A WEEK TO HOLIDAY

I must tell you that the adage ‘cheaper by the dozen’ applies only to doughnuts and biscuits. It has no bearing whatsoever upon raising a family. In fact, in making our holiday plans for twelve these past few weeks, I began to feel like some sort of underfinanced, overly-fertile freak.

Whilst attempting to hire a houseboat to cruise Lock Ness, everything went well until I mentioned we were twelve, three adult couples and six children.

Now, when you consider this, six adults with six children should seem unusually excessive probably only in modern-day, child-monitored China. Nevertheless, the biggest boat we could find anywhere slept only ten, and I believe that included four floating about on a life raft as nocturnal Nessie-bait.

Perhaps we should have been seeking a junk for a holiday in Victoria Harbour.

As we discovered no single vessel to accommodate our throng, we finally experienced an epiphany: Why not hire two boats? After securing the biggest boat offered, we hired a smaller vessel containing one huge double-bed cabin.

This new agenda comes with a tremendous bonus: Each adult couple can abscond alone for two nights! Woohoo! If this boat is rockin’, don’t come… Well, you know.

The bigger boat will house a more-than-adequate mix of four adults and six children for games and ghost stories round the campfire (so to speak).

Oh, and another big plus is that we will now have four loos, three showers and two galleys!

By day we will split up as we see fit, or float side-by-side (bow-to-stern whilst in the locks between the lochs, of course).

The entire return trip from Inverness* is 120 miles.

For part of the holiday, we shall dock to camp and bathe, and for the last four days of the third week we have hired a chalet where the aunts will join us for a few nights.

Our holiday begins on the first day of summer, and we are so excited.

My query letter is on its merry way to London, and I shan't think another thing about it or my writing for three weeks.

TTFN!

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*Loch Ness was once attached to the sea at Inverness, and probably at Fort William as well. Thus, the idea of an ancient sea monster prowling the lake gains greater credibility.

I can understand why a creature might choose to swap the shivering, sub-arctic seawaters for a shot at lounging in the lukewarm lengths of a lazy land-locked loch.

Lock Ness’s nearly eight-hundred foot depth was carved by a glacier in the previous ice age, and runs straight as an arrow on a line that parallels the landmasses of Sweden and Norway.

My query letter to my agent goes out tomorrow.

I thought Friday the 13th would be a fantastically lucky day to post it!

Boat for sale: 35-foot Chris Craft

We sold our boat! The man who bought it is a fisherman from Hartlepool, a harbour town north of Scarborough. He isn’t going to use the boat for fishing, however, but for pleasure. I’m happy because that is what my grandfather would have wanted.

Hartlepool is a lovely seaside village. Sarah and I visited when we holidayed in Scarborough. The Anglo-Saxons established a monastery there in 640 A.D. That was 600 years after the Roman invasion.

The coolest thing: They are one of the few boroughs in the UK to elect their own mayor by direct vote. In the 2002 election, the mascot of Hartlepool United (the local football club) won over the Labour opposition.

‘H’Angus (hang-gus) the Monkey has held the position since, winning again in 2005 with 10,000 votes more than his opposition. The population of the entire area is only 90,000.

Hartlepudlians are called ‘monkey hangers’; thus the moniker made up of ‘hang’ and the county name of ‘Angus’. We English are a clever lot, are we not? And Americans think our sense of humour is dry, or at best droll. Ha!

During the Napoleonic War(s), a French ship sunk off the coast near Hartlepool. The only survivor (so the story goes) was a little monkey dressed in a miniature French sailor uniform. Since he would not answer the questions of his inquisitors, he was hanged.

Poor monkey. I hope the story is not true.

Allison

Be the world you want to see.

Summertime is here!

School is out! We enjoyed a restful recovery weekend. That means that Sarah and I, Jofranka and Blaine, Rosemary and Libby (teachers), and Robbie, Sedge, Millie, Lacy, Elle and Marcail (students) are FREEEEE! At least for the summer.

We have already signed 15 contracts for our new students, who will begin in our 3-4 level starting in September; and, we have five children on the waiting list, so things look good. So, we will begin next year with 75 students and 15 teachers (one teacher to every five students--a ratio we always maintain).

Apparently I have been spammed by Xanga! With simultaneous notice to my Yahoo mail account, but no advance notification, an advert now appears on my site.

Hey, Xanga! How about the courtesy of a little notice? 

So, as a protest, I am not renewing my premium. At least not right away. I have been a member for over four years, so I think Xanga might show a little respect.

Gay marriage has been approved in California by the Supreme Court! That is good news.

We are going to spend this week confirming our holiday plans for the summer. We have decided to sell our boat and hire one instead. 

Live your life so that the last day of your life will be the best day of your life. 

School countdown: five days remaining!

8:00 Friday evening. Ah; we have arrived at the weekend.

My Uncle Barry in California sent me two pictures, one in response to my previous query (about 4 posts back) as to the name of a west coast dairy. Our newest student, an American boy from Oregon, said there was a dairy there called ‘Titty-Milk’. Well, he was close (see billboard).

This second picture is, like the first, of a billboard in Los Angeles. My uncle said not only is Spanish widely spoken in the area, but in Korea Town, their second language of choice is Spanish, not English.

How cool is that?

I wish everyone a loving, friendly weekend! And remember: When it comes to improving the world:

Only I can be

the change I hope to see.

Love,

Allison