I cannot remember the last time I wrote a blog, or indeed, wrote about anything…

Life has changed remarkably since I last picked up my pen (keyboard). Mainly due to the fact of this little arrival..

Meet May Charlotte !.. she is now nearly 7 months old, and has the whole family wrapped around her finger. When we knew we were having a 2nd child, I really felt I wanted another Son. I get on so well with Matej, and I kinda knew what I was doing with a lad in the house. Naturally he is into sport, we watch the football, F1 together (Hrs explaining that Hamilton is not winning today, thats Rosberg).. we swim together, climb tress, generally, boy stuff. I was nervous over how I would handle a little girl. well, as Miska told me (she is often right, I’ll admit it).. May has been a joy and has taken my heart. the fact Matej seems to adore her, and apart from lack of sleep, May has been a dream.

We both have new jobs now, Miska running her own business and I am working for a great UK company back in my old industry of Credit Insurance and Finance.

Matej is now 6, and is at big school. He continues to be a very good lad, testing us at times, but what little boy wouldn’t.

We still have Meg, our faithful hound. a couple of dogs have come and gone, including the very sad loss of our little Molly to poison. We have 4 cats, Miny, Mo, Tom and Dave (yes, don’t let your kids name a pet)

The house continues to be developed and is the centre of our lives. Slovakia still treats me well, and I am as happy and content as I ever can be. The rock of all this family life is Miska… who works so hard, running the house, organising 3 people, building her business, keeping us all on track and does it without any moaning (I don’t count moaning at me.. thats a given)

I will start to blog I think, I still have a story to tell. The days when I used to blog there were many bloggers who I loved to read… I think those days have gone… but I do think I have a story or two to tell…. we will see !

I worked all Thursday afternoon and evening, and took a days holiday on Friday, and worked 7am until 9pm … to try to get as finished as I could before Matej came home ..

This is what he came home to

He didn’t know what I had been working on, and the words made me said made me so proud !.. he simply said “WOW!!”

When he saw it, there were no steps and no bridge to the smaller house, but, Saturday pm, we fixed all that.

I still have a lot to finish, but, it is getting there.

I have only had one breakdown of swearing !.. that was the final piece on Saturday night, trying to connect the bridge… it was getting dark, and it didn’t fit ! it was too low, and uneven, and I could not understand why, I was gutted, he so wanted to go across to the other house. M took him inside to the bath, I remained out there, in the dark, using my grinder, only the sparks of cutting the metal to see with (amazed I didn’t lose a finger) until M dragged me inside. I was SO angry I had fucked it up. No matter what she said, I was down and upset. I woke at 5am, went back out, and with 5 mins in the morning light, I fixed the issue, mended the bridge, and then when M woke and helped me, it was done ! (lesson learnt !)

The secret behind this (remember, I have never made anything, and this was all from raw timber, no plans or anything) is taking time to think about it, and the commitment to buy the proper tools.

I have loved it, and already I have [plans for some other things …. I think I have found a new hobby !

But, I need a decent plane I think, I sanded all of this using my grinder. gives a great finish, but 5 hrs of sanding, with dust EVERYWHERE… fuck that, not again !

The sense of achievement to see y son loving and playing on something I built is one of the best feelings I have ever had…

Surprisingly well !!!

At a risk of having the label “All the gear, No Idea”.. I have unpacked my new equipment, and started work.

My first effort, a table for the saw wasn’t the best, but, as a virgin, you learn on the job, and the table was square, flat, stable and can take the saw perfectly… just not aesthetically pleasing as I would of hoped… and I still have all my digits !

The second table was much better, and it is something I am very proud off. It’s a perfect work bench, and has been in use daily to start my real, major project.

I have been busy every night this week building Matej’s birthday present, an addition to his existing jungle gym. It has not been easy, but with calm (very unusual from me) and calculated approach, I am getting there, and so far, pleased with the results.

The frame work is done, but, with the bad weather around, I decided to build this undercover, and didn’t think about the weight of the damn thing when I had to move it to it’s lawn position ! But, as is the neighborly way, 8 people turned up to the lure of alcohol, and last night we moved it into it’s position. I leveled it, and proceeded with the rest of the work.

I think I have done the major hard work, and now I am building his house part, then the connecting bridge and finally a climbing wall…. we will see how that all goes. I then have to figure out windows, doors etc… but, that can wait

He comes back from his ‘holiday’ at his Grandparents on Saturday morning… not sure how much I would have finished by then… we will see !

We are still in limbo, not a nice place to be.

Although we have mentally dismissed this USA move, it is still not 100% closed. Actions are in full flow from people within the company to change the decision and enable us to move. Until we have a clear ‘No go’ from the board here, the options is still being worked on.

We will get another update at the end of July, and that is when we will know if this action has worked, or the two options left are a re-application or a No. We believe it will be the latter.

That’s cool with us, we need to know a final result now. This has been going on for 9 months, and we are tired of not knowing where we are going to be by the end of the year.

We are making plans as if we were here. Buying the tractor, making Matej new climbing frames, plumbing in the Well correctly for water all over the garden… but, nothing can be done mentally, or with any serious conviction to our futures. The things above we had to do anyway, but as far as having further children, careers, Matej’s schools (The serious things in life) we are very much on hold..

So, we carry on waiting, seems as if the end of July will finally have a resolution to this affair… We’ll see…..

As we move on from the disappointment of the USA (Even though this isn’t 100% dead), we decided that life would now focus on the wonderful things we do have here at home.

I have finally decided that spending 6 hrs cutting grass couldn’t carry on, and we bought a sit on mower. This makes me and the boy very happy, and it means I can now cut all the grass on the property in about 2 hrs… and I am not knackered afterwards. The only downside to this is the fact I often have a little ‘helper’ riding shotgun.. love him !

We then started to discuss the future, and M really wants chickens. That’s not an issue, we have the room, and we like the idea of eggs and some animals. But.. as there always is, they have to have a house right .. ?

People that know me, and knew my Dad, will know DIY (apart from sister Rach) does not flow that easily though our genes. My hands are soft, woman’s hands, used to a keyboard and phones. However, I am not a stupid man, and we decided that I would break my virginity, and plan, build a hen house.. after all, they don’t need Windsor Castle do they !

After thinking, and planning what we needed, I am all up for it… then we started drinking … always a bad idea.

