Grimsby is...

a bit grim. I am sure it is a beautiful place but between our hotel and the fever and chills Quattro woke up with this morning, we are going to rename it "Grim" for now.
After a fabulous afternoon in Manchester, playing in the fountain in the square, sharing sandwiches and ice cream- we pulled into Grimsby on a high note, only to be met with a "wha wha whaaaaa" as we step into the hotel.
It's a huge old building, well maintained, this place could be awesome. It is in a seemingly great location but there has been no one loving the St. James in many, many a decade. I am sure these beds were put in here before I was born. It was rough.
We did have two adjoining rooms, but that just meant there were more scratchy towels and hideous curtains. I give this place a massive thumbs down- they should not expect the likes for Brad and Angelina or even the Daly's for that matter.
So Quattro was having a bit of a "weird" feeling last night and now he is full blown fever. I am hoping this passes him quickly and that there's no vomit of transfer of germs. Elvis is not that happy that she can't have a cuddle with him this morning, but when one gets sick it is always my mission to keep it that way.
Elvis and I stayed in last night. We did go see the club which was cool and that local hang for the motorcycle guys, the "Warlocks". They were all super nice and I wish I would have gotten a picture of little chicken and all those tough guys- mixed with their english accents, they seem even less of a hard ass. So I missed that photo op but I do have these beauties for ya.


Elvis and Eddie walking to the Nottingham castle, that was royally closed.


This be the tree that bucked Quattro off.


Elvis being the impossibly cute creature she is.


This is how Q likes to burn off steam before the long car ride. Whatever works!


This is what we call, "the money shot".

Photos of us.

Manchester

We are back at the room. It was nice to have a show after our day off.
It's always good to watch Eddie play and we all get to do our assigned "jobs". Mine isn't really considered a job I guess because I am not getting paid but Quattro is and happily so.
He has gotten a lot better at dealing with the money and the accents. I fear that when we hit France and Germany he will be in for a bit of a hard time. They use Euros and I have always found pounds easier to deal with. And while people in the England are speaking english, there is a thick accent but it is still english. They have words that we don't use, so there is a learning curve. But Germany? That is altogether a different ball game. it doesn't even sound like anything you would be able to decipher. It's tough.
Looks like the exchange rate has changed a bit over the last week, which is good for us. Not to spend it though... don't get me started. But while we are here making the pound and soon to be euro, we are spending it as if that is what it's worth. When you buy coffee for 3 pounds, it doesn't seem so bad, if you do the conversion.... it is not good.
On that note, I am going to bed. Tomorrow is a new day and we are off to Grimsby, reminds me of the Secret Of Nihm, "Grimsby! Oh Mrs. Grimsby"...

This is Q when we walked up our 87 steps to our first (and hopefully last) dumpy hotel. We were not expecting 87 steps. Silly us.



We managed to drag our asses out that same day we arrived in London. We walked to Buckingham Palace, which isn't saying much because we were right there. You'd think they have a radius of at least 2 miles of nice properties...



Elvis in the phone booth. What is she looking for?



Ahhh, yes. She is really into boobs.



And then we walked back. Dragging ass.

Starbucks is better than Costa. There, I said it.

