“Weather man and the crazy chief
One says sun and one says sleet
AM, the FM, the P.M. too
Churning out that boogaloo
Gets you up and gets you out
But how long can you keep it up?”

-The Clash – “The Magnificent Seven”

The fact that we arrived in Sweden yesterday unbruised and still speaking to one another is testament to the strength of our relationship. Our last couple of days in Britain nearly pushed both Dr. O’C and myself over the edge. Packing, cleaning, yelling, selling, screaming, feeding, bickering and all the rest. Monday was the peak of the chaos and strife. We had to finish packing everything that would be coming with us on our extended trip to Adelaide. We had to turn the dog over to the livestock people responsible for getting him Down Under. We had to finish cleaning the house so our landlady would be satisfied enough to return nearly £1000 deposit money. We had to keep Baby Z alive and reasonably happy. We had to do all of that without killing each other. We nearly didn’t make it. Somehow, though we got it done and made it over to our friend’s who had offered to put us up for the night, where we promptly realized that we had far too much luggage. Scandanavian Airlines, our carrier for the first leg of our journey allows 50kg. I think we had about twice that. The chaos continued.

Then, early yesterday morning we were off to Heathrow – still with far too much luggage – for our trip to Sweden and a ten day layover with Dr. O’C’s sister and her family. Thing is we didn’t leave quite early enough. If you will, picture your underwhelming narrator sprinting through Heathrow Airport with a stack of luggage that would make a Hilton blush, Dr. O’C and Zach in tow. The Scandanavian Airlines clerk must have seen something in my eyes that indicated just how close I was to snapping because she didn’t raise the issue of luggage allowance. I plowed through security using Z’s buggy like an icebreaker. We made the flight, but my heart rate and mood has just started to return to normal.

But we’re here and even in a house with two young boys and frequently their friends, cousins and all the noise and mess that accompanies them – things are much more relaxed. Even in a house in which a virtual war can break out in an instant over whether or not one brother has the same Nintendo DS character as the other, there’s a sense of peace and quiet. This is just the first leg of what is going to be a long and stressful few weeks. There are going to be other disasters narrowly averted and challenges nearly failed. I’m going to have to learn to cope with them just a little bit better. Either that or maybe one of you, my readers, would volunteer to raise Z. I mean, chances are the authorities will probably take Baby Z away from Dr. O’C while she’s serving her sentence for murder.

 
icon for podpress  The Clash - "The Magnificent Seven": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 8% [?]