Jinxed

It seems I spoke too soon - this was the view from Amby's window at 6.30 am this morning...

Brrrrrr

The walk to the supermarket

and back again

Today is Alex's school fete so I indulged in some 'aussified' recipes - we are all missing the cafes back home.

10 very happy santa's made in about 20 mins - whew.

The finished cookie monsters

This was from a few weeks ago, walking home from Amby's school.

Another photo from the same time. Why let snow stop us from having fun?

Frozen duck prints

Kitted up

Action shot of Amby in full gallop.

Meanwhile Alex finds a friend

Beautiful pup

Most houses have some kind of Christmas scene - here is ours. The snowman moos!

Here's our tree in the 'green room'.

Posted at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Let it snow

It's our first winter for two years and as I write this the sun is blazing in my window and I have hung my washing to dry outside.

We haven't missed winter though; there has been snow, there has been treacherous ice on stone stairs and there have been snow boots and snow suits. Just not at the moment.

The inlaws have retreated to Senegal for the colder months. We won't be seeing them again until the sun emerges, we should be there soon but we are going to buy this house so have to save our centimes.

So it's been a bit quiet and apart from our trip to Paris there has not been much going on.

Hopefully things will be more exciting come Christmas. Until then, here are some more images of France.

Christmas is aroud the corner

You can see the ice crystals

Off to school

Loving my snnowboots

Watching the rain

Christmas windows

The old town centre, dusted with snow and resembling a gingerbread house

Alex and I have fun with cupcakes

and biscuits

Christmas boots for Amby

Home grown and homemade carrot and corriander soup

More homemade soup - this time it's wonton noodle soup

Gee, this is a few months old; fresh carrots and cabbage form the garden.

Something for Felix! Hope you had a wonderful birthday

Posted at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Paris

once again it's been a while, so I hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the sun. If you are interested in the weather here in France take a look at this english language version on http://woozor.co.uk/free-10-days-weather-forecast/weather-forecast-of-pau-in-france_62_6468_en.html We are situated between Nancy and Mulhouse so apparently its 3 degrees outside. Pau looks like a better place to be right now at 10 degrees.

The Christmas lights went on today so we took a quick tour of the centre ville after taking the kids to the movies; Harry Potter by the way and no, I understood 'rien' although the kids were absolutely rivited.

The snow started to fall as we left the cinema, the night comes early now and it was all really very magical.

We've been a bit quiet here. Suffering from various aliaments, the latest of which has been the grippe (flu). One by one we have fallen. And school has seemed like one giant control lately. A control is a test, and it's usually out of 20, and Amby has an average of 3 per week. When we get it right (all the homework comes home, homework book is written out correctly etc) then she gets great marks. When we get it wrong, the marks are not so good!

I do feel like I am not just back at school but a military camp. I am regularly 'told off' by teachers for various things. I just found out today that my wonderful son has been banned from using forks at lunchtime as he has been waving them about in peoples faces. Back on spoons and feeding like a baby!

A wonderful highlight was meeting up with Cheryl in Paris. Never have the word gay old Paris been more true; we hired a luxury appartment situated in the Marais (4th arrondissement, Rive droite), very close to the Pompidou Centre and full of life and colour . I say luxury but we did have 4 flights of stairs. The staircase was stunning; old wood and odd corners and doors tucked away in the strangest places. It felt like a fairy tale, albeit a short one.

It was wonderful seeing Cheryl and hearing the news from 'back home'. There is a great deal of nostalgia in meeting like this, the memories are refreshed and we readjust to each other, we fit back into the groove, so to speak.

The Palace de Versaille was grand but brief, too many tourists throttling the corridors ; a mauvaise descision on my part meant we spent ages (hours?) lining up for entrance tickets and there was a Japanese modern art display which annoying populated spaces and meant I had to twist and duck to get photos without their presence.

I have had to regularly check my spelling as I am losing my english. I dont know if any of you have read the books 'A year in the merde' and Merde actually' by Stephen Clarke but if you have I feel like his friend Jake with his unfortunate way of saying one word which means something entirely different. Merci beaucoup becomes merci beau cul (thank you nice bottom) and so on...

Anyway, back to Paris and a few photos...