Marmite on bread for breakfast

"How do you want me to cut it darling?"
"Anyway you like Mummy"

Squeals of delight... "I want it like this every day!"

We're on school holiday right now so I haven't much time for blogging...

- Comment veux-tu que je coupe ton pain chérie?
- Comme tu veux maman.
Elle adore, elle veux comme ça tous les jours.

Ici c'est les vacances scolaires donc j'au peu de temps pour écrire mon blog.

Zurich

Nous sommes chez mon frere a Zurich...
Here we are at my brother's in Zurich...
Ahh the lake / le lac

And the cakes... the chocolate...

Special surprise

OK donc hier moi, ma copine, nos fils et nos filles sommes allés nous promener dans les bois. L'idée c'est de s'amuser quand même mais les filles (surtout la mienne hélas) ne jouaient pas le jeu. "J'ai une épine dans le pied, je suis fatiguée, quand est-ce qu'on arrive aux canards, j'ai faim, j'ai envie de faire pipi..." Bon. Je lance le défi... "Celle qui trouve une pierre toute ronde et une fleur violette aura une surprise spéciale". Les trésors retrouvés plus ou moins en équipe il est décidé que les deux filles aura chacune une surprise spéciale. Le reste du chemin se passe un peu mieux "je suis sûre que ça va être une Barbie mariée...".

Et non! Ce sera un étui personnalisé avec des crayons dedans. Je les ai faits ce matin et j'ai pris mon inspiration ici. Je suis la Reine de la procrastination mais on ne peut pas se le permettre avec les enfants...

It was gorgeous weather yesterday so me, my friend, our sons and our daughters went for a walk in the woods. The idea was you know to have fun!! But the girls didn't get that bit at first: I'm tired, I'm hungry, when will we get there, I've got a splinter, I need the loo... OK another deep breath (not for the same reason as Saturday). "Right! The first one to find a round stone and a purple flower will get a special surprise". The treasures were found quite quickly and both girls will get a surprise - oh the merits of teamwork. From then on things were a bit better... "I bet the surprise will be a Barbie Bride"...

Er no! That's not quite my idea of a special surprise. You'll each get a personalised pencil case inspired (practically copied really) by these ones. I made them this morning. Usually no one puts off diong things as much, as often, or as long as me. But you know with kids that's just not on!

Breathing Deeply

Notre train était arrêté aujourd'hui à La Défense et on a profité, moi et D, pour faire un petit tour ...

J'adore cet endroit.

Some youths were hurling stones at the tracks tonight as D and I were trying to get home (from the theatre no less) so our train was stopped indefinitely and we made the most of it by going for a walk around La Défense. I love this place. I love its space.

Old Jumper, New Hat...

Take one jumper. Too small for its small owner but too well-loved and significant to pass on. (Take also someone who doesn't have the time to frog and re-knit...)

Prenez un pull, trop petit pour son petit propriétaire mais trop aimé pour le filer à qqn d'autre. (Prenez aussi quelqu'un qui n'a pas le temps de défaire et retricoter...)Put it on your head and pin around your skull. Not in your skull though, probably. Sew a first line (in stretch stitch maybe) following the pins. Try it on. Correct the line if need be. Sew a second line about a centimetre or more away from the first (on the seam allowance side).

Mettez-le sur la tête et épinglez atour de la crâne. (Pas de lobotomie aujourd'hui - vous aurez besoin de votre cerveau pour la suite). Coudre une ligne (j'ai un point "jersey" sur ma machine normale). Essayez-le, corrigez la ligne de couture si nécessaire et coudre une deuxième ligne à au moins 1cm de la première.

Cut between the two lines and zigzag stitch along the edge.

Coupez entre les deux lignes et zigzaguez les bords (j'invente par ennuie, je n'aime jamais les explications en français...).
Wear it man!!! (and don't blame me if it falls apart quickly I dunno if this works long-term)

Mettez-le et frimez un peu. (je vous tiendrai au courant l'hiver prochain si ça tient)
Oh and another Buggy Bag that makes me laugh...

Oh et encore un sac de poussette qui me fait rire...

Ho Hum

Ho Hum what to write about? I have nothing in particular to report but feel as though I should write something...

I have been quite productive this week, mainly because I have chosen my 15 favourite internet sites, put them in a "daily read" bookmarks folder and they are the only sites I consult on a daily basis. I have also tried to keep the computer turned off until the evening. So simple and yet so effective!

I have decided to boycott my local supermarket and actually it takes more time to do that than I would have thought. I came to this decision for three main reasons, first of all their prices have gone up incredibly over the last six months. Many products are cheaper in my local and privately owned organic shop across the street. Secondly, they have jumped on the sustainability, organic bandwagon but it seems so hypocritical to me - they let us know about how green they are on enormous printed posters, plastered everywhere and in masses of leaflets. All they really want is my money and they spend a lot of money harming the planet trying to get it!! And thirdly, I hate waiting in line there.

Half way into the week, I realised that a total boycott was the shopping equivalent of cutting off my nose to spite my face since there are things they have that I need that I can't find anywhere else locally so I have decided to do the undoable - cut down but not completely stop!! Just go there for the very specific products that I can't find elsewhere locally. So far that list is quite small since I do have a couple of other local shops I can use, one of which is a smaller supermarket. So when I went there the other day with a list of three items and I walked out of the shop with those three items and nothing more, I felt really good. Wahey!

Enough of ranting. Look at D's map. Ha the funny thing is that the supermarket I am boycotting has pride position and is the fairly central low oblong building with the two towers. The map started local but soon broadened its horizons... Australia is on the bottom left (see the shark - there are sharks in Australia) and Africa is bottom right - there is a restaurant and a zoo. India is up from Africa with the jungle and the desert palace. Amazing!!!