Wrightaboutnow.com

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.

Snow, snow, everywhere! There is no place on this island that is the United Kingdom, where you can hide away from the snow at the moment. Either you embrace it and love it and make the most of it or you have to go and hide inside, sit tight and wait for the big thaw to begin. A NASA satellite image of the United Kingdom this week showed the entire island from the northern tip of Scotland to the southern tip England is just white. When we came over here 6 months ago we hoped we would wake to at least a few mornings of snow in the garden in the winter months. Many people had told us that in Tonbridge they usually see about 3 or 4 days of light snow in a year and then it usually melts away by the next morning, but sometimes you have to “be careful what you wish for, ‘cos you just might get it all”. Well, we wished for snow and it came in the form of the harshest winter the UK has seen in 30 years. The snow just fell and fell endlessly. It packed deeper and deeper on the curbs and in the gardens. Eventually you lose sight of your flower-pots and then taller structures like your car disappear too. Not removed by thieves though, just buried under a blanket of white. One of the things that have struck me the most this week has been the lack of colour. The world to us at the moment looks as if it has been captured on a black and white image. If you take photos they just appear as if they are black and white. It is the most strikingly beautiful background and just another breathtaking contrast to the colour-palette that was autumn.

Mitchell and Jenna love the snow. They go sledding whenever they can. There are some lovely steep hills around here where children from all the houses come out and join in. Some children bring plastic sheets, others arrive with plastic washing buckets and one little girl just had a plastic packet. If you can sit on it and it can slide down a hill, it’s in!

On Monday morning Jon and I took a walk around part of Bewl Water, a beautiful reservoir which is now the largest inland body of water in south east England. To walk around the perimeter of the lake is about 12.7miles. It was a cold, frosty morning and the fallen brown leaves crunched under our boots, but the sky was perfectly clear and the warm filtered, winter sun was just enough to make it a most picturesque walk. The beauty of Bewl Water in the winter is that the trees have thinned out by losing all their leaves, so you can access the water’s edge from many more spots, that you tend to walk past in the summer months because you cannot see through the thick leaves of the forest. Ducks and geese were all over and it was amazing to watch them carrying on with life as if nothing had changed, on the frozen lake-side shores.  There was a moment when a line of ducks swam out from the reeds and behind the group swam one single white swan.  I laughed and commented to Jon that it reminded me of the story of the Ugly Duckling. You can walk for miles around Bewl Water in the most beautiful forests, past farmlands and over little wooden bridges without seeing another person for ages, but you never ever feel unsafe. A few people might pass you on mountain bikes and a few other walkers will wave and pass by, but you can walk and take in the beauty and breathe in the fresh crisp air and know that you are most likely to be perfectly safe.

On Tuesday Jon and I took a trip into London. It was a week of playing “watch the weather forecast” and when we had moments of snow-free time we made the most of it. Jon had not really done the touristy things in London so we planned our day and had a whistle-stop tour of the London eye, Parliament buildings, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the frozen serpentine lake, the Albert Memorial and the Science Museum. It was the perfect day to do the London eye. It was a clear bright, sunny morning, in which we could see “until forever” , even the arch of Wembley stadium was visible in the distance.

By Tuesday night the snow had returned in force. We woke to a thick blanket of snow and news that some of the schools had closed. Mitchell had the rest of the week off, but Jenna’s school was open. The schools here are well prepared for the snow days and Mitchell’s school has a login area on the internet for the children where they can access assignments for all their subjects. I have already looked on the schools website for information about school-closures tomorrow and the school is closed again. I haven’t told Mitchell yet, so he is still getting an early-to-bed school nights sleep. The snow gave us the perfect playground on Wednesday. We took a baseball bat and a football out into the field across the road from our house and what fun it was. Smacking a snowball with a baseball bat mostly just leaves you with a mouthful of snow, and kicking a football is great because it doesn’t go too far so you don’t have to run as much. J

Today we went to lunch at one of our favourite pubs in Tunbridge Wells. It is called “The Robin Hood” and then headed off for another round of ten-pen bowling. I retain the family bowling title (and my crown), despite Mikes best efforts in those last few frames.

Jon leaves tomorrow to head back to SA. We can remember counting the days down until he got here and now the time is already over and he is preparing to head home. He certainly saw “the worst” (or what I think is “the best”) of Britain with all the snow and winter weather.

Some strange things came out of the news this week. Stories of people who walk right past warning signs, over frozen lakes and fall in to their deaths, how you cannot clear the ice from the pavement in front of your house and grit it as this might cause someone to fall and they can sue you, and how panic-buying saw the shops stripped of goods, but it also highlighted the community spirit that people have, to help one another. Young people clear the driveways of elderly neighbours; people offer to go shopping for those who cannot get around in the adverse weather conditions. We have seen people pushing cars for strangers who became stuck in the snow and it’s all done in good spirit. I spun our car twice in one journey when I went to fetch Mike from the station this week, but at the end of the day it’s all about learning new things.

This weather makes you think about the world, about human beings and how we cope in strange situations, it makes you think about our planet and just how much we are not really in control of the forces of nature.  It makes you realise just how small we really are in the greater scheme of things.

The evenings grow noticeably longer now. You can take note of how dark it is at a given time of day, perhaps when you leave the office, or the time when your train leaves the station, then do it again a week later and notice the difference.

If you missed last week’s post, or if this is your first week of ever reading this blog then do yourself a favour and at least go back to last week’s story before reading on with this one, as this new entry begins with a continuation of our road-trip to Wales.

Monday morning started with a visit to the Roman Baths in the beautiful city of Bath. These baths are 2000 years old. The water bubbles up from beneath the earth at 46°C and pours out at a staggering 1 170 000 litres per day. The wonder of this ancient place for me was not so much in the baths themselves, which resemble a sort of modern day swimming pool, but the marvel was more in the “indoor” displays. Places where you got a real sense of the place from 2000 years ago, where you could almost imagine and see in your mind’s eye, the people meeting in the courtyards, standing and sharing news and walking up to the baths. It was truly one of the most impressive and most amazing things I have ever seen. Bath is indeed a beautiful city. If you believe like I do, that the presence of water has an impact on the human soul then you will know why there is such a beautiful vibe here. Water runs everywhere in Bath (sic). There are little rivers and streams which flow under ancient bridges, there are roaring rapids in the heart of the city where the water flows under arched bridges. There are old parts of the city which house modern stores, there are quaint little pedestrian walkways which were strung with Christmas lights.

