photos with the DSLR, with my iPhone, and recording video our video recorder. Yes I am one of those parents in the crowd. However they do not want any photographs or film footage to be put publicly. So just imagine how cute a class of year 3 look and sound in their british school uniforms playing Yellow Submarine by the Beatles.

Afterwards I took both my sons to the nearby Parade Park for the first time. It is usually never crowded despite all the tourists, since you have to pay a fee to get access. However if you are a Bath resident like me with your Discovery card you can just walk right in. This made it perfect for capturing photos of my son while he played music in the park. I love the photograph below because Ronan looks so much like my dad especially with my dad’s hair as he had it the same length (if not longer) in the last year of his life. I know he would have been so proud to have seen him play yesterday and is smiling down on him. Here are the rest of my favourites from our spontaneous photo session in the park:

Hot Air Balloons

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I love to contemplate all that we are blessed with on the weekends. I still feel like we are in our honeymoon period of being in expats in England, though we moved abroad in two years ago. Having been in our current city of Bath since Christmas, we are constantly finding new things to love about our home. The top thing for me is the picturesque view from our windows and back garden, the view of Solsbury Hill (cue the Peter Gabriel song), and seeing all the hot air balloons over our house when the weather is perfect for a ride in the sky. From my family to yours, have a wonderful weekend! Make sure to check out Trooping the Colour today for the Queen’s Birthday.

Tigerlilly Quinn & Bath Fashion Museum ‘Blate’

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Day 26, Sunday: Something you read online. Leave and link and discuss, if you’d like.

Last week I had the pleasure of going to the Bath Fashion Museum with bloggers Fritha and Lia. The ‘Blate’ (Blogger + Date) is featured today on Tigerlilly Quinn filled with amazing photography by Fritha. Please check it out to read more about the blate and leave a comment to say hi!

I have included a few of Fritha‘s photographs for the post today:

Photograph belongs to Fritha of Tigerlilly Quinn

Q: Have you been on a ‘Blate’ before? Which bloggers did you meet up with and what did you guys do?

#BlogEveryDayInMay
*photographs found here belong to Fritha of Tigerlilly Quinn © 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.tigerlillyquinn.com

Coffee @ Camden in Bath, England

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I headed into town today despite the fact that I will have nineteen children at my house tomorrow for my son’s party, and there is still much to do in preparation. I felt like being spontaneous and so I met up with my husband on his lunch break to try out Coffee @ Camden in Bath. Technically it is in Camden which you can get to from the Bath city centre in a mere five minutes. If you happen to come on a nice day I highly recommend sitting outside. Their back patio area is very nice and has a picturesque view. Which was lovely especially when the sun hid back behind the clouds and it got a bit colder.

My husband ordered an Americano with the Camden Club, which is served with kettle chips, and I ordered a cafe latte and the Frittata from their lunch menu. The Frittata was delicious and it came with a side salad, bread, and chutney. The best part was being pleasantly surprised by the fact that the bread was still warm. I could easily order the same thing next time if I do not try one of their five variations of panini.

Since this was a rare ‘day date’ with my husband, I decided to treat myself to the cupcakes I had seen photos of from their Coffee @ Camden facebook page. I paired my vanilla cupcake with a hot chocolate complete with cream, marshmallows, and sprinkles for a full sweet sugar fix. It hit the spot.

When you come you must ask about their amazing chili jam. We bought a very large jar of it a week back from their stall near Milsom Place on a weekend. It literally goes quite well with anything. Toast, chicken, eggs, crackers, or even just off a spoon. We must have tried it on almost everything because our jar is now almost empty. Otherwise I would have shared a photo with you. Maybe with the next jar. 😉

Coffee @ Camden is open Monday thru Friday from 9am – 5pm

with breakfast being served until 11am. You can view their full menu here.