We sat in the garden and looked at Matej’s play house, and how much he loves and uses it, and we decided we wanted to make it bigger to meet his play needs as he grows. We looked at buying another unit from the same place we bought this on from … 700 Euros.. fuck that ! Our builder, who does such a fantastic job.. he can do it.. we can buy the timber, he can build what we want… jobs a good ‘un. Then my wife says “You are not useless, why don’t you build it?”… My 1st reaction to this was beer down my nose. I think the reason for this is confidence. It’s for my son, I want it to be good… that’s said, I thought about it, took a careful look at what we already have got, and thought ‘yeah, that’s do able’

I am not one for planning, more like give it a whirl, swear like a trouper, and see what comes out. Normally, shit comes out….. so, we discussed this and decided .. rather than pay a good carpenter 400 Euro labour, lets buy the right saw and tools, and do it properly. We will spend the same money, but have the asset of the tools for the Chicken Shed, other projects etc…. DEAL !

so, tomorrow, we buy ourselves a Mitre saw and router, and I will make two work benches for my 1st projects, then tackle the play house.

I am really excited over this. Living here often causes me to be left back a little, through my lack of confidence with DIY, lack of correct tools, and other thinking I have no clue on these things (Not my wife I might add)… this is a chance for me to start doing work on my own home, and more importantly, when people see his new house, he can say “Daddy built it for me”… and that really means something to me.

I have drawn plans, thought about how I want to do this very carefully, and after buying the right tools (Not trying to half do it using chainsaws etc, I am sure this can be done, and be done correctly .. I’ll let you know how I get on this weekend !!

Wish me luck people ! (and, no, we are not having a swear box !!!)

What to do next ?

as I have said, we were shocked about our visas refusal… so, you have to move on.

Over the last 10-14 days, we have mentally worked ourselves around this change of plans, and we know we have a good plan b in place… but, we are still upset over this denial.

Things moved a little yesterday, we had meetings with the Management at work, and after discussions, they decided to try to move this forward. They want to find a new lawyer (Hopefully a specialist) and instead of appealing against the decision (timescale 6-18 months) they would file a whole new application. They still want us there, and they are going to try all they can to get us there. We were very frustrated, considering we have been through this visa process before, they didn’t ask us, or ask us to help guide the inexperienced people here.

Question is… do we want this ?

Simple answer is “Yes”.. but, with added caveats this time.

We wants a plan B commitment from the company first. what will happen if this fails ?
We want a final time scale put on this. If we don’t have this agreed by Jan 1st, we will not go.

We are going to personally approach this differently. We actually don’t believe they will change the visa decision. It is very hard to over turn the decision once made. Also, we have decided we are not talking about this to each other. Last time we went over and over the different scenarios with each other, and it drove us mad. We mentally committed to this last time, this time.. no chance. We will live and carry on in the knowledge we will 99% not be going.

That’s the only way we can cope and make sure we carry on life as normal. We will book a summer holiday away, we have also made plans to travel to England for Christmas… they remain the same.

We anticipate that this whole process will take another 4 months for there to be an answer. Without us chasing and pushing people, I think that is realistic. Last time, the procedure took 3 months, and that was with me being the driving force, organising people, getting paperwork completed. We will do what we have to do, on time, but, the rest is up to them.

So, we will see what happens, but in a much better place mentally than before.

10 days I got out of bed, about my normal time of 5am, the sun was coming up, I switched on the computer, had coffee and started to enjoy the hr peace I usually get before the boy rises and shatters that peace.

As I always do, checked FB, Twitter, sport, emails, and then my work phone.. to see what emails I might have received from my USA colleagues…

BOOM !

Well that’s fucked it all up…

Visa Status “denied” ….

For us both. No reason given, no more words than that, and, all of a sudden your stomach drops and you wonder what the fuck you are going to do.

Yes, there are reasons to find out (we still don’t know officially why) appeals can be lodged (VERY unlikely to change the status, and could take 6-12 months)… there are even conversations using contacts in high places, but, the final words are this We are not relocating to America.

It has hit us hard, and the fact it has taken me 10 days to sit and write about this shows how difficult this is to take. We were ready. We had mentally invested a lot of energy into the fact we were moving, shutting down the house, taking our boy across the world. I had invested a lot of time organising the new house, cars, jobs, banks etc… you cannot imagine the conversations and negotiating that had taken place.

M had organised everything to leave Slovakia, house sitting, selling of things we didn’t need, mentally preparing everything… all for it to fall apart.

Did we invest too much time and effort, knowing the visas could fail ? That’s a fair point, however, we also knew that, once the visas decision had come, they wanted us to move within 4 weeks. We had to do all this so we would be ready to go. You cant simply wait until the decision was made.

Despite that, mentally we were ready and had made the move, and now…. well.. we are not sure what to do. The first thing we have to worry about is our jobs. Are they secure and going to remain for us here ?… We honestly don’t know. Words and promises have been made that we will be ok, but, we also know those words can easily be forgotten, so, we are in limbo right now.

We have to remember a few things. This wasn’t a dream move to set us up for life financially, nearly the opposite to be honest. We might of made some money, but the move was for experience, adventure and a good career move for me. We were only 51% in favour of going, it was that close… and, we have a plan B, and we now can enjoy the wonderful life, home, family, village friends that we already have here. We don’t have to upset M’s parents by moving, it remains easier for my Mum to visit.

We know all these positives, but it will take some time for this to sink in, for us to process it, and to come out the other side realising all the positives that we have.

Fucking sucks right now though !

It’s been a long slog, lots of money, mainly time and effort, and most importantly, a shared dream on what we wanted to accomplish. After taking a break from my blog, it is now time to review and have a look at what we have achieved with our country home.

(Sorry, a bit picture heavy this post!)

For those of you that read my blog back then, you will remember we bought this old cottage in the center of this tiny Slovak village, and wondered what to do with it !. There were three reasons to buy this place. The structure was sand. We knew we could develop it without having to demolish the whole thing and start again (might have been cheaper to do that to be honest!). It was in the center of a quiet, country village, no through traffic, idealic. The final reason was the size of the land.

The size of the land comes with its own problems, mainly the upkeep. For the first 2 years we let the local farmer use the land, and he planted sunflowers and corn. This kept the land in use, looking ok, and cultivated. In the meantime, we built the house and started to landscape the “lawn” area of the place. This has now been done, and I a very happy with the “Englishman’s Lawn” I have. Not quite Wimbledon, but looking good all the same.

With our future plans in the USA, we knew we had to secure the land, get a lockable gate and fence around the property, to keep people out, and to keep Meg inside. This has escalated, and we now have the lovely “White Picket Fence”, and a wonderful, hand crafted , iron gate, straight from the local blacksmith. We are very happy to have this finally in place.

