I am about two thirds of the way through The Book.

Have been too busy to blog, and as always, postpone catch-up post until photos are done, hence never post catch-up post.

Spent a good chunk of the kids school holidays on leave, and went to Kob Inn on the Wild Coast for 5 nights with Peter's family. The four siblings arranged the trip to celebrate their parents' 40th wedding anniversary. It took a little while for me to acclimatise to such a large dose of family, but on the whole it was a very good trip.

Things I liked about the trip.

• Listening to The Railway Children on the way.
• The sheet beauty and remoteness of the place.
• The fact that the waves were crashing on to the rocks about 50m from our front door.
  
• How much the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins.
• Pottering on the beach with the kids.
  
• The really good food.
• Canoeing on the estuary.
  
• Sand-boarding on the dunes.
• Playing tennis with the kids.
  

Things I didn't like about the trip.

• Kids were not permitted in the main dining room. Now there are times during the grind of daily life when I want to get away from my kids; being on holiday is not one of those times.
  
• The 9 hour car trip to get there. And back. Despite the fact that the kids did exceptionally well, we were all about at the end of our tether on both the way there and the way back.
• Being pregnant and missing out on the quad-biking.
• Being pregnant and having two members of the hotel staff trying their utmost to pat my tummy. This resulted in me dodging out of the way, them chasing after me, me side-stepping again, until they finally got the hint and went on their way.

Generally, I can't imagine patting someone's tummy unless I was at least on hugging terms with that person. To me, feeling the urge to pat the tummy of a total stranger strikes me as rather odd; acting on that urge is plain rude.

I have five or six weeks to go and it is taking forever. Fortunately I have had the girls' birthday parties to take my mind off things. We had Robyn's party last weekend (we kept postponing it last term because the school Saturday fun day kept being postponed owing to the strike and we couldn't pick a date without risking a clash), and we have Lauren's party coming up not this weekend but next.

Recent comments collected with reference to reproductive habits (a lot of these from people whose name I don't know):

• You're so tiny (you have to say this with South African accent to get full impact). Granted, this one not heard in last month.
  
• You look about ready to pop.
• You're brave.
• You're carrying so well.
• It's all out in front.
  
• That's enormous.
  
• You're glowing.
• I hear from <insert other unknown name> this is your fourth!
• Don't you people have anything else to do?