Re: Norton live update and swans

[Guest guest]

> I thought of you this afternoon, Ruthie, as I was crossing the

cricket

> pitch to have a word with my DD as she lolled around on the grass

> ( " taking the dogs for a walk " ) - tried to think gliding swans,

managed

> for all of about two minutes before exploding (yikes, all the hamlet

> will hear! now they *know* I'm a fishwife!) - thought more gliding

> swans for more of the day particularly as DS was being very

> uncooperative with a little boy who had come to play for the first

> time...

>

> Anyway - hope you are feeling OK. I thought it was nice of Azarias

> to offer to put the dishwasher on...

>

> love Caro

You live in a hamlet? Sometimes living in a city gets to me and all I

want is to be in a small village with clean air and beautiful

countryside all around.. sounds blissful. But then I know it wouldn't

work for me as we Jews need a whole community infrastructure around

us, synagogues, kosher shops etc. I think the last time Jews lived in

villages was in Eastern Europe before WW2, eg Poland, when the whole

village was Jewish so it had everything it needed. When we first got

married DH was in uni at Cambridge so we lived there for a year. It

was beautiful, and I loved every minute, but I had to drive to London

for all my shopping, even for milk, as there were no kosher milk

deliveries locally. I don't think I could have done that if I hadn't

been young fit and child free (albeit pregnant).

So hamlets will just have to be for visiting, and sighing over, as far

as I am concerned.

As regards the boys, well..Yeshaya is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I wish

he had more to do...the Jewish study program is over. His job

(helping out at a small kosher shop) doesn't need him at the moment

cos their regular guy is back for now. They will phone him when/if

they need him. So he's drifting again, unstructured. He plays

tennis, football, cricket with his friends. He watches videos with

them and they go through mountains of crisps and lakes of fizzy

drinks. They go bowling and Quasar. He isn't *bored* as such, just

totally unstructured. Sometimes he's sweet and charming, other times

he's a PITA. I just wish I had my room to myself when I needed it and

didn't have to throw him out!

Yes that was a surprise, Azariah being so helpful. I think he had

just had a gruelling game of football that night, so was very relaxed

and benign. He's a bit like a pressure cooker, and if he has had no

outlet, he will eventually explode, and it seems to be me he chooses

to explode at.

Never mind, the Barmitzvah of my grandson is approaching (celebrations

from August 2-4), the house will fill up with family from July 30th,

and then on the 6th we go away to our house in Jerusalem. By the end

of that holiday we'll know if Yeshaya got his 5 C's so we'll know what

he's doing next academic year, sixth form or yeshivah. It's this long

hiatus from exams to results which is so hard. Some boys just go

straight to yeshivah after exams, even temporarily, if they're coming

back for 6th form, but Yeshaya didn't want to do that. Others get

" real jobs " but he didn't want to do that either at first, until he

got his latest phone bill, by which time most local jobs were taken by

other kids. He wanted to have " a holiday " , a holiday which has

extended to 3 months, and it's a bit stressful at times. We soldier

on!

Ruthie