The summer holidays are over and the kids are back at school. To prove a point the weather turned almost autumnal too, despite it still officially being summer. September always seems to represent the turning of a page in the book of life. And this September, even more so than previous years.
It’s almost a month since a new post appeared here, so here’s a quick catch up.
We spent three weeks of the summer in England. Thing is, someone forgot to explain to the English weather gods that it was indeed summer. I’d love to say that we didn’t let the rain ruin anything, but on some days the rain reigned supreme (see what I did there?).
Like the day we had tickets for an outdoor performance of Gangsta Granny. That got postponed to a later date because of stormy weather. We were back in the Netherlands by the time the show took place.
And the day we drove around a roundabout in the torrential rain only to discover that some puddles were so deep they came up to the bonnet of the car.
But on other days we had sunshine. We caught up with family and friends. Got a football match in. Visited castles (so many that the kids started groaning at the word ‘castle’). We went swimming. We played football on the beach, built sandcastles and ate fish and chips. We went to the cinema. We explored and generally amused ourselves. On our last evening we even dined in an Indian restaurant, much to my pleasure.
And during three weeks Brexit was only mentioned once to us.
I stocked up on Branston pickle and we headed back to the Netherlands for the last two weeks of the summer break.
The highlights of that fortnight include:
- My youngest earned his swimming B diploma last week, marking the end of a total of eight years of swimming lessons between our three sons. And I know there is a C part to it all but he’s done with swimming lessons. Really done.
- A day out at Movie Park Germany.
- Catching up with friends.
And so now, normal life has resumed.
We’re DIYing again. Our bedroom has been emptied out, a wall knocked out and the room is slowly undergoing a metamorphosis, two years after we moved in. We get there in the end. Hopefully.
British politics has imploded.
The weather has turned to shit.
Football training and matches (times three) has recommenced, turning the end of every week into an impressive logistical puzzle.
School has started back. Two sons in primary school and one just started at secondary school. It’s a whole new phase for this Turning Dutch mama. It’s weird having a child go into a secondary education system I never went through myself. As I mentioned in a previous post, I now have a grip on the abbreviations, but the rest is still a steep learning curve. No doubt this won’t be the last time I write about this topic.
And if that wasn’t enough change for a while, my husband starts a new job in a few weeks too.
Wish us luck.
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