Ping-pong, the new soccer

Tristan is unable to play soccer, due to his tendonitis. The prognosis is that he will be unable to play for the most of this season. But he has discovered a new passion. Ping-pong. Marinda had an interest in this a couple of years back, so this is actually something they can do together.
Ping-pong was motivation enough to get Tristan out of the sofa and into the store to buy a complete set, making it possible to transform our dining room table into a ping-pong table. Of course, this means that all the chairs must be put to the side and the table pulled into the middle of the room.
But you know what?? I don't care!! I'm just so darn happy that Tristan has something that is motivating him, and something that he can do without causing pain in his tendon. It's worth the relative mess to see him and Marinda playing together, and to see him playing with other boys. I even tried my hand at it which gave cause for huge fits of laughter :-).

In action

Blurry picture of me in action at my work.





This is something I really enjoy doing though! Standing in front of a group of people can be a real kick.

This time

This time this message is reaching you from my office. Where I have decided to linger a little bit longer in order to make use of some internet time. The windows and shutters are closed and silence prevails.
Last week I had dinner with colleagues, a goodbye dinner for our director. During the dinner conversation the work atmosphere came up. I mentioned something along the lines of not feeling quite at home. Nobody responded to my comment at that moment, but today a colleague did. Leading to an interesting conversation about the whys and why nots of my feeling at home here. Both of us couldn't quite figure out what the deal was BUT it's just good to have unspoken thoughts spoken, and to have at least told somebody about how I feel. Besides that emotional moment (I get teary eyed over everything right now) there was another this morning when I ended up talking about how sick Herman is. More tears and also sympathy.
Some good may just come out of all this bad!

Realization

I never realized how much the setting in which I type determines what I do and do not write. Somehow the library is not conductive to deep personal thoughts. I can hear children crying in background (which is never conductive to deep thoughts!). And I feel harried and rushed because of the time limit that is set here. So I will have to make do with fragments of thoughts and a lot of sweet (HA!!) nothings.
Sunday I took a walk with a friend and took pictures of the beginning of autumn here. Never would have done that before! Blogging has made me more camera aware. The pictures will have to wait though, as internet is still not functioning. I know, I'm becoming repetitive.
We had a bit of a scare this morning, thinking that Herman would have to be hospitalized. It could still happen, depending on what results come out of the samples he is sending out to the lab. It's just not going well, there's nothing much else to say about that. If any of you are prayer-like then prayers would be appreciated. I do not have the faith anymore.
You know one strange thing though? Despite the fact that a lot of things are not going well, I am able to stick to a diet of sorts. No overeating going on here. It makes no sense at all, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts!