A Green and Pleasant Land....

We are approaching the end of our Summer 2008 holiday at 'home'. We've had a blast even though the weather hasn't been the slightest bit kind, in fact it has, for the most part, been foul. Nothwithstanding too much necessity to wear wellies and raincoats, our girls have got a whole new set of memories to bank and whole new list of favourite things to eat. In no particular order, they have eaten their own bodyweight and more in the following:-

• Fish and Chips - of course! Rosie must have absorbed some of the content of my constant nutrition lecturing and now insists that fish must be eaten 3 times per week in order to make her clever. She won't however, be persuaded that salmon reaps the same benefits as battered fish from the chippy.

• Ice Pops. Teeth achattering, Emily will eat these until her mouth turns blue and since I optimistically bought a pack of 100 when the sun was shining (for 4 days!), it's just as well that arctic weather doesn't deter her.

• New Potatoes. Previously labelled 'isgusting' (sic) by Emily and retch-inducing to Rosie, potatoes are now their carbohydrate of choice. Only being able to buy and serve almost sprouting, on the turn to nasty spuds in Malaysia perhaps contributed to their disdain and here's hoping that I'll be able to buy this little taste of heaven when we are in Dubai otherwise it's back to the rice for us.

• Mr Whippy ice cream. Rosie will always eat ice cream by the bucketful but Emily claims that it's too cold! However, we bought a 99 cone at the farm and that alongside the hypnotic effect of the ice cream van jingle has led to repeated demands for 'warm ice cream with a chocolate sausage'. Hmmm.....

• Roast Dinners. Familiar to them already because of my desire to keep true to our roots, the humble roast dinner has become a Thing of Desire. I have no problem with this since they have accepted that mounds of veg must be eaten before a second helping of yorkshire pudding will be dispensed. I won't be wasting any more money on Annabelle Carmel books.

They have acquired a taste for many more items that may not be as readily available overseas. Some I'm hoping that I'll be able to source (local strawberries, peas in the pod, mature cheddar), others I'm hoping won't be espied on the supermarket shelves (Foxes classic biscuits, Seabrook crisps). You can take the girls out of England but you can't take England out of the girls.......

Roots

Both Andy and I miss so much about our home country but it's fortunate that an intensive 'dose' every year or so is enough to satisfy our cravings whether they be for a decent pint in a decent pub or an eyeful of the the moors from my mum's garden. We are both of the opinion that real friends remain so and it's testament to this that without daily, weekly or sometimes even monthly contact we maintain a core of people that we truly value and consider to be our friends for life. Of course we miss our family and friends and since leaving Malaysia we have a whole other set of people to miss as well, but we remain convinced that our choice to live and work overseas is the right one for our little family. We are very fortunate to have deep roots here in the UK with both sets of families remaining close and in our hearts and those of our children. We work hard to ensure that our girls know where they come from and who is important to them through us. Hopefully, they will continue to feel connected through our regular trips 'home' and through the visitors we get to our home in whichever country happens to be called that at the time. We are privileged to have both a wonderful 'real' life which we hope will continue in Dubai, and a place where we can come periodically to regroup, reground and spend time with those we have known and loved longest.

Big Girl Shoes

We are reaching yet another milestone in our young girls' lives; Emily will be wearing school uniform for the first time in September when she starts at the nursery attached to Rosie's new school. Her feet are still so tiny that she had only one option when we went today to buy school shoes for her from Clarks; a weeny little pair of black leather mary janes. A row was expected, since Emily is particularly contrary when it comes to her personal attire, but she was so excited by the occasion and of course happy to be following her sister in getting big girl shoes that it never materialised. She was overjoyed when we proceeded to the sports shop to buy PE shoes which happen to be her very own favourite type of footwear. We almost had a glitch when she wanted some silver ones but the threat of 'these or none', since the strict uniform policy states white only are allowed, set her back on track to compliance. The next job is to buy the rest of the uniform when we reach Dubai next week and I'm hoping that they'll have one tiny enough for her. The past three years have gone so quickly and I can't believe we're at the point of buying school uniform for BOTH girls even if the youngest is still in size extra, extra small. Perhaps it's time for number 3.....

All Together

We've had a lovely few days since Andy has joined us in the UK. The girls were ecstatic to see their Daddy and he had a welcome befitting a returning hero when we met him at the airport.

