While Brandon worked at Stouffer's, he had a rotating four-day workweek, so we never had dedicated Saturdays, but the days he had off always involved me running errands with our one car while he watched the children at home.
In Arlington, we rented a house with a lovely yard that required a lot of upkeep so Saturdays were always busy.
In Cairo we have no yard, maintenance is done by the embassy, I have a housekeeper, and so Saturdays are chore-free. Kathleen is too young to be in any organized activities, and I run errands during the week, and so Saturdays are endlessly empty, with nary a commitment in sight.
During the summer, Saturdays always without fail every single Saturday involved going to the pool. We always swam in the morning, came home for a long, late nap, ate an early dinner and watched a movie together. Everyone was happy, everyone had something to do, and crankiness was kept to a reasonable level.
It's (Cairo) winter now, and although the pool is heated, swimming in low seventies weather doesn't sound like much fun to me. Maadi house has a playground, but somehow the pool provides so many more hours of a amusement. We don't have a car, and so going anywhere is an immense amount of trouble. We have three small children, and so going anywhere is an immense amount of trouble. We have no yard to play in, and an apartment, no matter how big, still is an apartment with a limited amount of space to play in.
We don't even have the luxury of a TV to sit them down in front of.
I never thought I would find myself complaining about a lack of household responsibilities, but I wouldn't mind at least a garden to weed and let Edwin eat the bugs from. Maybe I'll start making up chores for the girls to do, just to keep them from fighting.
So tell me, what do you do on a Saturday?
1 comment:
Duh! You go windsurfing and scuba diving, then you eat too much and go buy ice cream downtown. Then you go back and cheer on the gecko in the bathroom. At least that was last Saturday.
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