Back from London, baby!

The big news was that Magda became pregnant in the spring upon returning from London. A couple of years earlier, doctors determined that Magda had a fibroid condition in her uterus that might make fertility difficult. As a result this condition, we were reluctant to get pregnant abroad, but our departure from London set us "right to work". Industrious as always, John scoured the internet to find out ways to improve our chances. One of those ludicrous suggestions must have worked, because only a couple of weeks later a doctor was confirming that Magda was indeed pregnant. It seems that Magda is a "hunny bunny" in her reproductive abilities as well!

John and Magda (seven months pregnant)

The fibroid condition was initially exacerbated by the pregnancy, and it almost seemed like the baby and the fibroids were competing in a "land grab" for Magda's body. At her first visit to the doctor, the doctor told us that the chances for the baby's survival were 50-50. The second visit to the doctor was a mixed blessing: the baby's odds had improved to 95%, but Magda's fibroids had grown in size. By mid-August, the fibroids were growing so quickly and painfully that we almost cancelled our trip to Ireland. Fortunately, a second visit to the doctor resulted in medication that alleviated the pain. After August, the fibroids shrunk significantly, even as Magda didn't (see left).

Home Sweet Home

Oh yes, we almost forgot: we also bought a house on September 7, just four days before the terrorist attacks. We'd been looking in the San Mateo/Burlingame area, and increasingly our search focused on the Baywood Area in San Mateo. In the previous month, we had seen two similar houses that were farther away from downtown that sold quickly. When we saw a similar house with a better location and in the same price range, we jumped right on it.

Our house has needed a little more work than the other two, but has all of our "must-haves": three bedrooms, two baths, great schools and churches nearby, family-oriented neighborhood, and a nice downtown within walking distance.

Videos Reading to the kids by the fireplace (Nov 24, 2001) Talking with Santa (Nov 25, 2001) Chuck reading to Connor (Nov 26, 2001) Hat Ball! (Nov 26, 2001)

John in the Paris Marathon

Our lives were also quite busy before leaving London in May. Magda (aka Pepper Queen) graduated from her cookery classes with Le Cordon Bleu in March and John fought off several injuries but still completed the Paris Marathon with a time of 3:13:32. Other highlights of our time in London were weekend trips to the French Alps and the Italian Riviera. We also took one last look at Europe before we left and had ten wonderful days in Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest and Vienna. We both agreed that Prague was our favourite city, although Magda would have liked to spend a little more time in Vienna "just to be sure".

To answer the question that we get all of the time, here is a list of the things we will and won't miss from our stay in London:

Things we'll miss:
- having the best darn teeth in the entire country!
- living in London was "almost like living in Europe".
- Nasdaq at 5100, BVSN at 93 (yes, NINETY THREE!!!). Bloody awful!
- "refreshments" at the pub following our Wednesday evening training sessions with the Serpentine Running Club.
- two very European words: per diem.
- Condon Bleu "trial dinners". In short, five-star dining for 10 pounds - and John could even say that he knew the chef!
- view of the Queen's "backyard" from John's office on the 24th floor.
- playing "Weekend in Paris" whenever we wanted.
- learning about Jack the Ripper, the Sloane Rangers, Kangeroo Court (aka Earl's Court, a nearby Aussie neighborhood), and other cultural idiosyncrasies of London.
- no car == no parking tickets.

Magda in front of Hotel Gellert in Budapest (post-massage)

Things we won't miss:
- endless coverage of foot-and-mouth disease, or foot-and-hoof disease, or foot-in-the-mouth disease or whatever they decided to call it.
- those cold, hard, "English" stares every time we tried to re-enter the country with our American passports.
- feeling guilty when we didn't "take advantage of our opportunity" and actually relaxed for a weekend.
- trying to figure out the popularity of soccer, I mean "football".
- having the best darn teeth in the entire country!
- worshipping Madonna as a pop icon that "gets it". Hmmmmmm.
- all seven World Series games starting at 1:00 AM. Well, OK, Magda is probably over that one.
- paying 13 pounds (that's almost 20 bucks) for a hamburger. Even worse, a hamburger made of BRITISH MEAT.
- multiplying everything that we pay for by 1.5.

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