some rejuvenation

I just had the BEST 5 days off, it was  a little hectic as we had more guests arrive on top of our resident guest, and with a service dog - 3 year old huge and a little overwhelming Dexter.... but it was great. It was hanging with best friends time, it was family time and condo planning time and dog hair time. There was an overflow of dog hair in the house.

We bbq'd, we hung out on the day of torrential rain that sounded so loud outside, we blew away the cobwebs on the following hot days, we drank too much wine, we swam in the pool. It rocked....

It was 5 days of rejuvenation with the important people in my life, in the most important place called HOME and I even finished my first ever painting furniture project... It turned out very well and I require photos to post on here.

We also made these little apples for the teaches for the girls last day of school. Its messages in their handwriting stitched on:

Happiness is home time in a NS summer.....

in summary

Its the first really hot hot hot day of the year and the girls are in the pool for the first time this season and it struck me that my children are going to grow up in a completely different world to the one I grew up in, in the 1980's in the UK. Some things are similiar, some far from it.

Very different:

• They have a pool, for them its normal to be able to go and hang out in the pool in the summer.
• They ski in the winter, theres a ski resort up the road, granted its no Whistler but it has runs and chair lifts and snow and its an all singing, all dancing ski resort.
• They have a basement that everyone watches warily when theres a monsoon outside and theres often someone in the subdivision that fell victim to basement flooding.
• They live in a subdivision in a community. We had villages, towns and cities.
• They swim in beautiful lakes off of lifeguard watched beaches with jetskis and speedboats destroying the peace from time to time.
• They live in a large detached house with a separate family room. Only my richest of rich friends as a child has a separate family room and they ended up going to Roedean School for Girls.
• They have Z's where we had S's - eg: finalize
• Z is spelt Zee and not Zed, water is warder, not warter
• They travel to school on a yellow school bus wearing non school uniform every day.
• They can travel to the US of A in a car, watching movies on an Ipad and stopping for a drivethrough slushie.
• Walmart is a normal part of life.....
• BBQs are an everyday feature, even in the winter.
• Ticks are a part of summer, as are mosquitos, blackfly and the wham bam of the screen door.
• White Christmas is a given, along with the cutting down of the perfect family Christmas tree from the Christmas tree lot. 

Somewhat similiar:

• There is also a local outdoor summer pool where they have swimming lessons in the community. When I was 8 I swam in an unheated outdoor pool at school and got changed, shivering, in a little wooden changing hut. Bingo on the outdoor pool, the hut and the  unheated pool bit.
• We have dogs, I had dogs as a child, dog hair is a fact of life in this house.
• They swim in the sea and the water is clear and the ambience peaceful, as children we would sometimes have to brave the brown cold water off of Brighton with its pebble beach, or if we were lucky Devon or some such beautiful spot.
• They live in a world where rust exists on cars. That was perfectly normal on a 1982 Ford escort.
• They play outside until the street lights come on. We did that too, even in Brighton

In summary they seem to have the best of my childhood in the best of today (sans ticks!). I couldnt have wished for more, for them.

June? what really? so wheres the heat?

I am here at work, making my way through a homemade Greek salad and contemplating my very sore muscles from Saturday mornings combat 30 workout and listening to chilled out "driving though the Keys" music. Its cool outside, way too cool for my June liking actually. Its been rather blissful but its gone back to shit today weather wise and its put me in a rather bad mood.

In fact its been two rainy Saturdays in a row which lined up reasonably well with plans to go to the cinema. We haven't been to the cinema this much in the three years we have been here but there is an abundance of good childrens, adults can cope with , movies out this summer.

Last weekend we went to see Maleficent and it was all of the Disney magic that I love. It was also an excellent way to spend a rainy afternoon. This weekend we went, again on Saturday, again in the rain (pppfffttt!) and watched How to Train your Dragon 2 - uber sweet and now we all want a glow in the dark real Night Fury called Toothless for Christmas.

Trailers showed previews of A Dolphin Tale 2 which is coming out in September ( a must see!!!!) and Planes - Fire and Rescue, due out on July 10th, its on the list cant wait etc etc

SO..... now we are officially enjoying spending vast sums at Empire Theatres and STILL waiting for the real heat to show up. I am tempted to move South, like now. I am starting to think that this summer will not show up and before we know it we will have slide straight into November without realizing that the waiting is now in vain.

I am wanting to get back to the beach, feel the sand on my toes, dip in and out of the warm ocean and watch the shadows change across the sand as we waste the day away breathing in the sea air and listening to the sound of water lapping..........