Monday 4 February 2008

Goodbye, my love

I have just said goodbye to the ball and chain, who is on the last flight to London this evening. I’m a lot better about this than I used to be for a number of reasons:
- He doesn’t go as often. One year he did 17 trips to London, while I, the Brit, languished in Chicago. People used to say to me “You should go with him”, obviously forgetting that it's illegal to leave kids home alone. It's a good job I was ten years younger, - these days I would just smack them stupid, or deliver my kids to their doorstep on my way to the airport. They were obiously not traveling mothers, or they would know that the necessary prep before any short trip makes the trip iteself not worth it. I am going on a girls’ weekend to Montreal in May and I swear I am going to walk out the door and see how everyone fares.
- I can get most of what I want either here in the States or via the Internet. And with the modern miracle of international cell phones, if I remember something desperately needed, such as Marmite or Dettol (yes), I can text my shopping list as it occurs to me - thus sparing the middle-of-meeting panic calls.
- I am really tired and strangely, sleep a lot better in a king size bed on my own. I am tired because my four year old has finally decided to get up and wee in the toilet as opposed to in bed. Unfortunately, this usually occurs at about 6 (middle of the night to me), sounds like a horse peeing on a rock (as my husband’s Texan family say) and wakes me up. The other reason last week was because of next door’s maintenance man employing snow blower at 3.45am! No lie! A snow blower sounds like a very loud lawn mower, and he was about 25 feet from my bed. I got up to bang on the window then realized that he was clearing my section as well as everyone else’s so it would have looked a bit churlish. I did make a few, very polite British-type comments the next day though. We’ll see.
So, I could well be dead, or in a coma by the end of the week as I have a few kid-schedule problems that can only be solved by splitting myself in two.
In the mean time I would like to thank Potty Mummy for awarding me the “E” award – that would be for "excellent blogger". In my next post I will pass it on to other bloggers wot I read. For now, I am desperately trying to get the older two (almost 15 and 12) into bed so that I can go too.

11 comments:

  1. thanks for visting my blog! I'm actually an expat American (and Canadian as I was born in the US but moved with my family to Canada when I was 10) living in the UK! Been here nearly 20 years and what I find hilarious is that Brits always say to me 'you haven't lost your accent then!' and then American's say 'but you sound British!' Can't win when you are an expat!

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  2. Hello and thank you so much for your visit and comments - it's great to keep meeting more Bloggers! I haven't heard the James Taylor you mentioned - but will find it and listen. Have just read your post and could really identify - Grandson did just the same recently - I'll return later and catch up on your life!
    Regards, Margot.

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  3. I am still reeling from the 3:45am snow-blower incident. Our neighbours have a enthusiastic 7am gardener with a leaf-blower (California equivalent!!) and I thought that was bad!

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  4. I'm married to a travelling man too... Living in Europe of course a lot more places are within easy reach, so it's not uncommon for him to visit 3 different countries in one week - or fly to China overnight for a meeting and then fly back afterwards and be back in the office the next morning. Rubbish for the kids - but great for the air miles. (Ever the optimist, me...)

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  5. Well the snow-blower was at it again at 3.47am and I didn't go back to sleep till at least 5. Woke my daughter up too so I will be tracking down whoever is in charge today. Both sons are off sick (always when I am on my own with them) but poor hubby sat on the tarmac for three hours while the plane was de-iced, and when i last texted him was racing through Heathrow's baggage claim to try to make his first meeting. It's a glamorous life!

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  6. I happened to be the only one who heard 5 yr old Amber crying that she had wet the bed! 5 am. After washing her & settling in clean nightwear, I climbed up on the top bunk & put on a new fitted sheet, over the plastic cover. I got stuck coming down! Hips jammed in the narrow entrance to the ladder. The whole thing has sides.
    I said, "Oh, Grannie is stuck." "It's OK", she said, without any concern at all "I'll sleep in Millie's bed.
    I am now dieting harder!

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  7. MM- hilarious. I have always said that making the top bunk should be an Olympic event!

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  8. I still can't get over these early morning, well middle of the night activities. Folk would think you were mad here if you were out at 3.45am, they would assume you were on your way home from a night out, no way would you be up and about for any other reason. I too have only heard about swimming activities in the morning.

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  9. Not met you before! But thanks for coming to see my blog.

    I know what you mean travelling with children is a nightmare, you have to take so much stuff just for a couple of nights, then there's the ordeal of the journey, whining moaning" Are we there yet??" You just have to stay put and hold the fort when your hubby goes travelling to work.

    Dogs are wonderful companions but they do need alot of attention, they do need taking out early in the morning, so unless you're ready for that I would leave it for a few years till children older to do some of it!! HaHa, that's what my daughter was supposed to do..... but you know what? I do it!

    Lovely blog, well done on your award!

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  10. Hmm, I used to do the travelling (once kids were a bit older) and I know it is rubbish, wildly overrated, not travel at all, just being away from home. Only good thing is you get your bed made.
    I do identify with needing older kids to go to bed so you can!

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  11. It always annoys me when people ask me why I don't go with my husband when he's on foreign work trips - for a start, I don't have that much holiday per year to waste, sitting in a hotel bedroom on my own in some godforsaken industrial area in the back of downtown wherever, and two, we'd still have to pay for my flight anyway. People always think husbands are off working somewhere holiday-like, when in fact they are usually visiting a factory in Detroit or something.

    Anyway, that's what he tells me.

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