The week past

William

OK, it's official: Impatient mothers have less intelligent kids: Apparently mothers who speak in 'nurturing' tones as opposed to the ones that 'heavily scold' actually lead to a larger hypothalamus in kids. The study didn't seem to cover mothers who rant, swear and curse at their children - but I suppose that's left up to Child Welfare.

As you can see I've been spending way too much time on the Internet again, but luckily T managed to hook up our new, just-back from St Thomas TV yesterday, so now we're back on the BBC & ITV iPlayers, so will be able to watch copious amounts of the Olympics, when it starts.



Grade 5 Croque en Bouche with Guest Chef



In amongst lots of pinning and scolding last week, James & Georgie managed to pass their Royal School of Music exams (James with merit) William played 3 soccer matches, Georgie fell head first over his bike (and survived) and we carried on unpacking boxes.  Last week was also the Cedar School Gala Auction. Tyler made a Croque en Bouche with the Grade 5's and it was auctioned off for $600. This was not an entirely un-stressful thing to do in 100% humidity. He didn't quite superglue the concoction together, but close.  Anyhow it ended up looking a bit like the island (as you can see right) as the base just got wider and wider, but he still managed a smile for the camera.

Georgie & I also planted our first vegetables here (heirloom tomatoes, okra, artichokes, herbs, spinach, lemon trees) and disturbed our resident VI Tree Boa who leapt higher into the air with surprise (about 1 metre away from me) than I did. Georgie said very sweetly that we should actually consider ourselves lucky to have one in our garden as they are endangered. So are middle-aged 'heavily scolding' mothers, I thought to myself, not feeling very nurturing at that particular moment and swearing. A lot.

The island continues to delight, and sometimes not. You would have noticed that news of the bakery  has gone rather quiet. After being promised the building on the 1 April and then the 1 May, we are clearly starting to reach the end of May with no building in sight and our phone-calls are being studiously ignored by the contractor. As we've now ordered all the equipment and have our first employee starting with us in a weeks time, this makes for interesting times. Luckily we think we may have a temporary kitchen, so we'll just have to make it happen, despite an actual lack of bakery, which we may see anytime between next week and next Christmas.

I've also gone completely native and signed up to run in a half-marathon in Puerto Rico called The Divas. It's legendary and one is met by hunky half-clad chaps bearing champagne and roses at the finish line plus an "ageless category for those keeping the secret". Ha, I love it!  Since everyone here seems to be fairly fanatical about sport (tennis, sailing, mountain-biking, squash, surfing, spinning, diving, running, stand-up paddling, triathlons - the list goes on) and I hadn't quite found my metier yet, I thought this was as good a place to start as anywhere. This also means we can fit in a bit of Christmas shopping in PR as well so what's not to like? The fact that I can only run about 1.5 miles at the moment without keeling over is a minor issue and it's still preferable to the bee pollen diet from last year.  

We're settling into Carrot Bay and it's bliss. The house is beautiful, serene and airy. We're slowly getting into the island lifestyle especially now that T is around again. Yesterday we even had the Perfect Saturday: Soccer matches in the morning, a good lunch with homemade pesto, a busy DIY afternoon and a scrumptious braai in the evening with a hilarious Graham Norton on the iPlayer after the kids had gone to bed. Our first like that, I think, in 18 months.