A few weeks ago, shortly after finishing, but after having had enough days to recover, I came home for a couple of days to see my family.   Hubby and I had organised it so that we did a house swop, so as to give him access to the house with son no. 2 to do a couple of jobs and also to look after Toile.  As at that point she was not completely vaccinated and still too small for the train trip home.    

Although I think she had other ideas and wanted to become the traveling cat we hope she will one day become.

This was the weekend of the annual carnival, it was a sweet memory to see the children enjoying themselves. The floats were a riot of colour combined with carnival fun, as one would expect from my home town.  My town may be small, compared to our larger neighbours, but we do the  best carnival for miles around. It was great to see son no.1, handsome as ever.  And Mum and Dad, Aunties, Uncles, cousins and second cousins and third cousins. And I spent the most delightful evening cuddling our newest member of our family, a nine week old baby girl, (my third cousin!)  I could still smell her baby smell in the morning where she had snuggled so tightly against me the previous evening and I remembered cuddling her Mum when she was the same age.   But after a couple of days socialising and catching up, it was time to head home, to complete the house swop. And sure enough, I had one very eager furry person waiting to see me, who literally leapt into my arms and hugged me like the ball of fluff baby she is, purring loudly all the time.  Don’t worry Toile, you’ll be coming home with me next time to meet the other hairy members of the our family and thats not just son no.1   Toile communing with me in the morning sun, very happy to see me home.