Diamond Jubliee

In case you haven't heard, this year is a big year for the United Kingdom.  Along with the Olympics that start at the end of July, it is also a Jubilee year.  In fact it is a Diamond Jubilee year!

So, what does that mean, you maybe asking, especially if you are not a fan of the Royal Family... (ahem, I happen to be a BIG fan!)  Well, what it means is this.  Queen Elizabeth was crowned queen 60 years ago, in 1952.  Every 10 years there is a big celebration in the UK.  In fact, the little town that we live in names their town hall the Silver Jubilee Town Hall, 20 years ago!  She is the second British Monarch to reign this long.  Queen Victoria, her great-grand mother was the first.

On 6 February 1952 King George VI, Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth's father died in his sleep.  At the time she was in Africa filming a rhinoceros in Kenya.  She was in an observation post known as Treetops in a giant fig tree.  At sunrise, there was an eagle hovering over her head and two male rhinos were fighting and one was mortally wounded.  According to local tribal legend, when two rhinos meet in combat and one does this signals the death of a great tribal leader.

The Queen returned to London immediately and was proclaimed Queen 8th February 1952.  The Coronation was held 2 June 1953.   She has reigned as Queen for 60 years.  She is the 6th Queen and the second Queen to reign for 60 years.  Her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria was the first.  Queen Elizabeth did attend the Silver Jubilee of her grandfather, King George V.  She is the second longest serving Monarch.

So, what is a jubilee?  Interestingly enough it is a Christian term..

ju·bi·lee

 

noun

1.

the celebration of any of certain anniversaries, as thetwenty-fifth (silver jubilee),  fiftieth (golden jubilee),  orsixtieth or seventy-fifth (diamond jubilee).

2.

the completion of 50 years of existence, activity, or thelike, or its celebration: Our college will celebrate its jubilee nextyear.

3.

any season or occasion of rejoicing or festivity.

4.

rejoicing or jubilation.

5.

Roman Catholic Church .

a.

an appointed year or other period, ordinarily every 25years (ordinary jubilee),  in which a plenaryindulgence is granted upon repentance and theperformance of certain religious acts.

b.

a period of time (extraordinary jubilee)  declared bythe pope as a time of rejoicing, as for an anniversary,when a plenary indulgence is granted upon repentanceand the performance of certain religious acts.

c.

Also called jubilee indulgence. the plenary indulgencegranted during such a period.

Another interesting fact, the Queen was born on 21 April, but her birthday is celebrated every year in June.  


This year, due to the Jubilee, we have been given an additional vacation day and we are having a 4 day weekend.  There are activities every day.  Saturday the Queen will be attending the Epsom Derby.  Sunday, as a country we are suppose to be gathering together with our friends and neighbors and having a grand Jubilee lunch.  There is also the a grand Jubilee Pageant, which consists of a flotilla of boats on the Thames.  Monday there will be the Jubilee concert and the Queen will light the beacons.  Over 3,000 beacons will be lit across the world in her honor.  Tuesday there will be the Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral in London (which is BEAUTIFUL!) followed by the carriage procession.  The Queen will be riding in the Golden Carriage (which is also beautiful!).


I am still determining what events I am going to make it to, wink, wink!  More posts to come about the busy weekend full of historic events!

Official End to World War II in Europe

This weekend, all my friends in the US are gearing up to celebrate Memorial Day weekend.  What does this really mean?  For many, many of my friends and for me it meant just an extended weekend.  I occasionally thought of the veterans in my family that fought in the wars.  As I have aged and the US has engaged in conflicts and wars, I have come to have a greater appreciation for the wars and our veterans.

My maternal grandfather was in France during WWII.  He was part of the artillery unit and in particular he helped with the big cannons, loading and transporting.  My paternal grandfather fought in the pacific area and spent time in the Philippines.  My step-fathers dad flew planes in WWII, I at this moment it escapes me where he served, I do remember the father that resided at his funeral saying that he managed to get out of an aircraft that had landed on an aircraft carrier and then fallen into the sea, alive!  Wow!

My husband's grandfathers served as well.  His maternal grandfather served in the Pacific area as well, he loaded bombs onto planes and even loaded bombs on the Enola Gay.  His paternal grandfather served in Italy, he was taken POW and put in a camp.  When the camp was liberated by the Soviets, he and another man escaped.  It was a good thing that they did as from what I understand the other men were not heard from again.

