All Posts in "Yank"

We don’t always have our weekends planned out, so many times, we go places at the last minute.  That happened a couple weekends ago when we decided to go to a heavy horse show in Eridge.  We had seen the signs for a while and didn’t know what to expect.  It wasn’t the best of weekends, cloudy and all, but we didn’t want to sit indoors.  So, we decided to check it out. [ad#ad-1]

I looked on the internet first to see the start times.  I found out they had dogs and birds of prey in addition to the horse show.  It was a charity event for the Working Horse Trust.  We arrived just after some competition had ended and were worried that we had missed the main event.  It turned out they had quite a lot planned, some had to be cancelled due to illness, etc.  But, we got there just in time to see a “Bird of Prey” demonstration by Chris Neal.  Apparently, he has done some nature programs on TV previously, and it really shows in his performance.

I’ve always had a fascination for birds of prey.  I used to love watching them circle in the sky.  When we were in New Hampshire, we happened on a bird of prey display in support of a wildlife rescue program.  It was amazing to look at the birds close-up.  But it was just a display.  In Ohio, watching the buzzards return in the spring was a major event for some locals.  I never saw it, but I always saw them sitting in trees, on barns, and even in front of some people’s yards.  Again, it seemed I had a morbid fascination with them (even though buzzards aren’t technically birds of prey, they’re always included).

Chris Neal did things differently.  He invited photographers out onto the field with him so that they can photograph the Harris hawks as he flew them here and there.  He also challenged them to photograph the birds as they attacked a “prey” (fake).  He said that if they got a good shot, he would take them out on a day with him in the Shropshire moors.  My husband didn’t show him his pictures, but he hopes he has a good enough shot to send to him and perhaps get invited.  I don’t know if my husband has ever had a fascination with these birds, but after that day, he showed some serious interest. 

Mr. Neal then brought out an eagle owl. It was huge and graceful.  He invited the kids out to get close-up.  He had them lay on the ground while the eagle flew above them.  Then he had them form two rows and the owl flew between them.  Our older girl was game for anything and was out there in a jiffy.  She loved it.  Our younger daughter gets scared easily, so she sat out.  However, there were two demonstrations during the day, and at the second one, she did go out.  She came back smiling but said it scared her.

Lastly, a falcon came out.  That was the best part, especially during the first demonstration, not just because it was new, but because the demonstration was more rushed the second time as we started to get a little shower and he couldn’t fly the birds in the rain.  He allowed it to fly so far out that we lost sight of it.  When he came back, he was just a speck in the sky, and this guy’s eyes were so good that when people pointed out possible sightings, he knew it was a “pigeon” and not his falcon.  Mr. Neal brought out the lure and the falcon came swooping in.  It was fast!  And beautiful![ad#ad-1]

Since then, we have seen two more demonstrations, though not as spectacular.  One was at an animal farm that my older daughter insisted on going to (she was not interested in the birds, just the other animals and the play area) while we were on vacation.  Though the demonstration was not as good, they did have an amazing collection of birds and the girls liked looking at them.  We even saw a golden eagle.

The other was in the safari park (to be discussed in another post).  Since it was not the main attraction, it was a smaller collection than at the farm.  But it was still fun to watch these birds and we learned different things about them at each demonstration.  Each of the last two demonstrations also invited adults and children to come out and handle the birds.  We did not take advantage of the opportunity for various reasons.  My husband wants to take some falconry classes and become a falconer.

Yank by — August 13, 2009 in Wildlife 0

We went to London yesterday.  It is only 40 miles north of here.  But because of congestion charges and traffic jams, we knew we couldn’t just drive into the heart of London.  Also, we needed to stop at my in-laws because they needed groceries.  We left later than we had wanted due to various things, but it was about 8:50AM.  I had an appointment regarding work at 11:45.  My in-laws live in a southern suburb of London, so we were going to drop things off, walk to the train station, and take a train and subway to where we needed to go. That meant we had to leave their place around 10.  Leaving at 8:50 meant we were cutting it very close.  Distance-wise, they live 20-25 miles away, but it usually takes us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to their house.  That’s something that outsiders have a hard time comprehending about England.[ad#ad-1]

Because we had to go to London, we decided to make it a family day out after the appointment, so the kids came along.  Otherwise, they would have stayed with Nanny and Granddad.  The walk to the train station was not too bad but they kept complaining because parts of it was uphill and they walk very slowly.  We were in a rush, but taking a bus to the station would have taken more time.  Somehow, we managed to make the appointment just in time.

