Taking a tally

60kg seemed like such a lot of weight on 16 April when we left New Zealand. It is, just to keep things in perspective, roughly the combined weight of our four children. Not insignificant.

That was the weight of the extra luggage we knew we could afford to take home at the end of our holiday. Quickly translated to the amount of shopping we could do.

We might have cheated a little. An amazing find at a great design shop in Barcelona saw us purchase Christmas gifts for our clients (and a few goodies for ourselves) which they then posted home for us. But on the most part our newly acquired goodies are strewn all over our walk-in wardrobe. If we keep them dispersed they seem smaller, lighter, less voluminous.

We have five weeks to go (four weeks and five days to be precise, Jamie has asked me to stop counting and telling him. I can’t. It’s a personality defect). So it seemed sensible to consider our progress towards the 60kg mark. Italy is calling us with its great shopping - I want to be very sure of the status quo when we arrive so I know my limits. We pulled all our new bits and pieces together in to a suitcase to get some sense. To my pleasant surprise we were only up to 20kg. The world is my oyster. Shame the credit card tells a different story.

One item I didn’t include was all the clothing that has been purchased on this holiday. The scarves, coats, tops, trousers, dresses, togs, hats, skirts and shoes. They have been integrated straight into clothing piles. The thing is I like having nice things but the chase isn’t where the action is for me. I don’t get any thrill from retail excursions per se. In fact I feel slightly nauseous after spending money on things that even I can’t convince myself aren’t exactly necessary, and prefer not to dwell on it. If the tags are removed and the bags are disposed of speedily I can almost pretend it never happened.

So I was quite shocked when around the breakfast table we started talking shoes. New ones. I didn’t really think we had purchased that many. I could think of a couple of pairs. I hadn’t thought it was 11.  Eleven new pairs of shoes. Outrageous. I would be horrified to imagine how much new weight we would have accumulated if the new clothing had been incorporated in to the tally.

Most families prefer to play tennis, go for bike rides or small hikes, or perhaps a spot of Monopoly for the non-sporty. Not us. Our family entertainment then became fetching out and looking at all the new clothes each of the children had acquired. All solid investments of course. And as we are documenting every teeny tiny aspect of this adventure the camera had to make an appearance.

Many times on this holiday we have been asked if Matilda and Henriette are twins.

I blame Julie Andrews for this. The Sound of Music may have just been a movie. But to me it was a life plan. Firstly the many children part. I seem to be falling short by three, and Jamie never goes for my name suggestions (I don’t quite understand why Liesl, Fredrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta and Gretl couldn’t fly as good Kiwi names). Secondly the curtain couture. Ever since those seven children appeared on my tele set in their complementary outfits using the same fabric I have been on a mission. George is just lucky I prefer plain polos on boys rather than tailored shirts in Liberty fabrics.

It was no surprise then that when I laid Matilda’s clothes out nicely on our pebbled terrace they looked remarkably like the ones I had just put out for Henriette. These two love dressing the same. They are the best of friends and consider themselves a happy, go-lucky gang of two.

Today was hot. The car told us 32 degrees in the shade. Too hot to eat or play. And you can’t spend all day in the pool. So we pulled up a rug in the shade of the fruit trees in our garden and lined up all the matching clothes and had a bit of fun creating a wee family momento of the period in our lives time when two sisters loved dressing alike and their mother loved pretending she was the proud owner of little twin girls. Jamie captured it on video (check it out here or under our video section), George kept them entertained behind the camera to bring out the best smiles, I was in charge of dressing, and Molly ran around between shots with the Evian water spray, freshening everyone’s faces and keeping us sane. Now that’s how us Schaefers spend a sunny, summer’s afternoon. No tennis for us.

Tomorrow we might return to the shopping, sorry the retail investment. There is probably 30kg potential left to go. Shame not to use it.