Leaving home to go home.....

When I left CT to come back to UK, I had a great thumping party.

All the friends came to say goodbye, and I wrote them a poem which I recited. Most of you know I do this often, so you're used to it .....

Here it is for those of you who recognise it - enjoy!


Goodbye friends ---

Its being a long roads travelled, and we all travelled quite far, with many a chat between the school and the car.
 I have made many friends and acquaintances too, but of those that I love there are but a few.

 As luck would have it you are all here today, to say cheerio and see us on our way.

With five years behind us, I have not much to say, let's see you guys I do have some homage to pay.

From their Snoekie de Lookie'  to the 'Howzit'  and 'hi' the 'ola' the  'ciao' and the hearty goodbye.
.................
The hugs from Marc, the wine at the Park rugby, ..................Sunday lunches with friends to make me leave grumpy.
fabulous business opportunities and being there for friend through divorce -- I have become a total know it all now, of course!

I wish you all well, lets keep in touch.
Even though I understand you all don't like email that much!

I'll be far away, but you'll be in my heart - if you ever come over and don't call me I'll hunt you down quick - smart!

Thank you for your friendship, and all the great laughs - I hope I find more, in the land of scones and tarts!

Goodbye!

Parental advice

I am a proponent of Dr Phill. Yeah, you all know him, and I like his methods. Why? Cos he's straight talking just like me, ( perhaps more subtle tho ;-) and he gets the point across. And his methods work.

So, whilst reading Dr Phil stuff to get some inspiration fro my Mum in Awe site, I read the following things i think are relevant.

Enjoy!

Remember, You're the Parent


Children have lots of friends who tell them what they want to hear. They don't need you to be another friend. They need you to be an authority figure who lets them know where the boundaries of acceptable behavior are. Trying to be his or her friend will only undermine your authority as a parent and come back to bite you. ( and them)
Dr. Phil

More to come later....

Busy weekend

Wow, what a busy weekend!! What with the 2 parties, the new school Induction day, a Car Boot sale and friends visiting with their 15 month old son, it was really a busy two days.

The Car boot was fine, we made £30 after costs which I thought was all right, considering it was stuff we had decided we did not want..at least we got a bit back for it.

Car boots are an amazing study in people. Other people's junk really is what other people want!!
OK, so I sold a LOT of my DVDs and people seem to want those still. I am happy to have let them go (I still have a lot I need to 'release') - and now I have a little more space in the bookshelf which I am trying not to fill up again.

Anyway, I saw my Heron again yesterday, and the Swans are sitting on eggs.
Picture below...

Friends you forgot about pop out of FaceBook like......

I dunno - but they do! People I've not seen for 20 years, people I worked with 10 years ago. Now, are they friends, 'networks' or other?

How do you categorise them after all this time ? Acquaintances?

It's strange, and generally, there is a flurry of 'reunion' and then ... nothing! Same as when you stopped communicating 10 years ago.

So tell me , if I delete them as a friend - do they still get updates????

The aftermath of the night before

Well, the pain is being paid for the fun the night before!! I popped into a friend last night to collect some spices etc that she was getting rid of as she's moving out of her house ... and one turned into 3.....

Soooo badly hung over. I just went for 'one drink' to say goodbye to friends going back to Aus! Honest! But we were having such a good time with friends and neighbours arriving ....it turned into a weird but wonderful party.

I'm gonna miss Linda - she's a tonic, and a love and so full of energy!!!

Maybe a trip to Sydney is coming sooner than we think.....

To adapt or die....

Ok, so you have to remember that this is purely an opinion of mine, and I use this blog to fire off my 'rants'. That said,even if strong, one shouldn't take it too personally, or think I'm directing it at anyone specific OK? Moving on.....

So, I often get the question : How do you travel on a train for 1h15 every day ? I couldn't do it!!

Well, here's how I do it. I get in the air conditioned train, get a seat, sit down and listen to music, or read, or do both, or read the FREE newspaper, or relax, I can even phone friends and chat to them! I can write letters too. Then I get off at my stop. I do it like that.

I don't get in a car, sit in traffic, jam packed, bumper to bumper for 90 mins, stoping and starting, frustrated. I don't have the worry of car-jackers, or beggars, or window washers, or jeers, or road rage idiots. I don't pay for parking at every stop. i don't worry my parked car will get hit/stolen /broken into.

