Wrightaboutnow.com

This is the 34th Sunday night that I have sat down to write a new entry for this blog. 34 weeks, or 65% of a year. Can you believe that time can fly by so fast?

I have been startled this week to see how many more of my friends, family, and ex-colleagues have either left, or are packing up to leave the shores of South Africa. Some have just touched down in Australia, some have paperwork in the process and others are just at that “maybe we should consider this” stage. Either way, I hope that those of you, who fall into any of those categories will read the entries in this blog, find a way to deal with your own situation and ultimately find that place in the sun where you feel that you belong. It’s not always easy and the bad days sometimes sneak along for a ride too, but if you can look back and think that what you are doing, or what you have done will ultimately be for the better, then the good days just seem to overshadow the tougher ones.

It was another crazy, busy week in the Wright household. No matter where you live, the activities that your kids do will ultimately steal up all your spare time, but that is part of the joy of it all. Every day there is something that they need to do, sport to attend, groups to go to, but in the end it is what has made the transition over here so easy for them. Jenna’s gym routine for the competition has been finalised and she is getting so excited about it. We watch her on an almost nightly basis rolling and jumping around the lounge, knocking into the furniture, trying to get those legs straight and shoulders back. Mitchell has started guitar lessons and I am ashamed to say that when he wanted to try it out in SA, I was the one who kind of steered him away from it. He had so much on his plate at the time with all other sports and I didn’t particularly think that Mitchell would take to music all that well. Over here, he just joined the guitar club at school and came home to tell me he was now part of it. The difference is that over here the lessons are during his lunch-break during school hours, so it wasn’t a big deal and wasn’t going to take up any more of his class-time or sports time in the afternoons. He is so excited about these guitar classes though and he is proud of the fact that this is something he went off and did on his own. He honestly feels that this is going to give him even more motivation to do better in it than he even hoped for.

Wednesday night was “parents evening” at Mitchells school and we had allocated slots to meet with each of his subject teachers. We left the school feeling as if we were walking on air. Not 1 teacher could fault Mitchell. They praised his high level of work, his communication standards, and most of all, his impeccable behaviour in class. His English teacher commented that she can quite clearly see that he has come from a very different discipline structure to many of the other boys in the class. You have to wonder why it is like that. Why a country that is so strong and so powerful and so sought after in the world, is failing its children by disempowering them with the very rules that they hope to protect them with.

On Saturday we took a drive to the Lakeside Retail Park in Essex which is only about a 40min drive from our house. Essex is the county next door to Kent, just north and across the Thames River. To get to Essex from Kent you take the Dartford Crossing. The Dartford Crossing is made up of the Dartford Tunnel (which runs under the river) and carries the traffic from Kent into Essex, and the Dartford Bridge (which is a 137m high cable stayed bridge) which carries about 150,000 vehicles per day in the opposite direction, from Essex into Kent. On days when the weather is bad, the bridge gets closed and the tunnel converts into a dual carriageway.

The Lakeside shopping centre is a huge shopping centre and while we were driving through the car park, I laughed as I heard the SatNav say … “continue 0.2 miles (0.3km)and enter the round-about (traffic circle), enter the round-about and take second exit”… This was IN the parking lot! Can you imagine how big the parking lot is, for the SatNav to give instructions like that? Well, to the absolute delight of Mitchell and Jenna we found a Spur Steakhouse overlooking the lake. We stood outside for a few seconds and I was almost too afraid to go inside just in case it was different to the ones back home and we would all be disappointed, but as we pushed back the door, that indisputable smell of the Spur came wafting towards us. Everything was authentic Spur. 100% the genuine deal! It seems like such a small thing to be going on about in this blog, but it is just one of those moments when we could experience a little part of SA using all our senses. We could smell, taste, hear, see, and feel a little part of something from so far away; just the way we remember it.

This week I saw my first real spring bulbs sprouting out from the grass in a park. Beautiful little patches of crocuses in orange and purple, daffodils which still need to open and show all that makes them so beautiful, and a little wave of white snowdrops on the undulating ground, beneath a tree.

It was the most beautiful walk – as they always are – those walks through English parks, with ducks and birds and dogs doing funny tricks, with squirrels that peer at you through a fence, where the trees are starting to change, where you feel like you can experience “the whole world” in such a short space and time. I look forward to my next spring flower walk when I hope that a swathe of colour will be waiting for me.

By the time you are reading this blog it will be the 1st of March and forgetting all sorts of things like when the official equinox occurs or when daylight saving stops and ends, it’s just a nice day to wish everyone in the Northern Hemisphere…. Happy Spring Day.

Well this was certainly a far less comical week than the one I reported on last week, and I think I may just be thankful for that. The truth of just how idiotic I can be at times is funny when it happens, but not something you want to repeat too many times.

Mitchell and Jenna have been on mid-term break this week, which means that many of their activities were cancelled for the week, but Jenna’s gymnastics continued. She is competing in the Weald – 2010 – Floor and Vault Competition at the end of March. This week the coaches finalised her routine and now she is busy practising it every evening.

Mitchell spent some time with his school friends this week and had one wonderful day with Thomas, playing tennis at the Tunbridge Wells indoor sports centre. Jenna and I had a fun week of arts and crafts.

The cold outdoor temperatures which prevail at the moment made for the best time to paint and glue and cut things. I took Mitch and Jen to the Hobby-Craft warehouse in Tunbridge Wells this week and we bought all sorts of things for a week of crinkle-paper, paint, and glitter.

Mike got back from South Africa on Tuesday after a week of meetings and paperwork in South Africa  and returned full-force to work over here. He got the chance to see his brother and some of his ex-colleagues and friends back home.

This week I have I tried to imagine what moving to another country would have been like without the new technology that we have at our disposal these days. With social networking sites like Facebook, and other communication tools like Twitter, Gmail, Skype, and a whole host of others, staying in touch with family and friends around the world is made so simple. I realised this week how much more in-touch we are with what is going on in the lives of people, some who are closest to us and others who are not, through the use of these tools. I am not someone who chooses to accept just anyone on Facebook, I have been told that I may even be a little too harsh in choosing which requests I accept and which ones I don’t, but I discovered this week that staying in touch with the people who really matter, is what counts. I have read on Facebook this week about two school friends back in SA who are fighting difficult battles against Cancer, one friend who had a car accident, one who is spending part of his holiday in a hospital in Mexico, some who are experiencing the joys of getting married, two who are  pregnant, some who have had babies and others who have just simply fallen in love, I have read about those whose children excelled in school and those who lost loved ones close to them. We use these tools to wish people a happy birthday, a happy anniversary, and good luck for an exam, we look at their interesting holiday photos and are reminded of what matters to them and makes them who they are, by the groups they join, and the kind of things that they post for everyone to see. A few chats with family and friends back home this week finally made me appreciate that I am maintaining relationships from very far away, that I would otherwise have lost in the move over here. It has been an eye-opener of a week on Facebook for me and for the first time I really sat down and thought about all the information I would not have known if these sites did not exist. Being so far away from all the family and friends you have ever known, makes you appreciate the fact that technology and the modern world can play a part in bringing you closer to the people that you don’t want to lose contact with. Would it really have mattered to my life if I didn’t know all the news that I read on Facebook this week? Well, I don’t really know for sure, but for someone like me, to whom human relationships have always been so important, it is just great to know that even from 6000 miles away, I just have to logon to a website and there is the news from my other home. New friendships form on this side of the world, but for me technology has undeniably made it a whole lot easier to be here. So here’s to the new friends that we can meet and greet eye-to-eye every day over here, but also to those that we get to stay in touch with right across the miles.

We have now won back more than an hours worth of daylight in the evenings alone. In the middle of December the sun was completely set and it was pitch dark outside by 16:30 when Mitchell stepped off the bus on his way home from school. This evening I looked outside at 17:20 and it was still quite light…

Normally these posts for the blog are filled with stories from our family, things that we have experienced in learning to live in a new country, and they also usually contain some insight into my feelings about life and how I see it reflected in the things I see around me every day. However, if you will allow me to digress from my usual writing style – I would like to tell you about my comical week. Sometimes you think you have it all held together, you are above the foolishness of the world, but then a week like mine comes along and you have to question just how “with-it” you really are.

Mike spent the past week in SA. He flew back for a few important business meetings and to sort out some of the issues from our move and the sale of our house that just won’t seem to go away. So Mitchell, Jen, and I were left to our own devices.  The weather forecast for the week predicted 15cm of snowfall for Kent on Wednesday and Thursday and if you have read this blog from a few weeks ago you will know that driving on the ice is not really my forté. So I was dreading the middle to end of the week.

Bracing for the snow, I decided to stock up on some groceries. This would mean that if the worst came to the worst, driving in those conditions would at least be minimal. So, on Tuesday I headed into town. I had to stop at the bank, so I decided to park at the castle, which is the nearest parking lot to the bank… but of course parking is paid for in 1 hour increments over here and my trip to the bank only took about 10 minutes. When I stepped out of the bank I decided that I might as well use up my parking fare and walk to the nearest supermarket which is quite a few blocks away on the other side of town, but I never again gave any thought to the simple logistics of this decision. Off I went to the supermarket to stock up on emergency provisions. Up and down the aisles I wondered, picking everything from the shelves that was humanly possible. Feeling very chuffed with my achievements, I proceeded to the checkout. Half-way through the ringing-up process it dawned on me that I had just bought enough groceries to possibly feed an entire village back home for a month, and now I was going to have to carry it all back to the car, which was parked on the other side of town, up a steep hill and around the castle! The lady at the check-out offered to watch my stuff while I ran to fetch my car, but stupidity (which I was told by someone today, has no cure) overtook me, and I said I thought I would be fine. Laden with shopping bags and looking somewhat like a pack-mule, I set off across town. My arms were being stretched like a plasticine man to breaking point, but I was not going to be thrown off my mission. Suddenly, right on the pavement of High Street, the load became pleasantly lighter… but then I heard the indisputable musical sound of tins rolling across the pavement… The one packet had torn and my groceries appeared to be trying to flee back to the supermarket, rolling in every direction, almost causing other pedestrians to fall… Well, I finally made it back to the car and sat down behind the boot on the ground, with all my shopping bags around me and did what any logical-thinking person would do, I laughed until the tears ran down my cheeks!

But that would not prove to be my finest hour of the week… little did I know that another round of the incurable was yet to come.

On Wednesday morning I took Jenna to school in my little silver Rover, but by the time I got home the snow was coming down thick and fast. I parked it in the driveway and went inside, but I decided that it would be better to move the car into the garage so that if the snowfall persisted I wouldn’t have to clear it all off before going to fetch Jenna in the afternoon. I immediately went back outside and tried to start the car, but there was no response to the turn of the key. Not even the sound of the engine trying to turn over. I tried a few times and finally decided to call for help. I first phoned Mike in SA to get the details for the AA and I gave them a call. The gentleman on the phone told me that they would not be able to despatch anyone to help me as Mike is the policy holder and he was required to be present. Well, that was just not going to work for me and I let the poor guy know it, in no uncertain terms. He finally agreed that since Mike was in SA, those were deemed to be “different circumstances” and they would send someone – just this once, I might add. The nearest AA offices are in Sevenoaks, so it was a journey of at least 10 miles for the mechanic.  He finally arrived and we stood outside in the falling snow while I explained to him what the problem was. He took the keys from me, pressed the immobilizer, climbed into the car, turned the key… and the car started immediately! We eventually ascertained that I had forgotten to press the immobilizer button before attempting to start the car! This, all after I had made such a noise on the phone about them not wanting to send someone to help! Fortunately the mechanic had an awesome sense of humour and he was more interested in having a chat about South Africa and his next run in the London marathon, so my embarrassment soon faded into the background.

On Friday I took Mitchell and his friend Thomas, to the Bowlplex in Tunbridge Wells. We enjoyed a game of 10-pin, a bite to eat and then we went to watch the movie, Invictus. It was a poignant moment of incredible mixed emotions. There were times when I heard Mitchell lean over and explain some the things about South Africa to Thomas and I felt proud of how he handled it. He is a proudly South African boy, and rightfully so.  All the way home in the car (after dropping Thomas at home) we sang Shoshaloza. It is amazing how that song can just go on and on… If you are a South African who has not yet seen the movie, do yourself a favour and go along. 15 years down the line we may all have forgotten a rather important time in our history and this movie serves as a reminder.

The rest of the week held together quite nicely, and was a manic mix of ferrying Mitchell and Jenna to indoor cricket practice, Kumon maths, hockey practice, and gymnastics. Jenna has only been attending gym for 2 months and this week she was given her routine for the novice’s competition coming up in March. I am now trying to learn the names of the various moves like “straddle” and “arabesque” so that I can help her to learn her routine.

In last week’s blog I mentioned a book that I am reading at the moment. It is by an emerging author – Louise Douglas. The book is called: “Missing you”. It is an easy read, but I am enjoying it. Louise Douglas has one previous book called: “The love of my life”.

School holidays have begun again with mid-term break. Mike returns from SA on Tuesday morning, and I entered the family into a charity run in London in the month of March. Jenna is so excited about it. 

