Nanny McPhee and The Big Bang (Movie II)

For all of you with kids you may be going to his movie in the next few weeks.  Staring Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and several child stars, the first movie was entertaining.  The idea that a nanny becomes more beautiful with every good choice that each child makes bothered me, as it reinforces the historical stereotype that beauty is better than any other look, but it a kid's film.  Why not suck them into this belief early.  But I digress.....

The important bit is that everyone who visited Greg in London will recognize portions of the movie that were shot in various locations.  One day when I left Greg's flat during the summer of 2009, I saw a crew setting up a film shoot in the early AM.  A visiting friend of mine and I were headed out for a day of activities and turned left onto Regent Street heading towards the Regent Park Station, when we saw various vans, large wires, cameras and a caterer organizing on the North West side of the street (just south of Park Crescent).  Greg had mentioned that many film crews came to film in this historic part of London so we briefly stopped to watch the goings on.  From our side of the street we could see an old, old motorcycle and side car with three people in long robes and costumes sitting atop.  There was no one available to speak with so we watched for a few minutes and continued on our way.

After a full day of touring, we returned to see the remnants of the days work being packed into large, white moving trucks.  I happened to ask one of the people on the set what was being filmed and he said, "Nanny McPhee part two".  If I had known it was Emma Thompson on the motorcycle I would have waited.  And do you know how long I have had a crush on Colin Frith (a.k.a. Mr. Darcy the BBC version)?  Missed my brush with fame there.

(Taken from Wikipedia.org.)

If you have a chance to see the movie, or are taking your kids, when you get to the part of the film with the old tall stone terraced houses with old wood doors, when the motorcycle with side car is in the film, know that you have probably walked that street before.  Regent Street.  Greg and our old neighbourhood.

Tonia

10, 20 and 70 in a room together

Charise, Alicia and I are sharing a room for the duration of our London stays together. We didn't know what to call ourselves. Alicia is a perfect 10, Charise is 28 years old and I am 69 years old. Charise likes to round down and I like to round up -- so we are calling ourselves the 10, 20 and 70.

Our bedroom has been carefully divided into areas made up of threes: 3 sleeping spaces, 3 laundry collection spaces, 3 shelf spaces, 3 book spaces, 3 toiletries spaces, and we share the purse space -- one whole shelf where we can tuck our bags as we come in the door.

I was going to help Alicia unpack, but when she opened her carry-on, I saw it had been filled with books, good snacks and one set of clothing in case her other luggage went missing. "Why would I need to help Alicia?", I thought. Looks to me like she has everything under control.

Our 10/20/70 group thought we needed to assign someone the job of policing our space to maintain its tidiness. I wondered who that person should be, The word Charise came to mind. She can discover old dental floss in a towel that has come out of the dryer as easily as she can see crumbs fall from ones lips to the ground should someone be so uncouth as to eat a pastry without a dish beneath it.

Alica's school homework is to keep a journal of her trip to London. She has one page already written, filled with her amazement at being able to fly through clouds and to look down and see that below her is not ground, but only clouds.

And I am also going to write -- about how it is when a 10, 20 and 70 year old share a room together. Already I am wishing we could have added a 30, 40, 50 and 60 year old into the mix.

Arta