We took the kids to see SuperSize Me last night. Pretty interesting, seeing how quickly what you eat affects your health. I'm trying to stick to my mom's diet even though I'm back here, both out of solidarity with her and because I feel good on it. It's the antithesis of a fast-food diet - basically she is pretty much sticking to fresh, organically-grown fruit, veggies, nuts and beans. I must say, I feel good when I eat this way ... much more energy.

The kids quite enjoyed the movie, though they were rather horrified by a segment about a gastric bypass operation (if that's the name of the op - they were making someone's stomach smaller, presumably so that he was physically prevented from over-eating).

Before the movie, we got chatting with the person behind us in line - a design intern, from Puerto Rica via Austin, Texas - and ended up having coffee with him - very nice guy. I'm sure we'll get together with him again. That's one thing I like about living here, people are so much more outgoing and friendly that they are in SA.

And speaking of living here (or not) I just heard from a local friend that her husband has accepted a promotion which will take them to Brussels within the next couple of months. My first reaction was pure envy. And my second was sadness : I'm really going to miss her. That's the second good friend who's leaving Orlando this summer. I am so conflicted about where our family should be living. On the one hand, I like our life here, the children are happy and settled, work is going well for Bobby. In many ways, it makes sense for us to stay right here. I actually have an appointment with a realtor for later this morning - she'll be taking me to see six or seven potential homes. Rationally, I know that if we're going to be here till at least the end of 2006, we should go ahead and buy a house. It's senseless putting our rent money into the landlord's pocket each month when we could be investing in our own home. But the thought of buying a house here doesn't excite me in the least. In fact, it makes me feel rather depressed and trapped. But if I think about leaving here, and going somewhere altogether new - like Amsterdam, say - I feel excited and full of energy and ready for new challenges. So I'm not sure what we should do ... half of me says, "Let's move on, let's go somewhere entirely new, let's have some more really exciting experiences"; and the other half says "why mess with a good thing? You know you're happy here, you know the kids are happy, just buy a house and put down some roots." The first voice speaks more persuasively, but I think the second voice may prevail anyway ...