Guns and Vamp Toenails, And Other Factors To Consider When Moving

Heyyyyy! It's me! Sorry to be so quiet but it's been busy. Everything is new and different, and learning the new systems, rules, pin numbers, account numbers, phone numbers, names, and so on has my brain a-spinnin'. Everything needs an online thingy. Everything has to be replied to by mail TODAY. Going out shopping is a huge adventure: Where oh where is the milk? Why is it not next to the cheese? Why did we buy the biggest bottle of "Vanish" and why are these bags so heavy? What does Chas need to know to do the Grammar School Test? When is it? Will we find a decent place to live this week? Why are these cheesy nachos so awful? Why do the Child Benefit people want me to send ORIGINALS of certificates, and should I be nervous?

So that's a tiny bit of what's going on with me. It's all good, and working out, and I have plenty of loved ones who answer my questions over and over again, patiently, and will come with me flat-hunting. Whatever I don't know, someone else does. And! The people in offices, government or otherwise, are truly helpful: I asked for "Ummm, a pack of First-Aid stamps" yesterday and the teller smiled sweetly and said "That'll be First-Class stamps, a pack of six or would you rather twelve?" Everyone seems willing to slow down to my pace, even with a long line of customers behind or my children playing "Snap" noisily on the floor at the bank.

While I am spinning around, trying to get all of my t's crossed and my i's dotted, the boys have been having a wonderful time with aunts, uncles, friends and cousins. Myles has an air rifle, and the boys have turned out to be really good shots. Terrifying, though. No apple is safe.

It's SO GOOD to be with my sister. First of all, she's got this handbag like Hermione's Little Beaded Handbag from Book Seven: It expands to fit Everything You Could Ever Need for emergencies, entertaining boys, snacking, first aid, and keeping warm. And, we do girly things: Yesterday, after running around in the New Town doing chore-y things, we went to Ailis' flat, parked the boys in front of video games, and gave ourselves a pedicure and polish in VAMP RED! We have been waving our toes about since then. Hopefully we'll have a few more weeks of summer so that we can show off the Vamp Toenails, but perhaps I should wear SHOES tomorrow when I go flat-hunting with Charlotte, or prospective landlords will think I'm going to run a brothel? Alas.

My uncle Pat has been wonderful with the boys, which I should have totally expected: he had five of his own, after all, so he knows more about what boys need than I do! The boys have been finding crates of Lego from years gone by, and one entire room is now "The Lego Room"... why it has ended up that the NICEST guest bedroom is the Lego room while I have put myself into one of the smallest rooms, I don't know. It's one of those things. You throw your bags into the first room on the left and after that, moving becomes too much of an effort to bother. Plus, my little room is cozy. We have spread ourselves throughout the house, and are eating our way through the chest freezer - so far, we don't seem to have made a dent in the food but that's probably because we keep running to the shops for more strawberries and cream!

Sam is hoping that you will share your cake recipes with him, on the boys' blog. Hop on over there and we'll do some baking this weekend! Keep 'em simple, k? Strawberries and chocolate get extra points!

Love,

Nan.

You Can Have Your Cake....

Ta-Daaaaa! Presenting the cake! I had much help, and the frosting bowl was licked absolutely clean by small boys.

Every single CRUMB was eaten, warming the cake maker's heart! I love the way it was eaten closer and closer to the lighthouse...

England is warm and sunny! (I TOLD you we'd bring the sun!) We have been welcomed into the bosom of wonderful family, who are doing everything they can to help us out and make things easier. We are staying at my uncle Pat's house, where there are enough bedrooms to house several more families and this weekend is the annual barbecue! Ailis is currently unemployed, which I love! The boys are so happy to have a favorite aunty on call. Don't worry Ailis, you'll get a job soon... Dan picked us up at the airport, for which I will be eternally grateful. Thanks for braving the rush hour Dan!

