The Number Field

Elena loves books. Even back in Austin before she could talk, I knew she would occupy herself for at least 45 minutes if I just let her take all the books off her bookshelf. She was gentle enough with them that I could leave her in her room alone and just poke my head in periodically to make sure the bookcase wasn't about to fall over on her. She would look at some and stack them up and just enjoy being with her books. These days she would happily have me read to her all day long if I would agree.

In April, when we visited Powell's Books in Portland, I made a point of speaking to a staff member in the children's section to ask about books for Elena. Mark and I needed her to move on to new reading material, as we were getting tired of reading the exact same books over and over. The staff member asked a few questions and then headed over to a wall of beginning chapter books and pointed out the Rainbow Fairy series. They're real big-kid chapter books, but still have drawings on almost every page. We bought two, read them quickly, and didn't think any more about them. Not long after we moved to England, while I was browsing in one of the thrift shops I saw more of these Rainbow Magic books and bought a few for her. Over the next two weeks I looked for these books in every thrift shop we passed and bought any of them that i could find. I'm kind of a sucker for buying her books and she knows it, so she made sure to remind me to look for them. The books have all gone to live in my room and are very effective incentives to encourage proper behavior (some might call this a bribe). After she earns a book, it becomes hers and lives in a small storage bench in the front room, which we call her Book Box.

She frequently pulls the books we've read back out of the box and studies each one, examining the pictures page by page and pretending she's reading. Almost every day she pulls all of the books out and lines them up on the couch and floor. She likes to look at each cover and she'll ask me to remind her of each fairy's name. Recently, we've found this series at the local library, which is good since I cleaned out the the thrift stores. With more than 60 books in this series, I think it might take us to the end of our six months here to get through them all.

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Our second day at the Olympics started with a new experience for Elena: a trip on the London subway, better known as the Underground or the tube. By the end of our trip she and Roman would be pros at getting around on the tube--Roman spent most of that time in his stroller looking up at the people around him, flirting with girls and eliciting comments like "that's the cutest baby I've ever seen."

Most of the triathlon took place in and around Hyde Park, so we disembarked from our train at Hyde Park corner just when the race was scheduled to start. We didn't have much hope of finding a good viewing spot for the swim, so Jenny and the kids occupied a prime location along the bike route while I walked around to see if there was any way I could get a view of the first leg of the race. Soon enough I found myself toward the back of a crowd cheering on the swimmers as they made their last big turn. Once the swimmers were out of sight, I traced my steps back to Jenny and the kids. They had found an amazing spot right along the fence line at a slight bend at the top of a hill, so we were able to see the riders for a long time as they approached and passed us. The crowds weren't too heavy, so there was even some nearby empty space where Elena could dance and play during the breaks in the action. Also, a member of the Swedish team support staff (an assistant coach or something similar) was right next to us, talking on her walkie-talkie and taking split times between groups on the road. Some other spectators asked her if her athletes had a chance, and she seemed pretty confident--it turned out that she was right!

The racers did seven loops of a 3.8 mile circuit on their bikes, but we only watched the first five times before we abandoned our position to try our luck finding a spot to watch the final leg of the race, the ten kilometer run. We couldn't find anywhere with a good view--there were just too many people jammed in. I did find one spot where, by holding my camera up high I was able to shoot some video of the runners going by. In the end we joined the rest of the overflow crowd on a large lawn with a jumbo-tron where we watched the last portion of the race. It was thrilling: a small group composed of representatives from Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Great Britain, and the USA relentlessly pushed and pulled each other towards the finish line, until only the Swedish and Swiss women had the speed to go on, stride for stride into a fantastic photo finish. The Swiss athlete was awarded the gold after the evidence was examined.

Afterwards, we met up with Amy and Heather to see some of the famous sights of London. We strolled past the fancy car dealerships and hotels on Park Lane and ate lunch in Green park next to Buckingham palace while watching crowds start to gather for the Race Walk event that would take place later that afternoon. We took pictures of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament before moving on to marvel at the grandness of Trafalgar Square and shop for souvenirs in Leicester Square. By then it was dinner time, so we wandered through the Covent Garden shopping district until we found a curry house in between the Royal Ballet School and Royal Opera House. It had been a long day for all of us, but especially Elena and Roman so dinner was understandably stressful, but it was nice to be able to hop back on the tube and have a reasonably quick and easy trip back to our hotel.

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Our Olympic plans began to take shape several months ago, just after we accepted this assignment in England when someone pointed out that we would be here during the Olympics. Even though we live several hours from London, we knew it was a rare opportunity that we didn't want to miss. We tried to find tickets while we were still stateside but they were expensive and rare, so we didn't pick them up when we had the chance, and before long there were none to be had at all. Once we arrived in the UK, we determined that we satisfied the requirements to buy UK tickets--they required only UK residence, not citizenship--although we did have to do some complicated things to ensure that we could provide payment in an approved manner. Just a few weeks before the Games began, our plans began to take shape: we bought tickets for a canoe sprint event, and planned to watch the women's triathlon and marathon from parts of the race routes where tickets wouldn't be required.

