Gone Gwada

A New Home!

2010-02-27T09:14:00.002Z

Finally, I have set up a new blog here

www.beautysglance.wordpress.com

Feel free to come and visit and if you do, don't forget to let me know!

Look forward to seeing you there...

St Nicolas' Day

2009-12-07T20:08:00.009Z

The girls have been enjoying ballet classes which they started a month ago (now we are all very familiar with good toes, bad toes....) and so we arranged for them and their best friends to go to see The Nutcracker together. Such fun!

We had prepared all week by listening to the music and discussing the plot so they had a good idea what was happening, but LissaLou is truly her parents' daughter and still sat whispering (oh so loudly!) throughout, asking about or stating what was happening! They were very confused by the non-arrival of the Sugar Plum Fairy (whose dance was done by the leading character Clara) but were quite happy with our explanation that there weren't enough people to fill all the parts!Of course, the highlight for them was being treated to ice cream in the interval - thanks BFs' dad!
I would also like to give a plug for Specsavers, where I went for an appointment beforehand after perhaps six months without glasses. On hearing of my theatre attendance, the kind staff member insisted I couldn't possibly go without glasses, and whizzed them up for me in half an hour, rather than the usual three days! And all this despite him being an Arsenal fan!

Afterwards we celebrated St Nicholas' Day with our friends. I hadn't realised what a big thing this is in Holland, as all presents happen now rather than at Christmas. The girls were thrilled with their little gifts but given the rather undressed state the younger ones were in, I decided to leave out the photos! Instead, here is JoJo very much enjoying his chocolate gift and Bertie who kindly made a Caribbean dessert of fried plantain with ice cream and chocolate sauce. The main course was a traditional dutch meal of carrot and turnip (I think) with meatballs, gravy, cider vinegar and an additional mashed potato and kale dish. Delicious. And so filling!

Above - a little clue as to what the girls got...

Man At Work

2009-11-28T22:02:00.003Z

I never fail to be amazed at how hard Bertie works and what DIY talents he has. He is also following closely in the footsteps of his mother and has become a dab hand at recycling all the junk he finds lying around to create something much more useful. Now he is working full time and the sun sets so early, he is not seeing much of his garden (ahh!) but he got plenty done over the past few months, digging and clearing and chopping and weeding and building. Some highlights...

Growing lettuce in October? This is not Guadeloupe you know!It's all about motivation - even reluctant gardeners will help their daddy if the reward is some tasty raspberries next summer!
This used be a greenhouse but who needs two?! So Bertie removed some concrete, laid some pebbles (mostly dug up all around the garden - where do they come from?), put down the random bit of tarpulin found in one of the sheds and then finallylaid 60 kilos of sand! And it barely even covers the bottom! The kids have enjoyed playing in it but it is covered for winter now. When it reopens I think we will have to triple the amount of sand, especially as they have great difficulty keeping it in the pit! (NB Any guesses as to why that wooden pane is there??) This is one of our four compost heaps, mostly left over from the previous tenants, which Bertie has been working on. We think this one may contain a fox or two.

I had my heart set on a bird table so Bertie kindly nailed this together for me. We have had the fun of watching our friendly robin and some bluetits come regularly but our most frequent visitor is of course the darned squirrel. Even JoJo runs to the door and shouts "OI!" in imitation of his frustrated mum when he sees it coming now!

The begins of our leaf mould container, which Bertie hammered together from crates from the local vegetable sellers. It is now totally enclosed and full to the brim after all the blustery weather, and we are looking forward to seeing how it looks in a year's time.

The Residents

2009-11-28T21:53:00.002Z

Taken on my birthday enjoying their new dressing gowns from Grandma and Grandpa.

Welcome To Our New Home!

2009-11-28T21:29:00.003Z

I thought I would go into a bit more detail about the topics I briefly raised in my previous post before I get going on the meaty issues of the universe, so here is a quick peek into our new rented place.

Our friends arranged for us to move here, mainly because they know Bertie likes gardening and it has a BIG garden. Both front and back. I couldn't get the whole thing into one shot so here is an idea.

This is the lovely big fir (?) tree that greets you when you come up to our gate. Can you see our bungalow peeking out in the background? Thought not. It is a very long walk down that path for a)the postman b)me on a dark night and c)me when JoJo is at the gate and I have to hurry to get him before he tries getting out onto the street!

This is our lovely poplar also at our front gate. We have one at the back of the garden too and they make a beautiful rustling noise in the wind. Well, not any more as they have just lost all their leaves.
I would also add that it is jolly hard to reverse the car in through the gate. You will not be surprised that I leave such matters to my dear husband!Ah, all that walking has finally got you somewhere! Here is our cute little bungalow. You can't see here but it has beautiful stained glass patterns on the window. I love the big bay window in the living room and the one on the left is the kids' room. My first act was to tuck up all the awful net curtains to let the sun in - one day I may actually get round to taking them down!Now we are out the back. This is a wee bit of our garden, let's say about a quarter of it! This is where all that lovely vegetable and berry growing will hopefully happen next spring! The rest of the garden is grass and trees and greenhouse and......our own little summerhouse! Isn't it cool? Or hot rather! The previous tenants seemed to have had electricity, phone line, the works. We have lost ownership of this building to the smaller members of our family, much to their delight!

It's Been A While

2009-11-22T19:29:00.002Z

We have been in our new place, oh, some two and a half months now and we are finally BACK ONLINE!!! Very exciting to be able to check out again all my favourite blogs and things and I am looking forward to actually emailing people again now!

I have been musing on what to do with my blog, whether to rename it or have a fresh start and I haven't quite decided yet. Any suggestions for a more appropriate name for this new season of life would be most appreciated! I was trying to redesign it in more autumnal colours but the choice on blogger of templates is not very exciting I'm afraid.

As I reflect on all these major issues (!) here is a quick summary of what our life consists of right now...

House - is a nice if somewhat chilly place! We have settled in now and covered the walls with our pictures and children's stuff so it looks very homely and lived in. We got our new three seater sofa last week to everyone's delight - the first time we have had a sofa the entire family fits onto!

Garden - is lovely but with the changing season we are not seeing as much of it as we were! I love hanging my washing out though and listening to the trees rustle and birds singing.

Homeschool - did I mention we are homeschooling this year? It is proving great fun - freedom and flexibility are two advantages not to mention more time together as a family. Before Bertie started work we were able to make numerous trips out together, now we are staying more local with regular trips over to north London.

The area - we are getting to know and appreciate it, though I did have a pang of regret when we visited Hampstead Heath recently. Oh I miss being next door to the Heath! We have several pleasant parks around, good transport links, a lovely forest or two...that'll do us nicely!

Church - we are attending our friends' very local church - 5 minutes walk away! There are lots of little girls there which the girls are of course thrilled about and we are enjoying making friends there and getting involved in various activities.

Work - this one has been a bit frustrating, as Bertie first had to wait ages for his CRB then was just getting a bit of supply work every now and then. However, great news! This very week he was offered a permanent post starting the next day! We are thrilled about this, though less so about the location (one hour's commute) however, just think of all that reading time!

Plenty more to say but that can wait for another day.

Update To Come....

2009-09-14T14:53:00.003+01:00

Well we have been here there and everywhere since our return from Guadeloupe. Two weeks in France followed by a week with the parents followed by a fortnight in the million pound four storey house of some church friends followed by 10 days in Plaistow (which we discovered is pronounced Plaaaarrrrstow rather than logically rhyming with wait and bait and cait...lyn!) in a two up two down terraced house and now..... we have finally arrived in our new house! We have left the beautiful north London for the pleasant borough of Redbridge in the north east of London. A cute two bedroom bungalow with a yellow door and a HUGE front garden and an even HUGER back garden! Apple trees, pear trees, plum trees, poplars, fir trees, spruces, summer house, sheds galore, greenhouse....we have it all! We are slowly making order out of chaos and setting up home so hopefully I will be back on line in the not too distant future with more news and photos!

Berry Picking

2009-08-09T17:58:00.004+01:00

Thanks for your guesses folks! It is actually blackberry season here in the 77th department, and there is a huge bramble patch at the end of our road which was untouched by human hand.... until I arrived! This village seems to be full of people who spend their time driving to and fro everywhere (usually Paris) or in their beautiful house/garden so there are very few people wandering the streets and doing such mundane things as picking berries. No problem, all the more for us!
I picked nearly a kilo last week but somehow we managed to eat them all before they got into a pie....oops! So this time I enrolled Bertie to help as we streeeetched for all the higher ones.

Look at those delicious berries, who could resist them?Well, we exerted all our self'-discipline (helped by Tatie's stern eye!) and here is the result that she threw together. I am off to enjoy it now!

Guess What I Was Up To Today....?

2009-08-06T20:24:00.000+01:00

Popping Into Paris

2009-08-06T19:51:00.003+01:00

Talk about a shock to the system! From the quiet of Guadeloupe to the peace and tranquility of the Marne Valley to....the hustle and bustle of Paris - ouch! Cars, roads everywhere, people dashing and rushing all over the place. It was all very overwhelming to us small towners!

Still, it was nice to wander around Paris on a summer's evening, with the realms of people sitting on the pavement (well not literally!) outside of cafés and bistros enjoying the beautiful hot weather that we have been blessed with ever since our return. I'm always glad I don't live in Paris but it does have its charms and beauty, especially at this time of year.

Something that caught our eyes was the relatively new bicycle scheme here. You get a card, take a bike for half an hour (free) or longer (a euro or two) and putter around to wherever you happen to be going, then park the bike at the nearest bike point. Simple! And according to the number of empty spaces and all the people we saw on their bike, very popular. Helmets appear not to be so in favour though.

Our actual purpose in town was an evening bowling with the family. Unfortunately an earlier puncture meant the spare wheel was in operation as was an 80 kph speed limit even on the motorway, so a very lengthy journey in. Probably the longest car journey the kids have had in over a year!

Next we struggled with the intricacies of the Parisian parking system. Pay at the machine? Oh no, far too simple! Go and visit all the neighbouring tabacs to try and purchase a ticket only to find they are either closed down or no longer selling any. We gave up in the end - it would seem that the Parisian ticket attendants are not quite as fervent as their Londonian counterparts!

Bowling was great fun. Bertie smashed us all, with a stunning 145 and several strikes. I, ehem, came gloriously last with about the same score as my age and the humilation of several gutter balls (nul points!). The girls had a great time running around, tidying the balls for us and taking the occasional shot. Thier joy was complete with a late-night trip to McDo afterwards and the lengthy journey home saw them all blissfully fast asleep!

Behind Our House

2009-08-06T18:57:00.005+01:00

We went for an evening stroll up the hill behind Bertie's sister's house (Evs might remember having taken much of the same walk with us a few years ago). Not a bad view really!

It was a much longer walk than we had thought so quite a lot of complaining from one LissaLou on the way up, but a bread and nutella stop improved things vastly! JoJo was particularly excited by the cows below - animals are definitely his thing right now.We decided to take a short cut over the above field, only to be met by a wire fence between us and the path. Uh oh! Nothing for it but to squeeeeeeeeze on through! Then we met another one! This time we caught Bertie in the act of squeezing!

Two hours later we made it back - 8pm and the sun still high in the sky. Can't get used to this northern hemisphere! (Nor can the girls, they are convinced they shouldn't be going to bed until it is dark....)

Photo Time!

2009-08-02T00:03:00.001+01:00

Cousins Siblings

Siblings amongst the corn Helping Daddy

Looking beautiful in her new dress from Tatie

More Cousins

In The Marne Vallée

2009-08-01T22:02:00.003+01:00

It really is so beautiful and peaceful here (except for our kids of course!). Out the window we look down onto fields of corn that are being harvested, further beyond is the Marne river weaving its way along, and beyond that the occasional train coming to or from Paris.

Bertie's sister and BIL moved here the summer we got married, and in 8 years it has been lovely to come and see what changes have taken place in their home and garden, which were pretty much a new-build shell to start with.
(taken by CassCass)

This time it was the guest room that changed, with a very comfortable bunk bed, the lower part acting as a couch in the day which is a great space saver. The walls are now yellow and green and the bouquet of lavendar and mint my SIL kindly left for us are a wonderful finishing touch.

In the garden, Bertie has been hard at work ever since his arrival. The most important thing he has done (in our opinion!) is put up the remaining parts of the swing set. For two years there has been one sole swing, now there are also two different boat swings, meaning five cousins can have the time of their life swinging away! Very useful when you have as many small nieces and nephews as this family!
We visited Meaux a few days ago by bus - the girls almost exploded in excitement boarding the bus, much to the amusement of a little old lady waiting there! We wandered around (accompanied by much complaining from LissaLou - she does not do wandering!) and visited the cathedral. The girls were very taken with the stain glass windows and statues - LissaLou expressed shock at the latter, telling me they weren't allowed. On further investigation, she had remembered our recent reading of the Golden Calf episode in the OT. So good to know some of what she hears sticks! One thing we loved in Guadeloupe was picking and eating fruit for free, and we have been delighted to carry on this tradition here. We have enjoyed little plums from by the river and pears from the nearby wood, and shocked the SIL by eating elderberries by the dozen! (Are you sure they are edible??!) Today has been Party Day, with all the family here en masse, celebrating a nephew's birthday. Food and drink in abondance, sun sun and a little bit of rain, and little girls running excitedly all over the place with their cousins. Topped off by a very late night - good job we all still all on Guadeloupe time!

Back On Line

2009-08-01T21:49:00.004+01:00

Wayhey, we have a new computer! Bertie's BIL works in a computer place and had an ex store model offered to him at a discount so he kindly kept it for us.

It is hp compact and on the downside has a French AZERTY keyboard, all the programmes are in French, and it is a laptop when I was intending to get a desktop, but paying a quarter less is nice! Plus I will never have problems putting in my accents!

Bertie's other BIL has just connected it to the web so here I am in my bedroom feeding JoJo and blogging! I just need to work out how to put Picassa and upload all my photos - watch this space....

And now back to the big family party happening next door!

Going Going....Gone From Gwada

2009-07-29T02:32:00.005+01:00

Well our year has come to an end, sniff! Our final three days were quite manic, getting the packing done, the flat emptied and cleaned, the car cleaned etc.

Due to waiting for Mamie's boxes to be packed, we were an hour off schedule on Monday for our checking in and trip to the beach, so we missed the farewell lunch that we hadn't realised was happening for us!! However, it was lovely to be checked in nice and early, comfortable in the knowledge that we were within our kilos and that nothing more could be slipped in our bags.

Then we made a final trip tp Ste Anne, where is POURED and the wind BLEW! We could have been on a UK beach! That made the transition back home much easier! As you all know, the best place to be when it rains is...in the sea! It did feel like hail was hitting us though. Just a short dip before we headed back home for more cleaning and preparation. And just in case you are wondering, people still managed to slide a few more things in my hand luggage!

If I am foolish enough to move again, remind me that it will take at least twice as long as I estimate, so I shall start well in advance! It would have been nice to have had more time to sit chatting with people rather than rushing around. I am not even sure that Bertie had time to cry, but his parents very kindly said how much they had enjoyed having us and both specified that they liked me very much, which was sweet of them.

However, we made it to our plane on time and were whizzed through security thanks to all these children. The girls were hyper, bouncing around the place in their excitement at going on the plane. We didn't get a baby cot so JoJo slept on me all the way back, which meant I didn't sleep very much at all. I was thankful for my ipod, and for everyone else sleeping!

Apart from a bump on takeoff and various bits of turbulence, the flight was fine, the meal edible. After an hour of waiting for our 8 suitcases (I was waiting for someone to ask, are you moving or something?!) we were met by Patrice and Richard, who then took an hour of wandering around the various Orly car parks to find their cars!! The girls and I fell fast asleep on the way home.

It was so nice to step into the fresh air and enjoy the different climate, and to see the beautiful scenery, to play out in the garden without being burnt by the sun, to pick fresh strawberries, to have a long summer's evening, to see the bees buzzing around my sister-in-law's lavendar bush...Ah, it is good to be back in France! The guest room has also been done up and is beautiful, with a top bunk for the girls and a bouquet as the perfect finishing touch.

We popped off to the shop this evening and almost collapsed at how cheap everything was. Bertie and I both got a bunch of grapes and they are both nearly finished, yum yum!

We all slept this afternoon so it was awfully hard getting the kids to bed before midnight (!) but they are finally there and we shall head off now. Oh, and we had a lovely anniversary meal with the family, thanks to Bertie's sister. 8 years, hurrah!

Safely back!

2009-07-28T17:47:00.001+01:00

And enjoying the beauty of the Marne valley, and strawberries from the garden, ummm!

Farewell At Pika

2009-07-28T17:42:00.003+01:00

We hosted the long-awaited campfire at Pika on Friday in honour of our departure and were delighted to have 50 or so friends and family members come. OK, so at 7pm it was looking a bit dodgey with no campfire, lights not up (and darkness fast approaching), food not ready, Bertie rushing around like a headless chicken, JoJo not in good humour....(I forgot to mention we have all been down with colds this week after our sea dip, except Bertie, and JoJo has had the most pathetic squeak instead of a cry or voice!).

However, things quickly improved and we enjoyed lovely barbequed chicken, spare ribs, brochettes, rice and bebele made by Mamie. Bertie got the lights up and working which made a big difference, although when he changed the petrol it was beautifully dark and atmospheric. Folks sat and ate and chatted and played cards and belote, whilst the kids ran around crazily.

Their favourite moment was when Bertie cut sticks out of coconut tree leaves and they placed marshmallows in the fire. It was one boy's birthday and he told us we had fulfilled his dream!

One lady got out her ka and started drumming and singing with the group, then there was a very kind and moving presentation from some church friends and Mamie, who stood proudly arm in arm with her son and invited everyone to pop in and say hello when they passed, just to keep them company!

JoJo eventually fell asleep on me and slept through it in the car, but the girls stayed up to the end, and we eventually made it home at 1am! I cannot tell you what poor state we were in for packing the next day (most of it got down on Sunday night) and killing Papy's cow (4am start!!!).

The Kids Part Three: JoJo

2009-07-24T02:39:00.003+01:00

Ah, the beautiful JoJo! A joy and delight to us all, most especially to his adoring Papy and Mamie who will be very sad at his departure. It is interesting how well he gets on with them both, especially compared to the girls. He will run over to Papy, and I don't think it is solely for his biscuits! The other day he practically ran down the stairs dragging me with him in order to sit on Mamie's knee!

Bertie took JoJo to the dispensaire for his final check up last week. Vital statistics:
10.3 kg (a bit under the half way line, so he is no longer a big boy!)
82 cm (over the half way line)
I forget head circumferenc and who is bothered anyway except the French health system?!
Bertie took him this time and returned to tell me that JoJo had had two vaccinations, much to my horror! He received the second MMR and the DPT booster, which according to my red book are for 3-5 year olds. I worried over this and crazy french doctors for a while then was relieved to read online that the second MMR can be given a month after the first. He will just need one more vaccination (pneumaccochal) when we are back then that is him done for many years! (Barring swine flu of course...)

He is definitely taking after his daddy in most features, very slim and with a definite M head! His hair is riotous curls now, I had to cut the fringe a bit as it was down to his nose! I think he could be mistaken for a girl (LissaLou was playing hairdressers with him today and had it tied up! Nevermind, he will just look like his maternal grandfather...). He has so many teeth, possibly only two left to come through. And the loveliest smile, that still crinkles up his little face and puts a horizontal crease between his blue eyes. (Do words convey the same effect that one little photo would?)

Food - JoJo is his grandparents' (and parents') delight as he eats more or less everything and with such gusto and enjoyment! He feeds himself pretty much entirely now (ironically we still have to feed CassCass and occasionally LissaLou!) and will not start his meal until he has his fork in his hand. He loves drinking out a proper cup now, though does spill it a bit. Still a morning and evening breastfeed. He enjoys it so much (!) and I figured it would make flying and settling into the UK a bit easier for him. And me!

Movement - JoJo doesn't walk now, he runs! A funny little toddling run all around the place! He is constantly investigating here and there, following chicks and people, and to my horror crawling up the stairs and bumshuffling back down again. He is very confident and will go anywhere, or climb anything. The French word for him is casse-tete which I find very appropriate! He has plenty of war wounds, which may have worried me if he were the firstborn but just seem par for the course now.

Playing - JoJo is perfectly happy entertaining himself, if people let him get on with it. They don't usually though. That spoil sport mother of his is always taking him off the stairs, his sisters always remove the toys, his grandparents always shout to get away from the water etc. Honestly....
He is getting interested in Happyland now and likes placing objects in boxes etc. He has also done a couple of scribbles.

Reading - still loves it! Particularly anything with animals. His latest favourite book is the one mum and I made following our trip to London Zoo last year. He moos his way through it, despite there not being one cow within, and gets very excited with the penguins!

Speech - not a lot happening here. Well, there probably is a lot happening, but it is still all internal so not a lot to report! LissaLou is always telling me he said this or that, and he does occasionally repeat a sound. I think he repeated JoJo and he repeats rhythms accurately. He still does a great lion roar. His most regular word is Amen! after we have said grace! It is more like AhhhhMennnn!

GBH - plenty of this. He is constantly thwacking his poor sisters, particularly annoying in the car when we are limited to stop him. We are considering sticking him on his own in the third row...! He loves banging his hands down, with or without something within. First thing in the morning (we are talking before 6am) he will climb on Bertie and jog up and down and then....THWACK! throw his whole body and arms down on his poor father! We can definitely see the difference between girls and boys, he is so much more physical and daring, even than CassCass was.

Obedience - life is certainly a lot simpler with a 16 month old, but you can already see that glint in his eye as he redoes the action that you just said a very firm no to.... Won't be too long till another one will be learning about the merits of obedience!