Fountain in Regent's Park, London
Fountain in Regent's Park, London

Afterwards, instead of heading towards some museums which we had talked about, the kids were distracted by Regent’s Park.  What they wanted was a playground, really, not a park, but seeing “park” made them think playground, so that’s where we headed.  It was a beautiful place, and HUGE.  I wouldn’t have minded spending the day there.  There were maps of the park everywhere because you could get lost easily.  There were several gardens and avenues of trees, in addition to a boating pond and of course, the London Zoo.  But, the older girl wanted the playground, so we had to head that way.  We only managed to get to the boating pond before I had to stop and eat my lunch, the others having eaten theirs earlier.  I sat at the bandstand area while the others sat on some deck chairs that were placed on the grass.  Eventually, they joined me because the younger daughter wanted some food as well.  It was just in time because the “deck chair warden” came around to collect money for the use of the chairs (GBP 2 for 4 hours).  Several people left when he approached them, and only a few paid to continue sitting.  We never made it to the playground because we managed to convince Miss I Want a Playground to go to the museums.

We got to South Kensington and decided on the Natural History Museum. The Victoria and Albert was across the street from it and the Science Museum was a block away.  I couldn’t see the Science Museum but the V&A and the Natural History Museum were both humongous. Initially, we commented on the poor use of space because we entered a huge room with a few pieces in the middle and some displays along the walls.  We were in the geological area, an area of particular interest to our older daughter who likes to collect gems and rocks (the other also likes to collect rocks, the ordinary kind).  Next, we entered the bird room.  There was a lot more here and in a smaller space.  It was so crowded that you could not feel the ventilation/air conditioning in the room.  The day had started very cloudy and cool, but by afternoon it was extremely sunny and hot.  Indoors, it was very stuffy. It was so bad we decided to come back another day outside of the summer holiday period, so we left after only 30 minutes in the museum.  It’s a good thing that admission is free to these museums; otherwise, it would have been a wasted day.[ad#ad-1]

Our younger daughter wanted to go to Build-a-Bear Workshop, so we gave in, after the aborted park and museum.  I don’t know why she always wants to get another Build-a-Bear because Pooh Bear is the only one she always carries with her. We took the Piccadilly line to Covent Garden.  Now, I want to insert a warning to visitors about the subway exit at Covent Garden.  Covent Garden subway station has no escalator; passengers are returned to street level by elevator or stairs. I was not paying attention, but my husband stated there was an announcement saying the stairs were quicker but it was alot.  He asked the kids which they wanted, the stairs or the escalator.  They chose the stairs and ran up.  I thought, we took two escalators down the other way, so it couldn’t be that bad.  Boy, was I wrong!  The stairs were practically empty, and as I went up I can understand why.  It was a steep spiral staircase and I was on the inside while my husband was on the outside.  I was essentially going up vertically and was so breathless, I had to stop a couple of times to rest.  I know I’m out of shape, but it was good to see that I wasn’t the only one.  My husband was puffing and the few adventurous ones who joined us on the stairs were complaining as well.  Of course, we also laughed at the whole thing because we hadn’t expected the stairs to be so steep.  The kids were well out of sight and waiting for us at the top.  By the time I got there, my legs were trembling.  That was when my husband said we had walked an equivalent of 15 storeys.

The cobbled stones of Covent Garden proved to be a nightmare on our feet after the day of walking we had had.  We all felt blisters forming.  Build-a-Bear was no better ventilated or less crowded, so I sat outside watching all the tourists and shoppers while my husband accompanied the girls.  He had to pay for the purchases anyway. A TV crew were doing a small piece on the opera outside the National Opera House, and there were several street performers.  It was quite interesting.[ad#ad-1]

From there, we took a couple buses home.  Now, at the beginning of the day, when we arrived at the train station, we bought travel cards for the day for all of us.  For one price, we were able to use all the public transport all day. It’s the most economical way to travel around London.  At the end of the day, the bus driver informed us that we didn’t need travel cards for the kids unless they were over 11.  We knew they could ride on the bus for free but we had been told previously that they needed tickets on the train.  The driver said they were free there as well.  It made us wonder why the ticket operator hadn’t asked the children’s ages.  Not that we paid much for them, but any amount of savings is smart.  Also, if the kids didn’t have tickets for the trains/subways, how did they get in and out of the stations?  Something we’d need to investigate in the future.