Although new tickets were being released almost every day, we didn't hold out much hope of finding tickets for any of the other events that we wanted to see, although we checked the ticketing website frequently for ourselves and for some friends who were also looking for tickets. We found some things for them, but still didn't see anything else we wanted for ourselves. Then one evening, out of nowhere, some tickets appeared for rowing on the first day we would be in London, for a session that included several finals and medal ceremonies. We clicked through the website as quickly as possible and managed to purchase tickets just in time, because there were none left even fifteen minutes later. I was so excited; rowing was the number one thing that I wanted to see. It was all the more special because the rowing venue was Dorney Lake, where I had raced ten years ago at the Marlow regatta, one of the first few events held there.

We drove down to London by way of Manchester, where we picked up our tickets at the Manchester United stadium, the site of some of the Olympic football (soccer) matches. The detour made our drive longer than it would have been, but it was worth it to have tickets in hand so we didn't have to worry about picking them up on the day of the competition. We drove through the dark and the rain to our hotel near Heathrow, very tired but happy to arrive safely. Just getting to the venue the next morning was quite a trek requiring two bus trips, then most of a mile walking to get to the gates, and another long walk from the entrance to the stands. Jenny and I split up because we hadn't connected with our friends to hand off their tickets but the rowing had already started. While Roman and I watched some of the lower-level finals, Jenny and Elena kept searching and eventually found Amy and Heather, after which they joined us in plenty of time to watch the B-finals and medal events. Being in the stands with thousands of fans and cheering on the Olympians was absolutely incredible. Our seats were not quite together, so I sat with Elena while Jenny took Roman. The most thrilling moments were when a crew from Team GB was in the lead or at least in medal position as they sprinted through the grandstand area to the finish line. It happened in most of the races, but the most amazing were the women's double, which the British crew won by a significant margin, and the men's single, when Britain's Alan Campbell moved through Lassi Karonen in the closing meters to take the bronze. It was also a treat to watch the medal ceremonies. Elena and I were sitting in front of some Kiwis, and twice we got to hear them sing their national anthem. The ceremonies made a big impression on Elena--now she always wants to see the athletes get their medals, and talks about the medals any time we discuss the Olympics. Roman loved all the applause. Now when we watch events on the computer, he joins in with claps and cheers whenever he hears the crowd.

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Today was amazing. I'll write all about it soon.

Tomorrow: the women's triathlon through downtown London!

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Not every day can be part of a big trip or grand adventure, so we also embrace the opportunities for outings that may be shorter but are just as pleasant. Jenny and I took advantage of a very generous offer from a member of our congregation--he goes to the temple one Saturday each month and always tries to fill up his car with other people who want to make a temple trip. Another generous family didn't bat an eyelash when we asked them if they could take care of Elena and Roman. When the day arrived, we left early in the morning and headed out. The drive was lovely, it was very nice to have some time without the children, and our time at the temple was spiritual and enlightening.

Now that schoolchildren, including Elena, are out on their six-week summer break, many parents are trying to find fun, kid-friendly activities. Some people from church have decided to put together a weekly activity, and promise to help arrange rides for people like us who don't have a car. The first activity was a visit to a farm and petting zoo. When they first arrived Jenny had Roman strapped into the stroller, but she could see that he wanted to get the full experience, so she let him out. He loved standing at the edges of the pens, holding onto the fencing so he could peer in at the animals. Elena got to spend even more time with the animals, and even helped to brush down one of the pigs. For her the overall experience bordered on sensory overload, but in the evening she told me how much fun she had.

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We've let Elena's hair grow long since she was born; it's only been cut once. I've tried to get her used to having it brushed and pulled up into a ponytail, but for a long time she resisted even that level of maintenance. Although she is only 3 and 1/2 years old, we've gone through many hair stages. We started with me being in charge and Elena learning to sit still. Then there was the stage where she wanted pretty bows and clips in her hair and that motivated her to sit through a hair-do session. Around the time Roman was born, she was very much into not having her hair touched--at all. She didn't care if it was in her face, or if it had half a container of yogurt in it, just as long as I was not touching it. But since we have come to England, she has decided that she does not like it in her face when we are out walking around. One day I offered to put a braid in and ever since she has been requesting braids. Her hair is long enough that it's been quite enjoyable for me to touch up on my braiding skills!

