Problems@Home

Integration...

2009-09-16T20:20:00.004+02:00

Back in the olde country 3 weeks now.

Aside from the monsoon-like weather the first week, the hand-delivered demand from the tax-man (never forwarded to me) and layer of filth left by the departing tenants....it has gone pretty well.

According to the letter the tax-man actually called to the door looking for me!
Never ceases to amaze me, since I haven't earned a crust in 6 years, how I always get the tax demands and hubby always gets the refunds.

Our adventures in France seem like a dream. Really it feels like we never left.
Which is worrying.

The kids have slotted into their new schools happily.
Princess reports that Tara in her class "Mammee, she speaks the same language as me!"

I'm back to work...which after nearly 6 years as a Stay-at-Home-Mom and general master of my little universe...comes as quite a shock. I am really really blessed to have the option of returning, as work is as rare as hen's teeth for anyone right now.

Work has shocked me out of my middle class bubble.
My first walk across the car-park on induction day, I saw a junkie beating the crappola out of his girlfriend/sister/fellow queuer.

Today we had a 3 hour talk on non violent crisis intervention....AKA how to protect yourself when being attacked without injuring the patient. The tutor had plenty of war stories about his experiences including being out of work for 4 months after being beaten by a patient with a crutch. My classmates also had some hair raising tales of their experiences at the hands of confused, drying out, and definitely un-grateful patients.

Oh yes we're home sweet home.

I've enjoyed blogging.
This is my last post so OVER and OUT!
Thanks for reading Ann!

Finally...The Journey!

2009-09-05T17:14:00.004+02:00

My First Sight of Irish Soil...and Yes I was pulled over by Mr Neon Jacket.

30th August 2009
I was promised some lone time with the dog, 1300km to be precise...but with the medical emergency and some sleight of hand I ended up with the kids for 15 hours driving and 20 hrs on a ferry in what the Captain euphemistically called " moderate seas".

I guess hubby felt he was a better bet for the 5 hour coast to coast dash accross the UK, caused by the need to get the dog home too. Contrary to french speed camera records I am a slow driver and I get lost easily. With the UK ferry times, there was no lee-way for getting lost, according to hubby. So I got the kids and the fancy car.

All went extremely well...until...you got it...the last minute.
As the hundreds of passengers were bailing down the Titanic-like stairs of the ferry to retrieve their cars...Sonny disappeared, completely.

I couldn't move as I wanted to stay where he had last seen me..I had lots of baggage (because it was a disorganised departure...I.AM.A.GOOD.PACKER)

I had to appeal to the other passengers...who mostly had husbands and such.
They were FANTASTIC. The whole area started a big search for a 5 year old boy with glasses. He was found in the reception area under the supervision of staff.

He reported himself missing apparently.

We disembarked the ferry, to low grey cloud and lashing rain (see photo) and were pulled over twice from the exit queue by customs and the Dept of Agriculture. DOA wanted to know where our dog was and if I had hidden her in the car because her passport was dodgy. All I could say was grrrrrrrrr.

I gave him the key to check the car and didn't move to help. I think he recognised a woman on the edge and let me go without any major search.

Then customs stopped me for a grilling about the car. You might remember I was supposed to be driving my car with dog, instead I am dishevelled wreck driving an "executive" car with 2 potentially traffiked kids. All red flags seemed to go up for me and Mr white tracksuit-white baseball cap in the BMW in front. Mr. Customs was more concerned about hubby's car than any kiddie traffiking, I was prepared to surrender them there and then...no quibble.

Anyhoo got to Dublin that lunch-time to a fab meal laid on by the out-laws.
Returned to the old Homestead...which is looking a bit grimy. Funny how other people grime looks alot worse than your own.

Because of the forced separation of the two cars..we didn't have a complete set of "stuff". So kids and I had to sleep on the beds with no sheets or pillow cases.
Kids insisted on sleeping with me..ds in a sleeping bag on the floor, despite 3 other empty bedrooms.

Got a late-night call from somewhere in the English countryside from hubby to say he was lost. He had passed signposts for Havant and Waterlooville (oh noooo), it was dark and no one about. I had no map or internet access so had to pass him on to his Dad and brother...who talked him back on the right road and onto the right ferry ...on time.

So lunch-time on Tuesday morning, 3 days after I left Bellentre, we are all finally home together.

WHAT A YEAR!

Homeless & Hospitalised

2009-09-05T09:36:00.002+02:00

So clearly we are NOT going to make the ferry that hubby booked soooo many months ago. We don't know what day we will be discharged from the hospital...could be up to 8 days they say. So how do we keep our ticket alive? Do we have travel insurance....ummm rummmage rummage...doesn't look like it.
Do we have health insurance...quick call to our top of the range...top dollar insurance company....ummmm NO...stayed too long in France...fcukers!

Princess and I had food and shelter ...although a shortage of clothes (still in my skanky cleaning gear 2 days and, yes, one night later) ( had a little camp bed beside princess in the ER...had to keep my kit on..princess decided she wanted to sleep with me. Her bed was MUCH bigger but didn't reckon I'd get away with sleeping in it with her. So as Roz says...lots of squeezy.

Looks like Princess will be fine, so time to focus on the mundane things like personal hygiene and shelter for the other half of the family.

One of our friends living closest to the hospital offered hubby, sonny and the dog a bed...still nearly 200km from the hospital though...so lots of driving for hubby.
Friend's cat was traumatised by the present of hound.
Hound was totally discombobulated about the sudden change in scene and disappearance of Princess and I.
I was afraid sonny would be traumatised too as the first day...the day we had planned to leave the country, he found himself alone (with friends) and the rest of the family disappeared. But no he was happy as a clam...no abandonment issues what-so-ever.

So despite the ban on mobile phones...I had lots of business to do while sitting around waiting for Princess's Pancreas to pull itself together.

The ferry company, irishferries.com were simply fantastic and allowed us to rebook our tickets at a modest fee (€15) Only problem was the first slot for a dog was 10 days out!!!
So it was decided with much angst and gnashing of teeth that hubby would get the ferry to England ....drive across England and get another ferry 5 hours later to Ireland. Hubby and hound rarely get such bonding oppourtunities!

Meanwhile...back on the health insurance front...by a miracle I managed to locate Princess's European Health Insurance Card . Remember all our worldly treasured are packed tight in the back of the Zafira. Turns out this will pay 80% of our bills. THANK YOU!!! the Irish government and the EU!
Leaving 20% of €1200 per day to deal with.

Pondering this issue I remebered the insurance we bought for the ski season...Carte Neige The back of the card says family lesiure insurance valid til Oct 2009!! What is trampolining but a family leisure activity. I give them a ring and hey presto ....no problem.

I have to fax them the details...I write up a fax and ask the cleaners to check the grammer...causing much debate between them.

So travel sorted, payment sorted, pancreas sorting.

Life's what happens while we are busy making other plans...

2009-09-05T08:45:00.004+02:00

Ain't that the truth.

3 year old princess came into our bed for a cuddle on the morning of our departure. After a few minutes she started to complain of stomach ache and quickly became unable to speak due to the pain.

I knew pretty immediately it was serious, thinking appendicitis.
I pulled on my cleaning clothes from the previous day and skanky pair of shorts and a dirty t-shirt and carried her to the car.

In the ER they suspected a gastric bug...but I was dubious.
They asked me about trauma and what she'd eaten the previous day....but of course for the last few days we had farmed the kids out to various friends while we got locked and loaded. I rang the friends asking them about the health of their kids and what princess had eaten. Almost by the way, I mentioned trauma and T said she did have an incident on the trampoline and had been crying but settled and was fine afterwards.

I told this to the doctor and he looked grave.
By this point Princess had been vomiting for 4 hours...was grunting and couldn't speak with pain and was curled up on her side on a trolley in the ER.

She had an abdominal x-ray and blood tests, he came in and said the tests results were not normal and he would be back to explain. Immediately I began catatrophising...Leukaemia. E v e n t u a l l y, he returned to say it was pancreatitis. I almost kissed him, he said it was very serious and very rare in children.

He would transfer her by ambulance to the nearest pediatric centre, 50km away.
The SAMU or proper nee-naw ambulance was not available so we got a private ambulance.
Princess was very sick and loosing conciousness getting less responsive.

It was the white knuckle ride of my life. The road are narrow two way mountain roads...the driver over-took with on-coming traffic, with cliffs down the left side of the road. I was obviously scared and he kept reassuring me. The paramedic in the back with Princess was telling him to hurry up, while trying to hide that from me.

On arrival in Albertville, Princess had an ultrasound of abdomen and a CT Scan immediately. The said she needed to be sent onwards to the major teaching hospital (another 120km) and the results of the scan would indicate whether it was by helicopter or ambulance. The scans indicated no internal bleeding so she was transfered by ambulance again. Doing a little better now and more comfortable.

We arrived in the CHU Grenoble (Centre Hopitalier Universitaire) the french code for very important hospital and stayed for 4 days. The treatment was fasting and fluid replacement with IVs. They taked about feeding through a drip, but Princess blood tests improved rapidly and she was allowed to start eating a low fat diet.

That child LOVES her grub and fasting for her was torture. For the next 2 weeks her question for any doctor was when she could eat pizza. I'm delighted to report she had 2 slices last night....with chips....HURRAY.

The Last Day

2009-08-24T08:07:00.005+02:00

The View From My Kitchen Sink

They are still in their beds...I'm having a peaceful cuppa alone, in a mostly empty house.
The guy who came to buy sonny's old bike woke me. He wanted to come by at 6.30 AM to see it. I said I really don't do mornings..so I'll leave it in the front garden and if you want it, take it and leave the money in the post-box.

