Our new (or not so) friend/s

A long time has passed since Bella died and we still miss her.

A few months after her death and a very empty house, despite having 3 children at home, we adopted a new cat.

He has since made himself a part of the family and we wouldn't have it any other way.

This is him when he first arrived.

As you can see, he soon made himself at home.  3 years later and it is though he has always been here.  A sweeter, calmer and more laid back cat you are unlikely to find anywhere else.

This is Apollo now.

A little (considerably) larger.  We're working on that.  He's had his food cut and he's not happy about it.

Roll on time and we have another addition, albeit supposedly temporary.  This is Georgie.

We've borrowed her from my niece.  Temperamental is the best description for her.  She's much calmer than when she first came to us, loves her hugs but doesn't know how to keep her claws in which makes for an interesting experience.  She and Apollo are never going to be the best of friends but we do try.

New Friends

Sheila and I have been email friends since Zachary and Ethan were babies.  What started out with me being a member of the Twins List (was a listserve, now Facebook page) and then moving on to joining other Twin groups, has ended up with making friends all around the world.  Some groups are public, others private.  All are wonderful.  The support from so many people around the world, the opportunity to learn from so many diverse age groups, cultures and religions is priceless.

In the past I have had the opportunity to meet some of my online friends in real life.  This week was such another experience.  Sheila was visiting London with her boys who are only a few months younger than mine.  We spent two days together,  On Wednesday Zachary and I introduced them to the delights of Wong Kei in London's China Town followed by a walk through to Covent Garden then down to the Southbank.

Nice coffee and cake was enjoyed at Strada at the Royal Festival Hall while the Zachary and Sheila's boys went to investigate the London Dungeon's opening times.

Yesterday (Saturday) was spent, along with Sheila's husband Scott,  enjoying the delights of Borough Market, Indian food in Knightsbridge, coffee and freebies from Carpo and a stroll around Harrods.

A Coffee/Chocolate which is more than worth a second visit

All while all 4 boys disappeared off to the Dungeon and spent copious amounts of money in an arcade.  Not forgetting the comparison challenge of working out whether Five Guys is better here or in the US.


Making time for yet more food after our dash through the crowds in Harrods we parked ourselves in Cafe Concerto for a "snack" before making our way back to our respective residences.

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The Edwards were off to Croatia this morning.  Enjoy folks.

**Note to self: make sure to wear comfy shoes if you're going to be out all day and you don't want your feet to hurt.

Unfortunately, our beautiful Bella is no longer with us.  After several months with the tumour getting bigger and bigger, it finally got the better of her.  We had to let her go in late May.  We all miss her very much.

The picture in the previous post is how I will always remember her.

Moving Along

Oh heck, what a mess to clear up.  That was the initial thought when I saw what the cat had done in the bathroom.  Next was, "poor thing, she must be feeling miserable".  She's been through so much.  Being adopted by us after staying in a closed room for 3 weeks.  The long haul to Qatar, the stay in the cattery over there and again over here while we went to Italy.  The trip back to England from Qatar via France.  The surgery on her face, and now a bone tumour in her jaw.  All she needed was a stomach upset which leaves her with a sore bottom and poo smeared all over the floor.

What did we learn from the latest episode?  Don't feed a cat who isn't used to it too much milk.

This is how I would like to remember our gorgeous Bella.  We will still have her for a short while longer but the inevatable day is not far off.  She's had 18 years, 11 of those with us.  But, we shall move on.  There is already talk about what dog we will get and possiblt another cat.  It's good to look forward and remember the good times of the past.

So we did, when we finally said goodbye to Agi last Sunday.  Many good memories, lots of sadness but we move on.  Life is back to the usual routine.  Exam results, parents evening, schlepping the kids around to various activities, planning parties and festivals.

Planners, Diaries, Organisation

I'm not the most organised of people.  I keep trying out different systems to help myself.  I thought that I would share two versions that have helped me so far.

When the kids were little there was an awful lot of paperwork coming home all of the time.  Between school and after school activities, birthday parties and various other events, I was frequently trying to keep track of permission slips, RSVPs and payments.  It wasn't unknown for me to miss things.  I was the mum who paid for trips when the last reminder came through.  The same for renewing gym/swimming/sailing classes.

I have spent a lot of time recently looking at planners and organisation pins on Pinterest but as of now have yet to find something that suits my uses.  It amuses me how complex and colourful some people's planners are.  Some of them look as though their owners spend more time on planning and decorating than actually carrying out the entries in the planners.  Anyway, that aside, I have seen some lovely ideas.

So, why do I want to add to all of this.  I have been looking for something simple which allows me to keep track of the family's activities and also keep a To Do list.  I need something that shows me a week at a time but also allows me to keep track of whole months at a glance.  Those are today's requirements which are slightly different to what I needed several years ago.  These days we have far less paper.  Everything comes via e-mail.  Notifications and reminders from school: email.  Music teachers: email or text message.

