Jul
19
I am not sure if it is because there is so much going on at the moment, the fact that every day is packed full of something to do, be it organising Sky TV, licensing the car, responding to letters from British Gas and car insurers or just finding things like the library and the dentist, but these 2 weeks seem to have crawled by at a snails-pace for me. I feel as if I have been in the UK for 4 months, instead of just 2 weeks. Things that should still seem very new to me, now just seem routine. The rest of the family feels that the time has flown… Perhaps it is just because the kids are not at school and will only be going back in September or maybe it is the fact that I just feel “at home” here… either way it still feels right, 2 weeks or 4 months, it doesn’t matter.
Anyway, it has been another crazy week. We registered with the local doctors, found a groups of dentists (5 of whom are South African). Our dentist trained in Pretoria! (Full circle moment?) Mitchell also registered with the local football club for when the new season starts in September… and we continue to wait for a decent Internet connection…
Mike and Mitchell have both had the flu but they have both had really mild symptoms so we are not stressing about swine flu, yet. We saw something quite funny the other day. A sign on the door of a doctors surgery … it said: “If you suspect that you have swine flu, please DO NOT enter these premises”.
Jenna turns 7 on Wednesday (it would also have been my grans birthday) and we are trying to make it a special occasion for her. She doesn’t have any friends over here yet but she is looking forward to being with her cousins on Wednesday. Her new bed arrives this week so her nights on the stretcher will finally be over. We have bought her a new bike for her birthday. She has always been given Mitchell’s hand-me-down bikes and scooters, so this time she gets her own new bike. The only thing is that her helmet is in the container, somewhere at sea and I don’t want to pay another £18 for a new one when a perfectly good one is on the way.
Mike and kids took a drive to Biggin Hill Airfield on Saturday afternoon. Yes! It was definitely always going to be one of the first things that they did over here. (Hey, it’s not our fault that you don’t understand how important it is to scout out the local airports in a new country. Hahaha).
The appeals process for two of the Kent grammar schools happened this week and although we hold little hope of being successful, because the schools are completely over-subscribed with student numbers, we are still trying to remain optimistic. We also have an appeal with Tunbridge Wells Grammar school for Boys in August.
Lately I have been having very pleasing visions of myself swimming out into the ocean to go and meet the ship carrying our container. It just can’t arrive soon enough, I’m afraid! Not only is it bringing our furniture and belongings, but its arrival brings with it so much more that I am looking forward to… Surviving with a few borrowed plates and 2 pots is a challenge and making salad in a pot because we don’t have a bowl is not as funny the 10th time around as it was the first time we did it. (Ha ha ha)
On Friday night my nephew, James, stayed over with us. We took all the kids down to the sports ground in the evening as there is a beautiful play park that they enjoy. On the way there we crossed one of the foot-bridges over the river Medway, which runs through the town. We had some bread with us to feed to the ducks. As we walked across the bridge we could hear that the ducks sounded in distress. One duck had become entangled in fishing line against the bank of the river (the hook was firmly lodged in its mouth and the line was tangled around its neck and feet). It was struggling frantically in the water. The kids ran off to the Tonbridge Swimming pool to raise the alarm and the RSPCA was called out to save the poor creature. My kids felt like the town heroes.
Last night I stood outside in the chilly night air and stared up at the cloudless sky. For those of you that know this about me, you will appreciate that this is something I love to do. When I left SA I thought that my nights of star-gazing and wonder at the full moon would be over. I thought that the stars in the northern hemisphere could never replace those I left back home and I was afraid that the perpetual cloud cover that is synonymous with the UK, would block my every vision. On the contrary, in the two weeks that I have been here I have seen a beautiful near-full moon, and night skies filled with stars. Most of them I cannot identify yet, but I will get there one clear night at a time and no doubt with some advice 
I quite enjoy shopping at the open-air markets for fruit and vegetables. This morning was supposed to be our first trip to a car-boot sale, but we got there when the cars were packing up… It was only 11:00am, but I suspect that the rain may have played a part in the early exit of the stall-holders. We’ll try again next week.
Today we went to a Football Fiesta at the sports grounds. It was a “David Beckham/Chelsea Football club” sponsored Academy, with professional coaches, a tournament, and just hundreds of local children having a whole load of fun. Soccer is not a sport here, it is a religion!
In my last blog I said that I was only missing Lipton Yellow Label tea bags. Well, you can add Crosse and Blackwell Real Tangy Mayonnaise to that list. Mitchell says he is missing Debonairs Pizza, but in all fairness to the UK pizza places, he hasn’t tasted any pizza’s here yet…
South African schools open tomorrow and with it comes another fresh wave of realisation for me that my kids no longer go to school in SA and that I no longer work at Hudson Park Primary. I do wish my ex-colleagues a good term ahead and to the academy kids who may read this blog, I say… “get off the Internet and get back to work!”
This is Kerry Wright!