He must've pulled up in a truck...the thing was growling and lots of big door sliding going on. I went out and collected my €20 from the post box as promised :)

It's difficult to believe the amount of stuff we got into my car yesterday...every nook and cranny is stuffed with something. I should've taken a photo. It'll be just me and hound in that car. I just love that car...its so versatile for an active family (is that us?) it's as ugly as all hell, but a real work-horse.

Of course hubby and I had a row about how to pack. In my defence I say loud and proud...I.am.a.great.packer. I like to travel light light light. Hubby is a squirrel and wants to keep everything...even the bulky packaging on things. His catch-phrase being..."that won't take up much room..."

But he did it, got everything but the kitchen sink in!

Bump in the Night.

2009-08-21T20:45:00.006+02:00

A rainy night in Paradise, well Gran Paradiso National Park, to be precise. Getting in training for home I guess. Camping in the rain. Wasn't heavy enough to test the tent for irish conditions though. We remain confident camping will be possible...with the addition of wellies and rain-gear!

But we had our dinner in the tent, 5 adults...with 3 kids asleep in the same tent.
A bbq is challenging in the the rain...The Jones's camping gaz stove was definitely more impressive,effective and nourishing in these conditions. So anyone looking for up-coming birthday ideas for hubby! No pressure.

The first night the dog kept waking us, growling and worrying about something. I was not very appreciative of her protective instincts. Anyhoo the second night as I brushed my teeth in the rain and spat into the ditch in the dark...a fox came walking through the tents, calm as you like, and got to about 10ft of me before my dog spotted this trespasser from the previous night, and lept after it. The fox heeled around and fled crashing into a near-by tent and escaping into the forest. The occupants of the tent, didn't get out to investigate the low-level crash. So the next day as hardy climbing types emerged from it I explained what went bump in the night.

EDITED TO ADD:
The potty was fantastic...bring one, bring one...even if you only pretend its for the kids :)

Lovely Neighbour Gravely Ill

2009-08-21T19:33:00.004+02:00

Our neighbours and grandparents to one of princess's classmates invited us for aperos this evening chez-eux to say adieu.

We sort of rushed home from our trip to Italy to be here on time and found a note stuck to the door, from her daughter, that A had a major problem in her brain and was in hospital and it was very serious, that it was difficult to explain in english.

Its so sad, I hope she will be alright, although it sounds very ominous. Hubby was talking to A's hubby (who was very emotional) and it seems she is in a coma and gravely ill, following a ruptured aneurysm. (discussion in french so hubby not confident he got it straight) She is a fit and wiry lady, although looks older than her 60 years, probably due to the typical local mixture of sun, cigarettes and black coffee.

She is a fluent english and german speaker and told me at our party that my french had improved hugely. They have been married for 32 years which is a major achievement in these parts. She loves kids, and really enjoyed all the little kiddies at our party. We often met them dropping and picking up their grandkids at the school gates.

Dunno what to do to help out her hubby. If things were less chaotic here, I could do dinners for the freezer. But that could push me over the edge right now. Any ideas welcomed. Please say a little prayer that she will pull through.

Sunday Morning
I just stopped her husband, to ask how she is and he said she died yesterday.
Poor man was emotional. I didn't know what to say...especially in french.
Hard to believe we were sitting together on Tuesday and on Saturday she's gone.

Wrapping Up

2009-08-19T10:53:00.003+02:00

Well with all our cleaning and organising the house looks worse and worse.
It's like a body that's been disemboweled....everything's on the surface.

Hubby bought a 450litre roof box yesterday to help.
Then in a fit of anti-help he removed 60% from the stack of DVDs I laid out to give away....grrr.
Nobody has called to buy our stuff.

Less than a week left and we are getting really booked up.
I promised my neighbour (the one who minded my kids while we climbed GS) I'd babysit for her this week, but she hasn't given me a day...so we have been invited for aperos (drinks) two evenings with french neighbours. We are supposed to be going to Italy camping for 2 nights...now. But princess has the trots...since yesterday.
Camping and 3yo diarrhoea are not a good combo. I need to get my grey roots disappeared before I go. Costs me €70 here and €170 at home...so gotta make time for that...so my friend and hairdresser is coming at the same time as the rental agency are doing the "etat de lieux" (literally:the state of the place)

Our going away party went great.
We had a buffet...which apparently means "stuff your face" in french :)
Suitably elegant non? We had 50;50 french/english speakers.

Gotta go kids have made a mess with paint and hubby is having a seizure...Over And Out.

The Dog is Gone!!

2009-08-15T17:00:00.003+02:00

Ended up a bit of a tug-of-love over the abandoned disabled pup, between two neighbours. So next-door came and collected her today...Yipee!

My stress levels remain high, as we have our going away party in one hour.
About 30 guests maybe...
Usual concerns about amount of food.

I'm tired and sweaty and my feet stink.
I've nothing to wear.....better have a shower anyway...........
Whose idea was this anyway...some days I wish I was an introvert.

Col de l'Iseran

2009-08-14T21:13:00.002+02:00

I should really let hubby write this but ....he won't.
He cycled from our house to the Col D'Iseran today.
It's the highest road in France (2700 m)45km from our door and a really really really hard cycle. He had a crash in a dark tunnel, got blared at by a passing motorbike as he pulled himself together and shouted at by another passing motorist.(hope his mom doesn't read this bit) He's all bruised and scratched and got back on the bike and continued on another 25km.

One of his goals for this year was to be able to cycle as far as Val D'Isere and he's managed to go 17km beyond to one of the biggest Cols on the Tour de France.(Click on the title to get a description of the Col from other cyclists)

I am officially impressed.

Cleaning, Crapping, Cracking Up.

2009-08-13T17:57:00.003+02:00

We are a little stressé chez-nous at the moment.
With packing and culling and being sad to leave.
And having a puppy pooing and peeing around the house as we try to clean, clean, clean. My animal welfare urges are driving hubby gaga.

So hubby and sonny headed off to the local golf club (aka ski slope in winter) to hit a bucket of balls (€2.50) using sonny's nifty golf set which we bought in a car boot sale (vide grenier = empty attic in french)for €5.

I got to wash a few walls (penance for animal welfare urges) and then went to the local pool with princess and her friend.
€4 euro in for access to one outdoor 50m pool, with top drawer diving boards, one indoor 25m pool with retractable roof, one indoor kiddy pool and one outdoor kiddy pool, extensive lawns and sun-loungers and trees for shade.

This in a town smaller than Tralee (pop 7000)

"When I was in France.........."

Star Gazing

2009-08-10T22:02:00.005+02:00

Well puppy now has a name! I know, I know...
Sonny named her(Star), I had zero control.
I put posters all over the town (in dodgy french). With dodgy photos. Taking a decent photo of a pup is a struggle. Got lots of shots of butt, one paw, an ear.

I went to both local gendarmerie (police). They acted like I was carrying swine-flu, rather than a puppy. I went to both local vets, who gave me names of local farmers...who denied any knowledge of this dog on disability. Vet said she is a Berger de Savoie, but she looks very like an Australian shepherd.

So, Night #3 with doggie. Hubby intent on the pound tomorrow :( I might agree if she wakes me early again. On the upside she gets loads of oohs and ahhhs around town...3 people have expressed a vague interest in taking her...I wish I was a good sales person and could close the deal. She is also extremely trainable. After a shit-fest the first night...we were totally dry the second and she walked off lead and to heel for 2 miles tonight.

I tell ya, if there weren't passport issues, I'd LOVE to keep her.

Doggy Karma

2009-08-08T23:25:00.003+02:00

Well doggie karma has bitten me in the bum.
This cute little puppy found us this evening.
He appears to be blind in the right eye, have a deformed left leg and and weak left ear. Lucky us !
He seems to be an australian shepherd of sorts.

We are going home in 2 weeks so NO WAY can we keep him. Would cost 6 months of quarantine and the divorce expenses.

But poor mite has obviously been abandoned because he is "handicapé" as the french say.

Just another thing to add to my TO-DO list...

I posted his details on the anglo-french forum...they are suckers for a sob story....hopefully!

Landlady Checks out the House!!!!!

2009-08-07T23:20:00.004+02:00

Well while stranded alone and sandwich-less (in hubby's ruck-sack) near the summit of Grande Sassiere. I got a text from our landlady that she wanted to swing-by to check out what needed repairing in the house, for the new tenants.

A silent scream crossed the Alps.
The dog is scared of thunder and being left alone and self-medicates with bits of the door frames.

So we spent today cleaning and tidying and washing and hubby, who is fantastic with a chisel and a tea-bag (he reckons he's been getting bad press on this blog lately...so expect some hyperbole for a time) So my handsome hubby with the help of sonny straightens out the damaged door frames and dyes them with tea-bags (my idea)

So the landlady arrives, makes a list of some trivial items and as she is ready to depart, satisifed that all is well...5yo sonny asks "Did you see the scratchs??"

Thank God she doesn't speak english!

The Photos Of Our Climb

2009-08-06T16:26:00.002+02:00

Click HERE to see the photos of our climb.
Shame I can't embed them, but it just.wont.work.for.me.
I've "wasted" at least an hour on it already.

Grande Sassiere 3750m

2009-08-04T22:48:00.001+02:00

So five of us are climbing/hiking this tomorrow.
Nearly 4 times higher than Carrantuohill.(The highest mountain in Ireland)
So, to put manners on it we are driving up to 2250m.
From there apparently no choice but to walk.
Have these people not heard of cable cars?