Here in the UK, we are not having a holiday this weekend.  We did have a holiday 7 May.  It was a three day weekend and we took the kids to visit Secret Island, a gunpowder mill.  It was then that we learned that the official end to World War II in Europe was 7 May, 1945.  At 2:41 in the morning 7 May, German commander Alfred Jodl in Reims, France surrendered to General Eisenhower.

Our visit to the Gunpowder Mill was kind of interesting.  They were having a big weekend with World War II battle reenactments and a special appearance, a Spitfire flyby.  So, here are some pictures to tell you about our experience!

Ok?  Well, thanks! I don't think they actually used this sign during the War.  If so, I am not quite sure how the allies won, unless they were relying on the fact that not many Germans knew English?

I am not sure what side this canon belonged to, it was between camps.  But I took the picture because I remembered my grandfather.

One of the German tanks.


 We saw German troops and World War II equipment, British troops and period equipment and American troops and period equipment.  We were also treated with a battle reenactment in which the British troops beat the Germans, turned the area over to the Americans who them lost the area back to the Germans and were captured to have the British troops come back and rescue.  It was nicely done and I trust it was a factually accurate reenactment.  I thought it was nice, especially showing the British troops at their best!

This is a German BMW motorcycle.  It took this picture for my dad, Mark who has talked about getting a BMW motorcycle.  We thought he might enjoy seeing an older working version of a BMW!

The gunpowder mill in Waltham Abby has been in existence for a long time.  They started producing gunpowder in the 17th century.  About 100 years later it was bought by the Crown and standards were put in place to make gunpowder with a standard formula.  The formula was important because gunpowder before that time could be very unreliable.  The picture above shows the three ingredients that were used, salt peter, charcoal and sulfur.

This is a reproduction of a large mill that was used to manufacture the gunpowder.
The mill was bombed during WWII and so it was quickly shut down and operations moved to other areas.

They also had a neat area for the kids.  One of the things that it included was the list of things that the children in London should bring to the country when they were evacuated.  The picture below shows the list and the packed suitcase.

Here is my youngest, he colored a paper gas mask and my husband is holding it to his head.

There was also a station for the kids to learn about rationing.  It included scales for the children to measure out things like sugar and coffee.  It was really interesting to see how much, or should I say how little the rations were during the war.  It was astounding to me, but I don't think so easily understood by the children.  I appreciated the attempt to educate them on the matter.   I know that it is harder to appreciate what you have if you have never had to live without.  

We really enjoyed our visit to the gunpowder mill.  The war remembrances were actually a small part of the trip and probably one of the least remembered by the kids.  There was a cool science area and a "mad scientist" to boot.  

The gunpowder mill provided a different perspective on WWII for us Americans to see.

The Dole

And no, I am not talking about the pineapple company either!

Here in the United Kingdom, unemployment benefits or Job Seekers Allowance are also called the Dole.

I had never heard of the term the dole until I read the book Anglea's Ashes by Frank McCourt.  The story was about a very poor Irish family.  If you have not read it, it is a memoir Frank wrote about his childhood.  He was born in the US to two Irish immigrants.  Eventually, his family moves back to Ireland. His father ends up deserting the family and they live on the dole.  It was a good book, and he is an excellent writer.  He deals with the pain and poverty that he lived with as a child with honesty.

So, I had thought that the dole was kind of over, done with and gone.  I thought that it was an archaic term that was out of use.  I was surprised to hear the term used by one of the mum's who came to Cian's birthday party.  She was talking about the girl that she paid to babysit her boys, she had finished college and still did not have a job and collected "the dole".

The UK is not any different then the rest of the world.  They share that the youth has a high rate of unemployment.  The government talks about it, frets about it often.  Remember the kids here can be done with school at age 16.  After they take their GCSE's they can get a job or take on an apprenticeship and take on a trade or go on to complete their 6th form (in a college) and then go onto Uni (university).

The British government recently changed the laws though and next year the kids will have to stay in school until they are 17 and by 2015 (my 2 second's year) they will have to stay in school until they are 18, which equals our high school program.

Their system is different though, they have two choices for their 6th form.  They can study their A Levels or they can choose an International Baccalaureate program.

So, right now in the UK, there is a high unemployment rate in the younger aged workers.  They are eligible for Job Seeking Benefits.  They are awarded benefits based on their age, 18-24 receive less then the 25 and ups.  To receive the benefit is to "be one the dole".  Dole is a rather archaic expression which means "one's allotted portion" from the synonymous Old English work dāl.  