The Kids Part Two: CassCass

2009-07-24T01:52:00.004+01:00

In seeing how different the girls are, it is great to see how unique each individual is but challenging as a parent to learn not to make comparisons or have unhelpful expectations. Not to mention striking the balance between treating each one fairly and equally, whilst allowing for their character differences when interacting with them.

I have even more difficulty believing that CassCass is now three (at her next birthday she will be the age LissaLou was at the beginning of this year!!) but it is lovely to see how she is growing.

I really notice it in her speech, which is very fluent and clear in both languages. It is interesting to see how she automatically adjusts her language according to whether she is speaking to me or Bertie, and also just observing her language choice in different circumstances. She has started translating things to me, so she has obviously got the two languages differentiated. She does copy LissaLou though, mistakes included, so they both say "je vas" and "nhuit"!

CassCass is a ball of energy, and very agile which is lovely to watch. She loves climbing and jumping and, oh anything that involves moving! She can sit at the dinner table longer now, but she doesn't always! Sitting down activities are still limited with her, but she likes reading now a lot more.

Ah, but one time she is happy to be still is when she snuggles up beside mummy on her bed, a lock of mummy's hair in her hand and her thumb in her mouth! She loves this time and asks for it regularly, and she is quite happy to just lie, or to read, and occasionally chat.

CassCass still loves playing with Happyland, either on her own or with others. I think she is perfectly happy with her own company. She is still very wary of people, even those she knows well, and there are a few people (loud men!) of whom she is a bit scared. She has also developed a real phobia of people seeing her body, which I think stems from getting told off for going downstairs with no clothes on when we first arrived! At the beach on Sunday she made her daddy change her in the car with me standing blocking the window! She was most distraught at LissaLou just getting changed outside.

CassCass is a sensitive soul, and it is somthing I am praying about understanding better so that we can help and encourage her. She doesn't like being looked at sometimes, and gets upset if she thinks you are laughing at her, and she is still easily reduced to tears. She is also very specific about what you can or can't do with her, often being very independent. Some people are a bit insensitive or impatient with her, and I am working on how to handle this - avoid them? tell them to not say this or that? Sometimes we can intrude on another person's personal space (either verbally or physically), without giving thought to if they are comfortable with that, and I think this is what happens with CassCass. It is a helpful lesson to me that we are not all the same and so we shouldn't presume everyone will appreciate be treated in a particular way.

But equally she can be so full of joy and laughter and merriment! Some cousins of Bertie's have just arrived and it has been great to see how well she has taken to them, snuggling up and playing with them.

Her "obeying straight away" is definitely improving but depends entirely on how consistent we are! She will regularly push the boundaries deliberately, and it is very tempting to just let it go, so I have to pay attention to what I ask her to do or not do, to make sure that I really mean it and will follow it up. She will obey immediately if I mention the consequences if she doesn't! She also knows that she is not to shout or hit or push. I was struck by a story I read ecently on the importance of obedience, which told of a pastor's first funeral being for a three year old girl whose parents let her get away with disobeying whenever they told her to do something, and who was killed running in front of a car when she had been told to come back. It is hard work, but I believe so very important.

Often CassCass picks things up with little input from me (the joy of a second and subsequent child!). We began on the alphabet recently, learning the a b c song, but hadn't done anything for a few weeks, and suddenly she knows pretty much the whole song! She really enjoys reading the a b c book her Grandma made her (CassCass est adorable, CassCass est belle, CassCass est courageouse....) and recognises probably 16-20 letters. She enjoys counting too, and is often accurately counting objects around the place or in pictures.

CassCass and JoJo still get on really well, she plays very well with him, being gentle and sitting beside him with a toy or book. She will often steal his toy away though! When he wakes from his siesta, she goes in and opens the windows and entertains him till I come!

CassCass doesn't eat particularly well at the moment, but I suspect it is a mixture of too many biscuits in the diet (!), the heat, and not needing too much. I keep forgetting to serve child size portions, as mum helpfully advised! Perhaps I should serve food on saucers?! Eating when she is tired is a lost cause so that encourages me to have meals for midday and 6pm. If she has a siesta she will not go to sleep until 9 or 10 pm but otherwise is fast asleep within minutes around 7pm, then wide awake and raring to go at 6am. She does have night wakings regularly but I'm not sure what that's due to.

As with LissaLou, I am really looking forward to having CassCass at home for another year, as I feel that there is so much to learn about her and for me to understand in how to interact with her. I also quite simply enjoy the girls' company! The main challenge will be sharing my attention between her and LissaLou. As LissaLou is so much more vocal, it is easier for her to get my attention and to forget about CassCass who just gets on quietly with her own thing. I am hoping to find activities that will be able to involve them both, especially as CassCass is able to sit for longer periods.

The Kids Part One: LissaLou

2009-07-24T01:18:00.006+01:00

LissaLou is now five and a half, amazing! She will be a six year old before you know it! She is a great little girl, sorry, I mean big girl!

I have noticed that as I think about and record the younger children's development, it is all about what they can do now, whereas with LissaLou it is a lot more focused on her attitude and shaping her character.

You'll remember from this post that obeying straight away has been our recent priority and she has got the hang of it very well. We try and chat and pray about it each morning with the girls as it seems to help remind them, and now that LissaLou has (generally but not absolutely) mastered that step, her daily challenge is to obey with a smile (as opposed to the constant "yeah but" that became her mantra, only to be replaced with kissing her teeth!!). Her other one is to come to me about any problems with CassCass (usually) or someone else, rather than hitting/pushing/screaming at the other person... She is so pleased when she has done a good job! (As am I!).

I think she has found it strange not being at school or having a routine over the last few weeks, as she has constantly been coming and asking "what can I do now?". I look forward to getting back into a routine with them and having all our toys and things back!

LissaLou is still deeply devoted to Hamie ("I love Hamie SO much mummy...) and will often retreat to her bed and suck her thumb whilst holding him. He has a very dinky house bag from mum which she loves carrying around with her too.

Reading is coming on bit by bit, and I think she might actually be better in french than in english right now. As for writing, her big dream is to write en attaché (the very impressive cursive style so beloved of all French people) which we have started on. But she gets very frustrated when she can't get things straight away - I can't tell you how much we struggled with k!

She adores JoJo (rather too violently at times!) and has a more love-hate relationship with CassCass. They will play beautifully for hours (always in french!) then end up fighting over something or another. I like the idea that shaping a child's heart is more important than shaping their external behaviour, but it is a challenge to know how to do so. However, it is really easy to chat with LissaLou about issues like this, for example today we discussed that it was more important to love CassCass (by being patient) than to have her play in a particular way.

LissaLou is a chatterbox. Oh boy. But (like her mother before her!) she is apparently very quiet at school, as the maitresse wouldn't like it otherwise. (Oh yes? and what about her poor mother?!)

She loves counting, particularly in french. I pity anyone learning to count in french, having to cope with their forty-twenty-seventeen, that is in fact 97!

One thing I have loved recently is every morning that we get up early and find ourselves on the balcony as a family, she will come along with her French Bible and get Bertie to read to us! A great example to us all!

The girls haven't really developed the same relationship with their Mamie as with their Grandma, as she, in common with parents and grandparents in general here, doesn't spend one to one time with them doing activities and involving them. So I have been pleased to see LissaLou joining Mamie in her sewing room and watching Mamie as she makes her a dress. Hey, perhaps I won't need to learn to sew after all....!

Oh, I stopped the pocket money (she hasn't noticed!) as inexplicably, the money kept going missing, wherever I hid it.... She didn't really enjoy doing her daily tasks so we will work on that in the autumn. She loves washing up with me though, so we can do that more often when we are away from fizz sinks!

LissaLou is looking forward to coming home and seeing her family and playing with her BF! I am looking forward to homeschooling with her and getting to know her and appreciate her even more.

Activities

2009-07-24T00:53:00.003+01:00

I have been trying to do at least a couple of activities each day with the girls - as most of their toys have disappeared with the shipping, they have been a bit more at a loss as to what to do with themselves!

Lots of my ideas come from Trish Kuffner's Busy Books which I really would heartily recommend. I have the Toddler and PreSchooler ones and they have ideas that have been great from 2/3 year old CassCass through to her 10 year old cousin.

A few months back I spent a while cutting out photos of familiar folk (yes Grandma, Grandpa, Tatie Evie, Uncle Malc, you are all there!) and different scenes/objects then sticking them on cardboard. I could cover them in sticky back plastic but haven't got round to it. Then I wrote out cards with the name in french on one side and english on the other. We have used these cards in a variety of ways (mostly with LissaLou for the moment):
*matching the picture with the word in different games
*playing a version of Guess Who, where we each select a card and the other person asks questions to find out which card it is - not only did LissaLou manage to read each card by herself, but we also learned about different categories (man-made is our newest one)
*I tried a game where we guessed the card from clues, but that was a bit challenging
*with CassCass we played shout out a card and run and collect it
*when I run out of inspiration we make up stories involving the different pictures!

Recently we also had a session on bird's eye views (which funnily enough was a phrase that even Bertie, the English expert, didn't know!) - thanks to Mum for this idea. We matched objects with their shape and then drew a plan of the verandah and placed an object according to where it was on the plan. I think we are still grasping this one! However, it made for a lovely treasure hunt, where Stella had proper clues, CassCass had drawings with a cross, and LissaLou had a bird's eye view plan of the room with a cross for the position of the clue. They also got a tamarind with each clue. That went down really well!

We tried north south east and west this week. Once I explained which was which, LissaLou was supposed to run to the right side when I shouted it out. She claimed to be too tired, so I gave her a passion fruit to chuck in the right direction instead, which she then ended up running cheerfully after!! I would like to do a treasure hunt with directions ie walk three steps north but that will have to wait!

What else.... the girls had great fun cutting out scraps of paper and sticking them onto sticky back plastic today and it made for beautiful pictures. In fact, anything involving sticking goes down very well, but they have used up all the glue and lost all the pritt stick now!

Ah, and thanks to Tatie Evie for this popular one - we each cut out a postcard of Guadeloupe stuck on a piece of cardboard in jigsaw style then had fun putting them together again, then getting the other family members to do so! Last time we did this was Christmas 2007 and CassCass had a two piece jigsaw - she has sinced moved on!!

When we have had enough of all this creativity, we have been enjoying the computer by singing along to Cedarmonkees (!) on youtube or watching Balamory and Charlie and Lola. It's a fine life!

I shall go into more details about the kids in upcoming posts, for those interested...

Piou Piou, The Friendly Chick

2009-07-24T00:39:00.004+01:00

We haven't been doing very much this week, just chilling out, or rather boiling out! It is so hot, I often go in the girls' room and find them resting on their beds and I can sympathise!

Today Bertie was at Pika preparing for our Campfire tomorrow which started off as a small do for friends and family and now sounds like half the town has been invited....

At home, we carried on with different activites in the company of our friendly Piou Piou. Have I mentioned him to you? He is LissaLou's schoolfriend's little chick and Mamie is babysitting him whilst they are away in France. Only, I am not sure how much she is remembering that they will be taking him back!

The initial plan was to take him to Pika and put him with the other chickens, to protect him from the mean mangoost that ate his sibling, but Mamie said the other chickens and hens wouldn't accept such a small chick on his own, so he stayed for a little while. And then a bit longer. And now he is still here and there is no more talk of taking him to Pika!

Piou Piou is a people chick, loving company. He sits next to Mamie and Papy, or if possible on their shoulders! He wanders around all day pecking at food (a chick with fine taste, he enjoys JoJo's spilt porridge, and today's brown rice was gobbled up!) and making the noise that gave him the name. There was no one around downstairs today so he must have been feeling lonely - he hopped upstairs and proceeded to wander around our flat, eating who knows what under my bed and pooing all over the place. He also loves water melon so I put that out for him, until JoJo got hold of it.

Needless to say, JoJo in particular loves Piou Piou and follows him around pointing and saying "nah!" which is his excited response to most animals in books or live. Thankfully he hasn't squashed him yet; in fact, as fascinated as he is, he is also scared of him and usually ducks away at the last minute.

Mamie told us with a chuckle that whilst all the other hens in the neighbourhood go to bed at sunset (the ones opposite us fly up in to the trees, quite a sight!), Piou Piou stays up faithfully at Mamie and Papy's side until 11pm or whenever they shut up and turn the lights off! Definitely a people chick!

The Good The Bad And The Ugly

2009-07-23T02:11:00.003+01:00

Back in April 2008 I made my lists of things I was and wasn't looking forward to about leaving the UK and coming here. Well now it is time to do the same but in reverse....

What I am looking forward to...

English countryside - walks
London parks and play areas and toddler proof areas
Seeing friends and family
Not having stairs - JoJo perches precariously on the top of ours constantly and then edges his way down, making my heart shudder! Today he chucked down a 3kg water melon and I was mostly relieved that it wasn't his head!!
Cool weather! Ah, fresh crisp autumn mornings, winter chills, the children not smelling constantly of sweat, not being required to wash numerous changes of clothes...
Seeing JoJo in all the cute trousers and hoody tops we have been given for him, not to mention the pair of big boy boots!
Not having people appearing in our flat before I am even up and dressed
NO ANTS AND MOSQUITOES!!!
Apples, berries, blackberry picking, pies and crumbles, custard
Eating soup in cold weather (LissaLou is constatingly commenting on the illogicality of eating hot food in hot weather and well, I agree!)
Parsnips, broccoli
Proper sausages (none of this saucisson business!)
Being able to prepare healthier food - wholemeal flour here I come!
Limiting biscuits, cakes etc (and certainly NO biscuits at 6am! That cheeky JoJo begs to go downstairs first thing as he knows exactly what his Papy has waiting for him...)
Not being constantly surrounded by people with everything we do open to their viewing
Being independent
More uninterrupted time with the girls and as a family
NO TV!!
Fresh milk (none of this UHT nonsense)
Bertie not working evenings and Saturday mornings
Not paying an arm and a leg for everything!
Being able to visit lots of places (island life is great but, well, it is limited!)
Internet shopping
Back to organic and fair trade shopping
Having a garden
Cultural delights such as theatres and music (okay, even if we never get to them it is nice to know that they are there!)

And just to balance it, what I will miss or am not looking forward to...

Ok, let's start with the obvious - the beaches, the tropical rainforest, the beautiful scenery
The rural nature of life here - when we drive, it takes 2 minutes to leave the town and get into the beautiful countryside (oh, if only that were the case in London!)
The fresh fruit, often free for picking
Visiting Pika
Being next to the sea
Small town life
Always having someone around to chat to or to guard a sleeping baby
Large bedrooms
Washing drying on the balcony in a day
Bertie being around a lot

Bertie shouting "Whey!" to practically everyone he meets

Being able to meet up with folk easily because they just arent doing anything else

Hearing Papy and Mamie laughing their way through their favourite soaps

Seeing the kids, especially JoJo, with his grandparents and other relatives

Heating bills

Colds

February (let's be honest, I probably will not be loving winter so much by then - those long nights and short days will undoubtedly be getting less beautiful by then!)

Busy hectic London life and consumerist society
Travelling for hours to get somewhere
Parking restrictions
Living in a detached house (this is a new and scary one for me!!)
Crime filled London (despite all the folk here say about crime leves rising, and even despite the noisy bar next to our house turning very quiet even since a police raid discovered arms and drugs, it still feels much safer here - after all, back home we would never dream of leaving our house unlocked and random items out on the verandah - unless they were chained down of course!)

For your info, Lissalou's list consists of NO ANTS AND MOSQUITOES whilst Bertie's consist of PLAYING GOLF. Some people are just more concise!

Out And Abouts

2009-07-20T22:21:00.003+01:00

LissaLou said how nice it was to have Daddy at home and to go out together as a family, and I have to agree! We are profiting from these days!

Other recent trips have included...

Walking down by the sea to watch the Tour de Guadeloupe by boat which arrived into our port one lunchtime. As we walked through the trees to get there, we stepped over mango after mango and picked up a few to add to our picnic. Bertie spent most of his youth going down that way to the sea (rather than the less muddy and hilly route by road that now exists but is much longer) and walking through smelling the very strong fragrance of fresh and rotting mangos reminded him of those days.

One of our churches had a Campfire out in the country and we enjoyed singing mostly creole songs around the fire, whilst being eaten alive by mosquitoes! Unfortunately by the time we left at 10pm with one sleeping and two tired wee ones, the food still hadn't been served....

Last Friday at the girls' special request we returned to La Ferme Ti Bou, this time with two other families. Needless to say the girls had a fantastic time, seeing the animals, trampolining, bouncing but most of all going round and round and round and round...(you get the idea!) on the go karts. The cool pool water was very much appreciated as was our water melon! Jojo was also able to appreciate it a lot more this time and had good fun in the ball pit.

Yesterday was a family outing to Port Louis to visit Bertie's nephew at a holiday camp he is working on. Not a job I would wish for!!! I thought they were camping but turns out their tents have bunk beds inside, easy life!

We then went on to the beach and enjoyed splashing and diving with all the family. Well, we would have if LissaLou hadn't had a meltdown and cried out the whole visit... These are few and far between now but still painful to live through!

Not many days left now so we shall see what they hold.

Maison De La Banane, Grand Etang

2009-07-20T22:00:00.004+01:00

Last week's Wednesday trip (aw, I'm going to miss this Family Tradition!) could have happened any day now that Bertie is off work, but funnily enough it was still Wednesday.

I had been looking forward to going to the Maison de la Banane for ages, but the last time we tried it was closed. Finally success, but at a price - it is a costly €8/€6 for entry, which is more than anywhere else. Would it live up to our expectations, and be worth the euros....?

We were welcomed with a banana each (naturally!) and we also got to try a red one, which was very nice tasting if odd looking. Then we were showed the plantation and giving some fun facts (some of which I knew from all my earlier research!):

*bananas grown on hillsides are sweeter (but all that extra work!)
*they take 9-12 months to grow
*they grow between 5 and 15 metres
*there are nearly 1500 types but only some can be eaten and we only seem to get one type imported to us in the West, which is Cavendish
*each regime of bananas can weigh from 25 to 50 kilos
*bananas for exportation get their maturing slowed down by being kept at 13 degrees - their taste and colour is very different from ones allowed to riped naturally
*they get put in blue plastic bags as they grow as otherwise a little bug gets inside with little or no sign on the skin that it is there

We were sent off to enjoy the garden, which was very beautiful, and all sorts of different banana trees. The girls (with their cousin) were most taken with a little kitten who followed us everywhere and was promptly named Bannie. Happily there were few other visitors there subjected to their cries and shrieks of Bannie around the place!

After the garden was the information room then a Maison Creole full of rooms and things from antan lantan (the olden days, but it only really applies to the late 1800s and early 1900s!).

All very interesting, especially all the products made from banana leaves, but I was disappointed that we didnt get to see the plantation packing line in action (though we were highly tempted to swing on the line carrying bananas to the packing room!). I also thought we would get more of a tasting session but it was not to be.

Afterwards we headed inwards and upwards to the Grand Etang which is a lake on the way up to the Chute de Carbet. So peaceful and tranquil. And then we arrived! Oh the noise those children made! I am not sure if it was due to us that the six families who visited whilst we sat there picknicking all left within five minutes!

The girls paddled in the water, JoJo paddled in the mud, and they had fun on and under a bridge but sadly no walk around the lake as Mr Driver had forgotten his trainers. We previously visited in 2000 and didn't manage the walk then so it looks like it will have to wait a few more years...

Distillerie De Damoiseau, Moule

2009-07-20T20:20:00.002+01:00

This was our Wednesday destination two weeks ago.

There are a few distilleries left in Guadeloupe, and from what we can see it is possible to visit at least some of them. Sugar cane can either be taken to the factory and made into sugar or to the distillery and made into rum. Papy thought that the latter pays a bit better, Bertie thought that you only take the cane to rum outside of the factory season, I remain unclarified on why you would use one rather than the other!

From my reading, I have discovered that the reason there is only one factory left here and a few distilleries is not so much that the island hasn't been able to produce enough, but that since the mid-1800s the demand for it has been falling drastically. This was initially due to the innovation of producing sugar from sugar beet, and then due to all the other countries entering in on the market and producing more cheaply and effectively. I was interested to note that following the first world war, a huge limit was put on rum being imported into France, partly in response to the alcoholism that had crept in as rum was liberally used to encourage the troops.

In any case, the lack of successful alternative product to import has greatly influenced the economic difficulties faced by the island, not helped by the frequent devastation through the last two centuries by hurricanes, earthquakes, volcano action, fires....it's no bed of roses in the Caribbean!

Back to the distillery. Bertie's sister had recommended it as a lovely place to visit and picnic in the grounds, but they had been the Sunday. Going during the week had the advantage of seeing the place in action....but the disadvantage of NOISE! It really was deafening! The men working there all had earphones on and I don't know how the houses nearby tolerate it!

We watched as the cane came in on the back of titans (huge lorries) - as it has been mechanically cut it is already in small pieces when it is loaded into the machine where it passes along a conveyor belt and all the juice is extracted. Cane that has been brought by individuals and cut by hand is still in one long stem and tied up the traditional way by a cane leaf.

There was no proper tour, just some boards explaining the process, and I kept a close eye on the girls whilst looking at the machinery as it would have been oh so easy to slip on the metal stairs into it (rather like a James Bond film).... Health and safety does not seem to be a major concern here!!

Bertie explained to us how Papy used to bring his cane to the same type of machines but at the factory (the initial process is the same) and it was interesting to imagine them there.

We had a look at the windmill, no longer in action, and there was plenty of rum on offer at the bar/shop but we declined (despite being cheerfully greeted with a loud "hello" from the bartender!). Around the site were plenty of boxes and empty bottles and then outside was a huge pit for all the begasse, the leftover product, which in bigger islands is used to make petrol.