Over 2400m can induce altitude sickness.
Apparently if you are fat and slow,you acclimatise better.
Every cloud.... huh?

Hopefully I'll have the energy to edit this post tomorrow evening.
Estimate 7 hours up and down.
I am a bit nervous.

Wednesday Evening
Well I almost made it. I'm a bit bummed with myself, but I was scared.
Got to 3400 m out of the full 3750m
I stopped 50% due to tired legs and 50% due to fear of falling with tired legs on the descent.
I described it as like climbing a giant chocolate flake.
The rocks were loose and slate-like.The drops sheer.
Hubby got to the top with our two friends. The fifth memeber dropped out fairly early in the climb.
I'll post photos tomorrow. I'm wrecked tonight!

Bike's Here!!

2009-08-04T14:08:00.002+02:00

We had to wait in all day for hubby's new "proper" road bike to arrive.
He ordered it on the internet from Germany.
He is currently assembling it excitedly...so much so, he isn't even giving out to me for lazing about on the internet.

How we are going to fit our 5 bikes on the car-bike rack I really don't know. Obviously we should sell one of the "crap" bikes but apparently hubby needs it for commuting...something you would never do on a proper bike ;)

Picture my poor yak of a car with 5 bikes on the back, a roof box and the whole rear FULL of our "precious" crappola, dog in the passenger seat, me driving, no radio.
Hubby and kids will be in the "proper" car with me trying to keep up.

Gotta go and make up adverts in french for some of the crappola that I've been cleared to sell:

4 winter tyres
A set of 2 french headlights.
BBQ
Ikea's cheapest double bed.
A single mattress
Ikea's cheapest armchair...although hubby wants to bring that home!

The packing to leave was so much easier as I did it alone.
now I have a hoarder "helping" me. Arghhh!

List For Camping with Kids on a Dry Campsite

2009-08-03T17:28:00.010+02:00

The Potty is in the shrine so we don't forget it the next time!
Of course this is camping with a car in good weather on a serviced campsite.
The wild camping or hiking/camping list would need to be adjusted significantly.

I divide my list into
SLEEPING
EATING
WASHING
DOG
FUN

SLEEPING

Tent
2 double inflatable mattresses
Pump for above
2 Sleeping bags for kids
Sheets and duvet for me and hubby (slp bag too hot here with 100kg of hubby heater )
Pillows (use the small decorative pillows for the kids)
Kids teddies
Warm PJs or tracksuits
Lamp (have wind up one from Lidl)
Torches (have wind up ones from decathlon)
Duct tape in case of leaks in mattresses etc
Potty..usefull if kids or adult need peepee in middle of the night and toilets are far away or its wet.

EATING
Sharp knife
Plastic spoons (use old medicine spoons)
At least one plastic bowl
Fly swat or some bug repellent citronella.
Ikea plastic cups & plates..good for hot drinks too.
Camping table ( we use the kid's ikea table...have I mentioned ikea)
Camping chairs (borrow these for your initial trips)
Portable bbq &/or gas stove (stove better in cold when u need hot drinks)
Charcoal
bbq lighters
matches
bbq tongs
tin foil
chopping board
Water ( I have a camelbak that holds 2L acts like a tap)
Bread
Jam
Juice
Cheese
Yogurts
Home made burgers
Frozen Salmon fillets
Salad stuff
Milk
Cereal (eat out of cups)
Alcohol

WASHING
Matt for outside tent to faciliate donning/doffing shoes
Dust pan and brush (very very useful)
tea towel
Sponge scrubber thingy for dishes.
Paper towels
Rubber gloves (for my eczema..otherwise no.can.do.wash-up)
Towels
Clothes line and pegs
Shampoo, conditioner soap
Washing up liquid
Face cloths or wipes
Lots of little bin bags
toilet roll (lots of sites don't provide!Store some in ur pocket..ur sure to forget!)
Washing basin

DOG
Tie & Cable
Bed
Bowls
Food
Passport (we cross borders with her)

FUN
Sunscreen (prob not in Ireland :(
Bikes (we have bike rack on car and seat for 3yo)
Ball
Swim gear
cards or board games.

We store most of the stuff in 2 large plastic boxes which we keep in the tent. All of it fits in the back of our zafira

I'll leave the Kelly's to add the wet weather gear to the list.

Carry On Camping

2009-08-01T21:41:00.004+02:00

Just back from two days camping in Val Ferret in Italy.
Only over an hours drive on "wibbily" roads, as sonny calls them.
Grande Jorasses campsite is nestled under the monumental rock towers of the Mont Blanc massif. €53 euros for 2 nights self catering! 50c for a shower token....or nothing for a wet wipe and an extra spray of deodorant.

It's at about 1500m (circa 4500ft) altitude so it was a little cold at night. Especially for sonny boy who kept wriggling out of his sleeping bag...eventually I "double bagged" him in tops and fleeces, track-suit bottoms and socks.

We all slept pretty well and ate well too. Homemade burgers the first night and omelettes the second. Local red wine and chocolate for dessert...yum.

I don't know how we are going to get camping in Ireland, apparently they've had the wettest July since the 1880s.

The only thing I regretted NOT bringing was a potty for princess as she kept insisting on multiple trips to the distant toilet block...just for the heck of it.

Cars aren't allowed up the far end of the valley so we waited for the bus. The driver stopped me and the dog getting on indicated she had to be muzzled. I insisted the rest continue on the bus (never one to miss a rare oppourtunity for alone time hehehe) The parkie indicated it was 3.5km to the "place" so doggie and I started walking. Then probably unwisely, since I didn't have a sports bra..started to run. Because I was unsuitably attired for running, I did it only when there were no witnesses. So I got up in 30 mins (it was 5 kms) and got applause from some of the bus passengers who saw me thrown off! I wrapped a scarf around doggie's dangerous bits on the way down and got a more lenient bus driver...so my boobs were relieved I didn't have to run down too.

There were lots of climbers at the campsite and when I googled it this evening I discovered that one of them died climbing Grandes Jorasses yesterday.
It is a massive rock tower and apparently 3 of them were climbing freestyle (no ropes) and one feel to his death. Very sad.

Tour De France

2009-08-01T21:08:00.005+02:00

Do you really want to know about the recent comings and goings of the Tour De France?
Great guys, warriors even, drugs or not, that is some crazy achievement.
We cheered them on and got a wave from Nicolas Roche, which made our homemade irish flags worthwhile.
The whole thing might have gone a bit to hubby's head, seeing all these heros cycling the routes he does for fun. He just bought himself what he calls a proper bike! There have been divorces here over hubbies buying "proper" bikes instead of getting a proper car or getting the house done up. It's okay though, I approve! We're going home in a few weeks and he's keen to get the bike in time to try some of the cols on it and see if he can improve his times.

The guy on the far right of the photo in the black socks is Lance Armstrong...read his biography so he's the only one I know anything about.

Walking Weak

2009-07-12T20:33:00.005+02:00

The Semaine Pedestre (Walking Week) in Bourg wrapped up today with a 15 km hike up to Les Arc ski station. Crucially, an 800m climb.

T and I wore our not so little legs to stumps to get across the finish line in 2 hr 25 mins. It.was.hard.work. The sight of one of the runners in the 70+year old category crossing right after us....having left 1 hr later...was um ...motivating.

So I've done all 3 hikes and loved it. There is such a family and community atmosphere. Lots of volunteers manning the various check points, drink stations.
One lady last Sunday looked at least 100 years old. She was happily dishing out polenta and diots (dodgy sausages) from a giant saucepan for the post-race lunch.

Lots of husbands and wives, fathers and sons and daughters doing the walk/runs. Participants ranged from 11 yos to the aforementioned 70-something.

They really know how to make exercise fun here.
The weather helps of course. They would retreat to a cosy pub too, if there was driving horizontal rain every bloody day.

If we stayed, I could almost imagine losing my middle-weight status.

My 40th Birthday Pressie!

2009-07-11T19:48:00.003+02:00

Random photo of my 40th birthday present....yep the Tent!
I'm delighted with it. From my favourite shop in the world...Decathlon.
We've tested it in rain and its stayed dry, it's simple and quick to erect and dismantle...although you do need two people to get it down.

We/I had planned to do a bit of camping in Slovenia.(8 hrs drive from here)
But the time is racing by and there is so much to do here that it seems a waste to up-sticks for a week. My sister and friend are coming next week and then we have the Tour de France coming right by our house...look out for us on the telly!

So our third camping trip is going to be a local mountain village, with a few friends and their kiddos.

Stitchs Out

2009-07-10T21:23:00.003+02:00

Sonny boy got his stitchs out today..warned to have complete sun block on the scar for a year...just as well we are heading back to Ireland!

Bike Crash, Hospital & Ferraris

2009-07-04T19:54:00.006+02:00

Well we decided to do an easy 10 mile cycle on a local bike path with 5 yo sonny on his newish bike (€25 in a car boot sale) and 3 yo Princess on a seat on the back of mine.

It was really a really glorious day.
Sonny was inclined to look behind to talk to me and his sister.
I warned him to look ahead and stay on his side of the bike path.

As we approached a tunnel he turns around to tell his sister to scream going through the tunnel...as he is looking back, he cycles up a rock and then a low wall and somersaults landing on the corner of the wall on the top of his head...I screamed like a banshee, as I saw it all happening in slow motion.