I'm sitting in the car as the boys go get some coffee. England's best selling coffee is from this place called "Costa" and we have drank our fair share of it. Eddie has it almost every morning at the hotels but I think it is no match for our beloved Starbucks.
I know there are a lot of haters out there of Starbucks, that it's a big time corporation, blah blah blah. I'm down with the 'buck. Not all big corporations are bad and you know, I bet a lot of them started very, very small. Anyway, when you travel like we are, you have to have your old stand- by. When you are up all night and drive all day- you have to have some coffee with a homey kick. The English have their tea down, I have nothing to say about that, other than I need about 5 of them in the morning.
I was super tired this morning. I don't know if it was all the walking yesterday or my emotional state was interrupted by Q falling out of the tree. I totally had a dream about it but it was Elvis this time and it wasn't really a tree but there was falling involved... you know how dreams go. So that sucked and I woke up feeling less than refreshed.
Elvis passed out in the car so I had to stay behind. I never know what they are going to come back with, when I'm not there to lure Quattro towards the healthier stuff. He is a great eater, he will eat anything but he is 10. If I wasn't around, I am certain he would live off gummy worms, chocolate milk and popcorn.
I mistakenly told him about a year ago that my lunches in high school consisted of mostly pepsi and snickers. I don't remember the context, certainly we weren't talking nutrition and obviously my guard was down because I get that thrown in my face all the time now. "Can I get a candy bar?", "no, get hummus", "hummus?? but you had a snickers bar everyday in high school!" I just stop him in his tracks and tell him he is being dramatic, to say I had one everyday was over kill and then I school him on exaggeration, so things get lost, hummus gets bought and that's that. I'm sneaky. Or he's easily tricked. Either way.
I never had the heart to tell him I had snickers and pepsi because I liked to keep the lunch money and buy bad stuff with. I'm not one of those parents that is THAT honest. I will not be retelling my youth to him in chronological order or anything. I will be skipping pages... shit, I will be skipping chapters. Sometimes I wonder if I would be doing more harm by telling him the truth or making it all up? Just making up random things as I go, about my childhood, I had a great imagination as a child, certainly I could unearth that. But no, even as a child I was told that was a "lie", I was branded the fibber for a time, which is cruel and has totally fucked me up now because I am super paranoid that people are liars and I never, ever, ever let one slide- not even one. It's lame and I battle that.
Boys are back, more later

