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If you want to go straight to Vol 4, you may do so now!
...
At first when we tried to remember what we did during
September, nothing came to mind. We did recall that autumn
(well we could say fall, because of where we are - but we won't!)
had started in earnest. The leaves started changing colour
and falling off, the squirrels started being very busy and we saw
some more deer. Tim didn't travel away at all and there was
a huge gaping silence from Australia. Work was not overly
interesting and while Tim was busy(ish) there was no real sense
of achievement. It was in a way like exercising on a
treadmill - lots of running but not much progress. Kalle
continued going to school and dressing up as Batman.
Taltarni continued to threaten to walk (without support that is)
and began to stand by herself, to the cheers and clapping of
Kajsa, Tim and Kalle. Taltarni then started to stand up
herself and clap herself as well!
Then, memory of what we did all started coming back ...
The month started with the last day of the season at the local water park. We went late (after work) and joined the huge crowds of people at a water park that is oriented at the under tens. It is a bit like the children's area at the Homebush Aquatic Centre, but bigger of course - and outdoors. Kalle had a great time and we got thoroughly cold but that didn't seem to matter. Afterwards we went on a thrilling boat ride around the little lake near the water park. If you looked in the right direction, at the right time, you couldn't see the jetty from which the ride started. There was a surprising lack of crocodiles, water buffalo, sea serpents and shark. We also didn't see any bears, badgers, beavers, squirrels, groundhogs or deer. Basically all we saw was a lot of weed just below the surface of the water and a few trees around the lake. After that excitement, we calmed down by riding on the merry-go-round.
While we've been here, Tim has been encouraged to play soccer with an international group. He was told that they don't play very well and that his confessed poor standard would not be a problem. On the first weekend we all went to watch them play, which was fun for Kalle and a bit of a worry for Tim. Obviously they don't a very good concept of what playing badly really means. The following week, he bravely attempted to play for a while (approximately ten minutes actually before the coach from hell called him off). His game basically consisted of running up and down the field, more and more slowly, a few kicks in the general direction of where the ball had been going anyway and lots of calls of "Yours!" Kalle was very proud of his pappa's attempts. The coach from hell (who uses the negative feedback method of coaching, saying things like "That was terrible effort, you played like a fairy!" in this case not directed at Tim, who probably didn't play as well as a fairy could have been expected to play!) said that Tim could play again if he liked, perhaps, as long as he brought the beer. Next week, despite good intentions, Tim did not play. As the number of commitments seemed to be increasing and the amount of time Tim spent with the kids during the week was close to half an hour a day, it was decided that soccer would fall off the programme. Very strange.
On the first weekend, on the Saturday, we went off to a party at the house of Ed and Judy Lawler. It was fun, so much fun in fact that neither of us were capable of driving home and had to get a lift. We invited Ed over the next day on the proviso that he drive our car home! (We did give him lunch and his kids got to play with Kalle.)
We engaged in the very American pasttime of 'Yard Sale' cruising the following week. We did have an excuse - Taltarni's climbing was becoming excessive and she loves nothing more than getting into the wrong cupboard and pulling out all the expensive china. So, we needed a few gates for the house. We did find a few gates but most of all we saw heaps of junk. If you ever want to find that last piece of Barbie memorabilia (is that plural of memorabillious?) try a yard sale.
The next day we went to the world famous Wolf Trap to see the International Children's Festival. We wandered around the area, which is just beautiful, and sat in on a show by Bob (pronounced Baarrb) from Sesame Street. Did you know that an astronaut is a person in your neighbourhood, he's a person that you meet, when you're walking down the street each day? We never meet the astronaut in our neighbourhood, let alone each day. We had to run away from the festival because we had been invited to lunch at the Clarkes'.
Lachlan, their son, has been an important person in Kalle's life over here. Partly because he is an older boy and partly because Lachlan has the second largest collection of Lego we have ever seen, plus all the Star Wars stuff that he has been able to wrangle his parents into buying. We had a nice relaxing lunch which was good as we turned up about an hour late because we got so tremendously lost that you wouldn't believe it! Lunch lasted until well after Kalle and Taltarni's bed time, we just sat outside chatting and listening to the leaves and nuts fall off the trees and watching a few squirrels playing in the trees, very pleasant!
In the week that followed, Tim was supposed to have gone away but that fell through. This was good news for Tim, because he got to play golf one day and go to Kalle's school for a "Back to School Nite (sic)" and we also got to go to the cinema to see "The Game". This was only the fifth movie that Kajsa had seen at the cinema since Kalle was born! (Tim unfairly went off to see a few movies during his travels on SYDNEY, on top of seeing "Blade Runner - The Director's Cut" the day after Kalle was born!) The fact that Tim was not going away was not such good news for Kajsa, she now had no reason to decline and was therefore forced to go to the Defence Wives' Dinner. She thought she had a perfect excuse - "Sorry, Tim's away and the children are unsettled - I'd love to come, maybe next time." Surprisingly, Kajsa actually had a good time. Some of the wives didn't talk about their husbands (very much).