He really landed on the top of his head. Thank God he had his helmet on and I had refitted it before we left as it was wobbling a bit. He would definitely have a fractured skull if he didn't have the helmet.

As it was he left a chunk of his face on the wall and has friction burns on his face and required 3 stitches on a hole that almost went right through his cheek. I have to say I was sooooooooooo relieved that he didn't have a head injury though.

We brought him up to a nearby rafting centre and two different people volunteered to examine him....one seemed to be a paramedic and was advising me to call an ambulance (for transport..its wasn't an emergency thing..honest Granny!) and the second guy seemed to be a doctor.

Dh had cycled home to get the car...and discovered I had the keys....so I had to ring a friend to come get us and bring us to the hospital.

We were seen straight away. They gave him entonox and the a local anaethetic and sewed it up...it was too ragged for glue. He laughed like a drunk right through.

On a financial note we presented our European Health Insurance Card at reception and we ushered right through. This free card covers any EU citizens for emergency care in another EU country.

And we will all live happily ever after...thanks to bike helmets.
(His sister was wearing her ski helmet..yes I'm a tight wad.)

On the upside...
Ds is absolutely obsessed with Ferraris and has never seen one up close in real life. After the hospital we drove back to get the bikes and there was a ferrari club at the rafting centre....about 20 ferraris...he was blown away...and probably still drunk from the entonox!

School's Out

2009-07-02T21:11:00.005+02:00

Kiddos finished school today and mammy cried.

Their school has been so fantastic. Sonny's teacher is so patient (tough, shouts and strict) but patient. The trips they have been on are just amazing. I offer these photos (click on the word photo) of their trip to the Vanoise National Park as one small example.

The 30 little blighters are only 5 and they snow-shoed all day from 9 30 to 3 30pm with an hour for a picnic lunch. We saw bouqetin, chamois, eagles, fake marmottes!
Another morning I dropped sonny in late, she was teaching them about rhythm on drums she brought back from Senegal.

Most mornings she had a selection of world music playing, including irish!

In terms of concrete outcomes for the year sonny learned to:

Understand and speak french well from scratch.
Write (badly, but his teacher says with computers now, not to worry)
Ski Alpine, cross country and snow shoe.
Swim (badly)
Appreciate nature in the flesh.
Discipline
Make recycled paper
Make natural paints
Present the above at the County Science Expo in french.
Understand about their twin school in Senegal and the different plants, dress, culture, lifestyle.
How to make apple juice from the local farmers

All this on the public education system.

We paid €33 for them to have breakfast at school for the year (obligatory)

Really I cannot see the irish education system living up to this.

I am destined to start every sentence in future parent's committee meetings with ...

"When I was in France...."

Our Tour Du Beaufortain

2009-07-01T21:58:00.005+02:00

Words fail me really.
My legs didn't. Training paid off, no blisters.
But it was really an incredible experience.
Nine 40 year old women on the trail, between us, 19 kids and nine-plus husbands, four nationalities and two languages. Amazing. Wonderful. Spectacular. Fun. Smelly. Sweaty. Hot. Cold. Hungry. Thirsty. Dirty. Breathless. Weak. Proud.
Re-match in Scotland next year. I can't wait.

Click Here for the photos.

I couldn't even thank the organiser properly without getting the sniffles. The kids and hubbies ran to meet us as we arrived into town and we had some champagne and a shower and a jacuzzi with more champagne. Then a BBQ at the lead gal's parent's beautiful gite.

Hubby kids and I slept in our tent in the garden.

We did let the side down badly a few times.

The dog poo'd in prominent places which I hadn't discovered, requiring them to be pointed out to me, twice. (She was tied 99% of the time) Their dog was loose but apparently doesn't poo in these places.

All the kids were really really really excited about getting into the big jacuzzi.
So hubby put on princess's and sonny boy's swimmers on and they dived in with the rest.
As they were splashing around I remembered with horror (see champagne reference earlier) that he has molluscum contagiosum and isn't supposed to swim/bath. Aghh. Tried to coax him out but couldn't. Eventually got him out.

Confessed problem to friend...she reassured me that these jacuzzi's have chemicals that will kill anything and I won't be responsible for literally spreading the pox. (I knew for a fact one of the other kids has it too) I felt slightly better but still bad. When I researched it, Dr Google said its spread by sharing towels...not through the water.

In the the morning when dressing the kids in the garden the host saw sonny's skin thingy and asked about it and if it was contagious. I said um, um yes. I think I got a look...and wished for the ground to swallow me up. I'm sure she'll be out with the flame thrower tonight.

Ranks as one of my most embarassing moments. Ever.

Whose Idea Was This?

2009-06-27T22:52:00.002+02:00

Setting off first thing tomorrow to do a 16km walk up a 1300m mountain with 8 other women of a certain age (ie 40ish).
We are staying here (scroll down for photos) tomorrow night, walk another 15 km or so up an down a bit and here the following night and then another 15 km or so mainly downhill. We are having a bbq in T parent's house in Albertville. (our destination and the big smoke around here)

Hubby the kids and I are camping on their lawn for the night. Hubby has decided to do the packing for the camping...I have reluctantly agreed to let him...but posted my camping list prominently on the fridge. I'm just hoping for a soft dry surface to sleep on. Although drinking and camping work quite well and I'm planning on drinking at the bbq. Slept on rocks the last time I was camping and drinking...about 14 years ago.

I'm pretty competent downhill, its the uphill that concerns me! Especially tomorrow. I've never climbed that much or that high...max I've done is about 1100m. There aren't any 1300m mountains in Ireland.
In fact we are climbing to 2200m. I'm not sure I'm evolved for this.

Nervous.....be back in 3 days to report how it went.

Getting Fancy Pancy

2009-06-18T21:13:00.004+02:00

Just want to draw your attention to the fact I managed to add a link to my last post...during a thunder storm...so willing to risk life and limb for my readership. (Hi Ann)
That's akin to going from crawling to walking in blogging terms.
So click on Col Du Petit St Bernard and be impressed..:))

On the downside I somehow lost my title photo of Inch Beach...

From Winter to Summer

2009-06-13T16:35:00.004+02:00

Well since my last posts lots of nice things have happened that I'd love to blog about, and some not so nice that I'll keep to myself ;)

I'll just have to start from today forwards as blogging retrospectively is difficult for me.
Blogging is difficult ...FULL STOP...my 3 year old is doing my hair as I type. Nuff said.

Well the ski season finished up the beginning of May and all the locals swapped ski racks for bike racks. The weather is glorious, 28 degrees today.

My 40 yo hubby has resumed his teenage cycling enthusiasm and has done his first col.
The col du petit st bernard....2188metres high over 28 kms.
I have to say I am VERY proud. We cheered him over the summit and he cycled down the Italian side of the mountain and we had a big pasta lunch in La Thuile for pennies. (€2 for 2 glasses of wine and €5 for both the kids pasta)

We drove on to Torino and stayed over night, with granny and grandad and the dog.
Great city and great food. Even though its just over the mountain, the italian culture is so different to the french. They are much more out-going and fun,friendly, crazy, disorganised anarchic and the food is MUCH better. I love the french but especially around here they can be a bit crusty on the outside, taking a while to warm up, which isn't much good when you are on holidays.

Granny and grandad have been here for a fortnight and have just left.
Granny reckons we tried to kill them yesterday when we brought them on a 2 km walk between two local alpine villages. There was a lil ole climb of 200m on a very rough track, and they are in their mid 70s, but they did great. I'm thinking some parapenting for their next visit!

Blogger's Block

2009-05-30T17:43:00.002+02:00

Been suffering from a bad dose.
Nothing to do with like of things to report and generally blow about ....just having technical problems with photobucket...being unable to back up my hyberbole with photographic evidence is causing this extreme blockage.

I'm a bit burnt out with these technical issues and will try again. Cos I know my audience of um 2 ...is a hungry one.

Thanks everyone for remembering my birthday. It was very sweet. And those of you who forgot.....I'm sure you can think of a way to make it up!!!

I recently joined facebook....totally underwhelmed at the moment.
Doesn't seem very interactive...even though I am up to an alarming 7 friends already.
Popularity can be such a burden ;)

My Husband Scares Me!

2009-03-29T20:40:00.003+02:00

This is the ski slope hubby made me ski down last week.

Only it wasn't pisted...ie flattened.

It was all bumps, worse than the bit to the right of where yer man is skiing and it looked alot steeper.

In fact this guy had it easy!

Suffice it to say I made it down without falling....but I won't be doing it again.

I didn't go anywhere near 250 km/hr either....probably 3 km/hr....zigging and zagging all the way across. At one point I bottled out of turning and struggled to find a point I could sit down and manually turn my skis around.

We call these brown slopes.

If You Gag When Mothers Blow About Their Kids, Skip on!

2009-03-25T20:01:00.003+01:00

Sonny Boy is 5, only 5. He is the most amazing little kid.
I know as his mammy, I'm not entirely objective about these things, but it's true.

What amazes me about my little man. His good looks? His intelligence? His academic performance? Nope..... His bravery!

He has joined a class that has been together for two years, in a foreign school, speaking a foreign language and just stoically gone.to.school.every.day. Even when he had no clue what anyone was banging on about.

He has wandered around the playground alone, following me along the fence to wave a lonely bye-bye. He has come home with the occasional scratch and bruise from being pushed, shoved off his seat or hit straight in the head.

