Last Night at Home for a Month

We are packed, more or less. All but the jam which has been reduced from 24 litres to a more manageable (we hope) 12 litres. Three large suitcases of clothes and such and we squeeze in four 3-litre plastic bottles of jam in the morning, close the lids and hope we are not over weight. I am taking an extra bag just in case we have to repack at the airport. Also if Turkish Airlines want to charge us for more than one suitcase each, we are screwed. We never checked and I am not going to raise the issue tonight.

There was some money left over from Tanya's birthday present so today we found a lovely black jacket (shirt/blouse??, something anyhow) that looks good on her and she looks good in it.

Lena's Mom will stay here full time while we are away, which will be nice for Roman and Lena as three people in a two room (aka one bedroom) flat can get kind of crowded, I suspect. Roman and Lena will come every day or so to water the flowers, check the garden and feed the critters.

Walking the dogs just got easier. Open the gate and let them run. All night if they want. Volk has been a bad one for not coming home after our walks anyhow, so we just let 'em both rip. Tonight we let them out about 4:00 and they both came home about 10:00. Good dogs.

It is kind of scary going home to Canada after two years. Culture shock. Everything and everyone has changed. My kids are not the same as when I left two years ago. They all live in different places (different houses for two of them, cities and provinces for two of them). They have grown older, taken on more responsibility, lived more. They are still my kids and I hope we have not grown too far apart. I sent them a picture "so they would know who I was, at the airport". (Actually because Tanya took the picture and I look good in it so had to brag).

We leave for Dnipro at 11:00. Hope the hotel in Istanbul has highspeed wireless. And that it isn't under water when we get there.