Levi's walk to school + Indian Dinner!

Levi:

 My walk to school is a very scenic route and is very pretty, I first leave the house and get to walk through a park and get to see a lot of animals and plants! Then I walk by a few dozen shops and stores and see many very, very nice cars! (Bentleys, Aston Martins,) I even saw a Lamborghini last week! After the cool cars and a very ancient church building, I get to the Botanical Gardens, a truly amazing sight and I love walking through it and seeing all the things it has to offer, many animals, people, even a small cafe! One of my favorite things to walk by in the gardens is this big plant that has leaves about 3 feet long, it's interesting to learn about plants since they have little boards next to some plants saying what they are and where they originate from! After the astounding walk at the gardens I get to Kelvinside Academy and start my day. The only bad thing about walking is that one of my shoes is really tight and hurts my heel, it's hurt my heel and doesn't feel too nice. But my mom generously got me some plasters (as they say it in the UK) and now the pain is gone! But yeah my walk to school is very nice and calming!

We live on a hill, so the first thing you see when walking to Levi's school is Glasgow Uni. It is a stunning view.  They are on the next hill over.  It's only 10 minutes away, but a bit of a workout.  I never knew Glasgow was so hilly until I started walking it!  (Kitty)

This is the Great Western Road.  It's like a parking lot in the morning, with tons of cars and traffic.

Botanic Gardens and rhubarb(?) that looks like it is on steroids.  

The Kelvin Walkway.

Botanic Gardens

Inn Deep, a cool restaurant under the Great Western road and on the Kelvin Walkway.

Post box built into the hedges.

Third day with the tie.  Should it really be that long?  (mom asks Levi).  Nobody really cares. (Levi answers)

This is the Kelvin Walkway, an alternative to walking the Great Western Road.  It really is a beautiful way to go if you don't want to walk on the city streets.

Jackson:

Today we had Indian food for dinner. My mom and I made it starting with some chopped up onions and cumin. We added some Vindaloo spice paste to 250 ml of water and added the chicken that I had prepared earlier by soaking them in salt water then cooking them with a spice mix that had salt, pepper, and paprika. With that we also had rice and some naan bread we got from Tesco. It was a very tasty meal and we had raspberries for dessert!

Wooooohoooo!  Thanks everyone for reading the first blog.  I was actually totally shocked at how many people read it.  I'm feeling a bit of pressure now going into the second publication!  

I thought that this week we would give you a taste of Levi's walk to school now that he has done it for 6 days.  Here is my viewpoint. From where we are at 18 Park Circus on a hill, it takes 10 minutes through Kelvingrove Park, 10 minutes on Great Western Road, and then 10 minutes through the Botanic (I always say botanical- but that isn't what is on the sign) Gardens.  It is really quite lovely, but it is a full 30 minutes that gets more complaints from Levi than he mentions above!!!  Especially when he started walking with a club foot on day 2, stating if he did that then his heel didn't hurt.  There were many stares and girls turning around to see what was up with the clomping noise.  Oma immediately told me a story of how I would do this in the mall when I didn't want to walk and would rather be carried.  Kitty's karma in full bloom!  The plasters (once he agreed to them) helped. 

There is an alternate route that is almost the same amount of time, it is walking by the River Kelvin, called the Kelvin walkway. That is my favorite way to go if I don't need to stop at the grocery store. It is a piece of heaven right in the middle of the city.  Jackson and I walked Levi to school every day except for Friday, which is the first day that Levi walked home alone.  It is quite a work out if you do both the drop off and pick up.  I didn't measure in steps (maybe 150,000?!?! that is what it feels like anyway), but it is about 2+ hours there and back twice in a day.  Needless to say, I'm ready for Levi to walk it by himself this week (especially if he is club-footing it!).  But, looking at the bright side of things, it is nice to get such a good workout in on a daily basis!  

On another note, we are trying to make better meals for ourselves here as J outlines above.  Whew, this cooking thing takes a LOT of time!  Who knew?!?!  (like everyone except me surely).  Please send easy recipes for us to try. I can't promise much, but we are trying our best.  My spice rack is actually getting quite full, surprisingly!  I am loving the homemade meals, they taste so much better, I just wish I wasn't the one who had to cook them........

cheers,

Kitty