The Big Birthday Weekend

So the day is here for the big 4-0.............the build-up has been particularly non-existant and I had no feelings either way about it :-)   after finding out we were moving to Lux and my brewing plan of a fab party at West Way disrupted.......I couldn't get excited about the day!!!!!

Anyway - the day passed fairly uneventfully...............lovely presents and cards............packing for the weekend away........mum, Ruby and I went for lunch......and can you believe it of all the days......Noora gone to Amsterdam and I have to go and get the kids from school myself!!!!!  Anyway - briefly saw Conor before he went off to a friends birthday party/sleepover (great timing so Mum only got 2 of them to cope with for 1 of the nights!!!!)....the rest of us had candles and cupcakes (think I must have used more than a whole bag of icing sugar the piped butter icing was soooo thick!!!)..........yum yum yum :-)

Shaun and I then make a quick exit to the station and jump on the train - 2 hours dierct to Paris.......superbe!  Well - I think I ruined Shauns initial plans for the weekend when I promptly fell asleep on the train 10 minutes in..............I now realise just how exhausted I must have been (actually still am as Ruby got me out of bed at 5am first morning back which wiped out all my sleep gain of the weekend!!!!)......anyway made the journey go very quick for me and one and half hours laterI woke up with the sound of my phone ringing - Tessa called which was lovely to catch up (although I was aware it was extremely quiet in our carriage.....no kids in 1st class of course!!!!!).....and then we got cut off which is when Shaun got out his briefcase and produced a very ncie bottle of champagne ( with glasses!!!) and commented "bit late to open it now?!!!!!"    ooops.......anyway drunk it as soon as we got to the hotel so certainly didn't go to waste!!!!    Instead we spent the remainder of the journey playing a game he had conjoured up........laminated cards with prizes/numbers and everything (funnily enough now he has the skill of laminating he has made a few excuses to laminate stuff......Conor pleased enough when he came home with laminated hand-outs for his Geotopia presentation this morning!!!!!)   We had a good laugh and I came away with a very favourable winners selection of prizes (thankfully avoided the booby prizes of stepladder and powerdrill!!!!!!)

Arriving in Paris felt like being back in a land of some life about!!   Blimey the taxi drivers are CRAZY!   could have bloody done with the champagne beforehand to blot the experience out!!!   Hotel was great - lovely small boutiquey style  with themed rooms!!!

This was the backdrop in our room........just like being up the tower!!!!!   Pity I'm scared of heights!!!!!!

Restaurant reservations had been made and great choices to boot!   Friday night was in St. Germain district..........such a great place - restaurant was great atmosphere and lovely food followed by drinks outside!!!!   yes can you believe it - bloody freezing - definitely minus something......but all the streets are lined with bars and hords of people sititng outside drinking (and smoking......bloody hell enough to light the whole place up!)......heaters work a treat and even I didn't feel the cold!   We found a great street which was mobbed and perfect for plenty of people-watching!!! 

Here is our self-portrait!!

and me after way too many glassses of champagne!

9.35am..................OMG - we've just woken up......isn't it Soooooo nice to be able to sleep sleep sleep!!!!

Fab breakfast of lots of different goodies.......although shaun did request omelette with ham/cheese/onion and got mushrooms intead???!!!!!   a step better than red pepper that he was trying to flog to us!!!!!  anyway it didn't matter - for me the joy was in just being able to sit and be brought food!!!!!

Galeries Lafayette was absolutely mobbed - and  the complete row of window displays were at lrast 10-people deep!!!  Pretty immpressive though with dancing bears, music, singing, can can ladies etc etc etc.  After soaking up the atmosphere we soon departed - spent the afternoon moseying around stopping for vin chaud and coffee on route!   The joy of having no agenda, no kids and feeling free........meant we could take a taxi back to the hotel mid afternoon, read, sleep, take advantage of the hotel turkish bath, sauna facilities etc etc etc...........bliss!   so 7pm and we're changed, refreshed and ready to go!  (and no kids to sort out and race into bed leaving the usual 10 mins for quick change and lippy!!!!!)  all very civilised....is this what it use to be like pre-kids?!!!  a lovely change although wouldn't be without the little loves........!