Yank by — August 12, 2009 in My Journey 0

I had meant to write about all the places we’ve been recently, but several things in the past couple of days changed my mind.  At least for now.[ad#ad-1]

The first happened Monday morning when I went out to the clothes line to get a leo for my elder daughter to go to gymnastics.  That morning I was awaked by some noise outside which sounded like some metal being moved around.  It reminded me of the sound of moving metal dumbbell weights around on the ground.  I thought the farmer was doing some work outside.  When I got to the clothes line, I found two sheep eating outside the window of the bedroom.  One was making herself comfortable by lying on the ground as she ate.  They were around the rose bush and the plants we had in jars and pots around the little porch.  I frightened them and they ran towards the fence, but turned around and looked at me.  I went inside to wake my daughter but when we looked outside, they were gone.  However, I noticed that the sunflower which had taken us months to grow was uprooted.  My husband heard the commotion and came out.  We went to the living room window and saw that one jar was smashed.  It was the noise of the jars that I had heard in the morning.

My husband went out to inspect the damage and found the sheep again.  They had not gone far, probably just around the house and came back again.  They had eaten our chives and got into the carrots.  One of the sheep was on the ground again.  But when they saw him, they ran again.  Our daughter came out and they ran out our front gate.  My husband told her to shut it, but she came in without doing so.  When next they went out, the sheep were in again.  This time, my daughter shut the gate after they left.  As my husband went out with the girls, he was going to try and get the sheep back into the fields by moving them behind their gates; however, the gate at the top of the drive was open and they went that way.  He found them down by the main gates into the estate, but luckily, or unluckily, they veered off and went into the landlord’s yard.  We have seen the landlord shoo them off his yard previously, but he wouldn’t have wanted them out on the streets either.  We don’t know what became of them.  I know our landlord was busy with the electric guy because they came down to see our place and he was too distracted for me to mention the sheep.

Now, I know I mentioned using the sheep as our natural lawnmower, but we had managed to cut the grass with shears and now only the weeds are growing in between, so it was unnecessary for them to donate their services now.  Besides, they left a trail of poo on their way out the gate.  As I said previously, that was one downside to using sheep, so we had nixed the idea.  As the saying goes, “the grass is always greener on the other side”, and the sheep obviously believed it.  But, then again, the chives, sunflower and carrots were probably delicacies for them.

Yank by — August 12, 2009 in My Journey 1

I hate that feeling of needing a vacation from a vacation, but that’s how it always feels like when I come back from a holiday trip.  Since we wanted the kids to enjoy a normal holiday, we went out of town for a few days.  It was nice to come back and find out that my registration for a license has been approved.  I still have to complete an identity check, but in the meantime, I can scout around for a job.  We also have some landlord issues that need resolving and hopefully that can be accomplished before our lease runs out.  Anyhow, for the next few posts, I hope to get some pictures of some of the things we enjoyed recently.[ad#ad-1]

I’ll start by talking about High Rocks in the Tunbridge Wells area.  They are located in the Rusthall Commons area.  At one time, the commons were just open areas of land that were used for grazing, but over the years, houses have sprung up and many areas have become overgrown with vegetation.  However, there are some natural rock formations that have survived.  But, in order to keep them in good order, it is now run by a trust, and admission is charged.  Yet, it appears that the gate is not always manned, so some people might be able to sneak in.  We have never been ones to take those kinds of risk.

There are walking paths around the rock formations, as well as stairs and bridges to get to the top and across from rock to rock.  Various groups of rock climbers were taking advantage of the nice weather on the day we visited.  Apparently, there are rock climbing guides and High Rocks was included, with hints on how to climb the rocks.  These are not huge rocks and some of the climbers only used their hands and feet to get to the top; but there are some that are higher, requiring some ropes.  The kids imagined themselves as climbers and went up some of the smaller rocks.

There were several inscriptions on some of the rocks, dating back to the 1800s.  Of course, many visitors marked their names on the rocks as well.  But, we were on the look-out for an inscription from the 1700s.  We never found it, but we believe we located the right rock.  It was called “Bell Rock” because legend has it that if you threw a stone into it, it would make a sound like a bell ringing.  However, it is believed that it no longer makes that sound because of moss, damp and various other natural processes.  The inscription was left by a visitor, whose dog fell down the rock and died.

