Boobs, and other titbits
The local Internet company we had a home subscription with, Lebanese guys, have given up on us completely now. After our home connection died many months ago (and with us learning in the meantime the meaning of the word 'demain' when used by an Africanised Lebanese...), they have over the past two days worked hard and tried to restore it, but 'the trees have grown too high' between our house and their central antenna. Right. I have Internet at work, but A.'s only option is to use one of the Internet cafés in town, which is extremely cumbersome. I feel very sorry for her, because it would make such a big difference for her to be able to go online from home.
Luckily her social life has been livening up considerably this year. She has befriended some 7 or 8 very nice young women, ranging in age from 25 to 35, who meet quite often, with or without their kids. Most of their partners know each other at least professionally as well (it's a small place here). Three of the women are African ladies with European partners, plus one Philippina, one Russian-Sudanese, and A. herself. Think again by the way when you hear seemingly innocent terms like 'ladies lunches' etcetera. Two days ago, during what must have been one of their livelier get-togethers, two of the African ladies (says A. ....) had for one reason or the other bared their upper bodies and were comparing boobs in front of the rest of the frantic lot! At 35, A. is the eldest of them all, but she also has the youngest husband, yours truly at 39, hah!
Clearly I still have enough time on my hands, with a new posting every day. Frustrating that I can't put the stuff online right away (and possibly have some of your feedback). I have been writing at home since I fell ill two weeks ago, and my only time out of the house have been those ill-fated and not very career enhancing two hours in the office last Friday and 45 minutes at a birthday drink last Saturday..
I think I am beginning to feel a little more energetic. This morning doctor PYL came to check on me and he was friendly but adamant: no, he didn't think I should go to that particular meeting at work tomorrow to be updated on current affairs, not even for an hour. As much as this reassures my inner Calvinist, this virtual house arrest is becoming uncomfortable. So I made a second attempt later on in the morning to bring up the subject with A., saying I only wanted to go and sneak into the office tonight, just to have a quick look at some private stuff, pay some bills online, publish this backlog of blog entries online, but she got even quite cross with me, which is rare and therefore not to be messed with...
A few hours later I found out they were right and I was wrong, again. The children's school is at some 200 meters away from our house, which is one of the good things about our life here. I walked down to pick up M. and T., my first such walk in two weeks. When I came back I was very tired, felt the need to lie down (slept 5 hours straight) and had experienced again problems with my equilibrium. I am also losing weight quite visibly, but for the time being I don't mind that at all. All in all, however, this malaria thing is clearly not over yet...
On a happier note, we received good news about M. s performance in class: there has recently been a clear change in his learning attitude (Sh...?) and he has started to work faster, paying better attention, in short, all that is so important to the French (I probably told you before that I find the French school system's philosophy lacking in attention for creativity, social interaction and personal development of the child. I still think M., who is not lacking in intelligence, is often bored in class.)) On the other hand T. 's attention span remains limited: it seems though that she's working with gusto on her own philosophy of social interaction (intensive and in particular at inconvenient moments) and play...
Pfff, whatever. In spite of the difficulties A. and I have recently been living through, we have three very happy, beautiful and thriving children running around here, and that counts for a hell of a lot...
Luckily her social life has been livening up considerably this year. She has befriended some 7 or 8 very nice young women, ranging in age from 25 to 35, who meet quite often, with or without their kids. Most of their partners know each other at least professionally as well (it's a small place here). Three of the women are African ladies with European partners, plus one Philippina, one Russian-Sudanese, and A. herself. Think again by the way when you hear seemingly innocent terms like 'ladies lunches' etcetera. Two days ago, during what must have been one of their livelier get-togethers, two of the African ladies (says A. ....) had for one reason or the other bared their upper bodies and were comparing boobs in front of the rest of the frantic lot! At 35, A. is the eldest of them all, but she also has the youngest husband, yours truly at 39, hah!
Clearly I still have enough time on my hands, with a new posting every day. Frustrating that I can't put the stuff online right away (and possibly have some of your feedback). I have been writing at home since I fell ill two weeks ago, and my only time out of the house have been those ill-fated and not very career enhancing two hours in the office last Friday and 45 minutes at a birthday drink last Saturday..
I think I am beginning to feel a little more energetic. This morning doctor PYL came to check on me and he was friendly but adamant: no, he didn't think I should go to that particular meeting at work tomorrow to be updated on current affairs, not even for an hour. As much as this reassures my inner Calvinist, this virtual house arrest is becoming uncomfortable. So I made a second attempt later on in the morning to bring up the subject with A., saying I only wanted to go and sneak into the office tonight, just to have a quick look at some private stuff, pay some bills online, publish this backlog of blog entries online, but she got even quite cross with me, which is rare and therefore not to be messed with...
A few hours later I found out they were right and I was wrong, again. The children's school is at some 200 meters away from our house, which is one of the good things about our life here. I walked down to pick up M. and T., my first such walk in two weeks. When I came back I was very tired, felt the need to lie down (slept 5 hours straight) and had experienced again problems with my equilibrium. I am also losing weight quite visibly, but for the time being I don't mind that at all. All in all, however, this malaria thing is clearly not over yet...
On a happier note, we received good news about M. s performance in class: there has recently been a clear change in his learning attitude (Sh...?) and he has started to work faster, paying better attention, in short, all that is so important to the French (I probably told you before that I find the French school system's philosophy lacking in attention for creativity, social interaction and personal development of the child. I still think M., who is not lacking in intelligence, is often bored in class.)) On the other hand T. 's attention span remains limited: it seems though that she's working with gusto on her own philosophy of social interaction (intensive and in particular at inconvenient moments) and play...
Pfff, whatever. In spite of the difficulties A. and I have recently been living through, we have three very happy, beautiful and thriving children running around here, and that counts for a hell of a lot...
posted by Emilian at Friday, November 25, 2005
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