The wild fox that sat outside my house on the pavement for 3 consecutive nights this week when I went to bed, has now finally gone… and left me wondering…

It was just a light-hearted week, full of learning, full of laughter and full of  funny moments. I hope that I reflected it in this blog this week. It was fun writing about it. Thanks for reading.

(Please not that the photos contained in this blog are not mine. They are images that I have taken from Google images).

So this weekend set the 7 month marker for the time we have been in the UK. In some ways it still feels like a long time, like we have been here forever, and there are still other times when everything still seems so new and you learn about things every day, but the time has come now when it is comfortable to make jokes about the place, about the move, and about things back home without it seeming to be weird or out of place. I guess when you can laugh at something then you may just have reached that point where you are looking back over your shoulder and reflecting in comfort.

7 months seems like such a short time in which to move country, find a house, get furniture, work, find schools (and uniforms), electricity, local council taxes, water, gas, buying cars, finding friends, bank accounts, travelling, experiencing the joys of winter snow, seeing the seasons change one to the other, watching the kids settle in school, seeing them delight in sledding, helping them to find activities and sports, each of us has now also had at least 1 birthday in the UK, a white Christmas, and a sparkling new year. In these 7 months I have also travelled back to SA twice and Mitchell has been to France, old friends have come to visit and new friends have become, well, just that! New friends.

This week promises to be interesting, in the least. Mike heads off to SA on business and I get to do the whole home drill alone. Fortunately we have learned that Mitch and Jen muck in when one of us is away. Mike better remember to bring my box of Beacon Marshmallow Easter Eggs back. There are some things that you can do without – but you just don’t want to.

This week Mike celebrated his birthday in the UK. Jenna is such a fuss-pot over birthdays. She makes so many elaborate cards, she wraps everything in ribbons and bows, and she draws on things and decorates things. It is quite incredible to watch and makes you think about the days when birthdays were that exciting for you. How those moments should matter to everyone.

Mitchell had the most awesome sporting week. He played in the Kent school indoor soccer tournament which his school won the trophy for. Mitchell scored 6 goals in the 8 matches that they played and he came home feeling like a world champion, and indeed he should have.

Jenna finally got her gymnastics leotard this week and who would have thought that it would be such a huge thing. I guess she finally felt accepted in the group of girls, no longer being the odd one out. She was now finally wearing the colours of the Weald of Kent gymnastics school.

Jenna has also caught up with the other children in her grade at a rate that I find quite astonishing. It was the biggest fear for me, and something that brought me to tears many times in the first few weeks here, but as I am learning each day – children will continue to dazzle you if you give them the space to. Her teacher’s heap loads of praise on her and I just cannot believe how someone so little can be so full of determination.

 On Friday night we all travelled into London, to meet up with Steve, Melanie and Duncan at the Royal Albert Hall for an evening of wonder at Cirque du Soleil (The Circus of the Sun). Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company with a definite French flavour. The show we watched was called “Varekai”. (“Varekai” means “wherever,” and is based on mythology, like many of the previous productions. The story is about the Greek myth of Icarus. The story begins where the myth leaves off, telling the story of what happened to Icarus after he fell from the sky. He lands in the middle of a jungle at the base of a volcano where he must learn to fly again). The music and singing was hauntingly beautiful, the costumes were just out of this world and from the smallest little children in the production, right up to the seasoned acrobats, you cannot do anything but sit on the edge of your seat  in awe and wonder at the skill that those artists possess. The trust that they put in one another alone, is something to take away from the show. Just knowing that someone is going to be there for you, at the right time, in the right place, to catch you if you fall, is something wonderful on its own.

As I write this blog now the rain is falling steadily outside and landing on the “glass” roof of the conservatory. We have not seen much rain in the past few weeks and the sound is quite comforting in a way.  

The neighbours removed the covering from their pool today and started cleaning it up and getting it looking all good – I thought I was optimistic about the change of seasons over here, but I like to think that my neighbours might just know something that the rest of us are missing.

I am reading a beautiful book at the moment… come back next week and I will tell you about it.

This is the first time in the 7 months that we have been here that I will be blogging for a two week period in one sitting. I travelled back to South Africa last week to attend my nephew’s wedding. I had doubts before I went as to whether or not I should go, but as the time grew nearer I realised that there simply was really no question in it, and looking back now I know that I could have made no better decision. The shock of the hot weather in South Africa, after weeks of sub-zero temperatures over here, was startling. I could simply not believe the impact it had on my body. I hired a car and spent a truly incredible week at the beautiful Blue Lagoon Hotel on the Nahoon River. I enjoyed the most memorable beach walks, beautiful African sunsets, soft, warm, sea sand beneath my feet, real SA’n braai’s, quiet lazy dinners on the patio of my hotel room, and not to forget at least one awesome evening at the Ocean Basket. Being with my brothers family as fantastic. Morné (my nephew and the groom) is usually in Ireland, so being back in SA with him was a real treat. Morné married Joanne and will soon be returning to Ireland with her. The wedding was undoubtedly the best wedding I have ever attended. For a wedding that was planned and executed within 1 month, it was elegant and sophisticated, it was tasteful and emotional, and it was filled with the most amazing people and moments. I was the MC for the evening (I think I would prefer “madam of ceremonies”), but whatever you want to call it, it was one of the most memorable things I have ever done for someone else. Morné’s groom speech was also the most heartfelt, most sincere speech I have ever heard at a wedding. I could never have been more proud of him. [Michael, you can stop thanking me now for travelling back to be with you guys. It was my absolute pleasure and I would do it again in a heart-beat.] Most of my week was taken up with wedding things, but the rest of my time in South Africa was filled to the brim with some “me time” and many many moments that I will remember forever. Thank you!

South Africa is in the grip of World Cup fever. The theme is everywhere. Prices have escalated beyond belief (R50.00 for a toasted sandwich??), there are exciting new construction projects everywhere, new malls, new hotels, new berths set aside in harbours for cruise ships, there is a sense of excitement amongst the people that is almost palpable, but the stories in the news will still turn your stomach and you cannot deny that behind all this beauty, behind all this sense of excitement there lies another truth about a country which has a long difficult road ahead. 

On Wednesday evening when I arrived back in the UK, Mitchell asked me where I felt “HOME” was. I had to swallow hard and try to compose myself as I looked him in the eye to say that when I am in SA it feels like home, but when I am in the UK, it too feels like home. I think I am carrying “HOME” around in my heart, just like someone recently said. It makes it easier to deal with the feeling of being homesick, if you know that “HOME” really can be where you are at the time.