There are also people that collect the dole and do not get jobs.  Which should not be so surprising to anyone, we have people that do that it in the US as well.  

But I was very surprised to hear this week in the news that the government wanted to make it easier for businesses to fire workers.  There was quite a habaloo about the whole thing really.  I have to admit that it kind of surprised me.  I did not realise that it was hard to fire unproductive workers in the UK.  Though I think that some of the US companies may deal with similar issues.

Their was a report written up by a man named Adrian Beecroft.  He apparently is a venture capitalist who has given £500,000 to the Conservatives under David Cameron.  This is what he is proposing.

• He <Beecroft> confirmed he backs the delay of new family friendly rules, such as flexible parental leave, although that proposal did not appear in the final version of his report and suggested that key Conservative figures - including former No 10 adviser Steve Hilton - initially backed all his recommendations.
• His report, which was published on Monday, proposed making it easier for firms to sack under-performing staff.
• It suggested ending a mandatory 90-day consultation period when a company is considering redundancy programmes and instead called for a standard 30-day period and an emergency five-day period if a firm was in severe distress.
• The report said outdated regulations were harming the economy and preventing companies from creating jobs.
• Changes to employment law, it has been argued, would improve the supply of suitable staff to firms, who would be less afraid of having to make large payouts or face legal action when laying off those who were no longer needed.

The things that I learn and subject my poor readers too :)

Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour

Right before we moved to England, my husband told me that Warner Brothers had announced that they were opening the Harry Potter Studio Tour.   It immediately went to the top of our list of things to see.  I went to the website and discovered that they did not open officially for tours until April 22.  We booked our tickets in January for our tour on May 19th.  We booked it with our friends, the Innuendos.

The tour on average takes about 3 hours.  We were told that the longest tour was 8 hours!  We were the last tour going in for the day.  We rented the digital guides which was really neat way to hear additional things about what we were seeing.  It turned out to be a really nice addition to the signs and other posting and films that were placed through out the tour.  Our digital tour guide was Tom Felton, better known as Malfoy, and he did a really nice job!  When we reached a number we punched it into our guide and he told us about the section.  There was also usually additional content on the digital guide as well, sometimes additional things to watch, listen to or occasionally just view various images.

The tour was AMAZING.  Here are some of the highlights!

This was our tour group entering the Great Hall.  Once inside it was incredible.  Two of the four house tables were set up along the sides.  We saw so many of the details that are often ignored when  watching the films.  We also saw each of the costumes from each of the houses and the house crests.  There was an interesting story on our digital tour about the tables, the kids apparently used the silverware to scape off the finish of the tables and of course carved their names in the tables with the knives!

Our kids were given a passport during their tour and it included a list of things to find.  Each section contained a snitch to find as well.  This snitch was located outside the Great Hall, suspended up in the air.  How cool!

This was the boys dormitory.  You can see Dean Thomas, Harry and Ron's bed, with his hand knitted quilt!  What you can't see is the personal items on the bedside table.  I took additional pictures of the bedside tables with my digital SLR.

Here are my younger guys posing with the mirror and the portrait of the Fat Lady.

I am posed with the Goblet of Fire.  It was craved from a very large piece of British Elm!  How cool!  The details were truly amazing!

This is a picture of the wands that the cast children used.  They had different wands to use depending on the scenes.  The wands were made out of different material, wood or rubber. The children would use the different wands depending if the scene was an action scene or not.  The actors were not allowed to run with the wooden wands, kind of like the rule no running with scissors!  Good thinking in retrospect, don't you think?!?!

This was part of the Potions Classroom.  Here is the book that Harry used, if you remember it was originally Snape's book.  The Potions Classroom was amazing, it contained over 500 different bottles of ingredients.  The set room originally started out being where Fluffy was housed guarding the trap door but was reused and expanded over the course of the movies.

Here are my younger boys in front of the Knightbus.  I did not manage to make it onto the bus, but I did see my oldest son's photos.  He explained to me that the roof did not start until after the second story.

Arthur Weasley's flying car.  How cool that the boys could actually get in it!

I waited in line for the Butterbeer!  My husband and I shared it with my youngest two boys.  My older two and our friend's the Innuendos ended up ahead of us during the tour.  We were slower, trying to take in all the detail that we could.

