Hands locked like handcuffs

Catching up on the backlog of books that I have yet to read, and reviving my love affair with traditional art; alas, the last blog post before me, Amy and Sebastian hit up Ol’ Britannia.
The State Fair passed by not so long ago, a flurry of candyfloss with smiling faces, oversized plushes and goldfish in bags of water (even though we searched endlessly for the place that gave them away as prizes..) Yes, the State Fair is the epitome of the American summer break, and what better way to spend it? We spent our time in the kid’s section, with Sebastian riding cars and motorcycles on tracks, persistent in riding the same ride in the same red truck. The reoccurring mother-and-son ride is the big pink plastic slide, probably the most adrenaline that a child of Sebastian’s age should have. There was a car-on-track ride that was a Nascar that would drift – whilst looking at all the other kids ride and that one kid who cried, Sebastian squinted with mean eyes as to say, “I’m going to do this, regarldess”. With pride, he stepped into the same cart which the kid cried on, and lasted 5 seconds. Hell, I don’t blame him, that ride was intense – we only let him go on it since it said it was made for two year olds. Pfft, yeah, kids with no spinal cord.
Lately, me and Amy have been busy with moving apartment – I was in for a treat moving beds and dressers from upstairs, spending weeks packing boxes and having difficulty in deciding what the keep and what to throw away. Everything just looks so.. useful! We had to play life-size tetris in a U-Haul truck. If anyone remembers me at Taekwondo, they’d know that I was infamous for the amount of sweat that would soak my uniform, and how they’d cringe at performing self-defense with me. On a hot summer’s day in Louisiana, this surpasses that. After almost two weeks of moving, we still haven’t finished unpacking or packing everything from the old apartment.
The new apartment is more manageable. It’s one story with the living room, dining room and the kitchen in the middle, with bedrooms at each end (me and Amy’s bedroom has an en suite bathroom, aha!) We have a little porch area at the front so we don’t have to experience cabin fever on long rainy days; the surroundings of the apartment is a very shaded area itself, a more bearable area for Sebastian to play at, without direct sunlight beating down on him. We’re located right by the swimming pool and the tennis court – enough out the way to not hear any noise, but close enough to be easily accessible.
Why the sudden move? Let’s just say that we got tired of the management and keep it as that.
Pictures of the new apartment, or maybe a video, next post.
As a vacation with my now American side of the family, we went to a beach resort in Galveston, Texas, rather than the usual ‘Florabama’ they go to every year thanks to the BP oil spill. Galveston Island was one of the very few places on the Gulf that was not affected by the oil spill and so was empty of dead sea animals and orange gloop washing up ashore. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve properly enjoyed the beach in a few years now. Admittingly, in my embarrassing ‘goth’ days, I used to dodge the sun for wanting to keep my skin paler and to not get so hot in wearing black all the time. I used to never be caught dead wearing shorts, but now I’m wearing them on a daily basis!
So, after an arduous 6+ hour drive, an hour ferry ride with dolphins jumping out of the water beside us, and coming to the realisation of leaving me and Amy’s luggage back at the house, we arrived a small inn with putt-putt golf and a swimming pool, close to the schlitterbahn waterpark. We arrived at a time where the sun was just about to set, where the sea was still warm and the sand was cooling down. We headed to the beach for about an hour and a half, where the kids had fun jumping the oceans waves, and Mike teaching me how to spiral an American football.
The next day we spent a few hours at the beach making sand turtles and finding all sorts of crustaceans, watching birds drive into the ocean and fish jump out of the water, and watching people get stung by jellyfish. Whilst half of the group went to an over priced waterpark, we headed to the Rainforest Café, something that Amy and her side of the family have never seen before, and was amazed the the interior decor of plastic vines and rainforest animals hanging from the ceiling, accompanied by the reoccuring thunder and lightening and the occasional spray of humidity. Later that day, we went on the indoor adventure ride, which was a 20-minute boat ride taking us around mechanical amazonian animals. Good for Sebastian and Amy too, she was stargazed because she’s never seen anything like it (:As you should already know, me, Amy and Sebastian are arriving this coming Tuesday, and I guess plans with friends will be made when we arrive. So far what my mum’s got in mind, we’re heading to Legoland/around Windsor on the 5th and 6th July, and will be heading to Doncaster on the 10th for the annual family reunion, and then we’re leaving on the 14th. Maybe not the longest trip in the world, but it’s long enough. Any longer and I think Bub will be too homesick to be comfortable staying.

Well I hope to see y’all soon, and I promise to get little gifts for my little American friends. You Brits prepare for Amy, she’s bringing a real surprise

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