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After walking the grounds and seeing the exteriors of several castles, we knew that it was time to satisfy Elena's curiosity and figure out what the inside of a castle looks like. Ripley castle is not particularly large or famous. It is somewhat unusual due to the fact that the Ingilby family still lives there today, as their ancestors have done for more than seven hundred years. The castle is the seat of the Ingilby baronetcy, but the ins and outs of the titles of nobility are too complicated for us, let alone Elena, so in talking about the visit, we went along with her simplified assertion that a young woman living in the castle would be a princess, and decided to be on the lookout for princesses.

The castle tour was interesting, with lots of old family portraits, amusing stories, and historical pieces of furniture. One of my favorites was a large stained glass window that has an interesting way of recording family history: each panel represents a marriage by showing two family crests, with the side the Ingilby crest is on determined by whether they had the bride or groom in that union. Elena wanted to know which room belonged to the princess, but I don't think any of them seemed like a good fit with her internally calibrated idea of how a princess room should appear.

The oldest part of the castle is a tower from the sixteenth century. The room at the top of the tower was full of armor, weapons, medals and ribbons, and various other artifacts. Elena and Roman probably would have been more interested if they were just a little bit older. That room also had a tiny hidden compartment behind one of the walls that must have been the best hiding place ever--it wasn't rediscovered until a few decades ago, but according to the stories it must have sheltered many people who were wanted by the authorities and would likely have been put to death.

After the tour of the castle itself, we took a walk through the deer park next to the lake on the grounds. Except for the castle itself in the background, it seemed more like a ranch or a farm than anything else, including a small herd of cattle. The town is known for its ice cream--maybe they come from those cows. Later we walked by a large stage set up for a concert and air show later that evening, as well as a ropes/adventure course. As we took one more turn around the garden before we leaving, we were treated to the sweet sounds of the orchestra warming up in the distance with the Sleeping Beauty waltz and other favorites. To leave we had to walk by the castle proper again, right through a wedding that was about to start. The bride certainly looked like a princess! Keeping a castle in the black must require diversified revenue streams.

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One of my math posts was linked from a social media site the other day, which brought a nice spike in traffic. There's a large audience out there that wants to read good treatments of interesting math problems--there are large audiences for almost anything on the internet. I wish I had enough time to write a math blog like that. It's an idea that has rattled around in my head for a long time, but I'm afraid that it will never happen. Writing technical material clearly and with the right tone takes a lot of time, to say nothing of selecting good problems and producing useful graphics or other accompanying material.

There's another blog I'd like to write, or at least read: a mashup of grown-up art, literature, and culture with children's art and literature. Who wouldn't want to read posts like The Physics and Metaphysics of Dinosaur Train or Identity and Self Invention in Harold and the Purple Crayon and The Monster at the End of this Book ?

The real chance of a viral hit would be in going the other direction. There are plenty of adaptations for children of classic literature-- The Nutcracker is one of Elena's favorites--but the range is very limited; nobody takes risks. Who will write (and illustrate) the board book version of In Search of Lost Time ? It might start like this:

This is Marcel. Sometimes he has a hard time falling asleep. All he wants is for his mother to come give him a goodnight kiss, but she stays up late with the grown-ups. Marcel and his family spend the summer with his grandma and his aunt. They take the train from Paris to the countryside. They know they're getting close when they can see the church steeple. Marcel loves to read so much that someday he wants to be a writer. But whenever he tries to write, he can't think of anything to say. Marcel and his family take walks nearly every day. They have two favorite paths. They take the shorter one when it looks like rain, but when the weather is clear they leave early and go the long way.

With just a few simple illustrations it could be a hit! There must be hundreds of works of classic and contemporary literature that would be great fun to adapt for children.

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Roman and I had both started to look more shaggy than is generally acceptable, but the remedies were subtly different. Throughout our marriage Jenny has been an excellent barber for me and clippers cost less than a single haircut, so she picked up a new haircut kit and gave me a great trim.

Understandably, she wasn't interested in doing the same for Roman. He wiggles more than I do and his head is softer. She asked for a recommendation from Elena's preschool teacher and got a ringing endorsement of the teacher's own father who runs a barber shop nearby. Roman managed to make it through the whole ordeal without crying. I don't think that the barber took off a lot of hair, but the change in Roman's appearance is remarkable to me, as can be seen in these before and after pictures:

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Once I put Henley on our travel calendar, I looked at this year's course for another of my favorite sporting events: the Tour de France. To my amazement, I saw that a few days later the third stage would finish in Boulogne-sur-mer, just a short distance across the English channel from Dover. Jenny quickly got on board with this stage of the trip, if for no other reason than that she's long wanted to take the ferry between Dover and Calais, a route that is significant in The Scarlet Pimpernel , a favorite book of hers. I suppose I've spent enough time over the years talking about the Tour that she's a cycling fan now too, and we're no strangers to standing around in crowds for hours, waiting for a few moments of excitement when some kind of race comes by.

