7 November 1999

Dear All
A quick aside....I am hoping tha Angus can rustle up some pictures of their trip to NY, I was shocked to discover that I only had 3, and they are not that great!

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all well and enjoying the summer in S.A., the cold in the U.K and the warmth in California. I hope that that just about covers everyone. We are all very well as long as we are wrapped up in our jackets. We have had a very bust week and weekend so this carries a warning: Long e-mail with plenty detail. If you don't like it....don't read it! Monday and Tuesday flew by pretty quickly. I did some shopping for our first guests, a duvet for the sleeper couch and groceries, nothing much exciting there. On Wednesday morning I had to go to Jessica's reading recovery lesson to observe and discuss her progress with her teacher. It was at 9:30 in the morning which suited me just fine as Kirstin has school. I dropped Jess off and then rushed home to get Kirstin to school on time and horror of horrors, Kirstin did not want to go! I asked her why and she said she was hungry (she had eaten breakfast already) which I found a little strange so I said she could have a granola bar in the car on the way to school. Then she didn't want to go because she was feeling sick! So I said if she was still feeling sick at school that I would fetch her. We were in the car by this stage on the way and she started howling and saying "I don't want to go to school please", so of course I got a bit more worried and started questioning her again as to WHY. She said it was because she did not like having 2 teachers and because they shout at the class when they don't put the toys away and that she does not know where all the toys go. By now she was in a state and I was worried, so I just took her home. Anyway she came to Jessica's reading class with me in the end. Jessica was not at all surprised to see Kirstin and after the lesson we went home and I phoned Malcolm and told him how well Jess was doing according to the teacher and that Kirstin did not want to go to school, he suggested that perhaps Jessica had something to do with it. So when I fetched Jess I said to her "You didn't seem to be surprised to see Kirstin in your reading class, why didn't you ask me or her why she was there, you knew she had school?" and she said "I did ask her, when we went to the bathroom" (there is a bathroom in her classroom). Anyway it turns out that Jess wanted Kirstin to come to her reading class and told Kirstin to get out of going to school! Sly,sly, sly! But it was also rather sweet that they conspired together just so that Kirstin could visit her reading class. I also knew that come hell or high water Kirstin WOULD be going to school on Friday! Malcolm was rather nervous about his first trip to JFK as every time he has been the drivers he has had have taken him along different routes. But he looked on the route finder on the Internet and in our map book and discovered that it was very straightforward. It is very expensive to park in the city so he caught the train to work on Wednesday morning and came back early to leave for the airport at 4 p:m for their 5 p:m flight. He made good time. So we now know that the airport is only an hour from home...depending on traffic! The kids were thrilled to see Angus and Marianne and were very happy to know that they were staying for more than one night. Jessica had school on Thursday and was very good about going. I felt sorry for her because Kirstin was staying home and enjoying the guests but Jessica was very practical about it. She said that she "knows that she has to go to school because she has a lot to learn." After dropping her off we went to White Plains to the Galleria shopping centre to buy "Fall" jackets for the girls and just to wonder around aimlessly for a while. Marianne and Angus bought the girls each a dress for Christmas with Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer print on the shirt and on the front of the dress, very cute! Marianne and Angus wanted to give the girls their gifts early so that they could enjoy watching them open them so while I fetched Jess Marianne wrapped them all and put them at the fireplace. The girls were in agony because they had to wait for Malcolm and Angus to get back from watching the rugby before they could open their gifts. They both love their dresses and they also got a money box with a lock and key and a beanie for the cold weather. Malcolm and I were also spoilt... Malcolm got a Pink Fly disc for the computer which has ALL their stuff from year one to date. (or whenever they did their last album) I got some lovely dishtowels and pot holders in blue for Holland and we got a bottle of Apricot Brandy in a Delft blue bottle which is beautiful! Now I also had another plan up my sleeve and at about 8:30, ten minutes before dinner and after a "wrong" number call I suddenly realised that I had not made dessert and Malcolm fell right in ... what about Ben & Jerry's (ice cream)? I said I would dash out and get some before dinner was ready, although I had already slowed dinner down even thought he guys were starving. I went to the Rye Marriot hotel with Marianne,( I had told her my surprise already) to fetch Terry who had just flown in from Canada! I decided to get B&J anyway to make things authentic so we dashed into A&p and got 2 tubs. When we got home I ran in and said that dinner would be in ten minutes, with my ice cream purchase in my hand of course. They were watching "Whose line is it anyway?" and grunted their approval. So I went back to the kitchen to finish dinner quickly. Terry walked through to the lounge and sat down next to Angus on the couch with a beer in his hand. He walked straight past both of them and neither of them even looked up! He sat there and then said "Howdy Boys!" and they both looked at him shocked. I was doubled over laughing! I could not believe how they just SAT there and STARED! Afterwards Malcolm said he was so surprised he didn't know what to say. Anyway we all sat down and had a great dinner, and drank Dom Pedro's and Strawberry daiquiris until midnight. On Friday Terry went into the office with Malcolm as he also had some work to do and I took Kirstin to school. She did not want to go but I just took her in peeled her from me and handed her over. It would have been easier for me to keep her at home because of the hours but I need to see if she is going to be happy or if I should just keep her at home. I have decided that if by the end of November she is still not happy going to school that I will keep her at home. Isn't it funny, how she went from marching in to not wanting to go? I think it may just be a delayed reaction but I will have to wait and see. Angus, Marianne and I went to town and I bought them breakfast, bagels ( what can I say?) and we went to the beach and enjoyed them in the warm sun and cold wind. Angus drove us to the beach and then to Kirstin's school to fetch her. She came out of her class smiling holding up a leaf that she had painted so she obviously had a good day. Then we just went browsing around the shops for a while before going home. Malcolm and Terry came home at 3 p:m, same time as I fetch Jess and we sat around chatting. Angus had cleaned up the fireplace for us and set up a fire for later in the evening and Malcolm broke up some wood that we had in our garden. Then we all set of for an early evening of ice skating. We went to an ice rink in New Rochelle, about 7 miles from home. I was worried that they would not have skates for Kirstin's size but they did. We all got our skates on and got prepared to fall all over the ice, except for Terry and Marianne who have had a lot more practice than we have had. I did not know whether I would still be able to skate. Kirstin and Jess got on the ice with us holding on to them and the rails. Marianne took them around in turns and I slowly found my feet or should I say skates and got a bit more confident. Not as stable as I used to be, but I did manage to go around with the kids. Kirstin loved going with Marianne because she just wanted to go fast. Marianne held her with both arms around her waist and Kirstin's feet between Marianne's and skated like that, Kirstin did not have to much to do! They both found their feet okay and we watched some kids having a lesson and discovered that the learn to walk on the ice. So that is what we did with the kids. Jessica caught on extremely quickly and walked around giving other beginners lessons which was extremely funny. Our daughter still very obviously in the learning phase, " teaching" other kids how to skate! Kirstin also managed to walk very easily but was not happy with the speed so she opted for Marianne! Malcolm and Angus were the funniest, holding on to the rails and sliding all over the ice. But by the end of the evening there was a vast improvement in both of their abilities. We all went out to dinner afterwards to Applebee's and then home to bed as we were all exhausted. On Saturday the guys went to Robin and Darota's to watch rugby and we went to the Westchester mall to the Crate and Barrel (stunning home store, kitchen through to bedroom) where I bought some Margarita glasses. Then on to the Disney store where I bought myself a jacket for the Fall weather. It is red and black and of course has Winnie the Pooh and Tigger on it, I never thought I would buy a red jacket but it actually looks quite good on me! In the afternoon everyone went to the beach with the kids and I stayed home and cooked in peace. We were having a full house, Brett and Sharon and Robin and Darota (and their 2 boys) were all joining us for the evening. We just had a good old S.A meal, a casserole with chutney and some salads and Dom Pedros for dessert. We lit the fire and drank a few cocktails. It was a wonderful evening, and not too much of a late one because we wanted to go into Manhattan early on Sunday morning. Well as usual our plan was not perfect...Malcolm had decided