Sunday another long lie-in which meant on arriving at the Grand Palais to a 3-hour queue for the Monet exhibition - it was a no go-er!   Musee D'Orsay instead for a bit of culture and we even saw sunshine today..........no doubt the grey skies in Luxembourg still prevailing!!!!!   Final coffee stop at the typical brasserie before the return train journey..............and more sleep:-)

Got home and everyone was still alive and well - although my poor mum looked a bit jaded (not surprised looking after these 3 at 70!!!!....she is officially the best mum in the world :-))  

Lovely weekend and so much more enjoyable without the hours on the net, researching, booking etc etc etc etc etc etc

The boy did well :-)

the shortest post ever!!!

having a quick sit down amidst a house that looks like a bomb site with present wrapping, packing, sorting, washing etc etc all going on at the same time! thankfully ruby being very obedient and sleeping for a few hours!!!!   Probably catching up on the 2 hours she missed from midnight until 2am just as I was going to bed!   Not surviving well on these few hours sleep!    1st week of jan booked in as sleep catch-up :-)   new years resolutions never go to plan do they?!?!!!!!

Anyway - got lots of bags ready in the garage to go in the roof box - what a marvellous invention....otherwsie i think wed have to invest in a trailer or even worse a caravan!!!!!!!   shaun's worse nightmare!   Anyway - the good things is that it will fill the roof box conig over with Christmas presents, gifts and bringing back all the stuff I borrowed!   such a good feeling of clearing out (sorry folks for those I'm loading off onto!!!!)...which means it will be virtually empty on the way back to fill up with lots of english goodies and hopefully the fruits of a very big successful shopping trip (not quite sure yet when I am going to fit that one in!!!!)

Anyway folks - a longer post from the weekend on it's way - hopefully tonight!
Until then - need to go and clean up the remants of the wine bottle i smashed downstairs - bit of a pain in the a*** but makes a lovely alcoholic festive smell in the basement!

adios

The big birthday week :-)

So Monday arrives and Mum is on her way over............after wondering whether her flight would go with all your snow over there (and the country no doubt comnig to a standstill!!!!!) - Leeds/Bradford was blue sky and sunny but her flight still delayed by 2.5 hours!!!!   apparently amsterdam the problem but she gets there and runs for her connecting flight to Lux (unfortunately her suitcase didn't make the dash and so got left behind!!!!!)

Anyway - the week seems to have flown by......a trip to Germany to the Trier Christmas market which was lovely (and no I didn't indulge in gluhwein amazingly enough!!!!) and I don't know where the rest of the days have gone.   Wednesday ended with a huge fall of snow  - must have been at least 4 inches.......even the lights on my tree outside were covered and not visible anymore!  Now with Shaun's new mode of transport for work (a pied!) - he had to walk through the drifts and can you believe it - the day he hasn't got his boots with him and he's got a brand new pair of shoes on for the first time of wearing!!!!!!   I offered to walk to the office to take his boots (well it is only 10 mins and my mum said I should!!!!!!) but he refused and said he'd walk in his barefeet if he had to - to save his shoes!!!!  Anyway they survived!!!!!!!

I had my head in the sand a bit about snowy clothing for everyone.....so feeling a bit unprepared.....Conor's feet must have grown exponentially as he can't even get his feet in his snowboots which were new last winter!!!!!   and  I've just sold his ski suit from the last years (on ebay which is another story in itself...although trying not to think about it as made a complete boo boo and could have made a load more money!!!!) and new ski pants currently winging their way to Mum's house I hope care of internet shopping!!!    Anyway - having ignored the issue of Ruby needing a snowsuit for weeks and then finding everything sold out and not in her size - I then resorted to ebay and had no luck as kept missing the ending bid time so kept getting outbid.......bloody annoying!!!   eventually just bloody ordered the thing form snow and rock and it arrived in the nick of time for the snow......ie today!!!!   Here she is modelling it for you.....what a cutie...huh??!!!   Obviously a biased opinion - but..................:-)

So the school is closed for the day!   Great for a lazy morning and a lie-in (oh no of course not - I have kids that don't know the meaning of the word sleep-in and a baby who needs her milk before 8am!!!!!!!!).......anyway  - nice day had by all (I think!!!!).......managed to get out of the house by 12.15.........only because Shaun called at 11.45 to say he would meet us at the Christmas Market for a Gluhwein and sausage lunch!!!!!!!   It took us all that time to get everyone layered up and ready.........roll on summer :-)  

The afternoon was spent baking and cooking..................Millie decided she wanted to make a cake for my birthday (which obviously meant me being there and doing all the tidying up!!!!).....see our end result...........

ps:  we're all going to be sick tomorrow after scoffing all that icing!!!!

