Quiet week ahead?

KH leaves for Paris and Casablanca tonight. I will miss him. As usual, before he leaves for a trip, my heart feels heavy and my face is always glum thinking of the week ahead.

Good time to pick a fight.

I think that if I pick a fight then maybe I won't miss him so much. :-)

But no, better not to leave on a bad note right? Say goodbye with a light kiss, a light-hearted goodbye, talk soon, take care. Do this despite the lump in the throat. The kids will hug his knees and wave goodbye as usual, gathering around as he heaves the suitcase into the waiting cab. I'll let Trinity do my wailing for me. She always does - because she, like me, hates to stay home. Especially when someone else is jetting off to a place like Paris! :-)

Somehow the week ahead always drags by when KH is not around. You would think I'd gotten used to this by now right? I'm thankful he does not travel as often as he used to. And my hat goes off to women married to the road warriors who travel ever so often. I don't know how they do this. For this week at least I have to play mother and father to the five kids. Its not so much the energy-sapping routine - that I can live with. Its the loneliness that you feel in the bones that is tough.

The way to feel better is to distract myself of course.

Well, I have to work on my paper on Women's Health Services, then the one on Early Childhood Health. Then bring Owain to NSC for his hair check-up on Tuesday. Sort out the website. Meet a dear old friend for lunch on Thursday. On Friday maybe I will try out the oyako-don recipe but substituting the chicken for unagi instead (it is a no-meat day!). I also have delicious books to look forward to: one by Lorna Landvik and Neil Gaiman's latest collection of short stories.

I've also decided to sorta 'homeschool' (haha!) Owain and Cait for half an hour every day. For now, we will work on Time, pre-writing skills for Owain, writing skills for Cait, some painting perhaps. Gillian and Isaac need to prepare for their exams too. So we will be busy and hopefully the days will fly by.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is Sunday - Sundays are hardest without daddy because I can't drive and we so enjoy our meandering Sunday drives! But I won't just stay home. Staying at home in a blue fog is terrible! Maybe it's time to watch Meet The Robinsons? Go for a Ramen Ramen treat? No, I think I will keep the Ramen-Ramen treat for next Sunday. Dinner tomorrow will be pasta vongole. Lunch will be pork/liver/kidney/intestines mee sua. Yum. I am clearly using food as a distraction.

Meanwhile, I have charged the man NOT to leave the Lourve or the Musee d'Orsay without something for me from the museum shops. I'd even be happy with a fridge magnet of Rodin's Thinker! So when he is in Paris, I will be looking through our albums thinking of our time in Paris more than 10 years ago. When he is doing sign language to baffled Parisians asking for the nearest toilet, I will practise my French at the dining table with the kids. And we will all think of him.

I wonder how it will still be possible to be lonely with the noisy chatter and clatter of five kids around me? But invariably, it always is.