 We left Bath at around lunchtime and continued our journey towards Wales, crossing the impressive Severn Bridge. We headed straight up into the Brecon Beacon Mountains, as we suspected that the weather might turn on us and we wanted to see the mountains in case we were not able to access them the following day. We drove up towards Brecon stopping along the most picturesque lakes and snow-covered mountain-tops. I stood for a moment on the side of one of the lakes and wondered to myself “…If it looks this beautiful in the stark face of winter, then just how beautiful would it be in the midst of summertime?” (I can’t wait to go back and see). Thick fog started to roll in down the mountain slopes blanketing everything in its path. We headed back down the mountains to Methyr Tydfil where we stayed for the evening. On Tuesday we were planning to travel to Abergavenny which is further towards the east and a little higher up in the mountains.

On Tuesday morning we woke to falling snow. It was coming down heavily and the forecast was not promising. We were advised that if we continued up into the mountains, there was a strong possibility that we might be stuck there in the snow for a few days, so we altered our plans a little and decided to head down from the mountains. I am not altogether sorry that we did it, as this slight adjustment in our travel plans opened up a whole new feast of things to see. We drove down to Caerphilly and visited the Castle which is situated in the centre of the town. It is one of the most beautiful castles that I have seen in the UK so far. It is ancient and parts of it are falling apart (like most of us), but it still retains most of its structure so you can walk through it and see where people met and played, where feasts were enjoyed in the great hall, where guards stood and took aim to defend the castle. It still has perfectly preserved rooms with fireplaces, old windows, rickety staircases and most of all, a spectacular view of the snow-covered hills surrounding the town. I think the snow that fell during our visit added to the marvel that was this phenomenal castle (and for those who are interested in Dr Who, here is something else we got to see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southeastwales/hi/tv_and_radio/newsid_8405000/8405833.stm

 We drove from Caerphilly towards Cardiff and stopped at Coch Castle. This castle is completely different to others that I have seen in the UK. It was rebuilt and decorated during the late 1800’s, so it is far more modern and opulent than other ancient castle ruins. The beauty of this castle was just that! It is different. Set in acres of forest, it has the most impressive entrance, with great story-book towers. The kind where princesses were kept locked up until a knight arrived to save them. When we visited Castell Coch the snow was really falling heavily and set against the backdrop of the winter forest and the great towers, it was truly a beautiful scene.

The drive towards Cardiff was sometimes in the most incredible driving conditions. There were moments of almost complete white-out. The snow was packing heavily on the sides of the roads. We decided to cross back over the Severn Bridge into England and to rather spend the night where we knew the snow would not trap us.

On Wednesday morning we got a really early start so that we could make the most of the short daylight hours. We drove down to Southampton and Portsmouth. I was surprised to see how much more modern these port city are. They still have the charm and character of an old English town, but they have grown a little with the times and have a far more modern city feel to them.

Portsmouth harbour with its historic dockyards was an absolute delight for Mitchell. He was lucky enough to see two aircraft carriers in port, the HMS Ark Royal and the HMS Illustrious, but the absolutely beauty was the HMS Victory.  If you don’t know the story of this ship, then please read up about it and if you are ever in Portsmouth, don’t miss out on this one. The tour of the ship was worth everything and more, and I was thankful that the snow in the Brecon Mountains had played with our plans, and given us the chance to stop over here. The Mary Rose is currently under refurbishment in the port, so visitors are not allowed to visit her at the moment (just another excuse to take a trip back and see it all again).

 Thursday was New Years Eve, and our first new year in our new country. We celebrated the start of 2010 at the Hare and the Hound in Bidborough. The theme was “Best of British” and I soon realised that I had better get up to speed on some of the characters of British music and film, as most of those costumes were not familiar to me at all. Mike mentioned, perhaps a little too loudly, that he thought the one lady was dressed as Amy Winehouse, but with a swift retort she came back at him to mention that she “WAS NOT!” We therefore assumed that perhaps this was just her usual look.

The New Year rang in with some new faces, some old ones, and some South African champagne.

On New Year’s Day we took a leisurely trip on the Spa Valley Railway which travels from Tunbridge Wells to Groombridge station and back. It passes through some stunning farmlands and past the village of High Rocks, so aptly named for the huge rocks which jut out from the side of a hill. The train is an old stream train and the best parts of it are that rhythmic sound of the wheels on the tracks and the smell of the burning coal. The train passed through a very wintery landscape with patches of snow along the tracks and sprinkled like icing sugar on the farmlands.

On Saturday we took Jon to Canterbury, Herne Bay and Broadstairs. This would be our first trip to the sea in about 6 months and despite the fact that the temperature hovered around 3°C, it was just wonderful to be back at the coast. Canterbury Cathedral is just as amazing as I imagined it would be, set amongst the narrow cobbled streets of the old part of the city. Old passageways where the feet of devoted monks once walked, old buildings with skew walls looking like they come straight out of a children’s story book and shops that you just can’t help but peek inside, old music shops with a romantic saxophone in the window, quaint little candy stores with colourful jars stacked high and inviting altogether make Canterbury a city which just sort of gets under your skin. It is the stuff of storybooks and one visit will make you realise why Charles Dickens spent so much time here.

Jon had his first unimpressive walk on a pebble beach in Herne Bay, but then we found some real sea sand on Broadstairs beach. Many English seaside villages have those very 1960’s little ice-cream shacks on the beaches and it doesn’t matter that the mercury just can’t get up passed 3°C, there will surely be a little shop selling ice-creams and brightly coloured plastic buckets and spades. It has to make you want to be a kid again. [superemotions file="icon_cool.gif" title="Cool"]

Today ended off the week on a restful note. Mike, Jon, Mitchell, and Jenna went to watch Alvin and Chipmunks and we ended off the evening with a few board games. It sure has been another wonderful week.

 As I write this blog tonight I look out the window, and the snowflakes are falling past the light on the corner of our street. It is not a heavy snowfall, just light flurries but they are beautifully illuminated by the orange glow. The days have started to get longer now and since Jon arrived in the middle of December we have already won back almost 30 minutes of daylight. Mitchell and Jenna go back to school this week, the Christmas decorations will go back in the boxes and our first Christmas and New Year in the UK will become yet another point on our scorecard and a time of happy memories spent with good friends.

