Barack to nomal

Big Ben, Little Louis

The Obama army

ABC's Huw Edwards, aka Charles Gibson

Silvio's head. Rear view. 

Gratuitous London shot

Week two of real life back in London and Louis is still struggling to come to terms with his world turned upside down. Gone are the leisurely mornings spent hanging out with his best girl, Soph, in DC's best coffeeshop, Baked + Wired. Gone are the long stroller naps down the Mall while his Mom takes a raincheck on her planned museum visit because, well, there's always tomorrow, isn't there? Gone too are the weekly playgroup dates at his friends' houses. There's no Alex, no Leo, no Julian down the road anymore. He hasn't even got baby yoga to look forward to. Instead he gets dumped in a deathtrap of a house that he's told is home - even though he's spent most of his life in America. 

As a young newspup, he's been particularly missing the frisson of excitement that came from living in a city made cool again by the arrival of the Obamas and their entourage. Gordon and Sarah just don't do it for him like Barack and Michelle, or was it Sasha and Malia he was eyeing up from beneath his buggy hood every time we walked past the White House? 

What to do to shake those post-DC blues? 

The answer arrived in the form of Barack's first presidential visit to Europe (the media seem intent on portraying his trip as his first foreign foray but aren't they forgetting he popped to Canada last month? And please, if Canada has been demoted as a country, then no one tell those maple leaf badge toting Canadians....) Suddenly the day had a purpose again: we could spend it traipsing across town in the quest for a brief glimpse of Barack. Or possibly Michelle's latest frock. Infinitely preferable to joining in the protests in the City. (Er, protests against what exactly? The G20 meeting to try and fix the mess? Didn't the bankers themselves already break capitalism?) 

Our hunt took us past some of London's top sights like Big Ben, giving us an excuse to snap a pic or two of Louis in case his new American friends were missing him. The massive police presence helped Louis feel a bit more at home: all those sirens going off during his nap made it more like a typical day in DC. As did the presence of plenty of Obamaphiles hanging round outside Buckingham Palace, Obamabilia in hand. It was like inauguration day all over again. Sort of. Even DC's media circus had transplanted itself across the pond: Daddy J spotted ABC's top news anchor Charles Gibson.  In the event though, we failed yet again to see the Big Man himself, missing his arrival at Buckingham Palace by minutes. Our only G20 spot? The back of Silvio Berlusconi's head.