Some advice please

Master Cb started his new school yesterday and so far he seems calm and happy with his choice. It's a smaller, more intimate school than his previous one, and he came home excited to report that during his year meeting NOT ONE STUDENT spoke while the teacher was talking. The fact that this is important to my son makes me so happy I could bust a gut, really. Oh, and that reminds me, I meant to tell you about something else I have discovered about mothering a teenaged boy:

When you are walking along the street on your way from the dentist's office to the parked car, and he suddenly places an arm around your shoulder and turns his face to you and gently kisses your cheek and whispers "Love you Mum," well.......that's one of the happiest moments you will ever experience. It's pure joy.

Another interesting detail. This new school is a laptop school, meaning that the kids use laptops for taking notes in every single class except for maths. The school allocates you a laptop which already has your email account set up on it, and the email addresses of all of your teachers and fellow students. Master Cb told us about his first English class in which the teacher assigned them a quick writing exercise. He said it was the strangest experience to suddenly hear the taptaptapping of the class as each student started to type.

Although we knew it was a laptop school, Master Cb and I were still bemused at how little stationery was listed on his booklist. We laughed hysterically yesterday afternoon as he said to me, "Hey Mum, you know how I didn't need to buy any folders? Well...ummm... duh...it's because my FOLDERS are on my COMPUTER." He has VIRTUAL stationery. That just cracks me up.

Oh, yes, almost forgot.

Master Cb's English class (14-15 year olds) has been asked to bring in a book they are reading. The teacher told them that she will be able to learn about them by seeing what they are reading. Master Cb has spent most of the past year NOT reading for pleasure (sigh, sob) and now he has turned to me accusingly and demanded that I recommend "a good book" for him to read.

Help! Anyone??

Thanks.

Ah. Yes.

I had expected to find it difficult to blog while away on holiday, and yet the opposite has been the case. I was compelled to share many of my New York and Boston experiences with you, and since my return home (a week ago) I have been unable to write even one sentence.

Holidays are not what people say they are. They are not simple experiences of relaxation, but rather complex changes in the way you view yourself and your everyday life. Returning to that well-worn, dependable, familiar, difficult, all-consuming life of home I am struck dumb with wonder. Ah yes, so this is what I have been doing for so long, and ah, yes, here I am again, doing it. Only yesterday I was walking along the frozen streets of a skyscraping parallel universe, and today I need only walk down the block, turn left, then right past the bowling green and the tennis courts, and look, an ocean shimmering in the heat of a summer sun. How remarkable.

Three weeks ago, finding it necessary to escape (lovingly, discreetly) the overwhelming chemical reactions of my Boston family reunion, I spent an hour browsing in the Harvard Coop. I bought several books of poetry and mailed them to myself. I received my package of books today and opened Mary Oliver's book "Red Bird" only to discover this poem entitled "Ocean" -


I am in love with Ocean
lifting her thousands of white hats
in the chop of the storm,
or lying smooth and blue, the
loveliest bed in the world.
In the personal life, there is

always grief more than enough,
a heart-load for each one of us
on the dusty road. I suppose
there is a reason for this, so I will be
patient, acquiescent. But I will live
nowhere except here, by Ocean, trusting
equally in all the blast and welcome
of her sorrowless, salt self.


I adore the gap between "there is" and "always grief." I also love the thousand white hats and the loveliest bed and the dusty road.

But I think "the blast and welcome" is my favourite bit.

Brighton Beach babushkas and a hundred happy hippies

Mr. Cb and I decided to hop on the subway yesterday and visit Brighton Beach, but we weren't sure exactly how to get there.

So I did what any self-respecting blogger would do...I asked bb! Actually, I had woken up early that morning and was sitting in the Starbucks on the corner reading the New York Times when it occurred to me that I could, should I so desire, text bb and invite her to join me for a coffee. So I did, and 20 minutes later, as God is my witness, bb sat down beside me. We enjoyed a wonderful chat while staring out of the window at the passing schoolchildren, when I casually mentioned Mr. Cb's overwhelming yearning to see the Russian-Jewish New York community. Bb immediately assured me that she had the information I needed, she took a pen out of her stylish bag and wrote a name on the palm of her hand. "J, my colleague, knows ALL about that, I'll ask her for details and email you." We parted at the corner and sure enough, within 10 minutes, I had both the subway directions and a restaurant recommendation.