There was a rock called “Toad Rock” because it supposedly resembles a toad – you really have to use your imagination.  The other rocks used to be given other names as well, with respect to objects they resembled.  We’ll need to get some sort of guide book from the library.  In times past, there were huts set up between the rocks for hikers and climbers, but most of them are now lying in ruins.  There was even a tea shop set up in one of the huts, but it is gone.  A rhododendron maze attached to the rocks area is now overrun.  Despite all this, the area does serve as a very nice backdrop for a picnic.  There was even a wedding reception taking place while we were visiting.[ad#ad-1]

Which brings us to the pub.  It appears that the reception was being catered from the High Rocks Inn, which is also where you need to go for tickets into the rocks.  Thankfully, there was a large public car park for visitors and it was free.  The inn is located across the street from the rocks and it has a beautiful garden.  And while you’re up there, you can see the Spa Valley steam railway making trips up and down from Tunbridge Wells to Eridge.

We have yet to explore the historic parts of Tunbridge Wells, such as the chalybeate springs and the Pantilles.  That will be for another day.

Yank by — August 7, 2009 in Leisure 0

Last day of school.  The kids were excited about that, especially since it is so much later than what they were used to.  Six weeks of vacation is nothing like 12.  Already, they’re wishing it was six years.  They have not realised that they may be involved in lifetime learning and now’s not the time to bring that up.[ad#ad-1]

Because summer vacation (or holiday) is so much shorter than in the US, I hope they learn to appreciate the time and make it worthwhile.  Though we had a TV in the US, it was one of those old analog models that cannot pick up signals very well without the use of cable or satellite.  So, it was only used to watch videos or DVDs.  Now, we no longer have a TV, but we do have laptops.  And they are hooked on YouTube.  I would hope they do not waste their time with that for the duration of this break.  But, they did mention they wanted to go to Nanny’s tomorrow because there was a movie on TV they wanted to see.  Sigh.

The school year is divided very differently from the US, and despite the half-term and end-of-term breaks, the number of days off for holidays is still far fewer than in the US.  It is so hard to gauge whether the increased school days translate into more or better education. 

Things have changed so much according to my husband and critics have complained that education has been dumbed down.  The method of teaching using various historical themes is very different.  This year, it has been WWII, the Tudors, the Romans and Anglo-Saxons.  For each period, they made “topic books” and they brought them home at the end of each term.  However, the last one is to be returned at the beginning of next year so that their new teacher can see it.  The topic books contain everything they did related to the period and it looks almost like a complete scrapbook.  It makes it so easy to save and store for future reference.[ad#ad-1]

The themed study made it fun and interesting for the girls and I’m glad they had that.  I have to say that I have been impressed with their writing.  I cannot comment much on their reading skills as assessed by the school.  I know they both have great reading skills but I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in the lack of teacher-assigned reading as well as requisite reading for their level.  Let’s hope that the summer reading program will make up for that.

Yank by — July 22, 2009 in School 1

The Ashes.  A long-standing tradition in England (and Australia, for that matter).  And England finally won the match, or test, at Lord’s – I believe they said it was the first in 75 years.  Well, it was also the first time I actually watched a cricket a game (or part of).[ad#ad-1]

The English are well-known for their reserve, and I think it also applies to sports.  By this, I mean that they do not go out of their way to explain it.  My husband and his family have always been sports fan.  That is, they follow all the English sports and have their favourites, even if they really don’t go fanatical like some fans.  They also don’t try to convert people to their sports religion.

This is very different from my experience in the States.  Over there, if you mention that you don’t understand the American ball games, someone would stand up and go into detail about how the game works.  Some sports fans, like one of my brothers, may bore you with all the statistics of a particular favourite player, completely oblivious of the interest (or lack thereof) or understanding of the listener.

Football (soccer) is easy for me to understand, as that is played in the US.  Rugby I have seen a little of and understand understand how they score, etc.  But cricket is another matter.  It does not help that I had never seen a match before yesterday.  But the terminology had been cmpletely baffling to me.  Even when I’ve asked a question, everyone just shrugs it off with “It’s cricket.” 