We have now started work on the rest of the land. M has planted a herb garden, that will grow quite wild and free, with some management etc. his also has attracted large thistles and weeds that are slowly being removed. behind there we have planted 20 fruit trees. All very young, and in time will give us plenty of Apples, Peaches, Cherry, Pears and Apricots. Tucked in behind the old ban, we are going to develop the roof to give us shelter for tools and bits, and to construct three of four animal enclosures. Firstly, on our return, for Chickens, then for some small sheep, and maybe a goat … we will see.

We sowed grass seed 2 months ago, and it has grown well, along with huge weeds as well. For the last two weeks we have done all we can to get them out, and last night I finally cut the grass. After 2 hrs work, we were delighted to see real grass in abundance under the weeds, and with careful management and grass cutting, I can see a lovely orchard with lush grass all around. The vision is becoming real !

so, with all that in place, we have the “middle” area to think about. We will plough and flatten this before we go away, and then it will be left until we get back. Weeds will be sprayed out, and then we have plans for a large, natural pond, and outside seating area and back room for preserving the fruit, and hopefully, if funds allow, a wine cellar underneath, we will see.

We have the main plan of more development on the house. We love it, but, it is not big enough, currently it is only 2 bedrooms, so when people come to stay, we have to sleep on a mattress in the living room. We have ideas to redevelop the left end of the house, to include another full bathroom, a bedroom downstairs, and to put our Master Bedroom upstairs into the roof.

People say we are crazy, and should relax and enjoy life, but, if you don’t make plans, then how do you get your dream ?….anyway, the journey to get somewhere is most of the fun .. right ?

Has anyone here tried to get a USA Work visa (in any form that you can qualify) ??

I assume, as you still have your sanity and your own hair, I would suggest you haven’t.

Quite rightly, the USA is very strict about who they give their visas too. I fully agree with this stance, yet, when you have a very valid reason to be applying and need to be granted a visa, it can frustrate. I am not talking about the golden “Green Card”.. we had a chance to file for that on our last visit to California, but, we don’t want to live in the USA forever, we just need to be there for 2-3 years, to set up the process we need in our sister company, then come back home again. We have provided all that is required, and yet still, we face delays, further questions and petitions, and still we wait. The latest application is being presented today, and we will wait a further 3 weeks for any news. This is after we have paid the “Express” service as well.. Previously, this took me 4 months to get an answer !

You can imagine how this now puts us in a limbo situation.

Last month, I was in the USA for 2 weeks, I found a house, cars, school etc.. all the things we needed to sort out, and managed to get the people there to agree to hold all of this so we could wait for the visa application to go through. But, we cannot do anymore… we are ready to go, within 4 weeks of the hoped approval, we can leave… but that’s about all we can do. We cannot start to order things we need for the new house, we cannot ship anything overseas… we cannot stop our work here in Slovakia or start to close down the house ready to go.

We have done a few things. We have constructed a new fence to close off the land we have, new gates arriving soon, locks etc. We have installed security cameras on the gates and doors, found Rufus, one of our dogs, a new home… so we are gradually doing things, and mentally, we have already made the jump.

Once the visas are approved, I will fly once more, a few days before we all move to set up the house. This was questioned by our work.. Why do you need this ? Can’t you stay in a hotel until the place is ready ?. These are well meant, but, they are people that do travel frequently, alone, not with a 3 yr old, and not moving for a long time. I have to make sure the water, elc, gas etc is working and set up, most importantly, I have to get Matej’s room ready. This is going to be very unsettling for him, and we want to make sure he has a bed ready, the room looking like his own, clothes and toys there. We cannot move him into an empty room with a blow up mattress. Well, I suppose we could, but we won’t.

So, I will fly ahead of time, get all that working, importantly.. get a new TV and cable installed !!.. and fit out the kitchen ready for our arrival. Fly back home, 2 days of packing, the turn around and move us Lock, Stock and pretty much… Smoking Barrel.

So, for now, patience is the key (I am shit at that btw).. until we know for sure.. we can do fuck all !

Today we got out our tent from storage, and it bought back some wonderful memories of one of the best weekends we ever had.. sorry the post is long, I originally posted it in two parts ..

From Joshuia Tree, about 4 years ago :

Well, Mrs M and I decided that we had spent too many weekends at home, and we needed a week-end away from life. So, we have newly aquired camping gear, all virginal, and it all needed to be tested before we hit Yosemite in June, and Joshua Tree seemed the perfect location to ‘test-drive’ the gear. Joshua Tree is about 2 hours from home, and we knew that if we had forgotten anything then we had a town within 30 mins drive of the park …. “if we forgot something ????” … us …. no way !

We left on our way, coffee in hand for the simple drive out to the desert. All was going marvelously well, both excited by the challenge of camping, and reminiscing our stories from camping and trekking in Slovakia, Nepal, Morocco and Peru…. when we quite literally ‘hit’ a problem…. I was driving sensibly in the middle lane of a 5 lane highway, slowing ready to turn off to the I60 to Palm Springs when we had a small obstacle in the middle of the road … a chuffing foam mattress !!!!! lying smack in the middle of the highway. The car in front managed to avoid it, but I knew that I couldn’t. It’s surprising how quickly the brain, well, how quickly my brain, works. I held onto my coffee, made the decision that the mattress was indeed foam and soft, checked mirrors and decided that to swerve and avoid the foam would have been dangerous, told Mrs M that I was going to hit it and not to panic. Amazing what flashes through the mind ! So, WAMMO …I hit it, and like I thought, we rode over the top of it… no worries…. So I thought. Well, the foam manged to get caught under the car, so I slowed, indicated and pulled over, discovering I still held my coffee. I did this all ONE HANDED !. classy eh !. So, we jump out and discover quite how much of a pain in the arse a foam mattress can be. Luckily we were in the Jeep. The clearance is quite high, and the mattress had indeed gone under. If we had been in the Nissan, well, I believe a load of damage would have been done. So, the mattress had become lodged under the car, and wedged around the wheel and axle. It’s amazing how a soft foam mattress can become rock solid when compressed under a car ! So… what do you do ?

Well, luckily we had our camping gear, complete with some knives, and we started to just hack at the foam until we could rip parts of it out. This was slow, the sun was very hot, and on the hard shoulder of the freeway, no much fun ! Eventually, I took off the wheel, and we finally, after 1.5 hrs, we freed the foam. I would like to point out here, two other guys stopped to help us, with one of the taking away all the foam to stop it getting everywhere. Thanks guys, we really appreciate someone stopping to help strangers !

So, hot, sweaty, dirty and very thirsty (didn’t get to drink my coffee did I !!!!) we headed on to Joshua Tree. Here we relaxed, joked about how much worse this could have been, and thankful for our helpers, and the fact we were in the Jeep. We found a wonderful spot to camp. The whole of the park has designated camp grounds, and this one our spot was remote, hidden within the rocks, and was perfect for what I imagined this trip to be. Well…….