He has learned the language exponentially (in my humble opinion)
Much faster than his 3 yo sister (who's best friend speaks english)

I've been considering putting him in one of the local ski clubs all winter....but have struggled to find an "in" until recently.
One of the other "blow-ins" in the school. A military wife, suggested I enrole him in the military kids ski club. So last wednesday I show up at the base of the train to the local ski station and hand my precious little man over to a bunch of ( very cute) army guys who seem to have hundreds of kids milling around. This battalion is the 7e Battalion Chasseurs Alpin. A battalion specifically trained for mountain warfare. The name tranlates as the Battalion of Alpine Hunters. Nuff said!

Off sonny boy goes his anxious face pressed against the window of the train....waving a restrained good-bye. The train is packed. No-one speaks english. What.have.I.done????
I've sent my 5 yo off to the french foreign legion!!! Me bad bad pushy mommy.

A very long 2 and a half hours later I come to collect him from the train.
I asked one of the Alpine Hunters how he has done. They are non commital in a french sort of way.
He is "faible physiquement" (physically weak) The "premier etoile" level is too high for him, he is borderline. He lacks "entrainement" (training) "Good then?"

Sonny boy is parched, the sun has been beating down and he was skiing all day the previous day too. He has really enjoyed it and wants to come back next week for sure. He fell loads and they did mogully red runs (difficult grade) according to him....not the most reliable of witnesses I might add.

So the following wednesday we repeat the drama, with different Alpine Hunters and I put him in a lower group. He loves it. He had a bad fall and cried. The guys were kind and said he was "impeccable" and that he was well suited to this level or higher. Well actually what he said sounded like de-su. The anglo ear can't really differentiate between dessous which means lower, and dessus which means higher. Being the mammy that I am I choose to believe he said dessus...higher. I am so proud of my brave little boy. You can vomit now!

The Misery Of Returned Immigrant.

2009-02-15T10:54:00.004+01:00

Brendan Landers wrote this (EXPERIEMENTING WITH FEATURES SO YOU CLICK ON TITLE TO GET ARTICLEi'M BANGING ON ABOUT) article in the Irish Times recently and it really pressed my buttons. I find alot of the professional whining in the irish media really pathetic.

I tried to send a response to the article through the web-site.But can't make out if it sent or not.
They either got nada or 10 copies of the same thing....Nothing like repetition for emphasis.

So here is what I said................

The author and many respondents seem to expect Ireland to be some sort of Nirvana which has a responsibility to protect them from the rough and tumble of the economic cycle. Might I suggest he try Cuba next time.

Anyone who has emigrated and longed to return home, if they are mature, realises home is not perfect. But its imperfections are familiar ones. Like the worn heel on a favourite shoe.

Like the proverbial new shoe, one’s new country has a host of unfamiliar and bothersome imperfections….gradually you break them in.

When I first emigrated in 1991 to the USA, my new employer gave me a course on culture shock. The final part covers what seems to have affected your author and many of the respondents. Reverse culture shock: The difficulty fitting back in and dealing with your changed perspective on your home place.

I have since emigrated to Saudi Arabia and France and plan to return to Ireland again when the situation is optimum.

Each time I return I am reminded of the things I love about Ireland mainly its vibrancy. I also discover the things I miss about my host country, invariably the weather and out-door lifestyle.

My American friends are both unemployed since Christmas. They had a house repossessed following a local property bubble bursting in the 90s and a seven year credit black-out after that. Many of my US friends are in negative equity.
My Saudi ex-pat friends have all returned home to various countries, in the face of falling wages and increased political risks.
My French friends have a lot less money than their peers in Ireland. They live in small apartments with their families. Most can’t afford to use the ski-stations on their door-step.
The car de jour is the Fiat Panda complete with rusty bumper. Their health system is excellent but if you fail to pay your required supplement, my long-term Irish immigrant friend, informs me they will send in the bailiffs and take your TV.

Newsflash, Ireland is not Nirvana, never was. Nowhere is. But it is home, always will be.
Can we not admit we enjoyed the Celtic-tiger and face into the inevitable lean years admitting we are fat!

I'm Small & I'm Cold

2009-02-10T14:16:00.003+01:00

My nearly 2 yo niece came for her first snow holiday.

She brought her mom (my sis) her Dad, and her 3 yo sis.

The kids were tobaganning kamikazis.....absolutely fearless.

Thankfully we ended the week injury free, except for Pete's total-body-pain, which is pretty normal after your first ski holiday. He got the prize for the most dramatic fall....a full speed, no brakes, wipe-out. He has learned to value life and health again....and not to take his 4 limbs for granted.

We picniced on hot chocolate, ham and cheese baguettes every day in the snow.

The Ireland v France rugby match was one while they were here. So hubby and I took the oppourtunity for a night out. I was lured to a seedy sports bar with the promise of a nice meal after the match. I love Sebastien Chabal and was happy to watch the match until he was sent off. Ireland beat France and more and more tiny glasses of French beer arrived.....we chatted with the mainly english patrons and were warned about some dodgy characters.....we paid our rather grand tab at the end of the night and failed to get a taxi home....being forced to walk the 2 miles in snow. I picked a fight with hubby over my perception of his failure to observe the rules of the road....made for a warm stomp home.....never got to the restaurant.

Not to self: Never drink on an empty stomach.

Blogobore

2009-02-01T22:38:00.003+01:00

Voila, a new word I discovered recently which resonated with me....for some unknown reason.
Should there be a little questionaire on blogger to help one identify oneself?
Anyone who has every had a peek at the AA website will know what I mean.
I did by the way end up there (AA) whilst searching for the Automobile Association.....I did take the test and passed if I put a 10 year limit on the answers.

So if there was a blogobore test.............................................?

Car Problems

2009-01-21T17:27:00.002+01:00

Some of the boys were in town for a week of skiing. I have been keeping house (badly) and cooking meals (simply), minding kids. Thrilled to have an excuse not to ski with the boys, cos they will insist in all sorts of off-piste, skiing-through-the-trees a la Sonny Bono shenanigans
So I gladly throw myself into the mothering role...a la Cher...only bigger.

We have 2 cars....mine a sensible people carrier type thing with snow tyres...will drive up vertical slopes through an avalanche...ugly, totally uncool but extremely effective.

Hubby has a boy-toy (will only drive on dry motorways...very pretty but not at all effective) which he tried to sell, to discover that the market for those types of cars has collapsed. So we had to bring it with us....it would cost too much to put snow tyres on (€1000)....so we haven't....it would cost too much to reregister and get french insurance...so were are leaving it 3rd party on the irish policy.

Well today being a clear day with perfect roads, the boys took my car up the mountain (more room for stuff) and left me with the fancy car. I tootle with picnic and kids up to little ski station with bunny slopes for kiddos...it suddenly starts to snow heavily, I realise the fancy car will not cope with the conditions. So, I do a u turn and make for home, pronto. It's snowing heavily and I get stuck fast about 500m from the house in a very tight, steep, little village road. I have no control either forward (up-hill) or reverse (down-hill) ...I have about 4 inches on either side of the car to the village houses.

I call a friend for advice and her swedish hubby comes with his 4 wheel drive and tows me, with great difficulty as far as he can...picture expensive but worthless fancy car slipping and sliding around at the end of his rope. sort of like a water-skiier in a canal.....veering millimetres from stone walls, totally out of control. Friend's hubby is from the artic circle...therefore a great snow/ice driver...and he says he has never driven a car which is worse in snow...says we have no choice but to abandon it at the side of the road. Beside the bins! He gives me kids and dog a lift home.

Meanwhile...the big boys have gone up 3 ski-lifts into the next valley....they fail to notice that the only lift to bring then back is closed due to weather....and try to get a train and a bus home.

So now 2 abandoned cars.

I rang 3 taxi companies all of which refused to bring me up retrieve to my sensible car. I pray the snow-plough won't scrape the side off the fancy car.(remember only 3rd party insurance).

The thing that bothers me most is that the boys had invited us out for pizza tonight with kids and now I have to cook....as we have no car to get to restaurant.

Epilogue
Well the boys miss the train and hence the bus, but do succeed in getting a taxi (€45) back up to my car and retrieving it.
We have transport to restaurant.
En route home there has been a thaw and we manage to retrieve fancy car too.
All's well that ends well. I'm not driving that fancy car for the remainder of the winter.

At Last A Snowman!

2009-01-20T20:50:00.007+01:00

Since we've moved to the Alps the kids have talked nearly everyday about making a snowman.

We've had snow on the ground for the last two months.
Problem is, it's "proper snow" ie very dry.
It's like trying to make a sandcastle from dry sand.

Well the last few days we've had good old irish slushy snow et viola.....finally...the much longed for SNOWMAN.

The next day being school free (Wednesday) the kids added a glamorous Mrs snow and two kiddy-snowmen....they didn't consider the difficulty getting them all in the one photo...so you'll have to do with mammy and daddy snowman.

Skagoraphobia

2009-01-12T22:25:00.002+01:00

The fear of skiing in crowds.

I’ve just invented this phobia. I have been working on it over the last few weeks. But it became fully mature today. I am paranoid about people crashing into me.

Piste-etiquette dictates that the person downhill has the right of way.
Hubby tells me to ignore the people behind/above me (the ones I can’t see, can’t control, who have gravity on their side) and focus on the ones in front ( who I have fully supervised and who can’t hurt me because they are below me)

I am the skiing equivalent of a Sunday driver and my nemesis as the are snow-boarders.
The Alpine equivalent of our Donegal boy-racers. They are generally boys/young men, represent a shrinking 20% of the piste population. They have both feet locked into one board, they love speed, they make a lot of noise, they can’t hear you, as they have earphones and they often have limited control of their vehicle.