to drive to a station closer to Manhattan because the New York marathon was being run and we did not want to struggle to find parking and get stuck in traffic on Angus and Marianne's last day. Well we had a race against the train and lost! The trains only run every hour on a Sunday so we decided to alter plans a bit and go to Queens and catch the subway into Manhattan. Now please spare a thought for Terry as I tell this story because he was in the back (Boot) with all the luggage! We do not know our way around Queens, nor do we know where the good and bad areas are but I do know that Flushing Meadows is a decent area so we decided to park there because we knew that there would be subways. BUT before we got to Flushing we spotted the Shea stadium so we decided that this was also good because the subway would run from there too and there was plenty of parking. The station looked deserted when we drove up so we asked a guy if the underground was running and he said yes the number 7 train. Well the evening before Brett and Sharon had told us that the No. 7 train was not running this weekend because they were doing maintenance work! So bang went that idea. Now we had not experienced bad traffic at all so I suggested that we just go and park in Manhattan at the garage around the corner from Malcolm's office so that was plan, oh I think about E. The streets were not busy so it did work out well. Then Angus fulfilled his dream, we caught the subway and he was rather disappointed, no seedy people, no weirdo's, just people like us. We had brunch in Greenwich Village and walked around a bit. Wen to George Washington Park and watched some Asian guy entertaining the crowd for a while and then went on to Central Park, by bus this time so that every one could see the sights. There were a lot of runners finishing the marathon in Central Park but we had a really pleasant walk. Then back to the car to get Angus and Marianne to the airport. Angus was flying home and Marianne to Canada on a business trip. We left Manhattan at 4 p:m, convinced that this would be plenty of time. Unfortunately we got very stuck in traffic...we managed 3 blocks in 30 minutes and Malcolm was boiling with rage at the traffic. I got out of the car and asked a man in blue for directions to JFK and he suggested the Midtown Tunnel which we had not tried before. It goes under the East River. Well thank goodness traffic lightened up and things went a bit faster. BUT the Marianne looked at her ticket and it did not say JFK, it said EWA New York. I suggested that this might be Newark but t we all knew that there was absolutely no way to make both airports. We finally got to the airport at 5:30 and bid our farewells. Now we had real traffic to fight on the way home. Then comes the call from Angus...Marianne's flight is from Newark. The taxis were charging $90 for the trip which was just crazy so we turned around and went back to JFK. When we got there Marianne had managed to find a shuttle bus and was on her way to Newark. Angus had waited for us to tell us. He had also discovered from the 1800 number for United Airlines that there were no more flights leaving for Canada from Newark so Marianne was going to be stuck for the night! Well there was absolutely nothing else we could do because it was late and we had no clue as to how to get to New Jersey. So we just decided that we would go home and wait for a call from Marianne. We finally got home at 8:00 p.m, please take note that this was 4 hours spent in the car. I warmed up some leftover stew for dinner and got the kids to bed. Marianne called and said that she could get a flight from La Guardia at 7:10 a:m, same time and place as Terry's flight to Canada so she caught the Connecticut limo to the Rye Marriot and she phoned me when she arrived at 10 p:m to go and fetch her. We were all exhausted so after a drink we all crawled into bed because they had to be up at 5 a:m for the next round! I have never had a day like that, it was fun, then annoying, frustrating, and finally relieved but exhausted! All in all we had a wonderful weekend and the up side to our whole adventure was that we did not get lost once. Malcolm now knows how to get to JFK and La Guardia blind folded and we also know that we will make sure of air ports in the future! International flights will be JFK 90% of the time, but we will still make sure! We also discovered that Connecticut Limo is a great way to get here from any of the air ports in New York! Okay I had better sign off now as Kirstin is in need of nourishment! She went to school this morning, slight protests so let's see what happens. Thanksgiving is the next celebration on our list and that should be fun. I went to the library with Kirstin after school and I got a book on Thanksgiving to read to them, it is a history of Thanksgiving, so I will learn with them. Anyway until next week have fun. Oh one more thing ...it is FREEZING today, thought you would enjoy that bit of news! Lots of love to you all. Love Natalie