There is SO MUCH to do and think about. Everything is different. Sometimes I just want to say "AAAARGH!" But, all is well. Really well. The boys are having a blast, rushing around in their shorts in the sun, meeting cousins and friends, going into town, picking blackberries and strawberries off of bushes on walks, and saying "IT'S NOT BEDTIME, THE SUN IS STILL UUUUUP!"

When they've run about in the sun enough to get sweaty, they plunge into the pool and learn the true meaning of cold. Brrrrrr!
I have to rush off now and get rail cards and whatnot...

Thank you for your encouragement and positive vibes, my friends! It's good to have backup, of all kinds!

Love and sunshine!

We're Heeeere!

Here we are, surrounded by family and friends and hugs galore. All is well, and I have my work cut out for me for the next few weeks.... months.... !!! I will try to post something sensible, soon.

For now, I need to sleeeeeep! It's after 10 here, and it's been a long day... week.... month... !!!

Goodnight, Dahlings!

If I Knew You Were Coming I'da Baked A Cake....

Internetties, phase one of The Great Huge Wedding Cake Extravaganza is a success!!

Sharon and Chris fell in love over a carrot cake, (awwwww!) so this was the obvious choice for their wedding partay. I make a mean cake, Claudie's recipe, packed with walnuts, raisins, fresh nutmeg, and CARROTS!

Now for the frosting. Cream cheese, Sue's original recipe. So far, no volcano! Best of all, Sam and Max are really enthusiastic to help me and we all know how great it is to have small boys helping when you're trying to frost a wedding cake!


We are all packed up, and leaving tomorrow. We've promised to bring the sun to England. I'm all geared up to discuss wedding preparations with my skin-and-blister, Ailis, who's wedding is in January. Hey little sister, I still think a volcano cake would be a really cool idea!

Does anyone have ideas for medieval table centres? Something original?

This blog is quickly turning into a wedding planner's dream!

The Last Hike Until...

We went hiking to a new waterfall yesterday, the last great bush adventure before our great adventure in a new land! It was beautiful. Nobody Whined. I am lucky that Kelly has the same camera as I do, and I could just plug it into my laptop before we left... My camera has conked out!

We will miss you our Brasso Seco friends! Issa and I stood in the river, all alone, while everyone else sped ahead. We listened to the noises of the forest and thought that wherever we are, whatever is happening in our lives, that river will keep flowing and the sounds of the forest will carry on. If we can all keep a piece of that in our hearts, it will be a good thing.

Keep blogging Kelly! We will be reading, from far away.


I love the rays of light in this shot.


There is so much moisture in the air that the flash lights the droplets up!
This is a "Deep Bush Coral", a rare snake! Non-venomous.... Chas was so happy to make a new snakey friend! They kept it overnight, and then let it go in the morning.

Warning: Blunk Drogging....

The best thing about blogging, is the friendship and great advice I get from the blogging community. Once in a blue moon, a comment might appear from some pontificator, saying "OH my word, what a terrible parent you are, you should NEVER yell at your kids not to bleed on the furniture!" But comments like that are rare and easily ignored. Deleted, even.

And MOST of my comments are from people who luuurve me, and I luuurve them back, and they think I can do no wrong, and vice versa. Thus, if I announce that I am making a wedding cake, comments pour in along the lines of "This is going to be a disaster but dude, we love you and how about using Jello?"

Where else can I get support like this? Nowhere, and I wasn't even going to post anything tonight, y'know, I was just checking my email, but when I picked myself up off the floor and wiped my eyes and got my breath back, I knew that I had to say "Thank you!" because you are so wonderful and my goodness isn't this a long sentence?

And, I PINKY PROMISE not to get any feathers or tarantula bits in the cake.

Stressed? Bake a cake!

So, as Krissa says, "You're prioritizing your stresses! :-) OCD much? heh." And YES! Stress prioritizing is SO helpful.

