…

Which resulted in me being THIS for the next 48 hours…

I survived!!! and the HT survived…!!!! Apart from the fact that Chris has not brushed his teeth since (he thinks !!…can be longer!) Saturday, and Nic has 12 (TWELVE) tattoos on his arms. They are OK… and I am too!

I tried to remove the tattoos with soap…make-up remover…. a nail brush and finally sand paper… but it seems that he will be going to school looking like a british soccer fan for the next week or so.

I am not asking too many questions (although I am dying to hear everything!) but what they have said so far seems OK. It seems that the new girl friend is friendly and that she did not feature too much in their life – they were too busy playing. So my place as mother, hero, princess… witch..is still in tact. I must admit that the idea of sharing a bit of my responsibilities in creating stable adults seems more and more attractive.

And I – I did have a GREAT weekend. Absolutely awesome fantastic superdooper relaxing…too much vino, too much garlic too much beautiful scenery…

I saw a brilliant movie not too long ago – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1412386/ ): the one guy keeps on motivating  others by saying: (with indian accent of course!) “Everything is going to be OK in the end; if it’s not yet OK, it’s not yet the end!” And it seems that our weekend was OK!

I want to talk a but about friendliness. Its something that is so easy to be/do, and makes such a big difference. Amazing how we appreciate a little friendliness from people where we least expect it. And sad that we don’t expect it. Why are so many people so grumpy or aloof? I spent a couple of weeks at one of our clients, a huge financial institution which employes in the head office alone, a couple of thousand people in their head office alone. They also have a parking garage which is access controlled by cards and booms. During peak hours the booms are open but manned by a guard. This guy greets EVERYONE EVERY MORNING with eye contact, a smile and a wave. Makes your day!!! It’s amazing to watch other people at air ports or restaurants – people share a table but hardly every smile. Or even better example – lifts! How come no one makes eye contact and smiles?

By the way – I caught a huge rain spider tonight! And seeing that the little guys are talking about pets this week, Robin promptly classified the spider as his pet and it will escort him to school tomorrow.