Category Archives: Expat moments

12 Festive Sleeps to Go…Winning Performances

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Well it’s that time of year when  two of my favourite shows start drawing to their inexorable close – Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor.

X Factor will finish tonight in a blaze of stage effects, judge’s tears and testosterone now that it is down to Olly and Joe and for my part, I would love Olly to win.  Entertaining, cheeky and gutsy…although it will be a fight to the end and in two hours time, the artist with the ‘Christmas Number One‘ for 2009 will be announced…

But more than that, I loved this weekend’s Strictly.  All of those amazing, amazing performances and the most wicked Argentine Tango from Ricky and Natalie…I just so want them to win.  So nothing pleased me more than to see them go through to next week’s final. 

So there it is – my votes for the winning performances.  Saturday nights will just not be the same without them…

13 Festive Sleeps To Go…Gratitude

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I opened up my blog today not knowing what I was going to write.  Sometimes it happens like this and today it meant that instead of rushing in knowing exactly what was there to be said, I took some time to read some of the other blogs I follow.

Earlier in the year, a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer.  She weathered an array of aggressive treatments and has spent the last 5 months in India, giving herself the space to heal.  She only started blogging again recently and I read today that she has come home to Paris and it reminded me how much I love my little maisonette flat tucked away up here on Kingston Hill.  My sanctuary, where I can either invite the world in or take a brief respite from the little battles life presents on a daily basis.

Her words reminded me what there is to be grateful for and straight away it brought up some of the little pieces of news from family that have made my heart swell over the last week or so – like when my little sister was honoured as a life member of the NDSOC car club and I cried on the bus going to work reading how stunned and touched she was – or when my Mum’s partner got the all clear after being rushed into hospital with an aggressive form of melanoma. Or the regular newsletter from my itinerant Dad-and-Stepmum chronicling their latest travels through Western Australia over the last few weeks and reminding us all that they having been living this gypsy dream of theirs for 3 years.  Or when when I sat with my partner, his ex and his son, cheering and clapping furiously at his daughter’s end of year Christmas Dinner Concert last Saturday…

What a couple of weeks it has been.

So my brave, brave friend, in the midst of her journey, wrote her blog…and without even knowing it, became the inspiration for mine…

Time to get festive

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Christmas is creeping up on us all and with the 1st December approaching (on Tuesday), there was much excitement in our household when the cupboard under the stairs was opened, many boxes and bags were rummaged through and a very important Hamer ritual took place…the annual decoration of the Christmas Tree.

(I know it’s not officially December yet but if we are rounding to the closest weekend, Tuesday is def. closer to this weekend than next!)

So with 26 sleeps to go, I tested the lights, laid out all of the ornaments – an eclectic mix of cheap ‘fillers’ and gorgeous treats from my travels over the last few years – and spent a couple of joyful hours filling my flat with Christmas…

So so pretty…I’m feeling very pleased with my efforts indeed.  And it does makes me all childishly excited to turn all of the living room lights off and to sit in the lovely glow of Christmas…

But what’s that I can hear?  A few rustling sounds and a bear-ish grunt or two…hmmm let’s investigate…

Oh it’s Alfie Bear – he has stolen Mummy’s Christmas hat and is admiring his very first Christmas tree!

Remember…26 sleeps to go people…time to get festive!

We Have A Monopoly….

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I am new to this whole Xbox thing…J has one hooked up to a flat screen tv that pretty much dominates his small living room and while I have developed a rather sporadic affection for A Kingdom for Keflings, my Xbox experience has been more opportunistic rather than particularly focussed…

…until now.

On a late night shopping expedition to Tesco or Asda (I can’t remember which) a couple of weeks ago, J invested in Xbox Monopoly and it had its first foray into our world last weekend when we introduced J’s son to its capitalistic delights.  (And just so you know, I won…by a long way…aaaah I can hear my family groaning now!)  

But last night, facing a chilly Saturday evening at home and without any pretense of ‘oh how nice let’s give this a try shall we’, we let our most basic and fervent desires loose and submitted ourselves to this, the pinnacle of addictive power games.  And after I had completely opened a serious can of ‘whoop-ass’ all over J, in our 1.30am rematch (he insisted – I was happy to rest on my laurels), he laughed smugly (I thought) as I managed the rather remarkable feat of landing on Park Lane and Mayfair (with buildings!) not only on successive turns but also on successive laps of the board.  Game Two – Over!

At one game each, I can see that our future Saturday nights may now be dedicated to this bloody and brutal enterprise…

Let the games begin!

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year…

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The weekend is here again and despite the fact that during this last week, there’s been just a little nip in the air as the sun dips backs down to the horizon each day, today we were blessed with a beautiful Autumn Day…so beautiful, in fact, that the top came off…

…my car you numpty, I’m talking about my car…

Got your attention though, didn’t it! Ha!

Anyway, Autumn is my most favourite time of the year.  

(English people think I am weird when I tell them this. The usual reaction is an unbelieving ‘What about Summer?’…I try to be gentle when I tell them that we don’t all live in ‘Summer Bay’ and it does actually rain in Ramsay Street.)

The leaves are starting to turn now so we are getting some of that startling red and orange appearing in the midst of leftover summer-green foliage.  The mornings are peppered with misty puffs of breath and there is an extra layer of clothing in place on my daily, crunchy-leafed walk to catch the bus. And the daylight hours are definitely getting shorter too with my normal journey home cloaked in evening by the time I reach my door again, with the tip of my nose gone all cold and tingly.

