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APRIL/MAY/JUNE
APRIL
04-04 From Paris in the sunshine, to unforgiving kittens
Well I did remember to change the clocks, but still managed to screech into the station just as the train was pulling in. Aside from that we had a very smooth journey with a wonderful taxi ride across Paris which did the decent thing and was bathed in magnificent spring sunshine. Moo was agog and full of wonder and delight as at last she got her heart’s desire and, at last, saw the ‘tour Eifel’. Paris in the spring, you just can’t beat it. Our few days in Belgium were lovely, and we managed to find the huge park in the city centre, that we had somehow missed last time, and spent much of our time there, relaxing in the sunshine. Aaahh. The day of our departure dawned too soon and off we set again, with slightly heavier baggage (we did manage to fit in a little shopping in between relaxes). This time the Paris transfer wasn’t quite as pleasant. We had oodles of time and decided to go via the Metro, only to be faced with seemingly endless security and armed soldiers patrolling the stations. I suddenly remembered that it was the G20 summit and all though it was taking place in London, the security in Paris had obviously been ramped up for the occasion. Once again I felt feelings of overwhelming gratitude that I no longer live in London, where it seemed, at one point, that every time you faced the grind of the daily commute there was the added worry that you might not actually make it at all. After Paris came an extremely tedious wait in Le Mans for the next connection, then the joy of home and an extremely over excited kitten. Little did she know what was in store. The next morning she was whisked off to be ‘done’ at the vets, and I spent a lovely day with all the windows and doors open whilst uprooting yet more primroses who had risen triumphantly to take the place of those I dug up last week. My borders and baskets are now full of the things and I’m afraid that the next lot may well fall to their doom under the strings of the strimmer. In the afternoon I went to pick up a very bemused and angry little kitten that, in the words of the vet’s receptionist, has ‘beaucoup de character’. Guess she got bitten then. When home and released from her carrier she proceeded to wobble her way round the house for a few hours trying to figure out why her back legs appeared to be no longer functioning correctly, before giving up and crashing out in her bed for the rest of the day. I then had the task of trying to stop a very curious Moo from waking her up to either try and inspect her rather gruesome looking stitches, or just laugh at her trying to walk in a straight line. Moo’s behaviour in Belgium was almost angelic, and had it not been for a spectacular bedtime rumpus one evening I’m not entirely sure that hubs would have believed the problems we have been having of late. She seems a little better at the moment although with 2 weeks of Easter holidays looming I’m not counting any chickens. I have been shopping for the holidays and along with countless bags of chocolate, (which I WILL NOT EAT before Easter), I have been stockpiling yellow card, pretty ribbons, finger paints, glue and all sorts of random craft objects in the hope of keeping us amused, that, and desperately praying for sunshine. Before I sign off I must say a HUGE thank you to my two knights in shining armour who rescued my crippled car last weekend. Gordon is now safely tucked up in the garage until we can decide exactly what to do with his remains, and I can’t thank you both enough for your help. Now where did I put those praline filled eggs…?
07-04 My baby’s all grown up…
Today was a very auspicious day in hillywilly’s world. Today I got to have the windows open all day, and the doors. Today was the day when Chimney was to be allowed out on her own. There was one slight hiccough in proceedings when Moo burst into tears, grabbed the cat and wailed that she didn’t want me to let Chimney out. After much cajoling she explained that she loved the cat very much and didn’t want to ‘never ever see her again’. In the mind of a 4 yr old, all this talk of the cat’s freedom, and releasing her to run free, meant that as soon as the door was open, Chimney would disappear into the woods never to be seen again. I patiently explained that this was not the case and that Chimney would just be going out to explore and play, but this was her home, and she knows how much we all love her and she would be coming back to see us all the time. As I took her into the garden, I fervently prayed that this would be the case. Fortunately for me, she did not disappoint, and spent the first 5 minutes tentatively sniffing the grass and keeping just out of arms length just in case I changed my mind. After her initial sniffing, and when she realised she was indeed free to roam, she set off up the cherry tree like a cat possessed, and made it to the very top in about 3 seconds flat, and there she stayed. I was a little concerned that she was in fact stuck, but turns out she was just stalking a nest in a neighbouring garden. When she realised that unless she had sprouted wings overnight, there was no way to get to it, she came down again and started load testing the lower branches, we had a few near falls, but all was well. Then the big test arrived in the form of Baghera (the big bad cat from next door who has been monitoring chimneys progress through the kitchen window since her arrival). Baghera patiently waited at the bottom of the tree for an audience, and being a little taken aback with the speed of chimney’s descent, (I think the technical term may be ‘freefall’), assumed the arched back hissing position. Chimney was having none of it and hissed right back and proceeded to chase big bad Baghera right back to her own garden. It made me so proud! So the first bout went to chimney, but I’m sure this isn’t over. Moo and I spent a lovely morning on ‘Chimney watch’ in the garden chatting to Mlle A from next door and swapping plant cuttings and recipes for dandelion jam (think I might leave that one to her though). The cat finally got bored of the garden and went off to explore the derelict building and the ‘secret garden’ next door, but kept popping back every now and again to say hello. In the afternoon I took advantage of the weather and the ability to have all the doors open, and cleaned the house while Moo played outside, listening to all her ‘chaton reportage’. As it started to get a bit chilly Moo and I headed inside to watch Peter Pan, and Moo was over the moon when Chimney decided that she had had enough of the great outdoors for one day, hopped back through the window, curled up beside her on the sofa, and fell fast asleep. When I heard Moo whispering to the cat ‘I’m glad you love me too and came home’ I thought I was going to cry.
11-04 Joyeuse Pâques!
Happy happy Easter one and all. The good news is that I have survived the first week of the (rainy) Easter holidays without too many emotional scars. Moo has actually been very good (apart from a few pitch battles at bedtimes), and we have had a very pleasant week making Easter pictures, cards and cakes. With the moods she had been in lately and the forecast for a rainy week, I was approaching this week with dread, but the rain only began a couple of days ago, so we have been able to get out and enjoy the beach and the forest before taking refuge in finger paints cotton wool, and a multitude of Disney films. We have both very much been enjoying the magic of DVD for allowing us to watch our favourite, Peter Pan, in French. We had a great fun indoor Easter egg hunt yesterday, even more fun when I realised we were still 2 eggs short and I had no recollection of where I had actually put them. They were eventually tracked down (behind the curtains in the bathroom and in the bread basket, in case you were wondering), and we set about the task of making them disappear once more.... Despite a couple of 'interesting' and very late bedtimes for Moo, I have managed at last to get my head well and truly stuck into my favourite pastime of reading. It’s been a while since I enjoyed such an engrossing book, (Shantaram, by David Gregory Roberts). It was possibly a little too engrossing as I found myself in bed listening to the 4 chimes that told me I should have been asleep a long time ago, ah the perils of the 'just one more chapter' self delusion! Chimney has taken to life as an outdoor cat, like the proverbial duck to water and she has perfected her hop up to the window and has even taking to knocking on it with her paw if it happens to be closed..... She has had another show down with Baghera, with the same result, and has confused the rest of the local feline population by cavorting around outside in the pouring rain. She is a very strange little cat. The other good news is that Hubs has managed to get off work an hour early tonight. Doesn't sound like a lot I know, but it is the difference between him being home with us tonight by around 10, or not arriving till late tomorrow afternoon. So in this case that little bit does mean such a lot. We are also preparing for the arrival of AJ and her grandma - sometime on Monday afternoon, and I have to say we are all getting mighty excited. So a busy week done and another one ahead, so much for the quiet country life!
20-04 AJ's visit and dandelion jam.
So much has been going on, but not very much has happened! We had a wonderful few days with AJ and it is a joy to see her growing up into a thoroughly nice young lady, but don't tell her I told you that as it would do her street cred no good at all. We picnicked at the plage and trawled the local beauty spots (although as AJ had seen most of them before Moo and I took grandma round while she spent some quality time with her dad eating cakes and listening to loud music), and we even managed to fit in a bit of shopping time too. I introduced AJ to the delights of jam making, with an experimental recipe for dandelion jelly. With a seemingly unending supply of the blessed things in the back garden and an internet search results page in hand we decided to give it a go. None of us were entirely convinced, especially as the smell of boiling dandelion heads is just a little bit like the smell of pee. But when we tasted the final product all doubts were firmly banished. It’s very hard to describe the taste, but it’s a bit like sweet honey and tastes amazing with cheese. The only trouble is that as I gave a jar each to the neighbours and Hubs took a jar back to Belgium, I find myself with only the tiny taster jar left and as Hubs trimmed the lawn to within an inch of its life, there's not nearly enough dandelions left to make another batch, and I am left marvelling at the fact that after almost a year of cursing them in my lawn, I actually want them there now. Au contraire. At the end of the week AJ and her grandma took themselves off to Paris for a couple of nights to enjoy the shopping and sightseeing in the capital (I'll leave it to your imagination to decide which of them wanted to do shopping and which the sights), and by all accounts had a great couple of days. As ever there was an AJ shaped hole in the house after she had gone, but we are already looking forward to her return at some point during the summer holidays. We spent a couple of quiet days, mostly in the garden, before Hubs had to return to work early on Monday morning, leaving us with a hubs shaped hole to be going on with too. This week heralds the return of school and maybe even the return of a certain bear, but that very much depends on the tantrum levels as hubs and I have made the decision that Travel bear will not come home till the behaviour improves. At this rate he may be away for some time yet!!
25-04 Little miracles and 'special things'.
This week has been marked by a severe lack of motivation on my part! The weather has been amazing, and there has been much garden pottering, and the gardeners tan is looking reasonably healthy already, as are the radish's. We have lots of them coming up, perhaps a bit too liberal with the seeds, so I think I will have to find some interesting radish recipes in a little while. We also have carrots sprouting, the beginnings of courgettes and potiron, (a type of yellow squash), along with a few tomato and strawberry plants. For such an amateur gardener as I, it is like witnessing a small miracle with every little shoot that appears. We also have a pot for garlic and, rather ambitiously on Moo's part I feel, and avocado seed. I'll let you know how that one goes. We are also developing an interesting 'feature' in the back corner. We are building a cairn. Let me explain how this came about. Moo has, over the last few weeks, developed somewhat of an obsession with collecting 'special things'. Now what Moo regards as 'special' may be somewhat different to what may normally be considered 'special'. It started off quite harmlessly as little shiny bits of paper or brightly coloured objects, picked up and kept in a 'special box', but soon developed to encompass absolutely any tiny thing she could see, including hair, tiny stones and dust (there's plenty of that for her around here). It was OK for a while, until she started to get fretful and teary when she lost or dropped them. Then the tantrums started. It's hard to respond logically when a child is screaming at you because you are sweeping up all the 'special things' from the floor and putting them in the bin. Last week Hubs tried to lighten the mood and pretended to eat some of her 'special things', but the resulting hour of tears was far less amusing than he had hoped for. It was getting to the point of madness for all concerned, but slowly and mercifully her fixation appears to be waning. Apart from the stones. Every day she returns from school with pockets full of stones, and a trip across the road to the car can take about a quarter of an hour. When I returned to collect her from a birthday party on Wednesday afternoon, she rolled up at the door with her party bag full of sweets and treats in one hand, and a carrier bag full of stones in the other. The mother of the birthday girl was a little bemused, but said Moo was free to stay and clear the rest if she liked! So what to do with all of these stones? After a quick 'Google' to find a few examples, I introduced Moo to the world of cairns, and managed to convince her that this would be a wonderful thing to do with all of her 'special' stones. So the pile of stones and gravel has begun, at least it keeps them out of the house. I managed to gain some motivation towards the end of the week and made a small table for the 'what on earth are we going to put in it' nook, in the bedroom, and a small set of shelves for my cookbooks (and assorted stuff) in the kitchen. They turned out not too bad and only a tiny bit wonky, I mean they won't will any prizes for carpentry, but they are pretty good for me, just, please, don't tell me they are special.
27-04 Bon Anniversaire
When I was invited out for a picnic with friends on the 26th, the date started ringing bells in my head but I wasn't sure why. I checked the calendar and my diary for birthdays, anniversaries but there was nothing. I check to see what bills were due, did I have a meeting or an appointment, was it something to do with the school? It buzzed around my head like an angry wasp, but I could not think why the date was significant. So I just got along with pottering in the garden in between the rain breaks, and trying to find activities to keep the Moo amused. Baking played a significant role in these activities and Moo is becoming a dab hand with biscuits and many were baked, iced and distributed to the neighbours. When there are only 2 of you in the house it’s not a good idea to have 30 odd freshly baked biscuits in the kitchen. Of course we had to sample a few, just to make sure they tasted OK of course. Moo is now at the age where 'helping' is something that she likes to do and, apart from the 'helping to clean the floor by blocking the sink in the toilet and letting the water run over' incident, it is mostly appreciated. She is becoming most adept in the kitchen, and has turned in to great little sous chef, helping me prepare the vegetables and measure ingredients for a variety of different dishes. As we were standing side by side in our matching 'big cook, little cook' aprons, preparing tasty treats for our picnic, all of the niggles and tantrums of the past few weeks left my mind at the precise moment that she looked up at me and hit me with a huge grin and the words that all of mankind longs so much to hear, 'I love you so much'. The moment didn't even lose its glory when she repeated the phrase with a 'uniquely Moo' addendum, 'I love you so much it made me pump'. As my laughter subsided it suddenly occurred to me why this date was so important to me. It was on April the 26th last year that we picked up the keys to this house and our new life. An entire year has somehow passed and although it is all logged in the archives of my mind (and probably more accurately of this site), I still can’t quite believe it. So our Sunday picnic became a significant celebration for us, and what a glorious afternoon. Fine food, a little wine and the company of good friends. Bon.