On our way we had time for some sightseeing in the English countryside, and decided to fulfill our long-standing promise to show Elena a real castle: the famous Leeds castle. We just wanted to walk around the grounds, and didn't have the time or desire to take the full tour of the castle interior, aviary, maze, and everything else, so it didn't make sense to spend more than fifty pounds for admission. Instead, I looked around on the internet and found that there's a public footpath through the property, and as long as we didn't stray from it we would be protected by the legally protected right to walk on public paths. It was perfect--just what we were after and, despite a brief storm, it was a great way to see a lovely castle, meet one of the castle's resident peacocks, and walk by a cricket match and a flock of sheep.

Riding the ferry was the highlight of the next morning, as we watched the impressive white cliffs of Dover recede in the distance while we motored towards France. There was even a children's play room aboard the ship where we could let Elena and Roman loose and not worry about them knocking things over or falling overboard--Elena has read Curious George enough that there's no telling whether she would try to copy George's curiosity. After the ferry it was time to drive our right-hand drive car on the right side of the road, but that wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. The difficulties we had finding our way in town had very little to do with the driver-side mismatch.

Once we muddled through checking in at the hotel, it was time to find some food. I'm pretty sure that the worst cafe in France serves better food than almost anywhere in England, and even Roman liked the pastries. Maybe he's not picky, he's just a gourmet with a refined palate. Elena saw a merry-go-round next to where we were eating, and we let her go on it. It was only fitting, because we had neglected her requests to do several other similar fun activities over the past few weeks. She grabbed the brass ring--in this case, it was a big green tassel--and earned a free ride which we didn't get to redeem before we left. We might never go back there, but at least she has the ticket as a souvenir.

We spent the rest of the afternoon like real tourists, window-shopping in the town center, taking a rest and watching that day's Tour stage on the television, then exploring the old fortress city (including a traveling exhibition of kid-friendly art) and scoping out a place to watch the race the next day. By the time we were done with all that, it was time for a late (for us) dinner, but the first restaurant we tried wasn't even open yet. The second restaurant was, and served the most delicious food. We convinced Elena to get a burger instead of her normal order of chicken nuggets, and she ate it all up.

The next morning I ran for the first time in a long time, purposefully choosing a course that would take me up the final section of the day's cycling route--it was amazing to see how much they had to do to set everything up. After checking out of the hotel we visited the beach in the cloudy, chilly weather, which must be what Elena expects now. While Jenny and Roman napped in the car, Elena and I built sand castles, looked for shells and rocks, and watched the tide come in. Then it was off to what turned into a very long lunch with a bistro proprietor who was very friendly, and more than happy to practice his English with us, and then finally on to the main event: the final turn of the stage, about 200 meters from the finish line.

We arrived at our spot when the riders still had about 80 kilometers left to cover, which would take two hours. We explored the surroundings for a little while, but the crowds were already building and we knew we had to get into position early. I was happy to watch the jumbo-tron from a clearing set back from and a little bit above the barrier fences, where there was a little room for Roman. I thought that with good luck I would be able to take some photos of the riders coming around the turn. Jenny felt adventurous and took Elena to try to squeeze into a spot right along the fence. Just like that they were gone, without jackets, snacks, or anything, and I didn't see them again until the race was over.

Roman and I watched the race on the big screen, along with thousands of other spectators. When the crowd became too dense for him to crawl around without being trod upon, I loaded him into the Baby Bjorn and plied him with snacks to keep him from crying. He liked the racing, applauding the attacks and responses along with the rest of the crowd, which later earned him the designation of "very cute" from a nearby German grandma. There was plenty to watch aside from the crowd and the race, as a parade of hundreds of vehicles preceded the racers along the course. There were team cars and race officials, but most of all were the float-like sponsor trucks, from which were thrown into the first rows of the crowd cascades of candy, souvenirs, and trinkets, some of which made its way into Elena's hands courtesy of the group that had allowed her and Jenny to squeeze in front of them at the barrier.

Playing out on the big screen we watched the catch of the escape group, some nasty crashes, and the ever-downward tick of the remaining kilometers gauge. When they rode into town a French rider attacked, eliciting an eruption of cheers from the crowd. Then the leaders swung around the final turn, digging in for the last stretch to the line. The emerging star Peter Sagan separated himself from the pack enough that he could celebrate as he crossed the line with the 'running man' dance move. I didn't get any photos of the leaders--everyone in front of me held their cameras up high at the same moment that I did, of course. Jenny took advantage of her great location and got some great video, which will forever bear witness to the fact that we were there, and we saw this with our own eyes. It was incredible.

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