Here I am blogging from a hotel room in the beautiful old city of Bath. Just how popular is this blog to my regular readers that I would drag my laptop along on holiday with me and sit up until after midnight to write the story of a week in our lives? Thank you to all my regular readers for continuing to read this blog each week, for your comments and your support. You continue to give me a reason to write, which has become something I thoroughly enjoy doing.

After last weekend’s snowfall we expected the snow to melt away rather quickly, but with the daily temperatures seldom rising above 2 or 3 degrees during this week, it lasted for days. The snow eventually started to melt and then re-froze which created some adventurous driving conditions. I did a side-slide around the corner into our street and with my heart beating in my throat, Mitchell and Jenna both cheered from the back seat: “Cool Mom, do it again!” Like they thought I had somehow intentionally done it. Our snowman eventually became one with the snow on the pavement again; his head rolled off first and finally all that remained of him were a carrot, a few raisins and some pebbles. I am sure he will be resurrected in a few weeks time, if we are lucky enough to have some more snow.

On Monday evening we took Jon to play ten-pin bowling at the Bowl-Plex in Tunbridge Wells. Once again I showed my true form and with 3-strikes in a row the game was all but wrapped up for me. Mitchell shakes his head and laughs at my blatant arrogance when I dance around and cheer, but being the family’s ten-pin bowling champion is a coveted title in the Wright house at the moment.

I am loving winter in the UK. When we left South Africa a few people said: “Yes, you are going over the in summer, but you will only survive one UK winter and then you will be back. You wait and see you will be back”. Well, the truth is, we are still waiting for this long, dark, terrible winter that everyone described to us. We are waiting for the dull dark depression and the misery. So far it has not changed our lives one bit – although Jenna has now finally got used to wearing shoes. We have had to shovel the cars out of the snow, learn to drive on ice, we have had to scrape the frost from the car more than once a day on some occasions, we have sloshed through the mud and tried to negotiate walking in the car park on sheets of ice, but the wonder of it all does not cease. Each day something new comes up and we have to find a new way to deal with it, a new way to solve the problem and then be able to sit down and say “So, that wasn’t so bad and now the next time we will know better”. It’s about changing, about seeing a different perspective, about pushing yourself through new boundaries and then standing on the other side, looking back over your shoulder and knowing that you learned, that you grew, and most of all, that you laughed all the way through it.

On Tuesday Jon, the kids, and I drove through to Penshurst Place which is a beautiful 650 year old home but unfortunately many of the most beautiful UK tourist attractions are closed to the public in the winter months, so we were not able to get inside the grounds, but the drive through Penshurst was absolutely beautiful and with the streets and fields still covered in thick snow, it made for some picture-postcard moments. We stopped in Tonbridge at Barden Park Lake, which is where the Tonbridge Yacht club is. This park was beautiful in the summer and this would be my first trip back there in the winter months. I found it to be prettier than I had remembered it. Birds were able to stand out on the frozen surface of the lake, the children’s playground was covered in snow, and the whole park made for a walk of the most amazing photographic moments. We left on the train for London at about 14:00 on Tuesday to go to the Winter Wonderland and German Market in Hyde Park. I had an image in my mind of what it might be like, but I could never have truly imagined how it would be. It’s not about the goods on sale or the hectic roller-coaster rides. It’s about each individual little store and how it is decorated. The lights, the smell of cinnamon, the German folk music, people in costumes, little handmade chocolates, glass ornaments that sparkled in the coloured Christms lights. On some of the stalls there were authentic little decorations on the rooftops, not your stereo-type Christmassy things, but little old wooden wagons, a chicken, or an old basket. There were more stories to be told about the rooftop decorations than anything, for me.

On Wednesday evening Philip arrived to spend 2 days with us in the run-up to Christmas, so now we had our two best friends from East London with us. (Philip lives over here in the UK now and Jon is over for a 3 week holiday.) It felt like the Friday and Saturday nights back in East London, when they would both come over for dinner and we would all laugh and chat. I don’t know if there could have been a more authentic way for us to spend our first Christmas in the UK, than to have these two guys with us.

On Thursday Mike, Jon, and Philip travelled into London to meet James (who has already made his appearance in a previous blog a few weeks ago) for lunch. James is an ex-student of mine from PE Technikon and was in the same class as Jon. The boys day out in London turned out to be a about new friends and a good curry, a few nice beers and a discovery of new sides to London that were previously undiscovered. The guys rushed home to be back in time to see Jenna as an angel in a Carol service. She looked absolutely beautiful as her and her little classmates from school sang carols on Christmas Eve. We went home to a lovely Christmas Eve dinner, complete with candles and hats, crackers and Turkey and not forgetting… granny’s trifle. Some things will always just belong.

Our first Christmas day in the UK finally arrived and with it came a beautiful sunny day. The last few patches of snow that had held out to give us our first white Christmas melted away and the ground finally began to dry up. After opening all our gifts, Philip headed off to his brothers family in Broadstairs. Christmas day was a quiet and relaxing day, we took a walk around the Tonbridge Castle, climbed to the top of the motte and bailey and got the most beautiful view of the town. Jenna and Mitchell took along a bag of peanuts in shells and old bread and we spent ages feeding the ducks and the squirrels. The squirrels come right up and take the peanuts out of your hand. This was however not the end of the day’s festivities. We spent the evening at Mike’s sisters house in Bidborough. There were 17 of us around the dinner table and this is how I remember Christmas dinners as a child, just sitting around the table for ages, talking and laughing, dishing up desert and sweets and spending time together, but I missed my brother Michael more than anyone can imagine.     

We set off at 08:30 this morning from Tonbridge on our road-trip to the Brecon Mountains in Wales. Our trip is taking us to Stonehenge, Old Sarum Castle in Salisbury and the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral. Driving to Stonehenge was incredible. We had seen it so often on TV and had obviously developed images in our minds of how it would be, but we were wrong. You drive over a little hill on the freeway and all of a sudden there it is, right there in front of you, just as it has been standing there for more than 4000 years. There are no big imposing gates to the site and the visitors centre is cleverly tucked away (almost underground) on the other side of the freeway, so you get a real sense of this place, not as some tacky tourist spot, but as a place of significant meaning. You walk away from it wondering what they knew back then that we just take for granted today. What was important at that time, that we now just fob off as unimportant? I will go back to Stonehenge in the summer months and stare again in wonder at it. If you have ever thought it was beautiful in pictures and on TV, then you will surely appreciate how truly magnificent it really is when you stand on the ground where once, 4000 years ago, a group of people, very different to us, once found wonder too.