Eventaully got the kids in bed by 8.45pm......my god it's getting later and later!  no wonder i can't get to bed before midnight and still have a ton of jobs to do!   Getting very lax in my (very) old age!!!!!!!
Not really excited about my birthday as should be getting ready for my mega-party (in my old world anyway!!!!)....so still need to sort that out for next summer....yep Stace get those dj tables ready.....and guests......get those dancing shoes and karaoke voices practiced.....no getting out of it this time!!!!!!  Anyway - I think it will be a lovely lazy day and of course i'm being whisked off to Paris at 5pm tomorrow for the weekend!   now here's the great thing.......train from here departing 5pm (oh did I say we're going 1st class?!!!!   not quite like flying 1st class I'm pretty sure of that....but hey!  who cares!!!!!).......arriving Paris gare d'est 7pm...........superbe!!!!!!!   had no involvement with hotel booking, restuarants etc so gonna be that much more enjoyable :-)

Will update you all next week - until then..............au revoir

December has arrived....with vin chaud, more vin chaud and more more more

The days and weeks all seem to be merging into each other so I've got no idea when I last blogged or what I've missed out telling you all!   Anyway getting some positive feedback from you all ......so I'll carry on!!!!   i'm sure we'll look back at it in many years to come and laugh at our mishaps and frustrations...........hopefully we'll be back home by then and we won't be spending the next many years travelling around like gypsies!! 

Anyway - after feeling completely fed up with it all the beginning of last week........the last days don't seem to have turned out so bad!   probably helped by copious amounts of vin chaud and some nights out!!! Finally December has arrived so Millie (& Conor - although I haven't been plagued with constant questioning from him as to whether it was December 1st yet?!!!!!) can finally get on with opening her advent calendar!!  The Christmas market and stopping for a quick mulled wine meant I was even worse than normal about remembering where I was meant to be by when........so at 3.45pm on Thursday I get a call from Ina - a friend of mine......calling to say they were sat in their car outside our house wondering why there was no answer at the door..............(brain gets quickly into action and then.......shit shit SHIT).....I'm meant to be at home as Tallulah is coming for a playdate with Millie....who is currently with Noora who has picked the kids up from school and taking Conor to football as some new venue so who knows how long they will be depending on how good Noora's navigation skills are!!!!   "I'll be home in 10 minutes" I can hear myself saying down the phone as I'm struggling with the phone in one hand, a mug of mulled wine in another and pushing Ruby in the buggy at the same time............swig the wine and set off on a fast march home (thankfully downhill all the way..................wooohoooo.......alcohol swishing around.......     well to cut a long story short.....after another phone call where Ina is about to leave as her kids are fighting...I manage to placate her mood (my neighbours think she is a scary woman!!!!!!) and Tallulah and Millie have a fab play date :-)   I even offered to take Tallulah home in forgiveness of being such a muppet!!!  I'm sure I never had any of these carry-ons back home.........did I????   I put it down to foreign water!

As part of our au-pair deal - we get a couple of nights out on the weeks she is with us......c'est superbe........can waltz around the house getting ready without worrying about getting the kids in bed.......or so you would think.....of course I feel completely guilty so help out with getting them part way ready for bed!  Anyway - had to wait for Shaun to get back from work........being an hour ahead means calls with Seattle finish that bit later :-(((((   at least he's only a hop,skip and a jump away from home!  

We went to some smoke-filled bar (yes you walk in and the smell and cloud of smoke hit you like a wave ........still getting used to everyone smoking in ALL the public places....all you smokers out there - you'd love it!!!!   Well the prosecco was flowing and we ended up at Caves Gourmande...a fairly upmarket French eatery in the old fish market area (as you do on a bog-standard Thursday night!!!!)........great location and yummy food.......service a bit dodgy..........even with my now much-reduced epxectations......my latest mantra........have low low low expectations and  be pleasantly surprised :-)   Well it didn't start too well when the wine list was slow to arrive, as was the wine when ordered........do these people not understand we need something to drink when perusing the menu.....of course another failing.........a fairly short menu which is not necessarily a problem......apart from the fact that 3 of the 7 main dishes were not available!!!!!!  Anyway - food was a success and a nice evening had by all!