So, while visiting my mother-in-law, who is recovering from her fall and is finally home, we watched the end of the cricket match, the second test.  At this point, England needed 4 wickets and Australia needed something like 185 runs.  As much as comparisons are made between cricket and baseball, they are completely dissimilar.  The physiotherapist, an Australian, arrived just as England scored the first of the last 4 wickets.  By the time she left, the game was over.[ad#ad-1]

In that time, I learned what a wicket was and what is meant by an “over” (though I fail to understand how that terminology came about).  I still don’t know how they decide who bats and who bowls and whether there is a set number of runs that needs to be scored, while I understand that the number of wickets is 10.  I still cannot grasp how a game can last days on end, the terminology of 20/20, or why a female cricketer took nine hours to bowl nine overs.  As far as I can understand, 6 balls is an over, so 9 overs is 54 balls.  Why did it take so long?  Of course, I’m still too ignorant of the game to even ask more questions and no one’s about to explain it unless I ask specific questions.  Is it because it’s too complicated?

Yank by — July 21, 2009 in Sports 4

This summer we’ve attended numerous summer fetes and seen many traditional English games, events and stalls.  This weekend, at the Isfield Summer Fete in Sussex, we experienced for the first time terrier racing.[ad#ad-1]

It was an idyllic English summer afternoon, bright and warm, with passing puffs of light cloud against an azure sky summoning an occasional light breeze.  The turn out was good and many of the summer fete standards were popular: the three-legged race, a dog show, egg throwing, bouncy slides, face painting and more.

Mid-afternoon, a crowd began to assemble around a fenced 30m track and the announcer informed us that the terrier racing was about to begin.

At one end of the track was a set of six “traps”, each about 18″ x 12″ with a gate on the front.  Members of the public registered their dogs and the dogs were separated to run in several heats.  Running along the centre of the track was a thin rope circuit with a foxtail attached to it. The rope was controlled with great skill by a fellow at the other end of the track using an upturned bicycle.  The rope was fed round the rear wheel and the operator span the pedals back and forth, correspondingly jiggling the foxtail back and forth before the expectant terriers.  This he did several times until the loader had all the dogs in their traps and was ready to raise the cage gates on the front of the traps.

The foxtail was brought to rest a few feet from the traps and dogs and spectators alike excitedly awaited the loader’s signal.  At the drop of his hand the loader opened the traps and his counterpart at the opposite end of the track span the bike wheels like crazy to pull the foxtail along the track keeping it ahead of the chasing terriers.  Along the track they all sped chasing the tail that reached the other end and mysteriously vanished in to thin air before a stack of hay bales. Some attempted to follow the tail in to the bales, others leapt over the top while a few simply turned round and ran back to the start to do it again.

Yank by — July 14, 2009 in Leisure 1

OK, it’s the first day in a week that we’ve had a little time to spend on the computer.  I have not been blogging much, nor visiting my web friends, including my old friend Peggy (all the way back to college/university), who has just started her own blog.[ad#ad-1]

Now that the kids are nearing the end of their school term, we are more serious about finding jobs.  We have been living off savings (terrible situation) and the situation has become dire.  We had looked into jobs previously but there have been little available in the area.  We are considering moving, but this was difficult with the kids in school and the tenancy agreement.  But the situation is about to change.

It did not help that my mother-in-law fractured her wrist and hip last week.  We have been up and down to London to visit her and to help with errands for my father-in-law.  She was extremely independent before and there has been such a change in routine for the both of them.  He has learned to be a little more independent and tending to regular household duties.  We’re considering going up to give the dog a long walk again.  She has to learn to take things easier and only push herself gently.  She has had to have a blood transfusion, and yesterday, we found out that the surgical site was leaking.  It could help explain why she is so volume depleted and her blood pressure keeps dropping when she gets up, not to mention that her appetite was down for a while.  She is progressing well with therapy, despite the bad wrist.

Unfortunately, her bedroom is on the second floor (third floor for us Americans) and she is not allowed to climb stairs yet.  When they decide to discharge her, we’ll have to make arrangements to move a bed down to the kitchen.  Having never been in such a position before, we are starting to appreciate what many other families have to deal with when an elderly parent or grandparent becomes temporarily disabled.

We had thought that the kids could spend a week with Nanny and Granddad over the summer break while we attack the job market, but that idea is now nixed.  Unless they can be of help and not just sit in front of the TV, waiting to be served, we cannot impose on my in-laws in such a way.