The wind blew and blew…. not good…. We had also started to realise some of the things we had forgotten. Nothing major, but … no chairs… So, we could light the fire, but we could not sit and enjoy it. Ok, no drama, we can go out of the park and get a couple from the local shops. Damn… the pump for the airbed (luxury huh!) had not charged!, damn it. So, I started to blow… wooo hoooo that made me really dizzy ! We got lucky, the shop had some chairs, and remarkably, for a store in the desert, they had a pump for kiddies pool toys !. So, back to the site, airbed pumped up, and we could start cooking. The wind blew and blew….. The stove was excellent, and I soon had dinner on the go. I sat down for 2 mins into the new chair, and the chuffing thing ripped beneath me !, I am not a huge fella, and the average American likes the occasional pie !… crap ! Back to the stove, the fire burning behind me, and Mrs M yelled… Moooooooon ……… The chair !?!?!??!

Awwww, crap again, the wind had managed to blow the chair onto the fire, and melted the seat … !

Ah well, what can you do ? dinner was served, lovely it was too !, and I decided to wash up, did it all, grabbed the grill of the portable stove. HOLY MUTHER F***ER…. bastard things was still chuffing hot…. So, now I have two wonderful burns across my thumb and finger … what a dick !

Right, thats it, going to bed !… and the wind blew and blew …. We are not experienced campers, so this was quite new to us. We got into the tent, snuggled down to sleep, and the wind blew and REALLY blew…. we just knew the tent was going to end up in Phoenix …. I can honestly say we got hardly any sleep at all, all night that wind just kept us awake …. we tossed and turned, and the noise of the wind, flapping at the tent kept us wide awake. I think we might had drifted off for about an hour as the wind finally dropped and the sun broke.

Camping = Fun ….. ???? Well, to be honest … oh yes, we loved it…. Part II to follow…

Part II ..

So, after the first day of ‘adventure’ and a very sleepless first night, I crawled out of the tent to discover that the wind had finally died off, and the sun was shinning. the desert of course of cool in the morning, so I brewed up some coffee, found a quiet spot and watch the sun rising. Perfect. This is exactly as I had imagined the week-end going. Some perfect peace and solitude. The birds had started to sing, just a few of them, no real tune, just chirps and hoots, and the soft wind blowing. Nothing else. no cars, no music, no phones. It so reminded me of my travels across Oz, the vast emptiness of a true wilderness.

Camping can bring you these moments. We could have easily stayed in a motel outside of the park for $50 a night, but that is not why we love the great outdoors. To be sat, on your own, with nothing to do buy lose yourself in the moment and the quietness of nature, just perfect. Mrs M arose soon after, and again, I lit the stove, cooked up some warming porridge, and we had breakfast planning the day. We have been to Joshua a few times before, but as a lazy tourist, so this time we donned our walking boots, and made plans for some treks. the first one we took on was a shortish trek, but finally took us away from any car parks and RV’s. We hiked along a deserted trail, slightly upwards into the desert. The desert this time of year is quite remarkable. Full of life, lizards, chipmunks, cacti blooming with flowers. Beautiful in it’s contrast with other natural forests and parks. Being a man, I needed to use the ‘restroom’ so I nipped of the path…as I did I finally heard something I always wanted to, but always dreaded hearing … the rattle…..HOLY MOTHER OF GOD !!, I jump a chuffing mile.. Mrs M did 20 yards in the opposite direction quicker than Linford Christie ! I did regain some composure, and managed a couple of pictures, but once he had coiled and was looking directly at me … time to move on. Wow, finally I had seen a true rattlesnake, in all it glory, in it’s natural habitat. The adrenaline was rushing through, and it set our conversation for our walk on nature, animals in their natural environment, and how and why people do get bitten, attacked, as they do not respect nature. We loved the walk, and returned back to camp in a wonderful mood.

The colours of the rocks, sand and desert flowers is stunning. The dominating boulders and rocks just amaze me, the way some of the rocks seemed to have been placed and balanced on each other is remarkable. They are so imposing, so enormous… just wonderful to walk between them, and marvel at the sheer enormity of this landscapes.

The evening passed un-eventfully, me cooking up a storm again, and giving Mrs M time to play with the camera. Sat by the fire, smoking a cigar, and Mrs M drinking a glass of red. The next morning, after a decent night sleep followed the same ideas. this time we found another trail, ending up at an old gold mine. Amazing how they found such riches in the middle of nowhere. We find that trekking gives us so much time to talk, discuss our childhoods of growing up with nature, our travels and of course our future plans. also, we saw another amazing site. Two large rattlers mating. What a spectacle. Observed from a safe distance, Mrs M having a small panic when taking a couple of shots and thinking they were as close as the zoom suggested. It was remarkable to watch these two creatures going through the mating courtship, and us being able to watch and listen to the rattles and the ‘fight’. Breathtaking.

Joshua Tree is a stunning National Park, looked after wonderfully well by the Rangers, and respected by the travelers. One of my favourite places on the wonderful planet.

It was a tough decision for us both to move back to the USA, so many things screamed “Stay at Home you Idiots”…. well, that certainly was Mrs M’s view when the subject first came up in Nov of last year.

It’s funny how a simple, throw away comment can develop in other people minds, then present itself to you in a fully formed plan. Thats how it started, on a business trip through Europe, hrs spent in a car with a colleague, and a throw away, unimportant conversation between Brussels and Paris.

We first heard things were afoot when a colleague from Austria came into my office, M happened to be there, and made some small talk, and ended with the question and how do you see next year?”…. professionally replied by me going on about sales, orders etc … and then he said and congratulations on your move to America”…. You fucking what ??????? …

Seems he had jumped the gun, but clearly, this was being discussed at the highest level, (we work for a 500mil t/o company) and after some probing, I found out an offer was being prepared. During all of this planning from above, not one person had asked myself or M if we were interested. At the time, we certainly were not. finally, after some stressful, meaningless conversations with m and I… after all, we had nothing to discuss… we didn’t know what, when, why and how.

The offer duly arrived in Jan, and to be fair, I will be honest in my first words I spoke to my boss…”you are fucking joking right?””. It was laughable offer, really embarrassingly poor…They weren’t joking though. We were told to go away, think on the offer, and then come back on Monday with our thoughts… We did, they were not well received. However, throughout the next 3 months of negotiation, we had a trump card. We were both in total agreement on what it would take to move, and not once did we waiver from that demand, and more importantly, our demands were sensible, not greedy in anyway, and we could easily justify what we were saying. Simple research, our previous experience of living in the USA helped. It’s a powerful thing when we knew they approached us, and that we were not for deviating.

