We are looking forward to half term next week (here we get 10 days, whoopee!), the highlight of which is Mum coming over to see us. Bon voyage mum! We have ordered a new bed for her and just need to pick it up. I am keeping an eye out to get rid of any cockroaches before her arrival. And if she is lucky, she may even have a ceiling fan to cool her!
LissaLou has been swimming again with her class today and had a great time. She claims to be able to swim now, but I am unconvinced.
There was a rat running around the washing machine downstairs (a biiiig one, honest!) so I wasn't able to do any washing recently! However, it has been duly poisoned and dumped now, phew.
We didn't make it to the beach this week either. Bertie went to Pika with his dad, sat down for a five minute chat, and turned up 2 hours later! No problem, I made pineapple jam with the four free pineapples the kind market seller gave me, and the girls had great fun playing in the road next door with their cousin and the neighbours.
Later that day, I went to a Ladies Group and Bertie took the girls and their cousin down for a walk by the sea. LissaLou gave me an excited rendition of the trip to me on my return, and I am ashamed to say I wasn't really listening! Bertie saw this by my lack of reaction, then told me the story again - they had been playing boats with some polystyrene and she had reached after hers, and tumbled into the sea from the pier!!! Needless to say I was somewhat shocked, very relieved Bertie was behind her and pulled her out before she got further than her shoulders, equally relieved that I hadn't been there, and unable to understand how they all managed to laugh about it! We worrying mothers eh?
I took Baby JoJo back to the dispensaire today for his next hepatitis B injection and general check-up. All is still well. As I left the house, Papy advised me that I should iron my skirt or people would think I had slept in it! I told him very frankly that I didn't mind what people think - me and ironing are not good friends! However, I may make an effort at some point if it means that much to him. Or maybe I will pay my enterprising nephew to iron for me? Hmm, his rates are probably far too high.
It has rained so much less this week and the temperature has soared. I am sitting glued to my fan!
I read a very moving book this week - The Kite Runner - which I would recommend. Has anyone seen the film?
We are going to a bible study tonight in Le Gosier and before we leave I have to
-wash up -hang out the washing - put away the dry washing - prepare grated carrot and fried plantain - tidy up a bit - collect LissaLou - get the kids showered and dressed, and me too - feed Baby JoJo... so I had better get on! Bon weekend!
NB and a special Happy Birthday to Big Bro Malc today! May I heartily recommend you visit (and comment on!) the gorgeous pictures on this blog and this one!
Showing posts with label Bugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bugs. Show all posts
Friday, 24 October 2008
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Life Is Like That
We woke up to a tremendous storm at 5am (well, I should say we were woken up!) and it looks like it will be a day of rain. No trips to the playpark today! Unfortunately, the building Bertie works in on Saturday is prone to flooding, so it will be a tricky morning for him too. I just opened the door to the balcony for the first time today and LissaLou told me the rain had started again, so bang shut went the door! I don't think I will be opening them again anytime soon!
Clothes have a tendency to disappear here, if you don't grab them off the washing line the moment they are dry. Bertie found a missing pair of shorts...on his sister (he never wore them again for some reason!) and my favourite pair of white trousers mysteriously vanished in 2006. So I was delighted to come across them the other day, and even more so to find that they still fit! I took advantage of the cooler weather today to put them on, admired them, got on with the day...then a naked CassCass came and plonked herself on my lap and all too late I realised she had done a number two and not wiped her bottom! Sigh. The trousers have gone to the wash and will have to wait another day.
I spent hours sweating away in the heat to tidy the flat, only for CassCass and LissaLou to spill a packet of rice, break a glass or two, get the entire contents of their toy box out, chuck Baby JoJo's food on the floor...oh well!
Bad news - there was another cockroach on the floor this morning. Good news - it was dead. By what means I am not sure but very grateful!
