End of the week

Last night I was woken about 4 times by Joshua and once by Naomi so I was pretty tired by the time I had to get up.  Our usual morning consists of Steve getting up about 5:10 and Rose often gets up then too. It's usually only about 20 minutes before Joshua and Naomi are also up.  Steve watches them while he gets ready for work and I stay in bed till he leaves at 6 - he has a lift up to school. Then I usually get up, have a shower, make sure Rose has her socks and shoes on and she leaves about 6:40.  Today I was so tired I dragged myself out of bed at 6:20, made sure Rose was ready to leave should her lift come and got in the shower to try and wake myself up.  Rose shouted me the car had arrived and she was going, bye! My daughter is very independent!

While checking my email - all of 10 minutes, I could hear Joshua and Naomi talking and playing and mentioning broccoli but they weren't being that dangerous quiet so I wasn't too worried.  However, when I did go and see what they were doing, I was not happy.  They had taken the whole roll of toilet roll and thrown it in the shower base so that it was all pulpy and were calling it broccoli. Maybe I should have been delighted that they have an affinity for a green vegetable, or that they have such creative imaginations but I have to admit neither of those things was the first thought I had! After expressing my displeasure at the waste of using the toilet roll in such a manner - which of course means nothing to them - I made them help me pick it up. 15 minutes it took us. Thankfully, the day did not build on this foundation!

We went to my Bible Study and we were studying Eve - from the Women of the Bible book - and it was very interesting.  There was more to think and apply than I had imagined. The main thought revolved around what is "one flesh" and how does that look in our marriages?  I'm still working through that.

We watched the next 4 episodes of Bleak House in the evening - a group of us are watching together. It has us hooked.  I have enjoyed watching the collections of Heroes and House and others which at least means you can do a few episodes at a time and not have the tension of a week's wait!   

Rose's first day at school

Rose has been ready to go to school ever since we arrived back in the Philippines. We had to make a countdown calendar for her because we could not bear being asked every day "Is it tomorrow I go to school?". At that point she still had 19 days left - how fast that has sped by!
So, it was never going to be a traumatic transition - at least for Rose! When I dropped her off on Tues she immediately put her bag in its space and walked into class with hardly a backward glance - as did the rest of the class I think. I am in two responses - I'm excited for her and I know she's ready but I am sad that our time at home together is finished for this stage. Joshua found it difficult losing his playmate and was very touchy. But I know he and Naomi will play together more because they did when Rose attended KILA.
The funny thing was that after one day they had Weds off because our Kindergarten Class only do 4 days and have Wednesdays off every week! But she is happily off again today with Ros who is taking her each day.

Staff Retreat

Staff retreat was a real blessing in many ways. It was a blessing to be able to go because the committee subsidised families this year and provided child care for all ages. It was a blessing to be able to socialise and fellowship with the staff and play rugby. It was also challenging and encouraging and i think Mark Anderson did a great job with his messages. I particularly liked the way he had researched the school and tied what he was saying into making us evaluate what we do.
It was good too to re-evaluate our passion for being here and feel God's confirmation in choices we have made.
It was also good to be reminded that my foremost passion right now, for me, is my kids. Already I am facing Rose beginning school and all that entails in terms of my time with her and other influences that she will be open to. I do not have long to make good on what God has entrusted to me in my kids.

Flight back

This has to have been my worst flight(s) ever. Firstly the online check-in was being a nightmare and because we had booked Naomi's seat separately she ended up checked in when the rest of us weren't so I couldn't do our seats together. Then the booking would only recognise Steve, Josh and Rose and I was nowhere to be found (made me a bit panicky for a moment!) So in the end I asked Steve to ring Emirates (I am not good on the phone). They said it was no problem and they would do our seats for us. However, they did warn us that the flight from Birmingham to Dubai was very full.
Lots of the family came to see us off which was great and I have to say security was a breeze compared to last time when we queued for ever.
Once on the flight we realised our seat choices had not been recognised which was OK as we had seats by one another but across the aisle. Josh went to sleep almost straight away and the lady on the other side of him was very gracious in helping me pick up things and letting him stretch between us. Rose, too went off fairly soon. Naomi? No way. She was the energiser bunny, determined not to miss out on anything - like there's anything to miss on a 9 hour flight. Eventually she went off after about 3 hours.
The next flight was the horrid one. Steve was sat with Rose and Joshua way up the front of the section in front of us and Naomi and I were back in the next section. It was actually OK until Naomi fell asleep so I went to see Steve and once the kids realised we could move they kept "visiting". To top it off, I began to feel ill and was pretty sick for the last few hours of the flight which was not pleasant. Again, I had a lovely man sitting by us who was very helpful and gracious. But I did not enjoy the trip - and my Tv was not working so I kind of watched films on other TVs in front of me which was interesting to see how much you can pick up without the words but not a great way to be entertained!
But i do heartily recommend Emirates. It is nicer to have two fairly reasonable flights instead of one enormous flight and the crew are lovely.
The most BIZARRE part of our journey back was when we went through immigration (which is great now they have a special line for I-card holders). Firstly, we were missing Rose's I-card but he said he would waive that and we would have to check if it was still on the aeroplane as I had had it when filling in our landing cards. Then I realised the guy had not given me back Steve's passport. When I went to ask him for it, he said "I never had your husband's passport!". But he had waved him through!! When Steve went to report to the Emirates desk to ask them to look on the 'plane, the man at that desk said "What are you doing here, then?" I think the Immigration guy was in for an earful or worse. Emirates were already on the case and had found our documents by our seat and were already tracking us down.
We arrived back at home about 12:30 a.m. and Rose was good about going to bed but Naomi and Joshua thought that having all their toys around was the greatest thing ever - I think it was like Christmas for them. They just wanted to play and even though we attempted to get them in bed Steve ended up sitting up with them in the playroom till about 4 a.m.
It took a good week to recover from jetlag and we have had many nights with kids up for a few hours - although at least willing to lie in a bed rather than play downstairs! Or trying to keep them up later so they will sleep through.
But it does feel good to be home!

London

Even though this was a while ago now. It was another highlight of the "holiday" back in England to do some of the sights in the capital. It was slightly surreal to be with Wendy (one of my friends from Faith) in London but it was an amazing day. We started by going to Harrods and being horrified by the prices of kids' clothes. (Think about how long they last!!) We had lunch in Hyde Park with the sun out. We walked down to Buckingham Palace. We did the Houses of Parliament - from the outside! - which truly are a magnificant sight. I wanted to do Westminster Abbey but it was 12 pounds to go in which I thought was slightly steep. Next time!! But - courtesy of Wendy's lovely godmother - we got to go on the London Eye. Very worthwhile. You get amazing views of London from up there. We met up with Steve - who was doing one of his courses - and had dinner and then Wendy's godmother also paid for Steve, Wendy and I to attend Joseph with chappie who won the reality show. Excellent.

Merchant of Venice

For Tim's birthday I bought him and Ali a ticket for MoV and a pair for us - and they were literally two pairs as when I looked for 4 together I got rubbish seats and when I looked for two pairs I got four seats next to each other but the pairs were different prices because they were on the end of the row so slightly different views!! They turned out to be good seats too which I was not expecting!
I love this play, it intrigues me. Is Shakespeare merely reflecting the prejudices of his time or asking us to question them? Of course, some of our answer is based on the performance and hence interpretation we see but I am not sure I can ever answer the question definitively and I'm not sure I want to. I think I prefer it open to question so I am not disappointed! Either way, I don't think it really matters as it is what message we take away from it that is the most powerful and, arguably, the most important.
I do have to admit, though, that I think Antonio is a slime bag and even his friendship with Bassiano doesn't redeem that for me. Interestingly, this performance showed him very frightened by Shylock in the courtroom which I have never seen before and it worked for me. Shylock was the belligerent character at this point which, again, is unusual I think but they carried it off.