This portion of the tour was outside and the Butterbeer was cold as was the day!  My family liked the Butterbeer.  Our friends that Innuendo’s did not care for it.  It was made of cream soda with a butterscotch flavored cream on top.  It was delicious!  I think that it probably the same recipe that is used at Universal Studios.

You can see my Canon camera and the green lanyard is the digital guided tour that we listened to.  We bought 3 cameras with us that day!  No joke!  We took our Harry Potter tour memories very seriously.  Unfortunately, I am not able to download my photos from my Canon as my Mac does not have the right port and I have yet to buy the correct adaptor.  I can't wait to see the pictures though.

There were a number of things that we saw outside:  number 4 Privet Drive, Tom Riddle's grave, Hogwarts Bridge, Harry's parents' home in Godric's Hollow and some of the gigantic chess pieces from the first movie.

From there we moved back inside and into the Animatronics section.

It made me sad when I saw this figure of Dobby.  You can't tell by the picture, but there is a blood stain on his chest.

The amount of animatronics that was used was really neat.  Owls, Scabbers, Creature the house elf, Dobby, the werewolf, Padfoot and even Hagrid's head are just examples of things that they automated!  Robbie Coltrain played Hagrid, but since he was shorter then the actual character a Rugby player stood in for him and wore the head.  It was very interesting!

From there we moved onto on of the coolest part of the tours, Diagon Ally!

Here we are in Diagon Ally.  If you look down to the red building you will notice that it is the Weasley brothers shop, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

Olivanders!

We ended the tour with Hogwarts castle, an art gallery and the wand room.

Our guide, Tom Felton said that the model of Hogwarts Castle was breath taking and he was right, it really is.  The bricks were hand-painted EVERY YEAR!  It was almost the last part of the tour and so incredible!  My youngest boys noticed that the model was missing Hagrid's Hut and the Whomping Willow.

We ended the tour in the wand room.  There were over 7000 people involved in the shooting of the Harry Potter films and each of them had a wand box with their name on it.  Afterwards we wandered into the gift shop and the boys picked a memento, they each picked out a wand.  Two boys picked Harry's wand and the other two picked Dumbldore's Elder wand.  

Are there things missing on the tour?  There are lots of things, I am sure.  The one thing that I would have liked to see was the graveyard where Harry's parents were buried in Godric's Hollow.  It probably would have bought tears to my eyes to see the "grave" of Harry's parents.  But, I feel that it is an important part that was missing.  The graves were not anywhere that I could see on display.  My oldest son wondered about the flying keys from the first movie.  He wondered why they did not sell the keys in the gift shop.

One thing that I thought was extremely cool was the animal actors.  They were rescued and trained to be in the movies and found homes afterward.  Mrs. Norris was played by 3 different cats and each one did different roles!  They showed the animals on a big board and told little tidbits about their personalities, it was really heartwarming to read!

It was all incredible, I don’t have a favorite.  This is just our tour with some of the highlights.  The amount of detail that was put into the movies was brilliant.  This tour is a must see for any Harry Potter fan and even though we stayed the full three hours, I could very easily go back again and go for longer.  Before we even left the building, Kid 3 told me that he wanted to come back again.  I have to say I agree.  I think that another trip may be in order before we leave.

We did most of everything, there was a virtual flying experience that we did not do.  The que was quite long.  I would be interested in going back and giving it a gander when the lines might not be so long.  I think that the lines are always going to be long!  

I have a feeling that the Bearys maybe headed back for one more trip before we leave England.

On Being American

Who would have thought that being American is something that you would be reminded about or really even have to think about on a daily basis.  We sure did not think much about while we lived in the US.  Here we think about it every single day, without even trying.

This weekend we were at McDonalds and there was a group of kids behind us. I heard one of them repeat twice, "I am American".  I know that he was just joking with his friends, but I turned around and said with a smile, "Well, I am American.  Please be thoughtful when you say things, as you never know who might be listening!"  Complete and embarrassed silence followed at least for a few seconds!

The reminder is constant when we open our mouths and our accents scream that we are different.  I often get comments about my accent when I am out shopping.  If the accent does not do it then my debit card will since my card is not on the chip and pin system and it needs to be swiped everywhere I go.  I have always been treated very kindly and I am very grateful for it.  My boys find it a little more difficult, particularly my 13 year old.   I am not sure if it is because he is more self conscious about it or if he just has some really thoughtless classmates in his year.  I think that it is a little of both.

First, my 13 year old is really shy.  After all these years of himself the center of attention.  He HATES it.

