Christmas adventure, part III

I made it to Dallas for Boxing Day and a delayed Christmas. We managed to open half our presents before dinner, after which I conked out (I asked Mum why no one woke me up - we tried several times she countered) so we wound up Christmas am on the 27th. As the much-hyped "Christmas Nazi", I had always tried to ensure that recent Christmases weren't over in a frenzied flash of paper shredding, but even I would never have stretched it out that long. Alas the next day we had to say goodbye to Stephen, but it meant I was the only one left to spoil the rest of the week. Had a lovely time with Mum and Dad. I ate buffalo burgers and deep fried pickles and tons of delicious Mexican food, although I could have popped into old town McKinney's surely authentic English pub for some yummy grub from home. Dad and Mum have been slowly unpacking all the boxes from our house in Saudi Arabia. So there were pieces of my childhoold strewn about the place. In every room I encountered something else - family photographs, children's books, my great-grandfather's Chinese cabinet - that I hadn't seen in well over a decade. It's strange to be reunited with your past.

Am now in Atlanta for a week. Enjoying cuddles with Jacob and flirty smiles (but hands off!) from Andrew. One thing I miss in England is having someone to play games with. Since leaving Dave in NYC, I don't really have an outlet for my insanely competitive streak which has sadly lain dormant, so I took it out on Jonathan in a brutal round of junior monopoly. Play has been delayed due to lack of light, but tomorrow I'll finish him off. Or maybe I'll take pity and let him win. Yeah, not a chance.

Christmas adventure, part II

Greetings from the Minneapolis Airport Hilton! As the snow was finally cleared from Heathrow Airport in London, a snowstorm was wending its way to the Atlanta airport. I could have made it to Atlanta today, but connection to Dallas was cancelled and I wouldn't have arrived there until Monday earliest. So yet another rebooking - the fourth. (Christmas next year will involve a journey of no more than 100 miles!) Christmas night in an airport hotel isnt what I would have chosen for myself, but I had three diazepam's on the plane so I'm in very good spirits! And had a grilled ahi tuna sandwich with honey bacon and wasabi mayonaise for dinner downstairs which beats boring old turkey and sprouts any day.

Tomorrow morning it's on to Dallas at the crack of dawn. Flight on to Atlanta for visit with Lucy & co. has been postponed till New Years Day so I'm not losing any of my vacation time. And later arrival back in the UK. Have just seen the first photos of Christmas at Lucy's in Atlanta. Apparently Jacob is now a cowboy (the pround owner of a plush rocking horse) and Andrew has fallen in love with Toy Story and is carting Woody around all over the house with him.

It's 1am in England and I'm already drifting....

Christmas adventure, part I

So apparently it takes at least seven days to get out of England! My flight to Atlanta on Saturday was cancelled after just one and half hours and three inches of snow. The airport claimed they were working like mad to clear it and get planes flying. We watched out the windows for five hours after it stopped and saw nothing. Nobody was doing anything. BAA is full of crap!

But people are terrific. As we collected our bags a young chap overheard me tell my father that my phone was running out of juice. He offered me his charger, and when my flights bags came onto the carousel he told me to keep it and send back to him at my convenience. So kind! Dad was able to get me rebooked for a Monday morning flight so I headed home. We all packed onto the Heathrow Express. When I got to Paddington the Tube was out of commission so I joined the queue for taxis. Only an hour wait and my driver and I chatted about the history of his cottage in Essex. In the queue I chatted to a family who had been on their way to Shanghai for a wedding planned around their coming out from England - they bought the tickets in February! I began to think I wasn't so hard done by. Luck was definitely on my side, as I made it onto the last Thameslink train from St Pancras back out to Luton that night. I even had a seat!

While so many people slept on the floor at Heathrow I was tucked up warm in my little flat. My bedroom is very cold, so I've pulled out the sofa bed and moved into the living room - watching the 37" flat screen telly from my bed - this isn't pretty nice. The airport is still frozen solid so today's flight was always cancelled. Thankfully they announed it online last night so I was saved the horror of travelling to Heathrow again today. The first available flight was on the 25th, but at least I went to bed last night knowing I could sleep in and I had a new flight arranged. With five days - and not too much more snow forecast - I may just be third time lucky.

I'm in good spirits considering. I just need to keep as busy as possible. I spent much of today at Paddy and Mike's. Now only four days to go.

Christmas starts here

For me Sloane Square means Christmas: Partridges, Holy Trinity, blue trees and sparklers...Christmas starts here.
Had a very successful Christmas shopping expedition this afternoon, and bought myself a present...I'm a sucker for pretty dresses.

My family history magazine article made the cover this month! I'm not just buried in the back pages.

I've made an exciting discovery today. Most of my family were so hopelessly poor they never show up on records other than the parish registers. But working as a researcher for the past five months has introduced me to all kinds of new records, and I'll be darned if I didn't find some family in a place I never would have expected to see them.

I was looking at the tithe map for the Beds village of Whipsnade (Whipsnade is my special place) and found my family listed on the tithe apportionment.