Until we took a trip out there in Feb this year, we were still undecided, but, talking with our new boss, finding the area to live in, a great school for Matej to attend, we were convinced this would work. The main drivers were the change of scene for M, and furthering in my career, to show Matej some of the world, and to take a 2nd chance (most people don’t get one) to live in another culture…. but, only if the deal made sense.

This was not about money I can assure you, we are not going to become millionaires over this, far from it, I would imagine we will break about even, but have the experiences as our profit.

With this, there is also a downside, never is something all profit right ?.. we have to leave behind our wonderful house, this perfect village, our friends here, and of course, Matej’s Grandparents. we have worked so hard to build this dream house, we have spent hrs landscaping the extensive property, and finally, we think we are getting somewhere. The only saving grace is the fact this is not a permanent move, and our house and everything will still be here on our return… but, it’s the hardest thing to do….

So, currently, we have a move date of July 1st, but, the is one HUGE hurdle left in all of this.. our Visas. They are currently going through the approval process, and you never know how the wonderful system can kick you in the balls… trust me, I have been there if my older readers remember ……..

Well, cautiously says “Hello”….. open the rusty, dust cover door to my blog, and boldly pronounce….. like “Johnny …. Ï’m here”… Complete with my bad spelling, awful grammar (tough shit, live with it).

I have been a very long time since I walked away from my blog, I kinda felt my interesting life had dried up, having a young son, a huge reconstruction project on our newly acquired house in the small village of Medvecke, and basically, too much travel to the USA for work, but, I have found some enthusiasm again, and, I think our lives are about to become interesting again.

After approx 4 years in Slovakia, out of the blue, we have been asked to relocate back to the USA. This was NOT in our plans, but my past readers will know we take life each day, roll with the punches, and are never scared to take a chance, and experience life to the full. This is a slightly different affair from our last time in the USA, for starters, we are doing it with our 3, nearly 4 yr old boy, and this time, will be far more work driven (after all, they are moving us for work reasons) and to try to save some money to bring back home with us. That said, we will use every opportunity to see all the great things we can, show our boy the joy of traveling, and to take time to see my sister on the West Coast of Canada.

Our lives have changed somewhat, Mrs M has become over worked in her role here, and feels the need for a change, I also will be using this move to enhance my career, get more experience and exposure in my company, and… well… inject some excitement back into our lives.

Not that we are bored as such. I can assure, renovating the old cottage into what we have now still keeps us busy. More the outside, the land, landscaping the old garden, putting our huge ideas into the land…. This takes time, and money. The good thing is, we share the same ideas, we both want the same outcome, so we know, in the long term, we will get there.

Meg is still with us, we have been through 2 other dogs. We found one, and tried to give her a home, but, one day she disappeared off, never to be seen again. Our other hound, the beautiful “Rufus”has been with us for 9 months, but, with the move, we have had to re-home him. Not as simple as it sounds, but, we think we have finally done that now.

Our “little Terrorist”is much the same, adorable, pushing all the right buttons, bi-lingual, and like we all think of our kids, simple adorable in everyway

So, are you ready for more “Bollocks”from Moon, or is this a futile waste of a man’s time ????

As I hit 30 ish …. I am struggling with fitness, esp during the winter months here, it is nearly impossible to find anything to help fitness wise.

I can’t run. Hate it, boring and with 4 knee ops and a bad hip, never ever going to be a runner. During my younger days, I was always playing sport, football and cricket my main two, but always finding something to play, and this has always kept me pretty fit. After my retirement from Football, and then the move to the USA (Not too much cricket for me there) I took to other forms of fitness, blading by the beach, and the most enjoyable and obvious, the gym.

I really got into the gym, with decent music to listen to, I would head there 3-4 times a week, include a swim, and generally, was probably the fittest I have ever been.

Then two things happened. The move to Slovakia (Gym time not so easy here) and of course, Matej.

We both work decent hours, Mrs M more so than me, so with the balance of trying to get Matej to school, collect and home for dinner, bath and bed, there leaves no time for much else. During the summer that can change, long lighter evenings, the chance to ride or skate is there, plus the exercise of getting the grass cut, house sorted etc should be enough, but the winter time is awful

I do have two gyms quite close by, but, when to go ? If I want to use the one close to work, it means taking two cars to the office. This is about a 60km round trip, so proves expensive with petrol etc. The other gym is closer for weekend use, but only opens at 9am, so, but the time I have got there, done my stuff, showered and home, that most of either Saturday or Sunday morning gone and …. going once a week to the gym is pretty pointless right ….

All excuses .. well no, I don’t think so, more practical reasons that makes it so hard to even try to get to a routine for the gym etc .. so, what do I do.

I have taken coffee, Alcohol and Chocolate out of my diet. This is to try to give my body some chance to ‘clean up’ .. the headaches are going slightly, but, I am not feeling the benefits just yet, but I know I will… just how and what to do for damn exercise !!!

No photos with this post, which I think you might be happy about ..

We are potty trained .. yes, yes, I know you non parents really are not interested in this, but, of course it is a monumental moment for Matej and us. We took off the nappy one morning, had one ‘accident’ and from then on, not one single issue, we are delighted.

He is 2.5 now, so we probably have left this too long, but, you need the time to be around for a couple of days, and with work, travel etc, the time has never been right for us. Over Christmas, we obviously had the time, and Matej has moved to Pants !!.. oh yes.. not just pants, but pants with faces and everything on. These have now become his favourite item of clothing. Most days we get a parade (well, a yelling naked boy) legging it around the house prior to the ‘pant ceremony’) then a further display of the ‘Pant Runner”.. (Not quite as good as the Kite Runner to be fair …. )

So, now we have daily, well, mainly hourly (I am sure he has a women’s bladder) of the “Wee Wee’ dance, and of course the daily “Kaka” routine .. Never has so much shit produced more high fives and chocolates ! I don’t get this, he gets celebrated, praised and chocolate when he has a poo, I get moaned at and complained at that I am taking so “fucking” long (My wife’s words, not mine).

There you go, we are now nappy free (also means we can afford another mortgage… do you know how expensive they are !), we have one further problem, he does seem to spend a lot of time with his hands inside his pants now, I keep telling him he has years to enjoy that, but, for now, that’s what we have to put up with. I am not sure he will grow out of this, most men seem incapable of stopping this habit, but then again, what harm does it do ? as long as he stops doing in supermarkets, after all, he won’t go blind will he !

