Day 80

One tired out little girl - hoping Daddy's
T-shirt will help me sleep

Things looking very different without as much snow. Mud and kind of brown looking grass appearing everywhere. We did try out the very tiny children's play area which seemed to be a hit.

Ray rose to the challenge of making homemade custard to accompany my apple crumble so spent much of the afternoon over the stove. It was a huge success (eventually!) and we enjoyed being the Whitby hosts for a lovely evening with the wise couple from downstairs!

Ali

Simple Saturdays. Lazy morning with the kids, started to think about tonights meal, tried to make custard, tried to make custard again. Hmm, and again. Finally figured it out.

Basically we stayed on campus, went to find the play park (the one that is open), went to find the gym (the one that is open) and also the mini-market (the one that is open). Notice any trends? We know the uni is young and there are lots of issues, but today we nearly had a serious accident. As we were walking back into Block 38, a piece of marble tile fell from somewhere above and nearly hit the girls. Obviously don't want to think what would have happened if it had. Suffice to say that this is one step too far. The Block obviously has been rushed, leaving a series of issues. I guess it is comforting to know that despite the moans and groans of the UK, a building like this would result in major fines for the landlords and probable closure until it was rectified. At least the manager has taken this seriously, though I doubt it would be nothing more than a cursory investigation to see where it came from and check if any more from that area is likely to come down.



Heads up

On the plus side, cooked roast chicken and invited a UK couple over. Gerrald is working for UCL at NU and Lina has taken our children as surrogates grandchildren. Lina is teaching Rebekah to knit!

Parenting is always a concern in a building with paper thin walls, but then without consistency the children tend to run riot. We are hearing this from the family living beneath us. It's gone 23:15 and the doors are slamming, children screaming and hear a lot of stomping. Curious though that there are so many security guards in Block 38 (more so the the Canadian Embassy as we were told by one worker there who lives in Block 38) and they do nothing except stare at you.

So in continuing to parent our children, I asked them how we can get them to do what they are told straight away, without any groaning, moaning, sulking and complaining. Matthias said that if we want him to go to his bedroom to get ready for bed without any problems then we leave a trail of chocolates on the floor for him to follow. Think he may have watched Monsters Inc a few too many times.

Ray