Sep
06
2 Months! Imagine that! We have been here for 2 months already. When I think of all the things we have done and all the things we have achieved, I can’t imagine how we have squeezed it into just 8 short weeks.
This week started off a little miserable for me. I returned from Saunderton and Oxford on Monday with a nasty dose of flu. It was one of those cases where you just want to lie in bed, with the blankets pulled up to your ears, but a mom’s work is never done. Mike was nagging me to go to the doctor but I believe that the human body must get a fair shot at trying to heal itself before it is pumped full of medication and that’s just what happened. A few glasses of hot med-lemon and a box of tissues later, and by the end of the week I was well on the road to recovery.
We celebrated another family birthday in the UK this week. Mitchell turned 12! We gave him the option of going to Portsmouth to see the navy ships or to go to the Ice Bowl in Gillingham for a morning of skating. So we ended up having a blast of a time ice-skating. 
Mitchell and I can skate pretty well, Jenna is learning fast and Mike is our comic-relief on the ice. Jenna went from holding onto the walls with all her might to skating across the floor unassisted about an hour later. There is a skating shop inside the Ice Bowl and Jenna spent quite some time picking out her glitz and glamour outfit. Those pretty sparkly ones that the professional skaters wear. I think it’s going to be a while yet until she reaches that stage, so the outfits all went back on the shelf. After ice-skating we went to Blue Water Retail Park which is only 30min drive from our house. It is a big modern shopping centre with all the top brand-name stores you can think of. These types of shopping centres are not common-place in the UK. Over here the little shops, bakeries, butcheries, sports store are more the order of the day and I prefer it that way.
Our other big victory for this week was the go-live on our broadband internet connection. It has taken the longest time and the worst frustration imaginable. Internet is not just a social medium over here. It is about as important to your survival over here as oxygen and food. Everything is done on the internet here. Shopping, banking, even recording your own readings for gas, electrical and water usage is done online. Mitchell also needs a connection for a lot of his homework. Not just for getting information for assignments and projects. There are maths websites that the school subscribes to and a lot of the homework is done on these websites. Anyway, it is finally here so Skype us all you like!
This week has really been one of the most important weeks for us. The issue of schooling for the kids was my biggest fear in this move. It was the one issue that cost us a lot of money (to fly Mitchell over here to write the 11+ exams for Grammar School entrance) and a lot of frustration (bouncing between the schools and the Kent County Council). We did all we could to win these battles, because Mitchell and Jenna are the reason why we are over here and what good would it be if we didn’t jump through hoops to get the best we possibly could in terms of schooling. So after all we went through, Mitchell and Jenna started school this week at the best possible schools that we could get for them. 
Mitch started on Wednesday as the Year-7s had to go in a day earlier. He has taken to school with so much motivation and excitement. He has made a few friends and I think he quite likes being “the different boy”, the one from South Africa. His class teacher asked him the other day if football was big in SA and Mitchell responded by asking him if he had ever heard of Bafana Bafana… With a laugh the teacher said: “I am just going to hope that you didn’t just swear at me”. He is dreading learning French this year. I am going to have to try and get him past the negative mindset that he has about it. He loves the science labs and can’t believe that right in front of him are all the chemicals, burners and little glass tubes. The cafeteria food on his first day was not a highlight for him, but then he is pretty fussy about his food so he opted to take a packed lunch the next day but that meant he could not spend lunchtime with his friends as the kids with packed lunches eat in a different area to those having school-dinners. So from tomorrow he is going to give the cafeteria food another go. The school offers a wide range of sport for the boys to do, including clubs like the model aircraft club. He also likes the locker system, but I am going to keep a close eye on that homework excuse of “I left the books in my locker”. He was also selected as the class captain, which has given him the chance to stand out a bit from the rest of the boys. He is now pressing me to sort out his bus-pass.
Jenna started school on Thursday. We managed to get her into the school just up the road from our place so as soon as Mitch starts travelling to school on the bus we will not have to do the long school-run into Tunbridge Wells. Jenna’s school is a beautiful collection of little white A-framed buildings. It is light and airy and situated right on the edge of town, overlooking a farm. There are big grounds with jungle-gyms for the kids and the classrooms, library, hall, and everything are absolutely fantastic. Jenna also starts learning French this year. I think the biggest jump for her from school in SA is that she starts with content subjects this year like science and geography. She has made some friends too. Sophie is her closest friend so far. Sophie and her family are expats from Zimbabwe. Jenna’s school also offer some nice activities. Sport is not usually offered at many UK schools so we are lucky to have selected two that offer a whole host of activities. Jenna’s school even has aftercare which stays open until 6pm.
I am just glad that as I sit here and write this blog late on a Sunday night, both kids have packed their school bags and left them at the front door, uniforms are all out waiting to just be put on. I think they are both happy and excited about the school year ahead.
We ended off this week with a quiet relaxing weekend at home, lying around reading, watching rugby, painting, cycling and just finally having some time to chill. This morning (Sunday) we went out to find Mitchell a desk for his room. Jenna and I went to the car boot sale while Mike and Mitchell went to the commercial stores.
A £6 desk!
Mike phoned while I was at the car boot sale to say that he couldn’t find a decent sized desk for less than £100, even if he bought the timber and made it himself. At the boot sale we found a perfect desk, big enough for the computer monitor, speakers and keyboard, and still plenty of space for books to do homework. How much you ask? £6! Yes you read that correctly, SIX POUNDS (Oh …and that included a chair …AND the guy delivered it to our house!). The hysterical part was Mike and I trying to get it upstairs and through the doorway into Mitchell’s room. I got into a hysterical giggle and Mike said it was like playing some weird game of Tetris. 
We finally disassembled the thing to get it through the doorway and got it all set up. We also bought Jenna some more flat-pack-build-it-yourself furniture and spent a hysterical afternoon assembling it. (BTW, in those flat-pack boxes they don’t give you any extra nuts and bolts, so if you have made anything recently and had a handful of unused bits left over in the end… you might not want to stand your grandmothers old antique vase on it. Hahaha).
So, as Autumn sets in with great gusto, and the once brilliant greens are turning to everything from reds and golds, yellows and browns, we look forward to yet another week filled with laughter and adventure as this journey of ours moves forward one fantastic day at a time.
This is Kerry Wright!
