Aug
31
Ok, let’s start with an apology for the 24hr delay in getting this blog out. Today (Monday) is a Bank Holiday in the UK and we spent yesterday and this morning in Saunderton and Oxford with Steven Heggie and his family.
Yesterday we walked to the Hellfire Caves near West Wycombe. (www.hellfirecaves.co.uk). The walk took us along a beautiful ridge that overlooks pretty valleys on either side. The caves themselves really are quite amazing and no matter how brave you try to be, when someone is standing behind you, peering over your shoulder and you don’t know they are there and you turn around to walk and its dark and scary… let me tell you, even the cutest face can give you a fright! Hahaha.
This morning we visited Oxford. I have wanted to take the rest of the family there since we got here, because for me, Oxford is the most beautiful city I have ever seen in the UK. There is just something different about Oxford. 
The buildings, the architecture, the people on bikes, the spires, the tree-lined streets and baskets of flowers, the parks, the cafés, the knowledge and the museums, the neatly mowed lawns of all the colleges, the streams, the deer, the boats and rivers, old doors, new ones, huge gates, quaint little blue doors, funny little stone faces that glare out from the architecture. It all comes together in one very pretty, breathtaking place. Steven once said to me: “I think two days in Oxford will be too much, there really isn’t much to see or do”. Not true for me, I am afraid! I could spend weeks in Oxford and never get tired of it and now I am glad the rest of the family can see why I rambled on and on about visiting it.
The overwhelming highlight of our week was the arrival of our container on Tuesday morning. The shipping company told us to expect it late in the morning or even possibly early afternoon. I imagined that the truck had to drive all the way to us from the port of Tilbury, so I thought their estimate was probably about right. So there I was lazing in bed, far too late for a weekday morning when I heard a truck outside. 
It couldn’t possibly be ours, right? I mean we had waited so long already. Then the doorbell rang! Well, there were the 4 Wrights in a scramble to the door, to the shower and to our stuff! Mitchell and Jenna were so eager to open all their boxes from home and Mitchell needed no invitation to get into the truck and remove his bike himself. I thought there was no way that we would ever fit all the stuff that we had brought into our little house over here, but lo and behold, we can even park the car in the garage now. 
I cannot resign myself to the idea of scraping ice off of the car in the coming winter mornings. So, come hell or high water, with a squeeze and a shove and a few clever packing ideas, everything finally fitted in so that the car could fit into the garage! Of course now that there is furniture in the house I cannot see the spiders and although some might think that is a good thing… the fact that I cannot see them, doesn’t mean that they are not there.
As for our broadband internet… Well, finally our router arrived in the mail on Friday. Remember, the first go-live date that they gave us was the 23rd of July. From then on they started to push out the date every time we reached it. The landline phone was installed weeks ago, through the same company. All they had to do was send us the router and make us live… but as I write this blog we are still not live on broadband. The best part is that they sent us one of those “Rate our Service” emails. Can you imagine the cheek? It was just what I had been waiting for! Anyway, watch this space and perhaps, with a bit of luck our next blog will be published on our broadband line! [Yeah, right!]
It was my brother’s birthday this week and the first time I have ever had to phone and wish him from such a long way away. Talking to him on the phone was both wonderful and sad, but knowing that I am going back to SA soon (even though it is only for 1 week), made it a little easier. I am glad that I don’t take people and relationships for granted. It’s moments like birthdays when you are far away from someone that makes you realise that above everything else come the people in your life.
On Friday we met with a lady from a new little school that we found just up the road from us. Jenna has already been accepted into St Augustine’s CPS in Tunbridge Wells, but now that Mitchell will be travelling to school for free on the bus, there is no reason why we would want to do the morning school run in the traffic to Tunbridge Wells. So, we have applied for her to go to the new school. It is just a stone’s throw from us out here in the suburbs and the school is in a far prettier setting. It overlooks a beautiful valley with trees and fields. The problem at the moment is that the schools here are all still closed for the holidays so there is nobody around to talk to. Most of the schools go back this week and our application will go to the governors of the school for consideration. If we get this one passed in our favour, then we will have completely won all our victories for our chosen schools.
One of the things that I love about living over here is the sense of community that you feel with your neighbours. We were lucky enough to have fantastic neighbours back in SA, but we could so easily get tangled up in our own lives and then all you’d see for weeks was a smile and a wave. Faith, the lady who lives next door pops over every now and again with plums from her garden, or other kinds of treats for the kids. She has all the good ideas for jams and preserves and recipes for everything. She sometimes just stops in to say how nice it is to hear Mitchell and Jenna riding their bikes and giggling in the street. John and Val, across the road have made my children feel very welcome and Jenna loves to go over and see the cats that Val fosters, until good homes can be found for them. Then there is Matt and Pat, an elderly couple up the road who get hold of Mitchell when we rides past on his bike and all they want to do is talk about South Africa, how we are settling in, and to tease Mitchell about his support for Manchester United.
On Friday night we went and got Ice-creams (with Flake in, by the way) and walked around the Castle. Everyone else in town seemed to be snuggled up in cosy restaurants and coffee shops, peering out the windows at us, eating ice-creams in the autumn breeze.
A chilly, early morning wind begins to blow on a regular basis now and the leaves are changing and falling to the ground. We seldom think of “The Move” as such, anymore. Life just feels natural and as school starts this week, Mitchell and Jenna will each begin yet another whole new sub-adventure of this big journey.
This is Kerry Wright!