30-04 The social butterfly....
And so the seemingly endless round of soirée's continue with another one yesterday and a whole weekend of socialising ahead. The social whirl is hard to keep up with and remembering the names of all the new acquaintances and friends is becoming rather difficult. Fitting the lunch dates and the evening rendezvous in the calendar whilst trying to ensure that no one is left out is a bit of a headache. And she's only 4 and a half. In the last week alone, we have had 2 birthday parties and a picnic, and there are another couple of birthdays next week too. (There must be something about long lazy late summer evenings......). Her diary is extremely full, and a lot more exciting than mine, but I believe it is the fate of most maternelle mamans to spend most of their social time as their child's' +1. It’s so nice to see her socialising with the other kids and speaking to them with growing confidence in their own language. I managed OK myself too and instigated a few conversations with the other mums without the safety net of my bi-lingual back-up as she was far too busy trying to halt the children's attempts to defy death by climbing and jumping from the trees in her garden. I find I understand the vast majority of the conversations now, but I'm still a little lacking in confidence skill and speed of thought to join in a lot, but my efforts are appreciated, and the conversation about the renewed presence of the dreaded 'poux' was most enlightening! The approaching May holiday weekend will continue the programme of festivities with 2 days of fêtes at the nearby village with barbecue's and bouncy castles among the attractions and we are very much looking forward to it, even more so as it is also a holiday weekend in Belgium, which means Hubs gets an extra day off and is coming home for a long weekend that starts tonight at 9pm when I collect him from Le Mans! The best and biggest joy for me is that the utterly wonderful and heaven sent Mme W, has offered a sleepover to Moo tomorrow night, so Hubs and I get to go out and play with the grownups for once. I am very, very excited about this. It's been such a long time since I've been 'out to play'. Hubs and I have managed a couple of dinners but I can’t actually remember the last time I spent an evening in the pub listening to a band with other adults. It's the simple things.
04-04 From Paris in the sunshine, to unforgiving kittens
Well I did remember to change the clocks, but still managed to screech into the station just as the train was pulling in. Aside from that we had a very smooth journey with a wonderful taxi ride across Paris which did the decent thing and was bathed in magnificent spring sunshine. Moo was agog and full of wonder and delight as at last she got her heart’s desire and, at last, saw the ‘tour Eifel’. Paris in the spring, you just can’t beat it. Our few days in Belgium were lovely, and we managed to find the huge park in the city centre, that we had somehow missed last time, and spent much of our time there, relaxing in the sunshine. Aaahh. The day of our departure dawned too soon and off we set again, with slightly heavier baggage (we did manage to fit in a little shopping in between relaxes). This time the Paris transfer wasn’t quite as pleasant. We had oodles of time and decided to go via the Metro, only to be faced with seemingly endless security and armed soldiers patrolling the stations. I suddenly remembered that it was the G20 summit and all though it was taking place in London, the security in Paris had obviously been ramped up for the occasion. Once again I felt feelings of overwhelming gratitude that I no longer live in London, where it seemed, at one point, that every time you faced the grind of the daily commute there was the added worry that you might not actually make it at all. After Paris came an extremely tedious wait in Le Mans for the next connection, then the joy of home and an extremely over excited kitten. Little did she know what was in store. The next morning she was whisked off to be ‘done’ at the vets, and I spent a lovely day with all the windows and doors open whilst uprooting yet more primroses who had risen triumphantly to take the place of those I dug up last week. My borders and baskets are now full of the things and I’m afraid that the next lot may well fall to their doom under the strings of the strimmer. In the afternoon I went to pick up a very bemused and angry little kitten that, in the words of the vet’s receptionist, has ‘beaucoup de character’. Guess she got bitten then. When home and released from her carrier she proceeded to wobble her way round the house for a few hours trying to figure out why her back legs appeared to be no longer functioning correctly, before giving up and crashing out in her bed for the rest of the day. I then had the task of trying to stop a very curious Moo from waking her up to either try and inspect her rather gruesome looking stitches, or just laugh at her trying to walk in a straight line. Moo’s behaviour in Belgium was almost angelic, and had it not been for a spectacular bedtime rumpus one evening I’m not entirely sure that hubs would have believed the problems we have been having of late. She seems a little better at the moment although with 2 weeks of Easter holidays looming I’m not counting any chickens. I have been shopping for the holidays and along with countless bags of chocolate, (which I WILL NOT EAT before Easter), I have been stockpiling yellow card, pretty ribbons, finger paints, glue and all sorts of random craft objects in the hope of keeping us amused, that, and desperately praying for sunshine. Before I sign off I must say a HUGE thank you to my two knights in shining armour who rescued my crippled car last weekend. Gordon is now safely tucked up in the garage until we can decide exactly what to do with his remains, and I can’t thank you both enough for your help. Now where did I put those praline filled eggs…?
07-04 My baby’s all grown up…
Today was a very auspicious day in hillywilly’s world. Today I got to have the windows open all day, and the doors. Today was the day when Chimney was to be allowed out on her own. There was one slight hiccough in proceedings when Moo burst into tears, grabbed the cat and wailed that she didn’t want me to let Chimney out. After much cajoling she explained that she loved the cat very much and didn’t want to ‘never ever see her again’. In the mind of a 4 yr old, all this talk of the cat’s freedom, and releasing her to run free, meant that as soon as the door was open, Chimney would disappear into the woods never to be seen again. I patiently explained that this was not the case and that Chimney would just be going out to explore and play, but this was her home, and she knows how much we all love her and she would be coming back to see us all the time. As I took her into the garden, I fervently prayed that this would be the case. Fortunately for me, she did not disappoint, and spent the first 5 minutes tentatively sniffing the grass and keeping just out of arms length just in case I changed my mind. After her initial sniffing, and when she realised she was indeed free to roam, she set off up the cherry tree like a cat possessed, and made it to the very top in about 3 seconds flat, and there she stayed. I was a little concerned that she was in fact stuck, but turns out she was just stalking a nest in a neighbouring garden. When she realised that unless she had sprouted wings overnight, there was no way to get to it, she came down again and started load testing the lower branches, we had a few near falls, but all was well. Then the big test arrived in the form of Baghera (the big bad cat from next door who has been monitoring chimneys progress through the kitchen window since her arrival). Baghera patiently waited at the bottom of the tree for an audience, and being a little taken aback with the speed of chimney’s descent, (I think the technical term may be ‘freefall’), assumed the arched back hissing position. Chimney was having none of it and hissed right back and proceeded to chase big bad Baghera right back to her own garden. It made me so proud! So the first bout went to chimney, but I’m sure this isn’t over. Moo and I spent a lovely morning on ‘Chimney watch’ in the garden chatting to Mlle A from next door and swapping plant cuttings and recipes for dandelion jam (think I might leave that one to her though). The cat finally got bored of the garden and went off to explore the derelict building and the ‘secret garden’ next door, but kept popping back every now and again to say hello. In the afternoon I took advantage of the weather and the ability to have all the doors open, and cleaned the house while Moo played outside, listening to all her ‘chaton reportage’. As it started to get a bit chilly Moo and I headed inside to watch Peter Pan, and Moo was over the moon when Chimney decided that she had had enough of the great outdoors for one day, hopped back through the window, curled up beside her on the sofa, and fell fast asleep. When I heard Moo whispering to the cat ‘I’m glad you love me too and came home’ I thought I was going to cry.
11-04 Joyeuse Pâques!
Happy happy Easter one and all. The good news is that I have survived the first week of the (rainy) Easter holidays without too many emotional scars. Moo has actually been very good (apart from a few pitch battles at bedtimes), and we have had a very pleasant week making Easter pictures, cards and cakes. With the moods she had been in lately and the forecast for a rainy week, I was approaching this week with dread, but the rain only began a couple of days ago, so we have been able to get out and enjoy the beach and the forest before taking refuge in finger paints cotton wool, and a multitude of Disney films. We have both very much been enjoying the magic of DVD for allowing us to watch our favourite, Peter Pan, in French. We had a great fun indoor Easter egg hunt yesterday, even more fun when I realised we were still 2 eggs short and I had no recollection of where I had actually put them. They were eventually tracked down (behind the curtains in the bathroom and in the bread basket, in case you were wondering), and we set about the task of making them disappear once more.... Despite a couple of 'interesting' and very late bedtimes for Moo, I have managed at last to get my head well and truly stuck into my favourite pastime of reading. It’s been a while since I enjoyed such an engrossing book, (Shantaram, by David Gregory Roberts). It was possibly a little too engrossing as I found myself in bed listening to the 4 chimes that told me I should have been asleep a long time ago, ah the perils of the 'just one more chapter' self delusion! Chimney has taken to life as an outdoor cat, like the proverbial duck to water and she has perfected her hop up to the window and has even taking to knocking on it with her paw if it happens to be closed..... She has had another show down with Baghera, with the same result, and has confused the rest of the local feline population by cavorting around outside in the pouring rain. She is a very strange little cat. The other good news is that Hubs has managed to get off work an hour early tonight. Doesn't sound like a lot I know, but it is the difference between him being home with us tonight by around 10, or not arriving till late tomorrow afternoon. So in this case that little bit does mean such a lot. We are also preparing for the arrival of AJ and her grandma - sometime on Monday afternoon, and I have to say we are all getting mighty excited. So a busy week done and another one ahead, so much for the quiet country life!
20-04 AJ's visit and dandelion jam.
So much has been going on, but not very much has happened! We had a wonderful few days with AJ and it is a joy to see her growing up into a thoroughly nice young lady, but don't tell her I told you that as it would do her street cred no good at all. We picnicked at the plage and trawled the local beauty spots (although as AJ had seen most of them before Moo and I took grandma round while she spent some quality time with her dad eating cakes and listening to loud music), and we even managed to fit in a bit of shopping time too. I introduced AJ to the delights of jam making, with an experimental recipe for dandelion jelly. With a seemingly unending supply of the blessed things in the back garden and an internet search results page in hand we decided to give it a go. None of us were entirely convinced, especially as the smell of boiling dandelion heads is just a little bit like the smell of pee. But when we tasted the final product all doubts were firmly banished. It’s very hard to describe the taste, but it’s a bit like sweet honey and tastes amazing with cheese. The only trouble is that as I gave a jar each to the neighbours and Hubs took a jar back to Belgium, I find myself with only the tiny taster jar left and as Hubs trimmed the lawn to within an inch of its life, there's not nearly enough dandelions left to make another batch, and I am left marvelling at the fact that after almost a year of cursing them in my lawn, I actually want them there now. Au contraire. At the end of the week AJ and her grandma took themselves off to Paris for a couple of nights to enjoy the shopping and sightseeing in the capital (I'll leave it to your imagination to decide which of them wanted to do shopping and which the sights), and by all accounts had a great couple of days. As ever there was an AJ shaped hole in the house after she had gone, but we are already looking forward to her return at some point during the summer holidays. We spent a couple of quiet days, mostly in the garden, before Hubs had to return to work early on Monday morning, leaving us with a hubs shaped hole to be going on with too. This week heralds the return of school and maybe even the return of a certain bear, but that very much depends on the tantrum levels as hubs and I have made the decision that Travel bear will not come home till the behaviour improves. At this rate he may be away for some time yet!!
25-04 Little miracles and 'special things'.