But it’s lovely – crisp and invigorating outside and cosy inside – and a great excuse to rediscover my warmer wardrobe staples that have lain abandoned over the glorious summer that we had…and so it all feels like new.
Yes, Autumn is definitely the most wonderful time of the year…
  

The view from my front door…glorious!!!

Strictly Super…

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Dear Strictly Come Dancing

How excited am I…you are back – with two nights and 16 dances a week…wicked!  Brucie’s on form, Tess looks great and I’m lovin’ the new two night format. Giving the celebs the chance to do a Ballroom and a Latin routine right from the start is definitely ‘the goods’…just think, we’ll never know what hidden talents all those poor early-exit-ers from the prior series may have had that we never got to see. 

So who are my faves at this early stage?  Well here’s my top 3:

  1. Craig Hollins – he looks way too cute (bit like Dec from Ant ‘n’ Dec don’t you think?) to bring on a mean tango and then a rauchy rumba. But bring it on he did – way to go sunshine!
  2. Ali Bastion – gorgeous and talented and can’t believe she’s not danced before. But time will tell – I’m not so sure I can see her in a cheeky salsa or sexy samba but amazing for week 1 – you go girl!
  3. Ricky Groves – the dancing technique may be a bit suspect but man o man the boy can give it some!  Could not stop grinning at his cha cha cha…fab-u-lous!

And about Martina Hingis being the first to go? Honestly, I was not really fussed either way and Len did hit it bang on with the donut-without-the-jam comment (looks great on the outside but a bit disappointing once you get into it) but she was very gracious and kept smiling so good for her.  More gutted about Matt Cutler exiting with her…sigh…

5 days to go until my next fix of sequins, stars and Strictly…how nice to have your glitz and glamour back for a few short months…and looking forward to your brightening up the chilly evenings ahead.

Yours in dancing

Quickstep Kym

The wisdom of Mr Curly

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In 2001, Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig published The Curly Pyjama Letters, a small book of letters between two friends – Mr Curly of Curly Flat and lone voyager, Vasco Pyjama. Leunig’s characters and witticisms have featured in the press for years, yet this book was (and still is) my only purchase of Leunig’s works – here’s why.

In one letter to his friend Mr Curly, Vasco bemoans the world he finds on his travels and poses the seemingly unanswerable question “What is worth doing and what is worth having?” to which Mr Curly replies:

Dear Vasco

In answer to your question “What is worth doing and what is worth having?” I would like to say simply this. It is worth doing nothing and having a rest…otherwise you will become RESTLESS!

I believe the world is sick with exhaustion and dying of restlessness…Tiredness is one of our strongest, most noble and instructive feelings.  It is an important aspect of our CONSCIENCE and must be heeded or else we will not survive. When you are tired you must HAVE that feeling and you must act upon it sensibly – you MUST rest like the trees and animals do.

Yet tiredness has become a matter of shame!…Tiredness has become the most suppressed feeling in the world. Everywhere we see people overcoming their exhaustion and pushing on with intensity…and being congratulated for overcoming it and pushing it deep down inside themselves as if it were a virtue to do this…We live in a world of these consequences and then wonder why we are so unhappy.
 
So I gently urge you Vasco, do as we do in Curly Flat – learn to curl up and rest – feel your noble tiredness – learn about it and make a generous place for it in your life and enjoyment will surely follow. I repeat: it’s worth doing nothing and having a rest.
 
Yours sleepily
Mr Curly xxx

Extract from The Curly Pyjama Letters by Michael Leunig

For the whole letter, you’ll have to buy the book yourself!!!

Back in 2001, having ended every work week in exhaustion only to face a commitment-filled weekend stretching ahead of me, this struck such a chord.  I have just started on a two month project in digital media, a sector entirely new to me, and I have spent three days brimming over with the thrill of learning something new and the joy of making things happen…but my head is full and and my whole self tired.  So this reminder about being generous with myself is timely and this weekend…

I am going to do nothing

and

will be having a rest.

 

Last of the Summer Wine…

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Well, here we are at August Bank Holiday Monday and the official last day of summer here in the UK and the weather has put in a simply splendid show of sunshine to remind us all that summer was actually pretty good over here this year. 

It’s 26C, and whilst I submitted myself to a rather unruly burst of spring-cleaning this morning, I followed this with a couple of hours of luxurious reading under the trees out the front…and we are bbq-ing in earnest tonight to give this English summer of 2009 a proper and fitting ‘cheerio’.

So it’s a toast to farewell Summer…goodbye to tomatoes and blackberries and rosily,sun-kissed cheeks and noses…and to welcome the brilliantly-hued and softly sunshine-y days of Autumn…

Childish Games and Becoming A Follower…

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Since we’ve been on the subject of children’s activities of late (you know with my big Disney extravaganza and all that), I thought I’d continue the theme with a visit back to yesteryear and that all-time favourite, Mousetrap…remember how carefully we had to build it all up just to feel smugly satisfied at the successful capture of the mouse at the end?

Well there are some people that just never grow up…check this out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zudydE4Uuw

Britain really does have talent!
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ps…for those of you who have been receiving my blog posts as an auto email, I’m chuffed that you like them – but I have now added an easy-peasy link on my actual blog page so that you can become a follower of my blog – then you can set your own settings about how you want to be notified when I add something new.  This will make make me look less like a desperate scotty no-mates and more like the interesting/fascinating/witty person you all know and love (too much sell??? Sorry…) So go there now –  www.kymhamer.blogspot.com – and make me look good  🙂