Notes from a Small Island

We just got back from our annual trip home to England and the jet-lag hasn't been too bad this time, even for the kids. We had a really great two weeks; perfect weather, Wimbledon (on the telly), a day trip to London to go on the Eye, watch the changing of the guards and see where Prince William and K-Middy got married. Minx got well into pate on toast and all three kids discovered the joys of a local sweet shop where everything was in jars and had to be weighed on an old brass scale, straight out of Harry Potter.

We explored the tunnels underneath the cliffs of Dover where the Dunkirk rescue was masterminded and took a miniature train down the coast for a fish and chips dinner. We went to a quintessential English fair with a coconut stall (if you can hit the coconut with a ball, you get the coconut!!!). My eldest, Lefty, who's been pitching for her softball team all summer, winged the ball so hard it not only took out the coconut but also the stall behind and landed somewhere in the forest beyond. Coconut all round!

It was lovely to spend time with my family most of whom I only get to see once a year. Once, my brother scared the crap out of the children by racing out into the garden (where they were quietly playing cards) wearing a gorilla costume. He later tried it on me when I was hanging out the washing but it backfired when I swung the whirligig at him in panic and knocked him on his back. My brother-in-law also spent hours with the kids, playing games, blowing up a soccer ball too much so that it exploded and left a hexagonal welt on Lefty's stomach, and teaching them English slang. Worst thing to call someone? Frenchman. In fact, when we arrived back home to 99 degree heat, Lefty declared it to be "scorchio". Uncle P would be proud.

We also got to spend time with one of our nieces who got on famously with Minx and spend most of the days either asking for ice cream or telling people to sit in the corner. On her last day, she called me a bony-bum which I've never been called before and for which she will always be my favourite niece. My mum and sister provided a rather gentler form of entertainment in the shape of books, stickers, crayons, cooking projects and issues of Heat magazine.

It's good to be home, but I do miss them all.