This week has been marked by a severe lack of motivation on my part! The weather has been amazing, and there has been much garden pottering, and the gardeners tan is looking reasonably healthy already, as are the radish's. We have lots of them coming up, perhaps a bit too liberal with the seeds, so I think I will have to find some interesting radish recipes in a little while. We also have carrots sprouting, the beginnings of courgettes and potiron, (a type of yellow squash), along with a few tomato and strawberry plants. For such an amateur gardener as I, it is like witnessing a small miracle with every little shoot that appears. We also have a pot for garlic and, rather ambitiously on Moo's part I feel, and avocado seed. I'll let you know how that one goes. We are also developing an interesting 'feature' in the back corner. We are building a cairn. Let me explain how this came about. Moo has, over the last few weeks, developed somewhat of an obsession with collecting 'special things'. Now what Moo regards as 'special' may be somewhat different to what may normally be considered 'special'. It started off quite harmlessly as little shiny bits of paper or brightly coloured objects, picked up and kept in a 'special box', but soon developed to encompass absolutely any tiny thing she could see, including hair, tiny stones and dust (there's plenty of that for her around here). It was OK for a while, until she started to get fretful and teary when she lost or dropped them. Then the tantrums started. It's hard to respond logically when a child is screaming at you because you are sweeping up all the 'special things' from the floor and putting them in the bin. Last week Hubs tried to lighten the mood and pretended to eat some of her 'special things', but the resulting hour of tears was far less amusing than he had hoped for. It was getting to the point of madness for all concerned, but slowly and mercifully her fixation appears to be waning. Apart from the stones. Every day she returns from school with pockets full of stones, and a trip across the road to the car can take about a quarter of an hour. When I returned to collect her from a birthday party on Wednesday afternoon, she rolled up at the door with her party bag full of sweets and treats in one hand, and a carrier bag full of stones in the other. The mother of the birthday girl was a little bemused, but said Moo was free to stay and clear the rest if she liked! So what to do with all of these stones? After a quick 'Google' to find a few examples, I introduced Moo to the world of cairns, and managed to convince her that this would be a wonderful thing to do with all of her 'special' stones. So the pile of stones and gravel has begun, at least it keeps them out of the house. I managed to gain some motivation towards the end of the week and made a small table for the 'what on earth are we going to put in it' nook, in the bedroom, and a small set of shelves for my cookbooks (and assorted stuff) in the kitchen. They turned out not too bad and only a tiny bit wonky, I mean they won't will any prizes for carpentry, but they are pretty good for me, just, please, don't tell me they are special.
27-04 Bon Anniversaire
When I was invited out for a picnic with friends on the 26th, the date started ringing bells in my head but I wasn't sure why. I checked the calendar and my diary for birthdays, anniversaries but there was nothing. I check to see what bills were due, did I have a meeting or an appointment, was it something to do with the school? It buzzed around my head like an angry wasp, but I could not think why the date was significant. So I just got along with pottering in the garden in between the rain breaks, and trying to find activities to keep the Moo amused. Baking played a significant role in these activities and Moo is becoming a dab hand with biscuits and many were baked, iced and distributed to the neighbours. When there are only 2 of you in the house it’s not a good idea to have 30 odd freshly baked biscuits in the kitchen. Of course we had to sample a few, just to make sure they tasted OK of course. Moo is now at the age where 'helping' is something that she likes to do and, apart from the 'helping to clean the floor by blocking the sink in the toilet and letting the water run over' incident, it is mostly appreciated. She is becoming most adept in the kitchen, and has turned in to great little sous chef, helping me prepare the vegetables and measure ingredients for a variety of different dishes. As we were standing side by side in our matching 'big cook, little cook' aprons, preparing tasty treats for our picnic, all of the niggles and tantrums of the past few weeks left my mind at the precise moment that she looked up at me and hit me with a huge grin and the words that all of mankind longs so much to hear, 'I love you so much'. The moment didn't even lose its glory when she repeated the phrase with a 'uniquely Moo' addendum, 'I love you so much it made me pump'. As my laughter subsided it suddenly occurred to me why this date was so important to me. It was on April the 26th last year that we picked up the keys to this house and our new life. An entire year has somehow passed and although it is all logged in the archives of my mind (and probably more accurately of this site), I still can’t quite believe it. So our Sunday picnic became a significant celebration for us, and what a glorious afternoon. Fine food, a little wine and the company of good friends. Bon.
30-04 The social butterfly....
And so the seemingly endless round of soirée's continue with another one yesterday and a whole weekend of socialising ahead. The social whirl is hard to keep up with and remembering the names of all the new acquaintances and friends is becoming rather difficult. Fitting the lunch dates and the evening rendezvous in the calendar whilst trying to ensure that no one is left out is a bit of a headache. And she's only 4 and a half. In the last week alone, we have had 2 birthday parties and a picnic, and there are another couple of birthdays next week too. (There must be something about long lazy late summer evenings......). Her diary is extremely full, and a lot more exciting than mine, but I believe it is the fate of most maternelle mamans to spend most of their social time as their child's' +1. It’s so nice to see her socialising with the other kids and speaking to them with growing confidence in their own language. I managed OK myself too and instigated a few conversations with the other mums without the safety net of my bi-lingual back-up as she was far too busy trying to halt the children's attempts to defy death by climbing and jumping from the trees in her garden. I find I understand the vast majority of the conversations now, but I'm still a little lacking in confidence skill and speed of thought to join in a lot, but my efforts are appreciated, and the conversation about the renewed presence of the dreaded 'poux' was most enlightening! The approaching May holiday weekend will continue the programme of festivities with 2 days of fêtes at the nearby village with barbecue's and bouncy castles among the attractions and we are very much looking forward to it, even more so as it is also a holiday weekend in Belgium, which means Hubs gets an extra day off and is coming home for a long weekend that starts tonight at 9pm when I collect him from Le Mans! The best and biggest joy for me is that the utterly wonderful and heaven sent Mme W, has offered a sleepover to Moo tomorrow night, so Hubs and I get to go out and play with the grownups for once. I am very, very excited about this. It's been such a long time since I've been 'out to play'. Hubs and I have managed a couple of dinners but I can’t actually remember the last time I spent an evening in the pub listening to a band with other adults. It's the simple things.
Misadventures in Mayenne
MAY
09-05 That was the week that was...
It would seem that this has evolved into a weekly update, that was not my intention, but it’s been a pretty full-on week for me, and my time seems to be disappearing more rapidly that it did before. Last weekend’s festivities were quite lovely, with the Friday afternoon spent watching the folk dancing and drinking coffee with friends, and the evening watching a band at the local bar with Hubs and Mr W, sneaking him the odd cigarette after the kids had gone home. The evening was something of a treat as it was 'sans Moo' and I got to stay out late with the grownups- a rare treat indeed these days. On Sunday we had the village fête and despite the lack of the advertised bouncy castle and the not particularly lovely weather, we had a wonderful time watching Moo participate in the sack race, 3 legged races and the tug of war - she did us proud. After our ill fated attempts at knocking tins over with bean bags, and a pleasant half hour watching the fierce competition in the boules tournament, the wind and rain got the better of us and we decided to call it a day and head for home, to conclude a wonderful holiday weekend with a few rounds of 'guess who'. Playing 'guess who' with a super tired 4 year old is a very interesting experience, but somehow hubs still managed to let her win. We deposited hubs at Le Mans on Monday and the week has sailed by at a rate of knots. Tuesday was taken up with garden pottering and washing, Wednesday was the day of (very) belated birthday presents with the arrival of a package from the UK for Moo containing a Disney princess frock, which I have struggled to remove her from since, and the arrival at a local store of a bargain price sewing machine for me. In the afternoon Moo and I took a walk down through the village to do the recycling, and as well as enjoying a beautiful sunny walk in the country we also encountered some of the villagers that we hadn't met before. It’s amazing the number of conversations that are started when you have a 4 and a 1/2 yr old in a princess dress as your companion! Thursday saw me chained to the computer for the day trying to plan and book our family summer holiday to America. After 6 solid hrs of searching, I finally managed to figure out a route that was possible and would only give the bank manager mild palpitations. I still find it quite amazing that it will be (much) cheaper for us to fly back to the UK then to the US, than it would be to fly direct from France. What's all that about? Still, Its booked now and after spending that long frying my brain in front of a computer screen, I just couldn't face the blog, so I sat in the garden listening to the squeals of delight as Moo took on the boy across the road with 'pistolets d'eau', and after tea I made a few chocolates for my friend’s birthday the following day. Friday was another bank holiday, so Moo and I spent the morning sorting out her bedroom and clearing out the vast number of suddenly too small clothes and shoes. Well in all honesty I was doing the sorting out while Moo wandered around in her new dress insisting that princesses didn't do tidying up, that's what the servants are for. Must have words.....A glorious afternoon spent with Mme W and her family celebrating her birthday, eating gateaux and sneaking her the odd cigarette when she thought her children weren't looking. I was all set to update the site last night when Moo decided to throw a major bedtime wobbly and ended up not settling down till after 11, so the only realistic option for me after that was bed. And here we are at the weekend once more, heading out to buy a new swimming costume for Moo as the school swim sessions resume on Tuesday, and although swim suits are stretchy, I'm really not sure her old one was made to stretch that much! I would like to say that I will update more regularly next week, but with hubs arriving home tomorrow afternoon, and my parents arriving on Wednesday for their annual visit, I'm not sure that's going to happen.
12-05 Pacifiers, dummies and anticipated arrivals.
'But mummy I NEED it to get to sleep!’, 'But Moo you have NEVER used one, even when you were a tiny baby, you didn't', 'But I NEED it NOW!' And so to the top of the wardrobe and into the 'baby box' to retrieve the pacifier that hasn't been used since she was about 3 months old, and after a quick wash, it was into the mouth and fast asleep. I must admit that I'm not particularly thrilled at the thought of her using a pacifier at 4 and a ½, but at the moment it's anything goes for a relatively stress free bed time. I was extremely confused, (no change there then), until I was speaking to hubs about it and he had the sudden brainwave recollection of 'Timmy' and all became clear. Timmy is a lamb. Timmy is a lamb from Shaun the sheep. Timmy is a lamb from Shaun the sheep who is seldom seem without his pacifier. Shaun the sheep is a DVD that is seldom off at the moment. Hopefully the Timmy phase will pass quickly. Aardman animation has a lot to answer for. Now on that occasion Hubs brainwave was superb and accurate, however, that's not always the case. Last week he made a quite wonderful faux pas. On return from an evening in a Belgian hostelry, Hubs checked his e-mail and was startled and a little dismayed to see a message reminding him not to forget that Mother's day was rapidly approaching, as he had indeed 'forgotten'. As he is a good son, he immediately ordered flowers to be sent to his mother with a lovely message wishing her a happy day. In work the next day he confidently reminded all his colleagues to be good children, and was a little put out by the strange looks he was getting, until one of his worked mates explained that although it was indeed Mothers day in Belgium and the US, the date for mother’s day in the UK had long since passed. (And just for the record he had remembered it then as well!).After a quick call to reassure his mother that he had not in fact gone completely mad, all that was left was a confused florist in the North East of England, but apparently the flowers were lovely. So Hubs is now home and family life has resumed once more. It was supposed to be the first school swimming session today, but due to the aforementioned impending weather and the fact that it’s an outdoor pool, means that it has been cancelled, so we are off to stock up on torch batteries and candles, as we have already had a few short power cuts today, and the storm hasn't even reached our region yet! Hopefully I will get the chance to post this before it goes again. We are all looking forward to with great anticipation to a couple of arrivals tomorrow. My parents visit is at last upon us and god and my directions willing, by tea-time they should be here. I think however that another arrival may get Moo a bit more excited. You see I have a sneaking suspicion that, tomorrow morning, a certain adventurous bear may find his way back home at last.
15-05 More arrivals and departures that Clapham Junction
Last Wednesday was a wonderful and truly joyful day. We had a lovely muck about in the morning, then Joy unconfined as at last. Mr T Bear returned home. (Full details and ‘holiday snaps’ can be found HERE). Moo was in heaven as she talked Travel Bear through all he had missed in the last few months and brought a selection of toys down from her room to greet their long lost companion. Then, in the afternoon, it was off, with a big bag of carrots in hand, to see Chewie and Sticky, 2 donkeys of our acquaintance. We first encountered Chewie and Sticky last August, and were regular visitors until one day in October they just disappeared. Moo was most concerned, but we made a collective family decision that they were ‘on holiday’. The months rolled round but we never saw them again, so it was a great delight to us all when the returned to their field last weekend. So off we went to ply them with carrots and stroke their noses, and introduce them, at a safe non-chewing distance, to Travel Bear! After that we had a lovely drive round the countryside and headed home to prepare for the arrival of my parents. Not that I was over excited or anything. We didn’t know exactly what time they would arrive, but around tea-time was a good guess as they rolled up just as the soup was starting to warm. Much hugging and kissing and marvelling at my mum, (who has lost 50lb in 6 months and looks terrific!), then the eating commenced. After that it was time for cake and a showering of gifts upon us. It was a little while after that that it slowly dawned on me that whilst unpacking the contents of my parent’s car there had been one thing that I was expecting that was not there. It was rather a significant thing. There was supposed to be an air-bed in the car from my sister-in-law. The air-bed that Hubs and I were supposed to be sleeping on. The air bed that she forgot to put in the car and that was still in Oxford. Many blankets were gathered and Hubs and I settled down for a night on the floor. But do you know what I couldn’t have been happier. Despite a few creaks neither of us suffered from a ‘night on the tiles, and we spent the next day, happily pottering around with the folks doing a little shopping (air-bed included), and walking and after school even a trip to the plage. Although the weather was a little on the chilly side, Grandpa kept his promise and went ‘hunting for sharks’ in the lake with Moo while the rest of us sat and watched their feet turn blue. Today we were going to go to Paris, but after seeing how much it would cost for the 5 of us to get their by train, we decided to take a drive to Le Mans instead. I feel quite bad as I know they really wanted to go, but over £300 for a travel for a day was just not do-able. So it will have to be next time. We still had a fun day out and Moo was super happy as she twisted grandpa’s arm and we all ended up in McDonalds.
