Roasted Culveys in Kuwait - Sept 2010
A Summer to Remember - The one where Chris turn’s 40!!! And the other one written by Lyra….
It feels a little funny to be writing our Summer Update now that we’re all so focused on Christmas celebrations. In fact in a short while I’m off to another Christmas Bazaar and Dinner so I can’t quite believe how quickly the past six months have passed!!!
I know we keep saying we’ll create an update on a quarterly basis but life has this interesting habit of getting in the way a little.... I will make it a New Years Resolution and I’m saying it to you now as I know that I’ll be picked up on it if I go off track :-0)!!
My last update brought the family adventures to us arriving in the UK, ready for another perfect Summer. This year I was very prepared and remembered the all essential rain coats, water proofs and wellies and guess what, they were the most used items packed :-)!
Summer is a little hazy and I’ve decided to blame Abi as I spent the majority of it at her house and she’s too good a drinking partner, to waste any opportunities. We had lots of lovely nights catching up and sharing the odd bottle of bubbles whilst the kids had an absolute blast together.
The great thing about kids (well there is more then one thing, of course....?) is that as soon as they get together the window of time that has passed is irrelevant, they are only focused on the present, so they picked up where they left off and instantly got along.
Even Cameron had a friend in Kai this time, in previous years Kai has been somewhat nervous of Cam’s Urrrmmm ‘boyish nature’ and would normally avoid him at all costs!! But this time they were great buds and Kai even took a whack or two with minor drama’s. In fact I think my butterfly children ended up learning to be a little tougher just as Cam and Kiera softened their play I managed to get our guys to soften their tongues’’’
I have to say though that within the window of the first couple of weeks I did realise that Abs had the patience of a Saint with out little Cam’s adventures. I’ll leave a very abridged summary of... Coins in the new wii console, red lip balm all over the carpets and he created a lovely snow scene with the cat litter..... all in ‘ONE’ day :-)))) Some mothers really did have ‘em that day!
I’d learnt some lessons after last Summer’s trip and knew it was best to plan to catch up with friends early on in the holiday as so often the time passes even before you manage some quality time with those important to you. We’d sorted lots of nice lunches with Mum, Tanya, Kyra and Ali and the boys. I’m not sure I’ll get away with calling Matt a ‘boy’ for much longer but I’m sure he’ll forgive me on this occasion!?
Auntie and Uncle joined us all for a great evening at the Crossroads in Weedon. We’d picked a special curry night and it was mobbed. It was a horrible wet evening (we were prepared though !!) but this didn’t seem to damped the fun and the crazy conversation. It was inevitable if there’s ever Auntie, Unc, India, Kai, Kyra and Crazy Nana all at the same table you’re destined for hilarity!
India and Kai were going to Weymouth to stay with Nanny and Grumpy for a week so we decided that they could have a sleepover at Tan’s before disappearing for a while. I knew that as much as Tan needed her fix of them they soooo missed their Auntie Tai and were desperate for some quality time (or is it easy, Tanya’s a pushover time :-0 ??)
After bombarding her with love, affection and lots of special agent OSO and the Mickey Mouse club (the latter were new obsessions from our trip to Thailand) we headed down to Nanny and Grumpys for the next stage in our adventures.
The first thing that we wanted to do was to visit Dan’s Grannie as since we’d seen her last she’d moved houses and now lived in a lovely home fairly close to Sue and Dave. It was great to see her new “Castle” as the kids put it and on the day we arrived most of the residents were having a good old sing song and an organ player was there to entertain (no comments please ;-0 !!).
It was hilarious listening to India and Kai singing “what do you do with a drunken sailor” and when requests were asked for, Kai did in fact ask for Lady Gaga - too funny for words.... The grounds of the ‘castle’ reminded me of the The Secret Garden and there were lots of animals to keep India and Kai very, very happy!
While the children were being taken good care of Tanya stepped in to look after Kiera and Cam so Abi and I could go and visit Auntie and Uncle in Nottingham and attend ‘One’ of Tony’s 50th Birthday Celebrations. Tony is Dan’s boss in Alshaya and his party schedule was Kuwait, UK, Singapore and Bali! How about that for turning 50 in style? We were the lucky ones that picked the UK... just joking! Had a great time and I managed to catch up with his Dad which is always a pleasure :-0))
Abi and I also got to spend a couple of days reliving our teen years whilst staying at Auntie and Uncle’s. We were borrowing hairdryers, sprays, make-up and Uncle M even dropped us off and collected us..... It was just like going to the school disco again, I think I’m calmer these days though, I think it’s the hubby that does it ??!
