23 - 29 May 2011

Simple Justine's very simple needs were more than adequately met on her birthday with fish and chips, (Tom and Kate supplied portable deep fat fryer and culinary skills), and a game of Scrabble, which she won, also requisite to a perfect day.

16 - 22 May 2011

White dress, bouquet, church, presents, friends and family. First communion is like a wedding day for an 8 year old girl, naturally overwhelming, particularly for Mary who sang a solo in front of the 500 strong congregation. Counterpart rites of passage, with similar emphasis on a child's purity, in other religions include the first haircut. For Hindus the hair represents undersirable traits from past lives and it is ritually shaved. For little girls and their mums in Maria Alm the hair had represented the only possibility for self-expression on this special day since it was decreed that the girls' dresses, which had become ever more immoderate, should be hidden under a simple white cassock, a uniform look to ensure that every child appears as pure and angelic as the next, with the result that the zealousness that had previously focussed upon the dress was redirected to the hair and complex combinations of ringlets, jewels, ribbons and flowers. So the uniform decree this year was extended to include the hair and each girl was given a simple floral crown to wear. Justine missed the ringlets and jewels and is sure that Elizabeth will oblige by demanding them when her turn comes next year.

9 - 15 May 2011

Much of Mary's freetime is spent in the company of Moonface, Silky, Amelia-Jane, the Naughtiest Girl in the School and Milly-Molly Mandy. Contemporary English children's literature being not readily available here, she devours a stack of books inherited from her godmother Marisa. Consequently she thinks that Fanny is a sweet name for a little girl and when something unusual happens one should exclaim, 'how curious!'.

2 - 8 May 2011

Simon has a new lease of life with the 'not quite geriatric but feeling one's age' persons' equivalent of the mobility scooter. He has been lent an electric bike and with that and some marvellous medicine he appears to have quite forgotton that, as his physiotherapist told him, he currently has the mobility of a centenarian and should adjust his lifestyle accordingly.

25 April - 1 May 2011

We didn't get a bank holiday like our fellow countrymen on 29th April. Didn't matter though since we are currently enjoying being 'between jobs'. We created an exclusive little ghetto with other englishmen of leisure, to paint union flags on our faces and feel very proud, quite homesick, even a little tearful, and indulge in overeating and being nostalgic.