Coffee @ Camden

2 Claremont Terrace, Camden, Bath, BA1 3EH

Twitter: @SarararaCoffee

The Roman Baths (Bath, England)

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This weekend our walk led us not into the English countryside but into our town of Bath, England. This is the home of the historic Roman Baths and location of a natural hot springs. The history stems before the Romans built their temple in 60-70 AD to the Celtics who built a shrine here dedicated to the goddess Sulis, and whom the Romans identified with as Minerva. I had come here a very young girl, drank the water, and I do not remember a moment of that occasion Needless to say it was a wonderful place to re-experience with my family as they came here for the very first time.

As residents of Bath we were able to cut the lines of tourists and apply for our Discover card, which got us into the Roman Baths free of charge. The electronic handheld tour guides are complimentary and come with a variety of tours which you can follow at your leisure. With two sons who would gladly play their Nintendo DS all day, this was a huge hit with them both. We ended up spending three hours touring the sights and we could easily come back to see and hear more at another time.

I definitely recommend coming to Bath, England not only for the lush and beautiful views of the country but for the historic sites in town like the Roman Baths. You can also check out the Jane Austen Museum. We have not been yet but plan to go especially during this year of anniversary. After viewing the Baths you can kick your feet up and relax at the modern day thermal spa and enjoy the natural hot springs as the Romans had many years before.

Visiting the Roman Baths in Bath, England.

The Bath Abbey overlooks the Roman Baths.

With my husband, +Ryan Aherin, at the Roman Baths.

Loved the image of love in photo on the left and the details as shown on the right.

Only the ducks are allowed to bathe in the steamy warm waters today.

For a girl who grew up in Italy, I love the Roman aspects of Bath, England.

Visiting the historic sight with my bella familia.

Details of old and details of new were visions we saw today in Bath, England.

For those of you who follow me on Instagram
Here are the highlights I shared from over the weekend.

**Images may not be used or altered without written consent. Please get in contact for more information.

Expat Living: Highs & Lows

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It has been a busy week for this expat living in Bath, England.

If you follow my instagram you may have seen the budding flowers.

I am so happy about this that its hard to walk down the street

without snapping a photo of the signs of Spring.

I had been asked by an Expat Blog to do an interview about my life living

abroad and advice to other expats and those hoping to cross over the pond.

In this I realized that there is only really one thing that gets me down.

Life in England is a little more expensive than if we had chose to live stateside.

I have friends who own their own two story houses with basements and land.

While that looks nice in photograph, I would not give up my tiny washing machine and

drying my clothes over the heater to not seeing the views I have outside my window.

With our 10 year Vow Renewal coming up, I look forward to sharing those views

as the backdrop to our ceremony and photographs.

I have however found out that life does not have to be so expensive in England and

hopefully within the next couple of months things may start becoming more smooth

as we continue our transition into our new home here in Batheaston.

Anyone interested in seeing a house tour of where we live?

While I was out with my friend Libby yesterday having one of the best Chai lattes,

we discussed going out weekly to try out different venues in our Bath area.

Which would be great because there is somewhere special that I hope to share

with all you blog readers next week.

Speaking of surprises.

I was suprised this week to find out that I was chosen to be a VIP blogger

for Britain Style Bloggers at Bristol Fashion Week.

I added the official button on the side bar and wil be tweeting on Twitter about it.

Look for the hashtags: #BFWSS13#BristolFashionWeek

Until that awesome time later this month I have a special guest blogger

to share something special with you. Something else to look forward to next week!

Thank you to all the new readers and if you found me from Across the Pond

Thank you and I’m glad you came this way.

Snowing in Bath

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I knew I had acclimated back to life in England when I started using the weather app frequently on my phone and actually talking about the weather in conversations. This morning I saw we had 90% chance of snow fall in the afternoon and started to get excited. Sure enough after lunch my kids started talking excitedly about the heavy snowflakes falling outside. Unfortunately it only lasted a little while and we were left with no reminder. After our first snow fall of 2013 last month we are left longing for more. We had so much fun going into town and seeing all the architecture covered in the white snow. Of course back at home there were plenty of snowball fights, snowmen and snow forts that were built. In England we get plenty of rain but the snow is always so magical to me.

Here for the first time on the blog are photographs from the snow we had fun enjoying while it lasted.