Yesterday, I heard the tell-tail swoosh of a speeding boarder bearing down, I freeze and brake hard…he is coming at me at terrifying speed face to face. Do I cover my face, head, do I roll up in a protective ball…no…I close my eyes! Behind which I see vivid images of pelvic fracture, pins, months in a hospital bed, spitting out the remains of my teeth. He slides over my skis…my hubby shouts an expletive. He is gone in a cloud of snow. I am shaking.

Today I hear a rapid swoosh from behind and freeze.
Then I realise it’s just the backs of my own skis.
Skagoraphobia.

Ski Sick

2009-01-05T19:43:00.005+01:00

I cannot move. I am totally paralysed. Immigration and intergration are totally totally over-rated. Stay with your people in your homes I say...DO NOT MIX!

I filled out a form that I half understood, about volunteering, to help with the kids' ski classes (part of the regular curriculum here) As a skier I respond to gravity...but that's about it. So I pictured myself stationed in the kids play-area. Where they have a sort of conveyor belt, bringing the kids up a slight incline and you sort of give them a shove back down. You bring the occasional one for a pee-pee. Pull the fallers upright. Easy Peasy! Well within my comfort zone.

So today I show up for the meeting about it. I happen to be in my ski gear and have my skis as hubby and I were throwing ourselves down various pistes all morning.

We are going to be tested! We are required to indicate our level of competence. There being no section for pee-patrol, I chose "D" which was described (at least what I could make out) as able to go down any red (intermediate difficulty) run, blah blah blah in french . Yep, that'll do.

Up 3 ski lifts we climb, to the summit of the Alps. Two testers, one in front and one behind the laggard (no prizes for guessing who that was!) Our first slope was the hardest I have ever been down. But no friends or family to prevail on to "eff this, lets go for a coffee!" So nowhere to go but down.

For any skiers reading it was a black mogul run with 15 of my fellow parents within 2 feet of me. Thankfully I didn't kill anyone and I got all the way down to the bottom on skis (getting down a black run is easy, doing it on skis is the challenge) and did an impressive somersault on the easy part. The only faller thus far.

On an on it went. We had to ski down and line up about 8 feet apart and then the top skier slaloms (weaves) between the others. My mantra was "whoever I kill, please may it not be on of the neighbours."

Then out of the blue I was saved from further humilation by an english teenager. He approached our tester and explained in english that his father had fallen and couldn't get up.
The tester called out for an english speaker....at last an area I excel! So I spent the next hour by mobile phone trying to get the piste ambulance to the english dad, who was off-piste on his own (sort of off road, so no landmarks) with a broken leg. The first aid guys had difficulty locating him and we left before he was actually found...but I did reassure him by telephone, in an inappropriately delighted tone...that all would be well...if he just kept me here a little bit longer.

We were running way late, no time for further testing, but instead had to belt down the rest of the mountain. Given that I had no idea where I was, my only option was to keep up with all these born-on-skis-people. The laggard-minder got fed up eventually and over took me...baastard!

They waited for me every so often. I wasn't that slow. But once I skied over one mums skis and the other time I nearly took the tester out. Accurate braking is an area I'm working on.

I'm wrecked and if I do pass muster for pee-patrol in the jardin des enfants...I imagine they'll insist I don't wear skis.

Update 13/1/03

Well I made it! Got the "job". Unfortunately all the positions on pee-patrol were filled by mammys claiming to have busted knees and some such guff. So because I seem so robust, I was assigned to actually go on the slopes, on skis, with the kids!!!!!!!!!!

I was a nervous wreck this morning. Studying the piste map, programming all the emergency numbers into my phone. Well 5yo sonny boy and I set off with the rest in two coaches (120 odd people) for the unfamiliar ski station. Course no-one speaks bloody english. That's the main problem with foreigners!

I was assigned a parent partner and a group of 6 good novices 7 yos.
All went pretty well except for the time 4 of the 6 fell off the button lift.
Not bad for the first day...5 to go..argghhhh!
Feel the fear and do it anyway!

Cash Sick

2009-01-04T22:54:00.006+01:00

Goodness gracious me…who suggested that doing the ironing or our finances who give me a sense of accomplishment to pull me out of the blues!

I’ve been putting figures into excel (an accounts package) for 2 days now. I dread pressing the ADD button. In fact, I might not. You can know too much about these things.

I don’t know who has been using our cards, but they are having a helluva time.
There’s small countries spending less than us.

Ann, you thought it was an accident that we left the country without paying up and that you were never able to cash that restaurant voucher we gave you. I promise I’ll cook you something nice (and still in date) when you visit. If you’re reading can we talk payment programme for those Christmas gifts you bought on our behalf!

Before we did this mental thing of travelling-in-the-one-spot for a year…people asked me what we’d live on. I joked that its amazing how much moola you can make these days, with a webcam and a bit of imagination.

So how much is a web-cam???

I'm going to try the ironing option tomorrow, see if it has a more positive effect

Full day's skiing planned for me and hubby tomorrow, kids in school from 8 30 to 4 30. Yipee. I'll work on the webcam idea once I get home! Slappers and Salopettes.....hmmm

Edited To Add:

Well I finally got the courage to press ADD......and it indicates that our spending has dropped 25% compared to living in Dublin. That's over our first 4 months. Which are always extremely expensive when moving to a new country. So I'm quite optimistic that we can pull it down further, now that all the ski expenses, house furnishing, snow tyres, headlight changes, retaxing, heating oil etc is dealt with.

So I'll be putting slappers and salopettes on hold for the moment.

Ann, cheques in the post!

Homesick

2009-01-02T21:51:00.004+01:00

Feeling dreary and lethargic since we got back.
Hubby trying to get me motivated, which puts him the firing zone.
Then I realised I'm homesick. Once I copped on, I'm rising above it.

Not so much that I've attacked the mountain of ironing, or done our finances yet...but I will, I will.

I posted the slideshow below to offer a comparison of the Irish countryside with the Alps. A different type of beauty in Ireland, less rugged and more colourful...but still very very beautiful...on a sunny day...there's the rub really.

Irish Beauty

2009-01-01T23:12:00.001+01:00

Joyeux Noel

2008-12-31T00:31:00.005+01:00

Well we headed home to Ireland for 10 glorious days.
Five with Hubby's folks in Dublin and Five in my home village.
It all started like a race. A whirlwind tour of family and buddies.
The always-there-for-us Kelly gang offered to host sonny boy's 5th birthday bash in their house...a ginormous thank you to all of them, I'm sure there wasn't much residual damage. We celebrated Brian AND Fiona's 40th birthday bashes on the same bloody night...typical (3 birthday parties in one day)! Didn't make it to Fifi's despite my bestist efforts. At least I got to meet her the day before for a meal and a chat.

High-tailed it down the country to be laid low by flu...Well it couldn't have been a common head cold to stop me in my tracks like that...My Dad commented on my hourly health reports, which were guilt fuelled, as I felt I wasn't pulling my weight food prep wise. Who wants a snivelling, snuffling, sneezer prepping their Christmas dinner anyway huh? Best to lie back with a hot whiskey. Well hubby, Princess and I were all knocked out by it, but our new 5 yo escaped, touch wood. Must've been his diet of selection boxes and quality street that kept the bugs at bay.

It was really really lovely being home with everyone we love so much.
I really miss them all. I love being in France and having the new experiences, but what makes it nicer is that it is a temporary thing and we will be back near everyone this time next year. .

Remind me to reread this post when I'm beeching about them will ya!.

French Christmas Drinkies Chez-nous

2008-12-15T17:51:00.006+01:00

It all went very well...thank God.

Hubby and I had a few words in the planning phases...owing to different umm visions..of the strategy...;) His was nibbles and drinkies....mine was a 3 course meal...so we compromised and did the 3 course meal.

It took 2 days hard labour...we are blissfully olivious to how untidy and disorganised our house is until we move, throw a party or have visitors. So now it looks great on the surface...but please don't open any presses.

Our local Victor Meldrew showed up 20 minutes early laden down with 2 bottles of champagne, a big box of chocolates and a big bag of sweets for the kids.
Very generous and neighbourly considering his first words to us were grumbling about les anglais (us) and their dogs. Once he realised we weren't anglais he has looked more kindly on us and our dog. Anyway he didn't want anything to eat or drink, explained about his diabetes and just stood there in the kitchen chatting, with me straaaaining to understand. Sort of a taste of our worst case scenario.

All the other neighbours arrived around 5 ish, all except our immediate neighbours...weird...they never salute or speak to us anyway...who knows what's going on there. So we had 11 adults and 10 kids in total.

I bought bubbles, plasticine and ultra bouncy balls for the kids to play with and they were a great hit...kept then all amused for the duration....even the teenagers, whom I apologised profusely to, about the juvenile nature of the toys.

The neighbours all brought something, wine, a quiche and a tarte tatin. Delicious.
They gobbled down the hungarian goulash, and wondered if it was an irish dish! We offered rice or mash...they all wanted rice..so they got biafran portions...the spuds were lovely if I do say so myself.

My winter berry cheesecake was a big hit. Cheesecake is unusual in France apparently. I didn't tell them I sieved the raspberry coulis using a foot cut off a new (I swear) pair of tights.

We got the impression that they didn't know each other well either...so we are acting like a social lubricant. They were all lovely and seemed genuinely delighted to have been invited. We have the promise of two reciprocal invites. My french held up fine except, with Victor Meldrew who has a very strong accent. Hubby was happy with his level of comprehension and ability to communicate. Our Scottish, Swedish and one of our english guests also speak good french...so we were away in a hack.