Friday brought another night out (now really looking forward to sitting in front of the TV on saturday and watching x-factor!!)........before we went out Millie and Noora decided to do some baking........they busied themselves for hours and created this amazing gingerbread house!!!!!   It's got pride of place in the lounge and smells delicous every time we walk in the room - there is a lovely christmassy gingerbread aroma in the air!!!

this time an Amazon rendezvous at the guy who runs the Lux office house!  Wowwwww - what a house.........thankfully shaun and i could walk there (a definite plus with free fizz to drink all night!!!)......amazing house (not sure where these kind of properties were hiding when we were looking!!!)....a kind of detatched 4 floor victoria mansion.....backing on to the town park and a stroll away from the city centre!  I'm on the waiting list!!!!    Drank far too much and the food (canapes) not substantial enough to soak it up!!!!!   Had to get the pizzas going when we got home!

With the snow still all around - Sunday brought almost some sunshine (you could vaguely see it behind the thick cloud!!)...I now see what Becky my neighbour meant by saying it is "so grey" all winter!  Anyway - I decide it's time we all got a large dose of fresh air and exercise so with ruby in the BabyBjorn we start the hike up the steps to some roman ruin and after a long and uphill route we get lost in the what seems like maize-like route!   The snow obviously did us no favours as we had no idea where the path was meant to be!   We eventaully found our way over and down the other side........lunch restaurant "almost there".....amazing how bloody long the road feels with everyone moaning for food and Ruby's weight dragging you down!!!!   So worth it though  - we all pile in to the restaurant and make friends with the waiter - who gives me free champagne - only to find out the owner is selling up in January so probably that is the end of that short-lived local haunt!

Anyway - pic of us on-route (can you tell it's near the start....everyone vaguely smiling?!?!!!!)

That's all for now - bonne nuit 

just stuff!

Our first trip to the dentist here tonight - a long experience!!!!  after waiting 3 months to get an appointment - i set off from the house without the all-important social security cards which mean we claim back most of the cost (at 200 euros +..................it meant me running back home to find them!!!!!)......so it was a race up the hill to town so we weren't late for our appointment!   German speaking dentist and so thought her ruthless efficiency might have resulted in a missed appointment if we weren't  punctual!!!

Anyway - all good and lots of paperwork to sort and we all got our turn in the dentist chair!!!  Great location on the 4th floor overlooking the main square looking out over the christmas market and lights!!!!  so an hour and a half later we are done and so a perfect opportunity for sausage and gluhwein........fantastic no need to do any cooking tonight!!!   kids in heaven with sausage in a bun and a ton of ketchup, swiftly followed by a hot chocolate and crepe with chocolate sauce!!!!!   hmmm just what the dentist ordered......not!   kids ate more than us......no wonder we feeling a bit peckish!!!

Now sitting with sainsburys sauvignon blanc, scotch pancakes and crumpets with i'm a celebrity on the box............could be back in England....well almost if we had some light fittings and curtains to make it feel vaguely cosy!!!!    oh....and west ham just beat man utd 4-0 so conor not going to be a happy camper in the morning!  conor just got his first invite for a sleepover so he's very excited! 

anyway - scotch pancakes gobbled up so time to sign off
bonne nuit  m x

the snow and freeze has arrived in Lux!

So it's steadily been getting colder here since we arrived back from hols.......we've had a few flurries of snow overnight but nothing that really settled!   Until today........it's basically been snowing ALL day.......and amazingly the roads are clear (yes even our road that is a no-through road had the gritter by 8.30am this morning!) and the place is still functional.............nobody talking about the snow as an excuse not to get anywhere!   and of course we're laughing this year with our 4-wheel tank PLUS the obligatory winter tyres we had fitted!  

Well - I haven't actually ventured out in the car yet......Noora (our au-pair share) took all the kids this morning and was so not fazed about the snow given that Finland is covered for a fair proportion of their winter months!   Fabby dabby dosy  :-))

 In the meantime Ruby and I ventured out on foot and I didn't hear a peep out of her the whole way......she obviously doesn't remember her 1st skiing adventure last year at a few weeks old!

