I just WALKED INTO THE SIDE OF A DOOR and am smarting from bruises and embarrassment. I think being away for so long made me forget the dimensions of our house.
Visa application is moving swimmingly along, although the woman at the travel agency reminded me strongly and frighteningly of P. It was the tinges of poison in her "dears" and coollness and biting little comments to her staff that don't really look biting on reflection, yet leave stings. And you know what? I shall live in fear of having a boss like that for the rest of my life. If I have a boss.
And Kingdom of Heaven is wholly, wholly full of crap. Either that, or it is just a very guy movie. Only the steadily heartfast leper king soars gracefully above that wreck. I don't want to see the queen cutting off her hair with a dead, noble expression, secluded in her chambers stoning while the Muslims wreak havoc on the castle outside; I don't want close-ups of Orlando Bloom being a blacksmith. Because I don't see how that helps. And important general runs away to Cyprus simply because he's sick of the fighting, and queen can decide to stop being queen and run away to countryside with hunky knight who can also decide to revert back to blacksmith garb, easily, no problems.
We saw Yu-Hsin off last Wednesday, still as stubbornly ridiculous (he insisted on wearing a nice collared long-sleeved shirt and overcoat with purple-tinged jeans and sneakers so he wound up looking like the kind of uncle your mum pulls you across the street away from when you were five). It'll be hard to forget now. Who else did we get crazyass emails and smses from, in the midst of monster planning? Who else beats the record for 'getting into the spirit of things'? All our scholars, I realize, are used to this boarding-and-travelling thing, just packing up and going, a briskness I hope to learn without getting lost on a farm first.