Sorry sorry sorry!!!

As was to be expected our 4 weeks in exotic Estonia were non-bloggerfriendly so there is a big gap to fill. Hopefully you all haven't given up checking in!
As I flew alone with the children the trip was quite interesting. Probably the hardest part being the wait in Amsterdam. We had something like 6 hours between the flights and it was no fun after a 12.5 hour flight from Singapore in economy class. Surprisingly for such a big airport Schippol has very limited facilities to entertain travelling kids. The playroom is boring and shabby and nobody wants to spend more than 15 min in there, so that left us with 5 h 45 min to go. Well, eventually we got there.

Estonia greeted us with lovely cool weather - such a bliss after these hot months in Singapore. After a few days the summer arrived though and we went to the beach. The sea was too cold for me but the children were in the water in no time inspite of their colds. Anyway, I did underestimate the sun and didn't use enough sunblocker so I got a sunburn. Dad couldn't stop teasing me about it - a person comes from the tropics pale as a swan and burns herself here in the north!
It took us a while getting over jetlag, especially Raoul had a hard time and was up 4.30 every morning for the first week. The Estonian TV apparently caters for jetlagged children as their kids program runs from 6 to 8 am. So that came in handy and I could go running before the farmers started racing up and down the dusty country lanes with their tractors. By the end of week 2 everybody had adjusted to the local time so well that they missed the kids program every morning.
I think the children enjoyed their time in Estonia a lot and proved their genetic identity very well. They spent a lot of time "helping" Jaanus to build his exciting new house that I can't even start to describe. Will have to wait for a photo! I hope he still has all his tools. Also Raoul enjoyed driving grandpa's old car that he called very cleverly "vana-aeglane auto" - combining two words - oldtimer and slow! Beatrice showed her best side doing all the family's share of work so I could just relax while she was helping Mana to pick tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes etc or helping Manass carry logs. Raoul also had a daily routine of getting the newspaper from the mailbox up the road that he transported in Beatrice's old doll pram. He even tryed cutting the hay. So clearly Raoul showed big potential for taking over the farm one day. Karl loves the animals and spent lots of time with the neighbor's old dog Pantu who has moved to my parent's place permanently now. He is so old and smelly that nobody apart from the children even wants to stroke him anymore so I guess he enjoyed the attention and the occasional feast of a saucage. Sophie the cat is shy and avoided us for the first few days. Boys play is still too wild for her. However one morning Raoul walked in with one of her trophys - a halfeaten dead mouse in his hand declaring that he found a bird.
All the kids started to enjoy the sauna and sat nicely on the lower bench. Another important event was burning hay at Kart's summerhouse. It was quite magical - the dry hay went up in sparks like a volcano with the sun setting in the background. All by themselves the kids learned to build nests in hay. That for me was such an enlightening moment. Building nests of freshly dryed hay should be a "must-do" activity of everyone's childhood. And I don't know if there is another place apart from Estonia where my children could do that.
Beatrice and I got to enjoy the proper Estonian summer of music festivals as well. On Margit's initiative we went to Viljandi folk for one day and that turned out to be such a hit. It has been running for many years now but I have never made my way there assuming that the crowd would be very alternative and not my cup of tea. Either my assumption was wrong or it has changed but it was very nice and normal. Just lots of kind and beautiful people enjoying interesting and good music. The choice of concerts was too big so we trusted Peep (my cousin's husband and Karl's godfather) the musician. He chose very well. So we heard a trio from Russia who played interesting music from all over the world giving it a russian touch with balalaika etc. And the of course Vagilased - an estonian band who gives old traditional tunes and songs a modern rocky twist. They seem to be especially popular with the Viljandi folk crowds so there was a lot of dancing and singing along. Inbetween the concerts some of us had a swim in the lake. So it was really a nice day just hanging around there. And of course always a good place to find some long lost friends with their new offspring.
We were quite lucky with timing this year as many friends and relatives happened to be there as well. Robert's younger sister Aime and partner Johannes were touring Estonia and camped at our place for a night. (Successfully ignoring the wake-up committee with drums etc at 8 am.) We went to the Rocca al Mare open air museum with Kristel and her kids and had a good runaround and tested all the huge swings there. Also managed to see Mart, Nele and Joel off to Berlin. And of course I managed to see at least some of my dear old friends. If sadly by far not all.
There is plenty more to write, so I'll catch up soon.