Old Sarum Castle is a ruin of a Castle, standing on a hill overlooking the picturesque town of Salisbury. This castle was in its heyday in about the 1100’s. Try to imagine that. Standing in the place, in the rooms, in the grounds of a Castle where a King walked so many hundreds of years ago. The views from the top of the hill made me stand for a moment and appreciate why that spot was probably chosen. It certainly has a view that is fit for a King!

The Steeple of Salisbury Cathedral stands like a towering symbol over the city. You can see it from miles around and it is like a beacon, drawing you every nearer to what must be one of the most incredible places I have ever seen. The details in the architecture, the fine craftsmanship that took place so many years ago, before computers put the designs together, when men created all that with their bare hands. You cannot stand there and not wonder in absolute awe at how incredible the buildings of that time were. Salisbury’s little streets are packed with the most amazing little old buildings sandwiched between others. There is a medieval part of the city where the little buildings and plaques with stories on tell of a time that we can hardly ever dream to imagine.

Tomorrow we continue our trip to Wales, over little bridges that stand up against the raging rivers which are now carrying the snow-melt, along little roads lined with trees that hide old stone cottages, buildings that look as if they come of the pages of an illustrated children’s storybook.

The buildings we have seen today have stood the test of time, some have stood almost unchanged for 4000 years, but the stories and the legends surrounding them have changed. I hope that my life will be a little like Stonehenge, sturdy and strong but filled with wonder and mystery. I know the outer surface is certainly not staying unchanged, like those immense immovable rocks, but the foundations of which I am made, like the walls of Old Sarum Castle, where you can see the outline of who I am really am, are solid and strong. The seasons will continue to change like they have done for thousands of years, different people will pass by everyday and all together they will make up the stories, the myths and legends of who we are.  

Christmas has passed now and this week brings with it a whole New Year, new beginnings, and pages and pages of new adventures… My wish for you is for a wonderful 2010.

I knew this was always going to be an exciting week to write about in this blog because Jon was coming over from South Africa to spend 3 weeks with us over Christmas and New Year, but I never expected this week to turn out the way it did. Living in EL all my life, I only saw snow for the first time in 2000 in Hogsback. Getting to see the snow in South Africa meant driving up to Hogsback or Katberg, and that was only if there was enough snow and if it lasted for at least 1 day. So, snow might be something that some people take for granted, as a matter of fact I am learning that a lot of the people living in England actually hate it. They see it as a hindrance to daily life more than anything. They complain about it messing with public transport and life in general. I think it’s a winter wonderland and I could stand and just stare out the window all day.

Monday began the week for me just as all weeks should begin, filled with excitement. I took a trip into London and as all my trips into London turn out, this one was just fantastic. There is something so magical about that city. There is so much to learn, so much to discover, so many interesting facts that lie around every corner. You can eat chocolate covered strawberries from Harrods, you can walk for miles until your feet ache or you can just sit and watch the world pass you by, but a trip into London will leave you forever wanting more.

Jon arrived on Tuesday. We had not really had any bitterly cold weather yet. We had had one or two mornings with a dusting of frost on the cars, but nothing to write home about. Then Jon arrived on the morning that we saw our first winter wonderland. It wasn’t snow but thick white frost which lasted all day. Everything was covered in it. I drove through to Heathrow to fetch Jon at 6am. Now a trip on the M25 at the best of times is hair-raising, but at 6am on a dark, frosty morning was just a rush. It was so fantastic to see Jon again. Mitchell and Jenna didn’t know that he was arriving on Tuesday; we had managed to keep it a secret from them. I was SO delighted to see their reactions when they saw him. It will forever remind me of just how important Jon is to them and how much they miss him.

On Wednesday morning Jon and I travelled into London on the train to meet up with Raymond Scott. Raymond was at Tech with Jon and also one of the first students that I taught as a PE Tech lecturer. We walked out of the underground at Oxford Circus and immediately we noticed the falling white flakes. I couldn’t believe that we were walking down the streets of London and it was snowing. We shopped around in Hamley’s and then met up with Raymond. I haven’t seen him for more than 10 years now, and it was just fantastic to spend an hour catching up, reminiscing and comparing notes about the UK. Raymond only lives an hour away, in Alton, so we have promised to spend some more time together. I didn’t expect that when we got home the snow would have already started to fall in Tonbridge. It was not a lot, just a light dusting, but it was a promise of things to come.

On Thursday Jon and I went to Blue Water Retail Park near the Dartford tunnel to finish off some Christmas shopping. The drive to Blue Water takes us through Shipborne, Ightam, and Borough Green which are all beautiful little villages, so Jon got his first real view of the quaint little buildings and streets of rural England and then ended up in a huge, modern, shopping centre. By the time we got back to fetch Jenna the sky was telling a very different story about the weather. A few minutes later the snow began to come down like you cannot imagine, coating everything, dusting, flying everywhere. Within minutes the street outside was covered.  Mitchell’s school had closed for the holidays but Jenna’s school was due to continue on the Friday. We heard on the radio the following morning that most of the schools in Kent were closed because of the snow so she got the day off.

So began a weekend of discovery for us. I hadn’t bought gum-boots yet, Jenna didn’t have any thick socks, and Jon had arrived from sunny South Africa with the hope of going to buy some warm clothes when the need arose. That need arose sooner than we thought, so Friday morning saw us all packing off to town to go and buy the essential snow items.

The roads had been graded and gritted, but the pavements were still treacherous for walking on. We took a very eventful drive through the back roads to Tunbridge Wells and everywhere we passed people digging their cars out of the snow. Many cars were stuck or just couldn’t get enough grip to drive up roads with the slightest incline. We went and bought Mitchell and Jenna each a sled and headed off to Bidborough so they could go and take on the slopes in “the bomb crater”. The bomb crater is a deep hole in the side of a hill (probably measuring about 50m in diameter). It is a hole where soil was dug out to create a nearby dam wall, but it looks more like a bomb crater and as such the legend was born. The crater has steep sides and when it has been snowing, the local children from the village use it as a ski-run.

