July 18h. More of the local specialties

Irina and kids on bikes went to expand on our explorations at Bushy Park. It is great to see how confident Georgia is on the bike - she comfortably navigates other pedestrians and bikes on the sidewalk as I panic and drop off every time. Isabella is a bit uncomfortable in new places and requires frequent encouragement.

I went to visit nursery #3: Kingston Day Care. It is a chain school, like Kangaroo day school in NJ. Inside they had a similar security structure, actually even more robust - you need a code to get inside each classroom. I came at the right time again but now there were not rubber gloves and kids and teachers looked more engaged and happy. They even had a cage of chicks that they watched hatch. However the school is really tiny, and located in a house on a residential street. Their backyard is just a wooden box without even a slide. And while they provide meals and pretty extensive coverage, they cost more than our school in NJ.

So it was kind of in the middle...of the human kennel and a mess hall. Difficult decision. But what we have ultimately decided was two things 1) get Isabella placed in the nursery @ St. Lukes - she is able to attend 3 hours per day and it is free. But now we have to find a nanny to take her there and back home. 2) Will register Isabella @ Educare as a backup in case we cannot find a nanny. It is closer to St. Lukes and operates under the same schedule. We like option 1 because it allows to have the nanny, if we have to work late remotely, to pick up Georgia as well. And we can enroll Isabella in some enrichment classes at Educare on a part time basis.

Spoke to the director of the local school Druzhba. Even though it has 3 or 4 branches, in terms of the available programs is it a number of years behind Do-Re-Mi school: they have a few classes on Tuesday for little kids, and classes on Saturday and Sunday at a church building they get access too. They do not have dedicated facilities. The odds are we are not going to take classes on the weekend - there is far too much to explore here on our days off. So we will likely be continuing learning and practicing our Russian at the playground. But director may possibly introduce us to potential nanny.

At lunch we were to complete our banking application. It took about an hour. Bank rep mentioned that given our lack of credit history in the UK it is likely going to be a lengthy process to get a credit card. So I guess we will be without the "chipped" card for a while.

At night we sat on our bed and watched the beautiful Russian version of Ivanhoe with the kids. It is more than fitting for the place :) We will have to find and visit Sherwood forest. They really liked the movie and asked a lot of questions.

Irina observed a group of working out moms with running strollers. There was a fearless leader, followed by a flock of others doing their warm-ups and very determined and oblivious to some of the screaming infants. Incidentally Kingston is very much in line with the royal tradition of late - the number of pregnant women by far exceeds the number of non-pregnant ones. And it is definitely a family friendly town once one completes their pregnancy- streets are abound with all kids of strollers populated by the kids of all types and sizes.

Speaking of types. As I worked on the school application, I learned that there is interest in getting more precise information about one's "whiteness." It is not sufficient to just be Caucasian, in addition to plain White, there are entries like White British, White Irish, White Western European, White European, White English, White Welch, White and Asian (and/or Black Afrian, Black Carribean), White Other, Other White British? On another site I saw White Gypsy. I just wonder why? And who cares?