Expat Mums Blog

Mad Dogs and Englishmen (women and children)

The summer heat is causing it to all go a bit pear shaped in the Brit Household. I have a routine that I like and enjoy which is as English as it gets which goes something like this.

12-5pm: (once I have picked them up from nursery) various activities with the boys, outside as much as possible preferably running them into the ground. Luke isn't really doing naps any more so it is 5 hours of fun fun fun.

5pm - I start thinking about dinner. The TV can go on from this point, but in reality comes on when I have had enough and everyone is starting to kill each other. This can be as late as 6.30 but usually is around 5.30pm. I use the respite to cook dinner when I can concentrate on what I'm doing and not having to worry about stirring a cheese sauce whilst simultaneously refereeing the latest fight and acting as activity coordinator and retrieving toys thrown too high for them to reach.

The Reluctant Memsahib

A favourite blog of mine, which I love to visit, is “Reluctant Memsahib” on Wordpress. This is a blog written on life in Africa, by a woman of British origin. She seems to be somewhere near Kenya I suppose, although I can’t be sure as my knowledge of African geography is nowhere near as good as it should be. I first visited this blog because of the word ‘memsahib’ in the name. I was intrigued. “Memsahib” is an Indian word, you see. Maybe Pakistani and Bangladeshi too. By my understanding, It was a label given by servants to the wife of any high official during the Raj, meaning the time when the British ruled the sub-continent, which consisted of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Most of these officials were British, as the Indian Civil Service was not open to officers of Indian origin until very late in the day for some insane reason.

Expats in the UK -- or those who wish they were? Test time! Try out the UK Citizenship Test

After reading Mike and Toni's posts over at Pond Parleys about becoming a dual citizen I decided to investigate the cost and hassle of collecting my own UK passport. Yes, I know, as I have now been here almost half my life, why haven't I done this sooner? At first I didn't think about it, then I couldn't afford it, then I forgot about it again and now I really can't afford it! I was really surprised that I would have to pay at least £800, but in several places the literature reminded me the becoming a British Citizen is a privledge, so I guess it makes sense that it would be expensive enough to exclude the likes of me. 

The blog nightmare

OK, this is proof it has to stop.

Last night I woke up around 3 am. The sheets were damp. My heart was racing. It was all so real.

My worry? I had a blog somewhere that I needed to update. I just couldn't find it. I couldn't remember what clever name I had christened it. Tired Mummies? No. Mummies on the run? No. Mums on Medicine? No. No. No.

Oh, where was it? I knew it must be in need of a new post and it must be time to respond to comments. Where, where, where?

Bilingualism Carnival on August 31st at Mummy Do That!

Cubling is being brought up bilingually. This is at time hilarious. Her general language development is a bit behind that of what's considered averaged, but she's doing great with the two languages, more than making up for it. She has very creative ways of communicating with few words and simple grammar/syntax. Her word order is odd, and not sure if this is due to the German sub clause rule of putting verbs to the end.

Anyway, I love listening to her words, figuring out what she means, and continue to be amazed by her knowledge of language in general. For instance, she usually asks me questions in English (I've always believed that it's important to encourage any utterance, and never insisted on her speaking German to me) if I don't answer her immediately, she'll repeat it in German. When friends of ours visited, who have an almost 3 year old growing up with German / English in Germany, she switched to German to communicate with him, clearly realising that this was his stronger language.