At 15.48hrs this afternoon, Daughter flew in from Liverpool.  Not actually flew, of course, but arrived in a flurry having jumped in car following end of last lecture at 13.00hrs.  She had it timed down to the last second, having loaded bags in car this morning, and bag of Walkers Cheese and Onion as evidenced by empty bag on passenger seat.  She only went back 8 days ago and has managed a weekend with a mate in Sheffield in that time.  Lovely to see her.  Husband descends ladder from where he’s been administering first aid to aging guttering or something.  Job commenced two [...] Read more »

  Finally, today, just three days before Daughter's return, came news from the African plains.  Postal anticipation finally rewarded.  She's been gone since 7th July.  A strange feeling overwhelmed me as the coach left for Heathrow, loaded with young people full of anticipation and excitement which, in most cases, I suspected masked a certain nervousness about the challenges ahead.  It felt like that first day at school.  There was a sense that they'd be changed in subtle ways by the experience; more mature and independent, embarking upon Read more »

Who's the lucky one?  Not me!  Listened to the finer points of atomic fusion in the car this morning – Chemistry AS today, you see!  Things do seem to have moved on since I was forced to learn the Periodic Table by rote.  But it works, you know!  Son thought he'd catch me out the other day by asking me the symbols for certain substances.  Blow me down, the info was retrieved from the furthest recesses of my brain and the CORRECT answers shot from my mouth with the speed and accuracy of Robin Hood's bow!  Have to admit basking [...] Read more »

With the precision of an expensive timepiece the Mercedes Benz coach purred round the corner EXACTLY at the allotted time of Midnight.  I would expect nothing less from our German travellers.  The much-awaited moment had come.  The braver parents (self included) stood on the pavement outside school while the remainder were invisible in the darkness of their parked cars.  A cacophony of partially broken voices splintered the silence twenty feet or so away.  Their german teacher arrived and made 'shushing' noises.  As I looked on, I admired her spirit – she was surrounded by boys whom, for the most part, were a good foot taller! As the [...] Read more »

Way back last Spring, I shared with you our excitement at Daughter being selected for a life enhancing/changing trip to Madagascar.  Arrangements have been moving ahead since then with training camps, more instructional emails than I care to count (and those are only the ones The Traveller deems I must view, usually involving the exchange of currency for some 'essential' item). We're down to just two visits to the Practice Nurse this week, Tuesday and Friday for number two in a series of three injections each for Rabies and Hepatitis B.  I'll leave you to imagine the degree of heavenward eye [...] Read more »

Great excitement!  Daughter has won a place on an 5-week expedition to Madagasgar in July/August 2009!  We’re all thrilled.  Even our traveller was issuing shrieks of delight and convulsed by involuntary physical movement upon receipt of the news! You see, the deadline for applications closed a month before her application went in.  Why?  Because on the evening someone spoke to the Venture Scouts about the trip, she missed the presentation because she was tending here ailing mother (no guilt there, then?).  The boys in the Group didn’t tell her and, when she found out about the trip, we couldn’t track [...] Read more »

Bet you thought I was going to speak of ‘Women of a Certain Age’, did you not?  You know the stuff, body part migration, night sweats, negative nuances . . . Oh no, hormones in our house have produced feet the size of skis.  Think I’m joking?  It’s the school holidays and 14-year-old son has had friends over.  Daughter has been visited by 16-year-old admirers.  Little me (and it’s not very often I can say that!) at 5′ 7" (1.70m for you metrics), I am dwarfed by gigantic boys whom it seems were waist high just months ago . . [...] Read more »