The weekend was an ordinary weekend. Hot English summer has arrived, thankfully (as late as Wednesday this week we were walking around wearing sweaters, with the heating turned up high in the house). The heat swizzles around in the house, warming walls, floors, and windowframes that are so used to keeping in the chill. The flowers are exploding along the border of the garden, little pinpricks of color dotting my English landscape.

As I write this, sunshine is flooding over the keyboard, and I have rucked the sleeves of my T-shirt up to expose a length of arm to the light. Jeff is in the bathroom next door, a Lush bath bomb fragrance highlighting the house and the sound of my two rubber duckies apparently going to war in the battlefield known as the Bathtub, led by the Supreme High Commander Jeff, or "Jeff of the Higher Dead", as he likes to call himself.

Angus has gone off to get his daughter Melissa at the airport (I think it's better that he picks them up alone, and has some time with them himself, so I wait at home and dance around until they show up). I love how the day is already. Jeff will dig into a bowl of Cap'n Crunch (he too loves them, Dane my dear) and then the Gamecube gets fired up. Sometimes I play with him as we race around in MarioKart. I beat him everytime, and everytime he gets a cheeky grin and tells me he wasn't actually trying that time.

Mumin weaves in and out of the house, the sunshine warm on her fur. Maggie, the less adventurous, simply guards the door and waits for the flies to come in, which she'll then chase at penalty to anything that might have been laying in her path. They cry for catnip treats and I distribute them, and then they rub against me and saunter around the house, and I wonder how it is I ever lived a life without them.

Our weekend is normal. I do normal things. I go and buy yet another baby gift for yet another baby that yet another colleague has had. I already have the wrapping paper, I am used to baby gifts. Our doctor visits don't commence until September, but already my heart is in it, my dreams are alight.

I sign up and sponsor an older dog at Dogs Trust as although the abandoned older dog will never have another home again, but he will rest comfortably and protected until he dies. I want to volunteer, but the sites are too far away to drive to. I want to adopt one (I want this darling) but we can't have dogs in this house, so I have to wait until we move.

Work mails have picked up again, as we race to the finish line with my rocket. For the record, and as unimportant as it seems now, the Parliament demo went beautifully. No problems. No harassment. Just a strange sigh of bizarre in showing my beautiful rocket to Lords, Ladies, Earls, Baronnesses. I remember looking at the backdrop of the set and wondering how on earth I had gotten here, how on earth I had found my way here, how a little someone like me would find myself staring at 3 meter high sets with a view over Westminster Abbey.

I pre-order the new Harry Potter book. I change the sheets and hang the other ones to dry in the sun once they've finished their many rotations in our washing machine. The wash line barely looks like mine-amongst Angus' T-shirts and my knickers are boy-sized trousers, boy underwear with Spiderman all over them. My wash line looks like a normal family's wash line, and I love the look of it.

We eat curry and I step over children's toys. I walk past Angus and Jeff as they work on an enormous puzzle. I ruffle Jeff's hair, and he grins. Angus takes my hand and squeezes it. There are some dishes to do, filing to do, work to do. None of it matters, and I simply take a book and read it on the couch. This weekend has found us hovering close to home, sleeping a lot and being quiet as we just hide in the inner sanctum that we have here.

My life for the next 9 days will involve children, and with those children, comes a lot of laughter. I love that laughter. And-despite their arguing and the discomfort and bad moods that accompany it-I like these kids.

Armed with my mobile phone and Blackberry, we're taking off to Wales for a few days, to chill out in a country cottage and to splash in the water a bit. I've got a work meeting in Bristol on Thursday, and will be back online Friday.

And I know that as we go, I will have Bird York's song Have No Fear, as sent to me by Loribo, running through my head. The song has picked me up and dusted me off. The song has put a smile on my face and calm in my heart.

The song has helped me return to a quiet normal.

-H.

PS- Sorry Ems

Posted by: Everydaystranger at 09:22 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
Post contains 878 words, total size 5 kb.