June 9, 2008

Dear all,

Saturday we celebrated A's birthday (5 years old on June 13). A and thirteen of his closest friends gathered in Stroud at Go Bananas, a germ infested indoor soft playground.  We have never done a full on birthday party for any of the older kids.  Are we too tired to say ‘no’ we wondered?  Birthdays here are quite different than back home.  For one, the home party is almost unheard of.  Besides, in all my years of teaching pre-school and observing the older kids’ classes, I have never seen a group of such testosterone pumped boys in all my life.  Power Rangers rule even though most of them, including A, have never seen an episode.  Even to have three or four boys over for cake and a few games was completely out of the question.  The party went well with the kids playing on the equipment and then lunching on little tea sandwiches.  The tea sandwich really does exist here.  They don’t taste very good and the crust less white bread does get stuck on the roof of your mouth, but, never mind, they go down a treat.

 

We left A’s party with all his presents (still wrapped-no one unwraps presents at the party) and headed for Tewkesbury where M and S were participating in the Cheltenham College Regatta.  What a dreamy afternoon.  We arrived at the College Boat House later than most parents and the bank of the river was already lined with picnicking parents. Some were in folding chairs at tables draped with linens others on blankets laid out on the ground.  Well-behaved English hunting dogs sat patiently beside their owners (We left our dog, Pig, at home. He qualifies as an English hunting dog, however he feels that anything with four legs, wings or anything that resembles a vacuum is to be consumed in an urgent and rather violent way.  We’re working on that...). The sky was blue, clouds were fluffy and when the ice cream man drove in I thought I might need to be pinched.  So civilized, so perfect. We sat sipping Elderberry Presse in the sunshine.

 

 J and I had yet to see M and S row.  They both started rowing in January first with indoor training and then all spring spending miserable afternoons on The River Severn in the wind, rain and cold.  They came home soaking wet with bloody knuckles and chills right down to the bones.  But on a summer afternoon, to see the boats gliding through the water in such an effortless manner, you’d never know the pain that went into learning to row.  Rowing is a beautiful sport to watch.  So graceful. So powerful.   It is a team effort but you can see the strength of each shoulder, arm and leg as the skulls glide by.  The kids make it look easy, but just enter into the skull and not topple into the water is a skill that must be mastered.  The afternoon was divine and when it was time for tea, we gathered under the canopy to enjoy triangular, crust less sandwiches and tea.  Does life get sweeter? 

 

It does if you are able to leave the regatta and head back to Cheltenham to watch R play cricket.  The good thing about cricket, and there aren’t many, is that R can start a cricket game in the early afternoon and in the early evening, after you have done more than most people do in an entire weekend, you can still make the end of the game. R had one of his best games yet, but managed to lose one school shoe which will prove to be fairly uncomfortable for him (Ask my parents.  They were here to witness the last shoe loss, only a few weeks ago.)  R spent his Sunday washing our cars in order to raise money to buy a new pair. His entire income goes towards shoes.  A concept to which I am familiar.

With love from England,

T-Ann