bon voyage

With tears from the womenfolk, (who are just more in touch with the fuzzy parts of life, even in the family of a psychologist), Bronwyn's parents flew out from London yesterday, en route to home in New Zealand. Modern reli-communications (you know, phone calls to Mum) close the miles a lot, but there is no substitute for the up close and personful... Eighteen months since we flew out of Auckland airport, it was a well-timed visit. People make jokes about their in-laws frequently; someone said similar to me this last week, even in front of David and Jenny! But I've really no idea what it is like to have difficult in-laws, or in-laws that you don't get on with or who try to run your lives... David and Jenny are not like that one iota. Thank you David and Jenny for being such great parents for Bronwyn, and for being so amazingly welcoming of me becoming part of your family over the last ten years.

I think it's been quite a hard couple of months for me—perhaps more than I was realising at the time. Bronwyn being sick was a stressful time, and us travelling plus having people coming to stay immediately afterward was pretty full-on. (Any people would have been the same; it just happened to be David and Jenny.) I'm growing to know myself better, and over the last few years have started to see my need for mental and physical space more... I suspect it is exacerbated by having such a people-focussed job too. Anyway, with the best efforts of the five other people in the household lately, I think I've been a bit like a caged, well, why does it have to be a bear... 6 foot angry squirrel? “Grumpy is as grumpy does.” Not my nicest image to project to the in-laws. Sorry David and Jenny for the times when I threw my peanut husks around the squirrel nest over the last five weeks—I'm not always like that.   : )

Another thing that got a bit steamrollered what with hospitalisations and things was my birthday. Bronwyn and I had quite a while ago decided what we were going to get me, something quite me and more substantial than usual considering the roundness of the birthday, shall we say. In all the kerfuffel I wasn't able to do the research I wanted to in order to pick the final item. Well at last today I've placed an order, and it's now changed from “Not yet dispatched” to “Preparing for dispatch”... I'm hoping it may arrive on Saturday, for me to play with over the bank holiday weekend. A little late, but I'm all birthday excited, at last!