So our baby is now a boy, so full of spirit and life, and with a great sense of humour. He finds endless humour in farts, being scared with surprise “Leap outs”… and a giggle that melts our hearts.

He sleeps really well, every night, with our routine, he is in his bed and asleep in minutes, BUT, the little sod seems to love an early morning, and if he sleeps past 6am, then we feel blessed !

One final point, if you do have a 2yr old, and you don’t know what to buy him for Christmas, let me give you some sound advice… DO NOT buy them a hockey stick ! He needs to learn the ‘Slashing’, ‘Hooking’ and ‘High Sticking’ laws …. Our corner has become the sin bin, and our boy seems destined to spend about 6 months a year there ! ….

But, all in all, The Little Terrorist is doing ok, and both parents are still alive , thats a win !

Gooood Morning

Here I am, fresh into 2013, the blog is still alive, and I have some free time, so I can write some more shite … (Guess I will have to plug the blog a little !)

Christmas is done, snow is lying thick around the place, heating is on fully, and all is well in the Moon household.

So, what’s been going on… in a nutshell, not a lot. The normal living kinda things

1 – Coping with a 2 month long cold for the boy
2 – Protecting my shins from his Christmas present of a hockey stick (he hasn’t quite got a grip on the ‘high sticking’ law)
3 – Meg has another broken Leg

4 – Matej looooves to bake !

5 – Plans for Easter and summer holidays (Tatra Mountains and England)
6 – Work travel to the UK and only ONE trip to the USA
7- Writing to my good friend Jeff, and realising he still has nearly 4 yrs to go !
8 – planning the next stage of developing the Moon landscape (not that Moon, I am not that ambitious!)
9 – Reading loads
10 – Eating loads
11 – Getting told off for swearing on Twitter !
12 – Preparing a rather strange shopping list for a visit to England in Feb

The list goes on, none of it very Rock ‘n’ Roll, but all good things.

The only downside is my lack of picking up the language better, basically due to how bloody hard I find it, but somewhat down to my lack of trying (Bad Me). Matej is talking lots more, in a mix of both languages, but he knows ‘Wee Wee” and “Caka”… two vital words now he is fully potty trained (took half a day people, half a day !)

So, if I have any readers left….. let me know, I am making 2013 a year of my blog !

So, M is away in the USA for 9 days, and I am left to look after *keep alive, The Terrorist.

He is a good lad normally in a very good mood, unless he cannot have Pooh about, and after his emotional hugging on Sunday, I thought I should put him to work.

We have 3 large walnut trees in the garden, and they provide us with shade in the summer, nuts in the Autumn and fucking leaves galore in the winter !!! The leaves, if left, will kill the grass (this bothers me) and the neighbour get pissed off if the leaves go on his lawn (This does not bothers me so much). It is, I think, a very Slovak thing where the appearance of your property is important to others. To be fair, we live in a nice, small village, and all the houses do keep the gardens nice, and there is never any litter about, so I guess it is kinda fair enough. Also, our neighbour has been good to us, they are a nice couple and its always good to have nice neighbours right ?… so, I made Matej do the right thing ..

He did it with great energy and gusto, for 3 mins, then he decided that the slide was alot more fun !!!…. I tried to coax him back to helping, but he simply trundled off, got his tractor out of the garage and headed up the road. Being the decent Father that I am, I dutifully followed him and made sure he didn’t get as far as Hungary or go under the wheels of any approaching combine !

All in all, it was a success. He came back home all rosy cheeked, happy to a warm fire, dinner and his favourite thing, the shower .. or “shoow” as it apparently is called. With neither Pooh on Donkey allowed in the shower, they have to sit and watch, he can be there for hours. I am sure he would drain the lake if I let him stay there long enough ..

So, all in all, a decent Sunday, only another 7 days to keep him happy *alive

As you all know, I live in Slovakia, and here Nov 11th comes and goes with no real significance, but, not matter where I am in the world, I will always remember.

As updated my facebook, trying not to follow everyone else with their own line of Remembrance.. I sat there, on my own, M is away in the USA, and watched my Son playing. He was running up and down with dinner place mats, yelling…. no idea what was going through his mind, giggling, screaming… then he stopped to look at me, came to me, and hugged me. I was speechless …

So, as I sat there, at 11am, I knew now what Remembrance is to me. I can sit, in a new country, I am not persecuted for being English, Male, Straight, speaking a difference language, doing things my way, in my own small ‘Castle”. I am tolerated, free to have my own beliefs, to live the way I choose…. and there is 1 reason for that…

This is because people, who I do not know, have braved the evils in this world, stood up and fought, against their own will in some wars, to make this happen for me, little me. Now I have my own Son, I believe they also did this for him. I would, like most Fathers, die for my Son, but these strangers died for me and my Son. So, when he is old enough, even living away from the marches, poppy wreaths and ceremonies that take place every year, he will understand that to take 2 minutes, once a year, to remain silent, to think about our fallen heroes, and why these people that defend our right to be tolerated, and to tolerate others is so important.

For some reason, my boy chose that moment to hug his Dad, I held him so tight, I think he nearly stopped breathing, my two minutes was broken by my tears falling onto him, and him saying “DaDa” and wiping my cheek.

I will NEVER forget

Life has got all hectic again, here is how it has been, will be from the end of Sept .. ready …

Sept 18th to 27th Me in England
Home for 3 days together
Sept 30th to August 7th Miska away in Austria
5 hrs together
Oct 8th – 13th Me in the USA
1 day together
Oct 15th – 18th Me in Paris
3 days together
Oct 22nd-25th Miska in Austria
6 days together
Oct 31st – Nov 6th Mum and Sister coming to Visit
4 days together
Nov 11th – 19th Miska in the USA
Done

Seems crazy to me, but thats working life

in the 63 days since this started, we will get only 14 days together ………

I have not been feeling great for a few days, so, as an easy blog post, I am going to start to show you some of my fav photos… over the next few post, I am going to indulge myself. I love all of these :

I was bored today, so i thought I would post some pics, wondered if you could tell me where from ?

As a family, we love nature, and we are hoping Matej will follow us down this route. We often have Life or such other Sir David’s documentaries on, and Matej loves all the animals we have, or are on the farm. We decided to have a family day away from the house for his birthday, so we took Matej to the zoo in Bratislava

He was perfectly behaved all day, running, jumping, doing all the things little boys should. Did he look at all the animals, well, no to be honest, but as it is only 9 Euros for all three of us to get in, I wasn’t bothered at all. If I would have paid the 50 pounds it costs to get into my fav zoo in the world, Whipsnade, I might have been a bit more bothered.