19-05 Knick-knacks and picnics
Saturday morning was spent mainly in the 'stuff shop'. A wonderful shop nearby which sells, well, stuff. The variety of goods is so varied that it would take far too long to list, but suffice to say many 'knick-knacks' were purchased and my mum delighted herself by completing her holiday present shopping in one fell swoop. We ambles along to the annual 'picnic du voisin, at the local village, only to find that due to my mis-translation of the time, it was all but finished, but we picnic-ed nonetheless. An invitation to take part in a talk with games and a wine tasting had us all rather excited so off we trooped into the hall. Well the talk turned out to be a very long lecture on the source and usage of spices in mediaeval France, Now I know that many people may find this an interesting subject, and I could probably stretch my attention span to about half an hour, were I not desperately trying to understand and translate the rapid flow of academic French I was confronted with. Hubs used the 'bored child wild card' and made his escape quite swiftly, but it was an agonising 45 minutes before we saw an opportunity to leave without appearing extremely rude. And judging by the expressionless faces of those we left behind, it wasn't just my lack of linguistic skills that were making the 'talk' a little dull. We spent the rest of the afternoon at home with 'the boys' watching the football and mum, Moo and I pottering about in the kitchen. I love pottering with my mum, cooking together, sitting doing our knitting, solving crosswords, chewing the fat. We have always been very good pottering partners and it's what I miss most of all. Their last night with us came to an end too quickly and the morning saw them driving off to Calais to embark on the next round of the family pilgrimage, and whilst we were sad to see them go, we will see them again in a couple of months for our summer holidays, and whilst the new air-bed did us a good service, it was nice to sleep in our own bed again. And so to Monday and the mad lunchtime dash to Le Mans to drop off Hubs and get back in time for afternoon school, then back home to begin work on the bomb-site formally known as my home. I was looking forward to a quiet relaxing Tuesday with Moo packed off to swimming and me with a leisurely couple of hours at home, but a phone call from a harassed sounding 'swimming mum' asking me to fill in for her put paid to that idea. So off we trooped to the outdoor pool praying for sunshine, thankfully we were not disappointed. Sadly the pool seemed to be expecting half the number of children and all the carefully explained games and activities turned into an exercise in crowd control, but we had fun anyway! Home again for tea and a movie and to start organising a series of activities for the next few days as there is yet another bank holiday weekend and the kids are all off school from tomorrow. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
20-05 Assumption on Ascension
It is a beautiful sunny Wednesday morning and Moo and I were having a lazy wake up in bed plotting what we would do for the Ascension Day holiday's over the next few days but the need for caffeine was calling. So I ambled downstairs in my PJ's and filled the kettle looking out of the kitchen window at the birds flitting around in the garden, ah peace. My reverie was broken by the appearance of a little girl at the gate. A little girl that I normally take to school. My brain swirled in confusion as I checked the calendar, and was not calmed when I saw that it was, as I had thought, Wednesday. The kids don't go to school on a Wednesday. I hastily checked the school holidays calendar that we received in September, and there in black and white (albeit tiny print), was written: Pont de l'Ascension: de juedi 21 au dimanche 24 Mai, (mercredi 20 travaille toute la journée), which at that precise moment I understood to mean that this Wednesday they were in school. And so I have just proved that it is in fact possible to get Moo ready for school in less than 10 minutes, much to her confusion. I thought about explaining in detail my misunderstanding, but decided to use honesty as the best tactic and declared to her that 'mummy's an idiot'. Rather sadly for me, this explanation was accepted without hesitation or argument. I managed to get her downstairs for a rudimentary breakfast while I exchanged my cow print PJ bottoms for something more suitable for the school run, and threw on a jacket. All children safely delivered to school by 9.01 am. Now about that coffee...
22-05 A black eye and a black mood. But not for long.
After bundling Moo off to her surprise school day I decided to take advantage of my unexpected free time by sorting out itinerary for the next trip to see hubs. After a frustrating search through one of the world’s most frustrating websites, I divined that in order get the local train to Le Mans we would have to leave at 6.25am, and then wait 5hrs for our connection to Paris. Hmm, time to find a cheap/safe car park near the station methinks. The rest of the journey seemed straightforward enough so I wrote it all down to take to the station later. I picked up Moo for lunch and was thrilled to hear her teacher telling me how well she had done that morning and how much she was progressing with both her written and oral work. The praise from her 'maitresse' along with the promise of steak hache et frites for tea at the local bar as a 'well done' treat, had Moo beaming from ear to ear. After lunch I decided to mow the lawns. Out came the mower and the extra long extension lead. The back was done and all was looking lovely but as I, rather over enthusiastically as it turned out, pulled up the extension cord the plug end whipped up and caught me square in the left eye. After a great deal of cursing at my own ineptitude, I carried on coiling the cable, until I noticed the blood on the floor. It turned out to be quite a small cut, but at first glance in the mirror I was more than a little concerned. Mopping up and sitting down with a coffee seemed the best course of action. I did eventually get around to mowing the front, but with rather less good will than the back. By the time I was done Moo was home and champing at the bit for her tea, but we had to go to the station on the way to buy the tickets. Now normally the station staff are more than helpful and patient with my staggering French, but not today. Today I was served by Mr Surly, who did everything in his power to make it as difficult as possible. After a cursory glance at my list he then proceeded to tell me that it was not possible to book any of the tickets I wanted and conjured a price that was over 200Euros more than I had calculated. After a brief exchange I took back my list and stomped back to the car with Moo, who chose this point to decide that she had to go to the toilet immediately. Back into the station to find that the toilets were locked and Mr Surly, who I assume had the key, had disappeared. Without enough time to find a conveniently located shrubbery, an accident occurred. So back home to change before going out again to the pub for tea, which by now should probably be more accurately called supper. To say I wasn't really in the mood by then was putting in mildly and the dull ache that had begun with a plug in the temple, was now threatening to split my head in two. But a promise is a promise, and much as I tried, Moo could not be persuaded to postpone. When we arrived I was greeted with such warmth and affection, and not a little concern over my developing shiner that I couldn't help but start to smile. As we sat waiting for our food, a friend passed by on her way home and stopped to have a drink and a chat. I explained my plight over the train journey and the landlady, who had also joined us for a drink, insisted that, should I manage to get the tickets, she would take us and collect us from Le Mans, thus negating the need to leave the car. After a wonderful meal we headed home laden with eggs from the landlady's over productive chickens, and after a short and extremely pleasant telephone conversation with a quite charming lady at the SNCF ticket office our tickets to Belgium were booked. She even managed to knock 20Euros off the price I had found earlier. Moo went to bed like an angel and further inspection of my eye led me to think that I may just get away with a small yellow bruise, rather than the anticipated black and blue. Even by my standards it was a bit of an odd day but, as ever, the company of friends helped turn a black afternoon into a golden sunset.
25-05 Its a funny old day
After a few days holiday, a little sunburn and much Papier maché we were having a grand old time as we headed off to the 'fete du lac' yesterday. I didn't really know much about this fete as this time last year I was in UK buying a car so we missed it, so off we went expecting a little bric a brac and a few 'saussice et frite' stalls. As we got about a kilometre away and saw the cars jostling for side of the road parking spaces I realised that I may have underestimated the size of today's event. I ploughed on regardless hoping for a space a bit nearer and was rewarded as a prime spot was vacated just as I arrived lake side. First we headed to the 'bricolage', (car boot type sale) and were instantly rewarded with a few magnificent bargains, and encounters with friends who plied Moo with extra pocket money, which was duly spent on a beach ball, sweets and a ride on the carousel. With my rummaging needs sated for the day we headed to the beach to consume our lunch and watch the various games and displays and have a 'paddle'. Not satisfied with just a paddle, Moo stripped to her pants and t-shirt and waded right in. As I was lingering knee-deep keeping watch something quite wonderful happened. Moo decided to swim. Properly swim, for the first time ever without any of the usual arm-bands or flotation devices she normally insists on. She just swam, with only the aid of a huge, face splitting grin. I was so proud that my heart took over and I ran and gave her a great big hug. The fact that I was wet through from the waist down mattered not a jot, till the moment had passed and I realised that I would soon be driving home with a very soggy bottom! As it turned out the soggy bottom was the least of my worries. When we got back to the car I found I had been well and truly boxed into my parking space with only about 20 cm manoeuvring room at the front and a ditch at the side I didn't think we would be going anywhere too soon. Now I don't know if there is a patron saint of parking, but if there is they answered my prayers as just as I was about to give up hope, the man who had parked next to my bumper returned to his car and promptly left. Hallelujah. We proceeded then to get stuck in a traffic jam. I was a little stunned as it is normally considered unusual to see another car on this particular road, never mind the hundreds that were parked on either side of what is a very narrow 2 lane track. We waited on for about 20 minutes until we slowly inched forward, and it was revealed that the source of the jam was a man who had decided just to stop on the road to have a chat to some friends he had encountered, c'est la vie. Once home Moo contented herself with playing around with her new purchases while I spent a thoroughly depressing 90 minutes with the football, desperately hoping and praying for some kind of miracle that would keep my team in the premiership next season. As the final whistle approached the agonising realisation that the miracle was not going to occur began to sink in. And then it was over. NUFC are now a championship side. If you have ever been through the pain of relegation, you will know how I feel right now. And if, over the next few days, anyone says 'it's only a game', I refuse be held responsible for my actions. Still at least we might actually win a few games next season, and we are sure to have the finest ground in the league.....
29-05 The milk and human kindness
A couple of days ago my neighbour came to call and started talking about milk. At first I thought she wanted to borrow some, then I realised she was asking me if I wanted some. I was a little confused. She explained to me that they were on the way to a local farm to get some milk, and did I want any. I thought this was a little odd, in a nice way, but said yes and went to fetch my purse, she waved me away and told me it was free, and would be back later. Now I was really confused. My French still isn't really up to discussing agricultural politics, but I had managed to understand that the farmer in question had too much milk and was giving it away to anyone who arrived with an empty bottle in hand. She duly arrived with 2 litres of milk, and waved goodbye. I must say it was delicious. It's been a very long time since I have had milk straight from the cow. Rice pudding was made and latte and hot chocolate consumed, with just enough left for the morning. It was that evening when looking through some French news, I realised the reason, and scale of the milk issue. The farmers are protesting about the wholesale price they get paid for their milk, which is around 20cents a litre, (around 30%less than the same time last year) whilst the retailers are selling the same milk for over 1 Euro a litre, (10% more than the same time last year). You can see the problem. Well they have had enough and decided to protest by stopping the supply of milk to retailers, but of course daisy and her many friends still need to be relieved of their burden, and so the local farmer's answer was to milk as usual , but let the tank stand full until it was drained by the locals. Although we didn't see the sight of milk being poured into the main street, as happened in Paris, there was a plentiful supply for us all. And even though it did halt production at the local bel cheese factory, as one of their casual workers remarked to me, 'ah oui, but now I have an extra day in the sun with my family, and 20 litres of milk in store, it's not so bad'. The protest continued, and so did my morning delivery, but in much greater quantities. By day 3, I had 7 ½ litres of milk. Now I do like milk and so does little Moo, but 7 ½ litres of the stuff....! I had to politely tell my neighbour no more, and try and figure out what to do with it all. We had milk sponge, milky fish, milk shake, and I haven't consumed that number of lattes since I worked in the west-end! Even the cat got in on the act, and I managed to get her to drink from her bowl, by filling it with fresh creamy milk. Mind you if she thinks she's getting that every day, she will soon be sorely disappointed. Eventually we consumed the lot, and I was quite frankly, delighted by the taste of a simple glass of water. I do not know if the farmer’s demands will be met, but if they decide to take this action again in the future, I will be behind them all the way, with empty bottles in hand of course.
09-05 That was the week that was...