I have renamed the final day of the week Fever Friday as somehow Baby JoJo keeps getting a very high temperature on it. Yesterday he hovered around 39 degrees which was rather worrying. We haven't had to visit any doctors or hospitals yet and I am not in a hurry to! We still don't have a social security number either to reclaim the cost. However, he is back to normal again today - a mixture of prayer and two hour feeding sessions! (Oh, and apparently the local solution is to put Eau de cologne on his head - er, right!)
Right, back to the life of a mother!
Clothes have a tendency to disappear here, if you don't grab them off the washing line the moment they are dry. Bertie found a missing pair of shorts...on his sister (he never wore them again for some reason!) and my favourite pair of white trousers mysteriously vanished in 2006. So I was delighted to come across them the other day, and even more so to find that they still fit! I took advantage of the cooler weather today to put them on, admired them, got on with the day...then a naked CassCass came and plonked herself on my lap and all too late I realised she had done a number two and not wiped her bottom! Sigh. The trousers have gone to the wash and will have to wait another day.
I spent hours sweating away in the heat to tidy the flat, only for CassCass and LissaLou to spill a packet of rice, break a glass or two, get the entire contents of their toy box out, chuck Baby JoJo's food on the floor...oh well!
Bad news - there was another cockroach on the floor this morning. Good news - it was dead. By what means I am not sure but very grateful!
I have renamed the final day of the week Fever Friday as somehow Baby JoJo keeps getting a very high temperature on it. Yesterday he hovered around 39 degrees which was rather worrying. We haven't had to visit any doctors or hospitals yet and I am not in a hurry to! We still don't have a social security number either to reclaim the cost. However, he is back to normal again today - a mixture of prayer and two hour feeding sessions! (Oh, and apparently the local solution is to put Eau de cologne on his head - er, right!)
Right, back to the life of a mother!
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Petit Havre
We have been offline for the last few days for some unknown reason, so it is nice to be back again and to be able to tell you about this week's trip to the beach. It must look like we spend all our time at the beach, but I assure you it is only Wednesday mornings!
Once again, back to the internet for a photo of this week's location, courtesy of http://flickr.com/photos/86441777@N00/96933901
Petit Havre is not that far from us and quite different from our previous destinations, as it is much more of a fishing beach. As we arrived the fishermen were bringing their fish from the boats to sell. Half an hour later I said to Bertie perhaps we should buy some, and he laughed and replied it had all sold in minutes! Fresh fish goes fast here!
Petit Havre is not that far from us and quite different from our previous destinations, as it is much more of a fishing beach. As we arrived the fishermen were bringing their fish from the boats to sell. Half an hour later I said to Bertie perhaps we should buy some, and he laughed and replied it had all sold in minutes! Fresh fish goes fast here!We were sitting just to the left of this picture - there were four boats there today, and the same ropes tying them to the trees. Oh, and the bridge on the side has disappeared. The beach here is quite stoney and full of little red beasties who somehow attach to each other (bottom to bottom) and then wander around in this position. Very strange! There was also a lot of seaweed in the sea and even a dead jellyfish on the sand. But the sea was beautifully calm, which makes it so much easier as we can let the girls go running in and out at their leisure and they don't have as much water in their eyes, noses and mouths. Baby JoJo also enjoyed it much more, sitting for hours on our laps (we have given up on the inflatable seat now as he just spends his time drinking sea water then throwing it up!) splashing the water with his fist and laughing at our songs.
The weather was quite overcast (we could here thunder most the time, very odd feeling as you sit in the warm sea!) and believe it or not, we even felt cold on occasion! Definitely acclimatising! In fact, I have noticed that there are bits of the sea that are warm and bits that are cold. Bertie says it is to do with the ground but I don't really understand that - any suggestions?
This beach is a lot less busy, however, there was a huge group of children with a holiday club having a marvellous time jumping up and down in the water. They were much more organised than us, with their huge pots of lunch and marquee to eat under...even a brush to sweep the sand off their mats! As ever, we enjoyed ham and cheese baguettes then treated ourselves to magnums. No sunburn/stroke today I am happy to report, just an extremely pleasant morning.
