Extra Aardvark

Celebrating the Days16/05/2013

It's almost a year since my mama died. But I can't bring myself to mark the date, to feel sad and cry just because of the date.

It just wasn't the way she lived her life and it isn't the way I live mine.

I'm sure there will be moments and my thoughts will naturally drift towards my mama, but then, they do that every day. I will probably cry a little, I often do. I will miss her just as much as I do today, I will miss her for every day of my life.

This weekend we will support Charlotte at her school assembly, probably cry as my friend walks down the aisle, celebrate with the Guides as they make their promise at the Safari Park, I'll try to squeeze in baby snuggles, cake, chatting, reading and sleep. I will live life. Celebrate the many days she was with us and keep her in our hearts for all of our days.

And so we arrive at nine.11/05/2013

It's the last time she will ever celebrate a single digit birthday.

It's her first BIG sleepover with 6 friends, and NO sisters.

It's all about Monster High, make-up and music.

It's still lemon cake at the top of the list for a birthday cake.

It's hard to find the little girl I once cuddled on my lap inside this self assured little woman.

It's a great adventure watching her grow up.

It's important to ensure she is totally mortified to be seen with her mama

Happy 9th Birthday Charlotte.

Castle Campbell10/05/2013

{Walking up throught Dollar Glen}

{Enjoying the view}

{Someone isn't very happy}

{Can you believe it's May and the trees are still bare?}

The Surprising things I loved about Paris8/05/2013

1. Adults on Micro Scooters. Not parents sneakily using their kids scooters on the way back from the school run. Adults with their own scooters, no kids, in suits, carrying briefcases scooting along the pavements on their way to and from work or home from the shops. Sturdy, proper, adult scooters. It's an obvious and sensible way to get around a big city, you can nip on and off the metro with a minimum of fuss and it can be folded up to be carried in a handy little bag. I want one. I want to live in Paris and commute like that.

2. Electric cars. Lots of them. Charging points on the streets. Now this may be something that happens in our cities but I've never actually seen it. I loved seeing the little cables snake out of the car and plug in to the charge points. It just seemed so, sensible. (yep, this was taken immediately after a rain shower, there were a lot of those!)

3. This I loved this:

4. Fruit and veg on the street. No just one shop but loads of them. Markets that seemed to be permanant fixtures selling all kinds of fruit and veg- piles of asparagus, purple carrots, blood oranges, beetroot, fifteen varieties of apple. Sold loose and in packed in brown paper bags by friendly greengrocers (or whatever the French word is). I miss my greengrocer.

5. The bread. The cakes. The patisserie. Next to our apartment was a lovely little shop staffed by a young man who happily chatted away to us (in 95% English i'm afraid, I don't have much conversational skill in French) everyday and asking where we had been. And helping us choose which cookies, macarons and bread to partake of that day.

6. Blimmin brilliant words. Up until this trip my favourite word was one I'd seen on an estate agents house description describing an out door eating area as a "sitooterie". I think these words may have just beaten it. Just say them out loud, go on- they are fun!

7. Three wheeled scooters. Not the person powered versions of the above but the petrol driven ones. Two wheels at the front and one at the back. They are available over here but they aren't all that popular. Bur they just look super cool and fun to ride.

8. The Egyptian artefact in the Louvre that looks like an Ewok.

9. The chairs in the Jardin du Luxembourg. I know I'm a weirdo. But there were probably thousands of these metal chairs. They start out all stacked up and neat and as time goes on they are scattered around as people grab a couple of them to read the paper, eat a spot of lunch or just watch the world go by. There was no charge for the chairs, they weren't being hogged by people drinking and creating havoc. People came and went and enjoyed the spring sunshine and shared the chairs. It's simple but it was just so, well, nice.

10. The people. Everyone had told me that Parisians are rude, they don't encourage your attempts to speak French, they don't need you or want you in their city. Nothing could be further from my experience. Despite being a) hopelessly lost sometimes b) bringing along three children and c) stopping at ridiculous points to read maps, work out tickets, take photos not one person was rude to us. People were helpful, they were friendly and they were nice. Even if their English and my French didn't quite match they found ways to explain what we needed or where we needed to go. The girls were universally welcome and indulged with their obsessive "Bonjour" "Merci" and "Au Revoir" -ing at every opportunity. I've found that in travelling that being polite, trying to manage in their language- however badly- you will get an overwhelmingly positive response.

April Challenge Update4/05/2013

And so April brought a busy month... I wasn't at all sure I would get anything done. The photos are here.

Exercise

Normally I fail miserably at the exercise challenge or I scrape by with accounting that wouldn't pass any audit. But this month, this month I had it in the bag. If you go to Disneyland and Paris you will do a LOT of walking. A lot. From the minute you park the car at 9am until the minute you collapse back into it at 11pm. You will climb staircases, wind your way through queue (or run in our case since the lines were pretty short), you will carry small children and if you are clever, you will then hire a buggy to load all the small children onto and then push the said vehicle around the park. And you will only realise how tired you are when you collapse into bed every night. Notre Dame has a lot of stairs, the metro stations have loads of corridors and non-funtioning escalators, the Louvre is very one way. And then we chose to go swimming. I probably did my seven hours of exercise every day for eight days straight.

Badges

This month ended up badge-tastic.

Kateri gave me the one on the top left (go here if you want one) and I love it. The Historical Heroes is one the girls an I have been working on over the last year. I put some real effort into the bottom left one this month. Proper hard work and determination, it was tough but I managed. And finally, I led my family on an adventure! Hurrah, go me!

Reading

This month the choice was mine. Up until now we have always read something new to us. This month I decided it was time to revisit an old favourite. This is pretty radical for me- I almost never re-read. I chose a book that seemed appropriate for a month where I was off adventuring.

I love this picture- it reminds me of a quote in the book:

"...he also had a device which looked rather like a largish electronic calculator. This had about a hundred tiny flat press buttons and a screen about four inches square on which any one of a million "pages" could be summoned at a moments notice."

Douglas Adams= visionary. But he was also a comic genius. I enjoyed re-reading Hitch Hikers, I loved rediscovering the one liners, the twisted hilarious thought process.

Something New

So there are loads of things I did for the first time this month but the one I'm picking is, unusually for me, for work. I went to a conference- on my own. I don't really like being forced to socialise with people I don't know and I really, really don't like being forced to socialise with people I don't know about work stuff. It's my idea of hell. My normal response is to run and hide from such occasions or lurk with people I do actually know. I did have a colleague with me but I hadn't met him before. In reality it wasn't too bad but I didn't exactly enjoy it but I would hate it less next time. And some of it was pretty good too.

Crafty Goodness

And so onto "things-what-i've-made". Starting top right and travelling clockwise: A quilt for my godson Rory (read more here), An embellishment to a nekie that will soon be adorning my camp blanket, Two sets of bunting to be sold on the craft stall at a fundraiser for Guides, a Quilt for the raffle for the same Guides fundraiser (made entirely between Monday and Friday when I was working and still doing Guides/ Senior Section every night! not a good plan). In case you can't see it in the photo- it was London themed using lots of London images, the Union flag and national anthem. And finally a photo book- now I know I didn't print this myself but I spend hours and hours selecting photos, arranging collages and themes as well as finding quotes and song lyrics to go with them. It's 80 pages of Disney memories and I love it.

April has been a phenomenal month! May might be a bit more challenging both physically and emotionally but there is nothing to do but go forward.