So.... how can one not love the train? I've read more books since coming back here than the last 5 years in CT. I have caught up on politics, science, friends, writing,etc. essentially I've got 2 hours of my daily life back. With very little stress. It's all about adapt or die really. I adapted my travel choices to best suit me.

Because in this country I have a choice.

In others you don't have that choice. You have to have your own transport, or chance dying in the dangerous / unreliable / shoddy alternative. Fortune favours the brave, it take brave people to change their circumstances, or to change the world in bad circumstances. I chose the former cos I'm not brave enough to do the latter.

Cheers I'm off to get my train ........

It's been a busy month

I've been busy with kids, and holidays and friends, and riding bicycles.
All of us have one now - a bike, and weekends have become days of riding in the forrest, and along the river.

More fun fro the kids than me cos I am SO unfit. But it's been good - bonding - fun.

And I'll get fit .... someday ......

Fantastic people

DOn't you just LOVE peopel who come into your life like a breath of fresh air full of joy, happiness and fresh enthusiasm?

Well, I know a person like that, she's just like that, and every time I see her I know why she's so great.

She's a happy person. She radiates big smiles, and she so enthusiastic about your life, that she makes you enthusiastic too.

God bless great people like you...... you know who you are..... and why is the next visit ony FEB?????????

Happiness is me......

The boss is in SA on business (but never bothered to tell me), and I have 2 days off this week from tomorrow which makes it a long weekend. Yay.

Tomorrow is Mom and Jordan day, and on Friday I am collecting Connor from tennis to hear how he's doing.

So, in my mind...other than the stock market, what's not to be happy about?

Here's 10 reason for being happy:
1. The kids are great, my relationship with them has really been improved by the move to London for a million reasons.
2. Connor has been told by the England Tennis Club that he has real talent in tennis, (or rather they told me) and they'd like to train him if he'd like to carry on.

3. Jordan stopped extra Maths and started Piano again - the guy that arrived was a dwarf (literally) and took us all by surprise!! Unfortunately his teaching style is not great, and he smelled a LOT so we are saying no thanks to him. We spent last night in fits of giggles about it though!
4. I saw snow on the cars today so that's great cos the kids are dying to see snow.
5. The sun shines every day, even though it's pretty cold.
6. My health is great except for a little cold I can't get rid of.
7. I'm having a great time with friends here, esp the Strijdom clan!! Kitty baked us all Merangues again!
8. MY friends Chris and Ang have just offered me an old PC for free for the kids homework, as I was really not looking forward to buying another one! YAY! I have to go fetch it, but that'll just be a great day out for all of us!
9. My Bank Manager came to see me - really!! All the way from BANK (where, naturally, all bank offices are - where else ???) I really enjoyed that, and he woo'ed me in the hopes I'd invest more, and when I said "no" he was rather crest fallen. I liked that ;-) Anyway, now we are great friends! Who'd have thought???
10. Every night the kids and I have dinner together and chat about the day and what they learnt - it's FABULOUS. Amazing how much Connor knows about Egypt!!!
So, bearing that all in mind, hopefully money is far less important in the greater scheme of things? Also, now there's a smaller financial gap between the 'poor' (me) and the 'rich' (my Dad) - so that should make me happy too! :-)

Hehehe - what do you think ? Vomit inducing????? LOVE IT!! Have a great day !!!

Living in London

So I've moved. Here I am in sunny London. "Pwah" I hear you say, "It's never sunny there! ", but I beg to differ. Although the Mens Final of Wimbledon did get rained off twice ( I think Federer needed the break anyway, although it didn't help him win the final), basically it was the longest men's final EVER, and the whole thing was actually played on one day.

Take yesterday. It was sunny basically all day! I sat by the river and watched the boats go bay, watched the people picnicing on the side, bottles of chilled wine and cheeses, grapes and lovely conversation .." do you know what Katy did this week?" ....and the wild scream of children finally allowed to play outside unrestricted.

I didn't feel concerned about a thing, loved the sun's rays beating down on my face, and the surreal feeling that I had free time on my hand for the first time in I don't know how long. Life is good in London!