On the same day that I was at Morné’s wedding in SA, Mike, Jenna and Mitchell attended Ian and Margo’s wedding in Hampton Court. Ian is Mike’s cousin and one of the most genuine, awesome guys I have ever met. Best wishes to you guys too and see you soon. It’s a promise.

Mitchell also played a hockey match while I was away and after months of asking him to score a goal “with my name on it” he successfully did it – while I was on the other side of the world. Maybe that’s the way it was meant to be, my boy. Either way, I am very proud of you.

Mitchell also started cricket practice for the first time in England this week. He is playing at the Judd indoor sports centre for the Bidborough Colts team. He fitted in with the rest of the team and with the coaches like a glove. If there is one area where I think England could learn from SA, it would certainly be in the way children are introduced to sport in schools. In some cases in SA I do think that some schools place too much emphasis on sport, but when you can get the balance right between academics and sport then children can certainly thrive and it is one thing that I miss over here – real school sport.

Arriving back in England this week was a surprise for me. It’s amazing what a difference 1 week can make. I came back to a feast of indicators that perhaps spring is just around the corner. There are new little shoots on plants, longer days, and warmer temperatures. The seasons here are so very different and distinct and when you spot the onset of a new season you can be sure that it won’t take long until you are met with a feast of change. We arrived in the summer and loved the transition through the autumn, we are currently passing through the winter, and already finding the first signs of spring, I am personally looking so forward to the bright new colour palette, but before it arrives I have to ask…. What happened to it? Where is it? This terrible, dark, miserable, gloomy, “you’ll-only-survive-one”, English winter, that everyone warned us about? Although I know its not quite over yet, the question still remains…. Was that it? Really

Last week I wrote about “The Big Freeze” and this week I write of “The Big Thaw” – but I am not really sure if it is about the weather, or more about simply how quickly things can change. How the world can look one moment and then how different it can be the next, not only the physical world, but the many worlds in which we find ourselves including the people we are around and the places where we find each other.

I am finding the speed with which the weather is changing here to be like a reflection of my life at the moment. From when we arrived here I waited eagerly for the autumn and it was the most magical spectacle of colour, but it passed by so quickly and was replaced by wonder of the winter. It only took 1 weekend of gale-force winds to strip the leaves from the trees and the world looked very different, now after weeks and weeks in a snow-covered world it simply took less than 2 days and all the snow was gone. The world looks so different from one moment to the next and in true-life time-scales it happens in the blink of an eye.

There was of course one rough day for me this week. On Tuesday morning I took Jenna to school while there was still a lot of snow and ice on the roads. On the way to the school I lost control of the car, slid off the road, and mounted the pavement. Jenna of course, squealed with delight: “Oh cool, Mom! Do that again!” like it was something I intended to do, or would voluntarily do again. However this was not to be the worst. On the way back from the school I went around a right-hand corner and the car continued to slide towards the left and straight into the side of a van, parked on the side of the road. Fortunately when the owner and I checked his vehicle there was no significant damage. My car has some nasty scratches around the front light on the passenger side, but in comparison to how hard I hit the van, I guess I can be thankful. Driving in conditions that you are not familiar with is not pleasant. I have however picked up some good tips from the moms at Jens school (Yes, advice from fellow “woman drivers”? No snide comments, boys!). There is always something new to learn. Some lessons are just a bit tougher than others and I am sure that by the time spring arrives, I will have acquired a whole new set of driving skills.

This week Jon flew back to South Africa, schools returned to normal after some disrupted snow days, and the neighbour’s cat survived a whole week in my care, while the owners went skiing in France. Jenna loved the time she had to go across the road and play with the cat and feed it, she even fought me to clean out the litter-box. She definitely needs a pet in a hurry. She really needs to care for something.

I am so glad that Mitchell and Jenna have returned to sporting activities this week. It has been such an eye-opener in the past few weeks to see just how easily children over here can fall out of doing routine exercise. The snow, the cold, the rain, and the shorter days can quite easily put an end to healthy activities if you are not vigilant and it becomes a new challenge to ensure that they (and I for that matter) do some form of exercise. Mitchell played a hockey match this morning in the neighbouring town of Sevenoaks and Jenna returned to gymnastics on Friday night. It is wonderful to watch her moving around on all that professional gymnastics equipment and it is amazing to see how quickly balance improves.

This week, I fly back to South Africa for my nephews wedding. 10 weeks after we arrived here I flew to SA for my school reunion, and now another 10 weeks later I am going back again. I just cannot put a price on human relationships, to me family matters will always come first, and if it is within my means to attend something like a family wedding, then I will. I would hate to have woken up in England on the day of the wedding in South Africa and regretted not going. I am way too sentimental about things like that and unfortunately for me, I am the kind of person who would carry the regret with me forever. So, I get to fly back once more, but this trip also serves as a pleasant reminder to me that South Africa is just a flight away and that the world can seem very small if you want it to. If you allow yourself to, you can feel closer to the people who matter –even if they are a half a world away. When Linda moved to the UK just after we had finished studying and we stood crying at the airport in East London, she said to me that she would just be a flight away, and that’s all it really is. We can all make distance seem as long, or as short as we like. This move to the UK would not have been worth it for me, if it meant that the people in my life who I love and miss, had to just take a back-seat. I am however preparing myself for a feeling of homesickness when I return. I felt it for a few days when I returned from my reunion and I just need to watch out for it and try to use it as something positive.

There are still so many moments that leave me wanting so much more over here, like those moments in beautiful museums, surrounded by art and design, surrounded by colourful things, painted ceilings and sculptured walls, those moments when you can sit on a train with your forehead pressed against the glass and reflect on things you have seen, things you have heard, places you have been and you can smile to yourself as you wonder how many more of those moments you can find in the future.

I don’t want to say that I believe spring is “just around the corner” quite yet, because I think (and certainly hope) that the winter will stay for a bit longer, but the days are now clearly longer than they were a few weeks ago. It is so undeniably noticeable. I love the foggy days we are having at the moment where you can bearly see just a few feet in front you, where the tops of the trees disappear into a haze. I really am looking forward to the flowers that I have heard about, that appear in the parks and the fields, the snowdrops and daffodils, bulbs that push up from beneath the cold earth and announce the arrival of a whole new colour palette. Change is in the air.