The golf was great. It was a Service Attache's Golf Association game and was played at Quantico (the Marine and FBI training base). The course was beautiful and covered in groundhogs, almost every hole had an audience. To speed up the play we were all issued with a goft cart - a very civilised way to play golf, Tim has decided, because you don't get out of alignment by hauling a golf bag all over the course. Tim had the great fortune (well, skill actually) to get a birdy, his first ever, on a Par 5. There was a fair amount of dancing around and thrusting of forearm in the air, along with cries of "Yes, yes, yes." Quite embarrassing really.
One of the other players in Tim's group was a tall bloke with a strange accent. "Where do come from?" Tim asked. "Sweden", Hans replied. Quite a coincidence that the only Swede playing that day gets put in a group with the only other person in SAGA who can speak a little Swedish! We invited him to the housewarming and we may well be able to get involved with the Swedish community here through this chance meeting. Golf is a good way to network! (Specially if you get a birdy as well!)
One thing that looms big in Tim's memory is his experiences with America On Line. Numerous were the days during this month that Tim came home and complained endlessly about how hopeless AOL is. He's sure that AOL make a lot of money and he's aware that their stupid access system is great for the great unwashed who just want to skim the surface of what you can do with e-mail and the Internet. But when you try to do one or two tricky things like access email directly from Australia (rather than through your AOL account) the program start falling down around your ears, then the whole computer crashes which means that you can't even access your AOL account, let alone do something useful.
At least two whole days were spent battling the evil twins - Microsoft ("Oh no it can't be Windows 95, it must be AOL!") and AOL ("Oh no it can't be our very robust software. It sounds like Windows 95 is corrupt. Reformat your hard-drive and start again from the beginning." - Oh yeah that sounds like a good idea - how long will that take to sort out, perhaps only a week or two.) Anyway, anyone accessing this on the internet can congratute themselves on having a far`better access provider than the one we have to put up with.
Kajsa had another wives' function towards the end of the month. There was a "Morning Tea" at the Ambassador's Residence. Yes, Kajsa and the women of the Australian's in Washington Association were all invited to have tea and cookies at Andrew's place. No blokes, though. Tim took the day off to look after Taltarni and pick up Kalle from school - it was also a good opportunity to prepare for the housewarming that we held the following Saturday.
The housewarming was quite a success, we had about forty or so people (plus kids) and, as always, it was hugely over-catered. After we finally gave up trying to encourage people to eat more, we were able to relax and had a great time. The guests seemed to enjoy themselves as well, we threw the last ones out at about half past two.
The next day we set out at midday to go horse riding with WAIJOS, the Washington Area International Junior Officer Society. The weather looked a little bleak as we drove into the country but it wasn't raining. Not long afterwards, though, it started to drizzle a little. By the time we had driven about forty kilometres to the riding place, it was pouring. Just as we got there, however, the rain started to ease off a bit. So, despite the fact that it was still raining (and the saddles were all wet - how uncomfortable) we got equipped and got up on the horses.
As we were mounting (which should be simple, you just go to the horse, put your foot in the stirrup and get up but only Kajsa was a competent rider so it took about a quarter hour), the rain got heavier and heavier and, by the time the last person was up on a horse, it was bucketing down. This would have been fine for the three girls who had rain coats issued by the riding place, not so good for the boys who just got drenched.
Then, just after we had set our minds to getting and staying soaked for the whole ride, the guide came out and told us that it did not look like it was going to get much better - did we want to give it up? We did the sensible thing, to the delight of the horses. We all got off and went to a winery instead. The wine was nice, vastly overpriced, but quaffable.
As a result of being one of the five only people who turned up for horseriding, it appeared that Tim was being targetted for membership of the WAIJOS board (as the recruiter). This might not have been such a bad job, it would give him an excuse to go around all the Embassies to drum up interest in the organisation. While there he might be able to get some invites to look around the Embassies as well (but he will have to make sure that Kajsa can come too!)
Anyway, that was the month from our point of view. As of the end of the month, most of the trees have started to change colour and the leaves from many have started to fall. The weather has remained amazingly warm - the threatened cold of fall has not been realised. The squirrels have been very busy which is apparently an indication that it will be a hard winter, that will be okay as long as it snows! Given the El Nino, however, it might be a dry winter. We'll have to see.
We have become reasonably resigned to the peculiarities of the Americans. It was nice to have some of the neighbours along to our housewarming. They are all so very busy though and we don't get to see much of them. Well, there is one house that Kalle visits often. They have a very loud nanny from Kenya and Kalle is in love with the biggest (but not oldest, in fact the youngest) of the four adopted Latin American girls. Ahhh!
Enough, until next month!