OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS - a new school, a new term an one lost son

August passed very quickly and it was soon time for the children to start their new school. They were very excited and nervous at the same time, but were pleased that they already had friends they knew in the school. They were up bright & breezy that morning, in fact it was quite a rare thing to see them get up and dressed so easily, it normally takes alot of shaking and bell ringing before they finally fall out of bed 5 minutes before it's time to go. Unless there's a school trip or it's not a school day, or even better they're always up at the crack of dawn on a day when we don't have to get up! They said their goodbyes to nanny & grandad, who were popping back to the UK for a few weeks before the big works started on the gite. The doorbell went and it was a young lad the same age as our eldest who had heard that they were starting school, and wondered if they could come up with him on their bikes. We agreed to let the eldest go as he was almost 11 by then, but not the twins being only nearly 7, and we arranged to meet them up there.

When we got to the school, we were greeted by the head teacher/teacher of 4 classes/secretary/playground monitor, who showed us in. "Where's your eldest son?", he asked. We thought he was already there as he had left before us on his bike, but he was nowhere to be seen. I explained and apologised, said I would be back and ran back down the road to the house to see if he was there. He wasn't. By this time I was frantic like a woman possessed. My husband tried to calm me down, that he would turn up soon and be alright. "But what on earth are they going to think of us, letting our son disappear on his first day at a new school, how embarrassing!!", was all I could think of. I ran back to the school to ask if the teacher knew where this other boy lived, by which time they had turned up. They had apparently decided to take a little ride round the village sightseeing before school. I think I growled at that point, or bore my teeth or something of that nature. I quickly said goodbye to the kids, all 3, and left...red faced! I would deal with him when he got home......

Confused...you will be

I'm getting a little confused with all this blogging. I've only got 2 blogs, but somehow I keep getting muddled up with what I'm doing, so if you find any of my cooking recipes on this page then you know why. I thought maybe it was an age thing, but thinking back, I was doing exactly the same thing when my twins were born. Those were the days when you had girls nappies and boys nappies, (pink ones and blue ones). How many times did I get up in the morning only to find my son in a pink nappy and my daughter in a blue one? It wouldn't have really mattered if the nappies hadn't been specifically designed to catch the flow of wee either upwards at the front, (boys), or downwards to the back, (girls). In consequence, both had soaking wet clothes and bed linen, which only made my job harder! And it was hard enough already, with my eldest, who was just 4 at the time, biting at my ankles. I have a video of me tending to all 3 at the same time; sitting at the table feeding my eldest with my right arm, ( I know, he always was a fussy eater), with one baby in my left arm bottle feeding, and rocking the other baby with my foot in the swing chair. The worst was going out, getting the babies and the eldest in and out of the car. I didn't use the pushchair for school trips, it was easier to leave the twins in their car seats and carry them in, plus it was good weight training. But, as I had to put one down on the pavement so as to put the other in the car, (or take one out), I always had this great fear of leaving one of them on the pavement by accident, or that someone may swipe one of them when my back was turned. Thankfully that never happened, and I always made a mental note of counting the children before driving away, silly thing is I still do it today! But the hard work paid off, the sleepless nights passed quickly and the twins grew into two very different, in fact very opposite, lovely individuals, and my eldest is equally as lovely. One thing didn't change though.......the amount of washing they create!!

London transport at a standstill

"skis"

"THE NEW MODE OF TRANSPORT IN LONDON"

Yes folks, it's official. The only way to get around London today is on a pair of skis! As I predicted yesterday, everything has shut down due to the snow, even, to my dismay, the underground??? How does snow affect the underground?? I can only presume that all the tube drivers couldn't get to work! Sports shops will be doing a bomb all over the capital, that's if they themselves managed to get to work. Why wasn't Britain prepared for this? Afterall, they've only been telling us that "the worst winter in 18 years" is coming for the last week, so why didn't they do something about it? The snow didn't get as far as our part of France, although they have said that there is a 50% chance of a few "flakes" tomorrow, so we'll see.

We used to live in the south of France, it didn't snow there too often, but when it did, boy did it snow. But even then, they were always prepared, the schools never closed, (much to the childrens disgust), the roads always gritted and cleared and transport ran as usual. I mean, how do people manage to survive in the Netherlands, Russia and Alaska? Maybe they all ski around too, or maybe they are just used to it...no, I suspect it's because they prepare themselves. It was nice in the south, but very barron and very hot. It was also such a long drive to visit the UK, so we decided to move up country to the Vendee. The climate here is nice, and the people are very friendly. We live in a quiet village, but it is so close to all you need; 30 mins from the beach, 10 mins from the town, 20 mins from the city. I guess we were quite brave to make the move at the time, especially with 3 small children in tow, (they were 6, and twins of one and a half years). Well, either quite brave or quite stupid, whichever way you look at it! At least the children are all bilingual, and me "biensur", and my husband is still trying, very trying!!