He decided that not only Tigers go “Roawwwwwwwwwwwwww” but so do Lions, Bears and swans !

He loved the Orangutans ! They gave him a special show of rope swinging, and sat just behind the glass to give him kisses to his amazement…. he here is telling Miska where the Monkeys are :

Part of the Zoo is a Dino park, a slightly tacky themed park full of, well, Dinosaurs would you believe. Tacky as it might be, the kids love it, and Matej was no different, confidently getting under the Dino’s and enjoying the freedom to play. He did look a little startled as the speakers growled out the Dinosaurs voices, but he just got back in there.

Rawwwwwrrrrrrrrrrr

Needless to say, Matej slept all the way home, a really nice family day out, makes a huge difference when they are perfect little boys right ?!?!?!

I decided to go for this picture ….. My girlfriend, now wife, had been asked to go to Mexico and LA for a 3 week business trip, from which she didn’t return for 2.5 years. I left my job in The City, and decided to take the chance to live with her in LA…. the rest, as they say is history ….. and she is more beautiful today than she was back here, 5 years ago

and< I just had to add this picture in as well didn't I :

The Beach :

Happy Birthday to our Son

This was us, 2 years ago today ..

And this is where we are today.

The love of our lives, the most special boy in the world, funny, lovable, testing, adventurous, cheeky…. my dream come true

Happy 2nd Birthday The Little Terrorist !

Sounds wonderful, my first trip back to home since July 2011, so, over a year ago. I am really looking forward to it, and I have a golf trip planned with my Brother, Cousin and great friends for the weekend I am there. I will fly on a Tuesday, the rather wonderful Englishmum will collect me (I hope) on the Tuesday, leaving me three days before the golf, and two after before flying back home …

But …… this is where time seems to disappear, and I end up feeling I didn’t get any break or relaxation time at all .. there is a list of people I really want to see, have a beer with in the few days I have. There is my family, I want to see them all, and spend some quality time with them, Mum and sister firstly, then My Uncle, Auntie, Cousins, their children…..

I have a couple of old work colleagues I have to try to wedge into the schedule, let alone old cricket friends for a good beer up … so, you see, time will slip away so fast.

I know the golf will be the perfect place to catch up with my friends, after all, we will spend most of the time drinking and talking bollocks whilst trying to find my ball, and evenings will be together, drinking, laughing etc, that will be perfect, but how to fit all the others in, and seeing my old town, a little shopping, 7 days just isn’t enough

*sigh

This is what I have chosen …. to peer over the top of the specs, to appear intelligent, stern, commanding … or a bit of a twat ?!?

This is all good news !

I saw the specialist in Bratislava on Friday, 1.5 hrs, with the top specialist in Slovakia, wonderful surgery, having also of things to peer at, blink at, have blown in my eye (Why do they do that !?) … and lots of pretty graphs of my cornea to look at, I have learnt that red is good, white is not good !

So, it seems that talk of a cornea transplant is wide of the mark, Yahoo, and this issue you have CAN be corrected with glasses. It just took specialist equipment and knowledge to be able to decipher what prescription I need, and it turns out to be quite simple. My eyesight is not that bad, I am not as bad a bat it would seem. But, the whole problem is the scars and the misshapen Cornea as mentioned before. If you look at my eye like a clock face, I have 8 neat scars all-round the dial, and in both eyes, the area between 3 and 6 is misshapen, and drags lower like a Salvador Dali picture, giving issues to a normal prescription.

Another piece of good news is that the Dr certainly thinks this is leading to me being very tired all the time, and wanting to close my eyes, hence falling asleep… so, from Thursday night, I should be on the way to resolve all this .

We went to look for glasses on Saturday Morning, and I know the kind of prices that can be paid in England, so I was worried on how much these would cost, but, nice surprise, the glasses were just over 100 Euros, and I can collect them on Thursday …. so, back to specs after 15 years … but, that’s a far better result than operations.

“I can see clearly now ……….”

After 4 knee operations, foot op, Hip Op, two nose Ops, ear op ….. I am heading for my 10th General Anesthetic …. oh the joys !

Why I hear all of you ask …… ?

Well, here’s the scoop… I need new eyes. Not quite as drastic as that, and no, I am not going to have ‘Eagle Eyes’ (for the older amongst you), but I do need a transplant, of the Corneas. ewwwwww, I hear the more squeamish say …

And here is the reason why, my Corneas are fucked, (maybe my translation of what the Dr said is not quite accurate here), but basically, they are. Approx 15 years ago, I made the decision to have my eyesight corrected, and instead of using laser adjustment, I went with micro surgery to change the shape of the cornea. At the time, no-one knew the long term effects of this, I do now.

So, for the last 15 years I have enjoyed 20/20 vision, without the hassle of glasses or contacts, a huge benefit when living in a country (USA) where we had sun everyday, and at the end of my sporting life, not having the hassles of inserting contacts etc before playing football or cricket. The joys of being able to swim without the hassle is just wonderful .. but, and there is always a but right ?

I used to be a decent cricketer, with a very safe, capable pair of hands, in my last season, I did ok with the bat, but amazingly, and very embarrassingly, I dropped 14 out of 14 catches…. fucking unheard of, and frankly, embarrassing for me, and this gave me more of a reason to stop playing than my terrible hip. I was too embarrassed to play anymore.

I was warned, that as I got older, I would need glasses, as 90% of people seem to, to read, drive etc. This is normal, and no surgery can cure of old age. Over the last two years, but more noticeably, over the last year, I have found myself struggling to read when I wake up. For example, when I travel, I always have messages (Normally from my stunning wife) on my blackberry, and I found, until an hr into my day, I could not read them. I find driving at night very tough (No, I am not 75!), because of ‘flared lights’ and, often, I have to physically ‘concentrate’ the eye, and remember to focus them…. I am sure for most of you, this is natural, but for me, I actually have to force my eyes to do this.

I am getting closer and closer to my two work monitors. Yes, I have to have two, because on my small laptop screen, I cannot see my spreadsheets etc …..

That said, with both eyes, I pass all eyesight tests, with my left eye, I can read the charts (during the day, and not early morning) all ok. so, what is the solution. Originally, I just thought I would return to wearing specs, not a problem now to be honest, I could cope with that, however, here comes the kicker …. they cannot prescribe me specs …. What ?

The reason behind this, because my corneas have 8 scars in each one, and the shape of them has be altered, the reading they get for a prescription contradict themselves, I am both + and – in the same eye …..so, they only choice here is to transplant some dead fella’s corneas into my eyes.

