On Monday it was a bank holiday here and the children were off school. I couldn’t really decided what to do as Richard was working (yup, you guessed it – that’s my husband working on a Bank Holiday! Surely that hasn’t happened before?!). First thing in the morning, I received a phone call from a lovely woman here on the patch asking if I wanted to join her and some friends on a little trip to a local park/lakes/play area called Echo Falls. It was lovely. This country is just so beautiful, there is so much space everywhere. The children had a lovely time although it was extremely windy all day (nearly all my washing flew off the line! How lovely for the neighbours receiving my underwear on their lawn). The weather here has been just lovely since we arrived (how terribly British I am now getting.......). It has been superbly hot 36° on some days, now though, we can feel that Autumn is just starting to set in. It’s cooler in the mornings – still t-shirt weather, but cooler than it has been, but by about 10.30, it’s hot again and I’m stripping off into lightweights again.
Going to our local town is quite a trek. It’s not like England where there is a town centre or high street and one can wander around getting pretty much everything. All the stores are very scattered about and look a bit like our smaller industrial parks. I definitely can’t just nip into town – any errand that needs doing means a several hour round trip, so I try to save them all up! We have, of course, found the most important thing – a rather nice coffee shop. A couple of girls had mentioned it to me as a good place to find – it’s an oasis in a desert of steaks and fries! There is definitely dearth of nice places to eat – we’ve found a Thai place which we are due to try out soon. The children really like Thai, so I hope it will be good.

I cannot explain how amazingly beautiful this country is. The space and stunning open skies are just amazing. It’s really bright here too (I know there is only one sun and we have the same sun in England, but it’s just brighter here).
Right, I am going to sign off now and I very much hope I’ll be on line next Wednesday evening. So until then..... LOL.xxx

Hi Chaps, Gosh it has been a long time since I have had access to the internet – I’m having withdrawal symptoms!
Well, we are back from hospital. I have a couple of photos of how Harry’s rash started out – as he became worse, whipping out the camera was the last thing on my mind,but you can see how if this is how he was on day 2, imagine how disfigured and swollen he was by day 7. Not good. The staff and facilities at the hospital were just tip top – I can’t sing their praises enough.

Following a week’s worth of close to midnight bedtimes for the girls, they went straight back into school, probably feeling rather jaded, but it was important that they get to know they way around and meet their new classmates having missed the beginning of term. They have pretty much settled in now and have made friends which is good.
The school is close and since her second day there Lizzie has walked by herself (“it’s soooo lame to walk with your mother, Mummy!”) and I follow on behind with Lexi and the pushchair. The girls have stopped giggling and putting on a Canadian accent every time they say “recess” or “Math” now, which must mean things are becoming normal for them!
Life here hasn’t properly settled into a routine for me yet mainly because we are still not in our house so not having internet and ‘phone does hamper things slightly, also not having the car (Richard generally takes it into work) means not much exploring takes place. We found out yesterday however, that we are due to move into our new home next Wednesday 16th Sept at 11am. Hurrah! Don’t think our packing boxes will arrived until the following week though! We’ll get there in the end.......

Richard and I went to a Safari Supper last weekend. This is where some serious organisation (by someone – definitely not me!) takes place and four or five dinner parties take place at the same time. Each couple has drinks and the first course in one home, then everybody splits up and has the second course in another home and so on. Whose ever house is used for any given course is the host and cooks that course. Needless to say most main courses around these different dinner parties were some sort of casserole as the host would not be in their own home until the time came to eat it. We were given a delicious lamb tagine – it was super. The final course is coffee and liqueurs where I have to say a few people were starting to look a little worse for wear! Some friends had brought with them a scooped out water melon in which were lots of straws and the melon was filled with some fairly nice tasting concoction of booze. Half way through the evening, however, I was offered another sip – thought I’d have a look in the melon only to find the most weird, vile looking mixture I had seen since my teens! I think people had been adding Bailey’s and all sorts. It was a bit grim by that stage!
We had Sunday lunch with some new friends the following day which was lovely, they were so hospitable and made us really welcome.

Wednesday - back at home

Hi Chaps,

This is just to let you know that the hospital have discharged Harry and we arrived home last night at midnight. He is now just a little unwell (slight fever, and very wobbly indeed on the old pins) but well enough to be at home.

The girls had to go into school today as they have missed the beginning of term already. They weren't very happy about going, in fact poor Lizzie burst into tears at the prospect of making friends again.

Right, sorry to be short, I am in Richard's office making use of the internet access (still none in our Welfare House and no 'phone either) so I will be updating this blog far more infrequently from now on until we move into our new home sometime mid to end of September.

Thank you all for your support over the last week. We all apppreciate it very much indeed.

Love Noo.xx