So a moment to ourselves!!! Its Sunday morning and Luke’s
turn to have the foot balls – as we used to say when the boys were young….. He’s
out at one the Lilliput Kids Café’s and Mel and I are chilling at home. It is
still incredibly hot out – temperatures of 36 degrees so one certainly does not
want to be out doors. It seems to be harder on Seren, as she really enjoys being
outside, so we tend to take her out for a stroll in her pram for ten minutes or
so and stick to the shade. Fortunately the slides and swings in the complex are
in the shade most of the day so she can also have spells there.
Seren starts school again tomorrow. So she'll enjoy being
back in her routine. The bus drops her off at about 3 pm. Morgan and I still
have a week before she starts school again. It’s been a long summer break for
her. She has really missed being with her friends and whenever we go out to
children’s places I can see her trying to strike up friendships with the other
children – usually with success and then she happiest when she has a mate to
interact with. She usually chooses boys or older girls. Thankfully her best
friend Georgie and her older sister Megan are back from their holiday in Cyprus
so on Thursday Morgan went over to play with Georgie for a couple of hours in
the afternoon – they made cupcakes which she iced when she got home. Then on
Friday, we were all home for the morning – I started cleaning Morgan’s old bed
and Seren’s cot which are going to be sold and suddenly this became the
activity of the morning. All hands on deck with Morgan spraying the cleaning
agent on the sides and Burlita and I cleaning and Seren pottering around on the
periphery – sometimes getting intensely involved in cleaning. She is so sweet –
very focussed and concentrated as she bends forward to have a good inspection
of what she is going to do and then gets to work!!
Burlita and Morgan also made a gingerbread
mixture while Seren had her nap. In the afternoon Georgie’s mom, Katie dropped
Georgie off after Morgan and Georgie (and Pru!) had had their naps. They then iced
the gingerbread men which in fact were everything but gingerbread men as we
don’t have cookie shapes for them – so a collection of dogs, bunnies, elephants
and flat balls. Burlita then did nail painting, and sticking on jewels to make
arm bands and earrings!! She also popped outside to get a couple of leaves
which she did leaf rubbings with. I then showed her the leaf puzzle so she
could show them the pats of the leaf! I had labelled the backs of all the parts
when I was here last time so I pointed this out to her so she could tell them
the names of the parts of the leaf.
I plan to show Burlita everything in the playroom – teach
her the three period lesson and hopefully how to use the Montessori maths and
language materials although as Mel says Morgan will have been at school all day
until 4 pm so she shouldn’t then be bombarded with more except of course if she
expresses an interest.
So last night Luke and I went out for a really excellent
steak. So easy – we walked down to the bus stop and hopped on a bus to the
bottom of the hill. Then we walked through a shortcut alley to a lift that
takes one up to the walkway over the main road. Then into the lift on the other
side and back down to ground level and through another short cut to another
road where there was an empty air conditioned bus waiting – we sat about five
minutes as a few others got in, then finally the bus driver. We have travel cards
which one swipes as one boards the bus and then again as one disembarks. The fare is then deducted from the card. So the bus took us up the hill to the
restaurant – a small place called Knives, which serves only steak with roast
vegetables and pasta. It has two high round tables which seat two people each and
space at the bar for another eight people. We were told there was a 20 minute
wait – so the guy took Luke’s phone number and said he would call us when he
was ready. We then went off for a beer at a place nearby. All very civilised
and oh so organised. We both ordered steak – me 200 grams and Luke 300 grams –
it costs about W 11000 (approx. R110) for 100 grams so not that exorbitant. It
was one of the best steaks I have ever had so definitely worth it. They serve
beer, liquor and any cocktails you can dream up, but no white wine so we took a
bottle of Chardonnay for me. What a really great evening – just sorry Mel was
not with us. On the way home we passed a silver corvette which I posed next to - for John!! Luke reckons the owner came out looking very worried!!
Yesterday Mel and I took the girls to the Seoul Science
Museum – oh my, what a trip!!! It had everything – all these different halls
with very interactive activities for the children to have fun on and obviously
learn from. From Einstein to Newton to
electricity and water power and dinosaurs and evolution – Seren loved watching
the apes as they were shown doing things very similar to human. She always acts
out the sounds and movements of the animals she knows when she sees them so we
got a lot of monkeys scratching and chattering, elephants trumpeting, lions
roaring, tigers growling etc!!! She is absolutely captivating – and as I said
last year – her startling blue eyes and now her fair curls evoke much interest
and delight. She happily stares right back at people who stare at her and is
very friendly when they want to touch her and shake her hand and say hi or
bye!!!
Mel and Morgan went off a lot together – quite something as
there is so much to interest and stimulate the children – there’s no way I
could manage both of them on my own!!!
We have tended to go on an outing in the morning, to get
back by about 12 in time for lunch and then naps. Seren is a really good eater
and in fact will eat anything thats not tied down!! If you are eating she
invariably wants to climb up onto your lap or next to you to eat what you are
eating. Morgan is far more picky and it’s a case of getting her buy in first
before you prepare something! She loves plain spaghetti on its own but it’s not
something that is good to have too often!
So all in all, we, and I are settling into an easier time –
particularly helped by the godsend of Burlita who pitched up ten days ago. The
other two nannies we trialled were a disaster – quite a relief in fact that
Emma, the Kenyan, wasn’t suitable as we had really thought she would be the one
and were concerned about how to let Burlita know that she wouldn’t be needed
but in fact it’s all worked out just fine and Emma has told Mel that if Mel
ever needs extra help to get in touch with her. So Burlita will come in this
week from 1 – 6 pm which will be great. Burlita leaves on the 14th for the Philipines where she will see her family and apply for her work visa. Once Morgan starts school we will look
into having someone come in for a few hours a couple of days a week.
I am feeling fine again – the antibiotics did the trick
although I woke up this morning with that frog in my throat again – weird so I
have gargled –something I forgot to do last time and it feels better already.
Luke has got me a quieter fan for my room as it doesn’t have AC which I am
pleased about. So I have slept in my bed for the whole night for the last two
nights, without having to trail through te Morgans bed under the AC. He will continue to use the large noisier fan in his cycling room. Mel
and Luke have found a desk for Mel to put in the cycling room – it’s a good
size and will fit into the nook in the bay window. It is an awkward height
though so Mel has spent a long time on line trying to find a suitable chair for
it. Hopefully she has finally found something. It will make such a difference
for her to have somewhere she can disappear to when she works from home –
especially when she needs to take calls!!
Am off now as Luke is about to walk through the door with at
least one sleeping child whom we will hopefully manage to get down. Looks like
they’re home and both awake ….. Picked up a few minutes later - Seren actually climbed into her bed and happily took the bottle Mel had ready there. She is now thankfully fast asleep!
So finally some pictures!!
