Bethesdavisit

Today I went northwest to Bethesda in Maryland. It is not as far as it sounds, Maryland is the next state along but starts just a mile or so from home. DC is actually very small. Bethesda is quite a large place a few stops along the Metro line.
I went to see my Bolivian friend and she offered me Bolivian beer as pre-lunch drink while showing me all the hard work she has done on our house. She has only been here a few months but has managed to completely renovate kitchen and two bathrooms as well as lay new floors and completely overhaul a pretty large house. I am sure her contacts for some of the specialist handy-work will be useful for us as well. We don't have to do too much on our house to start with. My next task is to put doors on my new huge IKEA wardrobes, but to have to wait for Alastair to return home as they are too heavy to lift for me alone. Ideally I'd like a new cooker and new worktops in the kitchen, but it is more a nice-to-have than necessary, so may have to wait a while.
After a lovely lunch consisting oven oven-baked chicken and spicy potatoes, I got to experience the school-run U.S. style on our way back to the Metro station. Wow! When I was a kiddie, I cycled or walked to school, on my own from grade 1. To be dropped off or collected by your parents would be embarrassing and in any case parents were normally at work and I had my own key. Here the school was slightly further away, around 3km (2miles), but still... the schoolyard was full of cars parked in three lanes.

We came in a Volvo XC70 SUV and it was one of the smallest cars there! There were lots of rules! Anyone parked after a red line was allowed to get out of their cars and go and get their kiddie, who were waiting in a certain area. At 3pm exactly a whistle blew and the everyone had to be back in their cars which then took off in a certain order, to make space for the cars in the 2nd run behind. Very complicated!