Change of plans

The family holiday plans this year have changed. We were to have worked around the fact that we were bringing Robyn over for a fortnight at the end of October by way of a 40th birthday present, but we recently heard that she will no longer be coming.

This was a huge disappointment, of course. It also means that John and I need to reorganise our leave arrangements. Sadly, it is too late for us to make any plans to go away over the summer - we're unlikely to get in anywhere we can afford at this stage. Of course, switching plans to the summer means that everything is charged at high season rates. The boys are going away on a massive youth camp called NewDay, so we'll try to work something around that.

Watch this space.

A new girl for Björn

Björn has a new girlfriend called Gemma. I guess at their age heartbreak doesn't last long. For a few days, they kept their relationship a secret for all sorts of complicated teenage reasons. However, the secret is now out, so we can make the news known.

A while ago, I posted about a fancy dress party where he won the prize for the best costume. That was Gemma's 14th birthday party. She was dressed as a fairy and looked the part. She's a slim, pretty blonde with blue eyes. They've been friends for a while - hers is one of those homes where the kids automatically congregate, since it has a rumpus room, and Sunday afternoons are often spent around there.

Gemma attends our church and the youth, as well as being at Björn's school (not that that means a lot among over 2600 kids!). We have encountered her parents socially at parties and stuff, and her Dad moved the wall between the boys' rooms (here and here). So we know her and her family a bit.

Torvy's long hair

I have mentioned n previous posts that Torvy is wearing his hair quite long these days. I thought I'd provide a picture.

As you can see, he still has a very elfin face with the cutest nose - puberty not yet having had its wicked way with it. Why is it that we almost all start out with gorgeous little buttons and then along comes puberty and wham! Both boys and girls alike. Torvy's is so little that the family joke is that it's just a "no", since it isn't big enough to carry the full name. However, I see signs of my Dad's nose lurking within. I just hope I'm wrong - it wasn't his best feature!

District athletics championships

On Wednesday, Björn competed in the district athletics championships in the javelin event. While waiting for his event, he was mucking about at the high jump. Now he doesn't have the length of leg for this event and has never had any training or experience. Of course, this hindered him not at all. The upshot of this was that he encountered the peg that holds the crossbar in place and wound up with a gash down the middle of his left calf - about 12cm long, although not terribly deep. Bear in mind that this was before his own event.

He did very badly on the first two attempts, due to the pain and impaired function of his left leg. On the third attempt, he tried to ignore the pain and gave it all he had. The result was a throw 5m short of his pb (personal best), but this was still enough to secure him second place. Some comfort could be drawn from the fact that the kid who won threw his own pb, which was a good 4m better than Björn's. Nevertheless, he was competing a year above his own age group. This kid has previously competed for Southern Counties, so he's pretty darn good.

Since neither John nor I have any experience with this event, we are unable to say whether the local standard is any good. But the actual distances involved in this little tale were:
Björn's pb: 36m, Björn's best throw on Wed: 31m, winning throw on the day 40m.

:-(((

Last night, Björn and Chrissy broke up. He's putting a brave face on it, but they've been going out for 8 months, which is a fair time for kids of their age, so it isn't easy.

John and I saw the writing on the wall a while ago. It had reached the point where the relationship seemed to be about the relationship. Instead of talking about things they had done or wanted to do, movies they had seen, digital games they had played, they seemed to be stuck in a destructive cycle of talking about their relationship. Again and again they went back over old ground - worrying at the wound on the time Chrissy strayed a little. Of course, no wound was ever going to heal under those circumstances.

It's best that they should move on. Of course, it's going to be a little uncomfortable at church and youth for a while, but this can't be avoided and they're not the first to go through it.

It's not easy being a parent under these circumstances - we just have to provide him with a safe environment in which to be vulnerable for a while.