On Saturday we all travelled through to London so that Jon (and us) could see some of the tourist sites (sights). We also knew that London was free of snow, so it would be the perfect day for some sight-seeing. The sky was absolutely cloudless and made for an awesome day. We took one of the open-top bus tours past most of the famous attractions and got off at Tower Bridge. Here we caught the ferry to Greenwich and visited the Observatory. The view of Canary Warf and London itself from the top of the Observatory hill is stunningly spectacular and to be there at sunset as the light reflected off the sky-scrapers was a breathtaking moment. We caught the train back to London and resumed our trip on the bus, getting off at Buckingham Palace and walking through Green Park. We ended our beautiful day with dinner in Piccadilly Circus under the famous lights.

 Today Jon, Mitchell, Jenna, and I took a walk through the farms across the road from our house. This is one of my favourite walks and takes us past horses and apple orchards, through fields (which are now unrecognisable under the snow) and past a frozen lake. We saw many little robin redbreast birds which looked as if they had come directly off of a Christmas card, we found the tracks of deer in the snow, fires burned and apples lay freezing in the white snow in the orchards. Mitchell and Jenna lay in the snow and made snow angels and then laughed hysterically as they stood up and the snow fell down the backs of their shirts. There is something to be said for new experiences like digging your car out of the snow, shovelling the front garden path. It is all part of the deal and a whole load of fun.

The promise of a white Christmas beckons as the days in the northern hemisphere start to grow a little longer. The filtered sun will begin to shine a little brighter and bring with it the promise of long summer days, but for now we will enjoy what has come our way. The days are cold now but we greet each new one with a renewed anticipation as we grow to know the warmth of our neighbours and appreciate the many Christmas wishes. We have Jon here, and soon Philip will join us for Christmas. Here’s hoping that the snow will linger and that we will never begin to take moments like this for granted. Who knows what lies behind the next gate?

I want to start this blog this week; by sharing something that has just been on my mind all week and to try and illustrate it I am going to borrow a short speech. This is the start of Kate Winslet’s acceptance speech from the Golden Globe awards for Best Actress: “I’d be lying if I hadn’t made a version of this speech before. I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror. And this (holding up her statuette) would’ve been a shampoo bottle. Well, it’s not a shampoo bottle now! I feel very fortunate to have made it all the way from there to here.”  Kate Winslet saw herself where she wanted to be from a very young age. She knew what she wanted and she knew with so much conviction, that one day she would hold it in her hands, that she actual started to practice her acceptance speech from the age of 8. What would we be without dreams? What if for years our dreams never came true, so we simply just gave up on them? What would be left to hold onto if we just placed the shampoo bottle back on the shelf and walked out? It doesn’t matter how big or how small the dream is, if you have one, don’t ever let it go. See it, hold it, believe in it, because someday one of life’s most unpredictable moments can and will come along, and take you to that place where the shampoo bottle becomes the prize you always dreamed you held in your hands.

On Tuesday night St James Place, the company that Mike works for, held their Christmas Ball at the Park Lane Hotel in London. It was a very formal black-tie affair in one of the most beautiful hotels in London. We arrived at the hotel and the photographers were taking photos of everyone arriving. I was astonished when we walked out 4 hours later and all the photos were printed, framed, and packed on a table for us to pick up on our way out the door. I know this is the age of instant gratification, but what happened to waiting for a week for your photos to be developed?  It was incredible. The venue, the beautiful saxophone music in the corner of the room, the new people that we met, the food, all put together made for a lovely evening.  

On Wednesday I got a call from Jenna’s school. I had to go and fetch her. She had collided with another child on the playground and was sporting a very swollen, very purple eye. The drama was over by the time I got the school, but they did not feel comfortable with her being at school with her eye swelling shut by the minute. Accidents happen, but now we walk around wondering what people thinking of this black eye. Isn’t the world a strange place to live in when we constantly think that people are going to be thinking the worst of us? Most little kids love a shiner, it’s like a rough and tough statement of their existence, but Jenna really wishes it would heal quickly. She hates it.

Jenna has also been accepted at the gymnastics school in East Peckham. She is really enjoying the gym. It is so her! This week was only her first official lesson as her other two lessons were just try-outs, but she already believes that she should be allowed to enter the upcoming competitions. Is this Jenna’s shampoo bottle? I will definitely encourage her not to put it down.

On Friday morning I finally went to the optometrists (yes, enough nagging finally got me to go) and my glasses arrive in a week’s time. I picked some very funky, retro frames and I think I look most studiously sexy in them[superemotions file="icon_eek.gif" title="EEK"]. Old age? Heck, I don’t know and I care even less.

The plans are finally in place for Christmas, and I think a beautiful time lies ahead with family and friends. Now if I could just get my shopping done I might feel a little more comfortable. Jon arrives from South Africa on Tuesday morning and I can’t wait to make the early morning trip to Heathrow to go and fetch him. Mitchell and Jenna do not know when he arrives so it is going to be the most awesome surprise for them. We are going to have 3 fantastic weeks, seeing us through Christmas and the New Year. Philip will also be joining us on the 23rd and 24th December. Just like the old days, boys. I love the way the neighbours are decorating their homes for Christmas. We used to see it in SA, but not nearly on this scale.

Now you know this blog is not going to be complete if I at least don’t mention the weather. This week the temperatures are dropping rapidly with highs forecast in the region of 3 degrees. I am not sure if I believe that “3” is even allowed to be a maximum temperature?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/13/weather-cold-snap-snow-forecast

There is rumour about that we could have a white Christmas… Imagine that? It would certainly seem like the (w)right way to do it.

http://theweatheroutlook.com/twoother/twocontent2.aspx?type=for_xmas

By the time I write the next blog, the days over here will have begun to get longer. The tide turns, the seasons change, the moon continues through its phases, we change, we grow, we dream about the future. I am not letting go of my dreams, don’t let go of yours.

5 months! We have lived in the UK for 5 months! Does it feel like 5 months? Well, actually to me it feels like 10. I think we have packed so much into the months that we have been here that I can’t possibly imagine that we could have done so much in such a short space of time. Summer changed to autumn and autumn became winter and now in just 14 days time the sun will start to makes its way back to us, as our days start to get longer again. I am still waiting for the horrible cold miserable winter that everyone described, but I have this strange sense that it might just be passing me by in oblivion. I don’t know if I am really going to see it as this dark terrible dreaded time, or if I am rather going to see it for what it really is… a few weeks of something different.

