1. Blast from the past
I had coffee with a friend from high school yesterday. We didn't know each other very well at high school, but have built a friendship via Facebook (she's an avid reader of my blog too). It was a high octane time, where she asked stacks of questions she's been saving up. Thoughtful, searching questions. Wow!
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| This is one of the articles I scanned. |
2. High school reunion planning
On top of that she's spearheading the organisation of our 25th high school reunion for next year. So we talked about that a bit too.
I really didn't come away from high school with any friends who I kept up with, but Facebook has been a great place for at least touching base with some. It was amazing to get face-to-face with someone from that long ago! You realise how limited our view of the world was back then and how we only really saw some of each other's lives, but not a holistic view at all.
So we have a closed Facebook group where lots of photos and so on are being posted. I even scanned a couple of newspaper articles and photos to contribute yesterday. I pulled out my school magazines and loaned them to my friend too.
3. Musical instrument dilemmas
We've finally had all our boys learning an instrument this last six months. As a musician from a very early age myself (4 years old I began piano), it's not been easy to sit back and wait for the enthusiasm needed to take on instruments.
Our youngest son took up piano at five. He's taken a break this least six months. Unfortunately he's making lots of noise about not wanting to go back to it when we get back to Japan next year. Instead he wants to jump over to trumpet. I'm not sure what to do about this. I'm happy for him to try trumpet, but feel sad that four years of piano will be thrown away.
Our middle son took up percussion last year when his whole class was expected to take up an instrument. He's continued that in Australia and done well.
Our eldest son has not showed an interest until the last 18 months when he's been interested in guitars and other strumming instruments. He's taken up lessons in Australia. It's been a really good move, one of the few things he's looked forward to in school at times has been his guitar lesson. Yesterday he asked if he could take longer lessons next year and today he's looking at the possibility of buying a guitar, because he's had to give the school's guitar back today. That passion makes my heart sing.
4. Pondering writing
I've been working on a couple of articles for two different magazines. They've not been easy to write!
I'm also rereading Stephen King's "On Writing", a writing book, and finding it quite inspiring. We'll see where that leads.
5. Summer stuff
The cricket is on in our lounge room (same room as my desk) this afternoon. This is like comfort food. Summer sounds. I grew up with this and it's been largely absent in Japan. Wonderful to have this running in the background of our day (though not good for productivity here). Additionally fun is that all the boys are absorbed by it, asking all those sorts of questions about the game that I used to ask my dad when I was a kid.
I've been eating a mango every day. That's summer too, and divine! I haven't had mango for five years.
School is finishing for the year in the next two weeks for our boys. I'm not quite ready for that. Christmas plans are coming together. It's been five years since we've done Christmas this way. We've spent so long in Japan now that Christmas in summer is no longer normal. It seems like a shadow from the past. Familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time.
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