Wednesday, December 28, 2005

A small sample




















A few candid shots taken over the festive season. As you can see, Dad's getting old, Mom's hit the bottle, Björn eats too much and Torvy's a daydreamer... or so this random sample would have you believe. Actually, only one those statements is true, and I'll leave you to figure out which one it is.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Snow!


Well, it wasn't in time for a white Christmas, and there was the merest sprinkle, but we woke to find it snowing this morning.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

John's sprain


On Sunday night, John landed awkwardly on his right foot at ice hockey and sprained his ankle. Have a look for yourself.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Party season


It's the time of the year for parties, isn't it?

First John had his company do, which was kind of a cocktail evening. Their do isn't restricted just to staff, however, so they had a quite a crowd. He seems to have enjoyed it. Of course, he should be posting info about that!

Then came the church youth do. They decided to have a formal ball, which gave the kids a rare opportunity to dress up. Sadly, Torvy decided not to go - he didn't want to be a wallflower and didn't have the self-belief that that wouldn't happen if he went without a partner. Of course, the fact that his brother had a partner didn't help! We bought Björn a suit, which turned out cheaper than hiring one, and will give Torvy some wear when Björn outgrows it.

Chrissy wore a light cornflower blue dress that offset her eyes and looked lovely. They made a handsome couple, as you can see.

Last night was my company do - we went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. The restaurant was quite small and we took over more than half of it. We were a rather festive crowd, but nobody became obnoxious or overbearing, so I hope the few other patrons were still able to enjoy their night out. The food was fantastic. At least half of us ordered steak ranging from well-done to rare and each one was prepared exactly as ordered. There were loads of delicious veggies, too, which counts for a lot with me.

On Monday, Torvy has a Christmas party at school. They get to go to school in mufti (always a plus) and each person takes in some predetermined eats, drinks and decorations. Great fun.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Christmas is coming... sigh

I don't like December much!

Living in the UK, it means living the life of a mole. Setting off for work before sunrise and returning after sunset, so you never see the light of day. The grey skies threaten snow but never produce it - just more rain.

Then there's the little matter of my birthday, followed a week later by Christmas, and another week later by New Year. These are times to be surrounded by friends and family, and just serve to remind how desperately far we are from both these groups of people.

Having no extended family in the UK makes for a rather lonely Christmas. This is exacerbated this year by the fact that my entire maternal family will be together for Christmas - only I will be missing. Self-pitying sigh.

As a child, I loved the full semi-English hot lunch we had at Christmas time. I loved the atmosphere of my Gran, my Mom and my aunt dealing with the stress by clowning around in the kitchen. I loved being trusted to decorate the table for the meal.

Then I grew up.

When it was my turn to lay on the Christmas meal in 35 degree South African heat, I decided that the European traditions were all very well for Europe, but were totally unsuited to the southern hemisphere. I visted the Woolworths (read Marks & Spencer) food hall and stocked up on supplies of posh cold meats and salads which I artfully arranged on a table covered in tin foil. That worked just fine.

Then we moved to the UK.

Now I am in sole charge on laying on the Christmas meal, and it needs to be a hot one. I am not a slave to tradition for the sake of it, and tend to avoid turkey in favour of meats we prefer. However, the hours spent in the kitchen are lonely indeed with no recourse to my own mother and sister to help me deal with the stress by clowning around.

Having spent all my Christmases in South Africa surrounded by extended family (whether my own or John's), our pile of presents-for-four seems rather pathetic by comparison and only serves as a reminder of how far from home we are.

For the last few years, we have replaced the tree with a manger to refocus our attention on the "reason for the season".

We try to make the celebrations as merry as possible, because these are our boys' memories in the making. If I'm not careful, they will take the first opportunity to escape the doom and gloom of the "festive" season in our house. That would be disastrous... for us, anyway.

John is my rock at this time, because this is not new territory to him. All the years he lived in South Africa, they were in the position our boys are in now, with no aunts, uncles and cousins to hand. Perhaps this is why they give each other so many gifts.

If I don't shake up my ideas, Christmas will be upon us and I will have done nothing to prepare for it. So this is me, taking myself in hand and squaring my shoulders. I hereby commit to getting my head out of the sand, pulling my finger out of wherever it is that fingers need to pulled out of and giving some attention to the matter of Christmas for my family.

God bless us, every one.

eBay

I have recently made my first purchases from eBay. I signed us up some time ago, when we had stuff to sell, and we never got as far as advertising it. Now that I've seen how easy it is, I think we should give it a go. I managed to find two pairs of jeans for Björn at rock bottom prices. A pair of Levi 501 and a pair of Alexander McQueens.

I also bought myself a pair of trousers (my first purchase and the only disappointment - the quality was poor, and they didn't fit) and a lovely skirt.

The problem is that it's quite addictive. While you're checking on your existing bids, it's all too easy to have a look at what else you might bid on!

And you can buy ab-so-lute-ly anything! If you're bidding on a high end item, I reckon you need to be very careful, but I haven't been that adventurous, yet.