Snow, snow, everywhere! There is no place on this island that is the United Kingdom, where you can hide away from the snow at the moment. Either you embrace it and love it and make the most of it or you have to go and hide inside, sit tight and wait for the big thaw to begin. A NASA satellite image of the United Kingdom this week showed the entire island from the northern tip of Scotland to the southern tip England is just white. When we came over here 6 months ago we hoped we would wake to at least a few mornings of snow in the garden in the winter months. Many people had told us that in Tonbridge they usually see about 3 or 4 days of light snow in a year and then it usually melts away by the next morning, but sometimes you have to “be careful what you wish for, ‘cos you just might get it all”. Well, we wished for snow and it came in the form of the harshest winter the UK has seen in 30 years. The snow just fell and fell endlessly. It packed deeper and deeper on the curbs and in the gardens. Eventually you lose sight of your flower-pots and then taller structures like your car disappear too. Not removed by thieves though, just buried under a blanket of white. One of the things that have struck me the most this week has been the lack of colour. The world to us at the moment looks as if it has been captured on a black and white image. If you take photos they just appear as if they are black and white. It is the most strikingly beautiful background and just another breathtaking contrast to the colour-palette that was autumn.

Mitchell and Jenna love the snow. They go sledding whenever they can. There are some lovely steep hills around here where children from all the houses come out and join in. Some children bring plastic sheets, others arrive with plastic washing buckets and one little girl just had a plastic packet. If you can sit on it and it can slide down a hill, it’s in!

On Monday morning Jon and I took a walk around part of Bewl Water, a beautiful reservoir which is now the largest inland body of water in south east England. To walk around the perimeter of the lake is about 12.7miles. It was a cold, frosty morning and the fallen brown leaves crunched under our boots, but the sky was perfectly clear and the warm filtered, winter sun was just enough to make it a most picturesque walk. The beauty of Bewl Water in the winter is that the trees have thinned out by losing all their leaves, so you can access the water’s edge from many more spots, that you tend to walk past in the summer months because you cannot see through the thick leaves of the forest. Ducks and geese were all over and it was amazing to watch them carrying on with life as if nothing had changed, on the frozen lake-side shores.  There was a moment when a line of ducks swam out from the reeds and behind the group swam one single white swan.  I laughed and commented to Jon that it reminded me of the story of the Ugly Duckling. You can walk for miles around Bewl Water in the most beautiful forests, past farmlands and over little wooden bridges without seeing another person for ages, but you never ever feel unsafe. A few people might pass you on mountain bikes and a few other walkers will wave and pass by, but you can walk and take in the beauty and breathe in the fresh crisp air and know that you are most likely to be perfectly safe.

On Tuesday Jon and I took a trip into London. It was a week of playing “watch the weather forecast” and when we had moments of snow-free time we made the most of it. Jon had not really done the touristy things in London so we planned our day and had a whistle-stop tour of the London eye, Parliament buildings, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the frozen serpentine lake, the Albert Memorial and the Science Museum. It was the perfect day to do the London eye. It was a clear bright, sunny morning, in which we could see “until forever” , even the arch of Wembley stadium was visible in the distance.

By Tuesday night the snow had returned in force. We woke to a thick blanket of snow and news that some of the schools had closed. Mitchell had the rest of the week off, but Jenna’s school was open. The schools here are well prepared for the snow days and Mitchell’s school has a login area on the internet for the children where they can access assignments for all their subjects. I have already looked on the schools website for information about school-closures tomorrow and the school is closed again. I haven’t told Mitchell yet, so he is still getting an early-to-bed school nights sleep. The snow gave us the perfect playground on Wednesday. We took a baseball bat and a football out into the field across the road from our house and what fun it was. Smacking a snowball with a baseball bat mostly just leaves you with a mouthful of snow, and kicking a football is great because it doesn’t go too far so you don’t have to run as much. J

Today we went to lunch at one of our favourite pubs in Tunbridge Wells. It is called “The Robin Hood” and then headed off for another round of ten-pen bowling. I retain the family bowling title (and my crown), despite Mikes best efforts in those last few frames.

Jon leaves tomorrow to head back to SA. We can remember counting the days down until he got here and now the time is already over and he is preparing to head home. He certainly saw “the worst” (or what I think is “the best”) of Britain with all the snow and winter weather.

Some strange things came out of the news this week. Stories of people who walk right past warning signs, over frozen lakes and fall in to their deaths, how you cannot clear the ice from the pavement in front of your house and grit it as this might cause someone to fall and they can sue you, and how panic-buying saw the shops stripped of goods, but it also highlighted the community spirit that people have, to help one another. Young people clear the driveways of elderly neighbours; people offer to go shopping for those who cannot get around in the adverse weather conditions. We have seen people pushing cars for strangers who became stuck in the snow and it’s all done in good spirit. I spun our car twice in one journey when I went to fetch Mike from the station this week, but at the end of the day it’s all about learning new things.

This weather makes you think about the world, about human beings and how we cope in strange situations, it makes you think about our planet and just how much we are not really in control of the forces of nature.  It makes you realise just how small we really are in the greater scheme of things.

The evenings grow noticeably longer now. You can take note of how dark it is at a given time of day, perhaps when you leave the office, or the time when your train leaves the station, then do it again a week later and notice the difference.

If you missed last week’s post, or if this is your first week of ever reading this blog then do yourself a favour and at least go back to last week’s story before reading on with this one, as this new entry begins with a continuation of our road-trip to Wales.

Monday morning started with a visit to the Roman Baths in the beautiful city of Bath. These baths are 2000 years old. The water bubbles up from beneath the earth at 46°C and pours out at a staggering 1 170 000 litres per day. The wonder of this ancient place for me was not so much in the baths themselves, which resemble a sort of modern day swimming pool, but the marvel was more in the “indoor” displays. Places where you got a real sense of the place from 2000 years ago, where you could almost imagine and see in your mind’s eye, the people meeting in the courtyards, standing and sharing news and walking up to the baths. It was truly one of the most impressive and most amazing things I have ever seen. Bath is indeed a beautiful city. If you believe like I do, that the presence of water has an impact on the human soul then you will know why there is such a beautiful vibe here. Water runs everywhere in Bath (sic). There are little rivers and streams which flow under ancient bridges, there are roaring rapids in the heart of the city where the water flows under arched bridges. There are old parts of the city which house modern stores, there are quaint little pedestrian walkways which were strung with Christmas lights.

 We left Bath at around lunchtime and continued our journey towards Wales, crossing the impressive Severn Bridge. We headed straight up into the Brecon Beacon Mountains, as we suspected that the weather might turn on us and we wanted to see the mountains in case we were not able to access them the following day. We drove up towards Brecon stopping along the most picturesque lakes and snow-covered mountain-tops. I stood for a moment on the side of one of the lakes and wondered to myself “…If it looks this beautiful in the stark face of winter, then just how beautiful would it be in the midst of summertime?” (I can’t wait to go back and see). Thick fog started to roll in down the mountain slopes blanketing everything in its path. We headed back down the mountains to Methyr Tydfil where we stayed for the evening. On Tuesday we were planning to travel to Abergavenny which is further towards the east and a little higher up in the mountains.

