Nearly back to normal and new beginnings

I am half asleep from getting home from the airport in the middle of the night, and a certain person wanting to chat until morning! So we are all together again and Fahed, more English than the most English, is delighted to be home. He hasn't been away long enough for his gloom to set in. He smiled all the way back from the airport because it is always so green here, although at 2am its hard to say that he could see that for sure. He even liked the weather, snowy and 2 degrees. He keep walking around the house smiling. It reminds me of when we used to collect the cats from the cattery after a holiday, just checking the place out. I really must remember to appreciate my own country this much. Unfortunately the rest of his family had to go back to Syria, which is so dangerous right now. We are keeping fingers crossed that they get home safely as they had a proper close call on the way to the funeral.

My youngest son had a bit of a reality check today. Since mid December his weight has gone up by something like 7 kilo. He has convinced himself it is muscle building up since he started Jujitsu. Coincidentally Coke & Pepsi have alternately been on special offer at our local supermarket for £2 per case. Today his brother pointed out the obvious correlation and made him check his profile in the mirror. Jamal has now given up fizzy drinks and is going back to the gym. Ahdel drinks mostly water anyway, he has a milk allergy and loves water, but I think he will also be avoiding the demo fizzies from now on. I also like the idea that we don't have a weekly disagreement about how much fizzy drink is a good amount. Lastly Fahed is giving up his caffeine free diet coke habit. They are drinking up what they have and going cold turkey.

and on the subject of cold turkey. Whilst Fahed was away he stopped taking his sleeping meds on the advice of our GP clinic. They are going to help him manage his insomnia, which is anxiety related, in a different way. The surgery also dropped his anxiety medication by 1/3 also in a recent heart scare. He still feels very well but has more energy so now he wants to give them up completely. I have persuaded him to discuss it with the doctor and maybe half it to start with and then consider dropping completely. That would be so lovely for him and he is doing really well but we mustn't get ahead of ourselves.