No fair.

They say it's a small world.....I don't know. Sometimes, to me, it's a really BIG world.

When cold oceans divide, vast continents separate, time differences clash, and everything in between appears foreign and unfocused. Then we feel really far apart.

And no amount of social networking, twittering, emailing, skyping, nor any other form of communication media can seem to make up that distance. It's not the same. It comes close. But not close enough.

Somehow, I cannot spot the veiled sadness behind the smile I'm seeing on my computer screen. I cannot hear the undertones of pain on the other side of my cell phone. It's the down side of not being close enough. You miss the signs, the body-language, the comments that you'd normally pick up on while having a cup of coffee, or over lunch.

Some days, it just doesn't seem fair. Being so far away. Away from the normal, the familiar, the comfortable. Away from what you know, and understand.

And away from the ones who understand you.

Have bike, will travel.

This weekend we joined the hundreds of American families around us in the weekend family pastime.....bike-riding! (Well in The Woodlands anyway!)

Yes sir....we all got bikes!

It was originally a trip to the store to buy a bike for mother-dearest, as I thought it would be a great way to get to the shop & the kids school, seeing that I don't have my car yet. Soon however, the kids were on the bikes and riding around the store having great fun. So a purchase of one bike became a purchase of three!

You should have seen the way dear husband got all 3 bikes into his Volvo sedan.....genius!!

Then the bug bit, and soon we were off riding to the park, and later watched the kids ride up and down the cul-de-sac. Sunday came, and dear husband was off to the store again, to purchase his own bike! (We did Walmart proud that weekend!)

My family and I love our new bikes. The same cannot be said however, for my gluteus maximus. It is, at this moment, a slow and steady job to sit down without grimacing in pain. Even in spite of the hi-tech air-gel bike seat that I bought. Oh well, I hope my neighbours think I'm smiling in pure biker-delight, even though I'm actually snarling in anguish!