Mission Accomplished

Reader, my son has been accepted into the school we chose. My parents were sent the letter in the UK & they opened it 'on air' via skype. They got as far as "We are delighted to inform you......." and I didn't hear the rest.

Yay!

And even more amazingly, last Wednesday my husband was, out of the blue, offered a job working from home (ie UK), with the same organisation, with travel to Africa about one week a month. He had had a rather depressing round of meetings whilst in the UK & everyone had said
"What you're trying to do is really difficult" that is, stay in development but work in the UK.

We knew that, my husband has made a career out of unorthodox moves. But obviously word had got round despite that. The job is only a 2 year contract but I have got (slightly more) used now to living with uncertainty & in the current job climate this isn't anything new. We are just very grateful & very excited.

And having felt we were doing things in such a cock-eyed order, applying to schools before anything else concrete had happened, I feel much the same as Iota, who said

"Gosh it has all come together so quickly. Can't keep up with you! Cart before horse, then horse bolted, then cart went careering off down the road!"
Then added "Am so thrilled for you. Just what you need".

Yes, it was just what I needed actually. It takes a bit of getting used to, everything coming together so quickly. My husband was unemployed for 7 months before we secured our 1st overseas posting, then he got a promotion in Sri Lanka 6 weeks before his 1st job in Sri Lanka finished with nothing else in the pipeline. And we got the Albania job 4 wks before his job in Sri Lanka ended. So not going right up to the wire this time around is a rather pleasant experience!

I don't wish to cause the horse & cart to crash, but I think I could almost say Mission Accomplished. Who could have foreseen that only 10 days ago?

Operation Return Home (Stage 3)

Today was our son's interview at the school we've applied to for him. On this occasion I was very glad that I am naturally punctual & so had left plenty of time to get there. The reason being the police, who were stopping cars at a roundabout, decided in their random way, to stop my car en route to the school. This is my £450 eBay car which sits off road all year at my parents until I come back from Albania, like this week, & tax & insure it for a week.

The police told me they couldn't find my car on their system. Arghhhhhhh. Serendipitously (& bizarrely) I had my insurance certificate, car registration document, MOT certificate, driving licence & even passport with me. Eventually, after a 12 minute delay, they confirmed what I could have told them, that all was in order, & they let me go. My son told me to 'chill' as we still had 30 minutes to get there & it was only another 15 minutes drive away. Just not good for my nerves.

I felt like a fish out of water, parking my little fiesta alongside all the smart cars at the school. All the other interview candidates were in school uniforms or very smart outfits. Our son doesn't have uniform or smart clothes. No call for them in Albania. However, the registrar remembered 10 y-o from the open day & greeted him warmly by name. The headmaster was doing the rounds, sipping orange out of a carton, chatting to parents & then mopping distractedly at the spilt juice on his trousers. In fact everyone seemed very low key & normal, except the parents.

After his interview the teacher who had conducted the interview, lingered chatting about Albania. He taught 20th century European history so was fascinated by Albania.

Whilst my son went off to the loo, he said to me:

"You know I've talked to lots of great boys this last 2 days, but they all brought in a rowing medal or a cricket bat, but your son was so different and produced this fantastic 100 square quilt". H emadde it for his school's 100th day celebration (I knew his effort would be worth it one day!) He said it really had been delightful talking to him & getting to meet him.

I could have kissed him. It's such a relief when you've been living in a tiny little Balkan backwater, your son attending a little missionary school with few facilities & small classes. You think: is he really bright or is it just in the context of his small multi cultural class? What sort of competition is he up against? Will it matter he hasn't had so many extra curricular opportunities or a grade 5 in piano? Would it seem really odd amongst mini rowers, budding Beckhams, & 'rare wood' cricket bats that my son had sewed & brought in a home made quilt as his 'significant object'?

Clearly I needn't have worried. And in fact living in Albania, amongst blood feuds, money laundering, uncharted mountains, abandoned military vehicles & tunnels, not to mention power cuts, chaotic traffic & unmechanised farming only seemed to add to his appeal. What my husband had said all along in fact. I thought it would just make him seem odd & a little too different & too 'out of the UK educational loop'.

They have a very specific ethos & a certain type of boy that they're looking for. I hope our son fits the bill. I htink he would be very happy there. After all, he won't be at school with the parents......

We find out on Monday.