Mark the time and date!
After living in the same house for almost 4 years, I have finally developed a speaking relationship with my neighbour!
Bea, who I have described to you before in previous updates, as the woman who refused to enter my house when I invited her in for a cup of tea, then proceeded to complain about everything and anything to us, included the sound of Jessie barking inside our house during the day, finally commented on the fact that Jessie no longer barks during the day. Well, I explained to her, when Jessie first came to us after spending 1 month in a German kennel she suffered from acute separation anxiety, so if we ever left her alone at home, she'd become extremely agitated that we were never coming back for her. It took her awhile to regain her confidence.
I could tell she was ruminating on this thought for a few days because today she came to the door and asked if she could do her gardening from our driveway for easier access to the side of her garden. Then she said:
"We didn't get off to a good start, did we?"
"Not really." I said. (I had to call a spade a spade - I couldn't help myself!)
"Well if you had only known what the owner of your house put me through...." (a complete re-hashing of her feud with our landlord ensued, with which I will not bore you further.)
So I suppose that's the closest I'll get to an apology from her, but I'm willing to leave it at that. It's not like we're going to be best friends or anything...
Other excitement today was the school's International Evening. The last time we had one of these at the school 2 years ago, we decided to host a Canadian table. This year, Larysa couldn't decide which to choose, we had both a Canadian and a Ukrainian table.
So this meant hauling out all our cultural "stuff" out of hiding (or otherwise) to decorate the tables with. I was amazed at how many Ukrainian 'coffee-table' books we have and yet so little about Canada. I had no trouble filling up the Ukrainian table with other artisan crafts: carved wooden boxes, ceramics, embroidery, and of course pysanky. The Canadian table was starting to look bare until I found a stuffed beaver and moose, as well as coasters depicting various scenes from the Rockies to fill it with. And of course the table-top air hockey to keep the children amused... Not bad showing in the end!
The headteacher had asked beforehand if anyone was willing to sing or dance in their native language, and this gave Larysa the perfect opportunity to be Ruslana for a night. (If all of you are up on your past Eurovision contest winners, you will remember the Ukrainian entry from 2004 - Wild Dances or Dyki Tansi - bringing home the first prize for the Carpathian lass.) It was unbelievable (and me without my camera!*), Larysa played the crowd, sang her heart out and for the grand finale, swooped her head around with hair swinging every which way - the crowd went nuts! For a 10-year old she's got amazing stage presence.
Britney, Christina and Ruslana - your time has come to step aside for the next generation of pop idol!
* (I'm hoping to load a photo of Larysa in action at a later date when I find someone who was snapping pictures that night.)
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