Musn't grumble!

Now of course there’s a bright side to all of this. Every cloud has a silver lining. I’m sure there are a whole bunch of adages we could pull out to smooth over the irritation of it all. (I need to consult my mom, Mistress of the Appropriate Axiom. She has a saying to suit every eventuality.)

But yeah. We do get to see the world, we live well, we have friends all over the place. Can’t complain too much. (“Mustn’t grumble....” as the Brits like to say....) Our kids have had unbelievable opportunities to travel and experience new things.

And, since you’ve asked, where are all the kids? I did have four of them living with me at one time... I think! Or five, if you count Mr. D... or six, if you count the dog.... Have I misplaced some of them, or have they moved away?

Peregrine, age 22, is finishing up (“finishing”... it’s looking pretty promising!) his last year of university at Indiana University; Tarquin, age 19, is a sophomore at Bradley University, in Peoria, Illinois. Aphrodite is a high school senior at TASIS England (the school she’s been at for the last three years). She is a boarding student this year. And Miss T, Mr D, and Vladimir (the standard poodle) are here in Jo’burg with me.

Miss T is attending a private South African girls school (St. Stithian’s Girls’ College) which is absolutely lovely. She’s a 15-year-old 9th grader, getting to do one more term of 9th grade to get in sync with the southern hemisphere school schedule (January to December, rather than September to June)

So that’s that ... four kids on three continents, and only erratic internet access for me as of yet. Pretty challenging to keep up with them. Although the boys are great about writing (when they need more money.)

And hey, here’s another nice thing: just three weeks into the mission, we’ve already had our first visitors from England! Judith and Hugh stopped through Jo’burg, on their way home from a conference/game park experience. It was so nice to see friends from “home” (our most recent “home”, that is) We had a lovely lunch in Nelson Mandela Square and gossiped about all the other tennis players at Royal Berkshire Racquets. Fabulous, and so encouraging and comforting to see old friends in this new country!

So, come on, come on, COME AWWWWN, the rest of you, book your flights. We should have a real house by November 1st, and then the party will be ON!

AND.....

Thanks for all your fabulous emails, guys, it’s so good to hear from y’all. I promise once I have got a real online connection, I will be more personally responsive.

For now, I am off to a game park this weekend, so will write back with big scary details about claws and fangs and dripping blood... oooo, gory! next week (now I really won’t be able to sleep anymore!!!).

Perhaps it’ll be less dangerous than staying in Jo’burg for the weekend.