Snippets

We're heading to Canada soon, the first time travelling as a family of four. I'm really looking forward to getting there; really, really dreading the flight. Not quite sure what we'll do with a 3-year-old and a 20-month-old in a confined space for 20+ hours (plus hours of airport waiting time).

I'm bracing for the worst: zero minutes of sleep + hysterical childiren + major spillage and/or vomiting and/or leaky diapers + massive delays or flight cancellations + hateful stares from all airline passengers and staff.

At the same time, I'm planning to adopt a temporary mantra: "Air travel is fun. Air travel is fun. Air travel is tons o' fun. Nonstop fun air travel is."

I'm hoping this dual plan of attack in coping will help those hours slip by quickly and with minimum pain. I figure if I'm prepared for the worst, catching 10 minutes of sleep and arriving to Calgary with a clean shirt will feel like a triumph.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to experiencing cool, bone-dry air and random sightings of cowboys, not to mention meeting my brother-in-law for the first time, as well as a 1-year-old nephew. Hoping to kick back with both of my grannys, who now live in the same apartment building, for our convenience.

I'm keen to use a piece of technology that I don't have here: a dryer. It shall be nice to just chuck a pile of clothes into this magical box and pull them out within the hour all fresh and warm, and not have to worry about a monsoon storm blowing through and soaking everything.

My poor jeans have had a hard time this season. Not only do they smell like sewer most of the time, but the last time I pulled them off the clothesrack after hanging them out to dry, I noticed that the entire ass was carpeted with stinging red ants. I calmly removed them by doing the HOLY SHIT I'VE GOT ANTS ON MY PANTS dance, swinging them wildly, beating them against the balcony rail.

And I wore them yesterday, feeling extremely attractive now knowing that my ass is the place where ants go to die.

And here's a random fact: I don't currently own a single pair of shorts, and I still wear jeans, even though the average daytime temperatures are almost always 30+ degrees C and humidity averages at something like 600%.

Prairie girls die hard.

I do love flip-flops though.

My son's not so keen on flip-flops lately after having a run-in with an evil green creature. He was running across the yard when he suddenly stopped and started screaming and waving his foot around. I rushed over and saw that a huge praying mantis was clinging on the side of his foot.

Luckily there was a stick on the ground nearby so I grabbed it and used it to flick the thing off. As soon as it hit the ground Sunny the Great Hunter cat pounced on it and that was that.

What was dat!? my son asked.

I took him inside, gently sat him down, and Googled it.

And we spent the next half hour or so poring over pictures of praying mantises, while I tried to erase the image of these giant black eyes staring at me while the cat mauled it.

Tonight, as I sat in the living room, a tree frog jumped on the window right beside my head.

Earlier today, I noticed that termites had formed a little tunnel all along the back wall of our bathroom and up into our cupboard under the sink, and had set up a full-blown termite resort in a package of, err, sanitary products.

Getting back to the land of gophers and garter snakes will be a nice break from all these creepy creatures here in the tropics. My home and sterile land!