I'm in a very warm library with Heidi (they DO heating in this country!) with exactly 1 hour to internet. So I've checked my email (alas) and checked my regular blogs... and now I thought I'd drop something in here.
I've been having a very special time with Heidi and her family. Little Keira is the sweetest thing. A very contented baby full of smiles, and sleeps at the most convenient times (including at night!) I've formed a special connection with Kaityn, she's full of cuddles and has an endearing British accent. I'm so loving seeing the space she inhabits - the shops (Hobbycraft, yum) and the school and the roads and her lovely decidedly un-British house. Now I'll be able to picture her in her space when we email and chat.
Also got to see Annie & Mark (& Daniel). Wonderful to see old friends, and lovely to just pick up where we left off.
BUT: I'm so missing my boys. All of my boys. I dreamt about a house flooding last night and I was very anxious about getting all my boys out. I need to see them. And I'm quite desperate to see my Biggest Boy. Missing him so much. I think 10 days is long enough. Two weeks is a bit too long.
"Do I like smiles? Yes, but only if they are real and filled with life. And I also like tears. You see, truth is beautiful, no matter what the expression." Randy Bacon
Tuesday, November 21
Thursday, November 16
A Cambridge-ish Tome (forgive me)
I have had the most wonderful day today, and should be settling down to do a little more work, but I'm feeling a "fluence" from a G&T at Eagles pub (Most Famous Pub in Cambridge, and quite delicious G with my T) and two glasses of Most Fine Australian Shiraz served to us at Henry's by a sweet polish bar lady (I couldn't work out whether she was 14 or 15, but gave her a fine tip anyway).
Cambridge has been a wonderful experience. It's been amazing to have the freedom to reconnect with Dad. No "little ones" needing my undivided (although I have missed them like my heart breaking slowly into tiny pieces, which I'll mail back to myself, first class mail). I love the anachronisms of walking out of Sainsbury's, with its long isles of 47 different flavours and fat-contents of yoh-ghurt and 11p spaghetti, and catching a glimpse of a 400+yr old academic college, complete with turrets, statues, neatly shaved grass (light green this way, dark green that way, how do they do this?) and stained glass. The round church is unique and beautiful. The japanese elm in the Emanual College Fellows' Garden is probably the biggest non-Hogsback-Big-Tree I've ever seen. And breathtakingly beautiful. I found myself taking photos of doors and windows and trees and grass and even bicycles, like a true scrapbooker / Japanese tourist. I wonder if I'll have the will, energy or time to create a scrapbook / travel journal?
I've had the Best Time browsing in bookstores - Waterstones, WH Smith, Rymans (ah, stationery...) and Borders. Bought the boys books on dinosaurs, slinky malinky & hairy mcclary, and some I-am-such-a-good-mother-and-teacher early learning books on writing and numeracy. Dad and I managed to find the Cheapest Plastic-Crap Dinosaurs in Western Europe (a mere £1 to the £13 at The Cambridge Toy Shop). At least I have managed to cross off item number one on the boys' long list of Things Mom Will Get Us in England (to appease her guilt and distract us from she'll-be-away-for-2-weeks). Items number two and three are a little hard to acquisite: "men" (I think this might be X-men or the typical action hero figures) and "blankets with snake on it" (not quite sure where this comes from and where I should find such things and even whether I want to).
I managed a cross-country journey (15min walk in 7.10am prewinter-cold - 2.5hr uncomfortable coach journey - run to Oxford train station, miss train by 12 seconds - wait twenty minutes for next train, smelling delicious Costa coffee but too snoep to pay R36 for cuppa - train trip to Banbury station - wait expectantly for Phil & Mel at Banbury, not really convinced I'm in the right place and pressing send on a SOS sms as I see their Vauxhall turning into the parking lot - 10 min chatter-car drive to their lovely spot) to visit Phil & Mel & Ben & Anna. Don't get me wrong, I don't for one single second regret the rather tedious trip to get to them. It was thoroughly wonderful to see their house (big! not like your typical middle-row, double storey hole most English live in), get a taste of "public school" life and get to know the Schonken kids just a little better. I loved Anna bringing me books to read (she, basically, read them to me, with her rabbits go "hop hop hop" - mind the spittle - and fish go "phlup phlup phlup") and fetching wooden train tracks one at a time to make a long and slightly drunken track for the trains. I, after 20 minutes, managed to decifer sweet-Ben's lispy talk, Pom accent and all, and thoroughly enjoyed engaging with him about CBB's website and the Tweenies. Boy, did I miss my boys, but nothing a bit of Schonken-free-5,000mile-telephone-chatter couldn't cure (how can you not melt when your boys say "Love you, Mom" even if prompted by your Most Excellent Husband?)
