Children... What Children?

It just struck me that I haven't mentioned the children since they moved into their new boarding school a month ago, and that some of you may be wondering how they're getting on.

They're doing great; both enjoying life at "Hogwarts", as most of the boarders seem to call it. They're making friends and have joined the school choir. Elliot is impressing everyone with his guitar playing, and they are both taking part in the various weekend activities on offer. In the last month there have been trips to London, Cambridge, Stevenage, and Thorpe Park, and this afternoon Abigail is going Wakeboarding (I wonder if one can opt for Sleepboarding?).

We've had one or two teething troubles with bank accounts, cashpoint cards, and mobile phone top-ups, but apart from that they're having a great time.

I haven't mentioned them up until now because... well... we don't actually miss them half as much as we thought we would. That sounds terrible doesn't it, but it really isn't. We thought we'd have a really hard time getting used to life without them when we returned to Riyadh but it hasn't turned out that way. We do miss them of course, but we know they're being well looked after and that they're enjoying themselves. The flipside for Karen and me is that we've 'got our old lives back', so to speak. It's been sixteen years since we've had the house to ourselves and nobody else's lives to organise apart from our own. It's quite nice. Very nice actually. All of a sudden we've got time on our hands, we're free to socialise and keep whatever hours we like, and we've actually started talking to each other -- Gasp!

Elliot & Abigail are coming back out to Riyadh at half term, which is just two weeks away now, and we can't wait to see them again. We'll have a great week together and they'll be able to say a final Goodbye to their friends here, and then they and we will go back to our new lives once more.

It all feels kind of weird, but not in a bad way. E & A: if you're reading this, we do love you... honest!