Not being the ideal spot for a picnic, we went off to the beach Autre Bord in Le Moule and enjoyed our current favourite of drumsticks and pasta. The water was so hot that it was almost uncomfortable, in fact more refreshing outside than in!

I don't think I recounted my encounter with a crab at Petit Havre the previous week - I was happily lying in the shallow water carressing a stone when suddenly that very same stone gave me a good hard bite! I threw it out of the water in my horror and didn't even get to see the culprit. Bertie found the whole event very funny but it has left me somewhat apprehensive in the water!

History Gets Personal

2009-07-19T00:39:00.002+01:00

Not only have I been looking into the general history of the island, I have also been able to look into one of my hoped for projects this year, drawing up a family tree. I have spent various occasions asking Mamie and Papy about this and that person - Mamie thinks I'm strange and can't think why on earth I want this information, whilst Papy loses track of people and then shrugs and says with such a large brood, he had no time to keep up with all the other relatives! Neither of them know that much of their ancestry so plenty to be done!

Two Thursdays back, we organised ourself to spend a day at the Archives de Guadeloupe with a friend also interested in the subject. This is based in Gourbeyre and we presumed not a child friendly place so the girls went to our JEM friends and JoJo was confided into his Tatie's hands (my first proper separation from him and I must admit to being quite moved at his going!). They all got on fine.

We arrived at the archives and were told it was full and to come much earlier. Happily they saw the disappointment on our faces and found us a place to look at micro film. There was a very helpful man, passionate about his subject, who went through all the complicated procedure for us and then left us to it.

We started with Mamie's father, whose birth certificate we had, but could not find his parents for love or money. The same with her maternal grandmother. All these people come from Grand Bourg in Marie Galante and we had a rough idea of dates so it really was frustrating.

Before leaving, Mamie had given me a marriage certificate for her paternal grandfather and between micro films I struggled through it. It turned out to be a goldmine! We had the exact birthdate for him, but still he wasn't coming up on the records! The helpful man, recognising the novices that we so clearly were and taking pity on us half an hour before closing, came and found him, just like that! Success! It was so sweet! So we presume that the others were all there, we just missed them! This great grandfather was born in 1862 so his parents were born in slavery, not that many generations ago.

Time was up and off we went. We can carry research on by post with a place in France and all details should also be available in the local mairie so we will try our luck there. Unfortunatey, there is very little online that I can find.

I can quite see the attraction (and frustration!) of this detective like work now that we are into it and look forward to continuing it as and when we can.

A Bit Of History

2009-07-19T00:14:00.004+01:00

Having heard so much from people about slavery and this and that and the other I thought it was about time I looked into the history of Guadeloupe myself. And as I have put all my books in shipping, what better time than to borrow a book on it? Our neighbour lent me "Une petite histoire de Guadeloupe" by Lucien René Abenon and it has been great reading.

I was regretting not having read it earlier in the year but then I decided it was all the more interesting now that I am familiar with the names and places in it. The French are very much into naming their streets and schools etc after particular people and here is no different, so I have been coming across all sorts of folk and saying ah, that's who he was!

Some interesting details from it....

It's amazing how present the English are throughout Guadeloupean history, constantly invading and often victoriously taking over the island, only to swap it back for somewhere else. As the author notes, it says something about the importance of Martinique and Guadeloupe for their prosperous sugar based economy that they were swapped at one point for the mighty Canada!

The English were actually responsible for building Pointe a Pitre (which made me chuckle as my English friend was very scathing of the town at Easter!). It has been rebuilt several times though following earthquakes and hurricanes.

La Place de la Victoire was originally la Place Sartine, but renamed after successfully opposing the attacking English ships. Hmm, I think I prefer the original name....

The folk who made up the island is also interesting in itself. There were actually Protestants among the first colonialists, escaping from anti-protestant sentiment in France. There were some Dutch and even an Irish family, Birmingham, after whom I presume the area near us was named.

After the colonialists came the slaves, but also whites known as engagés who were required to work pretty much as slaves for three years to gain their freedom. Many didn't make it as it was so hard and the climate so different, and the practice died out. After slavery was abolished, in order to find workers for the cane fields, they initially brought Africans called congos over but this was banned as being too similar to slavery. Next came Chinese people who didn't fit in at all so finally they opted for Indians in the 1860s who had a terrible time, being treated not that differently from the way the slaves had been previously.

Slavery was initially abolished in the 1789-1784 Revolution period. The English invaded but were then thrown out by one Victor Hugues and his men who then shot hundreds of colonialists for colluding with the English. The others ran away, mostly to Martinique. He then lost sight of his revolutionary ways and got the slaves back to work before Napoleon properly reinstated slavery. This was the period when one Louis Delgres was holding up the fort we went to in Basse-Terre with his supporters and standing against a return to slavery. When finally they were cornered into the mountains, many of them jumped off together to show their preference for death rather than returning to slavery.

The English abolished slavery in the West Indies in 1833 which put some pressure on the French islands, who meted out heavy punishments on anyone trying to escape the island in a bid for freedom. The abolishment finally went through in 1848 with the Second Republic. Can you imagine the logistics of 87,000 finally being freed and then soon after receiving the right to vote?

I am up to the 1900s and about to find out if Papy's claims that there were U-boats around the island during the war really are true!

Les Saintes

2009-07-18T20:52:00.007+01:00

Our trip to Les Saintes was a spur of the moment thing two weekends back following an invitation from church friends and a great way to spend Bertie's first Saturday without work since September (except Christmas and Easter).

Les Saintes is one of several islands Guadeloupe also has under it, including Marie-Galante, La Desirade and previously St Martin and St Barthelemy. I say island but it is actually made up of two islands, Terre du Haut, where all the tourists visit and where we visited in 2002 and Terre du Bas (which is actually more mountainous) which is unknown to us. We went with some friends from church who are from there and stayed in their family's house. Here are a few thoughts from the visit.

It is a tiny place!!! There are two small towns, Grande Anse and Petite Anse. Of course, Petite Anse is bigger than Grande Anse! We stayed in Grande Anse and all there is are a few shops and a lovely village square, a restaurant and....the FINEST playpark we have seen in a year! I can't begin to describe how beautiful and well equipped it was! And do you know the irony? There are hardly any children on the island, mostly retired people!

We were in walking distance of two beaches, very nice! Our friend grew up in a house right across the road from one of them, what a view!

The island suffered an earthquake in 2006 which devastated it, but has mostly been rebuilt now. There are a few signs left though - there is a beach which is now just a dumping ground for all the bits of brick and iron from collapsed houses, a road along the coast to some pottery ruins just crumbles into rocks, and there are empty plots of land where houses once stood.

Everyone is related on the island! Every person who went past, or car or house we saw, received a nod and a muttered "c'est un cousin"! This worked in our favour going over, when our friends' cousin was taking money, therefore charging us the lower residents' price! Speaking of the boat, well I am not sure that I can, it was awful! The sea to both Marie-Galante and Les Saintes is so rough and bumpy, it felt like being on a rollercoaster at a theme park. I was so pleased not to chuck up, but it was a close thing! Apparently the journey to La Desirade is even worse, which may explain why we have never visited!

We took a tour around the island - with a cousin! - and saw Petite Anse with the Mairie, primary school, college and police station. Lyceens have to go to the mainland (Guadeloupe) where they board for the week. There are some people who commute over each day on the 6am boat - they must have stomachs of steel is all I can say!

There are also beautiful forests and mountains and views to be seen. We stopped off at a Mare (small lake) to look for tortoises or turtles. Very soon, up to 30 pairs of beady eyes could be seen in the water bearing down on us, as they waited for the bread that we would surely have. Very sadly we didn't! If we looked closely in the trees above, we saw iguanas, for which the island is famous. Too close and they would crash noisily down into the undergrowth. Finally we saw some fish called lapiya (?) which are apparently aphrodisiac when consumed!

The island is very, very dry. In fact, all there is is fish! Our friends told us that when they lived there, it was normal to have court bouillon (fish in sauce) for lunch and fried fish for tea and possibly even breakfast! We certainly enjoyed some delicious tuna. Other delicacies are tourment d'amour, a lovely tart with coconut inside, and a kind of fudge made with tamarinds. However, one to be avoided at all costs is the mancilinier tree, including its leaves, its fruits even its sap. It is toxic and not to be ingested, touched or even stood underneath during a shower. There were many around so I wondered how many unsuspecting people miss the signs and actually touch them.

All in all it was a very peaceful and relaxed weekend, far from the noise and bustle (!) of Guadeloupe and much enjoyed by us all. We were particularly thankful to find our cars okay on our return, having heard that 20 cars in the car park at Trois Rivieres had been trashed the night we were away. No such behaviour on Les Saintes, that's for sure!

Preparation

2009-07-18T20:37:00.004+01:00

We have 10 days to go till we set off - again, we will be flying on our wedding anniversary, though this time we leave the night before and arrive on the day so maybe we shall celebrate with the Paris relatives under the influence of jetlag!

I don't really like the final weeks waiting for something - be it babies or new jobs or moving - as you just want to get on with it and begin the next stage. There is also the continual having everyone ask when we are going and Mamie looking sad and making a comment on it all the time!! I remember having just the same feeling this time last year, when I couldn't get inspired to do any cleaning or start any new projects. Bertie was working right to the end so it didn't bother him, but he agrees with me this time!

However, I do love the making lists side of things and have several of these around! We will be taking our baggage early Monday morning to the airport and checking in (our flight is at 7pm). This may seem weird, but it means that NO ONE can try and squeeze any more items into our luggage and stress me by putting us over the limit...!! So all baggage we are taking for people has to be with us by Sunday. We have an astonishing 160 kg between us so I will pack on Saturday and then tell Mamie how many kilos she can send. Believe me, she will fill it all! In fact, I might just give her a figure somewhat below the real one! (Like we used to tell mum we were leaving one hour before we actually were...).

The other advantage of dealing with the luggage early is that we can go for a final trip to the beach then come home and get ready, safe in the knowledge our seats are already sorted! I am hoping for the four middle ones with baby cot again, though I think JoJo might be too big. A final trip to the doctors showed him to be a hefty 10.3kg.

So on my list:
Pack- leave out clothes we are not taking home for final days
Trip to lavomatic (mamie's washing machine has given up the ghost, even when you SLAM the door really hard!)
Buy some final items
Change telephone bill to Mamie
Bertie - fishing, prepare Pika for our farewell BBQ on Friday
A final trip out or two
Visit/call a few folk
Sort out travel insurance - bit lost on this one as i am not sure where i am resident of!
Give various items away that we dont need
Finish my history of Guadeloupe book

Not too laborious really!

Bits And Bobs

2009-06-26T03:09:00.007+01:00

No Wimbledon coverage here, but we are following Andy Murray's progress (and Roger Federer's outfit) with interest.

Tomorrow is the final day of school for LissaLou! Hurrah! She has been moaning about going for weeks now so I am looking forward to that stopping and having fun at home with whatever activities we come up with. We have to sign her livret scolaire tomorrow and then get to take her books home. Most schools have finished now and there is a holiday feel in the air. Very soon they will all be getting ready for 3 week long colonies, holiday camps either here or abroad, or simply attending activities and soutien scolaire for July. I am impressed at how hard the French work to ensure their parents can get back to work and not have to spend much time with their children...!

To the triumphant sound of La Marseillaise, President Nicolas Sarkozy is honouring the island of Martinique with a visit and will touch down here tomorrow. Bertie already recognised his special plane flying over with his advance team. Unfortunately, my request to go and photograph the occasion was met with a firm no from the staunch anti-Sarkozyite! On referring to him in conversation with his mum as "ton president" she retorted "ou anglais!" (You're English!)

On the moving plans, Bertie checked out the shipping company AGS. Coming over we had half a metric cube of stuff so that is what we paid for. Going back, we have to pay for a whole metric cube whether we like it not, so we are busy going around seeing if anyone wants to slide in a few more items. Unfortunately, people mostly like to send over fruit and veg and frozen things which we are certainly not shipping! I have sorted through the bags of stuff I need to give away - sadly there is no such thing as charity shops here! I did have a good 40 or mor pair of shoes for the three kids - WHY??? I have resolved to be far more fussy in what I accept in the future! All that clutter only leads to more mess! (Additional goal - reduce significantly CassCass' wardrobe. She wore FIVE separate outfits the other day! That is not necessary - and does not help reduce our extortionate water bill!!)

At Pika, we are enjoying pomme d'eau and the first of the carambole, the very last of the mangoes and a very occasional cythere. Plus the pineapples are through, hurrah! They all go straight to JoJo but he kindly shares the odd one with me!

Speaking of JoJo, and in fact speaking of speaking, he is now much chattier and great fun to hear. He makes a sound that is very like "ca va?" though it could be "papa", for now the jury is out. He stands and says it as he watches people pass by the house so it could be the former. He generally gets a reply though! He imitates really well, and does a great lion noise when he sees one (tends to be in books as opposed to outside....). He also snaps his hands for a crocodile and makes a clicking noise for a rabbit. So cute!

Bertie is preaching on Gideon this Sunday so we actually have this laptop to type his sermon up. Best give it back to him....

Fete de St Jean

2009-06-26T02:54:00.002+01:00

Our town's patron saint is St Jean so the town's fete is this week, in honour of his day yesterday. The roads have been beautifully painted with a zebra crossing outside our house, a great concession to the poor pedestrians here I must say, as normally we are subjected to trials such as bushes/cars/piles of cement in the pavement obliging us to walk mostly on the road. Not to mention sky high pavements - fair enough, they get rid of the water quickly during the torrential downpours, but are a nightmare with the buggy! Which has broken again, probably terminally this time, but I am impressed at how long it lasted with Mum and Ev's makeshift repair!

But I digress. Various things have been happening, such as boeufs tirants - which bull can pull their cart the quickest? There is a podium in the town place each evening, a film was shown tonight, an agricultural fair held last weekend, and yesterday a bonfire was lit before the mass for St Jean. Most shamefully however, we haven't made it to any of these events for one reason or another! However, all the little areas around our town will be having their fetes over the next few weeks and we have marked down a few events to visit. Having already seen boeufs tirants in previous years, I am hoping to get to see the cabris tirants this time! (Goats - funnily enough no one uses the word chevre here, just like vache is rarely used in favour of boeuf).

We did however have a quick peek at an event being held in honour of the French Journee de la Musique last Saturday, which apparently is huge over in the metropole. We watched through the window a Quadrille which is a very charming dance just like country dancing. Bertie used to do this with his siblings when he was much younger, and it brought all sorts of happy memories back to see it. There was a man singing (or bellowing rather) the instructions and the musicians consisted of maracas, triangle, 2 guitars, tam tam style drums and bamboo scraper. Aside from one man Bertie's age whom he recognised as having learnt with him, the dancers were all of a very certain age and took it very slowly indeed! They mainly danced in twos in groups of eight, and it is made up of six different dances which each last quite a while. We saw one but then headed back home.

Mother's Day

2009-06-19T03:39:00.002+01:00

In France, we celebrate Mother's Day on 7 June and Father's Day is coming up on 21 June. It is taken very seriously by the school, where the teachers spent the week before working for it. Everytime I asked LissaLou what she had done at school, she replied she couldn't tell me as it was a secret!

On the day itself, I received a lovely card with a poem which she recited to me, and then she sang a sweet song. I filmed it so I shall add the words sometime. Her Tatie at school had helped each child make a lamp (minus the bulb!). Bertie spoiled me with three roses - in Guadeloupe! Bliss!

At church we received beautifully decorated pencils and cards from the girls. Then we went for lunch with Bertie's sister, but strangely enough it was the women who did all the work and who gave gifts - I received two lovely bags from my two SILs. I questioned why the men did nothing (perhaps they feared the results?!) and explained how in the UK we got spoiled and everything done for us throughout the day. My SIL was most impressed and decided to come to the UK for her next Mothers Day!

We look forward to another poem and song from LissaLou on Sunday and Papa's present (a bowl - but shhh, don't tell him! It's a secret!)

Daily Life

2009-06-19T03:04:00.003+01:00

It is hot hot hot now! I made it to the park at 8.15am this morning with JoJo and CassCass and the thermometre said 28 degrees - so who know what it reached by midday! There are more mosquitoes out as a result and also we have had an influx of cockroaches. Grr! Downstairs they have had mice so the poison was put out, and a few dead ones have been discarded of by the brave men of the house.

Speaking of poison, I watched a cat across the road writhing in agony yesterday and asked Bertie if they had rabies here. He replied that it must have eaten the poison. It was a sad sight and I said if I had a gun I would put it out of its misery. Later I saw it on its side and felt glad that it was at peace. Then Bertie pointed it out the next day walking along with no worries in the world!! Apparently cats really do have 9 lives! Good job I have no gun! He added that when he was younger, he always saw poisoned cats when it rained (it was torrential yesterday) and thought that it was the rain that poisoned them! Well, that may be a fair conclusion in London....

I would add that that very same cat is believed to be responsible for the recent mysteries in our house, where we have awoken to find a chicken carcass tipped on floor, but oddly enough other things too which you wouldn't associate with a cat! Thankfully my initial fear of giant cockroaches has proved unfounded.

One final cat story - the cat opposite caught an iguana today! Amazing, they are big creatures!

Back to the rain - following the incredible torrents yesterday morning, we had an infestation of flying ants, that got everywhere, even down my top! But they disappeared by the afternoon so I am not sure which predator got them but am very grateful to them!

Away from wildlife, Bertie's lessons are all but finished now, though the school term carries on till the start of July. Apparently no one bothers going to school after our town's fete which is next week, in honour of St Jean. Today in the town we saw them painting the town hall, putting up red and yellow banners and the podium. They have also resurfaced the road by LissaLou's school, a sure sign that the fete is on its way. Bertie says the town has to look its best!

Bertie does have one pupil every morning from 8-10am however, which has meant that LissaLou is late for school every day. No real loss, as the teacher is always chatting to people for the first quarter of an hour anyway... This pupil is hoping to be a footballer and has just been to France for a selection game. How exciting to think Bertie may have taught the next Thierry Henry!

Bertie's biggest excitement is his one and only water melon that reached maturity this week - a beautiful and tasty specimen it is, I can assure you. Now he is waiting for his melons and marrow. Papy brought home the latter weighing 5 kilos but apparently has had one weighing 22 kilos! Wow!

LissaLou has started to learn writing en attache (cursive) which is such a french thing. It really is impressive how nice it looks and that even small children manage it. I am not sure why we are so against it in the UK - I remember we were not allowed to write like that (or with pens) until perhaps year 5 and Bertie says that hasn't changed. We are doing her learning via a Dora book (what else!) and she is making a great effort, presumably as it is on her initiative.

After the drama of the dentist, Bertie finally took LissaLou to the doctors to see about a kind of fungal wound she has had for a while now (a recurrence of the one she had last November). You know you are in France when you go in for one wound and you come out with a prescription for....
Antibiotics for 6 days (disgusting despite its pinkness!)
Disinfectant spray
Cream
Plaster
Sellotape stuff
Doctor's visit: €26
First 3 items on prescription €20 !!!
We explained to our BIL how you would get sent away with a fly in your ear and empty hands in the UK! I told Bertie if all that doesn't do the trick then we will obviously have to amputate the foot...! (Joke, mum!)

CassCass currently enjoys playing with toothbrushes (don't ask!) and cycling Meddy's bike which now seems to live here, and taking lengthy afternoon siestas which mean she is up and about till waaaay too late at night!

As for JoJo, well he is into everything, climbing everything, risking his life and our sanity at every turn! He delights his Mamie and Papy with his little noises and by stuffing into his mouth with gusto any food they give him. He gets all excited when given food now and holds it, looks at it, turns it around, all the time whilst laughing and smiling and making oooh noises! He has a very cute crease between his eyes when he laughs, which I do believe is the same as his tonton who is here right now!

As for me, I have managed 8 letters this week so am feeling very pleased with myself! My BIL will post them in France for so much less than the €3 they extortionately charge me here (not to mention the hour long queue thrown in for good measure! I was so pleased at our last visit to the Post Office to see Mamie at the desk, so I nimbly joined her there and got seen to hey presto!)

I am also working on my packing up list, though it is best not to mention our departure to Mamie, it is the source of much sadness for her...

As it stands, we need to...
*Work out what we are sending by cargo, pack it up and send a good month in advance
*Change the Phone bill to Bertie's mum
*Get travel insurance
*Paint the house
*Bits of shopping
*Persuade Mamie to make us some ponch a coco and confiture de goyave
*Give away additional clothes etc (I will count one of these days, but would you believe these girls have amassed about 20 pairs of shoes between them!)
*Make a list of all the things to do on arrival

Definitely not as long as the list I had before coming!

Les Marches des Esclaves

2009-06-19T02:35:00.002+01:00

It amazes me how the locals here do not visit their beautiful island! I was horrified to find out that Stella has never been to the lovely calm lagoon at Porte d'Enfer so off we went yesterday to put that right.

On the way we crossed another visit off our list and delved into Guadeloupean history as we stopped at Petit Canal and visited Les Marches des Esclaves (the slaves' steps). In the days of slavery, the boats would pull in at Petit Canal and just metres from the port you can see the steps that they went up before arriving at a market area where they would be examined and branded then finally sold.

There is not much to be seen now and they could certainly add more information panels - we had been told of a prison ruin but couldn't find it either. However, as Bertie said, there was a certain sad atmosphere there that he has never felt anywhere else on the island.

When I was in Senegal many years ago I visited the Ile de Goree where slaves left for the Caribbean, so it was very interesting to see the arrival point and wonder at their impressions and emotions as they pulled up and left the boat.

