Just A Little Bit Frazzled...

Aaaaaaaarrrrghhhhhhhh! Moving sucks!

Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Now that hubby has sailed for Egypt via the charmingly nick-named Gulf of Pirates, I'm here holding the fort as it were as we enter our last week of living in Singapore. Our belongings have been shipped and are also on their way to Europe, due to arrive a week after we do. Our 'camping' location here at the Wilby has started to look suspiciously permanent as the kids seem to acquire new toys by the day and I'm not absolutely certain that our remaining stuff will fit into our suitcases.

Today I have to give back our lease car (nooooooooooooo!), I've handed over all our passports and residency permits to be cancelled (sniffle) and picked up the paper work to close our bank accounts. It's all looking so final.

The kids however are fully immersed in the last week of school, and having narrowly survived the feverish sugar-fuelled adrenaline crazed sleepless week that was Sinterklas, we now get to do that all over again for Christmas. Plus farewell parties again for both at school on Friday. Oh, and did I mention I'm cooking pancakes for Carl's class Christmas party lunch, and stabbing cocktail sausages onto sticks for Niels Christmas dinner on Thursday night?

In between trying to get telephone and cable organised for Holland - don't even ask me what I think about a system that takes A MONTH to hook up a phone line - we also will have to go grovelling back to our former cable tv supplier whom we told to shove their cable up their asses when we left because they were such bastards - because apparently we live in no mans land and digital tv doesn't broadcast to the twilight zone. Strange when you think that the Netherlands is a VERY SMALL COMPLETELY FLAT COUNTRY and yet digital signals magically stop once you get beyond the 50 km zone of the nearest city.

Am I sounding stressed? Surely not, why would I be??

Here's a nice calming picture for you instead, of the Aoka Mizu underway. It was taken during the sea trials last week. Can you see Holger waving cheerily from the bridge? I'm not saying his job is easy but just think: your own cabin where no one comes in to demand you pull silly putty out of your toy monkeys' tail or wipe strings of snot off their chin when you are sitting on the toilet. No one bursting into your bedroom at some godforsaken hour of the night to ask if Sinterklas will come back tomorrow? The day after? What about the one after that? How about the one after that? No turning around when you're shampooing you hair under the shower to see two forlorn little eyes watching you and a trail of pee on the floor indicating they didn't quite make it to the loo on time. No one shouting "You're so mean, you're the worst mother in the world!!" because we've run out of peanut butter.

I know, I know, I should be looking on the bright side. After all, next Monday I get to sit on a crowded plane for 12 hours with my two little kids! What could be more fun! If only we get our passports back before then...