I finally went down to the DVLA in Brighton to start the process for my driver’s license.  I’m not expecting anyone to need it for at least the three weeks that my passport will be gone, but you never know.  Perhaps, I’m courting disaster, but if the disaster is that someone needs to see my passport to complete the hiring process, then it’s the kind of disaster that I would welcome at this point.

Again, apologies to my blogger friends.  I can only promise that I’ll look in now and then for the moment.

Yank by — July 14, 2009 in My Journey 1

It’s the second time we’ve had to look for a car.  As my readers know, our car went kaput! a couple weeks ago.  Considering the difficulty we had in finding a car, I thought it best to share some of our experience so that others can commiserate and beware.[ad#ad-1]

First and foremost to American drivers: if you do not drive a manual, you’d best learn. Unfortunately for me, I’m too old a dog to learn a new trick.  Not that I even have a UK license yet.  I can’t even do that as I’m waiting for other things.  The fact that I have to lose my passport for three weeks has prevented me from starting this process – I have had to keep it handy for other purposes.  But, back to the point, automatic cars are hard to come by, unless you’re willing to pay for it.  We have too tight a budget.  In fact, one dealer told us that for the price we had in mind, we would have to find a very old car and/or a large car.

Our last car was not big by American standards (1.6L), but in the UK, it is moderately large.  It was not as fuel efficient as the majority of small cars on the road, but it served us well.  The problem was that we put a lot more miles on it than we had expected to.  It must be all those winding roads.  For a car used to a quiet, gentle existence, it was like doing 6-months hard labour in its dotage.  We had paid 350 GBP for the car – it was well worth it. 

Even before the dealer had put in his two-pence worth about our budget, we could see that we would not get what we wanted.  We wanted a more fuel-efficient car that was reliable and had enough space for the four of us to get from point A to point B.  Anything remotely resembling that was a manual.  Of the automatics, they were of the 2L models or bigger.  That’s not to say that we didn’t find any smaller, fuel-efficient cars under 500 GBP (our limit).  They were either snatched up before we had a chance to view them, or they were not worth the price.[ad#ad-1]

We mainly searched the Friday Ads, until someone put us onto Ad Trader.  Seeing that cheap economical cars were selling like hot cakes, we had to act fast.  We had nearly settled onto a Proton for dirt cheap until we figured that we had to get an MOT very soon, as well as tax.  That brought it up to our budget and we were somewhat sceptical about the reliability as well as the availability of parts, should the inevitable happen.  On the same day, a new ad appeared on the Ad Trader site; we went over the next day to look at it.  It was a Renault Clio, with MOT and tax.  It was over our limit, but we managed to get them to reduce it a bit, so that we were only over by 50 GBP.

We had been renting a car for the past week – a newer Ford Mondeo that has been well-used with 180K miles on it.  It was powerful, smooth and had a blessedly cool air conditioner (great for the heat wave we just passed), but it ate a lot of juice.  We were desperate to get a car so that we would not have to rent it for another week.  Though we do miss the air conditioner – we were spoiled in the US.

Americans have traditionally scorned French automakers, but we just brought the Clio home and it is performing well.  In fact, it has more miles on it than our last car did when we bought it, yet it rides fairly smoothly.  So, this American will have to reserve judgment for later.  We have always owned Japanese cars, so this is a first for us.

Yank by — July 6, 2009 in Travel 3

Our older daughter participated in Area Sports yesterday.  There were 8 schools total. 

It was apparent even before the sports day that our school was not very serious about this competition.  I say this because they never practiced.  In addition, there was never any formal process in selecting the participants.  We had passed one other rival school at various times and they were holding after-school practices.  On the day of the competition, a couple of the schools were out and warming up properly.  Ours stayed cool under their tents.[ad#ad-1]

Despite the disadvantages, our school did fine.  They ended up third, despite having no one making or breaking any record (every other school had at least one of those), despite several participants not knowing what they were supposed to do, dropping batons, taking off late, etc.

Of course, we were unfamiliar with the other schools, but the other parents shrugged their shoulders at the results, already anticipating the outcome and sure enough, they were correct.  The same school won for the umpteenth time.  Nevertheless, no one got angry, no one booed anybody else, cheers were given to all and to encourage the students to complete their races despite the heat.  So unlike the atmosphere at another Area Sports event I read about early on in the year.  It was nice to see that these parents were showing their kids good sportsmanship.

Yank by — July 1, 2009 in School 0