Tomorrow I'm onto my Best Mate... I get to meet Heidi's fresh-babe: Keira-Page (not hyphenated, me thinks, but I rather like it hyphenated). I get to play with Heidi at an open-air market full of scrapbooking supplies (so I'm promised), buy Christmas stuff i don't really need but can't resist from Tesco's (thank you, Mel) and salavate at all the homewear goods at Ikea (and probably lug a catalogue home to attempt with little success to replicate the "rooms").
OK. Time for bed. I need to earn money tomorrow, Vanharm's Believe or Not, and I plan to be at my desk at 8am.
Missing all at home and in far-away places (like Australia-mate... please come home quick, Mom).
Today's Interesting but Useless HInt: Sudoku is much easier to do after a couple of drinks, much like speaking Afrikaans, playing the piano and telling lame jokes.
Cambridge has been a wonderful experience. It's been amazing to have the freedom to reconnect with Dad. No "little ones" needing my undivided (although I have missed them like my heart breaking slowly into tiny pieces, which I'll mail back to myself, first class mail). I love the anachronisms of walking out of Sainsbury's, with its long isles of 47 different flavours and fat-contents of yoh-ghurt and 11p spaghetti, and catching a glimpse of a 400+yr old academic college, complete with turrets, statues, neatly shaved grass (light green this way, dark green that way, how do they do this?) and stained glass. The round church is unique and beautiful. The japanese elm in the Emanual College Fellows' Garden is probably the biggest non-Hogsback-Big-Tree I've ever seen. And breathtakingly beautiful. I found myself taking photos of doors and windows and trees and grass and even bicycles, like a true scrapbooker / Japanese tourist. I wonder if I'll have the will, energy or time to create a scrapbook / travel journal?
I've had the Best Time browsing in bookstores - Waterstones, WH Smith, Rymans (ah, stationery...) and Borders. Bought the boys books on dinosaurs, slinky malinky & hairy mcclary, and some I-am-such-a-good-mother-and-teacher early learning books on writing and numeracy. Dad and I managed to find the Cheapest Plastic-Crap Dinosaurs in Western Europe (a mere £1 to the £13 at The Cambridge Toy Shop). At least I have managed to cross off item number one on the boys' long list of Things Mom Will Get Us in England (to appease her guilt and distract us from she'll-be-away-for-2-weeks). Items number two and three are a little hard to acquisite: "men" (I think this might be X-men or the typical action hero figures) and "blankets with snake on it" (not quite sure where this comes from and where I should find such things and even whether I want to).
I managed a cross-country journey (15min walk in 7.10am prewinter-cold - 2.5hr uncomfortable coach journey - run to Oxford train station, miss train by 12 seconds - wait twenty minutes for next train, smelling delicious Costa coffee but too snoep to pay R36 for cuppa - train trip to Banbury station - wait expectantly for Phil & Mel at Banbury, not really convinced I'm in the right place and pressing send on a SOS sms as I see their Vauxhall turning into the parking lot - 10 min chatter-car drive to their lovely spot) to visit Phil & Mel & Ben & Anna. Don't get me wrong, I don't for one single second regret the rather tedious trip to get to them. It was thoroughly wonderful to see their house (big! not like your typical middle-row, double storey hole most English live in), get a taste of "public school" life and get to know the Schonken kids just a little better. I loved Anna bringing me books to read (she, basically, read them to me, with her rabbits go "hop hop hop" - mind the spittle - and fish go "phlup phlup phlup") and fetching wooden train tracks one at a time to make a long and slightly drunken track for the trains. I, after 20 minutes, managed to decifer sweet-Ben's lispy talk, Pom accent and all, and thoroughly enjoyed engaging with him about CBB's website and the Tweenies. Boy, did I miss my boys, but nothing a bit of Schonken-free-5,000mile-telephone-chatter couldn't cure (how can you not melt when your boys say "Love you, Mom" even if prompted by your Most Excellent Husband?)
Tomorrow I'm onto my Best Mate... I get to meet Heidi's fresh-babe: Keira-Page (not hyphenated, me thinks, but I rather like it hyphenated). I get to play with Heidi at an open-air market full of scrapbooking supplies (so I'm promised), buy Christmas stuff i don't really need but can't resist from Tesco's (thank you, Mel) and salavate at all the homewear goods at Ikea (and probably lug a catalogue home to attempt with little success to replicate the "rooms").
OK. Time for bed. I need to earn money tomorrow, Vanharm's Believe or Not, and I plan to be at my desk at 8am.
Missing all at home and in far-away places (like Australia-mate... please come home quick, Mom).
Today's Interesting but Useless HInt: Sudoku is much easier to do after a couple of drinks, much like speaking Afrikaans, playing the piano and telling lame jokes.
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