It would seem that this has evolved into a weekly update, that was not my intention, but it’s been a pretty full-on week for me, and my time seems to be disappearing more rapidly that it did before. Last weekend’s festivities were quite lovely, with the Friday afternoon spent watching the folk dancing and drinking coffee with friends, and the evening watching a band at the local bar with Hubs and Mr W, sneaking him the odd cigarette after the kids had gone home. The evening was something of a treat as it was 'sans Moo' and I got to stay out late with the grownups- a rare treat indeed these days. On Sunday we had the village fête and despite the lack of the advertised bouncy castle and the not particularly lovely weather, we had a wonderful time watching Moo participate in the sack race, 3 legged races and the tug of war - she did us proud. After our ill fated attempts at knocking tins over with bean bags, and a pleasant half hour watching the fierce competition in the boules tournament, the wind and rain got the better of us and we decided to call it a day and head for home, to conclude a wonderful holiday weekend with a few rounds of 'guess who'. Playing 'guess who' with a super tired 4 year old is a very interesting experience, but somehow hubs still managed to let her win. We deposited hubs at Le Mans on Monday and the week has sailed by at a rate of knots. Tuesday was taken up with garden pottering and washing, Wednesday was the day of (very) belated birthday presents with the arrival of a package from the UK for Moo containing a Disney princess frock, which I have struggled to remove her from since, and the arrival at a local store of a bargain price sewing machine for me. In the afternoon Moo and I took a walk down through the village to do the recycling, and as well as enjoying a beautiful sunny walk in the country we also encountered some of the villagers that we hadn't met before. It’s amazing the number of conversations that are started when you have a 4 and a 1/2 yr old in a princess dress as your companion! Thursday saw me chained to the computer for the day trying to plan and book our family summer holiday to America. After 6 solid hrs of searching, I finally managed to figure out a route that was possible and would only give the bank manager mild palpitations. I still find it quite amazing that it will be (much) cheaper for us to fly back to the UK then to the US, than it would be to fly direct from France. What's all that about? Still, Its booked now and after spending that long frying my brain in front of a computer screen, I just couldn't face the blog, so I sat in the garden listening to the squeals of delight as Moo took on the boy across the road with 'pistolets d'eau', and after tea I made a few chocolates for my friend’s birthday the following day. Friday was another bank holiday, so Moo and I spent the morning sorting out her bedroom and clearing out the vast number of suddenly too small clothes and shoes. Well in all honesty I was doing the sorting out while Moo wandered around in her new dress insisting that princesses didn't do tidying up, that's what the servants are for. Must have words.....A glorious afternoon spent with Mme W and her family celebrating her birthday, eating gateaux and sneaking her the odd cigarette when she thought her children weren't looking. I was all set to update the site last night when Moo decided to throw a major bedtime wobbly and ended up not settling down till after 11, so the only realistic option for me after that was bed. And here we are at the weekend once more, heading out to buy a new swimming costume for Moo as the school swim sessions resume on Tuesday, and although swim suits are stretchy, I'm really not sure her old one was made to stretch that much! I would like to say that I will update more regularly next week, but with hubs arriving home tomorrow afternoon, and my parents arriving on Wednesday for their annual visit, I'm not sure that's going to happen.
12-05 Pacifiers, dummies and anticipated arrivals.
'But mummy I NEED it to get to sleep!’, 'But Moo you have NEVER used one, even when you were a tiny baby, you didn't', 'But I NEED it NOW!' And so to the top of the wardrobe and into the 'baby box' to retrieve the pacifier that hasn't been used since she was about 3 months old, and after a quick wash, it was into the mouth and fast asleep. I must admit that I'm not particularly thrilled at the thought of her using a pacifier at 4 and a ½, but at the moment it's anything goes for a relatively stress free bed time. I was extremely confused, (no change there then), until I was speaking to hubs about it and he had the sudden brainwave recollection of 'Timmy' and all became clear. Timmy is a lamb. Timmy is a lamb from Shaun the sheep. Timmy is a lamb from Shaun the sheep who is seldom seem without his pacifier. Shaun the sheep is a DVD that is seldom off at the moment. Hopefully the Timmy phase will pass quickly. Aardman animation has a lot to answer for. Now on that occasion Hubs brainwave was superb and accurate, however, that's not always the case. Last week he made a quite wonderful faux pas. On return from an evening in a Belgian hostelry, Hubs checked his e-mail and was startled and a little dismayed to see a message reminding him not to forget that Mother's day was rapidly approaching, as he had indeed 'forgotten'. As he is a good son, he immediately ordered flowers to be sent to his mother with a lovely message wishing her a happy day. In work the next day he confidently reminded all his colleagues to be good children, and was a little put out by the strange looks he was getting, until one of his worked mates explained that although it was indeed Mothers day in Belgium and the US, the date for mother’s day in the UK had long since passed. (And just for the record he had remembered it then as well!).After a quick call to reassure his mother that he had not in fact gone completely mad, all that was left was a confused florist in the North East of England, but apparently the flowers were lovely. So Hubs is now home and family life has resumed once more. It was supposed to be the first school swimming session today, but due to the aforementioned impending weather and the fact that it’s an outdoor pool, means that it has been cancelled, so we are off to stock up on torch batteries and candles, as we have already had a few short power cuts today, and the storm hasn't even reached our region yet! Hopefully I will get the chance to post this before it goes again. We are all looking forward to with great anticipation to a couple of arrivals tomorrow. My parents visit is at last upon us and god and my directions willing, by tea-time they should be here. I think however that another arrival may get Moo a bit more excited. You see I have a sneaking suspicion that, tomorrow morning, a certain adventurous bear may find his way back home at last.
15-05 More arrivals and departures that Clapham Junction
Last Wednesday was a wonderful and truly joyful day. We had a lovely muck about in the morning, then Joy unconfined as at last. Mr T Bear returned home. (Full details and ‘holiday snaps’ can be found HERE). Moo was in heaven as she talked Travel Bear through all he had missed in the last few months and brought a selection of toys down from her room to greet their long lost companion. Then, in the afternoon, it was off, with a big bag of carrots in hand, to see Chewie and Sticky, 2 donkeys of our acquaintance. We first encountered Chewie and Sticky last August, and were regular visitors until one day in October they just disappeared. Moo was most concerned, but we made a collective family decision that they were ‘on holiday’. The months rolled round but we never saw them again, so it was a great delight to us all when the returned to their field last weekend. So off we went to ply them with carrots and stroke their noses, and introduce them, at a safe non-chewing distance, to Travel Bear! After that we had a lovely drive round the countryside and headed home to prepare for the arrival of my parents. Not that I was over excited or anything. We didn’t know exactly what time they would arrive, but around tea-time was a good guess as they rolled up just as the soup was starting to warm. Much hugging and kissing and marvelling at my mum, (who has lost 50lb in 6 months and looks terrific!), then the eating commenced. After that it was time for cake and a showering of gifts upon us. It was a little while after that that it slowly dawned on me that whilst unpacking the contents of my parent’s car there had been one thing that I was expecting that was not there. It was rather a significant thing. There was supposed to be an air-bed in the car from my sister-in-law. The air-bed that Hubs and I were supposed to be sleeping on. The air bed that she forgot to put in the car and that was still in Oxford. Many blankets were gathered and Hubs and I settled down for a night on the floor. But do you know what I couldn’t have been happier. Despite a few creaks neither of us suffered from a ‘night on the tiles, and we spent the next day, happily pottering around with the folks doing a little shopping (air-bed included), and walking and after school even a trip to the plage. Although the weather was a little on the chilly side, Grandpa kept his promise and went ‘hunting for sharks’ in the lake with Moo while the rest of us sat and watched their feet turn blue. Today we were going to go to Paris, but after seeing how much it would cost for the 5 of us to get their by train, we decided to take a drive to Le Mans instead. I feel quite bad as I know they really wanted to go, but over £300 for a travel for a day was just not do-able. So it will have to be next time. We still had a fun day out and Moo was super happy as she twisted grandpa’s arm and we all ended up in McDonalds.
19-05 Knick-knacks and picnics
Saturday morning was spent mainly in the 'stuff shop'. A wonderful shop nearby which sells, well, stuff. The variety of goods is so varied that it would take far too long to list, but suffice to say many 'knick-knacks' were purchased and my mum delighted herself by completing her holiday present shopping in one fell swoop. We ambles along to the annual 'picnic du voisin, at the local village, only to find that due to my mis-translation of the time, it was all but finished, but we picnic-ed nonetheless. An invitation to take part in a talk with games and a wine tasting had us all rather excited so off we trooped into the hall. Well the talk turned out to be a very long lecture on the source and usage of spices in mediaeval France, Now I know that many people may find this an interesting subject, and I could probably stretch my attention span to about half an hour, were I not desperately trying to understand and translate the rapid flow of academic French I was confronted with. Hubs used the 'bored child wild card' and made his escape quite swiftly, but it was an agonising 45 minutes before we saw an opportunity to leave without appearing extremely rude. And judging by the expressionless faces of those we left behind, it wasn't just my lack of linguistic skills that were making the 'talk' a little dull. We spent the rest of the afternoon at home with 'the boys' watching the football and mum, Moo and I pottering about in the kitchen. I love pottering with my mum, cooking together, sitting doing our knitting, solving crosswords, chewing the fat. We have always been very good pottering partners and it's what I miss most of all. Their last night with us came to an end too quickly and the morning saw them driving off to Calais to embark on the next round of the family pilgrimage, and whilst we were sad to see them go, we will see them again in a couple of months for our summer holidays, and whilst the new air-bed did us a good service, it was nice to sleep in our own bed again. And so to Monday and the mad lunchtime dash to Le Mans to drop off Hubs and get back in time for afternoon school, then back home to begin work on the bomb-site formally known as my home. I was looking forward to a quiet relaxing Tuesday with Moo packed off to swimming and me with a leisurely couple of hours at home, but a phone call from a harassed sounding 'swimming mum' asking me to fill in for her put paid to that idea. So off we trooped to the outdoor pool praying for sunshine, thankfully we were not disappointed. Sadly the pool seemed to be expecting half the number of children and all the carefully explained games and activities turned into an exercise in crowd control, but we had fun anyway! Home again for tea and a movie and to start organising a series of activities for the next few days as there is yet another bank holiday weekend and the kids are all off school from tomorrow. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
20-05 Assumption on Ascension
It is a beautiful sunny Wednesday morning and Moo and I were having a lazy wake up in bed plotting what we would do for the Ascension Day holiday's over the next few days but the need for caffeine was calling. So I ambled downstairs in my PJ's and filled the kettle looking out of the kitchen window at the birds flitting around in the garden, ah peace. My reverie was broken by the appearance of a little girl at the gate. A little girl that I normally take to school. My brain swirled in confusion as I checked the calendar, and was not calmed when I saw that it was, as I had thought, Wednesday. The kids don't go to school on a Wednesday. I hastily checked the school holidays calendar that we received in September, and there in black and white (albeit tiny print), was written: Pont de l'Ascension: de juedi 21 au dimanche 24 Mai, (mercredi 20 travaille toute la journée), which at that precise moment I understood to mean that this Wednesday they were in school. And so I have just proved that it is in fact possible to get Moo ready for school in less than 10 minutes, much to her confusion. I thought about explaining in detail my misunderstanding, but decided to use honesty as the best tactic and declared to her that 'mummy's an idiot'. Rather sadly for me, this explanation was accepted without hesitation or argument. I managed to get her downstairs for a rudimentary breakfast while I exchanged my cow print PJ bottoms for something more suitable for the school run, and threw on a jacket. All children safely delivered to school by 9.01 am. Now about that coffee...
22-05 A black eye and a black mood. But not for long.
After bundling Moo off to her surprise school day I decided to take advantage of my unexpected free time by sorting out itinerary for the next trip to see hubs. After a frustrating search through one of the world’s most frustrating websites, I divined that in order get the local train to Le Mans we would have to leave at 6.25am, and then wait 5hrs for our connection to Paris. Hmm, time to find a cheap/safe car park near the station methinks. The rest of the journey seemed straightforward enough so I wrote it all down to take to the station later. I picked up Moo for lunch and was thrilled to hear her teacher telling me how well she had done that morning and how much she was progressing with both her written and oral work. The praise from her 'maitresse' along with the promise of steak hache et frites for tea at the local bar as a 'well done' treat, had Moo beaming from ear to ear. After lunch I decided to mow the lawns. Out came the mower and the extra long extension lead. The back was done and all was looking lovely but as I, rather over enthusiastically as it turned out, pulled up the extension cord the plug end whipped up and caught me square in the left eye. After a great deal of cursing at my own ineptitude, I carried on coiling the cable, until I noticed the blood on the floor. It turned out to be quite a small cut, but at first glance in the mirror I was more than a little concerned. Mopping up and sitting down with a coffee seemed the best course of action. I did eventually get around to mowing the front, but with rather less good will than the back. By the time I was done Moo was home and champing at the bit for her tea, but we had to go to the station on the way to buy the tickets. Now normally the station staff are more than helpful and patient with my staggering French, but not today. Today I was served by Mr Surly, who did everything in his power to make it as difficult as possible. After a cursory glance at my list he then proceeded to tell me that it was not possible to book any of the tickets I wanted and conjured a price that was over 200Euros more than I had calculated. After a brief exchange I took back my list and stomped back to the car with Moo, who chose this point to decide that she had to go to the toilet immediately. Back into the station to find that the toilets were locked and Mr Surly, who I assume had the key, had disappeared. Without enough time to find a conveniently located shrubbery, an accident occurred. So back home to change before going out again to the pub for tea, which by now should probably be more accurately called supper. To say I wasn't really in the mood by then was putting in mildly and the dull ache that had begun with a plug in the temple, was now threatening to split my head in two. But a promise is a promise, and much as I tried, Moo could not be persuaded to postpone. When we arrived I was greeted with such warmth and affection, and not a little concern over my developing shiner that I couldn't help but start to smile. As we sat waiting for our food, a friend passed by on her way home and stopped to have a drink and a chat. I explained my plight over the train journey and the landlady, who had also joined us for a drink, insisted that, should I manage to get the tickets, she would take us and collect us from Le Mans, thus negating the need to leave the car. After a wonderful meal we headed home laden with eggs from the landlady's over productive chickens, and after a short and extremely pleasant telephone conversation with a quite charming lady at the SNCF ticket office our tickets to Belgium were booked. She even managed to knock 20Euros off the price I had found earlier. Moo went to bed like an angel and further inspection of my eye led me to think that I may just get away with a small yellow bruise, rather than the anticipated black and blue. Even by my standards it was a bit of an odd day but, as ever, the company of friends helped turn a black afternoon into a golden sunset.