The kids atarted getting grumbly around 8ish so everyone started to disperse and we were all cleaned up by 10pm. A great success considering the youngest guest were 5 and 7 weeks old and the oldest in their 70s.

Itsa Dog's Life

2008-12-11T22:53:00.001+01:00

The Bitch In The Family

2008-12-11T22:48:00.007+01:00

I want to introduce the bitch in our family. She was filling the gap created by the death (assisted) of our elderly Jack Russell Terrier. Houdini, would have been an appropriate name for her. She easily jumps 6 ft fences, can open doors inwards and has little trouble pulling a window open and hopping thru the 5 ft high gap.

At 18 months old she was not house trained and still very much into top-of-the-range shoe leather snacks, with the occasional TV cable chaser. While house training her, I put up a baby-gate to keep her in the kitchen...she lept it AND the baby without even running at it. Those were the challenges!.

The rewards were: she liked us and returned after her escapades and once she had a fix on things, gave up escaping altogether. She loves loves loves playing with kids, our kids, the neighbour kids, passing kids. She loves other dogs too. A little over enthusiastically sometimes! She will give cats a run, but hasn't harmed one to our knowledge, although my Dad's tom has put manners on her. Once she has a daily run (has to be a run) she is content to laze about in her bed. If she doesn't get that run...she nags (whines)more than the highest paid personal trainer..

She has fitted in extremely well. When we decided to move to France, everyone asked about the dog and seemed surprised that of course she would come too. She was passported and vaccinated up the ying-yang (I'm guessing about €300 all in...haven't burdened hubby with that bit) and made the 20 hr ferry journey and 14 hr drive with hubby. She was less than impressed with the summer heat, but loves the winter snow...I think, she thinks she's a husky. She gets much more admiring oohhs and aaahs from the french than she did at home, the french don't seem to be familiar with lurchers or "Levrier croise" as I translate it..

I've commited to hosting Multicultural Multilingual Party

2008-12-10T21:05:00.003+01:00

Heeelp!

Savoyard people are a bit crusty on the outside. Not overtly friendly until you have reason to talk to them individually. I have found them very helpful and nice when you get past the initial barrier though.

So we have been a little sluggish getting to know our immediate french neighbours.
I didn't invite them over in the beginning...being an attrative young woman living manless and all! I felt I didn't want to advertise my vunerability. I KNOW small villages....they always have the local weirdo. When hubby came on his trips he wasn't up for entertaining.

So here we are, all settled in, en famille, Christmas is approaching....ideal oppourtunity.
So as per usual I decide to go in baldy headed....hubby as per usual trying to apply the brakes, being shyer and not very confident of his french. So I have more or less bullied him into agreeing to hosting a party next Sunday. 5 o clock kick off to facilitate the kids. Hopefully early enough to bed. I just wrote up the invites and posted them in the letter boxes...so the dye is cast...aaargh.

Parteeeeee Time

2008-12-06T11:09:00.005+01:00

3 Storey Savoyard Farmhouse in Original Condition with Hayloft.

Our new friends have a 300 yr old house nestled on the steep side of a mountain in a tiny village near-by...staggering distance if there wasn't a foot of snow on the track tween here and there.

These old farmhouses used to keep animals in the basement, people lived in the middle levels and then they have these huge open-at-each-end attics where they stored hay. So heat from the bottom and insulation at the top. Very green , back in the day. Pictured above is a similar house in its original condition.

Anyhow they have spent all this summer converting the hay-loft to a kitchen/dining area. It is really breath-taking. A beautiful wood burning stove....great open space for a party. The open end of the loft has been glazed and and there is a big balcony with an aerial view of the Tarentaise valley as it snakes towards Albertville. Stunning.

I've been gasping for a night out. The half hearted search for a baby-sitter proving fruitless.
So we've been staying in....for 3 months!!!!!Imagine my delight when our new friend invites us to her 40th birthday party...kids and all. 6 o clock kick-off.

What an oppourtunity to have a long bath and get dressed up. My stylist was somewhat stumped by the footwear limitations...no matter what, cos of the weather, deep slushy snow....I had to wear my furry wellies. Building an outfit from wellies up, was a challenge. By the time I was dressed and polished and donned my wellies and waterproof trousers (risk of car not making it all the way up steep hill to the house, so possibility of walking 1/2mile or so in slushy rain)....I did actually feel quite nice.

The hostess's hubby is swedish and some of his family were over, there were french friends, scottish, english and australians. Lots of little kids our kids age.
So three languages being blathered about. Princess's little friend, daughter of our hosts can speak all three at 3 years old!

The crowd were lovely and it was great to chat to people and the kids had a ball too. Most of the crowd had to leave around 8 pm as the kids were starting to get snarly.

The car made it up the hill to the house but we parked on thick ice and snow...only have 2 wheel drive. But as princess pointed out..."mommy we have snow tires now!" The host said we might have to push...thank god...I brought waterproof trousers. Anyway car managed to reverse out of the snow/ice and gravity took care of the rest. Home by 8.45pm....GREAT PARTY.

Toboganning Today in Val D'isere

2008-12-03T20:06:00.003+01:00

Well the kids have no school on wednesdays, and Val is the only local resort open at the mo.

They have 3 free ski-lifts. How long that lasts we don't know, but we certainly can't afford to buy ski passes for Val or "Bal" as sonny boy calls it.

Its the poshest of the many ski stations in our area....but we brought it back to earth...Huh?

2008-11-22T18:48:00.002+01:00

After only 10 or so hours hard labour, I've managed to put this slide show together !

Since I arrived in France I've been doing "nordic walking" once a week. http://walking.about.com/od/nordicwalking/ss/nordicwalking.htm

There are usually 10 or so of us...all french cept hubby and I, lead by an extremely enthusiastic french intructrice clad in very tight lycra, which on her looks quite flattering, in fact the male member ship is on the up and up!

She leads us on 1 1/2 hr walks around the countryside , bracketed by total body stretching regime in the teeny departure villages, hail, rain or in this case snow.

It's a serious work out, great fun and the scenery is glorious.

Weakly Walking

2008-11-22T18:45:00.001+01:00

Photobucket Album

First Day on the Pistes

2008-11-19T22:24:00.000+01:00

First Snow-Angel

First Winter Sports Injury...nearly took his momma + sister out with him!

Who's the Kid?

I'm Gonna Get You!

Princess Briefly Endured the "Fun"

Well we loaded up our toboggans (€2 each in the vide grenier (car boot sale)) and headed for the hills this afternoon. Headed up to one of the near-by ski stations and were not surprised to find snow, but shocked to see a slope open...although we couldn't figure out how all those skiiers were getting up there, as none of the lifts appeared to be open.

Hubby guffawed at my suggestion that they might have walked!!!

Princess was feeling a little princessy, so only wanted the minimum of contact with the cold white stuff. But hubby, the dog and sonny boy had a ball.

Here's the evidence...jees I really have to figure out this formatting thing...this is NOT how I wanted the photos to post...grrr. Where is that brother-in-law of mine when I need him.

Bloody sister still hasn't read the damn thing obviously!!!!!!!!Double grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Photos

2008-11-15T19:16:00.002+01:00

Sitting having coffee in town when a gendarme (police) comes in enquiring about an illegally parked motor-bike...shortly after these guys show up...a little overreaction to some illegal parking I thought!

Apparently, the french army send their lads here to do their winter/mountain training.

Nice plus-fours huh?

Cycling in the woods collecting cones.

I volunteered to help sonny boy's class (28 five yr olds) walk to town through the woods (about 2 km) . En route teacher explained about the different berries we passed and encouraged the kids to try them! (including these ones and rosehips.)

We had a picnic,

Played in the playground for an hour,

Went to the library for a tour for an hour,

Walked to the pool for a swimming lesson for an hour

Walked the 2 km back to school.

No wonder french kids aren't fat!!

My kids cycling the actual Tour-De-France route for 2009.

Yes that's a ski helmet on princess's head and yes, I am too tight to buy her a bicycle helmet as well!

The kids cycled all the way into town (2km) and most of the way back before little princess ran out of steam. Luckily our neighbour passed at that point and mercifully threw us in the back of her van!

Fog is quite a common feature round these parts, very beautiful in the right light.

Sonny boy enjoying the first snow!

Bloggers Block

2008-11-15T18:38:00.000+01:00

Dear Blog

Sorry I haven't been paying ya no heed recently, its not that life ain't been exciting, no siree, crazy here on Walton's Mountain.

Nope, had a bad dose of blogger's block..quite painful but with the right rub one can sit at the keyboard with minimal discomfort.

One symptom of my blogger's block has been technological.

I want to post a video of the demontagnee des vache (descent of the cows) Beats me! Thing keeps loading and never actually loads. Its small enough size wise.

I also have a great recording of cowbells...that I took on my mobile, as a herd of cows passed the car. Its a really magical sound in real life, a bit tinny on the recording, but if I get my IT support on-side you can judge for yourselves.

Sis, if you're reading, can you ask that husband of yours to help me!? 'Course your the IT expert so maybe you can help??

What with the "crise" (big financial slurry heap) going on and hubby being unemployed (well I guess we're both half unemployed since we're now sharing my former unpaid-but-pretigious Stay-At-Home-Parent position) I got to making curtains for the kids room...had to sew by hand!

Clearly forgot the maxim:

Measure twice-Cut once!

