| Vol 1 | Vol 2 | Vol 3 | Vol 4 | Vol 5 | Vol 6 | Vol 7 | Vol 8 | Vol 9 | Vol 10 | Vol 11 | Vol 12 | Vol 13 | Second Year | Main Page |
If you want to go straight to Vol 13, you may do so now!
...
Paul and Helena had left and we had one more day of Tim's leave. The day was spent doing very little (other than a little shopping) which is always pleasant. Kajsa went to Kohls to get an application form and found that there was a "job day" on Friday. She put down some details on the form and decided to see what happened from there. She went on Friday, completed a huge questionnaire and was put down for an interview on the following Monday. It all seemed quite positive.
In the meantime, Tim went back to work for two horrendous days. It was the last opportunity to get a hand over from Glenn Curran (ex CMDR now Mr.) and there was heaps to do. He shouldn't have gone back!
On the Saturday there was the big 70s party next door at David and Jill's. It was a great night with tacky 70s clothing all around, disco duck music and fantastic food. There are benefits in running a party planning company (as Jill does) and having a sister who is a caterer (as Jill does). It was worth Tim's effort in changing all his travel plans for a week in San Diego. Rather than fly over on that Saturday, visit Las Vegas and fly on to San Diego on Monday, he just flew over on Monday. To get a cheap flight he had to stay over in the West the following weekend instead.
For something to do he visited Phoenix and drove his car up to a place called Sedona. Check the gallery for some images of the fabulous rock formations up there. While in San Diego he did the normal thing, long boring meetings during the day and look around at the local sights, restaurants and bars. He also took the opportunity to see Lost in Space - a very so-so movie. Probably the most memorable event happened on the Wednesday evening. During the day Tim, Mick Hicking and Roger Boyce went to look at the Carillo National Park during the lunchtime break. This park is on the peninsular and is dedicated to some Spanish chappie who was the first European to land in what is now California. There is a light house, a monument, a gift shop and walking trails around the point. Tim decided to go there for a walk in the evening after work was over. Unfortunately the park shuts at 5pm, most bizarre really, so he had to find somewhere else to walk.
He chose to drive up to Mission Beach and wander around there. Mission Beach is one of those beaches that you find in England and the US (less so in Australia) which is ribboned for miles with an esplanade. The distance between the life guard station on Mission Beach and Pacific Beach was one mile and a two mile walk (there and back again) sounded about right so off he went. By the time that he got to Pacific Beach it was sunset, exactly, so he got to watch the sun sink below the Pacific Ocean. It was quite a sight and he was not alone, there were hundreds of people, on the walkway, on the beach, sitting in their cars or in restaurants, who had the same idea. While it was a spectacle, Tim was surprised when they all cheered!
After the walk back he stopped in a little bar off Mission Beach, bought a Corona and watched the series finale of Seinfeld. The whole city apparently came to a standstill during this episode. He just wondered what New York would have been like! The hotel he stayed in was quite comfortable and the view was okay.
While Tim was on the way to the West Coast, Kajsa found out that she had got the job and would start training the Tuesday after Tim returned to the East Coast. That gave her the impetus to do a few things and, as is usual while Tim is away, she did lots of interesting things.
On Tuesday she went to visit Petra (the kids came too) and they ate pizza. (Note that everyone thinks that Tim eats badly while Kajsa is away!) On Thursday morning they all (Kajsa, Petra and the two younger kids) went off to Borders Bookshop (always a bit suspicious that Kajsa runs off to Borders Bookshop when Tim goes away. May have something to do with all those young librarian types). A small section of the Swedish Preschool headed out to the 4H farm that afternoon to practice all they had leart from the educational package gratiously provided by Arla. They had a good time at the farm and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds. As usual the children didn't want to leave. There was another session next-door at Jill and David's that evening (minus David as Jill was being a tennis widow that night). The lonely women enjoyed some (well ... ) wine and Australian beer plus Fresh Field's burritos (they are really really good according to Kajsa - Tim just notes that it is more TAKE AWAY - Kajsa makes some weak claim to the fact that the salad was home-made but then she admits that the salad was actually made by Julia, who wasn't invited because she was at her English course).
Friday was another busy day - Kajsa drove Julia and Amilie (her French friend) to the train station as they were leaving for a weekend in New York. This meant that the whole family had to get up at six, which must have killed Julia who is used to far more sensible hours in the double digits (10, 11 and 12 that is). Surprisingly she was up very early this day, making sure everyone had breakfast and were ready to go on time. After Kalle's school, some of the kids from the pre-kindergarten classes met at the Wolf Trap playground. (Parents were allowed to come too.) Kalle made a close friend in a new boy in his class. Poor Daniel does quite well at school despite his devastating handicap of being British. Daniel didn't want Kalle to go. ("Teach me how to talk properly, I pray of you, don't leave me, milord!" he yelled, hand outstretched. It was a very touching scene as Kajsa dragged Kalle away so that she could look after the boys from next-door for a while.) Looking after the boys led, inevitably, to Kajsa sitting next door drinking wine and beer until all hours.
Swedish Preschool finished the next day, as it was a hot day the kids spent most of the time getting wet and running around in the back-yard. After Swedish school, Kajsa took Kalle and Taltarni to see Madeline at Borders Bookshop (another excuse to visit while Tim was away, boy, is he getting suspicious). Surprisingly, Kajsa did not spend that evening next-door drinking wine and beer.