25-05 Its a funny old day
After a few days holiday, a little sunburn and much Papier maché we were having a grand old time as we headed off to the 'fete du lac' yesterday. I didn't really know much about this fete as this time last year I was in UK buying a car so we missed it, so off we went expecting a little bric a brac and a few 'saussice et frite' stalls. As we got about a kilometre away and saw the cars jostling for side of the road parking spaces I realised that I may have underestimated the size of today's event. I ploughed on regardless hoping for a space a bit nearer and was rewarded as a prime spot was vacated just as I arrived lake side. First we headed to the 'bricolage', (car boot type sale) and were instantly rewarded with a few magnificent bargains, and encounters with friends who plied Moo with extra pocket money, which was duly spent on a beach ball, sweets and a ride on the carousel. With my rummaging needs sated for the day we headed to the beach to consume our lunch and watch the various games and displays and have a 'paddle'. Not satisfied with just a paddle, Moo stripped to her pants and t-shirt and waded right in. As I was lingering knee-deep keeping watch something quite wonderful happened. Moo decided to swim. Properly swim, for the first time ever without any of the usual arm-bands or flotation devices she normally insists on. She just swam, with only the aid of a huge, face splitting grin. I was so proud that my heart took over and I ran and gave her a great big hug. The fact that I was wet through from the waist down mattered not a jot, till the moment had passed and I realised that I would soon be driving home with a very soggy bottom! As it turned out the soggy bottom was the least of my worries. When we got back to the car I found I had been well and truly boxed into my parking space with only about 20 cm manoeuvring room at the front and a ditch at the side I didn't think we would be going anywhere too soon. Now I don't know if there is a patron saint of parking, but if there is they answered my prayers as just as I was about to give up hope, the man who had parked next to my bumper returned to his car and promptly left. Hallelujah. We proceeded then to get stuck in a traffic jam. I was a little stunned as it is normally considered unusual to see another car on this particular road, never mind the hundreds that were parked on either side of what is a very narrow 2 lane track. We waited on for about 20 minutes until we slowly inched forward, and it was revealed that the source of the jam was a man who had decided just to stop on the road to have a chat to some friends he had encountered, c'est la vie. Once home Moo contented herself with playing around with her new purchases while I spent a thoroughly depressing 90 minutes with the football, desperately hoping and praying for some kind of miracle that would keep my team in the premiership next season. As the final whistle approached the agonising realisation that the miracle was not going to occur began to sink in. And then it was over. NUFC are now a championship side. If you have ever been through the pain of relegation, you will know how I feel right now. And if, over the next few days, anyone says 'it's only a game', I refuse be held responsible for my actions. Still at least we might actually win a few games next season, and we are sure to have the finest ground in the league.....
29-05 The milk and human kindness
A couple of days ago my neighbour came to call and started talking about milk. At first I thought she wanted to borrow some, then I realised she was asking me if I wanted some. I was a little confused. She explained to me that they were on the way to a local farm to get some milk, and did I want any. I thought this was a little odd, in a nice way, but said yes and went to fetch my purse, she waved me away and told me it was free, and would be back later. Now I was really confused. My French still isn't really up to discussing agricultural politics, but I had managed to understand that the farmer in question had too much milk and was giving it away to anyone who arrived with an empty bottle in hand. She duly arrived with 2 litres of milk, and waved goodbye. I must say it was delicious. It's been a very long time since I have had milk straight from the cow. Rice pudding was made and latte and hot chocolate consumed, with just enough left for the morning. It was that evening when looking through some French news, I realised the reason, and scale of the milk issue. The farmers are protesting about the wholesale price they get paid for their milk, which is around 20cents a litre, (around 30%less than the same time last year) whilst the retailers are selling the same milk for over 1 Euro a litre, (10% more than the same time last year). You can see the problem. Well they have had enough and decided to protest by stopping the supply of milk to retailers, but of course daisy and her many friends still need to be relieved of their burden, and so the local farmer's answer was to milk as usual , but let the tank stand full until it was drained by the locals. Although we didn't see the sight of milk being poured into the main street, as happened in Paris, there was a plentiful supply for us all. And even though it did halt production at the local bel cheese factory, as one of their casual workers remarked to me, 'ah oui, but now I have an extra day in the sun with my family, and 20 litres of milk in store, it's not so bad'. The protest continued, and so did my morning delivery, but in much greater quantities. By day 3, I had 7 ½ litres of milk. Now I do like milk and so does little Moo, but 7 ½ litres of the stuff....! I had to politely tell my neighbour no more, and try and figure out what to do with it all. We had milk sponge, milky fish, milk shake, and I haven't consumed that number of lattes since I worked in the west-end! Even the cat got in on the act, and I managed to get her to drink from her bowl, by filling it with fresh creamy milk. Mind you if she thinks she's getting that every day, she will soon be sorely disappointed. Eventually we consumed the lot, and I was quite frankly, delighted by the taste of a simple glass of water. I do not know if the farmer’s demands will be met, but if they decide to take this action again in the future, I will be behind them all the way, with empty bottles in hand of course.
JUNE
01-06 Flying cats
I have discovered this week that our cat can fly. I always knew she was a bit special/strange. She has been showing herself to be a fearless climber for a while now, and even at this young age has shown considerable skill with her acrobatics, but aeronautics came as a bit of a surprise even to me. It first happened, (well I first saw it happen), one evening last week as I was getting ready for bed. Having managed to entice her back inside for the night with some food, I shut the doors and windows downstairs and head up. After realising the futility of throwing herself against the glass to try and execute an overnight escape, she glumly followed and proceeded to her usual spot in the bath to wait for me. I should probably take the time now to explain that our strange little moggy will only drink from the bath. I have tried may different ways to try and convince her that this is not normal cat behaviour, but she will not be swayed and every night she will go and sit in the tub and meow very loudly till I perform my duty and put a little water in for her to drink. So anyway, after her drink she sauntered into the bedroom and jumped on the window ledge while I pottered/faffed about for a few minutes. Then I decided it was time to get the cat in and close the window for the night. Chimney however had obviously decided that she did not want to stay in for the night, and reasoned that as I had already closed all the windows and doors downstairs this may well be her last chance of freedom. She arched her back with such determination that I knew what she was about to do and tried to reach her before she toppled to what I assumed would be at least a broken leg. Of course I didn’t reach her in time and was left open mouthed, framed in the upstairs window, quite frankly, a little in awe of what I witnessed. As she, and my heart, leapt I watched for what could only have been a second or two, but it felt like so much more, as she stretched herself out and glided gracefully to the ground. And it really was quite graceful. She landed with barely a sound, around 10 meters down the garden, took a moment to compose herself, and, with a cocky little upward glance at me, sauntered off through the gate for an evening of adventure. I think I’d better try and warn the birds to look up as well as down from now on.
05-06 Flaming June
The month has started by more than living up to its reputation. It is glorious. The garden is thriving and the first crop of radish’s are in and consumed, more of that later, and the rest of my fledgling plot is coming along nicely. I am watching the cherry tree like a hawk and at the first sign of proper red, the ladder is coming out and whilst the birds will probably still get the majority, I am determined that this year I will at least get some. It’s a bit of a learning curve this gardening malarkey, as I’ve never really had a garden before So far I have learned that next year I’m going to stagger the radish planting. I wasn’t really expecting that many to grow, and as Moo is not that keen on the humble radish there has been an awful lot to consume. So I decided to get creative. Enough of buttered radish and stir fry, time to get busy. There were of course the inevitable soups, but I was after something a bit more….’cakey’. Hmm. Well you can get carrot cake so why not? The carrot and radish cake was a resounding success, so flushed with this I made biscuits. Not quite so good. But the ‘piece de resistance’ has got to be scones. The humble cheese scone redefined by a little bit of radish. I was actually quite amazed at just how good they are and can thoroughly recommend trying them. Particularly filled with nice soft brie when they are fresh out of the oven. Sadly the good weather seems to be accompanied by bad health. The school once more has succumbed to the ‘grande rhum’, and little dears have been coughing and spluttering for a week or so now. Moo and I have had a couple of rough nights but now we seem to be over the worst. Hubs has also had a very bad cough and cold and has been feeling quite miserable and poorly. These are the hard times, when I have to look at him feeling so blue and I can’t even give him a cuddle. But that will be remedied tomorrow as we have booked a trip to Belgium for the weekend and at last I can give him a big hug. And a couple of radish scones.
07-09 All the fun of the fair
So a wonderful weekend with hubs and Moo, the highlight being that there was a fun-fair in town, so off we trooped on a stormy Sunday afternoon to take in the delights. And it really was a delight. It's been so long since I have been to a funfair, and it really didn't disappoint. Moo was entranced by the sights, sounds and smells and spent her pocket money in the blink of an eye. Fortunately the 'bank-of-dad' has not yet had too many lending restrictions placed upon it so she was able to secure adequate funding for the day. Watching her go for broke on the junior bumper cars had me fearing for the time in the future when she will be requesting driving lessons, and even though he still had a stinking cold, Hubs could not resist the plea for us all to go on the water ride together. As we lined up for our boat the heavens opened, and we were soaked before we even got on, but we weren't going to let a little rain dampen our spirits, well Moo was clearly not going to let a little rain dampen our spirits so we had little choice but to soldier on. The hall of mirrors seemed like as good a place as any to dry out, and many slightly steaming families seemed to have the same idea, and whilst I know that conventionally it's very bad form to laugh out loud at the appearance of a complete stranger, it was impossible not to. We had the most fun of the day pointing and laughing at our distorted reflections, and ended up staying in there for about half an hour, crying with laughter. After we were sufficiently dried out I was delegated the task of accompanying Moo on the 'pirate ship carousel' which at first glance held no fear, but as I watched it twist and spin and rise and fall at ever growing speed, the fear of a reappearing hot dog grew ever stronger. Moo looked a little terrified, but as it was her idea to go on there was to be no backing down, I don't know where she gets that stubborn streak.... Almost as soon as we got going the fear turned to laughter as we were thrown around inside the tiny boats, occasionally seeing the blur that was a waiting, watching hubs as we twirled passed, and all I could do was hug her and laugh like I haven't laughed for years. However, there is one small tale of woe to report from our expedition. Hubs has lost his grab machine mojo. Hubs is a past master of the grab machine, and has never walked away empty handed, until now. Many Euros were bid a fond goodbye as we went from one machine to another, but it just wasn't his day, and whilst Moo was briefly distressed at the lack of a prize, I think this may haunt Hubs for many a long day. In all fairness he is 'carrying an injury', with his big bad cold, and you can be sure he will rise to the grab machine crown once more when he is back at peak fitness.......
10-09 Yesterday I met an angel in Paris
The train left Belgium 10 minutes late, not so much, we had AGES to cross Paris and make our connection. We watched the storms rolling across the sky as they followed us for most of the journey, and were quite snug as the rain battered the carriage windows. Then, about half an hour outside Paris the train stopped, and we waited and we waited, and just for fun waited some more. As the minutes ticked by I realised that the 'ages' we had to cross the city were rapidly becoming too short. By the time we got going again we were 50 minutes late, leaving just over half an hour till the next train was due to leave. Now officially the time it takes to get from gare du nord to Montparnasse by metro is 25 minutes. Having done the journey several times now, I can only assume that the official who recorded that time must have been a member of the French Olympic running squad travelling at a time when the metro was closed to the public. And they certainly did not have a tired, grumpy 4 year old and a heavy suitcase to contend with. A taxi was our only realistic option, and even then it would be a close thing. I don't know if you have ever tried to catch a taxi from a main international train station at around tea-time in the middle of a storm, but as we stepped outside and I saw the queue my heart sank and the hope of making our connection seemed to wash away in the rain. Unused to the idea of waiting, Moo marched right up to the head of the line, and as I tried to explain we had to wait at the other end, an angel appeared. There is a man at gare du nord whose job it is to see that the taxi queue remains orderly, and that people take their turn... There is a man at gare du nord who told us that he has a little girl at home around the same age as Moo. There is a man at gare du nord who took pity on us and ushered us into the first taxi ahead of a hundred or so patiently waiting customers. There is a man at gare du nord who truly is an angel. Merci Monsieur. We told the driver our destination and our plight of timing, he just smiled an assured us it would be 'pas de problem'. A dramatic and fast paced ride across the city ensued, and despite our hurry I enjoyed every second. Swerving in and out of nonexistent lanes, undercutting a police car on a roundabout, racing past the eerily glowing pyramid of the Louvre, passing through the Arc de Triomphe to the accompaniment of booming thunder, and there is nothing quite like the sight of lightning forking to within an inch of the Eiffel tower. Magical. We pulled up at the station with minutes to spare and with Moo clinging to the back of the wheelie suitcase, I ran. We got on the train and collapsed into our seats, moments before it pulled away on the last leg of our journey home.
