Family time

I've just been in the UK again, having left Tim and the kids enjoying Nairobi life after the rains. I spent last Sunday mucking around in the garden with the kids - is it wrong to relish the moment where your nerf gun bullet hits your 9 year old firmly on the bum and you finally win the war? Tim went for a gentle 15km run and I took the kids for a swim - well I swam, Jamie read his book which had been in his hand since he woke up and Katie and Matthew made a camp from the sun loungers and dive bombed me from it. A gentle family day, rounded off with Sunday roast, hair washing, premiership footie and bed time stories. Some things aren't altered much by geography. And It's great to be able to do all that, tuck the kids into bed and then head out to the airport to arrive in central London by 8am on a Monday for a full week of work.

This trip was for a residential course so I didn't get to catch up with friends as much as I would have liked but I squeezed in some lovely time with mum, a dose of theatre, some shopping (including for a new raincoat - the lightweight one I brought from kenya just wasn't up to the job) and my usual supermarket sweep. And much as I like London (even this week when its been wet and cold and the scene of a terrible murder) it was even better to be able to leave at 5pm and be home in time for Saturday breakfast, change from jeans and fleece into shorts and t-shirt and repeat last weekend.

The kids were really excited to see me - it's not entirely clear if that is about me or the shopping I've returned with or the fact they prefer my packed lunches to their dad's but I'm not going to ask. Katie had made me a special welcome home cupcake (rapidly eaten).

And she spent the day in her ballet dress as part of testing the new ballet shoes I'd bought her - she insisted it was the perfect outfit for picking more guava.

Meanwhile Matthew put the tent up (with a little help) as the only way to test the new sleeping bag and Jamie took his new books off to his bedroom to continue with his mammoth read.

And I relaxed in the garden feeling very good to be home.

Anne

When we were young

One of the great things about our lives here is the amount of time we get to spend together as a family. Of course weekends are filled with sports events and kids parties and seeing our mates and the occasional grown up evening out just as they were in London. We enjoy hanging out at home and doing the things we have always done - garden football, tree climbing, bug hunting (although when Katie called me to come quickly the other day because she'd found a snake in the garden I did wonder about the wisdom of this. - luckily it was just a little one!) cooking, reading, lego and lots of screen time.

We are also all still in exploring mood and know how important it is for our sanity to get out of Nairobi from time to time so we have lots of fun eating out together, checking out our adopted elephant and going away to Naivasha or the beach every so often. And we have found some good places for the kids to go horse riding and for Sunday walks and swims.

We see lots more of each other in the week too. Being able to be outside most days and having help with the domestics is great and leaves more time for doing things we enjoy, individually or together. Tim's working day is still long but he's generally home by 7 and sometimes much earlier to miss the traffic and finish his working day at home. Work travel for both of us is mainly in the region so means relatively short periods away, and even if some of the flight times leave us a little wiped out, we are at least home for the kids more than we were. And I am lucky enough to be able to manage my working day so I get to watch some rugby and hockey and cricket and football matches and sit and do homework sometimes with Katie on the terrace outside the school cafe whilst the boys train. Of course this does mean lots more time for rows about homework, the screen (often connected) and the general petty bickering of family life. But it also means we know more about what everyone is up to, and on balance that's definitely a plus.

Anne