And so it goes.

My mom left last night. My dad already left a week ago. It's sort of like pulling off a bandage slowly.

After our day trip to Mahabalipuram on Saturday we've been pretty slow here at the Hopper household. I know we went swimming every day, but beyond that? Sunday we went to church and had lunch at Cappuccino. Monday, uh... I think we went to Citi Centre. Mom bought me a birthday outfit from Lifestyle, that was very sweet. Tuesday, Ian left to Hyderabad for a few days, the kids and I took mom out to Dhaba Express for lunch. It's outdoor Indian dining, our favorite place for a quick tasty meal, and it's walkable from home. Wednesday we hung out at home all day. Mom packed, we played lots of board games, and in the evening went to Benjarong for dinner. It's walkable too, but on the way home Rebecca and I surprised her with a quick ride in a rickshaw. The weather outside has been wonderful and the rickshaw ride was cool and not too uncomfortable for the 5 minutes home.
Then the A/C went out in the car so the ride to the airport was a tad sticky, and the departure terminal was mobbed. We pushed mom up to the front of the queue just to get into the building, but even inside it seemd to be wall to wall people. Since we didn't get a frantic phone call saying anyting had gone awry I can only assume she made it onto the plane fine, especially with no luggage to check and flying in something (anything) other than cattle car. I'm sure we'll hear from Frankfurt.
Today everything goes back to normal routine, at least until Wednesday when we leave for Singapore. I'm awaiting the piano tuner this morning (the one I called before my folks arrived, who said someone would be here 2 weeks ago...) and I have loads of laundry and general tidying up to do before we depart. Um, packing too. There is great frustration coming home, tired and cranky, to a messy house and no clean clothes. I need to have the kids do some school type work as their brains are going to mush even with Big Brain Academy on the Wii and Clue Finders on the PC.
Yet here I sit on the computer, just letting everything happen around me. I didn't get to sleep until about 3 a.m. and was awake around 8, so it's going to be a cranky kind of day. Especially if this piano tuner doesn't show up.