Tess and the kids have left the building…
Tess and the kids have gone to Canada. With the exception of Liza and our new fish Dobby, the house is empty, clean and quiet. Tess and the kids are gone for six weeks until mid-August so the flat is in for a long haul without them. I remember last year it was turbo-charge mode after they left, with all sorts of projects kicking into high gear moments after watching them pass through Immigration. Today it felt different – there are twice as many projects but the turbo hasn’t yet kicked in. Maybe I just need a good night’s sleep. Union Church is hosting an evening for summer bachelors, “Cigars Under The Stars” on the church’s rooftop. This will be my first port of call but meanwhile, I have way too much to do before a hit-and-run, seven day visit to Toronto and the Okanagan later this month.
Tess was a master packer, too. She managed to get an entire summer’s worth of clothes into two suitcases. (I am highly suspicious the “summer collection” will expand once Tess finds herself at outlet malls.) Each one of them also had an appropriately sized carry-on and Tess had her laptop in a backpack. The triplets legally need to sit in booster seats while in Canada. When we dragged the luggage out of the car each one of them dutifully carried their booster seat in one hand while pulling their “wheelies” in the other hand. Sebastian is delighted that he has now graduated from needing a booster seat.
Tess and I had mixed views on technology this year. For a while we contemplated a technology free summer but finally surrendered albeit Sebastian agreed to leave his iTouch in Hong Kong. Sela took my Kindle, loaded with The Bobbsey Twins, Enid Blyton and more. We have four Android tablets, the equivalent to iPads, but much less expensive. The kids call them T-pads. Carys’ t-pad is in the shop for repairs, which is partly why I surrendered my Kindle. The T-pads were also loaded up with books and some of the kids’ favourite movies.
The beauty of technology is that we can communicate back and forth so easily. The kids love to play “DrawSome” and leave endearing messages whenever they send or receive a drawing. Sela wrote me the above message after being unable to send me a text message a few days ago. As I drove home from the airport I somewhat kicked myself for not installing Skype on the T-Pads and realised Seb wouldn’t be able to Skype without his iTouch. But technology is remarkable. Upon arriving home I remotely accessed the kids’ T-pads via Market Android to install Skype. Next time they connect to a wireless Internet connection, Skype will be automatically installed.
Alas, sceptics, nothing replaces the tactile feel of a paper book – that’s the story I’m sticking to for sending my Kindle to Canada – so the kids still had a few paper books in tow. I, too, will appreciate the palpable feel of a paper book this summer. My hope is to finally get to read “Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust,” by Immaculee Ilibagiza and hopefully get caught-up on some blogging, too. After all, there is the remarkable story of Dobby.
