Nov
01
October ends, and with it yet another month in the UK. We are now into November and I am pleasantly surprised with the UK weather for this late in the year. A lot of people are telling me that this is very unlike a normal October, when it comes to weather, so I am not sure if the cold is holding off just to soften our move to the UK or if it is just going to pop up one morning and issues us with a rude awakening. We are now deeply into autumn and the colours have just been astounding. The belief that autumn colours are orange and brown is just a fallacy. True autumn colours are made up of various pinks and lavender, gold and deep, deep reds. It’s like a whole colour palette unto its own.
Mitchell and Jenna have been on mid-term break this week, but for Mitchell that simply meant a week of school projects. He was issued with tasks on the last 2 days of term and they have to be handed in tomorrow. One of the projects was to make a model of a volcano. The brief from the teacher said that it should not actually work (yeah, we have all seen those projects), but that it should be a cross-section view of one. 
I think he has done a fantastic job on it and he declared most boastfully this evening that this is the best project he has ever done. He built it up with layer on layer of polystyrene and then filed and shaped it into the dome that would become the volcano. He even melted down Jenna’s red and orange wax crayons to make the lava flows. This is the second “construction” project that he has had to do and I am so proud of the way he gives attention to detail.
Jenna does not go back to school tomorrow. Her teachers have what they call “an inset day” so she is quite delighted that she gets to stay at home, while Mitchell gets to go to school.
I know that I mentioned this in last week’s blog, but I can’t help but try to explain to all of you who read this, just how beautiful I think it is to wake up in the morning and look out the window to see the world covered in a blanket of grey fog. For me it’s still like that feeling I get when I walk outside on a clear evening and I get to look up at the stars or at the full moon. It’s just something so simple, given to us by the natural world, but I just don’t want to wake up one morning and not appreciate how amazing it is.
This week certainly ended on a high for me. Growing up in Montgomery Drive in East London, I lived across the road from Mr and Mrs Heggie and their family. I went to high school with 3 of their children, Steven, Chris, and Lisa, and the family have always played a big part of my life. I was always invited to 21st birthday parties and weddings in their family and I have remained in close contact with them over the years. Steven lives here in the UK now and he was a source of so much useful information when I had questions about moving to the UK. He has always helped me to see both of sides of every concern or question that I raised. Mr and Mrs Heggie have just spent about 3 weeks in the UK and on Friday we drove to Hampton Court Palace to spend the day with them. What a fantastic day, walking through the halls and gardens of a beautiful palace, with people who have been so much a part of my life. There are tapestries that adorn the walls of Hampton Court Palace. They are the biggest most opulent tapestries you could ever imagine, and when you stand there and think of the threads woven together, the various colours and different textures that make up an image so beautiful, you have to think about the design of your life. 
Who are the threads in your tapestry? Who makes up the image of your life? If you pulled one of those threads out of the weave, what would happen? There is an entire department of people employed at the palace to make sure that the tapestries are cared for, that no harm can come to the delicate threads. Do you give that much attention to the threads in your tapestry? I am proud to say that I think I do and that has always made a huge difference in my life. It means that the bonds I had with people 20-odd years ago are held together across the miles and throughout the years. Whether it is Mr and Mrs Heggie in East London or my best friend Linda Marzano in the USA, I know that every thread in my tapestry is needed, right where it is, and like those people at the palace, I will do all that I can to hold them together because they are the fabric that make the beautiful image that is my life.
This weekend was also Halloween and the first time that Mitchell and Jenna have ever had the chance to go trick-or-treating. Now say what you like about Halloween, you are always going to get those people who argue that it is taboo for Christians to participate in it, that it has its roots in pagan festivals, but the truth is that anything you do in this world is only done in the spirit in which you see it. Anything that we do in this world is done according to our own belief system. The roots of Halloween can be traced back to the Christian feast of All Saints day, so before you cast a stone at me, please read up on the origins of Halloween, read up on how it has changed over the years, read up on how it is celebrated in different parts of the world. To Mitchell and Jenna it was simply a time to run around in the dark, to pretend that the night was scarier than it really was and mostly to collect way too much sugar that could be unleashed on the rest of us the next day.
This evening we went to dinner with another South African family that we know in Tonbridge. We knew that they had invited some other South African families, but we were surprised when 20 of us ended up tucking into dinner together… It was nice to spend an evening in a room entirely filled with people speaking in a South African accent and it is always comforting (even after 17 weeks here) to hear other peoples stories, to be reassured about life in the UK.
To end off this reflection of our week, I need to add what must be one of the top highlights…. We got tickets to the Bon Jovi Concert at the 02 arena! I don’t think I need to say anything else about this topic. If you have any idea at all about how much I love the music of Bon Jovi, then you will know that no more needs to be said.
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