On Tuesday morning we woke to falling snow. It was coming down heavily and the forecast was not promising. We were advised that if we continued up into the mountains, there was a strong possibility that we might be stuck there in the snow for a few days, so we altered our plans a little and decided to head down from the mountains. I am not altogether sorry that we did it, as this slight adjustment in our travel plans opened up a whole new feast of things to see. We drove down to Caerphilly and visited the Castle which is situated in the centre of the town. It is one of the most beautiful castles that I have seen in the UK so far. It is ancient and parts of it are falling apart (like most of us), but it still retains most of its structure so you can walk through it and see where people met and played, where feasts were enjoyed in the great hall, where guards stood and took aim to defend the castle. It still has perfectly preserved rooms with fireplaces, old windows, rickety staircases and most of all, a spectacular view of the snow-covered hills surrounding the town. I think the snow that fell during our visit added to the marvel that was this phenomenal castle (and for those who are interested in Dr Who, here is something else we got to see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southeastwales/hi/tv_and_radio/newsid_8405000/8405833.stm

 We drove from Caerphilly towards Cardiff and stopped at Coch Castle. This castle is completely different to others that I have seen in the UK. It was rebuilt and decorated during the late 1800’s, so it is far more modern and opulent than other ancient castle ruins. The beauty of this castle was just that! It is different. Set in acres of forest, it has the most impressive entrance, with great story-book towers. The kind where princesses were kept locked up until a knight arrived to save them. When we visited Castell Coch the snow was really falling heavily and set against the backdrop of the winter forest and the great towers, it was truly a beautiful scene.

The drive towards Cardiff was sometimes in the most incredible driving conditions. There were moments of almost complete white-out. The snow was packing heavily on the sides of the roads. We decided to cross back over the Severn Bridge into England and to rather spend the night where we knew the snow would not trap us.

On Wednesday morning we got a really early start so that we could make the most of the short daylight hours. We drove down to Southampton and Portsmouth. I was surprised to see how much more modern these port city are. They still have the charm and character of an old English town, but they have grown a little with the times and have a far more modern city feel to them.

Portsmouth harbour with its historic dockyards was an absolute delight for Mitchell. He was lucky enough to see two aircraft carriers in port, the HMS Ark Royal and the HMS Illustrious, but the absolutely beauty was the HMS Victory.  If you don’t know the story of this ship, then please read up about it and if you are ever in Portsmouth, don’t miss out on this one. The tour of the ship was worth everything and more, and I was thankful that the snow in the Brecon Mountains had played with our plans, and given us the chance to stop over here. The Mary Rose is currently under refurbishment in the port, so visitors are not allowed to visit her at the moment (just another excuse to take a trip back and see it all again).

 Thursday was New Years Eve, and our first new year in our new country. We celebrated the start of 2010 at the Hare and the Hound in Bidborough. The theme was “Best of British” and I soon realised that I had better get up to speed on some of the characters of British music and film, as most of those costumes were not familiar to me at all. Mike mentioned, perhaps a little too loudly, that he thought the one lady was dressed as Amy Winehouse, but with a swift retort she came back at him to mention that she “WAS NOT!” We therefore assumed that perhaps this was just her usual look.

The New Year rang in with some new faces, some old ones, and some South African champagne.

On New Year’s Day we took a leisurely trip on the Spa Valley Railway which travels from Tunbridge Wells to Groombridge station and back. It passes through some stunning farmlands and past the village of High Rocks, so aptly named for the huge rocks which jut out from the side of a hill. The train is an old stream train and the best parts of it are that rhythmic sound of the wheels on the tracks and the smell of the burning coal. The train passed through a very wintery landscape with patches of snow along the tracks and sprinkled like icing sugar on the farmlands.

On Saturday we took Jon to Canterbury, Herne Bay and Broadstairs. This would be our first trip to the sea in about 6 months and despite the fact that the temperature hovered around 3°C, it was just wonderful to be back at the coast. Canterbury Cathedral is just as amazing as I imagined it would be, set amongst the narrow cobbled streets of the old part of the city. Old passageways where the feet of devoted monks once walked, old buildings with skew walls looking like they come straight out of a children’s story book and shops that you just can’t help but peek inside, old music shops with a romantic saxophone in the window, quaint little candy stores with colourful jars stacked high and inviting altogether make Canterbury a city which just sort of gets under your skin. It is the stuff of storybooks and one visit will make you realise why Charles Dickens spent so much time here.

Jon had his first unimpressive walk on a pebble beach in Herne Bay, but then we found some real sea sand on Broadstairs beach. Many English seaside villages have those very 1960’s little ice-cream shacks on the beaches and it doesn’t matter that the mercury just can’t get up passed 3°C, there will surely be a little shop selling ice-creams and brightly coloured plastic buckets and spades. It has to make you want to be a kid again.

Today ended off the week on a restful note. Mike, Jon, Mitchell, and Jenna went to watch Alvin and Chipmunks and we ended off the evening with a few board games. It sure has been another wonderful week.

 As I write this blog tonight I look out the window, and the snowflakes are falling past the light on the corner of our street. It is not a heavy snowfall, just light flurries but they are beautifully illuminated by the orange glow. The days have started to get longer now and since Jon arrived in the middle of December we have already won back almost 30 minutes of daylight. Mitchell and Jenna go back to school this week, the Christmas decorations will go back in the boxes and our first Christmas and New Year in the UK will become yet another point on our scorecard and a time of happy memories spent with good friends.

Here I am blogging from a hotel room in the beautiful old city of Bath. Just how popular is this blog to my regular readers that I would drag my laptop along on holiday with me and sit up until after midnight to write the story of a week in our lives? Thank you to all my regular readers for continuing to read this blog each week, for your comments and your support. You continue to give me a reason to write, which has become something I thoroughly enjoy doing.

After last weekend’s snowfall we expected the snow to melt away rather quickly, but with the daily temperatures seldom rising above 2 or 3 degrees during this week, it lasted for days. The snow eventually started to melt and then re-froze which created some adventurous driving conditions. I did a side-slide around the corner into our street and with my heart beating in my throat, Mitchell and Jenna both cheered from the back seat: “Cool Mom, do it again!” Like they thought I had somehow intentionally done it. Our snowman eventually became one with the snow on the pavement again; his head rolled off first and finally all that remained of him were a carrot, a few raisins and some pebbles. I am sure he will be resurrected in a few weeks time, if we are lucky enough to have some more snow.

