on holiday

After 2 weeks I still don't know if this is the holiday or normal life. I woke in a panic last night and couldn't remember where we were. This was followed by a couple of hours up with our youngest who had a fever. She was bouncing by bedtime today & both seem to have settled into our third venue. The doc is off working and staying near Liverpool to be handy for clinics and the fancy kit at the Trop Shop. The girls miss him at bedtime but don't really seem to notice his absence.

We have an epic tour planned and are enjoying seeing lots of family and friends; it's hard not to imagine that people measure relationships in the quality or quantity of time. We are also trying to have some time doing normal stuff like going to the park and doing cutting and sticking.

strange

It’s very strange being “home”. I’m not sure any of us know where home is or which country is the norm. Being abroad still feels like an interim to normal life but this feels like a holiday. There are lots of things that are different, some are positive, some just weird. It’s lovely to be able to use tap water to brush our teeth and not have to sleep under nets, I love the clean public toilets with running water, soap and towels and the rubbish bins on the streets. But I find myself keeping a closer eye on the children when we’re out. There are some things I hadn’t realised that I’d missed, like the speed of the internet and organised activities for kids.

waiting

I am sat at the doc's desk waiting to go on my away day for the museum project. We were meant to leave at 8am but not surprisingly we won't be leaving on time, there are quite a bit of politics about this but here I am waiting. I'm not too surprised and the waiting doesn't annoy me the way it would have done 1 year ago!

I do still find it rude that the attitude here is that it's OK to be late "the sun is still shining" but I am much more relaxed about it and it's always easier to wait graciously when I'm not having to entertain children!! I would be happier if the coffee lady would come soon ... (a man has just this minute appeared with the coffee, there is nothing to complain about!).

HD

It’s hard not to worry about them. Our eldest seems to be particularly unsettled, she was ill a couple of weeks ago and I think that was a combination of tiredness and missing her friend. The last few weeks she has been having more afternoon naps than she would usually and is often ready to go to bed well before the youngest.

 

She has had a few disturbed nights sleep and again looks exhausted, but won’t necessarily have an afternoon sleep. Most of our friends have left Blantyre so it’s very quiet and a bit dull, and all the talk of going to England must be confusing when you’re only 3. I am sure if I wasn’t worrying about what all this travelling is doing to the kids I’d be worrying about something else …