We made the trip to North Wales on Saturday to join Andy's nephew Philip and his lovely new bride Lian at their wedding reception. The girls were resplendent in new outfits and silver party shoes and even though the evening ended up with them half asleep and not a little grumpy, it was nice for them to attend a family function the likes of which they're not normally privvy to.

We're trying to make the most of these last two weeks before we go to Dubai but we're all getting increasingly excited about the start of our new adventure. Not least because it's cold, wet and blustery here in the north west of England and the novelty of wearing jackets is starting to wear off. It will be cooking eggs on the tarmac hot when we land in the Middle East but pretty soon the temperatures should start to come down and we'll hopefuly be left with perfect pool, beach and park conditions. Hopefully our very early starts up for school again will leave some energy to enjoy it.

We Can't Wait

The concept of time doesn't mean much to very young children. The time tested solution to this is to count down the number of sleeps until an event and they seem able to grasp this. We are now at a point where we will have '5 big sleeps' until we see Daddy again. Emily tries to negotiate in the hope that it will become reality. Her contribution when we discuss it is to say 'no, 2 more big sleeps', or whatever. I suppose she's still at the age where she believes that if she wishes it so, it must come true. Our rather more mature 5 year old however is accepting of reality and is very pragmatic about it to the point where she takes great delight in explaining to her sister that Daddy has a ticket for the aeroplane and can only use it on the day it says so. Having said that, out of all of us it's Rosie that's missing Andy the most. Her occasional good behaviour lapses at the moment are I think symptomatic of unvocalised feelings towards being separated from her Dad for so long. She confided in Grandad Michael this morning that she's missing him and is feeling sad about it. We are definitely on the home straight now though. We have two weeks together in the UK and then we all fly to Dubai on the 31st August to start our new life there. What will we blame any less than perfect behaviour on then? Perhaps being 3 and 5 and just a little bit spirited is reason enough.......

Happy as Pigs in......

Our girls got disgustingly filthy today. I mean mud in the eyelashes and hosing off in the garden filthy. It started with splashing in the puddles in Nanny's lane and very quickly descended into sitting in the mud, making pies and dams and seeing who could get the most gloriously revolting. Just puddle splashing was in itself was a strong concession for me since I have an aversion to my children getting dirty. I know thats it's silly and bordering on cruel and that everything (particulary skin!) is washable, but I can't help it. My girls know this and I think they wondered when they would next get the chance and so decided to make the most of the opportunity. Luckily, Nanny Pat is the absolute best stain remover in the world and within an hour their clothes were sparkling again. Not so easy the children; they had to sit in a bucket in the garage to get the first round of muck off and then again in the laundry bucket and thirdly up the stairs in the bath for a final suddsing. The only lingering evidence was a thick black ring round the bath and two very satisfied children....

You can come too, too, too....

We went to Chester Zoo today. I don't know what the girls were more excited about; seeing the animals or meeting up with our friends Susie and Mia from Kuala Lumpur. They are also visiting England and it was our final, final chance to see them and say goodbye for a while. It felt a little strange at first being so totally out of the environment that we usually spend time together in (i.e. Malaysia!) but we all soon got back into the usual routine of playing and gossiping. The monkeys and apes were the draw of the day for the girls and a rather more exclusive (than the burger bar) little tea rooms was given the thumbs up by us ladies. The weather was relatively kind and we only had to shelter from the rain a couple of times.

It was sad to say goodbye and whilst I'm sure that many months won't pass before we see each other again, we will all miss the Harvey girls very much and we're glad that we were able spend a memorable day together.

Family

Although our girls don't get to see their grandparents as frequently as most children, they have several periods of intensive contact during the year both in their own home when their grandparents visit and when we come to the UK for our annual summer holiday. Needless to say, the time that they do spend with them is joy filled and memorable. They love them all for different reasons. They love Nanny Pat for her tireless patience and the great cardigans that she makes and Grandad Don for his comfy cuddles. They love Grandma Joan for taking them walking and letting them loose on her garden and they love Grandad Michael for his silly songs.

It's a pleasure to see them amongst their cousins and they are fortunate enough to have a total of 12 ranging in age from 18 months to 31 years!

We feel that it's important that Rosie and Emily know their where their roots lie and that they remain an important part of their extended families regardless of geography. We're therefore hoping that since we'll be living a lot closer to home than we have been come September, we'll have a lot more visitors and our families and friends can have a small taste of how we live and the girls can delight in sharing a little bit of their world too.