We left Petit Canal somewhat solemnly and made our way to to the other side of north Grande-Terre, enjoying on the way the sight of fields and fields of sugar cane being cut down by huge machines and then loaded (or often overloaded!) into big lorries called Titans to be taken to the last remaining factory at Gardel. This is the end of sugar cane harvest season normally, but the strike has meant they are very behind and working flat out to catch up.

Porte d'Enfer was pretty empty and after a delicious lunch of chicken and pasta (makes a change from sandwiches!) we enjoyed the sea all to ourselves. It was amazing how the fish would come swimming right up to our toes and inbetween our legs, apparently not in the least in awe of us. Thanks to our high temperatures now, the sea was boiling!

JoJo is getting so confident in the water, he wanders around without being held, right up to his neck! (We stand right by him I hasten to add!) Then he loses balance and falls neatly on his bottom with a splash, always a fun sight!

After our bathe, Bertie climbed a tarmarinier and threw the tamarins down for a rather bemused JoJo to pick up. They are so sour!!! I am not sure who will be eating them! We got magnums instead on the way home....

Les Chutes de Carbet

2009-06-19T02:22:00.002+01:00

We have the Zafira back again after a few weeks of yet another car (our neighbours keep laughing at Bertie who looks like he runs a car hire place!) so off we went last week with Stella for a walk in Basse-Terre.

There are 3 Chutes de Carbet, the 1st is very high and the route up described as difficult and sportive - I have undertaken it twice and it is hard hard work, and there is one really tricky bit that keeps me worrying for the whole climb! I never am able to enjoy being up the top as I spend my time worrying about the climb (or slide!) back down! So we weren't going there.

The 2nd Chute is much smaller and accessible by a well planked path. A €1 charge has recently been added, but you can't bathe in it as you used to be able to. That wasn't on our list.

Our goal was the 3rd Chute - Bertie went with his family and LissaLou three years ago but I chickened out and stayed at home with CassCass, so this was my chance to enjoy the easy walk and bathe in the refreshing cold water of the river. We set off with the lovely surprise of a wild raspberry each that Bertie found next to the car park. Within moments, the rain started pouring. Torrential rain. And it didn't stop! Happily, Stella is wonderful company for the girls and had them singing Dora tunes all the way, meaning a most cheerful walk nonetheless, even through mud mud mud. THey were particularly cute with huge leaves as umbrellash

Then, ten minutes from the end of our hour long walk, just as we arrived within earshot of the deafening noise of the waterfall, there was the sign:

STRICTEMENT INTERDIT

So what do you do? Well, everyone else apparently ignored it and went on down all the same! But they didn't have a 10, 5, 3 and 1 year old with them, and they did tell us that whilst you could see the waterfall, you couldn't bathe. So much to everyone's disappointment, we turned back. Honestly, it has been closed since Jan - would it have been too much trouble to have put a sign up at the start of the walk??!!

Instead we headed to the Plage de Roseau, a black sand one for the second week in a row. The kids had a wonderful time stuffing mud in their swimsuits to give themselves extra body parts (!) but Bertie proclaimed that we would return to the golden shores of Grande Terre next week!

A Tale Of Woe

2009-06-19T02:12:00.002+01:00

Our BIL has been kindly looking at our computer this week and marvelling at the fact that, despite undergoing immense destruction and abuse at the hands of the wee ones, it has kept on going! He said that he would recommend it to his clients as a very robust laptop!
Sadly, even robust laptops have their limits. First he fiddled and tugged until eventually he discovered the girls' mini-cinderella disc that had been the cause of the dvd player not working. (I could just imagine one of them slipping it in and then wondering and wondering just why nothing was happening!)
Next we showed him our favourite method for opening the computer with no proper kit at hand - my super duper potato peeler! It is great for peeling too! I would not leave the country without it and if i could, I would post a photo for you!
Once inside, he marvelled at the traces of milk and who knows what else. The inside of our keyboard and the screen were also places of horror for this Computer Man!
In all the turning on and off at the button rather than by the more traditional shut down method, we had destroyed some of the Windows files. Possibly could have been sorted, but then he finally pulled out the hard drive, and almost wept at the damage wreaked by that infamous glass of milk and CassCass last December!
Diagnosis: it will certainly never ever work again and he will do his best to get the stuff off it, but is not holding out much hope. Ahh! I am glad that Sister Evs had the bright idea of transferring all my photos to her hard drive in march so we haven't lost too much.
And for all you dear readers, go save your important files on to disk RIGHT NOW! (And do not let your children near a computer with a glass of milk!)

Maison De Cacao

2009-06-18T02:49:00.000+01:00

3 June
Our neighbour, a childhood friend of Bertie's, has been babysitting her two nieces recently and after an enjoyable trip to Ste Anne with them, the girls clamoured to see them again so we arranged to go over to Basse-Terre.

First stop was La Maison de Cacao. We visited the garden which has various cacao trees - there are three types, used to make luxury, superior and normal chocolate. The girls were most interested in pushing JoJo's buggy! Fine with me!

There is no longer a cacao industry in Guadeloupe, though there used to be a thriving one at the beginning of last century. This seems to be to do with a mixture of destructive hurricanes, a better income from bananas, and all the regulations and fees from being part of France.

After the garden, we were given a very interesting talk about cacao and how it is produced and then made into chocolate. I can't remember the whole process, but the beans are taken out of the shell and you can eat the soft bit surrounding them (delicious!) then they are roasted I think, before being ground down like coffee beans. She explained the whole process and differences between cocoa butter and paste but I will have to look it up again.

Then we did the tasting part, which was great fun, and I can assure you that JoJo really got involved here! He tasted every bit of chocolate that came his way (and we are talking 90% cocoa, the hard stuff here!) and begged for more!

First we tried hot chocolate how it should be - mixed with water and very strong. Next was 90% chocolate on its own, then mixed with sugar cane and you could just smell those sugar cane fields! Then mixed in turn with coffee bean, rum, and pepper. Ouch! I think I am just a plain kind of girl! We went out with our heads pounding!

Off we went to picnic and swim at Bouillante, a black sand beach. Black sand is so strange, it just looks like you are really dirty! The waves were pretty strong there so the kids decided making castles in the dirt, sorry I mean sand, was a better option.

CassCass managed to cut her foot open on something, but a kind lady at one of the many diving places there provided 1st aid. I have started taking a first aid kit with me now, though like an umbrella, I will probably never need it except the day I forget it! It is all healed now and she runs again with her usual grace and gusto.

This And That

2009-06-01T19:00:00.003+01:00

I have missed recording life here for you all so here are some of the recent highlights for you...

We borrowed our friends' seven seater Zafira and what fun we have been having with it! It zooms up mountain roads, LissaLou loves sitting right at the back on her own with her pile of Choubouloute books to read. Plus we get to take others along, notably Stella.

We have been weekly to the beach (got to make the most of it before we head back!) and I have suffered at the hands of the sun, grr.

For those with a map we have visited Anse Babin which despite its murky waters is renowned for its mud. Bertie covered himself in it and was so so smooth! I was too busy looking after ten children in the water to be able to indulge, one of whom was intent on drowning himself....!

We went for a marvellous walk in Port Louis amongst the mangrove. Such an interesting area that I have never visited up close before. There were so many crabs, funny little things with one huge pincer the size of its body or bigger! It was very wet and muddy even in dry season so must be quite a sight in wet season. This was followed up by a visit to a part of the beach much further up than we usually go, and it has shot to number one in my list! Deep clean blue water, coral beach, ahh! Our friend left us his snorkel kit and we had great fun visiting the fish below the surface. It is an amazing experience snorkling, so calm and peaceful and feels like you are so far away from the real world rather than two inches. Bertie can dive and then emerge blowing out the water from his pipe like a whale! I have not reached such skill yet!

We have gone down to Basse Terre more often recently - I am getting used to the hills there (always helps to have a more reliable car!). We visited a bain chaud on the side of the road near Dole, which is where they bottle water. We love these kind of pools - like a swimming pool with no chlorine! They are lovely and warm too, warmed by the volcano.

Bertie's brother is building a structure at Pika to keep up dry and safe from falling mangos. It is still needing a roof though. Speaking of maangos, they are all gone! Sniff! Back to maracudjas and some guavas and a lovely new fruit I haven't tasted before called pomme malaka.

This weekend has seen Bertie rejoicing as Bordeaux took the French title and in deep sorrow as Nadal went out of the French Open. As long-term readers may be aware, the other half of our couple was somewhat pleased about this and is behind Federer every step of the way, unless of course he faces Murray!! I think there is discrimination on the side of the french sports people here though as they never mention him. Hmph.

It has either been raining horrendously (unusual for may i am told) or very hot recently, no fun either of them!

Bertie has been able to preach a few times which he enjoys. He is particularly in demand for church on the beach (or message sur la plage as I like to call it!) as he has such a loud voice! He got told off by his dentist for talking too loudly the other day!!

Speaking of Bertie getting told off, we were enjoying a pleasant evening in the park with some friends when he got accosted by a random drunk guy and viciously insulted for quite a while about how he has nothing, is nothing, will come to nothing. Bertie was quite taken aback by the tirade until he was called Galette by the man, and it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity! Now his nieces are taking great joy in shouting Galette at him! But I did point out that in my eyes he is the Galette des Rois!

I hear the Scrabble pieces come out, I think I shall stay hidden a bit longer rather than lose atrociously to the Super Scrabble Sister In Laws!

Update On The Kids

2009-06-01T18:42:00.002+01:00

Sorry I have not worked out how to put photos on here!

The kids are all well. LissaLou has been off school for a few days as it is closed to deal with rats! What really made me laugh was the rumour that they resulted from the grandmother of one of my nephew's cleaning out her house.... She has my sympathy though, we have had an invasion of cockroaches this week after arely one a week all year. I now walk around eyes constantly scanning for any unusual dark shapes and then it is out with the flip flop and....wham! It is really hot now and we wonder if that is causing it. There are certainly far far more mosquitoes. Guadeloupe is far nicer Nov - April, believe me!

Back to LissaLou....she and CassCass spend hours playing together with their Happyland/trains/polly pocket toys and it is lovely to see and hear them creating stories and personalities together as well as discussing and checking with each other for approval. Still fights and disagreements but it is much better now.

LissaLou came home from school and told me 2 + 2 equals 4 and a few other sums so we tried some addition and subtraction and she got the hang of it really well. CassCass and I have been singing the alphabet together and she can do perhaps a third of it now, plus she recognises maybe ten letters and loves writing names.

With all the recent rain I invested in some playdough which has been much enjoyed, by the teenagers in the house as much as the small ones!

Both the girls have lovely new sandals, pink for LissaLou (of course!) and yellow for CassCass. LissaLou also has new trainers for when we go walking. She has improved vastly in her walking, dating back to the 5 hour trek up the Soufriere which I yet to blog about. She didn't moan for four hours of it would you believe!! Since then we have done a few more walks - it really is a beautiful island and lovely to discover this way - and she has been great. I have high hopes for our return home! Now we just have to work on CassCass who is not quite so obliging....

Healthwise CassCass seems to have heat rash poor thing and LissaLou FINALLY got her filling at the dentist. Only for it to come out few days later. So she returned and got another one, brave girl. Only for it to come out a week later. So I think we will see if we can hang on till we return for a better quality dentist...

As for JoJo, he continues to be a delight, and his Mamie is already telling him how sad she will be when he is gone... He went through a horrible teething patch recently and that was no fun for anyone - I have never had teething problems in the girls so it was a real shock. I think it must be because they suck their thumbs and that assuaged the pain. But we didn't see a smile for a good few days and it did not help in the gradual stopping of breastfeeding process!!

However he is over that and back to his sunny self (except when hungry). Actually, if he is thwarted in his desires or efforts he will scream! He loves wandering around exploring, trying new things, climbing the most dangerous things. But his favourite activity of all is...reading! Ah, he is his mummy's son! He will bring book after book out for us to read to him, but if no one is around he will sit in the corner and leaf through piles of them. So cute! No words yet but if I roar like a lion he copies me!!

1st Communion

2009-06-01T18:20:00.002+01:00

My kind BIL, knowing my plight, has come over for a family meal with his laptop, all for me!!

Last Sunday was a Big Occasion as our niece Stella went through her 1st communion - this is a massive thing here, accompanied by a huge party and lots of presents etc (they made far more of a fuss of it than of her birthday for example, which passed almost unnoticed). It is the culmination of months of catechism and 50 children went through the occasion at Mamie's church. It will be followed up in years to come by Profession de Faith and then Renonce.

The party was kept for this weekend, as it is bank holiday (yup, yet another one!) which gives plenty of recovery time. Well, more like another opportunity to finish the enormous leftovers in family! And those still left after today will be for the Mother's Day party at Nadia's next Sunday!

Preparation for the party has been going on for weeks, and this week got serious as Wilson painted and spruced up the house, a huge mutton was brought home (it looked like a bag with a corpse!!), we filled baskets with dragees (favours?) - LissaLou was a dab hand at this - and Mamie's sewing room looked more like an off licence! Saturday was spent cleaning cleaning cleaning (or in my case entertaining all the children, including Meddy!) and the place looked great at the end. The mairie lent us some tables and chairs and it looked like a restaurant with Mamie's fine china and glasses out.

Lunchtime was a family meal so there were a mere thirty of us! Then in the evening all the friends and family of Stella's father came so it was a much bigger affair, carrying on into the wee hours. My BIL laughed at me for going to bed early - I took the girls up at 9pm and fell asleep with them! Fortunately there were still some cakes left this morning that we tucked into (note: cakes - there were at least five or six HUGE affairs to begin with!) None of us feel that we should be eating for another week!

It is a major issue for Evangelical Christians here as to whether or not to attend such parties - many have a clear stance that they don't, and their point of view is known among their Catholic friends so they are not invited. We were happy to attend the party and help out where needed, and have been involved in numerous debates with others as our position was discussed.

I worked furiously on my photo albums over the past days and put them out for the family to browse through. It was nice to hear people remarking that they had never seen this or that photo before, and it is certainly a big improvement on the last. I used up all the acid-free sticky stuff Evs brought me and had to resort to pritt stick to finish, much to my sorrow!!

During the party, upstairs became the kids' hangout, and they were particularly impressed with the flying pig mum brought over for us! LissaLou got her hair done by her tatie and now has little beads for the first time - cute! But a nightmare to sleep with!

Electrics Are Jinxed?!

2009-05-27T18:23:00.003+01:00

Tee hee, not only has our computer gone, but so has my SIL's next-door that I often use and now our tv has burnt out! (The girls are particularly distraught about this as we just nabbed the parents' DVD player and they have been SO enjoying Balamory! Me too! Love the views , the accents and it reminds me of Thursday afternoons at Esther's house!)

Oh, for those who are interested....have just booked our return tickets for 27 July 2009! How exciting! The countdown really is on!

We are squatting on my nephew's laptop, watching Roland Garros and savouring a ti punch, umm! It is a Bank Holiday (fourth in as many weeks...), this time for the Abolition of Slavery.

Hopefully I will pop in on a computer again in the next few weeks!

Gone Again

2009-05-06T20:32:00.002+01:00

And now the computer is more or less a write-off after catching a virus.... (swine flu perhaps?!)

Just under three months till we set off back home, as you can imagine I have started my countdown and begun my lists of things to do, things to take, places to visit etc etc. As you can also imagine, Bertie isn't giving it the slightest thought!

Another strike tomorrow...hold your breath!

Ste Anne

2009-04-27T03:11:00.004+01:00

Tuesday 7 April

The nice thing about having visitors (and there not being a strike on!) is that you are motivated to get out and about far more than you would usually. I am afraid we have become very much like the locals, taking the beach for granted and almost forgetting about it much of the time! But what a wonderful place it is, with fun and exercise and beauty for the youngest to the oldest, all for absolutely nothing! What's not to like?! (Apart from the salt and the sand of course. But that might just be me.)

It is definitely getting easier to go there now that our trio are a bit older, and to see the immense joy it gives JoJo to go running and splashing in the water before splatting the castles so carefully constructed is worth all the effort of getting our bags and bags of stuff ready (you wouldn't believe we were just heading off for a couple of hours) and all the rinsing, changing, sand in the car, washing etc etc.
The day sped by and our departure to Ste Anne was much later than planned, added to by that sad feature of Gwada Life, a lengthy traffic jam. However, the later you arrive the more chance of finding a parking space (the beaches were packed out all week due to it being school holidays) and the fewer the people on the beach. We also stayed late enough for a new experience for me - moonlight picnic on the beach! We watched the moonlight streaming across the water and gobbled down our hot potates (great suggestion for beach tea - warms up the coldest bodies!) before it got simply too dark to see them any more. Bertie kindly queued for our chi chis (with chocolate sauce - delicious!) and then we fumbled around in the dark hoping not to leave anything (or anyone!) behind. In fact, we actually made it home with an extra swimming ring!

La Cascade Aux Ecrevisses & Deshaies

2009-04-27T02:38:00.005+01:00

Monday 6 April

In sharp contrast to the warmth of the Atlantic Sea was the freezing cold of the river, but equally enjoyable as we scrambled over rocks, sat on massaging pools of water (strangely like the spa at Archway pool!) and in CassCass' case, sat playing with and sipping the water! We feasted on a roast chicken collected on the way whilst admiring all the greenery of the forest.

Then we moved on along La Traversee, enjoying the scenery outsideand in

Our next stop was Deshaies where we enjoyed the scenery and watched incredulously as the girls bit by bit whipped off their clothes and made a somewhat unscheduled stop in the sea! Ah, to be young and free!

Our search for a good old cuppa was finally fruitful, in this elegant cafe by the sea. So what is BF's dad looking so glum about?
Just take a look at the bill. A good look.Yup, you did read that correctly. No need to hurry to the opticians. An astonishing €16.30 for 3 cups of tea and a can of Ordinaire. Including three jugs of (warm) milk for the princely fee of, gulp, €1.60 each! You can bet that we got the girls to drink every last sip of that milk! You can also bet that we will not be returning there again in a hurry!

On our way home, we stopped off at the viewing point to admire the curiously named Tete a l'Anglais and to wait for the sunset

Worth the wait!

Gosier

2009-04-27T02:17:00.003+01:00

Sunday 5 April

We were delighted to see our friends arrive safely on the Saturday evening. LissaLou and her BF were so excited to see each other that they lay in bed talking until past 10pm! (all the more astonishing, 3am UK time for BF!) And then they bounced out of bed as bright as anything far too early the following day - oh glorious jet lag! By lunchtime it felt that we had been up for an eternity!

However, we still found the energy to head off to the beach and we went for the closest, in the very touristy area of Gosier, which is only 15 minutes drive away. We had never visited this beach before, always going to a smaller one just before it, with a steep hike down rocks. This part of the beach is busier, but much more accessible (and most importantly well situated for buying chi chis, ummm!)

From the beach you get a great view of Marie-Galante, Les Saintes (picture on the right-hand side in the middle) and on a good day, Dominica. The bottom left is Ilet Gosier, which is perhaps 500m from the coast and popular for folk to spend the day or even swim to. There is a strong current going out but I guess that would work in your favour on the return. Another feature I love about this beach is all the boats, which add an extra something to the view.

Everyone had a great time in the sea and out on the sand, although having told our friends it was perfectly safe in Guadeloupe, we felt terrible when they got bitten by some random thing in the water! It cleared up though and all was fine. When we finally pulled ourselves away the sun was setting and our shadows stretching out into the distance.

Poisson d'Avril

2009-04-27T02:08:00.003+01:00

We in the UK have April Fool's Day, actually only celebrated until midday. Here in France, they have April Fish, and pranks are allowed the entire day. Fortunately we weren't subjected to any. Bertie did however get an April Fish of his very own when he went fishing at La Pointe des Chateaux and then in Le Moule with a friend of his and his fishing-mad nephew that evening.

His sole catch, barang,* was described by his dad as the oldest fish in the sea! It is certainly reputed to be one of the boniest. In any case, he roasted it for our friends and we all appreciated it greatly!

*the creole name - no idea what it is in french or english

A Dream Fulfilled

2009-04-27T01:50:00.002+01:00

Dreams are funny things. I constantly have them and many are the strangest things, several are scary and often all too real. But there have been a very few select occasions when I knew that the event in the dream would happen - like when Bertie's wallet mysteriously disappeared from our living room table one night. We wondered and wondered till our brains hurt what could have happened to it until a few months later I dreamt of finding it in our suitcase and lo and behold the next morning, there it was! (We had been unpacking after a trip away and can only assume some little fingers slipped it in there!)

So last night when I dreamt that some French friends of ours crashed Bertie's brother's car because they were watching tv on the sunblinds, of course I knew it was just a dream. But when I dreamt that the computer was mended I equally knew that it would be. And so did Bertie. And so it was! Bertie was chatting to his sister on the phone and mentioned the problem, so she passed over her super duper computer husband who hmmed and hahed and directed Bertie almost in a HelpDesk kind of way and hurrah, they resolved the problem! Do you know what it was? Apparently if you press a random selection of keys you get the computer into video mode (where it will play on another screen but not the original one). Well I never!

Of course, there is the big question of why it happened. Perhaps one of those little fingers was tapping away? In any case, I would also humbly suggest that God uses such moments as a teaching time (get off that computer! what, you won't turn it off? then I shall turn it off for you!) and so it is for me to apply that lesson even now it is back again. In fact, I have been rereading a beloved R T Kendall book, Pure Joy, and one of his favourite phrases is to "dignify a trial", that is, to welcome it and consider it pure joy, and to refrain from grumbling and complaining. Well I really really missed my computer, but what a wonderful opportunity it has been to put such a lesson into practice! However, I am delighted it is back and I can safely say there are plenty of other trials for me to dignify instead!

Plenty of photos from our Easter hols coming up, bit by bit!

Time For A New Computer?

