God, I'm bored. The boys are away for their second annual Spoil-athon at Nanna and Grandad's and I've come back to keep E company during the roiling heat of the summer. I cannot complain, other than that the sunbeds by the pool are a tad uncomfy - he has to work in 39° heat, wearing a suit. I will never understand what it is about the men of Bermuda that makes them uniquely intelligent enough to wear their eponymous shorts to work and yet every other man in the world, it seems, hasn't cottoned on to the hot weather-smart shorts working combo. The Italian man, predictably, has it even worse - they insist on wearing knee-high socks at all times under suit trousers. Apparently, the flash of a hairy ankle under a trouser leg is an ascetic no-no. So, long trousers and knee-high socks in the height of summer, a winning combination.
We are not going so wild this year and trying to cram as much as we can into our 'childless' time as we did last year. I think that now the boys are bigger, we really don't curb ourselves so much in what we want to do and anyway, there's always the babysitter if we do need to go out. Hangovers, on the rare-ish occasion that they do happen these days, can generally be coped with by switching the cartoons on (kids) and crawling back to bed (us). So I am missing them rather, my special purpose is missing (not in Steve Martin kind of way) and I am literally just lying around wondering vaguely if there is something I should be doing, which is a very odd position to be in, as generally I have about 10 things at once I should be doing.
Not long now till I head back to Spain to pick them up and then a month-long jaunt round the UK. I am keeping everything crossed that the weather holds, not so much for myself - I am desperate to sleep through the night without the hot-cold-hot airconditioner game - but for E. He has had to endure working through the cauldron of a Roman summer and will not be getting his beach pay-off at the end of it. I just hope that we get some nice weather and that he is as impressed with the other bits of the UK as he has been with London and Lincoln. As long as he's getting fed well, we'll be on to a good start, but if, as is predicted, it rains all month, I think I am going to have a hard time convincing him of the joys of an English summer again and bang goes any hope of discovering other parts of the British Isles with my family.
I am hoping the boys grow with enquisitve minds and wandering spirits so I will at least have two other companions to fall back on if I can't persuade E. We do what we can now and they have seen far more of the world than alot of kids their age, I am just hoping this doesn't end in a video-game addicted backlash, which, if we are not very careful, G is likely to do. He has displayed an addictive side to him since he was capable of holding on to a spoon for long periods of time (the ''poon' period) then a hammer (the ''ammer' period), then Thomas, then Ben 10 and now we are entering the dangerous waters of Computer Games. Edo doesn't get like this, he just copies, in a watered down way, his big brother. They get 15 mins a day playing games on the computer for good behaviour ('When the buzzer goes THAT IS IT!!'). This means me not having to repeat, 'get dressed, do your teeth, do your hair', ad nauseam in the morning. And another 15 mins for esp good behaviour - me not having to repeat the mantra AT ALL. Those blessed days rarely occur but the threat of taking the 15 mins away works mirculous wonders on misbehaviour. We keep a close eye on it and so far it's under control. Lord knows what's going to happen when we finally cave in and he gets one of those X-Station Playbox things. Some serious parenting skills are going to have to be brought to bear with not a little heavy coertion, I fear. Either that or we end up with a grunting game-addict with few people skills and preternaturally large thumbs. *shudder* It is not a thought that a good mum should have I am sure, but boarding school is starting to look rather attractive about now...