It's looking very pretty here with the snow......few pics attached!  
View from my kitchen window

 Route up to town

 Walking back from town.....downhill..............phewwww

Millie been nagging me all weekend to get out the snow boots and gloves......so this morning I eventually succumb to going through the "ski gear" marked boxes which we had neatly "filed" in the cellar!!!!!   Hmmm........Conor couldn't even get his feet in so another shopping experience on the good old www plus another hefty postage cost!!!!  Until then - it's cold wet feet son......sorry!!

Well we're all ok here.....another "too busy" weekend (as quoted by Shaun!!!)......but none of my doing at least!   Apart from making a suggestion of a trip to the Christmas market here in town for a late afternoon gluhwein.....he was never going to pass that one up!!!  So Friday night we had our first experience of the International School of Luxembourg (ISL) production!  So all the year 5 and 6's have been spending all their music lessons and more on a production of the Snow Queen....very professionally done and Conor enjoyed taking part and all the singing :-))   We had great seats on the front row - obviously not my doing as I'm never early enough to these events!!

Saturday night we were invited for dinner to a friends house - yes x-factor was recorded!!!  and we were 3 english couples and 1 american....so the french not making too much progress!!!! - and they had this amazing stairgate......the stairs here are a complete pain now that Ruby is mobile (a few pics of her on her feet!!!) ......as nothing to fix the stairgate to as some kind of weird spiderman cage effect railings that go all the way up the house!!!   anyway after picking my jaw up at the cost 500 euros!!!!!   and resigning myself to the fact i would just have to follow Ruby everywhere - they said  they didn't need them anymore and they would sell them to us for 50euros each (yes they have 2!!!!!!!!) .......anyway good evening and so enjoying being entertained.,........gonna be my turn soon but will put off and try and be the "new gal in town" as long as poss!!!!!
Ruby with "bed hair"....actually it's just like that all the time!!

Getting ready to pounce on Conor's guiness book of records book.......and destroy!!!!!!

Look at me..............

Sunday we were invited to a friend of shaun's (who he works with at amazon) for brunch!   Kids were amazingly well behaved and Ruby slept, so a great day of doing nothing but eating/drinking/chatting and left at 5pm!    Wasn't sure what to expect for food  - I'd probably do bread/croissants/bacon/eggs etc but the food was yummy.......baked camembert with redcurrant sauce and walnuts in pastry (like a pie) to start....and then something Tam called a "breakfast casserole"....cross between a quiche and an omelette.....really good.,......and then crepes which kids loved as nutella was on offer for them!

We had promised Millie we would go swimming which there was no way I was going at 5pm on a sunday in the freezing cold so instead we put up the Christmas tree!!!!!!   how early????   I know!   but only got 3 weeks here so got to make it worthwhile!   And it kept the kids entertained......thankfully Ruby not discovered the decorations YET........I'm sure it won't be long!!

That's all for now folks :-)
PS:  Ruby's also started waving when we say bye.......and clapping!!!  There's no stopping her now!

Conor is 9 today!

Conor's birthday today........thank god the bloody party is out of the way!   Now recovering!!!   After my previous droning on about party stress - everything else turned out well in the end........23 boys outside playing football for 2.5 hours and wolfing down pizza/crisps/popcorn and cake before heading back out!  Fab!!!   Conor had a ball (and got 4 more as presents!!!!!) and loved it all!  Ruby and I hid inside (out of the freezing cold!) pretending we were sorting out the birthday lunch...but really all the hard work had been done........got up at 7.30 to cook pizzas and make sarnies (and amazingly my pizzas stayed relatively warm with my state-of-the-art insulating bag i got when i picked my shopping up last week to put my frozen stuff in!

Anyway - here are pics to prove it!   and dads joined in to and got rewarded with some beer for their effort!!!!   Conor got a Luxembourg footy shirt from the coach (who coaches Lux U21 team!)......looks more like a dress on him but by the time we leave  it'll fit a treat  (if he grows quick in a few years.....no we're not staying longer than that!!!)

PS:  just look at that cake......impressive huh??   all my very own work....honest!  Tastes fantastic - even if i do say so myself!   my cake making skills must be getting better :-)