2009-04-14T02:50:00.002+01:00

I have been absent for a while....this was initially due to our being in the midst of a funpacked fortnight seeing the entire island and all its delights with LissaLou's BF and her parents and sister. Added to this housekeeping and cooking for 9 and entertaining five children, this hasn't left much time for anything else!

To give you an idea of our travels...
Sunday - (woken at 5am by the kids!!!) walk by the sea, church, beach at Gosier
Monday - Cascade aux ecrevisses, drive along La Traversee to Deshaies, then along the north part of the coast following the sunset
Tuesday - Visit to much more stocked Leader Price, beach at Ste Anne late afternoon with our hot potato tea by moonlight
Wednesday - LissaLou finally made it to the dentist (2 fillings, €72!), BBQ at Pika with Bertie's Bible study group
Thursday - Escaped the rain by driving to most furtherly eastern point of Guadeloupe, La Pointe des Chateau, then to the beach at St Francois
Friday - Easter activities at Pika (Bertie made an impressive Easter Garden based on an empty coconut shell!), made a sorbet in the evening
Saturday - Climbed the Soufriere (our volcano) - it took 5 hours (one for each child!) and my legs are still suffering!! We took the backpack for JoJo but CassCass gave up after a couple of hours so he was in our arms for the rest of the trip, ouf! Very impressive sight though, finished off by a very well-deserved hot thermal bath
Sunday - Eglise de maison, yummy lunch, well-needed 2 hour siesta!
Monday - More rain so Bertie took advantage of it to clean everywhere, then lunch was traditional Bebele and crab courtesy of Mamie. the boy have gone fishing at Le Moule and we are awaiting their return hoping they will be laden with fine things!

However, our latest computer disaster (will they ever end?!) is that the screen has gone kaput - the computer wioll turn on but you can't see anything for love or money! Sigh! So can't promise you will be seeing all my lovely photos of the above events in the near future!

Back....soonish!

Bun Overload

2009-04-04T00:18:00.003+01:00

I meant to put this in my last post and forgot, but Mum's post on LissaLou's birthday reminded me...

If you are a busy mum of three already overwhelmed with cooking, cleaning, caring for little ones etc, and (most importantly) you only own 10 very hard to clean bun holders, here is what not to bake for your eldest daughter's belated birthday celebration at school...

It seemed like such a good idea beforehand...but took all morning of slaving away, wasn't helped by me miscalculating the cake mixture and only making half the amount needed, and was only ready 3 seconds before LissaLou left for school in the afternoon! See, even the picture was taken in a hurry!

Next time I will make a cake.

What We Have Been Up To

2009-04-02T02:21:00.003+01:00

The past week has been punctuated by the electricity and water going off frequently - and usually not at the same time, so it has been almost impossible to use the washing machine. Bertie thought that the former was to do with a lack of resources to run the electricity since the strike, whilst the latter was the more mundane reason that there are so many leaks here (and we thought London was bad!). In any case, it is so normal now that we barely notice it, and just make sure that we constantly fill up our many bottles when there is water, and keep saving any documents on the computer in case it suddenly goes off.

I finally worked out how to reduce the size of my photos so I have much more space on the computer (I had to be very ruthless about what old photos and videos to keep!). It also makes uploading photos so much speedier, hurray!

Bertie brought home some more fruits of his labour. Vegetables rather. Yum yum!

There has been lots of rain surprisingly, but he is very glad about that for his garden's sake. It does mean that there are all these tempting pots of water to play with downstairs for the kids, but they know now not to go near them when Papy and Mamie are around....

Bertie made another of his cakes for his niece's birthday - delicious! I got her the third Narnia book and am hoping that she will lend it back to me when she has finished it!

Monday we went shopping and bought so much food! It is definitely a stocking up mentality resulting from the strike! In order to fit it all in the freezer, I had to get rid of all the ice - just look at how much there was. I must have lost half the capacity because of it!

Cleaning the fridge and freezer was part of my Huge Tidy Up plan before our guests arrive this weekend. Haven't got any further though, so I must get a move on!

Early one morning I saw my first cockroach in months, so I did the necessary and doused it in spray then WHACKED it, all without Bertie's help! I was relieved!

Today we went shopping for various items and came back with lots of goodies, including this, which the girls are thrilled about. Bertie just came back with a headache. Shopping and him don't agree!

Tonight he has gone fishing in St Francois with a friend and a brother. I am hoping he will come back with several kilos of fish!!

Oh, and my very kind husband gave me a lie-in this morning whilst he made the kids crepes. What a gem!

Plage du Bois Jolan

2009-04-02T01:40:00.005+01:00

Sunday saw us out for a West Indian speciality - church on the beach! I was particularly looking forward to it as we were visiting a new beach for me, just a bit further on from our favourite of Sainte Anne.
I asked Bertie en route why he had never taken me there before and he shrugged and replied that it was just a flat beach. Well! Try telling that to half the Guadeloupean population and tourists alike who were there en masse that day! As we drove along off-road looking for a parking space (this is one of the few beaches where you don't park right next to where you swim) I was amazed at how long the beach was and how many cars there were already there. We were at the very far end where it was much quieter, but otherwise every single (and there were several) little picnic area had been taken over by huge groups equipped with tables, chairs, even electric motors and sound systems! These people take their Sunday picnic seriously!

This beach is particularly famous because at Easter it is where everyone goes for four days to camp, and the areas were already marked off and reserved. It looks like it would be quite an event, but not one I am desperate to experience as it must be manic. In fact, I would like to see the beach in the week when it is a bit quieter.

The other thing that struck me about Bois Jolan is that it is the nearest thing to a European beach that I have seen here. Yes, I can imagine that isn't the first thing on your mind as you look at these pictures of golden sand and coconut trees! But what I mean is it was long (usually they are pretty short) and the distance out to the sea was also long (usually the sand is a tiny strip and the sea straight away). In fact, as I went for a long walk along the beach with LissaLou (that in itself is an unusual thing) it felt just like walking along West Sands in St Andrews! Well, almost! LissaLou was delighted to enjoy her Mum's exclusive attention, asking if I had invited her along so we could chat together!

We were rather late so missed a lot of the service but enjoyed the picnicking (our quiche was meagre compared to the canaris (huge pots) of rice and meat that were brought out! Happily there was plenty to share. Especially as JoJo turned his nose up at ours and headed for the rice!)As I have said before, people are so well equipped here, with table and chairs and table cloths and everything you could possibly need! (One person told me her friend's church always brings a portable loo - now there's an idea....I hate bushes!)
Afterwards we took the girls and JoJo into the chilly sea. Whilst the main sea with fierce waves is very far out, there is a huge expanse of shallower water that was perfect for the children - at least, till I was warned about the ursin that inhabit it and give fierce stings! There were also bits of sand in it great for playing on.

The folk separated into their usual men and women groups, the one chatting, the other enjoying the Guadeloupean past time of dominoes. Bertie and his friend disappeared to try and find bernard l'hermitte for their fishing expedition this week but came back empty handed. As we finally left at dusk, there were still plenty on the beach and the party with the traditional gwo ka music was only just getting started...

Pictures from our walk - our picnic spot was right at the far end

And this picture really doesn't show how far on the beach went in the other directionI was fascinated by this coconut tree which had started life on a slant and then suddenly one day decided to grow straight!And just look at all the roots it takes to keep one of these standing! Amazing.

Family Photos

2009-04-01T22:25:00.003+01:00

When I first came here 8 years ago I was shown through all the family photos which were scattered here there and everywhere with no evident order or purpose throughout various albums in different stages of decay. Oh how I longed to get my hands on them and order them!

Well now my wish has been realised! Mamie has let me loose with the photos and over the past months I have been ordering them bit by bit and trying to decide how to present them. Now I have purchased a large album, I have been able to get started - I decided to put them in date order as much as possible but it is not always clear when they were taken (or even who they were of! Usually Bertie is more reliable than his Mum but I feel like Colombo always asking him just one more thing...!). I am also trying to put in important dates (birthdays, marriages, moving country etc).

The early photos of the children's baptisms and religious celebrations (First Communion, Confirmation, Renonce) are the best and I have put a selection below. After that they are a real jumble - some photos I look at and wonder why on earth did they take this! But all in all I feel better acquainted with the family as a result and I hope that it will be helpful for other outsiders who come into the family.

So here with have Papy (age 16), Mamie (age 21) both bottom left and centre, Bertie's baptism (his sister is his godmother - marraine) and bottom left a selection of different siblings and their communions etc.

Our Kids

2009-04-01T22:01:00.003+01:00

JoJo loves....dancing...putting things in boxes or tubs or water....splashing....climbing (the more dangerous and precarious the better)...yelling for food....giving you things....taking them back again....and giving you them again!....knocking over building blocks....

Here he is placing some objects in a pot with great precision and concentration!
LissaLou had her Conseil des Parents last Friday which I duly attended. I was not very impressed though, as it was all about targets targets targets and how they have got behind as a result of the strike (they are four and five years old!!!) so a week of the Easter holidays and the May half term as well as all school outings (including swimming) have been cancelled. Honestly! Don't they realise there is value outside of sitting at your desk and colouring pictures in? When we came out, another mum and I looked at each other in despair and asked "but when do they play?" They even want us to do workbooks at home to ensure the kids don't get behind!! Groan...
Here is a picture of our family

This is all fine for LissaLou as she loves these kind of activities but what about those kids who don't and would rather discover the world in a different way? I was also annoyed by the teacher telling us that one child has been promoted to the Champion's group (LissaLou's) for hard work - what is that telling those not in that group I wonder? And finally she told us that those in the Support Group were doing really well, especially LissaLou who has made great progress. Fantastic! Er, hang on, what support group? Nobody mentioned this to me! I discovered she has been seeing the Language specialist twice a week to enrich her French vocab (other children in the class are creole only speakers).
LissaLou learnt to draw a Poule from using her hand at school - note the ou sound that they learnt at the top in red.
CassCass comes out with the funniest things. This week she asked for a biscuit because "it is shouting CassCass at me!". When we discussed that we liked the same food, she told me "nous sommes copines Maman" - ah!

I can't believe how good her pen control is - presumably due to copying LissaLou in part. Her pictures of people are coming on well

And here is her writing (I think she was writing her name).

She likes to walk to school with LissaLou and me carrying LissaLou's bag like a proper little schoolgirl! She keeps telling me she has her own school too! At home it is lovely to see her and JoJo playing a lot more together (when she is not stealing his toys from him) and they provide each other with a lot of laughter. And CassCass' day is not complete if we have not had a Dora storytime!

Photos In Thirds

2009-03-26T00:13:00.004Z

Sister Evs has been teaching me about the rule of thirds in photography so I tried to put it into practice today at Deshaies - how did I do Evs and what would you do differently?

These boys were having a great time trying to drown each other all the time we were there

Not strictly taken in thirds but I thought this was a beautiful boat and a great picture!

Out And About In Basse-Terre

2009-03-25T21:00:00.008Z

Today we headed off to Sofaia which is known for its thermal springs, great for those with arthritis and rheumatism (for readers with a map, it is just a bit below Sainte-Rose on the northern part of Basse-Terre). It was very exciting as the route there was one that not even Bertie had ever taken before. We were expecting a basin to bathe in but on arrival we discovered that this has been replaced by a communal shower! Okaaaay....we decided to leave that for a day when the water goes off and headed off to the beach instead.

[I was going to photograph the shower but there was a lady taking a shower - in her bikini I hasten to add - so I didn't quite like to!]

On the way down we got to enjoy the most marvellous views of the Grand Cul Sac Marin (the big bit of sea to the north of Guadeloupe) and Anse-Bertrand over to the right. Unfortunately the photo can't convey how wonderfully fresh the air was too, bliss!

We decided on the beach at Deshaies - Mum and Evs will recognise from our photos that this is the second beach we stopped on with them on our whistlestop tour around Basse-Terre.

The sea along this side of the island is very rough and though it was a bit calmer here, we still had to hold tightly to JoJo to stop him being swept away and the girls kept close by. At one point all five of us stood in a row holding hands and being battered by the waves! JoJo was esctatic each time he got smashed by a wave (strange boy!) and kept going back for more!

After drying off we wandered around the town of Deshaies (two streets) which is very pretty - I like the way you get a glimpse of the sea between each house, it reminded me of Mousehole in Cornwall.

Since Sunday, JoJo has been more on his feet than his knees - much less wobbly and not always with his hands out front like a zombie! So today I decided to get him walking and dug out a pair of ... sandals! He was so cute tripping over them at first but then got the hang of it.

In any case there were plenty of folk on hand to keep him upright!

Our next stop for lunch was another beach visited previously - Plage des Amandiers near Ste Rose. There are great picnic huts here - though it has to be said the kids spent more time wandering around than sitting and most of JoJo's lunch ended up covered in sand.

Here is the inspiration for the name of the beach - one of many amandier pays on the beach with leaves in glorious shades of red right now. The girls helped Bertie collect the amandes and then he broke them open with a stone - closely watched and imitated by JoJo. A tiny but tasty amande is the resultThis is probably the nearest we will see to autumn here - just look at all these leaves from the overhead amandiers!

The nearest the girls will get to sledging here!

Enjoying a rare moment sitting

I am quite pleased with this one - that was the view from our picnic table. Since I didn't have my camera last time we came it was nice to make up for it todayYou may remember that last time we were here, LissaLou's sandal got swept away (we reckon it is over in New Zealand now visiting Esther!) so we learnt from our experience and all removed our shoes before enjoying a game of How Close Can You Get To The Sea Without Getting Wet! The huge waves swept in and had us dashing up to shore, which had JoJo in fits! LissaLou loved the game but CassCass (remembering our past experience perhaps) kept a safe distanceThe world is a safe place when Daddy is holding your hand

We got home to discover....the water has gone off! (And remained all day and night, meaning cold showers for those poor girls). Hmm, we should have stopped by Sofaia after all!

Mi-Careme

2009-03-25T19:49:00.008Z

Just when you thought the Carnival was over...back it comes again! A couple of groups came out for a parade around the town, this time wearing black and red. The girls were very excited to see them again but this time it really is over - until Christmas when it all starts again!

In the meantime, we celebrated the bank holiday with an impromptu party at Pika. One of those pleasant occasions when you say in passing to someone "why don't we pop along to Pika...hey we could even have a BBQ...." and suddenly half the family and many friends have come along for a feast!

As ever, the men sorted the BBQ under Bertie's close supervision, the women prepared all the food, I spent my time pushing the girls on the swings and keeping JoJo out of mud and mess, our nephew's name was bellowed constantly as he got into everything, trod on everything and swung a machete left lying around...

Bertie headed off to his dry dry garden and managed to construct this dinky little cover from the coconut leaves he collected recently propped up with sticks from another plant.

JoJo was pleased to give him a hand in his endeavours
Our great discovery of the day was our cucumber. Here it was on the 12 March - can you see the wee thing?

And now here it is just one week later! We are looking forward to enjoying it very soon. Our friend also gave us a lesson in picking sweetcorn - get it when it is very pale yellow and it won't be hard and chewy like ours was! I took a bunch and found a massive caterpillar (or two or three) in each, so my new lesson is if it doesn't have a caterpillar it is probably too dry!

From My Balcony Sunday Morning

2009-03-23T20:45:00.000Z

Who wouldn't be inspired by such sights?

I am not sure if it was just by chance or good planning, but how well designed to have a balcony from which you can see sunrise on the right and sunset on the left!

Peeking At Pika: Fruit A Pain

2009-03-22T23:57:00.000Z

No D's and E for Epinards didn't inspire me so let's move on to

F is for Fruit a pain Fouyapen Breadfruit

You may recall from an earlier post that breadfruit is a very close relation to the chataignier, with the difference that it doesn't have seeds (and has smaller leaves and a smoother skin)

A bit of history - breadfruit plants were in fact on the HMS Bounty at the time of the famous mutiny. Whilst all the crops were thrown overboard, Captain Bligh returned to Tahiti and succesfsully took a crop over to the West Indies in 1791. It was intended as an excellent (and cheap) nutritious food for slaves; ironically, when it finally made it to them they disliked the taste and refused to eat it!
Breadfruit is known as the poor man's food here and there are trees literally all over the island. In these days of MacDonalds and pasta, it is not particularly appreciated by the young generation and so you can find the fruit in abundance rotting under trees. Not so at Pika! Mamie and Papy being very fond of it will use (or sell) just about every fruit that emerges.

Apparently it got its name because when baked or roasted, it tastes and smells like freshly baked bread. I have to say that this has not been my experience - must be used to a different kind of bread!The breadfruit is ripe when it has little white latex marks on the skin, and Bertie tells me that it is only good to eat when it is picked rather than fallen on the ground (either it is unripe or it is over ripe and will explode!).Enjoying it

Breadfruit can be used in tons of different ways:

The most common way in Mamie's kitchen is simply boiled. She peels off the green skin and the inside seedy part (a bit like the inside of an apple, I shall put a photo on next time we eat one!) and boils for a bit. It is then served with a meat or fish dish and other racines.
Her other favourite use for it is in bebele, a traditional soup from Marie-Galante, for which it is diced into tiny cubes.
It can also be baked, boiled, roasted or steamed - now that breadfruit season is back on I would like to try some of these out myself.
I tried mashing it with potato for a shepherd's pie once but you really could tell the difference and I am not sure I liked it!
Bertie tells me we ate a souffle - gratin made with breadfruit but I don't remember that one amongst all my experience of Caribbean cuisine!
One way of getting the new generation to eat breadfruit is making it into chips.

Nor is it restricted to savoury dishes:
A new use of breadfruit is in cakes and in a traditional Guadeloupean drink, chaudo. This is a (very delicious!) hot milky drink usually made with eggs, condensed milk and spices but breadfruit can replace the eggs. It is traditionally served with a plain cake that you dip in it at the party after a child's First Communion, but now it is found at all sorts of occasions.
Before the fruit comes out, the long spongy male flower is known as the popote and this can also be used to make a sweet snack.

We had a go at this, firstly soaking the popote
then scratching off the outer fluffy layer
Next step was to boil them in a syrup made with spices and then leave to cristallise in the sun, but we didn't quite make it that far! I look forwad to tasting the outcome one day...Good for you

Breadfruit is a great source of energy with low levels of protein and fat and a moderate glycemic index. It is also a good source of dietary fiber, potassium, calcium, and magnesium with small amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron. Some varieties contain small amounts of folic acid.

Sources: http://www.essortment.com/all/whatisbreadf_rcwh.htm http://www.ntbg.org/breadfruit/breadfruit/index.php http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/breadfruit.html

Our Room

2009-03-18T22:03:00.004Z

I do love my room here - it is already a vast improvement to go from three children in with us to a mere one (hidden away too!) but on top of that, it is large and airy, has a balcony and there is not a hint of damp! Nor have I seen any cockroaches in months, so my cup overfloweth!

Here is the entrance from the balcony - our third and final little hallway which has become JoJo's area. We have a handy screen to block the light out for him - unfortunately now he is up and around he has a tendency to pull that and the fan over. See the junk area next to his cot, complete with Bertie's golf clubs!

The view of the room from next to JoJo's bed- all that lovely space!The window looks out on to the mountains in the distance and gets fine views of the sun settingThe door leads to the hallway and the rest of the flat, but watch out not to knock your head on that low bit!Our bed with its Most Useless Mosquito Net Ever Designed - 13 gaps for them to fly in through! Now I just use a sheet and keep it for its aesthetic value.And here is possibly the Most Useless Cupboard Design Ever! Lovely how it fits in the corner and it is huge, but with the tiny door in the front you can't actually access all that space! We have just put his sister's stuff in there. This is supposed to be our changing mat but there is always stuff heaped there and now JoJo tends to cause too much damage to the pictures and things anyway.

Next stop (when I have tidied them!) will be the girls' room and finally the bathroom.

On Death

2009-03-18T20:41:00.007Z

One huge difference between the western way of seeing things and the west indian way of seeing things is the attitude to death. It fascinates me how death, which is treated with euphemisms and silence and delicacy back home, is embraced so noisily here.

A neighbour of ours died on Sunday morning and within hours the whole community was aware of it and chatting about it - the fact that deaths are announced on the radio helps to spread the news! This particular neighbour was notable as she wanted Bertie to marry her granddaughter and used to call him her grandson in law. I often wondered if she was put out when I arrived on the scene!!!

As with many people here, one of her two children was in France so they waited for his return to hold the Veillee (wake). This happened last night and boy was it the social occasion of the month! The street was packed out with cars, Bertie popped in and said that there were groups and groups of people (including many of his family) sitting around chatting and eating - and laughing and joking! See what I mean about a light-hearted approach to death...! Even if you only know the person's brother-in-law or granddaughter or something, there is still a good chance that you will attend out of respect for your friend. It does seem easier for people to attend such events here - unlike at home, life is very quiet and little happens in the evenings (or even the days!) so there is not a full calendar to juggle with in order to fit such an unexpected occasion in.

The family has to provide refreshments and just about anyone can come along so there is quite a feast on hand. Plenty of rum too. Hence plenty of men who like their tipple (especially free) attend the occasion. I have heard on several occasions that there is more cheer and laughter at a wake than a party!

A traditional dish for a wake is soupe de pattes - I thought this meant pasta (pates) but actually it meant beef feet! Not feet, what do we call them? There might also be music, and the wake can carry on well into the early hours - Bertie's sister was an early bird getting in at 1am. It is a great chance to catch up on people you haven't seen for a while. The coffin is in the house and people are supposed to go in and pay their respects, and the food is in a marquee type place outside. Mamie said that on this occasion they had singing and prayers too, but I imagine that depends on how involved in the church the person's family is.