Welcome to Nottingham!
Should be renamed "Not much going on-ingham". This place is pretty dead but that doesn't mean it isn't cool. Last nights show was nothing to write home about, seems the English are all on holiday? Either that or it's all a bunch of bullshit, but we all managed to have a good time. Elvis and I cut out early and took a stroll that ended us back to the room. She fell asleep and I watched an Amy Winehouse tribute, it was pretty sad stuff. Did I mention we were in London when they had her funeral? We might have seen the procession. Probably not, but it could have been.
Nottingham is pretty small from what I can tell, we walked around the entire day, with original intent to see the Nottingham castle. Our plans were foiled when the sign read "Closed Mondays", how do castles close? Who knew they took the Mexican holiday of Mondays off? It sucked but we got over it. We took some pictures of what we could see and moved on. Quattro rode his skateboard all over the town, nearly killing himself at every turn, board flying in the street a few times- I told him if he chased it in the street, even once, I would throw it off a bridge and we are in England, there are bridges everywhere. He did manage to stay out of the streets BUT what I didn't tell him was that he would be equally punished if he did something stupid like fall 6 ft out of a tree.... so you know what he did? fell 6 ft out of a tree. Scared the shit out of all of us (and the 5 people that ran over to him). I was taking pictures of the caves on the side of the castle wall about 50 yards away. I heard a crack and a scream and then he just laid there, I felt that panic that you never feel as a parent until something bad happens. Apparently he grabbed the weakest branch on his way up and the fucker snapped. He is/was okay but I am pretty sure someone is going to need some BenGay tomorrow. He landed straight on his ass/back- it was not good but we must carry on.
Anyway, we had a snack and a pint at "Ye Old Trip to Jerusalem". Fried pickles, duck spring rolls and chorizo chips (seriously fantastic!) I guess it is the oldest pub- ever! We sat outside with some other families and it was quite nice. Elvis was picking all the duck out of the rolls and devouring it, which is good because the girl eats like a bird. Not really picky, just doesn't eat very much. Quattro wasn't eating much because he was high as a kite on his very first (ever!) 7 UP. His face reminded me of that old saying... something about the cat and the canary? You know what I mean, he looked like he was getting away with something grand and in a way he was. I told him a long time ago "no sodas until you have all your adult teeth" I don't know why I say these things or how I make them up ("No gum until your 4" was another good one) but I do. I try to do the right thing all the while figuring out what that means.
There's a picture of me in a nappy (we are now using this term as it is better than my 6th most hated word, "diaper") with a Pepsi, I'm quite sure I was potty trained at 2, I'm no genius but this tells me I was sucking down the brown crack before I had control of my bladder. No judgement, just different strokes for different folks and you know, it's a very different time
So after Quattro enjoyed his first mild addiction and Eddie and I ignored each other (I'm kidding) and all the nibbles were gone, OH and the failed suicide attempt, we wanted to check out the waterfront... I am not sure if we just got lost, couldn't read a map or if the "waterfront" they are advertising was in fact the brown, stinky liquid that ran under a walking bridge. There was a massive collection of garbage in a corner, so we were all pretty thrilled about that. We were about to pick out another destination off the trusty city map but we looked down and noticed our little chicken was fast asleep. Anyone with toddlers will agree that this was a clear time to go shopping because when she is awake, someone gets the shaft (Eddie) and has to go entertain her otherwise, shit's getting broken. She may look like a dainty little flower, but this "she-she" can bring the house down and snap the china.
After we made our purchases at Topshop, I tried on about 35 pairs of shoes and walked away with none, bought a camera cord the lady SWORE would work (and doesn't!), we found our way to the town square where there is a mini carnival. Not exactly what you'd think you'd see but there it was, rides and everything. But the strangest part was this mock beach they had brought in. There were beach chairs and kids in swimming suits... no beach but there were beach balls. It was weird. I liked it. Quattro played some crappy games and won some crappy stuff. He picked out this giant sucker looking thing to find out it wasn't a sucker, it was a plastic one that housed 8 little ones, he felt robbed. I liked it. Not because I didn't want him to have a giant sucker, more because I like the little lessons he learns. What you see is not always what you get.
Elvis woke up from her nap happy and said she was hot. She was right, it was wicked hot and humid, so that's always pleasant. It would have been nice to think we can go back to the hotel and cool off but the hotels in England don't all do the air conditioning or even the forced air- this joint does the table fan.... super classy. It's nice to enjoy the same hotel two nights in a row, it's a pure luxury, even if this isn't the Chateau Marmont but some A/C would rule, hey at least they have wifi. Most of the budget hotels here are 3 stars which is not what you would get in the states. Most budget hotels in the states could very well house a dead body under your mattress. This is a nice place and the location is rad, so that gives it another star in my book. I could definitely be a professional hotel reviewer. We will have stayed at 37 hotels in 38 days on this trip. So far they have been decent with the exception of the one I booked on our first night- 0 stars.
On our way back from the weird carnival/ MTV beach party someone yelled "Hey Quattro!!" which wouldn't be a big deal if we weren't on the other side of the world- so that was pretty cool. A fan from last nights show I'm sure. Q is still getting up onstage and rockin' out. He even messed up the end of the song and in true rock guy form he said "I hate that part" and then finished the song. Good moment for everyone.
Now we are back in our hotel room where it is still hot, boo. We all just laid low for a bit then went down for dinner. It was pretty good and other than the waiter being a real slack ass (one of those who don't write you order down, you just know it is coming back with mistakes) we had a great time. Even got to start making jokes about Quattro's fall from grace. Now it's bedtime which is a very spuratic event around here. At home we have some sort of routine. even if it's flexible- we just haven't gotten there yet. We will.

Waking up in Cardiff now. I am the only one to want to get out of bed this morning.
It is weird, at home I am the one who wants to stay in bed and here I can't jump out quick enough.
I walked to the lobby and had some tea, alone with just the laptop. What a concept. I think I will make a habit of this.
Having some quiet time is key I think. When the days are long and the nights are loud, I think it is important to take a little time to myself. And if this internet would work I'd be really happy.... so far hotels 3, internet 1.