During the week Tasha was the very proud victor in a struggle with a snake. God knows how but she was able to kill one (and we are pretty sure it was a poisonous one) without being bitten and killed. Nevertheless, she did kill one and then she left it on the backstep. According to the little book we picked up from the Shenandoah Valley last year, it was probably a rattlesnake (described as "the largest and most dangerous snake"). Julia picked up the corpse with a stick and tossed it over the fence. Hopefully it was actually dead and not just stunned. The problem is that the snake wasn't there a couple of days later, so we like to think that it was eaten by a bird.
Tim got back Sunday afternoon and it seemed that there were one or two who had missed him a little while he was away. Tasha did at least. Almost as soon as Tim got home, we all rushed off to visit Petra and Hans for a barbecue. It was very pleasant. Most importantly we got home in time for the last episode of X-Files for the season. Now we are waiting for the movie and intend to be among the first million to see it.
Tuesday evening was Kajsa's first at Kohls. She had a training session in which she was taught to smile (so that the customer believes it) and how to run the cash register. Nothing too stressful. ("... and have a nice day!") Thursday was the first working day in the store (evening really) and it entailed a steep learning curve.
While Kajsa was off learning to smile, Tim and Julia took Kalle and Taltarni to Kalle's School's Spring Picnic. We had to take a cake (we actually took two) for the "cakewalk". This was a variation of musical chairs in which the kids had to walk around a circuit with numbers marked in chalk. When the music stopped they had to stand on the closest number. If the number drawn out was the same as the one on which the kid was standing, he or she would win a cake. Kalle won after his second go and we had to persuade him to not take one of the cakes we brought. (He had to have a chocolate cake though.)
There was also face painting, a blow-up castle, a silent auction (including a prize of the best parking spot) and flavored ice and fairy floss. Kalle was keen to have fairy floss until he actually got some and worked out just how horrible it is. Taltarni loved it though.
Kalle went to National Squirrel Zoo with school on Wednesday and Kajsa got to be the attending parent. Not fair really because the kids stayed a lot longer at the Zoo than they did at the National Air and Space Museum. As the financial year is drawing to a close Tim was forced, very much against his will, to purchase a lot of computer gear for the office. While he had the people on the phone he also made a few purchases of equipment for himself (using his own funds mind you). Since then he has had "get the computers ready for use" added to his list of things to do, both at work and at home.
On Friday Prayers (free drinks at the Embassy) started up again and we made an effort to make it a big one. Many people from the office went with the plan of going off to a local Thai restaurant afterwards. It was an excellent evening and the food at the Thai restaurant was delicious as usual. Next time, however, we'll have to go and test out a new restaurant.
The next day we got up as early as we could and headed off to Kings Dominion again. It was a good day but Tim missed out on trying any of the other roller coasters, the best he could do was get to the 007 - Licenced to Thrill ride, the one that Paul really wanted to try. Tim would like to say, Paul, that you didn't miss much. But he'd be lying. It was superb, absolutely unbelievable, the way they do it is amazing, the effects are outstanding - it is one big adrenaline rush. It is worth the half hour wait and if he'd had more time he would have queued right back up again. Wow! Now he's just waiting for the Blast Coaster (the one with the Volcano) to open. For the most of the day we did the kiddie things.
Sunday was a quiet day because Kajsa worked. She actually worked a lot in the following week as well.
The next evening we had Doug Greenlaw, Anne Potter and John and Pheobe Jacobi over for dinner. John and Phoebe have recently left the US after about five years here and came back (on John's work and frequent flyer points) for a bit of extra shopping. Many a fine wine and some beautifully tender barbecued pork were consumed that evening!
The next evening was a girls night out that Kajsa, Petra and Julia had planned for a while. They headed off to dinner and then went to see The Horse Wisperer at the movies while Tim stayed at home with the kids and the computer. They got back a little after midnight so that Tim was a bit late in the day wishing Kajsa happy anniversary which she had completely forgotten and/or chosen to celebrate with Petra and Julia instead of him. Kajsa thinks that it is terribly embarrassing because it is always the man who is supposed to be the bastard who forgets the wedding anniversary, not the bastard who remembers.
On Saturday, the last day of the month and also, by coincidence, Whitsunday, we went to a party at Ross and Sam Robertson's. We had a return favor of a lift from Ed and Judy (Mason-)Lawler, so neither of us had to worry about driving. Because the evil Christine Neill was there this basically led to Kajsa getting horribly drunk. Luckily for her she spent most of the evening talking with Judy, Christine, Glynis Casboult and a few others and Tim, who was off elsewhere most of the evening, did not see her doing anything reportable. There was some suffering the next day, after midday which was when Kajsa got up.
One conversation was memorable. There was an Australian there who had lived in Washington for six or seven years and sounded American at first, called Tanya (not Tarnya). She was talking to an American (a yank but not a Yankee as she comes from Misissippi/Alabama which is Deep South) about various things, motorcycles, accents, children (the lack of them mostly) and golf. Tanya was a keen golfer and was encouraging others to try it, including the American. Tim had mentioned that he liked to play golf but that it is a hard sport to play often when you have children. The American had earlier said that she had never played golf and another person in the conversation said that he just wasn't interested in it. Tanya emphasised that he should try it. The American (Tim should be able to remember her name but he can't) said: "I don't have any children but I'd like to try golf." To this Tim made the helpful suggestion "If you don't have children, golf won't help - you should try sex!"