They were occupying cottages marked on the map - to be honest I wouldn't have been surprised to learn they'd been living under a hedge somewhere - but no they're on the tithe. It's nuts.

Cottages labelled 68 are the ones my family were living in. I'm trying to determine if the cottages are still there. And if they are, well I might just go bother the people who live in them.

I've got a new obsession, and I'm afraid it's twitter. You don't have to join up to follow my twitterings as there's a web address: twitter.com/bilaeva

Although if you do join, you can send me messages. And you can follow others. I highly recommend Armando Iannucci (Lucy: you'll remember him as the creator of the Mr Tony Blair doll) and Graeme Swann who is a very funny dude.

My article on cricket history and genealogy has gone to the copy editor for prep for the December issue, and today the November issue came out, which has my first Ask the Experts Q & A on US genealogy. It's the first article to have my name on it, and there's a photo as well. Eeek! I also had to send a short bio to go with the cricket article. Mum and I read some of the ones from previous issues today, people with PhDs, lecturers, authors of several books, we just laughed. In the end I went with "Genevieve Bovee is a family history researcher and joined Sticks Research Agency in 2010. She is a former director of the New York Family History Center." Not the most exciting, but New York always sounds a bit impressive, right?

I just need to publish a book. Then I can bark with the big dogs!

This is a copy of the magazine containing my first published article on sale in my local WHSmith newsagents here in Luton.

They weren't carrying the magazine a few months ago when I first got here, but I popped in today to see if they have it now. I was awfully excited. I've been going to that shop to buy magazines ever since I was old enough to read.

This is where I went to work on Wednesday!Seriously. The local archives for the towns around Canterbury is actually located in part of the cathedral.

This is really funny!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vcr38/The_News_Quiz_Series_72_Episode_5/

Here are some things I think are really cool (yeah, I'm supposed to be working):

The Bell Rock Lighthouse
William Tyndale
High speed trains
Blue cheese
Venice
The Name of the Rose
anything Basque

My job is also really cool. Just not right now.

On QI they're talking about how waiters in the US will chase after you if you leave a restaurant without tipping.

This is true!! Happened to me twice in New York. Really bizarre and very annoying. First time we were too shocked to protest and paid more. The second time... I let 'em have it, and I don't mean more cash.

My favourite joke

What do you call a cow with no legs?
Ground beef.

The speed of life

I'm on the high speed train from St Pancras to Kent. It's the first time I've used the line and it's exciting. I love going through tunnels and at this speed it felt like we could come out almost anywhere, Russia or perhaps even China. Dagenham as it happens. I loved the roar of the train as we sped through the tunnel. I wonder just how fast we were going.I love speed, though I'm too afraid to drive more than ninety. Hopefully one day ill get to drive a supercar! The train is smooth which makes a nice change after the bumps of my recent plane rides. And I remember the old Eurostar route along the main line to Dover, commuting back and forth to Brussels. You flew through Belgium and France only to get stuck behind some doddering local service on the English side. We were ALWAYS late arriving. This is brilliant. No brain hemorrhages!

I went to Lord's today. Technically it's the home of the MCC and the Middlesex County Cricket, but really it's the home of cricket (as they announce on their masthead) and rightly so. If none of this is making sense, kindly follow the link provided. I was doing a bit of research on a professional cricketer for a magazine article. Now why specify a professional cricketer, why not just a cricketer? Because, the distinction between amateur and professional is a very important one in the history of cricket. Amateurs were men of means and talent who played for county sides and for England, but only received their expenses. The professionals were the folks who had the talent but not the means. They weren't gentlemen - a big no-no in English society until, well, like not that long ago - and who had to play for money, also a big no-no. It's very complicated and isn't meant to make sense. A few exceptional cricketers somehow managed to be a bit of both. Gentlemen who also made sure they got a share of the gate takings. Amateur in theory, but professional in practice. I'm a bit like that. Still living on other means but trying to get my share of the professional genealogical takings. They say "you can't ride two horses with one ass". Well W.G. Grace and G.M. Bovee have had a go at it at least!

No one can accuse Worcester of having nightlife. I know it's Monday but I had to get my dinner from Mickey D's. And I'm not real big on cardboard hamburgers. Still it's quite a charming place 9-5 so looking forward to seeing it reawaken tomorrow. I've been here at least once before. We stayed with Saudi friends the Wilmers back in the day. Not that I remember much of Worcester. I stayed indoors with Alix - we played seven rounds of Monopoly and made up dances to Kim Wilde records.

Jacob

Old friends run into at JFK: 1 + his newly minted Mrs.

Pairs of boots purchased: 4

Lunches at Chilli's: 2

Naps taken on Auntie Genevieve's shoulder: 6

Peanut butter M&Ms consumed: oh hundreds

Number of hours on a plane tonight: 9, uggh

I have a name!

Andrew has given me a name. I'm Ghee. We've been pointing to me and calling me Genevieve and trying to get him to say my name, and tonight he said, "Nigh-night Ghee". I'm the fifth person to get an Andrew name, after Mummy, Daddy, Goggy, Dad-Dad. And now Ghee.

Happy birthday wishes from Stephen and The Onion and some of our friends at the BBC: