Friday 17th October 2008

Today is Phillip's birthday so it was a very early start to ensure that Simon had time to sit while we opened presents before having to dash off to make sure he caught his train on time. That is one of the major things about using public transport, you can't simply do things in your own time and at your own pace and then, if you are five minutes late, just drive a bit faster to make sure you reach your destination on time - with public transport you need to be amazingly disciplined to ensure that you are at the station or bus stop at exactly the same time every day or the train, bus etc simply leaves without you

Simon is fantastic at it and has only missed his train once, admittedly he sometimes has to cycle down the hill like a demon to make it, but make it he does and I am so proud of the way he has just taken this massive change in lifestyle so totally in his stride - the public transport system here absolutely terrifies me and I still can't read a schedule....in fact I have never even been on the bus and won't attempt a train without Si at my side.

Phillip's presents were a huge success and he was thrilled to bits with his new cd player from Granny and Papa in South Africa....I had also included a cd from them so we all had a morning filled with 80's classics (gotta teach the boy the good stuff before letting him listen to today's rubbish) and both children dressed really quickly so that they could play with Phillip's new DS lite - he was as chuffed with it as i had hoped and I think long distance traveling is going to be much easier now that they both have a console and quite a number of games between them.

A further bit of excitement occurred with the arrival of the children's lift club....Heather (the lovely lady from Zimbabwe who gives them a lift) knocked on the door and asked us to come outside and see something - now you have to understand, Heather knows and understands what it is like to move here from Africa and she also knows and understands the kind of thing that us mad Africans find exciting when we first experience it......so she knew exactly how we would react when we walked outside and found that Auntie Madge (aka the bus) had turned into a Popsicle (lol).

She was literally covered in 5mm of ice all over and I am ever so glad I wasn't doing the morning school run as I would have had no idea what to do. The children were beside themselves and Phillip was convinced God had done it just as a birthday present for him and I must say it was rather fun, but I am just relieved that I can leave it in the sun till 3pm before I have to try an drive anywhere.

Phil is being invested into Beaver's tonight, another lovely birthday treat and then I am off to a jewelry party at my friend Kathryn's house....tomorrow is his special afternoon at Tulley's farm and then on Sunday we are off to shop for antifreeze.