Mamma Walton was cussing some when she hung this baby:(

Honeymoon is over.........

2008-11-01T15:19:00.000+01:00

Like all new experiences and new lovers the initial elation fades after a while.
That "while" seems to be 2 months for me.
I guess its partially because the last of our visitors left yesterday...miss you already.
The weather has taken a nosedive,
the kids are off school,
hubby is heading home tomorrow.
My french language exchanger friend has ditched me.
My volunteering stint with the school is finished up.

So what to do....eat, seems to be my current response.
But no I WILL pick myself up out of this fuge state.

I WILL invite some of the girls for dinner.
I WILL join the doggy obedience group on saturdays (what to do with kids...basement? ;)
I WILL renew my friday morning walking group.
I WILL I WILL..........

2008-10-25T23:01:00.000+02:00

Well I've always wanted to keep a diary but never had the self discipline.
Friends tell me I write a good letter when I get around to it.
I can tell a good yarn.

I've lead a pretty interesting life to date and have plenty for the memoirs...but I have to wait til the rest of the family pops off.
But as I am the eldest, unless they all die in a prozac toxicity scandal....its unlikely I ll be the last one standing.

So I tentatively decided I'd start a blog about my family's year in France.I've written about 5 or 6 posts and put in a few photos. Personally I think it's ok.

So I ask my sister to have a read...no feedback...she says she's too busy with 2 small kids....I have 2 kids the same age and a single mother half the time.

So my OH comes across it (Le blog) tonight and says..
"I just don't understand why people want to do that?"
I tentatively ask " well what do you think?"
He repeats "I just don't understand why people want to do that"
Me " What do you think?"Him .............

I'm kinda mortified.I have an audience of 2 and they think its crap/not worth reading.

I wonder if Mrs Pepys thought Samuels meanderings were crap too...not comparing like...but ya know ;)

In a million years time the musings of a bored housewife might just be important...non???

IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(other than my hubby, you can eff off)

Sexist Bankers

2008-10-23T19:45:00.000+02:00

Our banks and other institutions in the auld sod have never had an issue with putting our joint property in our joint names. Here in France I have struggled, it seems unsucessfully to have my name put on even our joint bank account.

Well it puts M et Mme John SMITH. I have explained to them numerous times, that I still have the name I was born with,
that I grew up with,
that I earned my degree and master's degree with,
that I climbed my career ladder with,
that I earned my professional reputation with
and I intend to keep it despite the best efforts of the french banking system.

There is also the fact that Mme John SMITH does not exist and never existed...she has no passport, no driving licence...rien. Despite these rantings today I go to collect my new cheque book and find it remains in the M ou Mme John SMITH. I mention again...that I have no ID and never sign myself by this name...and they explain that joint accounts are always in the husbands name I rather jovially (I think) said "liberté, EGALITÉ, fraternité are french fundamentals non? But not for wives it seems ....Grrrrrrrrrrr

16.11.08
Just wanted to update this post with my car insurance experience.
My car is registered in my name. And whilst completing the direct debit for the insurance payments, I mentioned jovially my problems with the bank...so he goes back into the file and chances my name to Mrs John SMITH.
I have to go back and deal with the bank before I have to change my name for real!!!!!!!!

Cows in World Downhill Ski Championship

2008-10-16T21:04:00.000+02:00

Viewing Stand for Men's World Down-Hill Skiing Championship

The Summer Crowd

The actual men's piste being modified by earth-movers

Well above you can see the men's world championship downhill ski slope for Feb 09. In the top photo you can see them building the viewing stand. The current crowd will have moved to lower pastures for the world championships in Feb 2009....and I'm sure the place will look significantly trendier.

But here you have it and the native crowd in Oct 08.

Up to the left of the picture is the actually slope which is very steep and currently has 3 large bulldozers, hymacs on it reshaping the mountain.

I hope those guys are getting danger money cos it looked pretty bloody scary to me...they must have been operating at 50 degrees or more from the vertical...yikes. No wonder my homies were hanging out well away from them.

These homies are native mountain breeds of cattle called Tarine or abondance and they are really suited to mountain conditions. They spend the summer in the high pastures (alpages ) between 1500 and 2500 m and have mobile milking parlors attending to their needs.

They come down from the alpages around the 15th september called the demontagnée and hang out in the lower slopes until the weather forces them indoors for the winter.

One of their features is their eye-shadow (the cow in the picture is actually an abondance not a tarine famed for their eyeshadow...or more accurately the morning-after eyeshadow look)...dark and mysterious.

Lugging the lil'uns

2008-10-12T12:47:00.000+02:00

"You're going where with the kids?"

So many people struggle with the idea of travelling with kids. I took my first flight when sonny boy was 9 days old and we have been on the road since.

Even son boy tries occasionally to remind me that I'm a stay-at-home mom. Its not really for me this staying-at-home lark and I think sticking rigidly to the job description is why so many mums go off the deep end...either post natal depression or getting bored and lonely.

The french moms seem to express this frustration by running off with the man next door. Anyhow I digress. This post is intended to be an ode my my mclaren featured above....it is this battered tool that has enable my adventures, it bears the scars of its journies from South Africa to Scandinavia. Its performs above its design load by carrying a tired 4 yo and 2 yo simultaneously across cobbled french streets. It dutifully folds up like an over the shoulder umbrella when said we need to climb 400 odd steps back up to where I parked the car in Old Lyon.

Without this battered buggy I might have to... uggh... "stay-at-home"

2008-10-11T23:46:00.000+02:00

Crotchless Jean crisis

2008-10-10T18:12:00.000+02:00

Ok...I've spent the whole summer packing up our house, renting it out and moving kith and kin to another country. I've settled the kids in school and the dog in the house and after nearly 11 months without visiting a shop, store or magasin....I am down to 1...yes ...ONE...threadbare pair of jeans.

So I had to pick up hubby at Lyon airport on Sunday...although crotchless might be “all that” in some bedrooms, it certainly not the thing in the arrivals hall.
So I thought I would take myself to the big smoke (pop circa 2 mill) a day early to shop....an activity which I loathe...hate...intensely. Particularly in France where they don't even do rubber gloves in my size, not to mind shoes. I went into a jeans store today and whispered a request for my size....rien! I not fat (although the candid shot above taken by my 2yo ex-daughter seems to suggest otherwise ;()... Ok so I have one roll when I'm relaxed and I'm big and tall. I beat all those skinny mares to the top of a mountain any day...I can run 10k no prob...justification over. I need something casual to cover my big butt...urgently. I will have a 2 yo and 4 yo and dog in tow....so where in the name of God should I go in Lyon? I'm all for personal shoppers...that's what I did the last time I went shopping and it was fantastic.

Later the following day……….

I have to say though that the shopping experience lived up to my worst nightmare. IT WAS HELL...ALL 2 hours of it.
I felt like Grandma down from Walton’s mountain...both in appearance and reaction to the big smoke. Cept grandma Walton wouldn't have a 2 yo clinging onto her leg for dear life and a 4 yo whinging and running off.
I’ve lived in a city for the last 20 plus years and only returned to rural life a month ago. Already I get what my family say about coming to the city. The noise, the rush, those young hooligans hanging around….all pretty intimidating when you get used to Waltons mountain.
With the benefit of my compass and shouting at the kids to shut up…I found the mega-mall in Lyon. I wrote my phone number on both kids arms as the risk of loss was high given that the mall was like an ant-hill of people and the kids were not supportive of my quest.
On arrival in Gap and I immediately located 2 promising jeans and approached the changing area to find a long queue...I was raging and just threw the jeans there and limped off (2yo yo attached to leg) I went to C+A and again no problem got 2 pairs of jeans...tried them on successfully and literally queued for 45 mins to pay....there must have been 150 people in the queue...I kid you not.
Both kids proceeded to have a mega-melt down bringing the experience to a close.I have a suspicion there was a special sale or even on on yesterday ...called Nuit Blanche? Anyhow my new jeans are not as comfy as ye olde Marks & Spencer ones...one pair slides down requiring attractive thumbs-in -loops hiking up on a regular basis and the others are a smidgen short....just enough to look nice and nerdy
But hey...better than crotchless right ?

I'm here so now what?

2008-10-09T21:42:00.000+02:00

Yikes, where the uck am I ???
So this is the freaking blogosphere....wow...its ...its ....yeah.

Well I don't speak blog and don't know anyone else here....just I'll just do what I do in these circumstances and keep tawking...til someone notices.

Well I've already figured out they've no spell check in these here parts...good and bad depending whose reading. I am clinical diagnosed dyslexic for any of you bloggospherics who wanna take a shot at my spelling grammer or any or written stuff. I praise the lord I can write at ALL.

So what brought me to blogland?
Ego mainly, after that its cos I have stuff I want to talk about and no one to talk to alot of the time cept a 2 yo and a 4 yo and a dog who listens intently but the feedback is poor.

I do have a husband who would listen and feedback if he were in the same country...we're working on that.

As for friends and neighbours....its not that I' a loner...not at all...nope not me....very popular me..honest! Its just that they all speak french, and hard and all as I'm trying, we all know what its like to try to speak to someone who is not fluent....yes admit with we try to run away as discreetly as possible. There are a few linguistic angels who will persist in a conversation with us grammatical butchers....listening intently with knotted brows...but after an hour or so they all have to go and have a lie down.

Before I conclude I would like to thank my hubby's boss for coming up with the name of the blog....apparently that's why hubby is packing in his job and moving to France....
So roll up roll up and hear all about it!