Yesterday was my 38th birthday. This was my first ever birthday away from South Africa, away from East London, away from my friends and family and I can honestly say that yesterday afternoon I missed my brother Michael more than I have since I arrived in the UK. In the years after my mom died Michael and I grew closer than we had ever been, we could sit and talk for hours and I don’t actually ever recall a bad word or an ill feeling that ever passed between the two of us. Of course there will be those times, the special occasions like birthdays and Christmas, when you do wish that you could see all the familiar faces that would just make the day perfect for you. There are a few people who I wish could have been here yesterday, some of them are very far away and some are a little closer, some have passed on and I carry them in my heart, but in the end of the day we make the special occasions matter with the ones we are with. I was invited to a mom’s night out with the year-3 moms from Jenna’s school on Thursday night and the evening became a little impromptu birthday party for me. I really appreciated the fact that this group of ladies who barely know me, would go out of their way to make it a special evening for me. So it is ok to miss the ones who have always been there for you, but whether your days are filled with familiar faces or whether you are invited out with new friends who then make you feel like you really matter, it’s up to you to decide what to do with it, how to make the most of it. I spoke to my brother on the phone yesterday evening and then it finally felt like my day was complete.

I was indeed spoilt for my birthday. I got an iPhone. I am usually not one for techno-gadgets, but I think this little device may just be the 8^th wonder of the modern world. Getting gifts for a birthday or Christmas is so special. There is just something wonderful about holding a wrapped gift in your hands and wondering what is inside. I think it’s a feeling we experience in the very early stages of our lives and like a stamp on our emotions, we remember that feeling forever. It is just simply called “excitement”. Of course when the gifts arrive early and you know you can’t open them until the right moment, then “excitement” becomes “excruciating”. Well, for me it does anyway.

On Tuesday morning we woke to our first frost of the winter. It was the 1^st of December and it seemed like the most appropriate start to the first day of the real winter months. Mitchell and Jenna have been waiting patiently for the frost and they were so excited to run outside in the freezing cold morning (Jenna was still in her pyjamas) to scrape the ice off the windscreen of the car. Everyone else was passing by in the street and there were the Wright family in their pyjamas, in the freezing cold, on the pavement, with mom taking photos. Of course scraping the ice off the windscreen is not the best, fastest, or most comfortable solution. It is far easier to go outside 5 minutes before you plan to leave, turn on the engine, gradually turn up the heater in the car, and just wait a few moments. Now we will wait for the next instalment in “white winter mornings”. We will wait for more frost, thicker frost, and eventually a snow-covered garden.

On Friday Jenna’s school had their school Christmas market for the children, during the school day. Jenna came home with gifts for all of us, but that excitement that I spoke of earlier was too much for her to handle so she handed out the gifts and made us open them all. It was her very own Christmas  shopping day. After school on Friday she went for her second try-out at the Gymnastics school in East Peckham. She absolutely loves it and this week I will register her to start classes.

On Saturday Mitchell’s school had a Christmas festival. There were stalls in the hall, in the gymnasium, in the cafeteria you could buy anything from a bottle of South African wine to Christmas decorations and everything in between. Most of the stalls were manned by boys from the school and I was delighted at just how well-mannered and pleasant they were. There were games for the kids, they could win prizes, and Santa was there in his grotto. It was just a lovely morning.

Our Christmas decorations are up, the lights twinkle in the lounge window, photos of our family and friends hang all over the Christmas tree, There are mince pies, mulled wine, burning log fires, frosty mornings and  bags of gifts and just like the sun, Jon will soon be heading north to spend Christmas with us. There are those people we will miss this Christmas, but we will make the most of the time with the ones we are with.

(My apologies for the quality of the photos used in the blog this week. The only photos that I took this week were taken with my mobile phone camera.)

Ok! So, it is officially getting cold, even by my standards. This weekend sees the arrival of a bit of an Arctic blast! Our temperatures have plummeted by about 5 degrees, but seeing as we are already in the last few days of November, surely this was expected? To be quite honest, I love the cold weather over here at the moment. I love to wrap up in a scarf and gloves, put on a lovely fluffy warm coat, and step outside. It is absolutely beautiful. Then there is the “mud, mud, glorious mud”! Well, now that is a whole different story. The parking area where I drop and fetch Jenna at school every day is not tarred, so with all the rain we have had, it is now just a field of mud, and I dare not tread upon it lest I am wearing boots suitable for the terrain. I am also waiting for the day when my car gets bogged down in the mud. That would surely give me something to write about.

This certainly was a week of “Christmas light moments”. Lights that you just want to sit and stare at for a moment and wish they’d stay lit up in front of you all year round. Christmas lights that are not frilly and overdone, just simple and wonderful, that when you stare at them you can’t help but know that it is less about the actual light and more about how it makes you feel inside. You know that feeling, that inner glow, the same one that comes from simple things like the gift of friendship.

Today Jenna met Santa at the Royal Victoria Centre in Tunbridge Wells. He was seated inside the biggest Christmas tree I think I have seen and each child who entered the big red doors at the bottom of the tree was given a gift. Jenna got the most beautiful craft project. It is a handbag that she has been sewing on all day and I promise that when she is finished I will post a photo of it here. Now, let me say that I have bitched and complained about paying for parking on this blog, on more than one occasion, but all of a sudden today I realised that all those pounds I had been pumping into the parking meter came back to me in the most special way today when Jenna’s little face lit up and sparkled in that moment, in the tree. A full-circle moment?.

Mike attended a two day Personal Finance Conference in London this week. He has been so well accepted by colleagues in the field. He also met a few other South Africans, some that he had met before at conferences in South Africa. He seems to have a renewed sense of purpose over here and I think it has a lot to do with the puzzle pieces all finally starting to fit in place. The picture, the direction and the scope of opportunity unfolds a little more each day. Mike’s boss, Charles, is wonderfully supportive. On all the occassions that he has been around to our house, he has shown a genuine interest in how we are doing and how we have settled in.

 On Saturday we went shopping at Blue Water Retail Park which is just outside the M25 ring road, where the Thames flows into the English Channel. The Centre is surrounded at the moment by magnificent animals made out of fairy lights and I think an evening trip may well be on the cards, to go and see what they all look like lit up under the night sky. Now crowded shopping centres are not my thing at the best of times, but we discovered the Winter Wonderland and Ice Rink which are set up at the centre. The Winter Wonderland is made up of little wooden stalls which create a small Christmas flea market, rides for the kids to enjoy, Santa’s grotto, and an outdoor temporary ice-skating rink. Mitchell decided to take a ride on “Freak Out” and boy, didn’t he just!! Mike, Jenna, and I stood next to the ride and watched as absolute terror fell over Mitchell’s face. Now some people may wonder how I could stand there and laugh at the sight of my son’s absolute face of fear, but there is only so much you can do as a parent. There is only so much that you can warn them, and then as long as you know they are going to be safe , you are within your rights to stand back and watch as they make up their own mind to follow through against your judgement. He absolutely hated it, but he certainly learned a value lesson about understanding his own limits.

