Wednesday 12th November 2008

Another quiet day today....first tea with Kerry in the morning, food shopping at Tesco's and then home, so really not much going on at the moment which means I have lots of quiet time (well when Nic is asleep at any rate), and I have been having some of those all important "coffees" with myself, and the more I think about it the more I realise that it doesn't matter where in the world you live, there are certain things we all have to do....and really life on the other side of the world isn't so different.

We need to eat, whether you are shopping at Pick n Pay, Spar, Tescos or Sainsburys the food may be slightly different but the need is the same. As I bite into my South African Pink Lady purchased from Tescos I could be standing in my kitchen at Stoney Hill Lane doing exactly the same thing, and as you squirt Heintz tomato ketchup over your chips, the same is happening in thousands of homes all over England....

We need to work and earn an income - in South Africa salaries may go into the 10s of 1000s and here you are really wealthy if you are earning over £5000 a month but despite the exchange rate and the strength of the currency the principal is identical, without sufficient money life is HARD no matter where you live and job security is one of the most important things and on every ones mind world over.....

We need good medical attention. In South Africa it is private and here it is supplied by the government, but we still both pay for it....you through medical aid and me through National insurance. It is the quality of the doctor which counts and not who provides it.

We need education....our children need to learn how to be valuable, contributing members of society and although there are differences in the syllabus here to South Africa, again the principal is the same and I have no doubt at times during the day little Dominic in South Africa and his best mate in all the world Phillip here in England are learning exactly the same thing.

I find this comforting, the knowledge that wherever you are in the world there are certain truths if you like and a commonality which holds us together in mutual understanding....I love the fact that as I walk into clinic to have Nicholas weighed there are mothers doing the same thing in South Africa and when I sit down to a cup of Rooibos tea I know the same thing is being served in homes all over the world....the knowledge that in the little every day routines that make our lives we are all still together even though we are miles apart.