When we first got here, we as a family would make "stuuuu-pid American jokes".  That was fine because, well it was us making fun of ourselves.  Somehow, one of my 13 year old's classmates started making the same comments to him.  I told him to laugh it off.  Really, we know that family and I do think that he was joking.  I told him to call him a "stick up Brit" back.  After time, it went away, but now my 13 year is feeling a bit self conscious.  He feels that every time something bad about America comes up, that the same kid is giving him a dirty look.  I told my son not to worry about it.  It may be a case that he is just being too sensitive about the whole issue and I pointed out to him it is not like England has a rosy history!

My 13 year old is also bothered by the girls, many of them want to talk "American".  One of the girls even asks him everyday "Is my American accent any better yet?".  She does not seem to realize how rude it has become!  When my son says anything that she does not agree with she says "-- is being horrible again", in a really loud voice.  We have decided that she maybe lacking in proper manners.

My oldest son has been having a discussion in his Latin/French class.  The kids said that all Americans are fat and lazy.  I think that part of it has to be just to get a rise out of my son.  But, I did point out to my son that at my husband's workplace, his co-workers do not work a 40+ hour week like their father.  They work about 36 hours and leave early Friday afternoon!  As for the fat part, well, what can I say.  Even though my family is the anthesis of fat, it is a well known fact that the American waist-line is ever expanding.  Our media screams it all the time.  The UK media just released a study that said that by 2030 half of their own population will be obese and they are talking about instituting taxes on sugary drinks and snacks.

My youngest middle son has been having problems lately with a group of older boys, apparently year 6's.  When they see him, they have taken to take the mick out of him for his accent.  They say in a Texan accent "I live in American".   We were having a bit if a giggle at their mispronunciation of how it should be "I live in America and I am American".  I know that at least two of his friends have been helping him.  One of his friends has been talking to him about things to do and another one of his friends had quite a row with them about it!  From the sounds of it I may have to talk to the school about it.  Although, when his older brothers found out who was doing it, from the discussion that ensured they would be willing to lend the older brother "help", um, yeah, I better just talk to the school...

April Showers Bring Monsoon May....

April showers bring May flowers.  Well, even though it is May, it seems that the rain is determined to stay.  We went from drought to flood warnings and the radio says that this is not the proper type of rain.  Hrumph.  I just know that I have not seen that fiery, bright ball in the sky that is rumored to be the sun often lately.  One of the Dj's on Absolute Radio claimed that we were in the middle of "Monsoon May".  Great.  Even with the high amount of rain that we have been receiving, we are still on a  hose pipe ban/watering restriction, though Sean did hear that 19 counties were taken of out of drought levels.

There at least is the yellow in the fields.  The British farmers have winter barley and oilseed rape in the fields right now.  The oilseed rape is flowering and it provides a beautiful yellow in against the green.  It is at cheerful!  And when the sun comes out, it looks so lovely against the blue sky and fluffy clouds. The smell is just as nice as the picture might suggest.

The picture above was taken on one of the recent days that we were able to enjoy the sun.

The daffodils have finally disappeared and the oaks finally have leaves.  There are still tulips out and so are the Iris.  We are seem to be moving out of the spring and the temperatures are slowly rising.  We have yet to turn our boiler off as the house is still chilly at night with the temps reaching down into the 40's F which is about 4-6 Celsius. 

I can't wait to take my camera out and take pictures of all the spring flowers.  Geraniums grow wild along the road.  The rhododendrons are starting to bloom.  The Wisteria is blooming as well and I recently saw a tree with beautiful blue colored flowers in it.  It was breath taking.  Now if the sun would only shine.  I think that we are in for more rain....

We see a pair of fox terriers sometimes on our way to school and they already have gotten their spring cuts.  Chip is very shaggy and in definite need of a hair cut as well.  Luckily, I brought his clippers!

Today the weather was beautiful.  It was sunny with a bight blue sky which was filled with white puffy clouds and sun.  The temperature even hit 60F or 16 Celsius.  Liam, Cian and I planted a bunch of flowers and veggies in pots.  I planted peppers, cilantro, tomatoes, lettuces and some carrots that are just for containers.   I left a pot free for basil.  I love fresh basil!   Cian also learned to ride a two wheel bike, kind of... though if you ask him, he will flatly deny it.

Even though the temperatures are still quite cool the kids are swimming in the outdoor heated pool at school.  The rain does not mean a cancelation of outdoor activities.  Cian swims in rain or even swam in hail.  They play sports in the rain as well.  If they let the rain stop them in England, they would never do anything outside.  

Good thing I have my mac and wellies!

Life Lessons

Life lessons, usually not a fun event.  Let's face it, life lessons are rarely handed to us on a golden platter with a guidebook.  If they were, it would make things so much easier.  But I doubt that we would really read through the guidebook provided anyway.  So, life lessons usually hurt.

We have had a lot of life lessons going around here.  Some small ones and other ones not so small.  In my case, mine aren't lessons per say, but I am definitely reflecting really hard on how I got to be the person that I am now by looking deeply into my past.  I have been breaking the lid off of memories about my childhood, my parents divorce and sharing these painful memories with some very dear family members.

My oldest son has been handed some life lessons as well.  His are a bit harder for him to swallow as they are being handed to him by someone that he does not particularly care for.  I have been trying to council him to help him find the best way for him to deal with the issue that has been handed to him.  I am also at the disadvantage that my advice is different from the advice that he has been given by his teacher.  Thankfully, my husband agrees with me that the advice that he received from the teacher is not the right way to proceed.  Hopefully, our son can find the best way to deal with this and find the best way to turn a weakness into a strength.

Another one of our sons is in the unfortunately place to have to hand a life lesson out.  I admire him because he has tried his best to be a good friend and he has tried to hand this lesson out in kind ways before resorting to doing it a different way.  But, after an incident this week, he decided that he had to take a little break and walk away from his friend.  Because of his tender age and the scope of what is going on, it is going to take some help from the adults around him to untangle this for him.  My hope now is that we can find him the space that he needs so that he can have the break that he needs to recharge his battery and do what is best for his little heart.

I am proud of him for realizing that he can no longer help anymore and that the friendship is not a positive one in his life.  It is a hard thing to see and very hard for many to deal with.  How often do we find ourselves in a friendship in which it is not an equal friendship, but one in which you are just the giver?  I am sure that in his case it is probably a tad bit different, but I do know that he has tried very hard to deal with things to the best of his 9 year old abilities and deal with incidents in the most positive way that he can.  He is my optimist.

The next few weeks will be a bit telling with these life lessons that we are all dealing with.  I hope that it is something that we will all find benefit in as these situations come to a close.  I wish that that guidebook did exist, I would be reading it, word for word, page by page.... either way, with out it we will still end up the better for it, no matter what kind of hurt these lesson hand my family, because in the end we still have each other.

Work Experience

When we first arrived at the school, I was sent information by the school office because the year 10's were going to be doing work experience in the spring.  I was a bit stressed about the whole thing, having just moved to the country and all.  So, I went into the office to ask what was my expectations were going to be in this process.

The secretary was very reassuring to me and let me know since we were new to the country and all that the school would gladly assist in the process.  Phew! Parents are generally asked to help find their children placements, so I was particularly relieved that she said that the school would assist me with in this area.  While I knew that my oldest son was interested in working in the computer industry, I had no idea where to start finding him a place to go.  Raytheon was definitely out since it is a secure workplace. So, I went about my business and asked Colin about it here and there, but got no real good updates.

Then, a month and a half before the intended week, I received an email from the school stating that he did not have a placement yet.  I sent an email back to find the the secretary that sent the email had her last day and was not on staff anymore.  She was also the one that I had talked to and she had assured me that the school would assist, ugh!

Well, assistant to the head master of the school (who is a wonderful woman!) stepped right in to help find a place for my oldest son to go.  At first we were hoping that he might go into London and work at The Royal Bank of Scotland!  (ooooo and ahhhhh!)  My oldest son is particularly interested in catching hackers, the bad guys of the internet, and I thought this might be a really cool opportunity for him to get a an idea about internet security (if possible).  Along with the fact that saying you worked a week at the Royal Bank of Scotland!  Alas, that did not work out, but he was rather fortunate that something else came along instead!

He is spending the week at a computer business called HardSoft Computers.  It is owned by two men, one of which is a parent that has children in the boys school.  Very nice!

HardSoft seems to do a variety of things, mainly provide computer support and services for home computers and small businesses.  My oldest son is working in the back with the technicians.  His first day was spent installing some software on a few computers.  It was a slow day, but aren't most Mondays?  The next few days are promising to be a bit more exciting.  He mentioned that he is going to be building computers the next few days.  I can't wait to hear how the next few days go for him.  I am extremely excited that he has this opportunity.