This week Jenna took an introductory gymnastics lesson at the Weald of Kent Gymnastics School in East Peckham. Ever since she could, Jenna has been doing handstands and tumbles, all sorts of rolls and flick-flacks, but gymnastics is not a big sport in South Africa, so we never really got her involved in it back home. I took her along to the lesson which takes about 1hour 15 min and I was absolutely amazed at what the children of her age could do. What shouldn’t have surprised me is that she took to it like a duck to water. Her coach came over at the end of the session and was surprised when I told her that Jenna has never had any gym coaching. I think we may just have found the right thing for Jenna to do. Jenna is not a ball-games child, but give her a stage, a chance to dance and do gym and she is in “her own little place”.

Tonight was the official switch-on of the Christmas lights in Tonbridge. On a cold, rainy night thousands of people lined the High Street as floats passed by, music played, bands marched. The cast of the Peter Pan pantomime joined in the procession with Santa and his elves, as a beautiful fireworks display lit up the sky over the castle. After the festivities were over we went to have dinner at the Oriental Buffet Club which is situated on the High Street and within a few minutes of being seated the street cleaning truck drove up the road with bristles scouring the tar and cleaning up. We walked out of the restaurant a while later and you would never have said that thousands of people had lined that street a little earlier. It was spotless. (It’s strange what you will notice over here, what stands out at you.)

The pretty hanging flower-baskets of summer, that made me fall in love with England have all gone, but they have been replaced by the shining, shimmering glow of the Christmas lights. I remarked to Mike this week that Jon will not be seeing England at its best, that he will be visiting us here at a time when the trees are brown and have no leaves, but Mike replied… “It’s still beautiful, just in a different way”. That, it certainly is!

This weekend marks the 1-month marker to when our days will start getting longer again. I know that the worst is yet come and that it will still be a long cold winter, but when you put in perspective and look for the silver lining, it really doesn’t seem so bad. The Salt Grit buckets have been placed alongside some of the roads in preparation for when the ice appears on the road surfaces. There are very few leaves left on the trees now, thanks to days and days of gale-force winds, but that is perfect because all over the place the local councils have wrapped the trees in fairy-lights, so as you walk along the paved streets past cosy little coffee shops you pass all these leaf-bare trees that are wrapped in hundreds of little lights. The outdoor skate parks have started to be erected in and around London, Ferris-wheels are being erected, Christmas markets are being advertised and Christmas lights twinkle from every street lamp and shop window.

On Tuesday evening we went to watch the Springboks play rugby against Saracens at Wembley stadium. It was undoubtedly one of the most incredible experiences, not only for the fact that we were watching our own home team, but to be at Wembley Stadium was just an amazing moment. The stadium quite simply is as fantastic as you imagine. It has a seating capacity of 90 000 which makes it the second largest stadium in Europe. We were part of a crowd of more than 46 000 people. The flags, the painted faces, the atmosphere, the singing, the Mexican wave, the pre-match entertainment, and the camaraderie amongst the fans from both teams were just incredible (even the stadium food was something I’d rate pretty well). We were part of a group of 16 family and friends, cousins with vuvuzelas, waving flags, screaming for our guys in the green and gold. We travelled to Wembley by train. (Yes Steve, brace yourself! Here it comes). We left Tonbridge station and travelled to Charing Cross where we entered the underground and took the tube to Marylebone Station. We did this because we were meeting Steve, who works in London and he was going to travel with us to the stadium. We boarded the train at Marylebone station but just as the train was about to leave the station we read the scrolling electronic board in the train and realised Wembley Station was not one of its stops. With a dash to the train door we tried to get off, but the train moved and we were heading out of the station on the wrong train. We got off at West Ruislip station, dashed over the pedestrian bridge, and caught the next train heading back towards Wembley. In the end I think it worked out just great! We had plenty of time on our hands anyway and this little odyssey on the train gave us a chance to chat with (and laugh at) Steven [superemotions file="icon_wink.gif" title="Wink"]. Arriving at the stadium was fantastic. The huge glowing arch hangs across the sky, the well organised directions to our seats, passing hundreds of other South Africans and flag sellers all over the place. Who cares what the score was? At the end of the day it was about the feeling that I had inside of me when I walked out of that stadium and joined thousands and thousands of people walking to Wembley Park station and heading home on the trains. It is truly one evening I will always remember.

On Friday Mitchell travelled to France for the first time. He went to the town of Lille. They left the school at 05:30am by coach to Ashford International Station where the whole coach, boys on board and all, was put onto the train. They arrived in Lille for a day of trying out their new French skills, shopping at the Lille Christmas market, visiting the zoo, and experiencing a day in a French city. The weather fortunately held up for them, with only a short spot of rain. Mitchell cannot believe how expensive France is. He shuddered that he had paid €4.50 for a hot chocolate. (At the current exchange rate that is R50.85). He did seem to enjoy the fact that he had walked into a hotel restaurant, ordered, consumed, and paid for his entire meal on his own. I guess I had never realised that something so simple has always been done for him, by an adult. They visited the Lille zoo and Mitchell came home with some photos on his camera that he took at the zoo. What did he photograph? A rhino, a zebra, some buck… I guess the African spirit just runs deep. Trips like this are just one of the reasons why we made this journey to the UK. School children, that are a part of a school group, are not required to get a visa for day trips like this. So Mitchell gets to experience these outings to the continent, without us having to go through the pains of organising a Schengen Visa.

On Saturday Mike spent the day in London at his cousin, Ian’s bachelor party. They spent the day playing paint-ball and watching rugby. Mike left at 07:00am to get the train to London and returned at about 21:00pm in the evening, so I am guessing that it was one awesome day of meeting new friends and spending some time with Ian. Ian is one of the most down-to-earth guys I think I will ever have the privilege of knowing. He is an artist and a free-spirited, fantastic guy. Somewhere out there, there is one very lucky South African girl. Ian and Margo, here’s to you guys! We wish you all the best!

