wagwaan?

Bank holiday

Gosh, already a year since DD and I traipsed up to town to go to the Notting Hill Carnival to take pictures for a college project!  This year, we decided to give it a miss, especially as DD was due to spend yesterday with her grandparents, her dad and his wife.  Today, however, I decided to pop up to London to spend some time with the Other Half, but not at Carnival - too noisy.  We had a lovely afternoon sitting and walking by the river. We walked from London Bridge past Tower Bridge and had a wander around Shad Thames and the surrounding area. In the past it was a really run down area with warehouses but it's been beautifully regenerated. Apartments there cost an absolute fortune!
We also visited the gym that I've been wanting to join, 37 Degrees. It's really nice but more expensive than the one in my building. I'll have to wait until my pay rise (which I'm negotiating at the moment!).
So, tonight I'm just chilling with a new episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition, then I'm off to bed, ready for the week ahead. Nite all!

Coming of age

This time 18 years ago, I was lying in a hospital bed waiting to find out what was happening with the baby I was carrying. I'd been in for monitoring as the doctors said the baby was big and needed to come out soon; I also had high blood pressure brought on by the pregnancy. It was 10 days before my due date. 
In the morning I was told that my little sister Carolyn had gone into labour on her due date, and by lunchtime I was told that I would have a C-section that afternoon, after the surgeons had finished their planned list and before they went home for the day. That way, it was decided, the baby could be brought out safely and we'd avoid maybe having an emergency section in the next few days. So it was that my beautiful daughter Claire was born, 12 hours after her cousin Marie.  From the start she was quiet and slept for hours at a time. One of the nurses commented "c'est une tranquille" unlike that "screamer", Julie, in the next crib. 
It just seems like a moment ago. I can remember every detail, especially how terrified I was of being in charge of this little mite, but at the same time how incredibly natural it all felt. 
Happy Birthday darling! May you always know how much you are loved, and may all your hopes and dreams come true. Mum xxx

Dance like nobody was watching

I am sitting here keeping an eye on my bank account where some money should magically appear soon (from the ex not-so-DH), and I stumbled across this on the Paris Blog. I just have this image in my head of people floating around among the crowds of weary travellers, headphones on heads, dancing in silence. Makes me giggle, but what a wonderful initiative. Maybe I should suggest it to the powers-that-be at Heathrow??

Word clouds

This is quite old hat, I know. I found one of these applications last year, did a word cloud and promptly lost the link. This Wordle application is good, though, because you can change the font, the colour, the size etc (I have a bit of thing about green/teal/turquoise etc at the moment).  Here are a few choice words from my blog.  (click to see bigger)

Quick Friday night update - sad news

Just a quickie, because it's nearly 6pm and I really should be outta here!  I got more sad news from my brother J today; it seems his wife may have had a stroke. He found her unresponsive this morning and while she was in resus at the hospital she had a seizure of some sort. Doctors think it's a stroke, so she was due to have a scan. She's been through SO much this past year, as has my poor darling brother, so any positive vibes/prayers you feel like sending his way would really be helpful.  She's the lady in the white hat in this post- poor thing looks so much older than her years due to all the health problems she has.
On a happier note, my niece said that the photo of her and her new husband coming out of the Town Hall with all the confetti (in the same post) is better than the one the pros came up with!  How about that? I didn't even have the best angle, as the photographers were in front of the happy couple and I was off to the side a bit. Actually, come to think of it, maybe that IS the better angle after all!  I don't really want to do weddings, but hey, if I get praise like that I might start being an assistant on one or two and see how it goes...

Amazing!

Just a quick update because we had weigh in tonight. DD lost 1 1/2 lbs and I lost.... 5lbs!  Amazing, considering we have been away and indulged in French food!  For me, it means I'm back where I was a month ago, but at least I'm there and not heavier (remember, I gained a bit what with the trip to Paris and my niece's wedding before the hols).  I'm stoked because I really felt bloated these past couple of days, so I feared the worst.
So, tonight ("treat night" and also DD's fête), we had pizza for dinner and watched another movie: Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (in French) or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly if you prefer. I read the book in 1997 I think it was, and found it very moving so I was keen to see this when I saw it had come out.  We both cried quietly at the part when the father tries to call his son. The whole thing was brilliant, especially the beginning when he's just coming round from his coma and realises he had a stroke. I've often thought how terrifying it must have been for Mummy to realise she was having a stroke (or CVA), and this really brings it home to you. How lucky we are to still have her! I've said it before and I'll say it again no doubt. Anyway, if you get the chance to see it, I recommend this film wholeheartedly.

Bonne Fête !

Today is my DD's saint's day. In France, every day on the calendar is attributed to a saint (mine, Ste Geneviève, is on 3rd Jan) and in the old days, you could only name your child one of the names on this calendar. Luckily, things have moved on, but even now, I don't think the French allow names such as Moon Unit or Fifi Trixibelle....  Anyway, being brought up by British parents in France we didn't really celebrate our "fête", but I have always marked the occasion for DD, like today (click here to see her Saint).  Unfortunately for her, her fête is only 9 days before her birthday so we don't celebrate it big-style - we save that for the birthday!  This morning, I crept into her room saying "Bonne fête!" and handed her a few little goodies - a pretty pink spiral bound A4 book, some gel pens and some dinky multicoloured post-it notes - and she went "yay! stationery!" in a little, tired voice. Well, I did wake her up.... I had to get off to work and she's still "on holiday"!  Just so you know, she adores stationery so she really did like the pressie ;)
I was planning on making her a blackberry and apple crumble for tonight, with blackberries from the garden, only we've run out of Stork and I don't have any apples, so I'll have to try and do one in a rush tonight after our weigh-in. Talking of which, I don't hold out much hope of a loss, having been sick and then away in France eating good food!  Watch this space...