12-06 Bedtime glories
In comparison with our weekend, the last few days have been a little...boring, to be honest. Settling back in to the home routine, such as it is. I feel I should possibly not have commented on the glorious start to June, as since I did the weather has been atrocious. Wet, cold and grey. Moo and I have been watching a lot of films. We managed to make it to the swimming pool on Wednesday afternoon and although it was lousy weather Moo still wanted to go in the outdoor pool, mainly because there is a big water-slide outside, but we had fun swimming in the rain for about 15 minutes until the cold got the better of me and we headed back indoors. Moo is really coming along in the water, and her confidence is growing each time, it’s so good to watch her progress from week to week and it makes me so proud. Also this week we finally got Moo a proper bed. She has been quite content on her old bed base and mattress while we hummed and hawed over the 'new bed' purchase changing her mind on an almost daily basis as to what she wants. She had seen a country cottage enclosed bed that she liked for a while but at nearly 700Euros we decided to wait till she had gone off that particular idea. Thankfully she did! But I decided enough was enough and it was time to get her a plain old bed, rather fortunately my decision coincided with a sale at a local furniture shop and I managed to pick up a bargain at 40Euros. So now she has a 'big girl' bed and at last I can see the floor in her bedroom as there is ample space underneath to hide a multitude of toys. As I was telling hubs about the new bed Moo disappeared upstairs, only to reappear a few minutes later having changed herself into her pyjamas and insisted that it was time to go to bed. Now those of you who know Moo, either in person or through reading this site, will know that it's normally a bit of an effort at bedtime and we have had some long running 'bedtime issues', so for her to ask to go to bed at 7.20 was an offer I couldn't refuse. I quickly said goodbye to hubs and by the time I got upstairs she was already under the duvet with her night-light on, waiting for me to close the shutters. A quick story and I was dismissed and downstairs having a coffee by 7.35. Now I'm sure the novelty of the new bed will wear off quite quickly, and the usual struggles will resume in time, but for now, its goodnight from me, and its goodnight from her.
16-06 Must clean!
Well the ‘big bed’ still seems to be weaving its magic spell, not quite at 7.30, but it’s still a very good thing! I have been having a very busy few days around the house, which started by cleaning a few mucky fingerprints from the window and turned into a full scale 3 day assault with the marigolds on. Now I’m not really a neat freak, (by any stretch of the imagination), but I do like a tidy house, after Moo has gone to bed obviously, any hope of a tidy house before that is false and doomed to failure, but the ‘deep clean’ is something I tend to avoid for as long as possible. But once you have one shiny clean window pane, it rather shows the rest up, and when you have a full set of gleaming windows, well the white cotton curtains take on a rather dingy appearance, and so it goes on. My well of enthusiasm ran dry at the end of day one, unfortunately only the upstairs was done by that point and I dragged myself through to the end of day two with a heavy heart and wrinkly hands, trying to find things for Moo to ‘help’ with without meaning double the work for me. I failed, miserably. But she meant well I’m sure, although I did have to explain that while it was very good of her to bring the curtains back upstairs for mummy to hang, it may have been a good idea to wash the jam off her hands before hand. So all that is left now is to re-hang the curtains, after a boil wash to remove the aforementioned jam, but as I can’t do that till morning I am going to enjoy this evening soaking in my shiny clean bath in my sparkling bathroom with a big glass of local brew as my reward for a spotless house, well till Moo gets up anyway.
19-06 Hubs is home and this time not just for a week!
So here we are somehow already at the time we have all been waiting for - summer holidays! Hubs is now finished in deepest darkest Belgium, well till the end of September anyway. We had a late night run to Le Mans on Thursday night to get him and bring him home just in time for his birthday. Friday morning, before school, saw Moo and I frantically decorating the living room with streamers and a birthday banner, so we could have a 'birthday lunch' when she came home for dinner. And it was lovely. Hubs refreshed from a lovely lie-in and a heap of cards to open and trying to adjust to the fact that he was home for a good long while and not the usual few short days. After Moo was sent, rather reluctantly, back to school Hubs and I had a leisurely wander round and found the perfect way to spend his birthday money, a fab rug for the living room and a copy of Mary Poppins. In all honesty I think Hubs was far more excited about viewing the new DVD than Moo, who took quite a lot of persuading, but dad’s promises of magic drawings and renditions of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious convinced her into it. With the evening’s entertainment sorted and a steak dinner consumed we all crashed out on the sofa and fought to keep our eyes open till the end of the film. Only Moo managed to achieve this and woke us up to tell us it was bedtime. How right she was.
23-09 Multigym madness
The soundtrack to last evening was a steady stream of half uttered sentences 'where on earth does that...' but if that goes there'........ 'Damn thing isn’t properly...' a few mild, but totally necessary, expletives through to discussion of people in a factory deliberately mislabelling parts in order to deceive and confuse, (well you would wouldn't you?). It can mean only one thing. Self assembly. We have been out and bought ourselves a multigym in attempt to regain a reasonable level of fitness (more of that in later posts I can assure you!). Even hubs looked daunted when we opened the boxes and saw the sheer volume of parts and scarcity of instructions. Getting it here was fun in itself and I wish I had a camera to record the look of utter disbelief on the face of the kindly assistant who brought the very large boxes out to the very small car. He obviously didn’t realise he was dealing with people who used to cram huge theatre sets into the back of small wagons. After a little jiggling we got the boxes in and closed the boot. I could tell the assistant was deeply impressed. How to get Hubs in was a slightly more complex matter as the front passenger seat was rammed up against the front window with a large container on top. After a short trip to the supermarket it was decided that cowering on the floor in the back under the said box, just would not do, so more adjustments were carried out enabling both Hubs and Moo to sit on the back seat without too much squishing. Sunday and Monday were (amongst other things), set aside for assembly and with one look in the box I decided that I would be best suited to making sure the workman had enough tea. After an heroic struggle against all the odds of tiny and badly drawn diagrams, an alarming system of labels, and a little encouragement from the sidelines (Moo's Monday morning comment of 'haven’t you finished it yet' went down particularly well), Hubs conquered and we now have a shiny new multigym ready to hone us into chiselled individuals. All we have to do now is use it.
28-06 Spectacular spectacular
This week was a momentous week in our household, many months of preparation and rehearsal all coming to a head on Friday night for the fin d'annee spectacle d'ecole. Moo has been practicing her singing and dancing, mostly in secret so it's a big surprise, for weeks and has been reminding us to make sure we didn't forget the date for just about as long. We arrived at the appointed hour (20.15 - in costume), and proceeded to select our position (not quite front but centre) and wait till the spectacle began. The appointed hour, 20.30, came and went without much fanfare and people still milling around chatting and sorting out the vast amounts of cakes which had been donated for refreshments. Most people were in their seats by around 20.45, poised with their cameras at the ready to capture those magic moments. With bottoms already beginning to numb, it became clear that there was a problem backstage concerning microphones and batteries that would take more than a moment or two to resolve. 21.00 saw the arrival, and fitting, of new batteries and at last we were underway. The 'big school' (7-10 yr olds), kicked off with a funny drama concerning the office of the Mairé and a wedding. Although I didn't get the full measure of wit, I got enough for a few chuckles, but Hubs was left more than a little bemused. After a protracted scene change it was time for Moo to shine. The 'moyen section' writhed and slithered on stage to perform their contemporary dance interpretation of the origins of life 'micro cosmos', and I have to say, as someone who has seen a fair bit of contemporary dance in her time, they did a rather super job. After the dance came the singing and we were treated to a couple of numbers they had learnt during the year, but sadly not my favourite ditty 'je fais pipi sur le gazon'. I charge you to look it up - you will be amazed, and possibly a little disturbed! After the singing came the much needed interval, starring the aforementioned patisserie, which was much appreciated by all. By this point it was rapidly approaching 22.00. Moo (not to mention her parents) was seriously flagging, and as 'act 2' featured only the older children, we took the cowards way out and made our farewells citing a tired grumpy child, rather obligingly Moo decided to almost fall asleep in my arms at that moment, so our getaway was covered. We made it home around 22.15 and put moo to bed lavishing her with praise for a fine performance and collapsed onto the sofa with a big glass of wine, complimenting ourselves on our exit strategy. We were even more thankful when we saw our neighbour returning with a sleeping child in his arms at around 23.30. And so the spectacle d'ecole finds itself in quite illustrious company as it is only the 3rd time in my life I have left a performance at the interval. The first was 'Napoleon - the Musical', I don't think I have to add anything further as to why we left at the end of act 1, the title should tell you all you need to know. The second was the world premiere of 'Lord of the rings - the musical' at Drury lane in London. Despite the multi-million pound budget, the lure of act 2 was about a million times weaker than the lure of the pub across the road. I may well have to volunteer my services as an ex-theatre professional to the spectacle d'ecole next year, if only to keep the running time down, as there will be no interval get out for us by then.
A bientot.
01-06 Flying cats
I have discovered this week that our cat can fly. I always knew she was a bit special/strange. She has been showing herself to be a fearless climber for a while now, and even at this young age has shown considerable skill with her acrobatics, but aeronautics came as a bit of a surprise even to me. It first happened, (well I first saw it happen), one evening last week as I was getting ready for bed. Having managed to entice her back inside for the night with some food, I shut the doors and windows downstairs and head up. After realising the futility of throwing herself against the glass to try and execute an overnight escape, she glumly followed and proceeded to her usual spot in the bath to wait for me. I should probably take the time now to explain that our strange little moggy will only drink from the bath. I have tried may different ways to try and convince her that this is not normal cat behaviour, but she will not be swayed and every night she will go and sit in the tub and meow very loudly till I perform my duty and put a little water in for her to drink. So anyway, after her drink she sauntered into the bedroom and jumped on the window ledge while I pottered/faffed about for a few minutes. Then I decided it was time to get the cat in and close the window for the night. Chimney however had obviously decided that she did not want to stay in for the night, and reasoned that as I had already closed all the windows and doors downstairs this may well be her last chance of freedom. She arched her back with such determination that I knew what she was about to do and tried to reach her before she toppled to what I assumed would be at least a broken leg. Of course I didn’t reach her in time and was left open mouthed, framed in the upstairs window, quite frankly, a little in awe of what I witnessed. As she, and my heart, leapt I watched for what could only have been a second or two, but it felt like so much more, as she stretched herself out and glided gracefully to the ground. And it really was quite graceful. She landed with barely a sound, around 10 meters down the garden, took a moment to compose herself, and, with a cocky little upward glance at me, sauntered off through the gate for an evening of adventure. I think I’d better try and warn the birds to look up as well as down from now on.
05-06 Flaming June
The month has started by more than living up to its reputation. It is glorious. The garden is thriving and the first crop of radish’s are in and consumed, more of that later, and the rest of my fledgling plot is coming along nicely. I am watching the cherry tree like a hawk and at the first sign of proper red, the ladder is coming out and whilst the birds will probably still get the majority, I am determined that this year I will at least get some. It’s a bit of a learning curve this gardening malarkey, as I’ve never really had a garden before So far I have learned that next year I’m going to stagger the radish planting. I wasn’t really expecting that many to grow, and as Moo is not that keen on the humble radish there has been an awful lot to consume. So I decided to get creative. Enough of buttered radish and stir fry, time to get busy. There were of course the inevitable soups, but I was after something a bit more….’cakey’. Hmm. Well you can get carrot cake so why not? The carrot and radish cake was a resounding success, so flushed with this I made biscuits. Not quite so good. But the ‘piece de resistance’ has got to be scones. The humble cheese scone redefined by a little bit of radish. I was actually quite amazed at just how good they are and can thoroughly recommend trying them. Particularly filled with nice soft brie when they are fresh out of the oven. Sadly the good weather seems to be accompanied by bad health. The school once more has succumbed to the ‘grande rhum’, and little dears have been coughing and spluttering for a week or so now. Moo and I have had a couple of rough nights but now we seem to be over the worst. Hubs has also had a very bad cough and cold and has been feeling quite miserable and poorly. These are the hard times, when I have to look at him feeling so blue and I can’t even give him a cuddle. But that will be remedied tomorrow as we have booked a trip to Belgium for the weekend and at last I can give him a big hug. And a couple of radish scones.
