Get your SNO.MOBI on

A huge shout out for my friend Richard who started a wonderful website for all you ski enthusiasts. Get your sno.mobi on and see where you will head next!

Forgive me Father reader for I have sinned lapsed. It has been three weeks since my last confession blog entry…

It has been hectic these last three weeks. We went away to Pennsylvania for a weeks vacation and the week prior to leaving was busy. We had swimming lessons, sorting out the basement, getting the cats sorted and getting all our stuff ready for our road trip. We left the Sunday morning two hours behind our schedule but we did not care – we were on holiday! That is the first great thing about a road trip – we had no deadlines – no having to be at the airport at a certain time, no rushing along making tensions rise and making the trip unpleasant for all and sundry. The girls were excited and although the trip was going to be long…they did not care in the slightest – we were going on holiday!

In order to make the trip easier for all of us, we borrowed the portable DVD player from Harriet and it was a wonderful rescue. We only needed it about four hours into our trip when the young one was finding number plate spotting a little boring. We knew she had stuck it out as long as she could, when she said, “I am trying Mom but it is difficult if you can’t read!” So she chose a movie and settled back into her booster seat for the remaining bit of her trip. The eldest daughter was clearly thrilled with getting 28 different states in the trip down to Pennsylvania.

We stayed in a small town called Riegelsville – an small it was. There is one traffic light, one general store, a hotel, and antique dealer and a post office. We had no TV, no phones and strictly speaking no Internet. Actually I became a bit of cyber squatter – someone in the area had a wireless Internet connection and at about 10pm every night, I would log on, download my photos, email my family and log off. So no time to blog and besides, I was on holiday and so was my brain.

We spent a wonderful five days in Bucks County. We explored small towns, ate out at lunch and dinner times, we played games, the kids played in the garden – we laughed, never cried and laughed some more. I saw the happiness in my children’s eyes that we so often miss in the hectic running of our daily lives. Our lives are so hectic that we forget to sit back and listen for the laughter. Even being on summer break at home, we have schedules – orthodontist appointments, swimming lessons, camp, doctor appointments, grocery shopping, waking up at a specific time – the kids laughed and played and for five wonderful days were free of time limits and boundaries and they loved every minute of it. Now, don’t get me wrong, loose routines are things I firmly believe in so that we can have control over our lives but just for one week, it was just spectacular not to set an alarm clock, not to have to worry about being some where on time. We were in control.

So we visited Easton, Frenchtown, Milford, Lambertville, New Hope and of course, Philadelphia! We saw Independence Hall (impressive for us foreigners!), the Liberty Bell, took a horse and coach ride through the streets and, my personal favorite, the Museum of Art. Not just for the Art – I had a more important mission in mind. I WENT UP THE ROCKY STEPS! I watched Rocky I in 1979 when it finally hit the shores of South Africa and watched every Rocky movie since. But that scene in the first one when he runs up those stairs is just one of those iconic moments in movie history. At the bottom of the steps, there is the bronze statue from the movie – erected in all honor as though Rocky Balboa was indeed a real person – a real son of Philly. Now tell me, in your travels, how many bronze statues are up in cities and towns of a fictional character in a movie – would be interesting to know that!

I turned 38 in Pennsylvania and being there with my family was the best present I ever could have asked for. My husband and my children were bugging me about getting me a present and right up until the day, I kept on saying “I have got everything I ever wanted…right here in this week.” To me, it was one of the best weeks of my life ever…

Our road trip home was eventful because we took the scenic route. It added about six hours onto our travel time but the girls were having a blast in the back of the car. We got home at 8pm, ate some dinner and got into bed – so sad for being back in the hustle and bustle of our lives but happy for the rejuvenation that we all experienced – Hubby and both the kiddies – even the four year old!

But on my trip, I learned that cancer had returned to a dear friend of mine and this time it is a bit worse than it was before. My family were lying sound asleep upstairs and I sat watching the sun rising over the fields and thanked God about lucky I was. I had just finished reading the Last Lecture and I think the knowledge I gained from the book and the experience of the week away, has really given me a different perspective. My heart was broken when I heard on Saturday morning that Randy Pausch had died – someone who had touched the lives of so many he did not know, and I cried for someone I had never met.