It really isn’t as drastic as it sounds, and I believe they can do under a local, but, I am not sure I want that, I think I would prefer to be out of it completely, we will see. I am going to Bratislava on Friday to see a specialist for the next course of action and when it can be done.

I have two choices really, leave things alone, I can see of, and it could be alot worse, or to resolve this. The main reason I think I want to resolve this is because I am feeling SO tired all the time. For a while, we thought I was ill, a year ago, I went through extensive tests for different things, coming out clear in all, and it was only this week it dawned on me, I bet it is the constant concentration of trying to focus my eys, it just makes them so tired, and the urge to simply close them is with me all the time ….

So, to end this all, I think that the only course of action is to get some new one put in, so, if you know of anyone who has a couple of spare Corneas, let me know.

Gobby, Witty, Loud, Confident etc …. often words that might of described me in the past (plus plenty of others), but now I think better words might be sullen, quiet, reserved, moody, introvert …. all of which might be true at a first glance, but underneath, just a mask of the position of life I am in. Let me explain.

My Slovak is, well, let’s say, limited. I can do all the polite things, even shopping etc, but, when it comes to a group of people, esp family, that know each other well, that relax and just have general banter, I still get lost. If people take the time to talk slowly, simple words, I can hold my own, but, otherwise, I need Miska to be around to help me translate, to keep me in the game so to speak !

Well, Miska has forgotten this, in her defence, she is actually giving me more credit that I deserve, she thinks that I can now cope, and believes that if left alone, I will be ok, and will learn faster. Sadly, she is wrong. We speak about it, she realizes this, but, it is tough for her to remember. Especially when we are hosting, she is busy with getting things ready, and then, with 10 people all talking at once, she forgets to hear my voice. Another issue you don’t realize is this, When is the right time to talk ? When you all speak the same language, it’s simple, you understand, know when sentences end, and can chip in .. I can’t do that ! I have no idea when the lull is right for me to talk. I also find it impossible that people NEVER respect when I am talking to Miska, they just but in, talk over me. I find this very rude, BUT, the same logic has to be applied… Do they know when a natural break is coming when we talk English ?

I found myself on Sunday feeling very alone in amongst all these people that love me and care for me. I had tried maybe 5 times to get involved, tried talking to people about work and the weather (limited Slovak remember), but after one sentence, they were off talking about general family shite we all talk about at BBQ’s.

I went and sat in the pool with my Son, that was perfect, until, the couples little girl, 3 yrs old joins us, and talks to me in Slovak / Czech …. lost again, I have to either disappoint her (she looks at me like I am a tool), or call for Miska to translate …. after a few mins, she realizes that I am in fact a Tool, and goes off to the trampoline, taking Matej with her, leaving me in the pool, alone again. Eventually, I get out, walk off and disappear inside, no-one is going to miss me anyway.

So, I have become a very quiet person. I don’t get to talk at all, only when Miska and I are alone. When people visit, I tend to do the polite thing, but then retreat to leave them to talk without me. It makes me sad at times, and even more determined to learn Slovak (which I might add, I am finding VERY hard to do). That is the only answer here, and, telling Miska I still need her help. It frustrates me that friends and family have given up on me, trying to engage me, I guess there are only so many times they can ask “How are You?” …..

*Sigh

You get good days, bad days, indifferent days and so so days, and then, well, you get the perfect day that you know you will never forget and talk about for a long long time.

What happened, well, nothing major, it was more of an enlightening day into my son becoming a boy, and also when your family unit works… brilliantly …

So, we went away to the Slovak Mountains for 4 days, and as the sun was shining, we took the decision to go for a hike for a couple of hours. This is not such an easy thing to do with a 23 month old, as he walks rather slow, and in interested in every single thing…. but, we have a backpack, loaded him in, and off we went. Turns out he is a heavy little bugger, and his idea of fun is to pull my ears to make me go a little faster, whilst yelling into them !. We had not really used the backpack that much, so we were not really sure how long he would happily sit there, turns out, as long as you wanted him to !

<

The trail followed the river upwards, until, about an hr and half later, we reached the waterfall (no sodding water at this time of year though !), and we all relaxed, sat and ate, and watch Matej trying to help his Grandma find a walking stick for the trek back home. It was so satisfying to see him out into the country, in the woods, walking, talking, and spending time with us and his Grandma. He was a diamond, and so much fun to have with us. We then packed up, headed back to the pension, in a gentle, downhill walk, with more singing, laughing, yelling and fun. I cannot tell you how wonderful it felt to see my family all enjoying nature as you should… perfect !

Sometimes, it all got a little too tiring !

After lunch, Matej and maybe me as well, had an afternoon snooze, and upon waking, he was treated to his first Storm, a huge mountain storm full of heavy rain, flashes of lightning, and claps of deep, rolling thunder. We leant out of the window, then onto the balcony, where I swear he jumped 2 feet as the loudest clap of thunder boomed right above us. Was he scared ? no chance, he loved every second, each Thunder Clap greeted with shrieks and huge “Woooow’s”…..

So, now what to do with a small boy when the rain has stopped and the grass is wet ? We, we decided to find a pub ! seemed sensible to me !…. and luckily, just about a mile away, there was a nice pub that had a huge field for the kids. There were Donkeys, pigs, goats to play with, swings, tents, race cars and most importantly of all, a massive Jungle Gym for him. This is where I watched my baby boy, become a small boy. He is fearless (my Mum says I was the same) and ladder, swing, slide, he will climb up on his own, and tumble down without any help. He yells from the top, and shrieks as he hits the bottom. We sat, let him be, and watched him play and mix with the other children. My heart swelled at the pride of my little boy. The only time he returned to us was for a drink, normally my beer or Grandma’s wine ! I loved every second of it. For the first time, he had his own meal. Not just bits from our, but his own soup, and the chicken. He eats well, plays well, and because of this, sleeps like a dream.

Another thing I am pleased with, he leaves these places with no screams or tears. He waves things goodbye, sends the waitress a kiss, and trundles to the car. Makes life so much easier.

After bath time, milk, another round of kisses, he goes down to sleep, and leave me, Miska and my mum to sit on the balcony, glass of wine, good books and discussions on not for little boys ears. I love this time, tired but happy, Matej asleep, leaving us adult time to just relax. Not to be chasing after him, watching him, but time for us. Time for us to just talk with each other with no distraction, 8pm onwards is our time. No change from his routine, 8pm he is asleep and in dreamland and we love having our time.

It was the perfect day for me, to see my wife happy, to see my Mum with her Grandson, and for me to watch my baby son, becoming a boy… a very special, cheeky, comedian of a boy, now with hugs, kisses, smiles, words and new dreams of this beautiful country life we have.