Outlawed

5 days and then they were gone.

The outlaws that is, they came last Friday and were with us for 4 whole days before being taken back to the airport on Wednesday afternoon.
So a long weekend, just the right amount of time I think, I didn't have the chance to get too irritated and tetchy about things being put in the wrong places, the TV being on even more than usual and having to have my happy hostess face on 24/7.

My German teacher says that guests are like fish - they start to smell after 3 days, personally I think this is a little harsh, although I can see her point, but we've managed to have a nice few days together, maybe the secret to this lies in keeping them busy?

Day 1 they were taken shopping (weather too foul for anything else)
Day 2 there was a fashion show to go to in my favourite bar
Day 3 a trip to Schloss Burg*
Day 4 the Folkwang museum
Day 5 a final outing for the German institution of coffee 'n cake.

All in all a pleasant few days.

A few points of note:

- 4, almost 5 days here and 2 fullsize suitcases plus a carryon sized case and a fully loaded rucksack - for 2 people...MIL doesn't travel light, I think the phrase 'capsule wardrobe' is an anathema to her.
- I really do need to move my 'books I haven't read yet' into a separate room from the 'books I have read' because everytime someone stays in the guest room they root through them all (which I don't have a problem with) find 1 or 2 or 3 (depending on how good/bad the book is and the speed of their reading) to read (also not a problem, I'm not precious about my books, although I quite like being the first to read a book I've bought, but hey) but then the books tend to be put back willynilly, on any old shelf and although they weren't in a particularly anal order they are usually separated into 'I've read & no longer want it', 'I've read & want to keep' and 'must read'.
I really must move the 'to read' shelf.
- Grandparents are great for playing with children, my mom will play Barbies until her brain starts to fizz and while Nanny Linda doesn't get quite the same torture treatment she did have to suffer many many rounds of Top Trumps - both Bratz and Little Britain varieties, note to self; donot but any more Top Trumps for Jas as a stocking filler.
- To make up for being too old to play Ben's games (Gandpa is not technologically advanced enough to remember to turn his mobile phone on let along play Halo on the PS3/xbox) Pete did the grandfatherly job of telling jokes at every meal time (I am such a mean mother, insisting on dragging the teen alien killer out of his combat zone to eat with the whole family) determined to crack the 'cool facade' that teen boys assume whenever they think someone is looking, although this can be quite dangerous as Ben, when hit with a joke at the right point has been known to snort rice down his nose...

I read a blog this morning about ageing, this blogger was telling how she'd found a grey eyebrow hair & had instantly plucked it out at the next set of traffic lights (the things we women use our cars for eh?!) and someone else commented that they thought a sign of ageing was 'when you see your parents age' - Jasmine (age 9 and with no verbal filter whatsoever) said (in the presence of both grandparents) that she was worried about Grandpa dying...ho hum, I'm sure she'll say much the same come December when they visit again for Silvester**.


* a more excellent name for a castle you couldn't hope to think up; schloss = castle, burg = castle. This place is literally called 'castle castle', snigger.
** Silvester = New Year's Eve