The Travels Of The RJs

Part IV Default Language Languages are not my strong point. I don’t hear the sounds very well and find it really hard to pronounce the sound back. Sienna corrected me most of the time in Thailand and Vietnam if I tried to say a town name, even though I was sure I was saying it the same as her.  Being in Europe, my GCSE French is all coming flooding back to me, which means I can ask for a ham sandwich and ask where the train station is. Not overly helpful, but I recognise a few words. German, Solvenian, Croatian, Italian and Spanish however, I’m completely in the dark. Not a clue. And to make the situation harder, for some reason I default to Oui and Non when responding to any of the above languages, despite not really speaking French either. Thankfully no one has then assumed I’m fluent in French and restarted the conversation in French, but somehow my brain thinks it’s better to try at least a foreign language in response, even if it’s not the same. Sienna and Seb have Italian les...

Is bigger better? Our motto for the United States with the kids was ‘everything is bigger’. This was more so exaggerated having just flown in from Vietnam. Where you can fit a family of 5 on one scooter. In the US it seems you need a minivan for more than two people. When I mean everything is bigger, I mean everything. The roads in LA rarely went below three lanes, four was normal, five was better. Small cars were rare. Our Tesla Model 3 was like a toy car compared to most things on the road. Matt and I shared meals when eating out, the portion sizes were huge and easily covered us two in one. Supermarkets are super sized with multiple entrances, multiple amenities, admitting it’s really three shops in one. Shampoo in hotels is a 500ml bottle of dove stuck to the wall. A “shake” is a litre of milk and ice-cream. Houses, hotels, motels, library’s all huge. Even the toilet rolls are bigger! I got the feeling no one walks anywhere, except from their giant car to the giant supermarket wher...

Sick away from home - don’t do it Nothing worse than feeling sick and not having your usual comforts around you. Just knowing what to ask for at the chemist or how to explain your symptoms when they keep evolving or wanting to eat plain toast and drink some ribena or resting in a separate room to the rest of your family is all much harder away from home. Matt (whilst also sick himself - I blame him as he gave it to me and somehow I got it worse) rallied with the kids trying to keep them out and occupied, Sienna even managed to brush her own hair after a wash and Seb well tried his best to be quiet occasionally I’m sure. It’s hard on everyone and the guilt of needing to just rest was extremely heavy. But thankfully chemists here can dispense a whole heap of good stuff, you just need to know how to ask (tears help) and get one that speaks good English (my Vietnamese is still limited to Giat - laundry). After almost 10 days of feeling like I was dying I finally got the right concoction o...

Airports I know we fly economy and I know it was with no frills Scoot, but could they not have a better system for checking in? Having just packed up and left our home for 12 months, leaving Dexter and Pickles behind (that was planned, but still) we are all a little on edge arriving at the airport. We walk into the departure lounge and almost bump into our queue which is basically winding back to the doorway. A mere 90 mins later and we are checked in. The young and fit are thinking that's nothing. Now imagine doing it with two kids that are very aware we are in a queue, yet still have to ask how much longer and state how tired / hungry / bored they are approximately every minute. I know I should count my lucky stars, I have two of the best behaved kids (some of the time) and they are just sharing their feelings. I could have easily got my phone out and distracted them, but with 12 months ahead of us I had to look like I was going to try at least to start with. Finally at the front...