Chillin'

Can you believe that we FINALLY got to see Juno?  We missed it at the cinema (I hate being permanently on a tight budget) and we didn't want to shell out on the DVD because we were waiting for it to come on Pay per View. Finally, last night we saw it was on new release, so first thing this morning DD and I came downstairs, made coffee, toast and marmite and snuggled up on the sofa. We laughed. We cried (well, I cried). It was a wonderful movie!  Now of course we will be buying the DVD, so we should have just bought it straight away and saved ourselves the Pay per View fee. Doh!

Fun stuff and serious stuff...

I stumbled across this shop today, La case de cousin Paul. It makes me want to put fairy lights up around the place!  I particularly love the "about" page - which is all in French so you'll just have to take my word for it that it's funny. It makes me smile.   You might be wondering what all those coloured "balls" are for - well if you go to "le composeur" and then click on "les kits" you'll get a better idea. The baubles are made to fit over garlands of electric lights and you can either "compose" your own or buy a kit. I think it's a majorly funky home accessory! I'm very tempted to get a pink kit to go with my future living room décor. Only 16 Euros for a kit of 20 boules, and that includes the lights - bargain!
Changing the subject, the OH called me the other day to say he'd seen an advert for a free introductory course to Life Coaching, which is something we've both been considering for a number of years. Having recently decided that the LLI Personal Development course, although very valid and useful, was too expensive for others to subscribe to in such an adverse economic climate, I have been looking for other ways to move forward with my goal of helping others. The ad W was talking about seemed interesting, so we went to check it out last night. The session very conveniently took place near my office, so we met up at 6pm and went to see what it was about. I had an enormously enjoyable and enlightening time. There were six of us at the event, and we learned about the differences between mentoring, counselling, training and life coaching, as well as the type of person suited to becoming a coach, and the content of the course and timeframe to become qualified.  We also did a couple of exercises which enabled me to gain some more insight, and this has given me a push in the right direction. I have begun researching other companies who offer training as well as the accredited bodies that are out there, so I won't be making any hasty decisions. One interesting fact is that there is no legislation, so anyone can say they are a life coach without getting into trouble with the law. That thought is a bit scary, isn't it? 
I've taken part in a mentoring scheme before, and I loved it, but this is more suited to the direction I want to take.  I think W will also be brilliant at it; he, too, has been planning on helping others, by "paying it forward": he was lucky enough to be mentored himself as a young man, and he is very keen to work with other young black men to show them that they can have dreams and, more importantly, achieve them too.  Where do I see myself in a few years? Working for myself as a photographer and life coach, just like Andrea Scher of the Shutter Sisters! See? It's not incompatible! (I will stress here that I only found out today that she is a life coach, so there was a bit of a serendipitous moment there...).
It certainly seems like I'm marching towards the life I've been thinking about and planning for. Things fall into place when the time is right, don't you think?
Before I take myself off to bed, I got the new Lakeland catalogue today, and on the back of the envelope was this little gem: Stirr.  What will they think of next, I wonder?

We're back

It's lovely to be back, but where did the week go?  A week is just not long enough is it?!  The cats have been giving us plenty of cuddles since last night, and "crying" a lot. Although the other half stayed over for most of the time, he's not the type to sit there and stroke them, so they obviously felt starved of affection. Bless them!
So - the end of the holiday:  my littlest sister arrived on Sunday with her husband and children. She was supposed to come on her own while the hubby was on an archeological dig (he's a history professor), but he sliced his palm open during the week and has 3 staples in there now, so he wasn't able to go grubbing around in dirt and came to Normandy instead. We still hadn't taken DD's friend to see the whale exhibition in Luc, where the children loved to go when they were little. We decided to all go there in the afternoon, and the heavens promptly opened and drenched us all!  It's a shame because it would have been nice to take a walk around the park as well, but there you go.  If we'd realised earlier, we could also have gone to the brocante in the next town, but of course if it rains at 4pm on the day of a brocante, everyone will pack up and go home, so we missed it.
Yesterday morning we had to leave by 11am, and as the day dawned beautifully bright and warm, we went out to the beach to "say goodbye" to it. And it was a great photo op too.  As we were in the garden, DD took some pictures of us, and I love this one - she'd just taken one where my collar was pulled back and I wailed "oh no, you can see my buffalo hump" which just made everyone fall about laughing, and DD caught it on camera. I love this one!  (and just so you know, "buffalo hump" is the term doctors use, so there!).

As you can see from the picture, my mother is doing amazingly well. I give thanks every day that we still have her, and I'm so happy her personality was not affected by the stroke!
I actually hardly took any pictures this time - probably because DD and her friend R hogged the camera... We haven't uploaded them all yet, but here is the beach as it looked yesterday morning. Shame about all the seaweed this year!

I LOVE this place!
Unfortunately, this morning it's very drizzly here in Hertfordshire - not that I mind. It's a day for getting all the holiday washing done and dried in the tumble dryer, ready for "back to work" tomorrow.