We’re all going on a Summer Holiday.

Here in Lao, as in many parts of the World, it is Summer Holidays. Coming from Australia, I find this hard to digest.  Summer, as far as I am concerned, is December/ January.  It is soaring temperatures and expeditions to the beach, Christmas, New Year!

July/August should be cold and wet, I should be accessorising with an assortment of fabulous scarves and battling chilling winds.  Instead, Laos is giving me ferocious storms, 100% humidity and hot, hot, heat!

‘Summer Holidays’ meant nothing to me until I had children… and those children started going to school… and school- decided that for 8 weeks, ‘over summer’,  I would be responsible for my offspring 24hrs-a-day, 7-days-a-week.

For fucks sake! SERIOUSLY!

So here I am, almost one week into the ‘Summer’… again!  What a strange time. What a pot-luck of highs and lows.

The best part has been waking up in the morning and not having to cajole, humour, threaten, bribe and yell to get us all out the door – preferably fed, cleaned and dressed – before 7:45am each morning.  Instead, there have been long morning cuddles and leisurely showers, albeit with a toddler and two little people sharing the bathroom with me.

Watching Monkey and Pigeon play with their little sister, chasing her around the house as she squeals with delight, dancing together, smashing the poor keys on our keyboard to create a sisterly symphony of tuneless noise, more squeals of delight… I find myself clutching my chest as it bursts with love and pride.

What’s more, for the most part, I find myself enjoying the company of my older daughters.

This week we have had our hair cut, our nails done, we have seen a contemporary dance performance.  There have been several play dates, a shopping expedition across the boarder into Thailand.  They have crafted and painted and made cookies and swum. There has been a trip to the Dentist and several trips to the clinic for a variety of ailments.  We have even had a wart removed (I won’t say who or from where!!).  We have been really busy and it has been fun.

But by this afternoon, we were all exhausted.   Chilli was doing circle work and walking into walls well before 6pm.  Pigeon, who had nothing left to give, lay on her bed in the fetal position weeping because, “My eyes are too tired and my nose won’t let me sleep!”.

But it was my eldest who was the most impressive. Around 4pm this afternoon, Monkey morphed into Demonspawn.  Two award-winning tantrums in as many hours. She bulls-eyed just about every button she chose to push.  She fell asleep, wailing even until her final moments of consciousness, I practically sculled three-quarters of a bottle of red wine and sat in the dark for over an hour before the call of nature dragged me out of my catatonic stupor.

… and this is only week one… fabulous!

______

Thanks for reading… I make no promises about writing again until the “Summer” ends, but it is good to know you are here if I need you.

Advertisement