Thankyou J! Thankyou bb! This post is dedicated to you both, with a special hug from Mr. Cb too.

Here we are on our way into the subway station:

The minute we got off the train, we knew THIS was the place we had been looking for (the sign alerted us to the presence of a dental clinic):

Look, a Life Extension Centre as well:

Might as well be in Russia, not an English sign to be found:

We strolled along the beach:

A buxom mermaid watched over us as we returned to the main street:

Enamel pots for sale. My mother-in-law is constantly bemoaning the lack of affordable enamel pots in Sydney.

Home cooking next door to the Internet Salon:

The trains kept rumbling loudly overhead:

Appetizers at Cafe Glechik (herring, boiled potatoes with dill, smoked salmon and assorted pickles, yes that IS pickled watermelon at the back!). We drank kvass.

Vareniki (boiled dumplings with a pototo and onion filling, fried lightly in butter with crispy onions on top):

It was a wonderful morning.

Because we are flying back home tomorrow I'll quickly get this into the post as well...........

This afternoon the 4 of us saw Hair on Broadway and we are all still humming and dancing. We sat in the fourth row and I was on the aisle. As you can see from the video below there's a lot of audience participation. I danced in the aisle with 2 of the male stars of the show, and at one point they both hugged me at the same time, they smelled really good and I could feel the tickle of their wigs and I touched their glowing, muscled arms. Ahem...sorry. Where was I? Oh. Yes. And at the end of the show they invite the audience to come on stage and dance with them, so I did, with Miss Cb, while Mr. and Master Cb stood and clapped for us. Mr. Cb put the flower a hippie-girl had given him behind his ear.

I'm addicted to New York and have no idea how I will be able to adapt to real life again. See you all in the southern hemisphere xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This and Here

I watched this here.


Of course the well-known Hollywood stars added to the attraction, but the fabulous acting and fascinating play took over as soon as the curtain went up.


So a couple of days later Mr. Cb and I hopped on the subway and got off at Brooklyn, I especially love this audio (soon we'll be able to listen to bb's audio of Manhattan!!!). We walked and walked until it was time for brunch. Our table stood between the tables of two "regulars" - a single man and a couple of women who greeted each other with surprise. Apparently they both usually come to Siggy's much earlier on Saturday morning but the man explained to the women that he's teaching a new class at 9 now (his sweater had a musical emblem on it), the women explained to the man that they had to go to Ikea, and that means getting there early to beat the crowds. He wanted to know why they hadn't stayed there for meatballs, but they explained that the smell of the cinnamon buns put them off. He said he loves the smell of cinnamon buns, they agreed but felt that it wasn't quite right to smell that while eating meatballs. Then all 3 turned their attention to us and showered us with information about Brooklyn and exclaimed with delight upon hearing that we had wandered into their regular "place" ("we think of Siggy's as an extension of our apartment," said the two women in unison) all the way from Australia.


We then walked for several more hours, until I finally insisted we stop here. You saw that 3-layer chocolate cake? That's what we ate. Then we continued walking.



Then I watched this here.

It was very lucky that I had bought a large can of Energy earlier that day from here. I had originally wanted to buy a can of this, but they were all out.

Shuffle it right

I saw this here last night, and there was a special Q&A session with the director/choreographer following the performance.

Enjoy!

School

I thought I might not blog while in New York, but I have great connection in the apartment and everything I see makes me think of blogging and sharing my experiences with you.

I walked up to a Starbucks earlier this morning and sat by the window with my camera as a number of yellow school buses passed by. So here are some quick snaps of Manhattan kids as they go to school on a Tuesday morning in -4 degrees Celsius (25F).

A night and a day

Last night we ate dinner here, and we all slept really well last night. Best comfort food in the world, and especially good when it's very cold outside.

Today we ate lunch here. It was very hard to choose from the menu, everything sounded so wonderful, and our sandwiches were served with carrot sticks and tiny packets of potato chips. There was a group of NYU students sitting at the table next to us, discussing their mothers, "Dude, your mother sounds like she'd TOTALLY get on with my mom. Although that's a scary thought...both of them...together." I'm not sure if I like the idea of my children talking with their friends about me.....I'm terribly naive, I suppose.

After lunch, Miss Cb and I passed this shop. These shoes were on sale, and when I tried them on I felt like Mary Poppins, so I bought them, and wore them home. Miss Cb purchased these. It was a great day!