On Monday evening we took Jon to play ten-pin bowling at the Bowl-Plex in Tunbridge Wells. Once again I showed my true form and with 3-strikes in a row the game was all but wrapped up for me. Mitchell shakes his head and laughs at my blatant arrogance when I dance around and cheer, but being the family’s ten-pin bowling champion is a coveted title in the Wright house at the moment.

I am loving winter in the UK. When we left South Africa a few people said: “Yes, you are going over the in summer, but you will only survive one UK winter and then you will be back. You wait and see you will be back”. Well, the truth is, we are still waiting for this long, dark, terrible winter that everyone described to us. We are waiting for the dull dark depression and the misery. So far it has not changed our lives one bit – although Jenna has now finally got used to wearing shoes. We have had to shovel the cars out of the snow, learn to drive on ice, we have had to scrape the frost from the car more than once a day on some occasions, we have sloshed through the mud and tried to negotiate walking in the car park on sheets of ice, but the wonder of it all does not cease. Each day something new comes up and we have to find a new way to deal with it, a new way to solve the problem and then be able to sit down and say “So, that wasn’t so bad and now the next time we will know better”. It’s about changing, about seeing a different perspective, about pushing yourself through new boundaries and then standing on the other side, looking back over your shoulder and knowing that you learned, that you grew, and most of all, that you laughed all the way through it.

On Tuesday Jon, the kids, and I drove through to Penshurst Place which is a beautiful 650 year old home but unfortunately many of the most beautiful UK tourist attractions are closed to the public in the winter months, so we were not able to get inside the grounds, but the drive through Penshurst was absolutely beautiful and with the streets and fields still covered in thick snow, it made for some picture-postcard moments. We stopped in Tonbridge at Barden Park Lake, which is where the Tonbridge Yacht club is. This park was beautiful in the summer and this would be my first trip back there in the winter months. I found it to be prettier than I had remembered it. Birds were able to stand out on the frozen surface of the lake, the children’s playground was covered in snow, and the whole park made for a walk of the most amazing photographic moments. We left on the train for London at about 14:00 on Tuesday to go to the Winter Wonderland and German Market in Hyde Park. I had an image in my mind of what it might be like, but I could never have truly imagined how it would be. It’s not about the goods on sale or the hectic roller-coaster rides. It’s about each individual little store and how it is decorated. The lights, the smell of cinnamon, the German folk music, people in costumes, little handmade chocolates, glass ornaments that sparkled in the coloured Christms lights. On some of the stalls there were authentic little decorations on the rooftops, not your stereo-type Christmassy things, but little old wooden wagons, a chicken, or an old basket. There were more stories to be told about the rooftop decorations than anything, for me.

On Wednesday evening Philip arrived to spend 2 days with us in the run-up to Christmas, so now we had our two best friends from East London with us. (Philip lives over here in the UK now and Jon is over for a 3 week holiday.) It felt like the Friday and Saturday nights back in East London, when they would both come over for dinner and we would all laugh and chat. I don’t know if there could have been a more authentic way for us to spend our first Christmas in the UK, than to have these two guys with us.

On Thursday Mike, Jon, and Philip travelled into London to meet James (who has already made his appearance in a previous blog a few weeks ago) for lunch. James is an ex-student of mine from PE Technikon and was in the same class as Jon. The boys day out in London turned out to be a about new friends and a good curry, a few nice beers and a discovery of new sides to London that were previously undiscovered. The guys rushed home to be back in time to see Jenna as an angel in a Carol service. She looked absolutely beautiful as her and her little classmates from school sang carols on Christmas Eve. We went home to a lovely Christmas Eve dinner, complete with candles and hats, crackers and Turkey and not forgetting… granny’s trifle. Some things will always just belong.

Our first Christmas day in the UK finally arrived and with it came a beautiful sunny day. The last few patches of snow that had held out to give us our first white Christmas melted away and the ground finally began to dry up. After opening all our gifts, Philip headed off to his brothers family in Broadstairs. Christmas day was a quiet and relaxing day, we took a walk around the Tonbridge Castle, climbed to the top of the motte and bailey and got the most beautiful view of the town. Jenna and Mitchell took along a bag of peanuts in shells and old bread and we spent ages feeding the ducks and the squirrels. The squirrels come right up and take the peanuts out of your hand. This was however not the end of the day’s festivities. We spent the evening at Mike’s sisters house in Bidborough. There were 17 of us around the dinner table and this is how I remember Christmas dinners as a child, just sitting around the table for ages, talking and laughing, dishing up desert and sweets and spending time together, but I missed my brother Michael more than anyone can imagine.     

We set off at 08:30 this morning from Tonbridge on our road-trip to the Brecon Mountains in Wales. Our trip is taking us to Stonehenge, Old Sarum Castle in Salisbury and the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral. Driving to Stonehenge was incredible. We had seen it so often on TV and had obviously developed images in our minds of how it would be, but we were wrong. You drive over a little hill on the freeway and all of a sudden there it is, right there in front of you, just as it has been standing there for more than 4000 years. There are no big imposing gates to the site and the visitors centre is cleverly tucked away (almost underground) on the other side of the freeway, so you get a real sense of this place, not as some tacky tourist spot, but as a place of significant meaning. You walk away from it wondering what they knew back then that we just take for granted today. What was important at that time, that we now just fob off as unimportant? I will go back to Stonehenge in the summer months and stare again in wonder at it. If you have ever thought it was beautiful in pictures and on TV, then you will surely appreciate how truly magnificent it really is when you stand on the ground where once, 4000 years ago, a group of people, very different to us, once found wonder too.

Old Sarum Castle is a ruin of a Castle, standing on a hill overlooking the picturesque town of Salisbury. This castle was in its heyday in about the 1100’s. Try to imagine that. Standing in the place, in the rooms, in the grounds of a Castle where a King walked so many hundreds of years ago. The views from the top of the hill made me stand for a moment and appreciate why that spot was probably chosen. It certainly has a view that is fit for a King!

The Steeple of Salisbury Cathedral stands like a towering symbol over the city. You can see it from miles around and it is like a beacon, drawing you every nearer to what must be one of the most incredible places I have ever seen. The details in the architecture, the fine craftsmanship that took place so many years ago, before computers put the designs together, when men created all that with their bare hands. You cannot stand there and not wonder in absolute awe at how incredible the buildings of that time were. Salisbury’s little streets are packed with the most amazing little old buildings sandwiched between others. There is a medieval part of the city where the little buildings and plaques with stories on tell of a time that we can hardly ever dream to imagine.

Tomorrow we continue our trip to Wales, over little bridges that stand up against the raging rivers which are now carrying the snow-melt, along little roads lined with trees that hide old stone cottages, buildings that look as if they come of the pages of an illustrated children’s storybook.