Forexample. The things that I have been stressing about are pointless. They are things that I cannot deal with until I am in the UK, see? Schools and banking and such. Lying awake at night worrying about them is counter-productive, no? So, today, I went to Sharon's to borrow some of HER stress: Wedding Decoration Stress, a wonderfully high-on-the-scale-of-stressful-things stress. And, we solved all of the wedding decorating problems of the world, and IT WAS SO THERAPEUTIC! Things were crossed off of lists, and the fact that they weren't MY lists didn't matter one bit!

In this trend, we agreed that *I* would be in charge of making and frosting the wedding cake! Thereby giving me something tangible to stress about and specific step-by-step list items to cross off. "Get cream cheese" check! "Find large cake pan" check!

Of course, I've never made a decorated cake before... Oh wait, there was the one that was going to be a spaceship but it kinda bubbled up in the centre and cracked, and then the frosting melted and flowed down it.... but then it looked so much like a volcano that we spooned some cherry pie stuff into the cracked top, renamed it "volcano cake", and it was a HUGE success! So there you go! So far I have had 100% success with cake decorating!!! Never fear, my friend! You can rest assured that your wedding cake is in excellent hands.

Sleep, Or The Lack Thereof

I have reached the point in my preparations where I wake up at 2am to worry about stuff that there's no point worrying about. Y'know? And telling myself "go back to sleep you nerd, it's on the list, you're really organized, you have masses of support, go back to sleep." and answering myself "but what if...?" and getting very cross with myself. Which is not helping, really.

So my new tactic is to just say "Well gosh I'm really stressed out for no reason, and intend to stay that way till the boys and I are settled in the UK."

Instead of being stressed about being stressed.

How does that sound?

I even LOOK stressed. Lack of sleep will do it every time.

Fortunately, Sharon and Genevieve came over today and we laughed and cut out Sharon's hand-made wedding invitations (Oh Lou! Sharon's marrying Chris next Week! Fiiiinally!) and they are SO gorgeous, and we ate spaghetti and drank 927 cups of tea.

We had a house full of kids today, including FIVE! girls! and Mikey is spending the night. Sam and Max spent the night with separate buddies Sunday, and had a blast. We had a great party on Saturday, and I've been seeing my favorite people and getting hugged a lot. And getting cards with messages that make me cry. More friends will visit. I'm getting offers of help, and wonderful advice and connections to friends-of-friends-who-live-in-Bournemouth. By Thursday I should be ready. That will leave me the weekend to hang out and do one more long hike, and next week to get Sharon hitched and deal with last-minute crises.

And then we're off! Don't worry, I'll keep y'all posted. Feel free to continue to discuss mopping metaphors and furniture psychology in Comments, cuz you crack me up... and you KNOW that laughter is the best antidote to stress!

Mop As Metaphor?

So I was mopping my house today, and thinking "gee, this may be the last time I use this particular mop" and so on. The mop in particular is an old-fangled string one, the best kind of mop. When those mops are new they are so-so. Not terribly moppy or absorbent and too sproingy and pouffy to wring out properly. It takes them a few weeks to lose their newness and become just right: stringy, squeezy and friendly to dirt. A boon to teak floors everywhere. A broken-in mop understands how to be a mike stand or dance partner in the mopping adventures of life.

Are you with me here? Good.

But then. After a while, a string mop begins to fall apart. It looks depressed and bits fall off. The strings thin. But you hang on, week after week, because once you buy a new mop you have to break it in all over again! So there you are, thinking "goodbye, old mop" and singing "Oooooh Danny Booooy", three-stepping through the dry patches and picking up bits of string as you go. Dragging out those last moments, because parting is such sweet sorrow. And thinking, "There must be a metaphor in this, somewhere".

But damned if I can find it.

Exciting New Writing On Chas' Blog!

Chas recently spent two nights in the rainforest, assisting a researcher named Dave with his bug collecting and counting. I didn't write about it before, because I was waiting for Chas to, and finally he has begun! Go over to "Rainforest Information" and read about Chas' first night as a researcher. It's terribly exciting!

Dave has written a wonderful letter of recommendation for Chas, which I am very grateful for: Chas is hoping to get into a great school in the UK and the letter may help. Thank you Dave!