So we had two quiet days at home and today we hit the ground running again…and tomorrow we will again be caught up in all we have to do but somehow it feels a little different and everything just seems a little less urgent…

This summer is turning out to be everything I did not expect it to be. I thought we were going to have a quiet 12 weeks. Actually, I was worried that we were going to have a quiet 12 weeks. My older daughter is doing film camp towards the end of the month; we are going to Pennsylvania next Monday for a week – a break I am really looking forward to. No phones, no schedules and no televisions – although i am not too sure if my kids are going to fall for this part of the vacation. But I am willing to buy them off with a visit to the Crayola factory and maybe a trip to the zoo!

But back to what has been happening since we went on our break. I signed the girls up for swimming lessons at the pond. It is the most cost effective value for money swimming lessons I have ever come across. The instructors are all super with the kids of all ages, and both my girls look forward to learning the tricks of being bouyant in the water. My youngest has her lesson at 10am and my eldest has her lesson at 11am. We arrive at 10am and set up camp for the morning. Put out mom’s beach chair, lay out the towels, and put on swimming goggles. My younger angel runs to the instructor and then plunges into the water showing no signs of the fear that gripped her earlier in the season. When her lesson is over, my elder daughter and I take her back to her daycare (which is currently like camp). We leave our chair and towels there so that when we return for the next swimming lesson, we still have our little spot in the shade.

There is one big tree that provides shade all morning until about 1:30pm. A spot in the shade is at a premium by 11am so if you can get there when we do and secure your spot, you are set. Because swimming lessons run for three weeks, the same moms and dads arrive every day at the same times to bring their young ones to learn to swim. Like me, many use the lessons as “time at the beach” which lets the young ones enjoy being in the water under the supervision of a well qualified instructor (you see, I am no big swimmer and it has to be REALLY hot for me to actually get in!). Everyday we greet each other politely when we arrive when the gates open for lessons (the swimming public are only allowed in a half hour later) – each of us knowing where our regular spot is and where everyone else sits.

And what from the road running by looks like moms and dads sitting on the beach watching their children swim, has practically taken on a life of its own.

There is “Don’t touch the baby” Mom who herds around her children (especially the youngest daughter) so that other children can’t touch them. I actually overheard her tell her son not to play with the sandcastles another child built – complete with bridges – because “…you don’t know who built them and where they have been!”

“I need public recognition” Mom is there too. Everything she says to her kids is extra loud so that we can hear everything. “Yes, darling, of course you can have your organic, fair trade, local farmer’s market strawberries, while I eat my organically grown whole wheat pasta salad with sprouts,” she enunciates while frowning heavily at “I don’t need sun protection” singed mom who is scoffing nibbling on her M&M ice cream while her son downs a soda in almost one swoop.

There is “silence is golden” dad who has not said one word to his little boy that has not come out as a whisper. Mind you, he is rather good looking and well built so we don’t need him to talk. I saw “Don’t touch the baby” Mom give him the once over when he planted his towel and bag in the middle of us. Brave man! Another dad arrives – I think of him as “ultimate sunblock 500″ – I think he uses about one can of sprayable sunblock a day. With the layers he puts on himself (and I assume his children too), they must be protected to the hilt. I sunblock my children too with nothing less than 75, but layered to the point of your skin actually turning blue, is taking it a little too far. I make sure that if I arrive before him I am not sitting downwind…that spraying sunblock can sure travel…

Me? I sit on my beach chair reading “The Last Lecture” drinking my water quietly while I watch my children frolic. I occasionally arise and go stand in the water, chat to one of the other moms I do know and when my eldest daughter is done, just before we leave for the day, we go and buy some slush. I am sure though that in the other parents’ minds I too must be an oddball. “She speaks funny and sits all day” Mom – that’s me!

An tomorrow this beach bee-itch will be back, in my usual spot, looking for the usual suspects…