Twas the night before Advent

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Waiting for the laksa to cook
It has been such a busy weekend. Asian market, decorating the classroom - which involved some DIY and sudden decisions about Advent songs, hiding gnomes (cos they are now underground), making the advent wreath, heading back to get laksa ready... amazingly the house was CLEAN when i got home. The boys had cleaned the place up and Ghin when he arrived back had his haircut. You look so cheeky Ghin, i said, which provoked a whine of I AM NOT CHEEEKY!!!! Don't say i look cheeky. Such is life.

Mothers have compared notes and we have found that by and large our second sons are moany and demanding and prone to meltdowns and therefore subject to merciless teasing from elder brothers. I think that third children by and large dont really give a damn. I think by that stage parents also dont really give a damn.

Said tongue in cheek of course.

Today will be another relentless Advent day. I think i will be doing the lesson plans this evening and then doing house decorating today. We might even do a whole family thing!!! Shock, horror!! and go and get our tree. It has been ages since we've done a whole family thing. Since Peter got his own car there has been very little path crossing required. It's hard to believe it was a week since he came back from Addis Abbaba - where we was for a week. Yup... life is pretty amazing.
I met Derrick a friend last night who partook in the laksa - which is remarkably easy to make by the way:

galangal
shallots
candlenuts
hay bee (dried prawns which have been soaked)
tumeric powder
chilli powder
stock - chicken or fish/prawn
coconut milk

He is now a biodynamic gardener in Camphill Ballybay. It was interesting listening to him talk about what biodynamic gardening was. In some ways it sounded a lot like being a teacher. We talked about singapore and wondered if we would ever go back there. We thought a lot about our parents - as we grow older i think, i said to Derrick, i feel more of a responsibility to my parents. But that is not going to happen, certainly not in the next eight years...

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