07-09 All the fun of the fair
So a wonderful weekend with hubs and Moo, the highlight being that there was a fun-fair in town, so off we trooped on a stormy Sunday afternoon to take in the delights. And it really was a delight. It's been so long since I have been to a funfair, and it really didn't disappoint. Moo was entranced by the sights, sounds and smells and spent her pocket money in the blink of an eye. Fortunately the 'bank-of-dad' has not yet had too many lending restrictions placed upon it so she was able to secure adequate funding for the day. Watching her go for broke on the junior bumper cars had me fearing for the time in the future when she will be requesting driving lessons, and even though he still had a stinking cold, Hubs could not resist the plea for us all to go on the water ride together. As we lined up for our boat the heavens opened, and we were soaked before we even got on, but we weren't going to let a little rain dampen our spirits, well Moo was clearly not going to let a little rain dampen our spirits so we had little choice but to soldier on. The hall of mirrors seemed like as good a place as any to dry out, and many slightly steaming families seemed to have the same idea, and whilst I know that conventionally it's very bad form to laugh out loud at the appearance of a complete stranger, it was impossible not to. We had the most fun of the day pointing and laughing at our distorted reflections, and ended up staying in there for about half an hour, crying with laughter. After we were sufficiently dried out I was delegated the task of accompanying Moo on the 'pirate ship carousel' which at first glance held no fear, but as I watched it twist and spin and rise and fall at ever growing speed, the fear of a reappearing hot dog grew ever stronger. Moo looked a little terrified, but as it was her idea to go on there was to be no backing down, I don't know where she gets that stubborn streak.... Almost as soon as we got going the fear turned to laughter as we were thrown around inside the tiny boats, occasionally seeing the blur that was a waiting, watching hubs as we twirled passed, and all I could do was hug her and laugh like I haven't laughed for years. However, there is one small tale of woe to report from our expedition. Hubs has lost his grab machine mojo. Hubs is a past master of the grab machine, and has never walked away empty handed, until now. Many Euros were bid a fond goodbye as we went from one machine to another, but it just wasn't his day, and whilst Moo was briefly distressed at the lack of a prize, I think this may haunt Hubs for many a long day. In all fairness he is 'carrying an injury', with his big bad cold, and you can be sure he will rise to the grab machine crown once more when he is back at peak fitness.......
10-09 Yesterday I met an angel in Paris
The train left Belgium 10 minutes late, not so much, we had AGES to cross Paris and make our connection. We watched the storms rolling across the sky as they followed us for most of the journey, and were quite snug as the rain battered the carriage windows. Then, about half an hour outside Paris the train stopped, and we waited and we waited, and just for fun waited some more. As the minutes ticked by I realised that the 'ages' we had to cross the city were rapidly becoming too short. By the time we got going again we were 50 minutes late, leaving just over half an hour till the next train was due to leave. Now officially the time it takes to get from gare du nord to Montparnasse by metro is 25 minutes. Having done the journey several times now, I can only assume that the official who recorded that time must have been a member of the French Olympic running squad travelling at a time when the metro was closed to the public. And they certainly did not have a tired, grumpy 4 year old and a heavy suitcase to contend with. A taxi was our only realistic option, and even then it would be a close thing. I don't know if you have ever tried to catch a taxi from a main international train station at around tea-time in the middle of a storm, but as we stepped outside and I saw the queue my heart sank and the hope of making our connection seemed to wash away in the rain. Unused to the idea of waiting, Moo marched right up to the head of the line, and as I tried to explain we had to wait at the other end, an angel appeared. There is a man at gare du nord whose job it is to see that the taxi queue remains orderly, and that people take their turn... There is a man at gare du nord who told us that he has a little girl at home around the same age as Moo. There is a man at gare du nord who took pity on us and ushered us into the first taxi ahead of a hundred or so patiently waiting customers. There is a man at gare du nord who truly is an angel. Merci Monsieur. We told the driver our destination and our plight of timing, he just smiled an assured us it would be 'pas de problem'. A dramatic and fast paced ride across the city ensued, and despite our hurry I enjoyed every second. Swerving in and out of nonexistent lanes, undercutting a police car on a roundabout, racing past the eerily glowing pyramid of the Louvre, passing through the Arc de Triomphe to the accompaniment of booming thunder, and there is nothing quite like the sight of lightning forking to within an inch of the Eiffel tower. Magical. We pulled up at the station with minutes to spare and with Moo clinging to the back of the wheelie suitcase, I ran. We got on the train and collapsed into our seats, moments before it pulled away on the last leg of our journey home.
12-06 Bedtime glories
In comparison with our weekend, the last few days have been a little...boring, to be honest. Settling back in to the home routine, such as it is. I feel I should possibly not have commented on the glorious start to June, as since I did the weather has been atrocious. Wet, cold and grey. Moo and I have been watching a lot of films. We managed to make it to the swimming pool on Wednesday afternoon and although it was lousy weather Moo still wanted to go in the outdoor pool, mainly because there is a big water-slide outside, but we had fun swimming in the rain for about 15 minutes until the cold got the better of me and we headed back indoors. Moo is really coming along in the water, and her confidence is growing each time, it’s so good to watch her progress from week to week and it makes me so proud. Also this week we finally got Moo a proper bed. She has been quite content on her old bed base and mattress while we hummed and hawed over the 'new bed' purchase changing her mind on an almost daily basis as to what she wants. She had seen a country cottage enclosed bed that she liked for a while but at nearly 700Euros we decided to wait till she had gone off that particular idea. Thankfully she did! But I decided enough was enough and it was time to get her a plain old bed, rather fortunately my decision coincided with a sale at a local furniture shop and I managed to pick up a bargain at 40Euros. So now she has a 'big girl' bed and at last I can see the floor in her bedroom as there is ample space underneath to hide a multitude of toys. As I was telling hubs about the new bed Moo disappeared upstairs, only to reappear a few minutes later having changed herself into her pyjamas and insisted that it was time to go to bed. Now those of you who know Moo, either in person or through reading this site, will know that it's normally a bit of an effort at bedtime and we have had some long running 'bedtime issues', so for her to ask to go to bed at 7.20 was an offer I couldn't refuse. I quickly said goodbye to hubs and by the time I got upstairs she was already under the duvet with her night-light on, waiting for me to close the shutters. A quick story and I was dismissed and downstairs having a coffee by 7.35. Now I'm sure the novelty of the new bed will wear off quite quickly, and the usual struggles will resume in time, but for now, its goodnight from me, and its goodnight from her.
16-06 Must clean!
Well the ‘big bed’ still seems to be weaving its magic spell, not quite at 7.30, but it’s still a very good thing! I have been having a very busy few days around the house, which started by cleaning a few mucky fingerprints from the window and turned into a full scale 3 day assault with the marigolds on. Now I’m not really a neat freak, (by any stretch of the imagination), but I do like a tidy house, after Moo has gone to bed obviously, any hope of a tidy house before that is false and doomed to failure, but the ‘deep clean’ is something I tend to avoid for as long as possible. But once you have one shiny clean window pane, it rather shows the rest up, and when you have a full set of gleaming windows, well the white cotton curtains take on a rather dingy appearance, and so it goes on. My well of enthusiasm ran dry at the end of day one, unfortunately only the upstairs was done by that point and I dragged myself through to the end of day two with a heavy heart and wrinkly hands, trying to find things for Moo to ‘help’ with without meaning double the work for me. I failed, miserably. But she meant well I’m sure, although I did have to explain that while it was very good of her to bring the curtains back upstairs for mummy to hang, it may have been a good idea to wash the jam off her hands before hand. So all that is left now is to re-hang the curtains, after a boil wash to remove the aforementioned jam, but as I can’t do that till morning I am going to enjoy this evening soaking in my shiny clean bath in my sparkling bathroom with a big glass of local brew as my reward for a spotless house, well till Moo gets up anyway.
19-06 Hubs is home and this time not just for a week!
So here we are somehow already at the time we have all been waiting for - summer holidays! Hubs is now finished in deepest darkest Belgium, well till the end of September anyway. We had a late night run to Le Mans on Thursday night to get him and bring him home just in time for his birthday. Friday morning, before school, saw Moo and I frantically decorating the living room with streamers and a birthday banner, so we could have a 'birthday lunch' when she came home for dinner. And it was lovely. Hubs refreshed from a lovely lie-in and a heap of cards to open and trying to adjust to the fact that he was home for a good long while and not the usual few short days. After Moo was sent, rather reluctantly, back to school Hubs and I had a leisurely wander round and found the perfect way to spend his birthday money, a fab rug for the living room and a copy of Mary Poppins. In all honesty I think Hubs was far more excited about viewing the new DVD than Moo, who took quite a lot of persuading, but dad’s promises of magic drawings and renditions of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious convinced her into it. With the evening’s entertainment sorted and a steak dinner consumed we all crashed out on the sofa and fought to keep our eyes open till the end of the film. Only Moo managed to achieve this and woke us up to tell us it was bedtime. How right she was.
23-09 Multigym madness
The soundtrack to last evening was a steady stream of half uttered sentences 'where on earth does that...' but if that goes there'........ 'Damn thing isn’t properly...' a few mild, but totally necessary, expletives through to discussion of people in a factory deliberately mislabelling parts in order to deceive and confuse, (well you would wouldn't you?). It can mean only one thing. Self assembly. We have been out and bought ourselves a multigym in attempt to regain a reasonable level of fitness (more of that in later posts I can assure you!). Even hubs looked daunted when we opened the boxes and saw the sheer volume of parts and scarcity of instructions. Getting it here was fun in itself and I wish I had a camera to record the look of utter disbelief on the face of the kindly assistant who brought the very large boxes out to the very small car. He obviously didn’t realise he was dealing with people who used to cram huge theatre sets into the back of small wagons. After a little jiggling we got the boxes in and closed the boot. I could tell the assistant was deeply impressed. How to get Hubs in was a slightly more complex matter as the front passenger seat was rammed up against the front window with a large container on top. After a short trip to the supermarket it was decided that cowering on the floor in the back under the said box, just would not do, so more adjustments were carried out enabling both Hubs and Moo to sit on the back seat without too much squishing. Sunday and Monday were (amongst other things), set aside for assembly and with one look in the box I decided that I would be best suited to making sure the workman had enough tea. After an heroic struggle against all the odds of tiny and badly drawn diagrams, an alarming system of labels, and a little encouragement from the sidelines (Moo's Monday morning comment of 'haven’t you finished it yet' went down particularly well), Hubs conquered and we now have a shiny new multigym ready to hone us into chiselled individuals. All we have to do now is use it.
28-06 Spectacular spectacular
This week was a momentous week in our household, many months of preparation and rehearsal all coming to a head on Friday night for the fin d'annee spectacle d'ecole. Moo has been practicing her singing and dancing, mostly in secret so it's a big surprise, for weeks and has been reminding us to make sure we didn't forget the date for just about as long. We arrived at the appointed hour (20.15 - in costume), and proceeded to select our position (not quite front but centre) and wait till the spectacle began. The appointed hour, 20.30, came and went without much fanfare and people still milling around chatting and sorting out the vast amounts of cakes which had been donated for refreshments. Most people were in their seats by around 20.45, poised with their cameras at the ready to capture those magic moments. With bottoms already beginning to numb, it became clear that there was a problem backstage concerning microphones and batteries that would take more than a moment or two to resolve. 21.00 saw the arrival, and fitting, of new batteries and at last we were underway. The 'big school' (7-10 yr olds), kicked off with a funny drama concerning the office of the Mairé and a wedding. Although I didn't get the full measure of wit, I got enough for a few chuckles, but Hubs was left more than a little bemused. After a protracted scene change it was time for Moo to shine. The 'moyen section' writhed and slithered on stage to perform their contemporary dance interpretation of the origins of life 'micro cosmos', and I have to say, as someone who has seen a fair bit of contemporary dance in her time, they did a rather super job. After the dance came the singing and we were treated to a couple of numbers they had learnt during the year, but sadly not my favourite ditty 'je fais pipi sur le gazon'. I charge you to look it up - you will be amazed, and possibly a little disturbed! After the singing came the much needed interval, starring the aforementioned patisserie, which was much appreciated by all. By this point it was rapidly approaching 22.00. Moo (not to mention her parents) was seriously flagging, and as 'act 2' featured only the older children, we took the cowards way out and made our farewells citing a tired grumpy child, rather obligingly Moo decided to almost fall asleep in my arms at that moment, so our getaway was covered. We made it home around 22.15 and put moo to bed lavishing her with praise for a fine performance and collapsed onto the sofa with a big glass of wine, complimenting ourselves on our exit strategy. We were even more thankful when we saw our neighbour returning with a sleeping child in his arms at around 23.30. And so the spectacle d'ecole finds itself in quite illustrious company as it is only the 3rd time in my life I have left a performance at the interval. The first was 'Napoleon - the Musical', I don't think I have to add anything further as to why we left at the end of act 1, the title should tell you all you need to know. The second was the world premiere of 'Lord of the rings - the musical' at Drury lane in London. Despite the multi-million pound budget, the lure of act 2 was about a million times weaker than the lure of the pub across the road. I may well have to volunteer my services as an ex-theatre professional to the spectacle d'ecole next year, if only to keep the running time down, as there will be no interval get out for us by then.
A bientot.
If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me at hillywillyworld@gmail.com
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