As usual the children had a wonderful time with Nanny and Grumpy. I would have a different update on their adventures almost every day. They would excitedly talk about going to the ‘dog beach’ and the ‘human beach’ and going rock pooling and watching the fishing boats. My brave little adventurers even stroked a crab apparently and enjoyed a great trip to the Sea Life Centre and the Swannery while they were there.
They were always very pre-occupied so the updates would normally come via Sue as they were so busy but there were a few things that they couldn’t contain their excitement about - one was the Punch and Judy show and their trip to the beach. The other was the Sea Gulls diving in for fish while they were watching the fishing boats (Kai told me the fish would have to live in heaven after the sea gull had finished with him) and the final really important thing they had to tell me was India had Mayo with her fish and chips one day and,,,,,,,,,,, she now likes MAYO!!!
They had an amazing time and it’s always great for the kids to have some quality time enjoying those things that you remember were the best about Summer in the UK. In fact at the end of the week we celebrated Grannies birthday by having a BBQ in the garden at Steeple Ashton. It was a perfect sunny day and we even got to catch up with the rest of the family. As always India and Kai loved seeing their cousins and running riot with them for a while.
Sue and Dave had very kindly allowed me to use their car for the week whilst they holidayed in Weymouth and as always my generous Dad was helping me at all times with our very busy schedule. The week earlier he’d brought us down to meet Dave and was then going to pick us up at the end of the week at our normal rendezvous point - The very exotic ‘Chieverly Services’ .
All was going well but as we were in the car with Dave (alias, grumpy) I’d noticed something strange had happened to my children ......... during the week their music tastes had changed ‘DRAMATICALLY’ and they were singing to a dodgy fella called ‘Ian Drury’ songs such as ‘Poor Joey - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAoH9jg7Jvk Pandora http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nnSJ1-jrJI and Billericay Dickie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nI8L_kiXz0&feature=related
Now if you haven’t heard of these songs (you’ve done well) BUT, click on those links and then visualize a four year old and six year old warbling away to those beauties ...... indeed, my sentiments exactly ;-0)))!!!
Luckily Dan was coming over to celebrate Chris’s 40th birthday celebrations (fresh from his travels to Moscow) so I knew we’d be able to get the kids back on a tasteful music track. We knew Dan’s time over would be busy so we started by catching up with Jane and the boys as I hadn’t seen them much and it had been ages since Dan had seen them. After managing a huge mountain of great Chinese food and a really relaxed evening we all had a sleepover before the party fest began.
Chris was having a James Bond evening at the squash club and on the following day he decided to torture all those people that had over indulged by organising one of his infamous curry and softball days.
Everything went fantastically, luckily Jo and Jane really came up trumps and helped with all of the decorating and organising the rooms. I also had some ready and able helpers in Auntie, Uncle and Tanya, with Dad being the every ready driver ;-0))!!! Chris and Dan were really rather handy when it came to the manual labouring and setting up the outdoor casino. Too much to say about the parties so I’ll summarise by saying it was a great weekend, India adored being the beautiful bond girl assistant at the casino and it has to be said she did a spectacular job! However she didn’t make such a good fielder at the Softball Party, within moments of starting the game, she’d been injured. She was chilling and chatting central field (never a good move) and one of the stronger players nearly knee capped her, let’s just say she’s one of the softer bond girls!!!
Amazingly we still had some energy after the Peckster weekend so we arranged another quick catch up with our old friends ‘The Gillerts’ . We’d met up at Chris’s softball session but wanted to meet for a quiet contemplation on life..... oh and a cider and pub lunch!! After realising that the only thing left of the ploughmans was the apple we realised we’d not changed so much :-0))!!
When Dan left Abi and I took the kids to the wilds ‘Up North’ Grantham to be precise for Seth’s birthday. It was such a great weekend, the kids got on fabulously and it was so nice for Abi, myself, Nikki and Rach to catch up as we’ve had so few opportunities since the days of working as au pairs in the States (1994 if I remember correctly ;-)) We’re all growed up now with families of our own, but it was so easy to pick everything back up where we left off many years ago (well our eating fests at least) In fact we had a great reunion piccie after the original being almost 20 years ago- TRY AND GET both of these shots
Grandad and Grandma were looking forward to their turn taking care of the busy travelers and they managed a few lovely trips over to the park (I think they even had good weather on one occasion?). Of course they always love a sleep over there too, with that all important opportunity to water the garden with the ‘old folks ;-0)’
As the end of another great Summer started to end there was a few last very important engagements to organise. The most important was to take my Mum out for dinner before we headed home and before she went to Oxford for a valve replacement in her heart.
We were of course all very nervous about the pending operation, but at the same time it was crucial and we knew that after the Op she’d start to feel more energetic and back to her ‘normal self ;-0?’.
We started the day by meeting Mum and Chris at the Crematorium and India and Kai put some flowers on the plot where Nan and Grandad Watkins were laid to rest some 20 years ago. If it seems like a somber start to day, it wasn’t. It was a beautiful day and the crematorium looked simply lovely.
We hadn’t been there for so long and it was very important for Mum to see the Grandchildren put some flowers at their graveside. Then in contrast we all trundled down to the Britannia for some lunch. Of course it was only a matter of moments until Chris had said hi to most of the pub (bearing in mind this is lunchtime !!!) and before we’d finished our lunch one of his friends pulled up in a Canal Boat (as you do..). They invited India and Kai on to have a look and of course they didn’t miss that opportunity. They appeared about 10 minutes later laden with choccies and India gave a summary of the adventure, well Kai was too busy as he was already focused on the sweets!
As I’m writing this I’m amazed at what a blast we manage to have when we over in the UK, it disappears so quickly and as we’re constantly on the move some of it passes me by. So here is my compelling reason for writing these installments of War and Peace. I know this will be great for us to reflect on and it will help the children understand what fabulous times they were lucky enough to have experienced......... OK, moment over ;-0)))
Another treat with Uncle Chris was a fun game of midnight bowling, it wasn’t such fun in the early stages though, the kids were absolutely whopping our ‘butts’ as India would say! Lucky enough they lost interest so Chris and I managed to save a little dignity (the key words being ‘a little’)
We then met Jo and her protégés (her friends two girls, very cute yet cool company for India!) at Buddies, a great time was had by all and we even managed to munch and drink our way though quite a pile...... All Jo’s doing!!!
India and Kai were very insistent about some of the things that they wanted to do with their Summer and over and over again it was sleepovers at Uncle Chris’s (as they always have such a great time) and sleepovers at Aunty Taiya’s (Tan to you and I). SO of course me being the soft Mummy I am and Chris and Tan being obsessed with our little angels their wish(es) were our commands!!!
Of course I do get to reap the benefits with this command and managed to have adequate chill and shopping time without my shadow.
Before leaving England we had every intention of piling down to the Balloon Festival Weekend with Steph and meeting Caroline, Dan and the troops there, but alas the English weather had different ideas. It was a very difficult decision to make but we ended up at Dan and Caroline’s local (for dinner of course) and then ended up having an impromptu sleepover! Poor Caroline was detoxing so she was an innocent by stander but still very kindly took Stephy to the Train Station with let’s just say with a little tipple to tide her over - Isn’t it good to see that no matter how much distance and time separates our get together’s “Things Never Change ;-0)”
Before leaving we just had to have a final farewell to Anita and Alan so we all piled over to the Britannia and they’d warned me they were watching the calories so I’d committed to a final chinese with Abi that night knowing it was just a quick catch up and I didn’t want to ‘twist their arms’ into another indulgent get together........ SO after my lovely friends ordered burgers and fish and chips you’d have thought I’d strike them off my chums lists? However we had a great time as always and as I didn’t partake in the naughty food I said good bye to our Summer in the UK with a final Chinese and a night saying goodbye to Abs and the kids
We cannot thank you all enough for making it another great Summer and particularly our great friends Abs, Kiera and Cam we’re forever grateful for you sharing your home and your Summer with us. THE END XXXXXXX