Then the funeral was this afternoon. We went for a final walk by the sea with mum and as we were coming back up to the house we could hear trumpets so I asked Bertie's niece if it was the Carnival. She explained it wasn't, but was in fact the musicians accompanying the coffin to the church. (Not all families choose to have musicians but apparently this lady loved to dance - so they played tango music.) All the people attending (and there were a lot, judging by the number of cars outside again) met outside the house, generally dressed in black and white (though my mother-in-law told me any colour goes, except red she added with a bit of horror at the thought!) and followed the coffin. After a short service they went to the cemetry and then I suspect that there will be more food back at the house after.

The Catholic tradition then involves a week of prayers each evening, which is attended (usually) by good ladies from the church (presumably the lack of rum available reduces its attraction significantly) as well as mass for the person. And the grand finale is another party on the 9th day, again with plentiful refreshments and rum, and a large number of attendees. There is then yet another mass and party on the 40th day All of which sounds rather exhausting! Mamie said that when Bertie's brother died, she was indeed tired out by all the proceedings.

There are also lots of traditions and superstitions tied up with death here, which I would love to know the root of. As with Gwada myths, was there some reason and logic initially to these? I have heard that the body has to leave the house feet first; a parent isn't allowed to follow the hearse to the church if her child has died or she will lose another (I checked with Bertie's Mum and neither she or Papy went to their son's funeral for this reason); it is not good to visit someone after a funeral, and so on.

I have discussed with friends on many occasions the whys and wherefores of the different attitude to death here - is it perhaps to do with the strong Catholic background of the island, that means people are much more comfortable with the idea of the afterlife? Is it the strong community atmosphere (people are far more in contact with death here than we are)? Or just the generally more laid-back, accepting attitude to most things that there seems to be here?

In any case, it seems to me a good thing that a death can bring people together in such a way and that an elderly person dies in the comfort of their home, surrounded by family and friends, and that their life is celebrated by many from the community, rather than being alone, perhaps in a nursing home, their past life unappreciated and their passing barely noticed.

Note: This all relates to the Catholic tradition of celebrating death - the evangelical churches will undoubtedly have a very different way of doing things, but as Catholics are in the vast majority, these traditions are very much a part of life here.

Celebrating With JoJo

2009-03-18T20:38:00.000Z

JoJo was delighted with his presents (as were the girls!) when he attempted to open them on Monday morning (luckily his sister was on hand to help....)

(We woke Bertie far too early and he was still coming round!)
Lunch was delicious - Annabel Karmel's Bang Bang Chicken (a real favourite here with children and adults alike!) and Sweet Potato Gratin (maybe a bit sweet for me though) and boiled plantain, yum!

Then came the big occasion - JoJo's cake (you may notice a decided resemblence to LissaLou and CassCass' cake. You would not be mistaken!). He spent his time trying to catch it then the girls kindly blew out the candles for him before we all dug in. This was JoJo's first official slice of chocolate (or any!) cake and he relished every mouthful! Just look at him stuffing it in!

On Tuesday we went to the Dispensaire for his year review. It was a new doctor and I didn't quite get a lot of what she said, so I am hoping it was not important! She did mumble away lots I must say. The important facts were:

weight - 9.65 kilos

height - 77 cm

head - 47 (yes, they faithfully measure this every time in France! But what if there was a problem, how would you know? they asked me incredulously when I said back home this wasn't done after 6 weeks. What indeed?!)

Poor JoJo got his MMR and 2nd Hepatitis B jabs, both in the butt, so he was not a happy bunny. I think that he is up to date on all his jabs except the 2nd Pneumancocchal (Prevanar here) which I want to do back home as here we would have to pay for it.

12 Months - Joyeux Anniversaire!

2009-03-16T00:17:00.001Z

The big day is here - today Baby JoJo celebrates his first birthday and graduates from being a Baby to a Toddler. In honour of such an occasion, I shall no longer refer to him as Baby JoJo (sniff, I miss my baby!) but quite simply as JoJo.

It seems quite amazing that this time last year we were in London, it was about to snow, I had been waiting and waiting for JoJo to come and finally they set the date for my induction at 16 days overdue. To think that after his birth I was spending my nights on the couch listening to him snuffle and snore away whilst I tried to get a few hours sleep. The next months saw me planning and planning and packing and moving. That in the time it has taken him to go from 3.63 kg and 54.5 cm to 9 or 10 kg and 74 cm (will get the accurate figures on Tuesday for his year check up) we have moved continent and gone through so many changes!

JoJo continues to do well, and be a happy smiley little boy who loves laughing and really gotten into shrieking and screeching ear piercingly (ouch!). Evs would tell him "no!" and he would stop - if I say the same thing with the same voice he just cracks up - no fair!

He loves his mummy so very very much and is very clingy right now, though his daddy comes a very close second. It means I carry him around a lot which is getting rather hard on my back. When he comes to his mummy there is often one thing and one thing only on his mind - milk! He is eating fine but somehow (mostly the strike) I have got into feeding him on demand. Uh oh! I think it is also a comfort for him, as he has never sucked him thumb or a dummy (though he always puts his fingers in my mouth when he feeds). So this month we will be putting an end to that and I have started by cutting his feeds down to three a day - which he is not at all happy about!! I foresee some hard work ahead!

The walking is coming on well - he can go across the patio to get to someone, albeit very wobbly steps, but if he falls down he will generally just crawl rather than get back up again. He is surrounded by family cheering on his progress which is lovely to see.

He loves crawling around or cruising along investigating everything in his path, and particularly likes playing with water (a real no-no here) or mud (ditto!). He is such a happy boy in the sea!

If he sees food, especially that he recognises (fruit and anything sugary now!) he gets so excited and noisy, shouting and grunting till he gets what he wants. He will also put his hand in Papy's bucket from Pika and help himself to a goyave or anything else that takes his fancy! He has 7 teeth now and can eat most things. I always find it funny that today he is not allowed honey and tomorrow he is!

JoJo loves reading books and will sit happily for quite a while looking at pictures and listening to a story, turning some of the pages himself. Unfortunately he is very taken with the tv, which he sees when the girls are watching their daily Dora allowance. He used to try and turn it off but now he prefers to watch it himself!

No words yet but plenty of sounds, mostly mamamama and dadadada and type.

Now when we go to the playpark he will no longer stay in the buggy, but get out and crawl constantly up the slide before sliding joyfully back down again. Time and time again! Great fun to watch but a bit heart-racing keeping him from doing himself too much damage. He has had so many falls and bumps already, I hope he has a very hard head!

I shall try and post a bit more about our birthday celebrations and first year review later in the week.

Le Careme

2009-03-15T22:53:00.006Z

We are now into Le Careme, a word with two meanings - Lent and the dry season. In great contrast to the constant ferocious rains of last July - November during the hurricane season, it is hardly raining at all now and the plants are beginning to feel it. The temperature has also crept up and I am beginning to feel it! It remains very cool in the morning and evenings though. Every time I comment on the heat, someone will nod knowingly and comment "ah, c'est le careme" and most of my local friends prefer this season as it is beginning to warm up!

We went back to Pika on Thursday to give Bertie's crops some desperately needed water - Mamie and Papy are watering more or less daily and many plants are nevertheless withering. Have a look at the state of the ground there However the heat has not stopped Bertie's carrots from coming on nicely - we have picked about 6 so far. They are tasty but very odd looking with several roots on each one, which Mamie attributes to him digging them up and replanting them. We live and learn.

In order to keep the crops cooler and make the most of the water they get, Mamie recommend Bertie cover them with coconut tree leaves.
Other crops that have been picked and enjoyed are coriander (so delicious in a curry!) and corn on the cob. Mamie's pineapples are growing nicely - I never realised how pretty they begin life!

Leaving On A High

2009-03-15T22:22:00.005Z

Sister Evs' three weeks which have sped past came to an end this past Wednesday. Despite her visit being marred by the strike, she had a good time and got to see a few choice parts of the island. However, there is still so much to see she will obviously have to return for another visit in the future!

The day before she left, we took her along to the beach at Ste Anne (for what is a trip to Guadeloupe without a bathe at Ste Anne....). She was suitably impressed and agreed that this is what you expect when you come to the Caribbean - clear blue sea and soft white sand etc etc. We thought the water was cold (the kids' teeth were chattering!) but she loved it!

It was so quiet there - on a school day there are only retired tourists there - well, at least until our crowd turned up! They must have breathed a sigh of relief when we set off again!

You will see from the photos that Mum and LissaLou are missing - LissaLou finally went back to school to her delight and Mum kindly stayed behind to collect her. We all had a great time - Baby JoJo just loves splashing and wading through the water now (whether or not someone is holding him...!) and CassCass had a great time mostly on my back. We also enjoyed watching fish swimming about the rocks. Even Baby Luke entered into the swing of things!

Before leaving we treated ourselves to a magnum each - and at £3.30 each it certainly was a rare treat!! Somehow I don't think magnums will be on the list of the 100 basic foods to have their prices reduced!

Evs has put lots and lots of lovely photos and her own perspective of her stay here on her Got Passion site - go look, enjoy and comment!

Our Living Room - Guest Room

2009-03-10T18:47:00.000Z

Continuing our house tour, part three sees the original living room that was changed in to a separate bedroom. We use it as our living room (it has a sofa and tv) but there is still a huge bed there showing its other purpose. When guests aren't here (and even when they are!) that doubles up as a table or chair or trampoline or storage area or computer desk... The wardrobe also makes a pretty cool hiding place for the girls - before I caught on to this is was very strange seeing the door slide with no one apparently touching it!

Another one of our funny little halls - leading on to the balcony. I may have mentioned before the obsession with bed mattresses here, each bed having at least two if not more. For want of another place to keep it, we usually store one of our space mattresses here and the girls love jumping off the sofa onto it (often heartstoppingly close to Baby JoJo) and then doing a rolypoly. Bertie also takes his siestas there by the coolness of the open door.

Moving in a bit - the far door leads to the hallway, and opposite is the girls' room with our room on the right. It really is a myriad of doors here and quite fun to run around and pop up in the least expected place.Standing in front of the couch now - this door leads onto the first hallway and the stairs, with the sliding door on the right. This mirror is the only one in the house! Can you see our flying pig at the top of the photo....shocks everyone who comes in, the latest being Papy who thought it was a bat! (Didn't say whether he thought it was real or not....)And the final view - you can see our Birthday Wall where currently LissaLou has her photos up. Soon it will be Baby JoJo's turn!

Our Halls

2009-03-10T01:22:00.004Z

Last month I started you on a tour of our house with a peek at our kitchen so let's carry on where we left off. Halls may not be all that exciting but they are jolly useful places!

I would just add that most these photos were taken the afternoon before Mum and Evs arrived, when after hours of scrubbing, the place was unusually tidy (gleaming even) - it really isn't generally like that!

At the top of the stairs opposite the kitchen is this random little hallwayleading to the balcony -one of three entrances to it. The upstairs was initially two bedrooms and a living room that you had to go through to get to the stairs but with all the family that keeps coming to stay, they decided another separate room was more useful, so they made various changes and added in this sliding door. Actually, first they added the doorway but the door only came a couple of years later! I was rather relieved to see it when we moved in, as it offers a bit more privacy and security.

This corridor used to be full of lots and lots and lots of junk which appeared to belong to no one in particular. Gradually, we have chucked items (we try to do it discreetly as Bertie's mum is very much a hoarder!) and moved others to hidden recesses downstairs. Now it is a lovely little space to sit and read or relax - very helpful with all the people currently in the house! We can't let Baby JoJo crawl unsupervised here as he heads straight for the stairs.

Through the sliding door to the right is this other hall - from this view the kitchen is at the far end on the right, the door and stairs are on the left and then the blue bit is the bathroom and the nearest door the girl's room. I love maps and we have two here - on the left is a very interesting National Explorer one of the Caribbean........and on the right is this one of Guadeloupe. It is fun to look at it and work out where you have been or are going (or which part of the coast was in the photo Mum took from the plane - working this one out took an hour of staring!).

Beefing It Up

2009-03-10T00:54:00.006Z

Our neighbour's son came round on Saturday selling beef as he had just slaughtered his cow (which had been pastured near Pika), so Bertie put our names down for 2 and a half kilos. It turned up yesterday morning for a bargain €20 and this morning I set myself to chopping and cutting and grounding before freezing - it was a long process! Thanks to mum who gave an experienced hand and had the bright idea of sharpening the knife on the stone wall!
In the end, I put about 700g in my little blender to try and make minced meat - not quite as good as a real mince machine would produce but it did the job! I have been searching for mince for weeks so it was lovely to be able to make a spaghetti bolognese at last (I also slipped in the red wine Evs brought me from the plane - delicious!).

I have frozen 1 kilo of chopped beef, which I shall no doubt put in a stew or casserole of some type, and I have frozen a steak of 350g for Bertie and I to enjoy one evening (with a glass of orange juice for maximum iron absorption!). I was feeling rather cheated as I surveyed the big bone that was included, until mum came up with the obvious suggestion of making beef stock and that is now boiling up with some veg and a bay leaf - umm, it smells lovely!
Following all this beefiness, I decided to have a look online for more info on this subject and I found this website of particular interest. Bertie has assured me our cow was definitely grass-fed (no grain-fed cows in Guadeloupe he said emphatically, and judging by all the cows randomnly grazing in fields along the side of the roads I can believe that!) and it was nice to find out how good for us that is! It is lower in fat and saturated fat and higher in Omega 3 fat and vitamin E - hurrah!

However, I was interested to note that as a result of it being less fatty, it is much easier to overcook, leaving you with dry food. I had noticed this in my bolognese, so I will have to pay more attention to the cooking process next time.

I have been reading about people who buy half or quarter of a cow straight from the farmer and I am musing on the possibility of doing this back home. You would need a mighty big freezer - and what happens if the power goes off for a long time... Oh yes, that only happens here in Guadeloupe!

Anyway, if you have any beef recipes that you would recommend, do let me know!

Peeking At Pika: Cythere

2009-03-09T19:58:00.000Z

Sorry for the delay in the next installment of my Peeking at Pika series - I can only put it down to having visitors here!

C is finally for (Pomme or Prune) Cythere Site Ambarella

An interesting part of preparing these posts is finding all the english names for fruits and vegetables I only know in French. It turns out the cythere has many many names, including Otaheite apple, Golden apple and Tahitian Apple or Quince, so take your pick for your favourite one!

There are many fruits here which are "Pomme something" including maracudja, mango, callebasse, cannelle and even pomme de terre comes to mind. What is it with the word apple that it is applied so liberally, I wonder...

Cythere season was during the couple of months before Christmas, when we had them in abundance and enjoyed a cythere (or two or three) a day. They were very welcome as no other fruits were available. Now we have one every now and then.

We have three trees I think and they are so tall, it is rather hard to see the top where all the fruit is. As a result, it is not a fruit that you pick - you have to wait for the it to fall first!

When it is not yet ripe, the fruit is green and very sour. It then is ready to eat when it turns yellow, although it is still very hard and has quite a tart taste. When it goes soft it is no longer good. It has quite a bit of flesh but on the inside there is a very strange large stone with spiky bits all over it.Aside from eating cytheres, we also make a lovely juice when it is still green but it definitely needs sweetening! Bertie makes it by the rather time-consuming method of taking off the flesh and blending with water then sieving several times, though it still remains thick. Others just blend the whole fruit, stone included, but I am not sure if that is very good for your blender! We have also been given some jam made from cythere - with the stones still included!

Good for you

There is not an abundance of information on the cythere but it seems to contain iron, calcium and vitamin C too.

Sources: wikipedia http://caribfruits.cirad.fr/fruits_des_antilles/pomme_cythere http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/ambarella_ars.html www.cess-martinique.com/alimentation.html

The Strike Is Over. Long Live The Strike!

2009-03-07T18:56:00.003Z

We were expecting the end on Monday but in the end it carried on a bit longer as the LKP tried to get various organisations including Medef (the bosses for Carrefour etc) to sign up - unsuccessfully it appears. I hadn't realised when we went to Carrefour last Saturday that we were supposed to be boycotting it - well no one told me! No wonder it was so quiet.

However, the agreement (with 165 points) was signed on Wednesday and the people of Guadeloupe were told to get back to work and in fact work twice as hard as usual to provide the money for the extra €200 a month that the lowest earners in the island will be receiving.

But ending a strike of 44 days isn't all that simple it would seem. The schools have been reopening bit by bit and the pupils returning in dribs and drabs - LissaLou will have to wait to Monday now. As to how they are going to make up all the lost time, well that remains to be seen. Bertie went back to his private lessons on Thursday so it will be nice to see a bit more income again but with all the extra lessons pupils are going to get he may have to jiggle his timetable a lot more.

Carrefour was closed due to its staff striking on Thursday and is again today. Yesterday we had no water and electricity again. Various other shops are still closed and those that are open have bare shelves. We are also wondering how the island's bosses are going to work out who will and won't be paid for not working during this time.

Other signs that Guadeloupe has resumed normal business - the roads are chockablock with cars (I would love to see how the air pollution has been affected over the last 6 weeks) and we went to the (finally open) Post Office and faced a queue of, oh 30 people. Somethings never change!

I am keeping my eyes open to see the hard-earned results of this strike: the price of petrol going down as well as the cost of the 100 most necessary basic items...

What The Girls Have Been Up To

2009-03-07T18:24:00.009Z

And we thought the Carnival was over! The girls have had great fun dressing up with whatever they can find and marching round the house with their Carnival song (very realistic too) and barely a day goes by without it

This was last Thursday when we had a friend of LissaLou's over. After the Carnival, we went on to Activity Time and they had a great time making birthday cards for a cousin, puppets, daffodils, drawing...all with Mamie's new ducklings in the background! (We are looking forward to Duck a l'orange...)

Beautiful Guadeloupe

2009-03-07T17:44:00.004Z

Just to assure you that there is more to this beautiful island than striking, here are some pictures from our day out last Wednesday, driving across La Traversee through the mountainous Basse-Terre then up round the west coast before returning home.

We stopped off at la Cascade aux Ecrevisses and had a great time bathing in the freeeeeezing cold river! (Didn't see any ecrevisses - shrimps though!)
After a picnic lunch we carried on to Pointe Noire and looked out westNever can resist a few coconut trees!Then we headed north to Deshaies and admired the pretty bay there

I think this boat's name is I can't hear...the mind boggles!

Bertie's sister Nadia and her daughter and friend were kind enough to take Mum and Evs in their car and it was very funny driving behind their erratic stop-starting as they enabled Evs to take lots of photos at random points in the journey. We were slightly concerned when we saw cameras shoved out of both windows but happily no casulties.

Nadia's car struggles up hills whilst ours had worn brakes (since replied, hurrah!) so we screeched our way down them. I suggested to Bertie we tie them together but he didn't seem to think that this was such a good idea...

This was the first day of major rain since the Londoners arrived - typical! But it cleared in the afternoon and all in all was a lovely day.

A Nice Day Out

2009-03-01T00:07:00.007Z

Our church organised a morning walk and afternoon bathe for Ash Wednesday - happily everyone had petrol to get us there and our friends gave us a lift to sort out our lack of car space. We began the day at a place called An Ba Bwa La (looks exciting but simply means In The Woods!) which actually begins at the train station for the little Beauport train we took through sugar cane fields. No sign of the train though - presumably on strike for a better way of life.
Our walk was a good two hours and (we reckon, based on our exhausted feet and burnt arms and necks) at least four miles. At least! The scenery was beautiful, with all sorts of delightful plants to admire and photograph. On the far right top and bottom is the mahogany tree and its seed - looks nothing like the wood I must say. The bottom left photos are of a baby version of the passion fruit - delicious! No idea about the names of the others but they look pretty.There were also plenty of sugar cane fields to admire - these should be being harvested right now but...you guessed it, they are not due to the strike! However, the owner was driving through and he kindly gave Bertie a couple of canes to enjoy. Mum enjoyed using them as a Lechy stick!
The second part was through the woods and much cooler to our relief. Unfortunately, LissaLou spent a good hour of the walk moaning and crying - must work on her walking skills, as it is something we love and intend to do lots of in the future.

Baby JoJo was in our backpack for the first time and loved it - look at the cheeky boy stealing a bit of bread from the pocket!

After completing our walk and enjoying our well-deserved sandwiches, we set off for the beach. We returned to Porte d'Enfer a place that Bertie and I visited as a young, carefree couple in 2000 and have never been back to since - what a difference a few extra children makes!

It is a beautiful calm lagoon, great for children, with a grassy area all the way down the side complete with trees for shade and huts for picknickers (though you have to get there very early to bag one of these!) and a distinct lack of sand, hurray! At the end of the lagoon is the actual Porte d'Enfer, or Gate to Hell, where the Atlantic and Caribbean meet and the sea becomes ferocious. Venture along here at your peril! For some interesting details on the name (in french) have a look at this blog I happened upon.

Mum and Evs went for a walk along the cliff to Trou a Man Coco where you are meant to see water crashing in but for some reason they didn't (oh of course, it was on strike!). I must look at my photos from 2000 and see what it was like on our visit. The girls enjoyed the sea, Baby JoJo had a happy time scrabbling in the dirt, and Bertie made a great comeback to triumph in a game of Petanque with some of the other guys!

We stopped off at a viewing point of the magnificent coast before returning home.
Ah!
Mum and Evs have the proper Mother & Daughter photos but I quite liked this angle! Can you guess who is who....
We all slept very well that night! The only downside is that Bertie lost his mobile phone somewhere on the 2 hour walk...so we may be doing it all again!

Mardi Gras

2009-02-28T23:44:00.005Z

You are all surely very familiar with the significance of Mardi Gras (fat Tuesday!) so I won't go into it all for you. However I will tell you about how it is celebrated here and I have stolen some of Evs' and Mum's photos as my camera, lovely as it is, just doesn't do night ones!