The buildings we have seen today have stood the test of time, some have stood almost unchanged for 4000 years, but the stories and the legends surrounding them have changed. I hope that my life will be a little like Stonehenge, sturdy and strong but filled with wonder and mystery. I know the outer surface is certainly not staying unchanged, like those immense immovable rocks, but the foundations of which I am made, like the walls of Old Sarum Castle, where you can see the outline of who I am really am, are solid and strong. The seasons will continue to change like they have done for thousands of years, different people will pass by everyday and all together they will make up the stories, the myths and legends of who we are.  

Christmas has passed now and this week brings with it a whole New Year, new beginnings, and pages and pages of new adventures… My wish for you is for a wonderful 2010.

I knew this was always going to be an exciting week to write about in this blog because Jon was coming over from South Africa to spend 3 weeks with us over Christmas and New Year, but I never expected this week to turn out the way it did. Living in EL all my life, I only saw snow for the first time in 2000 in Hogsback. Getting to see the snow in South Africa meant driving up to Hogsback or Katberg, and that was only if there was enough snow and if it lasted for at least 1 day. So, snow might be something that some people take for granted, as a matter of fact I am learning that a lot of the people living in England actually hate it. They see it as a hindrance to daily life more than anything. They complain about it messing with public transport and life in general. I think it’s a winter wonderland and I could stand and just stare out the window all day.

Monday began the week for me just as all weeks should begin, filled with excitement. I took a trip into London and as all my trips into London turn out, this one was just fantastic. There is something so magical about that city. There is so much to learn, so much to discover, so many interesting facts that lie around every corner. You can eat chocolate covered strawberries from Harrods, you can walk for miles until your feet ache or you can just sit and watch the world pass you by, but a trip into London will leave you forever wanting more.

Jon arrived on Tuesday. We had not really had any bitterly cold weather yet. We had had one or two mornings with a dusting of frost on the cars, but nothing to write home about. Then Jon arrived on the morning that we saw our first winter wonderland. It wasn’t snow but thick white frost which lasted all day. Everything was covered in it. I drove through to Heathrow to fetch Jon at 6am. Now a trip on the M25 at the best of times is hair-raising, but at 6am on a dark, frosty morning was just a rush. It was so fantastic to see Jon again. Mitchell and Jenna didn’t know that he was arriving on Tuesday; we had managed to keep it a secret from them. I was SO delighted to see their reactions when they saw him. It will forever remind me of just how important Jon is to them and how much they miss him.

On Wednesday morning Jon and I travelled into London on the train to meet up with Raymond Scott. Raymond was at Tech with Jon and also one of the first students that I taught as a PE Tech lecturer. We walked out of the underground at Oxford Circus and immediately we noticed the falling white flakes. I couldn’t believe that we were walking down the streets of London and it was snowing. We shopped around in Hamley’s and then met up with Raymond. I haven’t seen him for more than 10 years now, and it was just fantastic to spend an hour catching up, reminiscing and comparing notes about the UK. Raymond only lives an hour away, in Alton, so we have promised to spend some more time together. I didn’t expect that when we got home the snow would have already started to fall in Tonbridge. It was not a lot, just a light dusting, but it was a promise of things to come.

On Thursday Jon and I went to Blue Water Retail Park near the Dartford tunnel to finish off some Christmas shopping. The drive to Blue Water takes us through Shipborne, Ightam, and Borough Green which are all beautiful little villages, so Jon got his first real view of the quaint little buildings and streets of rural England and then ended up in a huge, modern, shopping centre. By the time we got back to fetch Jenna the sky was telling a very different story about the weather. A few minutes later the snow began to come down like you cannot imagine, coating everything, dusting, flying everywhere. Within minutes the street outside was covered.  Mitchell’s school had closed for the holidays but Jenna’s school was due to continue on the Friday. We heard on the radio the following morning that most of the schools in Kent were closed because of the snow so she got the day off.

So began a weekend of discovery for us. I hadn’t bought gum-boots yet, Jenna didn’t have any thick socks, and Jon had arrived from sunny South Africa with the hope of going to buy some warm clothes when the need arose. That need arose sooner than we thought, so Friday morning saw us all packing off to town to go and buy the essential snow items.

The roads had been graded and gritted, but the pavements were still treacherous for walking on. We took a very eventful drive through the back roads to Tunbridge Wells and everywhere we passed people digging their cars out of the snow. Many cars were stuck or just couldn’t get enough grip to drive up roads with the slightest incline. We went and bought Mitchell and Jenna each a sled and headed off to Bidborough so they could go and take on the slopes in “the bomb crater”. The bomb crater is a deep hole in the side of a hill (probably measuring about 50m in diameter). It is a hole where soil was dug out to create a nearby dam wall, but it looks more like a bomb crater and as such the legend was born. The crater has steep sides and when it has been snowing, the local children from the village use it as a ski-run.

On Saturday we all travelled through to London so that Jon (and us) could see some of the tourist sites (sights). We also knew that London was free of snow, so it would be the perfect day for some sight-seeing. The sky was absolutely cloudless and made for an awesome day. We took one of the open-top bus tours past most of the famous attractions and got off at Tower Bridge. Here we caught the ferry to Greenwich and visited the Observatory. The view of Canary Warf and London itself from the top of the Observatory hill is stunningly spectacular and to be there at sunset as the light reflected off the sky-scrapers was a breathtaking moment. We caught the train back to London and resumed our trip on the bus, getting off at Buckingham Palace and walking through Green Park. We ended our beautiful day with dinner in Piccadilly Circus under the famous lights.

 Today Jon, Mitchell, Jenna, and I took a walk through the farms across the road from our house. This is one of my favourite walks and takes us past horses and apple orchards, through fields (which are now unrecognisable under the snow) and past a frozen lake. We saw many little robin redbreast birds which looked as if they had come directly off of a Christmas card, we found the tracks of deer in the snow, fires burned and apples lay freezing in the white snow in the orchards. Mitchell and Jenna lay in the snow and made snow angels and then laughed hysterically as they stood up and the snow fell down the backs of their shirts. There is something to be said for new experiences like digging your car out of the snow, shovelling the front garden path. It is all part of the deal and a whole load of fun.

The promise of a white Christmas beckons as the days in the northern hemisphere start to grow a little longer. The filtered sun will begin to shine a little brighter and bring with it the promise of long summer days, but for now we will enjoy what has come our way. The days are cold now but we greet each new one with a renewed anticipation as we grow to know the warmth of our neighbours and appreciate the many Christmas wishes. We have Jon here, and soon Philip will join us for Christmas. Here’s hoping that the snow will linger and that we will never begin to take moments like this for granted. Who knows what lies behind the next gate?