Grand

Granddad and grandson in a tickling session at Son's house.

It was Son's wife Rani's birthday yesterday, but they had her family over, plus Son's bio mum, but we did send her text greetings.  Today, AW had an extra bridge drive planned, organized by the federation only for 'staff'.  AW was invited because he is an official referee.  The drive was scheduled to start at 14.00, with the doors opening at 13.00, so we drove to Son's place in the morning.  We were there at about 10.30, and they were all still in bed ... hahaha!  That was a fab way to come together and just hang out on the couch!  We got served our coffee and tea and homemade apple pie (did you know that the apple pie tradition began in The Netherlands and was introduced in the New World when the Dutch owned New York centuries ago?).  Lively discussions and story-telling about when Son and his buddy visited Israel not too long ago, shortly before the Gaza bombardment begun, Son's self-made home improvements and repairs (which we admire), and of course, the kids.  Granddaughter (7) was busy with headphones but Grandson (5) was in the living room with us observing a game being played out on the huge screen but not participating himself.  This is what he does when he is not in the mood to chat.  After a while, though, Granddad had had enough of that and wanted a tickling session, so Son handed Grandson over.  AW adores the grandbabies and so do I.  Had a good talk with Rani about the case, too.

Dropped off AW later at the bridge hall, then back home for a quiet afternoon before picking him up again at 17.45.

The deadline for report submission (uploading to the school's dropbox) is at 23.00 tonight.  Work will commence tomorrow.

My thoughts are on the fires raging in Australia ... and the coming of war again in the Middle East.  Both are things we don't need right now.  The Middle East conflict, in particular, is cause for consternation as it was begun by a madman in his desperate bid to protect himself from the fate that he so justly deserves.