The Tale of the Marvelous Journey – Part 5: A Truly English Household

I was a bit nervous this morning about going to eat lunch with the Barlows today. Andy Barlow is Steve’s boss here at AWE (Aldermaston Weapons Establishment). His wife Rachel made lasagna. They have 2 girls – Abigail, 8, and Naomi, 3 ½.

They live in a little village south of Reading. When giving Steve his address, Andy said, “Number 3, The Lane, The Avenue.” Real clear for us Americans, right? Of course, this is not his real address – I changed the number and the names of the 2 streets, but you get the picture. After more wrong turns, we found ourselves in the village and we were indeed on “The Avenue.” Turns out “The Lane” is a cul-de-sac off “The Avenue,” which is the main way through the village.

Andy and the girls were waiting for us out on The Avenue so we wouldn’t miss the turn onto The Lane. The girls were excited to see us and Caleb and Audrey were excited to see them! All 4 of them got along well and played outside in the garden before lunch.

Naomi and Audrey are 2 of a kind. When we showed up, I was pleased to see that she was wearing a Barbie dress and shiny pink boots. Audrey’s kind of girl.

So now inside for lunch. We went up half a dozen steps into the office from the back garden. We could have gone down as many steps into the kitchen. Through the office to the dining room. We had a nice lunch – lasagna, salad, and breads. Audrey and Caleb did us proud! No shouting matches, no thrown food, no spitting and they ate their food without saying, “YUCKY!”

But the best part of dinner by far was the pudding!!! Rachel made a summer pudding. It was fabulous! It was basically white bread and fresh berries. She promised me the recipe and I’ll have to buy a pudding basin. :)

After 3 hours and great conversation about living in a different country (they lived in Los Alamos for 4 months), we headed back home.

Naptime for all, but the kids didn’t sleep. Audrey decided to go to the front step and yell at the cows across the street. She was telling them to moo and to move. Truly an Audrey moment.

Tonight was taco night!! Everybody was happy with the meal. After dinner, we were all doing our own thing in different parts of the cottage, when I came back inside the lounge and saw Julie on her tummy. Neither Mom nor Steve had turned her over from her back – she had rolled over on her own and we missed it! After I flipped her back on her back, she rolled over again, this time with an audience. Now she’s rockin’ and rollin’ on a regular basis. Even more reason to find a playpen!

The next chapter: The New Job