August and Dinosaurs

I tend to have a relationship with months. I tend to personify them, and to be honest I am very close to giving them pet-names. It always seemed to me that some months are there just to make you feel bad, to torment and annoy you. Like some people. But we are talking about months. August is one of those months (just for clarification, August this year started July 24th, when the kids went off school). It doesn't matter how much I try to establish a connection, a rapport, even friendship, with it - it ends up exactly the same - with me feeling defeated, deflated and depressed. I am not really sure why that is. I used to think, when Ron was young, that it must mean I am a terrible mum for not enjoying his summer holiday, but he grew up, and became easier to entertain, and still it stays. I used to think it was because of the Israeli special heat-humidity combination, but we've moved to Gibraltar and now London, and it stays. I used to think it's because of lack of planning, or over planning, or going on holiday or not going on holiday, or because Hidai isn't home, or because he is home, etc., etc., etc. You see what I mean, over the years I've tried everything I could think of, changed all the parameters, and still - August hates me. Well, what can I say? I am not a big fan also.
But this year, this year I was on a mission. I will defeat it. For once, I will end up victorious, and August will end up with its tail between its legs. I worked very hard to come up with the perfect plan, I thought I've found the winning strategy, I was even foolish enough to blog about it. I forgot the golden rules - don't make plans (I learned that one the hard way over the last few years. Plans tend to lead to bad things), and don't poke the bear. Or tease the month in this situation. As it stood on Thursday, the day I started this post (in my head, but it still counts), the score was - August 1, Orli 0.
The weather went to hell, with rain throughout most of last week, the money that was supposed to cover our plans got delayed, Hidai's work got busier, I felt lost with the blog and fell behind on everything I wanted and needed to accomplish, the kids got bored and started mis-behaving and over-complaining. By Thursday the kids and I haven't left the house in 9 days, and life looked totally and utterly hopeless.

Friday wasn't any better. The weather forecast was great, so I planned to take the kids to the library (an activity we've been trying to do for a week, with no success) and then food shopping in Golders Green (there is nothing better for lifting the mood than good food). But the weather outside apparently did not read the forecast, and it rained. Good food is one thing, needing to walk twenty minutes with two kids and two enormous bags of food is a different matter. So in 10 days of summer holiday, we've managed to get to the library. Once.

 

That is why, on Saturday morning we decided that enough is enough. In Hebrew you say that difficulties are meant to check how serious you are (but you say it with less words), I always try and tell Hidai that no one can call us serious. But we are also not quitters. So we left the house. Twice. On Sunday (yes I know I started with Sunday, but go with me here) we went to pick our own fruits. Yes, I went in to the wild. Okay, so Parkside farm isn't really "the wild", but it had dirt and bees and greens. Wild. It's a really nice outing, and gave us the chance to let the kids see where food comes from before the Tesco, the chance to pick (and eat) really good strawberries, and the chance to meet friends and have a lovely day. Just one word of caution - if you don't have a car, be prepared for a long walk. It's at least 20 minutes walk, probably more, from the bus / tube you will need. Also, if you are allergic to bees, don't go. There are so many of them there, and the kids were not happy about it (okay, I wasn't happy. The kids were a bit hysterical).

On Saturday morning we got up and went to play mini golf, and not any mini golf - a dinosaurs mini golf. It only took us two tubes, one train and a 20 minutes walk to get there. Easy peasy. We don't have a car, because we live in the middle of London, we never go anywhere that isn't a tube ride away, and we are still uncomfortable with this whole wrong-side-of-the-road-driving thing. It works for us, except when arriving in suburbia. The mini golf itself (after we drank some iced-coffee and the kids ate their mandatory chocolate muffin) was a lot better than I hoped for. It's been so many years since the last time Hidai and I played, we enjoyed the nostalgia, and I enjoyed the fact that my strategy (hit the ball as hard as you can in the general direction of the hole) was working, and the kids enjoyed the dinosaurs, the crocodiles, and the colourful golf balls. It took us some time to finish all the 18 holes because a few of them were really hard (they all have obstacles and weird shapes and fun stuff like that), and the kids were a bit tired by the time we were done and started heading home.

 

 


The 20 minutes walk back to the train did not look promising. But then, we started walking and discovered that right outside the golf course you can pick blackberries (real, live, uncultured ones. Like when we were kids),

and when we crossed the road in a different place (the Citymapper app, which is usually great, originally sent us to risk our lives in the middle of the junction), we found ourselves standing in front of a Krispy Kreme. Now never mind the fact that the kids had fun and behaved excellently, never mind the fact that we all had lovely day, that I won (not that we were keeping score), that the weather was perfect, that we had an adventure. We found doughnuts. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the pure definition of magic. 

August 1 Orli 2.