One Long Summer

Today is Sunday, Georgia's birthday actually - and I am waiting for all the family to be home at the one time so we can give her a quick ring - but anyone with teenagers will know they come and go so frequently our door is a proverbial revolving one.
But anyway it is Sunday and I am sitting here by myself, which doesn't happen very often. Josh is out at a coffee shop with a friend (they meet there and then go skating or blading as it's just 50 m down the road - it's all good) Matthew has taken Mikaela to some youth home where she is volunteering to speak English to Vietnamese youths (you have to love IB CAS) and Bella well she is out with friends including the boy who is now officially her boyfriend - officially apparently because it is now on facebook. He seems a nice boy we will see how he survives our family. When Zander used to bring girls home we use to make them play backyard cricket in our driveway and only the strong survived - so we might have to get him to play cricket and see how he survives - I am not sure how cricket will translate.
Anyway back to Sunday. Matthew and I on our way back from coffee this morning were discussing how surreal leaving here really is. It's like we have taken a break from life maybe not from life maybe from living. We still get up everyday and go to work, school etc., we still run around with the kids and sport and social outings - but it's not normal life. We have housekeepers - well we used to - we have a driver, we walk down the road for not so good coffee, we go for massages and facials and eat copious amounts of pho it all is not real. You can understand how people who do this for a long time must find it so hard to go back to living a somewhat of a normal life.
And as Vietnam has no discernible seasons there isn't even the change of seasons to mark the passing of time, so sometimes life just stands still.
It's almost like just one long summer which will end one day and we will go back to living our life.