Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Lego, Christmas and "Fshing"

The church service last night was very good. Nick is into his new series now, The Four Radical Love Commandments of Christ. I enjoyed playing guitar in the service, although we did make one slight muckup with the timing, but other than that it was great. Of course the boys were very good with Nick in church, and they were actually good with me too; it did help that they were each given a box of smarties which Nick opened for them just before he went up to preach, so that kept them quiet for a while. It also kept them awake when we got home!

This morning I did a bit more painting in the R&P Room. I have to continue tomorrow with the skirtings and pelmets and windowframes etc.

Aaron is bouncing back to his normal self. We had quite a trying time with him when we first arrived – he just seemed to have become this destructive little monster, breaking things and tearing pages in books and all sorts of naughty things. Now, he is careful with books, prays at devotions and before bed, and is generally quite co-operative. Perhaps that was just his phase of “terrible twos” – very short-lived! This evening, after I brushed their teeth, he said that there was something in his nose that he couldn’t get out (with picking), but I couldn’t see anything strange when I glanced into it, so left it. So then, after they had got into bed and I had gone downstairs to make some tea and get a few pieces of chocolate (we’re still working through the ones we were given before leaving!), he came out his room to say that he was just going to get the Lego out of his nose, and I mustn’t worry, he would do it. Silly billy. So I blowed his nose, and lo and behold out flew the tinest little Lego bit. I smacked him for putting it there in the first place, but was rather astounded to see it! Speaking of silly billies, Aaron often refers to himself as Billy. Sometimes he says “Oh, I’m such a silly billy”, and then goes on to say that he is just Billy. It’s really very funny.

Nick mowed the lawn again today – he mows either every week or every second week, and the grass is looking good in some places now. We have pulled out huge patches of weeds; Nick figured out that if one first loosens the ground with the garden fork, that you can pull out clumps of weeds instead of picking each one out individually with the screwdriver. So it’s going quicker now, but there are big patches of ground where we have deweeded. We are confident that it will cover over quickly though, and we will end up with a really lush piece of lawn! The front garden is still barren, I haven’t even finished pulling out the dead stuff. There is a very green bougainvillea growing nicely though, which is the only greenery in the otherwise grayish and brownish garden. No rush for that, we’ll get to it sometime.

The island is very much gearing itself for Christmas. Apparently on Christmas Eve the shops are all open until 9.30 pm, and the kids all go into the shops and buy stuff, usually junk or whatever they can afford, but it’s quite festive. We have a carols service on the 16th December and another one on the 18th, and I believe another one on the 20th. I still don’t know what’s happening when, and when I’m supposed to be singing, and who I’m doing an item with. I think Nick and I are doing something at one, and I’m doing one with Maureen at the other, or maybe they’re both on the same evening, I really can’t work it out. Will see closer to the time what’s going on. Nick has been invited to go fishing with somebody on Saturday week. He has to set out at 4 am because they first have to catch the bait – what they do is they catch a few little fish, then they pop the eye out of a fish and throw it back in the water, then put a hook through another little live fish. The one-eyed fish (not quite a fsh as it still has an i) writhes about in the water and draws attention to itself, while the other fish is the bait. What a disgusting method. Nick shudders at the thought, but will go for the experience. He has a fishing rod, so may as well use it!

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