 
Several years ago I came up with a simple system.  I bought a plastic ring binder (2 or 4 hole is fine), a packet of plastic sleeves and some coloured dividers.  Very similar to this.














At that time I decided that I was going to keep a calendar on Microsoft Outlook and print it out once a month.  Anything that came up after printing would be added in pen.  If too many things needed to be added then I reprinted.

I had a pocket for each day and dividers for each month.  The front section was the current month and as each piece of paper came in to the house it was placed in the relevant pocket.  Once I'd dealt with it I ticked it and wrote the date at the top.  Anything for following months was placed in that month's folder.  As each month rolled around I transfered the pieces of paper to their relevant date pockets.

On the whole the system worked well.  I kept a pad of lined paper in the folder and kept a to do list.  I also kept a pocket diary in my hand bag so every now and again I had to synchronise the two diaries.

Fast forward about 5 years and that doesn't work for me anymore.  I struggle with remembering to do things if they are not written down so I need a diary in my handbag that allows me to keep track of both appointments and tasks/To Dos.  I spent like what seemed forever looking through virtually every single diary on the market both in shops and online.  Eventually, when I'd just about given up and was going to design my own, I found something that suits my needs perfectly.  Currently, I can only find it at Staples and Amazon.  This is the one that I found:

It's called the Collins Leadership Diary.  As you can see in the picture it show a week at a time and has a To Do section at the bottom of each weekday.   The other incredibly useful feature is the monthly summary page at the beginning of each section.  OK, it means that you have to write things in twice but the extra few seconds that takes is worthwhile to me.  There are also the usual notes pages, address pages and lists that appear in the majority of diaries.

There are no storage sections for receipts or pieces of paper but I'm working on possibly carrying an additional small folder.  At the moment I tuck papers in to the front or back of the diary and receipts stay in my purse until I record payments.  My main imperative was to find a diary that works for me.  This one does the trick.  For now.

Scalopini and a Bereavment

According to this week's meal plan, last night's supper was supposed to be Turkey Scalopini.  The best laid plans are interrupted on occasion and yesterday was one of those occasions.

The phone rang at 6.15.  My sister-in-law L informed us of our mother-in-laws death in Cape Town.  You don't expect to send someone on holiday for them never to come home so this came as a shock.  MIL suffered a fall just over 2 weeks ago and broke her leg.  Despite speaking to her prior to the operation and ensuring her and ourselves that all would be okay, she was unlucky to experience a pulmonary embolism that she wouldn't recover from.

The whole of yesterday was spent in making arrangements, phone calls and discussions.  Never would I have thought how complicated it could be to repatriate someone for burial.

The difficulties of multiple conversations that circle around to multiple participants is not to be underestimated.

The scenario here is that there are 2 brothers, 2 wives, a body overseas, a friend in CT helping, a cousin in CT helping and various agencies assisting.  Phone calls back and forth between the various parties followed by the brothers talking multiple times a day to update each other.  And still no definite answer as to when mother-in-law will be repatriated and a date for the funeral.  We're all hoping that tomorrow, before Shabatt falls, that we will have an answer.

Oh, and by the way, it will be Turkey for supper tonight instead of last night.  We still need to eat despite the circumstances.










 

Tomato & Basil Penne

Tonight's supper (forgot to take a photo) was homemade Tomato & Basil Penne.  I was going to add aubergine but I got home too late from visiting my sister and forgot to cook the aubergine until it was too late. Alongside the main dish we also had garlic spinach which was cooked in butter.

I have "strange" children when it comes to eating.  Though we've had our share of disliked foods over the years (yes, I'm looking at you G), my kids eat amazingly well.  There is little that they won't at least try.  Z & E have always been more adventurous but even G will now eat much more than she used to. If she doesn't like something then she'll happily go off and cut up some salad instead.

Tonight's sauce consisted of chopped and sauted onions and garlic, fresh tomatoes and a box of passata.  The addition of some balsamic vinegar and a little brown sugar with lots of seasoning was perfect.  All that was needed at the end was to stir in some fresh basil.

Z was very helpful and did some of the prep before I got home.  That sped things up considerably.  At 15, he's quite good in the kitchen.  He's brilliant at making Ramen dishes and is working up quote a repertoire of other dishes.  E is also pretty good.  By the time they leave home they should be able to fend for themselves fairly well.  G has also caught the cooking bug and has become quite a good baker.

New blog

I'm trying this out again.  For a short time, during our stay in Qatar, I tried blogging to keep our friends and family up to date with our adventures.  Over a 3 year period, starting a few months before the move, I wrote 133 posts.  When I looked at that number today I thought that looked like a lot but when I went to look at what I had written I found it wasn't that much.

This time, I'm not sure what my focus will be.  A daily record of our ups and downs.  Maybe a record of our meals.  A combination of both.  I'm not quite sure.  I'm not one of those people who wants to lay bare their life to the whole world yet it would be nice to be able to share some things in public with friends.

So, of I go.  A new start.  Hopefully, I'll have something interesting to share, now and again.