Blame suburban living that keeps us away from the hustle and bustle of the big city or blame the expected decline of novelty in things that we can do. Blame the dull weather if you want. But our weekends have disappointingly become devoid of interesting family stuff. We lately got into let’s-just-chill-at-home mode of spending the weekends, as opposed to our earlier explorations (for examples, see here, here or even here just a couple of months ago).
This weekend, I barely set foot out of the house… for about the third weekend in a row.
Natasha fared a bit better. On Saturday, she took the children to a local theater performance of Sleeping Beauty. It had very little to do with the fairy tale that we know, and was structured in an interactive way to keep the kids involved (Children, do you think that the wicked witch tricked us? Did she switch our wands? – and all the kids in the audience shout Yes with glee).
Little kids, mind you. Kimmy was probably on the older side among the spectators, to say nothing of Becky. As you might guess, the teenager did not enjoy the experience very much (in her opinion, the constant questions to the audience ruined the show, and singing Happy Birthday to the princess for the sixth time is soooo stupid!), but at least it was a diversion from whatever she might have been doing at home otherwise. (Yep, that would be computer and television in roughly equal portions spanning the whole day, with some reading thrown in here and there).
Kimmy, though, liked the show immensely. She is still at an age when any activity that involves her doing something – anything! – comes as a delight.
Afterwards, Natasha went out with her badminton teammates for drinks at a pub. That gave me a chance to actually set foot outside, as I drove her to the event.
The drinks went rather well, although Natasha managed in three and a half hours to only have a couple of rounds. (Some of her fellow revellers apparently managed seven or eight during the same timespan). At around eleven at night, the group started contemplating a change of venue, with some fancy dance club in New Cross coming up as the suggestion. Natasha carefully considered the logistics of such endeavor, took into account the late hour, thought about her undoubtedly forlorn husband and kids, and decided to call said husband to pick her up.
The husband was not entirely forlorn, having played a few rounds of Mastermind with the girls and having watched a couple of unremarkable movies. But he was certainly all the happier for the wife’s return.
And today, it was more of the same: Some board games, lots of DVDs, football on the telly…
The pattern should change in the following weekends, as we first plan to pay a visit to a family of fellow Rostov State U alumni in Reading and then are off for our next excellent adventure, in Cologne.