Jan
17
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.
January 18th, 2010 at 6:02 am
Mmmm, Kerry, you just reminded me – I must take a photograph of our bear back garden. Last year I planted a whole bunch of Tulips, that we had bought in Amsterdam (yes, Jo and I drove to the DAM – it’s only 3 hours door to door = South Africans like driving to places)… and they should start pushing through the ground in early May to brighten up our lovely little garden.