Christmas creeps ever nearer and the shops over here are absolutely beautiful. In South Africa we would never have anything to do with snow in our Christmas decorations, because it just was never a part of a South African Christmas, We never had a Christmas tree with white anywhere on it or anything like that, but now it’s all different and we can open up Christmas this year to a whole lot of new decorations and ideas. Today we drove to the Brooks Garden Centre near Paddock Wood; about 10 minutes drive from us. What a beautiful sight! There was a huge room with the most beautiful things to buy for Christmas, the biggest Christmas stockings you have ever seen and lights of every colour and shape. I can’t wait for the decorations to go up this year.

There are a few exciting weeks ahead of us. Jon arrives in the UK pretty soon to spend Christmas with us, my birthday is approaching, and I am hoping to take my first sky-dive in celebration. Mitchell and Jenna are looking forward to all the Christmas markets and Jenna’s letter is on its way to Santa. The weather cools, the rains fall, the weeks pass by like a speeding train. Every week is still filled with new friends and new experiences.

I have felt a renewed motivation about the blog this week. So many people who I never suspected were reading this blog contacted us this week with loads of compliments. Nicky, your reaction was undoubtedly the best! Nicky only found out about the blog this week and she sat down and read almost all 19 weeks in 1 go. Her words to me were: “I am hooked, please keep writing”. So, Nicky, “Here it is, please keep reading”. This blog started off as a double-edged sword. It was meant to keep people informed about what we were getting up to on this side of the world, but I also started off writing so that I could use it as a outlet for my feelings about the move – I had hoped to draw strength from documenting what we had achieved, to get across to everyone what kind of emotion goes along with a move to another country, it was meant to record our wins and our losses because there are certainly loads of both. There is no doubting the fact that you feel a sense of loss sometimes, loss of your old friends, loss of family contact, loss of familiar things, but that sense of loss is mixed with a strange hopefulness and a deep sense of excitement.

What a weird and wacky weather week this was. Twice during this week we had torrential rain and gale-force winds tearing through Kent like a tornado. At one stage I thought our bikes and their tarpaulin were going to take off over the garden wall. The wooden garden furniture was blown across the yard, our big garbage wheelie bins were toppled over in the alley, all along the roads branches were stripped from trees like they were just toothpicks. According to Sky News we have another one on the way this week, so batten down the hatches boys and girls, we are in for a fun ride.

Mitchell got his school report this week, and Matthew, as I promised you my boy, here is a breakdown of the scores that he got. The scoring system is very different to what we are used to in SA. They get a score for Attainment, (which is an A, B, C… etc) and a score for Effort (which is a 1, 2, 3…etc). So you end up with a rating of A3 or B2 etc, with A1 being the highest that can be achieved. Mitchell got and A1 for Art, Design and Technology, English, Geography, French, Science and Phys Ed. He got a B1 for History, ICT, Mathematics, Music and Religion & Philosophy. For a young boy who has been through one of the biggest changes and moves of his life, who is on the brink of adolescence and dealing with a move to high school, he just continues to blow us away with his attitude and his achievements. Another great hockey match this morning, my boy.

Jenna also got her school report this week and what a fantastic review she got from her teachers. Having started off being 15 months behind the other children here, Jenna as taken just 1 term to catch up to where she would have been had she done Year-2 on the British system. This means that she has catapulted forward at the most incredible rate. She is doing Kumon maths every day now and enjoying it. Her reading and writing has grown in leaps and bounds. She has started music this term and when I fetch her from school on music days she is skipping and jumping and so excited about what they have done. The theme for this term is Egypt and she has already come home with the most incredible knowledge about Egyptian things.

On Friday night Mike went with the Bidborough Cricket team to their end of the year function and prize-giving at The Plough Inn in a little village called Leigh (pronounced Lye). Mike tried to describe the building to us, just how beautiful it was with the old wooden beams and timeless qualities. I went with the cricket team wives on a ladies dinner night to a beautiful pub called the Beacon in Langton Green with old pressed ceilings, big stone fire-places, a beautiful deck overlooking the lights of Tunbridge Wells in the distance.

On Friday evening James Joyce travelled down from London to have dinner with us. James was one of my students in the first year that I was a lecturer for Port Elizabeth Technikon. He works for Icap in London. I had bent James’ ear for the fact that I had already been in the UK for 18 weeks and we had not seen him yet, but I considered the bad break of his leg, that he has been nursing, and decided to cut him some slack. [superemotions file="icon_smile.gif" title="Smile"] A fantastic evening of wine and dine, memories and a whole load of catching up. There are just some people who come into your life and it doesn’t matter how many years pass by or how far apart you live from one another, it just takes a walk through a door and all the years fade away. It is like you were never apart.

This afternoon Mike, Jenna, and Mitch went to the golf driving range and I decided to take a long sunset walk in the Kent countryside. With all the rain we have had it made for a fantastic squishy, muddy, slip-sliding walk through the farmlands. The autumn leaves have almost all fallen now and with the rain that we have had they have formed a thick spongy mat under foot. There is a different sense in the air now. There is a definite smell of autumn about. One of the things that I find difficult to get across in this blog are the moments that touch on my other senses over here, the smells and the sounds that I experience on a walk. The smell of the rotting, wet leaves on the ground mixes with smells of wood-burning fires when you walk past farmhouses and little streams of smoke are billowing from the chimneys, while rotting apples that lie strewn on the ground in the orchards give off a sweet smell. All along the roads are signboards offering logs for sale. You cannot deny the beauty of a log burning fire in the winter time. The sounds that I loved today, that I wasn’t expecting to hear was the sweet chirping of 3 little birds in a tree that had no more leaves on it. A little further along the farmlands and the sound of running water captured my attention. With the rains that we have had, the dams have filled up and are overflowing, forming the most beautiful little streams. Its these smells and sounds that I cannot share with you here, but I hope that you can get a sense of how peaceful and pleasant it is.

Foxes and squirrels still run in the streets , birds are chirping in the trees, horses on walks and ducks on the lakes… Autumn is not a season that should be seen as a time when things begin to fade – instead it is brimming with a beauty of its own, its own sounds, and its own smells.

The coming week has Mitchell heading off to France and 16 of us head en mass to Wembley stadium to watch the Springboks. I am just really hoping, more than anything, to see some Christmas lights this coming week.