Regular readers of this blog will know that there have been carnival groups parading around the town mostly on Sunday evenings since Christmas as they prepare for the Real Deal during Carnival Week. Each Saturday a particular town or two welcomes all the groups from all over the island for a parade, however, this didn't happen this year due to the strike. Then on Mardi Gras the folk are supposed to go to Pointe a Pitre for a Big Parade which has all sorts of contests - best costumes etc - none of which happened, again due to the strike.

Instead we had a few of our local groups parade round late in the evening dressed up in amazing costumes - they had hats as big as their bodies! Must steal Mum's photo of them! We went and watched with our oh so very excited girls (who have got the carnival walk mastered down to a t!) and had a late night as a result. The funniest part was LissaLou has been very proud of her lack of fear in the face of the masks worn by one group (monkey or old hag ones) - in distinct contrast to her mum and sister! Not so tonight! The monkey came dancing up to her and she crept further and further back eventually hiding herself behind me! She was able to laugh it off afterwards.

Mardi Gras is celebrated in the UK with pancakes (Shrove Tuesday) so Bertie kindly made us some of his delicious ones. However, here they celebrate with beignets, which actually means doughnuts but as Bertie pointed out, they aren't really doughnuts as we know them (perhaps beignets pays...!). Here are a batch made by Mamie - they are much less sweet (I think the only sugar is what they are dipped in) and very tasty. We polished them off!Mardi Gras is of course followed by Mercredi des Cendres (Ash Wednesday) and the beginning of Careme (Lent). The Carnival period culminates on this day with some more parading that we and the girls enjoyed watching, but this time everyone is dressed in black and white, funeral colours here. Whose funeral, I hear you ask... it is in fact the funeral of poor old Vaval, the King of the Carnival; a Guy Fawkes type figure, he is carried in front of the parade and then taken off to be burnt somewhere. Until next year!
Only it isn't...for some reason Carnival manages to reappear again for one final day of parading called Mi-Careme which is in mid-March. Perhaps this day won't be affected by the strike.

As for Lent here, we are on a mainly Catholic island so it is taken very seriously by some, with no meat on Wednesdays and Fridays and no amusements (dancing etc) for the particularly dedicated. Interestingly, the evangelical community take no part in Lent whatsoever as they see it purely as a Catholic celebration, so the (Anglo Saxon perhaps) practice of given up chocolate crisps etc for the period is not found on the island. I think I have already given up enough during the strike so I don't think I will choose anything particularly this year!

What We Have Been Doing

2009-02-24T20:58:00.004Z

Last Wednesday Mum and Evs arrived safely into wartorn, oops I mean beautiful Guadeloupe! We had been concerned about whether their flight would be cancelled, the airport open, cars allowed in to collect them etc etc but all was fine, hurrah! We didn't have very much in the way of food (especially milk) but it has given the prayer "Give us this day our daily bread" a much more powerful meaning, and do you know what....God always provides!

As our movements have been restricted (barricades are still in place) we have enjoyed chilling out at home and in the local area, including swaying on the hammock on our balcony - is it just me, or does Mum look slightly ill at ease here?We have also been for a walk by the sea, showed our visitors the town centre (all one street of it!) and visited Pika a couple of times. Mum and Evs have been great keeping the children entertained (such patience!) and trying out all the local cuisine with great gusto. And of course, Evs has been relishing all the photo opportunities that have come her way. Her french is limited (we have heard an awful lot of "je ne comprends pas!") but she can perfectly comprehend Mamy and Papy pointing at her and the camera and themselves!
What with all these visitors hogging my computer, my online time has been limited (no bad thing!) and Bertie hasn't been able to watch the tv each evening (ditto!) So just to catch up on some pre-family arriving events....

I managed a chocolate spice cake for Bertie to celebrate St Valentine's - it tasted more like a pain d'epice and I wouldn't do it again but he (and the girls!) appreciated it all the same.

Papy has replaced his pig that went AWOL with two more who will hopefully stay put (especially given they cost €150 each!)The strike is still on - into week 5 now. In fact, as I was writing my post last Tuesday, I heard loud noises which turned out to be gunshots as the gendarmes and youth of the town met up at our local shopping centre. Since then, there has been a continuation of the unrest in certain areas but we are not particularly aware of it and our local Carrefour has reopened so we have food now, what a relief! Having said which, I have told Mum not to tell you all how well we have been eating off the land, or you might lose sympathy for us!

The French Government have made an offer but I don't think it has gone down very well so the strike is still officially on. This week is supposedly half term so we are waiting to see if the schools reopen next Monday. In the meantime the girls continue to enjoy playing at home - here is CassCass with her cousin.
I have managed a month of getting up early now and I would even more heartily recommend it to you all! (except those with 4 month old twins....) As the sun is rising earlier I am trying to bring back my wake up time accordingly with my eventual goal being 5am - can I do it?!

Hopefully I will be back soon to let you know about our Mardi Gras celebrations and our family trip to Port Louis & Petit Canal tomorrow.

Peeking At Pika: Coco

2009-02-24T20:19:00.000Z

A bit belated this week, but we continue our Cs with

C is for Coco Koko Coconut

From the many photos that appear on my blog, you may have realised by now that the cocotier is my favourite tree here by far! The gently swaying leaves in the wind, the sturdy slim curved trunk...I really know that I am in the Caribbean when I see one.

How a coconut tree grows

The first sign of a coconut tree growing is a little leaf beginning to poke out of a dry coconut. You can see these lying around on the ground at Pika when they have fallen off the tree and been left to themselves.

Soon it will grow roots and attach firmly to the ground, and thus a new cocotier is born.
Look hard and you will see the above rotting coconut with its roots and all at the bottom of this tree.

These two coconut trees are in fact related, as the one on the right has grown from a coconut that fell off the one on the left.

Developing coconuts

As the tree grows, amongst the leaves grow branches (grappes) full of coconuts.

On the left-hand side below you can see them still on the tree. On the top right is a grappe that has been removed from the tree (and several of the coconuts removed for our personal consumption!). Free of coconuts on the bottom right, you can see the brown pods which they were previously connected to.

The new leaves and branches grow out of the top of the coconut tree whilst the old ones gradually dry and fall off. The youngest coconuts will be at the top whilst the older and dry ones will be lower down until they too eventually fall off.

Getting coconuts off the tree

You can wait for them to fall off naturally, but this usually only happens when they are dry (unless you have a hurricane) so if you want fresh coconut water you can...

Get out your ladder (only for those with a head for heights!)

Get a pole with a hook and try and encourage them down (best for those with a good aim)

Fresh coconut

When you have taken a fresh coconut off the tree it only remains fresh for a couple of days. Chop it open with a machete, making sure to get the positioning just right so that you open up the little hole as shown. This allows you to drink the sweet water directly from the coconut (if you can!) or go the easier route and either pour it into a cup or put in a straw. Then split it in two and inside you will find a white jelly-like substance which you can eat. The part of the coconut shell you chop off is just the right shape for a spoon!

Dried coconut

After the coconut has dried out and fallen off the tree, it can be collected and shaken. If you can hear water sloshing around then it is fine, if not discard it. Interestingly, if you pick a fresh coconut it won't ever become a dry one, it will simply rot. This process has to happen on the tree.

Once you have chopped it open, you will find the dried coconut meat as you can see below. We grate it to make dried coconut (for cereal, cakes, sweets) or pass it through the centrifuge to make coconut milk either for cooking or for making coconut sorbet. I have frozen the grated stuff but not tried freezing the milk; otherwise it needs using up quickly before it goes off.

In the top right of the above picture you can actually see the new coconut tree growing, called the coconut heart. I have seen these sold in tins in the supermarket and apparently they are a delicacy, but I wasn't overly taken with the taste of this fresh one. At the bottom right is a dried coconut Bertie chopped the outer husk off. This will remain usable for a while and can be transported much more easily (this particular one is for Evs to take home with her). It makes me think of funfairs! The outer husk makes very good fire material.

Good for you

Indeed it is! There is a huge list of benefits given by the Coconut Research Centre, Living Foods and Organic Facts which I will leave you to look at yourself if you are interested. Its nutritional benefits are largely due to the presence of lauric acid, which is also present in breastmilk. Furthermore, the argument that it is bad for you because it is high in saturated fats has been questioned.

Coconut meat is high in protein and a good source of iron, phosporus and zinc whilst being low in sugar.

Coconut oil is particularly good for you - for more information have a look at these blogs that I have been reading recently: the Nourishing Gourmet and Passionate Homemaker, which also gives you non-culinary ways of using coconut oil, such as for your hair, skin, deodorant and in soap.

There are two types of coconut oil however - copra oil (made from the dry coconut flesh) is to be avoided, as it is refined, being purified, bleached, and deodorized to clean it after being smoked to obtain the oil. It can also be hydrogenated. Rather, choose virgin coconut oil, which is made from in various ways from the meat of fresh coconuts. For a coconut-filled island, there is surprisingly little coconut oil available here, but I am looking forward to getting some when we are next in Capesterre. We have also thought about trying to make our own.

Coconut water, besides being an excellent source of potassium, sugar, fibre, proteins, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, also provides an isotonic electrolyte balance. Being naturally sterile, when it is used directly from the nut, it can be used for energency plasma transfusions and as an intravenous fluid. It is also a good drink for people convalescing.

The rest of the coconut tree can be used in a myriad of ways - for example our local restaurant has coconut leaves decorating and providing shelter along the outside.

Our use of coconut is pretty simple though - and with the number of coconuts we get through, it is nice to have so many trees available to us at Pika.

Sources: Wikipedia http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-320.html http://www.alternative-healthzine.com/html/0108_2.html

Photos: All from Pika unless otherwise stated

Five Years Old!

2009-02-24T19:50:00.005Z

Friday was the long-awaited day which has been LissaLou's thoughts for the past 11 months and 27 days...LissaLou reached the grand old age of five! Amazing....

We decorated our living room with balloons, photos through her little life and then called her through to open her gifts - we were delighted that Mum and Evs had brought them over from the UK with them, as the closed shops here would have meant nothing to open otherwise!

She was very pleased with her Polly Pocket swimming pool set from her BF back home as well as a PlayMobil horse and cart from her auntie, but oh the arguments since between her and CassCass and Stella as to who gets to play with what! Baby JoJo doesn't get involved, he just heads straight for the toys and pops them in his mouth!

Off to Pika for our birthday celebration - a very fine BBQ courtesy of Papa and can you guess what is boiling in the pot...
Sweet potates freshly picked from Mamie's garden!Papa put up a second swing to the girls' delight and they spent practically the whole time on them. Unfortunately they are quite far from each other so the pusher has to run between them both manically! Evs spent so long pushing CassCass that I was tempted to chop her arm off and leave it there so the rest of her could get a rest....

Papy presented LissaLou with a beautiful bouquet - and the last maracudja at Pika!
We enjoyed having Mum and Evs here to share the special day - as well as Tatie Nadia, Agathe (whose car we have), Tatie Felicianne, Mamie and Papy, and some friends who popped in for a branch (as you do).

And the point culminant for LissaLou was....her gorgeous chocolate cake made in a heart shape courtesy of Papa (thanks to Latana for sending Swiss chocolate over with Mum! Delicious!)
But what the photos don't show is that we just could not light those candles for love or money... there was a fierce wind blowing at Pika all day and every time Bertie lit one it went straight out, despite being the magic relightable ones! So her blowing out photo was somewhat posed!

Bertie had to pop off for work and the others gradually left so we were pleased to enjoy a somewhat quieter and more calm Pika in the afternoon.

This Is Gwada

2009-02-18T00:06:00.003Z

Day 28 of the strike. This week we have moved up a gear to "cyclone force 9".

The large shops are only open when the gendarmes (army) are present...
....the additional gendarmes flown in are too busy facing militants setting up road barricades and putting cars on fire etc to assist people shopping....
....so the shops are closed and our cupboards are increasingly empty.

The LKP (grevistes) are not directly responsible for the violence of (usually) young people at night, but they do not seem to be condemning it or helping the matter at all....
...the LKP leader has even said that if any of the strikers are harmed, "il y aura des morts". Responsible leadership indeed.

The French government are certainly not helping the matter at all....
....Sarkozy has not given the crisis any time of day whatsoever....
....the agreement made with the Secretary for Overseas Departments and approved by the different players was refused by the powers that be - a real source of anger here.

We are wondering what lies ahead - another week perhaps? Another month even?

And then what? It has been estimated that 1 in 8 workers will lose their jobs as a result of this strike, with up to 1,400 businesses going under. And how will students make up over a month of lost education before their exams in June?

How timely amongst all of this that my current chapter in my book is on contentment:
"for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances". Phil 4:11.
And that includes strikes and unrest!

11 Months!

2009-02-16T23:27:00.000Z

Baby JoJo is developing so much at the moment, it is wonderful to see but amazing how much changes in the space of a week, let alone a month.
He is like CassCass, he always has his mouth wide open and his tongue sticking out. But still no attempt to suck his thumb! He now has two teeth at the top and four at the bottom - and boy does he use them! Both for chewing absolutely everything (vegetable, animal or mineral) but also for biting - ouch! Mostly me, which I am not too impressed with. He will be lucky if I keep on feeding for another month at this rate...though because he doesn't suck his thumb, I don't think he will be as easy to wean!!

We have started reading together and he really enjoys it. We look at the book and his face lights up. When it is a peekaboo book, he bursts into laughter. I am hoping for another bookworm for a child (LissaLou is definitely but CassCass not so much).

Much to our relief, he has learnt to go backwards down things. Now we don't have to worry so much about him climbing up on to the sofa or CassCass' bed, as he can safely get himself off. He even used the method to get off our (much higher) bed, and was rather surprised to come down with such a bump!
He is less banging and throwing his food and wisely choosing to put it into his mouth now, but he doesn't get the idea of cutlery yet. He drinks well from his cup though.

There is a bit less screeching and a very cute high-pitched cooing instead now. LissaLou keeps telling us he has said this or that word in french - for example he said " ma" according to her this week!

His favourite game is pulling the pen lid out that keeps the tv turned on - it drives the girls and their Daddy crazy as their programme disappears yet again. But Baby JoJo loves it, and turns round with a triumphant and delighted beam on his face displaying his trophy!

We have been working on the standing, and he can now keep up for a good minute or so - if somewhat wobbly. Today was all the more exciting as he stood and stood...and then took a mini step forward! Will we have a toddler soon I wonder....

Next post will be to celebrate his first year (si Dieu veut, as every phrase about the future is accompanied with here!)

Peeking At Pika: Citronnelle

2009-02-16T01:46:00.005Z

C is also for Citronnelle Sitronel Lemongrass

Citronnelle is a grass with no link to the citron whatsoever apart from having a lovely lemony smell. It is also known as cymbopogon citratus.

We have just the one bush at Pika and it is constantly being used for tisanes but there is still plenty more to be enjoyed. As a herbal medicine it has many benefits: reducing fevers, stomach cramps, flatulence and colic,
easing arthritic pain and general digestive aid to name but a few. Simply put a few leaves into boiling water and leave to infuse before enjoying, sweetened if prefered. We add it to our mint tea for the extra taste.
Citronnelle is also used for essential oil, where it is helps with mental fatigue and relaxes the nervous system as well as being an antiseptic.

However, my most very favourite aspect of the oil is that it is a mosquito repellent! And yes, it does actually seem to work! No need to put all sorts of chemicals on yourself, simply get some pure citronnelle oil (we bought some that is made in Marie-Galante) and rub it on, then enjoy a bite-free evening and the bonus of a beautiful aroma. Some people even plant citronnelle bushes around their house to keep out the mosquitoes.

Sources: http://www.citronnelle.eu/ http://www.ageless.co.za/lemon_grass.htm Wikipedia.fr

Photos: All photos from Pika unless otherwise stated

Peeking At Pika: Citron Vert

2009-02-16T00:52:00.006Z

C is also for Citron vert Sitron Lime

We have one citronnier at Pika and when it is in season it can produce up to 10kg of limes a week. We aren't the only ones to enjoy them - so many were "lifted" by people from the neighbouring land, that Mamie was eventually obliged to put up a wire fence around it to protect it.

Citron vert is an important part of West Indian cuisine - it is used for marinading and many dishes also have some squeezed in just before serving.

It also has an important use in another aspect of West Indian culture - rum! One of the main ways of drinking it here is CRS (citron, rum, sucre) but it is used in other punches. A non-alcoholic drink is freshly squeezed lime with sugar - very refreshing.
upload.wikimedia.org

Good for you

Limes are high in dietary fibre, vitamin C (though less than lemon), calcium, iron and copper and low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium.

Did you know - the British gave limes to their sailors during the 19th century to prevent scurvy (and thus give them the nickname limey...).

Sources: http://www.great-workout.com/nutrition/fruit/lime-nutrition-facts.cfm
Photos: All Pika unless otherwise stated

Peeking At Pika: Chataigne

2009-02-15T21:26:00.008Z

C is also for Chataigne pays Chatenn Breadnut

I never realised until recently that we have chataigniers at Pika, as I always thought they were arbre à fruit a pain (breadfruit trees). The two are so similar I am still confused between them , so I was interested to discover that they are actually two varieties of the same species, the main difference being the chataignier has seeds. In fact, I had to get back to the latin names to find accurate details, and I discovered a lot of websites talk about one and mean the other!

[Just to clarify for those who are interested, the two trees are both Artocarpus altilis but the chataigne is the seminifera variety or the Artocarpus camansi. Wikipedia, usually a wonderful source of information, seems to have got the details wrong on this one so don't go there!]

Whilst the name translates as chestnut, it is not related and as you can see from the pictures, it is not the same as the chestnut tree that we are familiar with.

The pyramid shaped tree is full of beautiful glossy green leaves and the flowers from which the fruit grows most of the year round.The chataigne is a spiky case (the breadfruit is much smoother) and inside is full of seeds, which Papy carefully sits and removes, separating them from the mush surrounding them.

The seeds will be boiled by Mamie and then enjoyed as they are by the family. However I see that people also cook them with meat or in a curry.

Good for you

The chataigne seeds are a good source of protein, minerals and niacin and are low in fat, and they also contain animo acids. Unfortunately I am missing out on this goodness as I don't really like them!

Sources: http://www.montosogardens.com/artocarpus_camansi.htm http://www.ntbg.org/breadfruit/breadfruit/

http://caribfruits.cirad.fr/fruits_des_antilles/chataigne_pays http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/the-scene/01/10/tastes-like-home-60/

Photos: All Pika unless otherwise stated

Peeking At Pika: Cerise

2009-02-15T19:12:00.010Z

C is also for Cerise Ceriz peyi Cherry

There are many fruits and vegetables here which have the little tag "pays" or "peyi" added at the end. What it really means is it is a "wannabe" cherry! It's quite like one, but the differences are major in my opinion!

From my investigation for this post, I discovered it is actually called an acerola or Barbados cherry or wild crapemyrtle.

This is one of our two cerisiers at Pika and currently not in fruit, although they have a few periods of harvest through the year.

Local cherries are small and orange or red when they are ripe, and made up of three little segments with pips. It takes a lot of chewing and spitting out to get the fleshy part out. Oh yes, "pays" also means "far more complicated"!We enjoy the cherries as they are or else they also make a very fine juice, blended with water and then sieved several times to get rid of the seed part. They aren't entirely sweet (many fruits here are tangy rather than sweet and this is one of them) unless they are very ripe. http://acerola.win.mofcom.gov.cn/www/25/acerola/img/200762810548.jpg

Good for you

It is one of the richest natural sources of vitamin C and also a good antioxidant.

Acerola also contains: calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, and Beta-Carotene. It also has plenty of uses in herbal medicine, including fighting fungi.

Sources: http://www.nutritionalcenter.com/site/en/reference/nutrients/view/190 http://www.rain-tree.com/acerola.htm

Photos: All Pika unless otherwise stated

Peeking At Pika: Carambole

2009-02-15T06:00:00.002Z

C is also for Carambole Karambol Starfruit

There is one star fruit tree at Pika and it produces copious amounts of fruit in July - August - September (that seems to be the best time for fruit here) and then as far as I can tell just a few here and there throughout the rest of the year. Though I live in hope of another bumper crop soon!

http://caribfruits.cirad.fr/fruits_des_antilles/carambole

The leaves of the tree often turn yellow, and from afar you can be tricked into thinking that there is a juicy starfruit waiting to be picked...nope, just a leaf!

This is the only star fruit on our tree right now, hanging straight from the branch itself (they are usually on the smaller branches).

A picture for anyone unfamiliar with the interior. They are ripe when yellow and we eat them by slicing off the edge of the five points and the ends, then cutting them in stars. I eat the whole thing pips and all, but the girls are a bit fussier!http://www.malaysiahalalfoods.com/pics/starfruit.jpg

They are a great first fruit for babies - all three of ours have enjoyed star fruit before they began solids. This is CassCass enjoying hers and we have a similar photo of LissaLou back home! They suck suck away until there is very little left!Whilst we usually just eat them as they are, their other delicious use is as a juice. Cut into chunks and put through the centifruge is the best method, as unlike many juices here, you get to enjoy the pure juice with no added water or sugar.

Good for you

According to Wikipedia they are close to being a super fruit, which is good to know! They are rich in antioxidants and vitamin C, and low in sugar, sodium and acid. Plus they are a good source of all of these: vitamin A, potassium, calcium, fibre, phospohorus, iron, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, tryptophan, 16 amino acids and oxalic acid.

Watch out

Oxalic acid can be harmful for those with kidney problems. The consumption of star fruit can also interact with certain medications.

All photos from Pika unless otherwise stated

Peeking At Pika: Canne

2009-02-15T02:00:00.000Z

C is for Canne à sucre Kann Sugar Cane

Originally Pika was, like much of Guadeloupe, just a big sugar cane field, but when Papy bought it in 1959 he started planting different things. He kept a lot of the cane and this as well as the cane on his land in Le Moule was taken by the family to the factories of Grosse Montagne and Le Moule to make sugar. The entire family was involved in this work and Bertie has recounted to me how his mum was tending the cane when she went into labour with him!

