Feb
07
(Please not that the photos contained in this blog are not mine. They are images that I have taken from Google images).
So this weekend set the 7 month marker for the time we have been in the UK. In some ways it still feels like a long time, like we have been here forever, and there are still other times when everything still seems so new and you learn about things every day, but the time has come now when it is comfortable to make jokes about the place, about the move, and about things back home without it seeming to be weird or out of place. I guess when you can laugh at something then you may just have reached that point where you are looking back over your shoulder and reflecting in comfort.
7 months seems like such a short time in which to move country, find a house, get furniture, work, find schools (and uniforms), electricity, local council taxes, water, gas, buying cars, finding friends, bank accounts, travelling, experiencing the joys of winter snow, seeing the seasons change one to the other, watching the kids settle in school, seeing them delight in sledding, helping them to find activities and sports, each of us has now also had at least 1 birthday in the UK, a white Christmas, and a sparkling new year. In these 7 months I have also travelled back to SA twice and Mitchell has been to France, old friends have come to visit and new friends have become, well, just that! New friends.
This week promises to be interesting, in the least. Mike heads off to SA on business and I get to do the whole home drill alone. Fortunately we have learned that Mitch and Jen muck in when one of us is away. Mike better remember to bring my box of Beacon Marshmallow Easter Eggs back. There are some things that you can do without – but you just don’t want to.
This week Mike celebrated his birthday in the UK. Jenna is such a fuss-pot over birthdays. She makes so many elaborate cards, she wraps everything in ribbons and bows, and she draws on things and decorates things. It is quite incredible to watch and makes you think about the days when birthdays were that exciting for you. How those moments should matter to everyone.
Mitchell had the most awesome sporting week. He played in the Kent school indoor soccer tournament which his school won the trophy for. Mitchell scored 6 goals in the 8 matches that they played and he came home feeling like a world champion, and indeed he should have.
Jenna finally got her gymnastics leotard this week and who would have thought that it would be such a huge thing. I guess she finally felt accepted in the group of girls, no longer being the odd one out. She was now finally wearing the colours of the Weald of Kent gymnastics school.
Jenna has also caught up with the other children in her grade at a rate that I find quite astonishing. It was the biggest fear for me, and something that brought me to tears many times in the first few weeks here, but as I am learning each day – children will continue to dazzle you if you give them the space to. Her teacher’s heap loads of praise on her and I just cannot believe how someone so little can be so full of determination.
On Friday night we all travelled into London, to meet up with Steve, Melanie and Duncan at the Royal Albert Hall for an evening of wonder at Cirque du Soleil (The Circus of the Sun). Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company with a definite French flavour. 
The show we watched was called “Varekai”. (“Varekai” means “wherever,” and is based on mythology, like many of the previous productions. The story is about the Greek myth of Icarus. The story begins where the myth leaves off, telling the story of what happened to Icarus after he fell from the sky. He lands in the middle of a jungle at the base of a volcano where he must learn to fly again). The music and singing was hauntingly beautiful, the costumes were just out of this world and from the smallest little 
children in the production, right up to the seasoned acrobats, you cannot do anything but sit on the edge of your seat in awe and wonder at the skill that those artists possess. The trust that they put in one another alone, is something to take away from the show. Just knowing that someone is going to be there for you, at the right time, in the right place, to catch you if you fall, is something wonderful on its own.
As I write this blog now the rain is falling steadily outside and landing on the “glass” roof of the conservatory. We have not seen much rain in the past few weeks and the sound is quite comforting in a way.
The neighbours removed the covering from their pool today and started cleaning it up and getting it looking all good – I thought I was optimistic about the change of seasons over here, but I like to think that my neighbours might just know something that the rest of us are missing.
I am reading a beautiful book at the moment… come back next week and I will tell you about it.