Now however there is just a small patch of cane left, purely for family consumption. And even that is thin on the ground right now as the new cane grows.

I wrote a bit about sugar cane in this post but just to remind you, it is from the grass family and is planted from an existing cane; a tige (stalk) is made up of lots of noeuds (sections of the cane) and three of these are planted horizontally in the ground. The new cane takes a minimum of 5 or 6 months to grow and when mature the stalk is chopped down leaving the root to produce a new cane. This cycle carries on harvest after harvest but as the amount of cane produced diminishes, at some point a new cane will be planted.

The harvest season here is February to June (dry season) and the cane is either chopped and tied into bundles using the wispy leaves at the top, or the field is burnt, which amazingly doesn't affect the roots or stalk. Once it is harvested it is taken to the factory to be processed into sugar or rum. According to Bertie, outside of this season any sugar cane is taken to the distillery instead.

After this, there is a helpful description of the sugar making process here. Basically the juice is extracted, cleaned with slaked lime, evaporated into a syrup, boiled to form sugar crystals and passed through a centrifuge to separate the crystals and remaining liquid. Raw sugar is a brown sticky substance which is then refined to make white sugar as we know it.There are two side-products: molasses is the remaining syrup and can be sent to the distillery to make alcohol. After the cane is crushed and the juice removed, the remaining fibre is known as bagasse. On burning this, sufficient heat is produced to boil water and create high-pressure steam, which in turn drives a turbine to produce electricity for the factory as well as create additional steam needed for the process. I was interested to note that this is a very environmentally-friendly way of creating electricity.

But back to our cane in Pika where the process is a lot simpler! The cane is chopped, the ends and the exterior are chopped off (by someone with a sharp knife and a very steady hand - not me!) then handed out for our enjoyment. Chew it, suck it, then spit it out, and enjoy all that lovely cane juice! It won't last very long so make the most of it whilst it is there!
Here is CassCass enjoying a piece cut by Papy above (see all those stains down her t-shirt - that was not her first!)
Good for you...

Yes and no is the quick answer to this question! Sugar in its refined form is BAD BAD BAD! Did you catch that everyone...! Even in moderation! I could go into length about this but I shall keep my post short(er) and just give you some places to check this out further if you are interested:

*Organic Nutrition gives a very thorough list of the problems with sugar, not least its addictiveness
*Passionate Homemaker not only explains why we should avoid sugar but also what we could replace it with
*If even a few of these risks are the case, sugar should definitely be off our shopping list!

On the other hand, sugar cane (pre-refined) is fine (in moderation of course), even including the nutritional benefit of being high in riboflavin. This site claims many more benefits but I haven't researched them all!
As for me, I shall continue to enjoy fresh sugar cane when it is available, try and keep low the amount of sugar we take in (to the astonishment of most people I know here, Baby JoJo is still sugar-free!), though on this sugar producing island this is hard work and of course not helping the local economy. I would like to do away with sugar entirely when we return home and replace it with healthier (always in moderation!) alternatives, but we shall see...

Sources: www.sucrose.com/lcane wikipedia Bertie All other sources cited
Photos: Pika

Our Struggles Have Been Noticed

2009-02-12T23:23:00.002Z

Well poor old Gwada is barely getting a mention in thr French papers but we have been referred to by the Times! Read it here...

Pa Ni Ayen

2009-02-12T16:54:00.003Z

Is what you are hearing most everywhere now, as the strike is well into its third week and shows no sign of relenting. Translation: there isn't any! Milk was the latest casualty today, along with various other essentials. Pretty much every shop has been closed this week with a few notable exceptions - who are unsurprisingly sold out! I am getting a feel for what it must have been like in war time Britain living under rationing....

Still, it is always good to learn to make do with less, and today's reading was on godliness with contentment - very timely!

From my understanding of current events, the grevistes are waiting for an agreement on an extra €200 for all who are low paid before they even consider going any further with the other 999 demands they have made. OK, slight exaggeration, they number about 145!

To provide additional support Martinique has joined in the strike too, though it does seem slightly unjust that they will get the same result having striked for 3 weeks less!

On the good side, Bertie queued for petrol for a mere 25 minutes on Saturday so we have been able to go out a bit this week. On Monday we went to Pointe a Pitre and watched the demonstrators march past singing their charming "Guadeloupe is ours so go away" song and yesterday we headed off to the beach at Ste Anne, visiting the girls' cousins Severine and Sylvain who live there too. The weather wasn't very favourable but there is something very special about sitting in the sea with the rain drumming down on you, watching the coconut trees sway in the strong wind!

I have babysat twice this week for a friend whose husband is away in Haiti with JEM - her three children are a lovely trio so a pleasure to look after. And now I am making another court bouillon, following the success of the last, but would you know it, I peeled the wrong bananas!!

One week till Mum and Evie arrive...the countdown is on!

The Big Clean Up

2009-02-11T00:17:00.004Z

The week isn't complete without a visit to Pika! Bertie put his nephews back to work to finish the big cleaning project they started last week.

We were also joined by our friends who gave a hand cleaning and weeding. They found the latter so relaxing they are planning to return later in the week to prune and weed some more (though they will bring hats and gloves and a radio this time!)

Our conversation ranged from the blessing of loving parents and a close relationship between grandparents and grandchildren to political discourse on the sad state of Guadeloupe (I discovered that it is basically in the economic hold of 8 rich families). These two ladies both love their island and its natural riches passionately and we decided that on a positive note, the strike is showing people that they can live without Carrefour (but only just!) and how much the land has to offer.

As you can see from the photos, some of us didn't do very much at all (I discovered I got a lot more done with Baby JoJo safely in his chair...) and there was also time for a bit of fishing. The girls and I entertained ourselves throwing baby mangos into a tub and drawing pictures of the free-range hens. I was amazed at how happily and quickly they followed Mamie when she called for them to return to their house!

We quenched our thirst on coconut water and were astonished to find on finishing our work that it was 2pm - no wonder our stomachs were rumbling!
The boys have done a great job cleaning and you would not recognise the place now. Here is a photo of before...
....and after!

They are thinking of putting tiles down on the floor. In any case, Baby JoJo can crawl around at his leisure now.

We disturbed many wasps in the course of the morning but it wasn't till we were finished that we had our only casualty - one popped up Mamie's skirt and stung her right on the....leg! (Well what did you think I was going to say!)

If the weather holds we may return later in the week - and this time avoid the hunger pangs by taking a barbeque with us.

Morning

2009-02-10T23:42:00.004Z

I think I have now managed two weeks of early rising (the alarm is set for 5.45am but often Baby JoJo wakes me earlier!) so half way to making it a habit, hurray!

I would very much recommend it to you as it is such a peaceful time and I actually look forward to it every day now. Of course, it is much easier getting up when the sun is (nearly) up rather than on a cold, snowy morning...I do have to take a cup of tea and wrap out to keep me warm in those early hours though!

Here was my balcony this morning (I creep out through this door from the hall so as not to wake anyone!)

Doors to our living room and our bedroom There was a beautiful full moon this morning

View from my chair! Is it the rising sun I wonder...Another early riser - Papy and Mamy are up at 5am - here is Papy getting ready to go to Pika. In fact he was the one who inspired these photos, as he told me to get one of the moon!

My lovely cocotier!

Then the children arrive and it is back to normality....this morning we enjoyed a delicious fruit salad thanks to a visit to the maraichers in Pointe a Pitre yesterday. How many fruits can you spot....

Water melon, guava, banana, passion fruit, pineapple and mango. Topped with our first yoghurt in a fortnight - yum!

Carnaval Sunday In Our Town...

2009-02-10T22:38:00.008Z

...was cancelled due to the strike! So instead of having all the different groups from throughout the island parading around the town, we just had six local groups doing what is called a vide. All the people in the town came out to their gates to enjoy the event.

It was fun to watch, especially as the masks weren't in evidence this week. We even got a special viewing as two groups stopped in front of our house and performed for a while, before coming and asking Mamie to fill up their water bottles!

They always seems to parade around in the evening and I haven't successfully got any photos in the dark yet, so I was pleased to see them pass the house on the way to the meeting point whilst the sun was still out.Some of the instruments they have are small, big and massive drums, tambourine-like things, trumpets, conch shells (which just play one note!) and shakers made out of a fruit called calebasse. The children always march in the front, followed by the dancing ladies and then the (usually male) musicians.

The groups are always followed by a group of youngsters on bikes and motorbikes, then come all the cars stuck behind them.Baby JoJo claps along with the beat

This neighbour walks in the lead to warn traffic to make way"I love the carnival!" LissaLou told me

Activities

2009-02-10T22:14:00.005Z

We have now been on strike here for three weeks! Can you believe it! I am beginning to wonder if we will see work again before we leave...

There are lots of nice things about being on strike and one of those is having LissaLou and Bertie home. To keep LissaLou and CassCass occupied, I have started organising activities which start at 9am (when Baby JoJo goes to sleep) downstairs on the big table.

So far we have done lots of jigsaws - we have one where you put a sequence of three pictures together to tell a story and I got LissaLou to tell me the story in english and french which was fun to hear. We have worked a bit on numbers, particularly the teen ones and I was amazed to hear CassCass do all of the numbers from 1-10 and some from 11-20, in both languages! She has also grasped counting objects and can get it right sometimes.

Using the above mentioned jigsaw, we pkayed with Stella and Wilson the memory game where we had to find the matching pieces. It was hard! Having to remember the location of three cards rather than two during the turns of three other people was tough, but Stella managed splendidly. The rest of us depended on working out if they matched from the shape of the pieces!

One morning was a baking time - we have made several batches of scones now (no eggs!!) and they have all come out completely unscone like! Still, very tasty with some jam. We have also made lots of delicious bread since flour and yeast is something we have been able to buy. CassCass loves stirring and eating the dough, but LissaLou helps with most of the baking now. I keep trying to remember - it's all about PROCESS not PRODUCT. But I can't help intervening when the spoon goes in the mouth and then back in the bowl....!
One day I decided to hand over to Bertie and he got them painting leaves which produced some beautiful pictures and not a little boasting from him over his talent at activity organising! He used rainwater as apparently it creates a better effect. I was pleased at having the time to write one of my several overdue letters.

As the strike shows no sign of ending, I shall keep browsing through my Busy Books for more ideas of fun activities!

Practical Application

2009-02-10T21:39:00.006Z

After all that banana research I was inspired to put it into practice with a court buillon for lunch. I tried it with rice before but I think it tastes much better with bananas and racines (root veg).

Preparation (you should recognise these now!): three types of bananas, 3 poyo, a poto and a plantain, along with a madere.
Get a kind husband to peel the bananas (a sticky substance comes out that is hard to get off) and get rid of all the dirt and skin from the freshly dug up madere. These are popped together in boiling water for half an hour or so.Meanwhile the fish has been marinating in garlic and lemon juice.Prepare the sauce (spring onions, tomatoes, parsely and huile roucou straight from pika)Add the fish and simmer down for 20-30 minutesReady to eat!
This meal came out much better this time - I got a lot of positive comments from Bertie (evidently he knows it is the best way to get me to do it again!). CassCass and I both love the plantain, but unfortunately LissaLou hates the lot! Back to pasta for now...

Peeking At Pika: La Banane

2009-02-09T03:00:00.000Z

B is for Banane - Fig* - Banana

When is a tree not a tree....when it is a banana tree, which is in fact a plant, to be more precise the world's largest herb!

*We wondered why the creole chose to call them fig when they are nothing like figs but then discovered that in english they are called fingers so maybe there is a link there...

This has been such a complicated subject for me, I am only just getting my head around it now, after five visits to the West Indies! Bananas back in the UK are very straightforward - the only question for debate is fair trade or not, and now even that is resolved by shopping at Sainsburys. However, here there are many different varieties and names and ways of cooking and eating so it is helpful for me to have it all written down at last.

Firstly a bit on the banana tree itself. Thanks to Mamie and Bertie for taking the time out of their work to explain it to me several times last week!

The banana tree takes about six months to grow from a tiny plant to producing its one and only bunch of bananas. At some point during this period, small banana trees will begin to grow out of the root. These will then grow and produce their own bunches (regime) whilst the original tree will die once the bunch has been cut off and its stem will rot down.

Here are the new shoots coming through

Can you see here the new shoot on the right and the original (mummy) banana tree in the centreThis is what the stem looks like once its bunch has been cut off and it starts to rot awayYou can see here two trees still growing and their mummy trees in the centre which are now rotting away
The tree produces a purple flower, the banana heart, and the bananas begin growing inside. Courtesy of Mum
Courtesy of Mum

Gradually this drops down and the bananas develop at the top. As the bananas reach maturity, they usually have a blue plastic bag placed around them to protect them from hungry birds. Then when it is ready, the bunch is cut off above and below the bananas (the flower may well have dropped off by now) and taken off to sell or eat. They will still be green at this point and will ripen (all at more or less the same time) after several days.

At Pika they now grow four types (they used to grow a red one but not anymore):

We know it as plantain but it is known here as banane plantain or banane jaune or even banane blanc if you are speaking to Mamie! The creole is plantin. It is a larger more starchy fruit. At Pika they grow next to Bertie's bit of land.

You can see a bunch of plantain here growing on the tree then some we had at home that began green before ripening yellow. It looks mouldy but they are perfectly fine to eat! Top centre is a banane jumelle (you can see the split) which contains two bananas.

Cooking plantain - it is NOT eaten green and it is NOT eaten raw! When it is yellow, it is boiled in its skin and eaten as a starch with various dishes here. When it gets to the black yellow colour that you see above, it is much sweeter and great for frying - remember Bertie's delicious dessert of fried plantain and ice cream and chocolate sauce....ummm!

Next is what we would class as bananas (or green cooking bananas) but here they are known as poyo or banane verte when they are green and then figue when they are yellow. These are the bananas grown for exporting. Here they are on the tree (they grow down in the fond next to the stream) and then waiting to be sold at Mamie's.However, if they get to the yellow stage they get passed on to us!
Cooking - these are ONLY cooked when green and NOT in their skins. One of Mamie's special dishes from her home island of Marie-Galante is made with diced poyo. When they turn yellow they are enjoyed as normal eating bananas or put into delicious cakes, tarts etc.

Banane poto are fatter, shorter bananas and much rarer. You can see from the photo how they are almost angular in shape. They have a very sweet taste and like poyo can be eaten cooked when green (remove skins) or as dessert bananas when they are ripe.

Here is a ripe bunch on the right of this picture

Courtesy of Mum

What I found classed as ripe dessert bananas are here referred to as figue-pomme. These are quite fragile and don't travel well so they are not usually imported. They are NOT cooked, but kept until yellow and the skins are beginning to split when they can be enjoyed as a sweet dessert banana.

You can see the bunch of figue pomme growing (very high up!) and how far down its purple flower has gone.

And finally the banana leaf! Apparently in some countries these are eaten but here Bertie said he just knows of one dish with sweetcorn where it is wrapped in the leaf. They are very pretty though, don't you think!

Good for you

Bananas are full of good stuff, including potassium, iron, phosphore, calcium, and vitamins A and B, as well as being rich in fibre. Cooked plantain is higher on the nutritional scale in vitaims but similar in protein and fibre.

Not so good for the environment...

There was an interesting article on ekopedia about the harm that banana production does to the environment: monoculture means that the land which should be used for growing other produce is not, and therefore requires more basic produce to be imported. It is also accompanied by deforestation and a high use of pesticides, which is not healthy for the land or the worker. Banana production is worker-intensive and often the worker is not treated fairly or paid well. Not to mention the process that bananas go through to reach Europe and North America in optimum condition! At least we don't have to worry about that here!

The solution...go fair trade (and organic if possible)! Or else move over to Guadeloupe and enjoy the abundance of delicious bananas that come out of Pika!

Sources: www.caribfruits.cirad.fr/fruits_des_antilles/banane www.banana.com ekopedia wikipedia Bertie Mamie

Photos: Pika unless otherwise stated

Our Kitchen

2009-02-08T02:28:00.001Z

I have been meaning to give you a little tour around our house to give you an idea of where we spend our days.

Let's start in the kitchen...This is the first room you see when you come up the stairs and it didn't used to exist, it was just a cubby hole. But Bertie's brother Richard completely rebuilt it into what you see now. The glass cupboards were put in by his nephew recently. There is no gas supply in Guadeloupe so every household has a gas cannister - ours is hidden away from little fingers behind the cooker.

Here is my worktop - as part of Mamie's fondness of recycling, it is someone's old desk!In this cupboard is our glassware from Bertie's sister - our wedding present that we finally took ownership of last summer! Glass is not very good for us though - I shan't tell you how many items we've broken between us...Our very useful cupboard, the left shelves of which are reserved for Master JoJo when he visits the kitchen. Out come all the plastic bowls and lids to provide him endless entertainment. Thanks to my kind husband, I have these helpful hooks all the kitchen. Highly recommended when you are low on storage space.

Told you the freezer was small! Right now it is full of chicken stock and shredded coconut waiting to transformed into....something or another!

Happy Birthday To...

2009-02-07T18:07:00.004Z

A very Dear Dad!

We are sorry not to be celebrating with you - and to not even have managed a card due to the unforeseen closure of the Post Office for two weeks!! but we hope that you have a marvellous day and that those who are around spoil you rotten!

lots of love Heather & the Gang xxx

PS This photo summed up Dad showing the time, effort and concentration he put into getting my beloved camera (already a sacrificial gift from him!) back to me safe and sound and in one piece! Thanks again Dad!

Standing Ovation Please

2009-02-07T02:13:00.003Z

We have been having fun getting Baby JoJo onto his feet, letting go, then watching him flop down. However this time was different - he stood there unaided for a good 6 seconds! Can you see the delight and surprise on his face...! Each time he finds himself standing now he looks somewhat bemused and quickly slides down on to his bottom - secure again! He is also much more secure in water. When the paddling pool was out he held his own with the crazy girls around, and enjoyed crawling in and out at his leisure.

Is this another golfer on our hands.... Can you see him chasing after the yellow golf ball with a straw in his hand, presumably his baby sized club!

His new game is pulling everything he can off shelves - books, clothes, paper - it will all do fine. We follow closely at his heels clearing up the mess. Recently he found that beloved occupation of all babes - pulling the toilet paper off the roll. Uh oh!

Too many night wakings for my liking unfortunately. I usually just feed him in bed and fall asleep doing so, leaving him to do the same. However a couple of nights ago, we woke to him grumbling a bit - but he wasn't in the bed! Where had he gone... Bertie went off in the dark to investigate and found him under the bed of all places! We are still wondering how he got there as he wasn't crying so he presumably hadn't fallen off the bed.

Brr At The Beach

2009-02-05T16:53:00.006Z

For all you poor folk suffering in the snow, here are a few pictures of our trip to the beach yesterday. The water was very chilly (must have been about 22 degrees) so I had every sympathy with you all...! Bertie didn't even make it beyond his knees into the water, chicken!

We haven't been to Ste Anne for ages so it was lovely to be back again. The petrol stations have begun to reopen and there were queues and queues of cars outside them. The beach didn't seem affected by the strike - this is peak tourist season and it felt like it!

Fun in the water

Baby JoJo loves standing splashing in the water and tries to crawl in it too if you let him! LissaLou made a friend and enjoyed playing a fishing game with her.

Fun on the sand

We are looking forward to Master Sandcastle Builder Jason coming at Easter and Bertie got practising to make sure he is on form for when they get building. The girls, especially CassCass, loved helping out (I had to hold Baby JoJo so he didn't give "help" in his own special way..) and several passers-by admired the fruits of his labour.

Baby JoJo crawls all over the place and is an unstoppable force now. It is very hard to get there before the sand or rock goes into his mouth! He loves picking handfuls of sand up and letting it slip through his fingers. So do I!

CassCass and LissaLou also enjoyed tree climbing (the elderly french ladies in front of the tree were not so enamoured with their efforts though!)

Beautiful sightsFor all its annoying striking, Guadeloupe is indeed a beautiful place. And in reality it is even bluer and greener! Doesn't that get you excited about coming, Mum and Evs!

My favouritesCan you tell that I love coconut trees...

My two handsome men

Peeking At Pika: Ananas

2009-02-02T02:12:00.005Z

A is for Ananas - Zannanna -Pineapple

There are several pineapple plants around Pika - be careful as you walk past as their prickly leaves can do some damage! At the moment there are none in flower so they look like this:

However here are some photos from last summer when they were bearing fruit. Look how the pineapple grows out from a centre stem, standing up. This particular variety is called bouteille (presumably from its shape) and is grown exclusively on Guadeloupe. It is high in sugar and therefore very tempting to rats!
Did you know...

* Pineapple plants take 18 months to 2 years after being planted to produce a fruit.

*When the fruit has been picked, you cut the head off and replant it. Baby ones will frow up around it and it will rot away.

*These will take another two years to grow a fruit - and so the cycle continues.

* Fresh ones can't be used in gelatin as they produce an enzyme called bromelain, although it breaks down in canning and so tinned pineapple should work fine. The enzyme makes pineapple juice a good tenderiser and marinade

Good to eat...

*Pineapples are high in vitamin C, vitamin B1, manganese (an essential trace nutrient) and a good source of dietary fiber, thiamin, vitamin B6 and copper
*Pineapples are very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium

They don't last very long in our house; once ripe they go off very quickly so we tend to devour them fresh very quickly!

Sources: wikipedia, www.produceoasis.com, www.lesilesdeguadeloupe.com Bertie Mamie
Photos: from Pika unless otherwise stated