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
Good Housekeeping?
In the UK, if you are not managing to keep your humble abode clean and tidy, you may get a comment or two, or someone sweeping their finger along a dusty shelf to make a point, or even a visit from Kim and Aggie...or it may just get completely ignored by all the kind folk around you. Here, it is a very different matter.
No, I do not have obsessively clean in-laws (far from it!). The state of my flat is in fact made very clear to me by....BEASTIES. Tons of 'em. Yuck.
Did I leave food on the table top or the dishes undone? Flies, everywhere. Great fun swatting them with a flip flop, they are surprisingly easy to kill.
Did I leave crumbs or jam dripping? Or even a few dead flies on the floor? Along come the ants, with their incredible instinct that allows them to find dirt in minutes. They are much smaller than the ones we had back home, but just as impressive in their actions. I have spent many hours killing them one by one...
Did I miss those crumbs under the sofa or the bed? Watch out, our friend the cockroach may be along shortly.... These ones scuttle far faster than any I remember in the past, and are far FAR bigger. It is pretty hard to get them with your flip flop, all that works is spraying the wonderful Baygone or screaming loudly and waiting for Bertie to turn up. Thankfully, I haven't seen many and mostly downstairs. I had a horrible moment when my SIL told me she had found one on the bed of her daughters one night (don't feel alarmed mum, but it was in the guest room!!). I am even more grateful for our mosquito nets!
And finally yesterday's traumatic discovery - it is only good to be green if you are organised enough to empty your leftovers and peelings regularly. Otherwise for your crime, maggots! Thousands of them! (Or so it felt.) And they don't die! It was like something out of a horror film, with more and more pouring out the box, me squashing them for all I was worth, only for them to start to move again - eek! LissaLou took great joy in watching me in my distress then running around the flat shouting "mankots! mankots!" Thankfully Bertie arrived home to help and we found that even spraying them with the deadly Baygone didn't do the job. So we put them all in a plastic bag in the bin and who knows what they are up to now? As for me, I keep seeing them everywhere...on my plate, in my glass, on the floor, in my hair...I expected to dream about them last night but was spared that!
So now I intend to be much more thorough in my cleaning schedule! No easy task as all the world seems to conspire against me when I get to cleaning. I met up with some nice ladies from the House Church that we occasionally go to this morning and they were telling me that they had left their houses by 9am this morning with the washing on the line, lunch ready, floors clean, washing up done...what was their secret? I begged to know. Ah, no children under 10 years of age in the house. May have to wait a few years before I get rid of all those bugs then.
No, I do not have obsessively clean in-laws (far from it!). The state of my flat is in fact made very clear to me by....BEASTIES. Tons of 'em. Yuck.
Did I leave food on the table top or the dishes undone? Flies, everywhere. Great fun swatting them with a flip flop, they are surprisingly easy to kill.
Did I leave crumbs or jam dripping? Or even a few dead flies on the floor? Along come the ants, with their incredible instinct that allows them to find dirt in minutes. They are much smaller than the ones we had back home, but just as impressive in their actions. I have spent many hours killing them one by one...
Did I miss those crumbs under the sofa or the bed? Watch out, our friend the cockroach may be along shortly.... These ones scuttle far faster than any I remember in the past, and are far FAR bigger. It is pretty hard to get them with your flip flop, all that works is spraying the wonderful Baygone or screaming loudly and waiting for Bertie to turn up. Thankfully, I haven't seen many and mostly downstairs. I had a horrible moment when my SIL told me she had found one on the bed of her daughters one night (don't feel alarmed mum, but it was in the guest room!!). I am even more grateful for our mosquito nets!
And finally yesterday's traumatic discovery - it is only good to be green if you are organised enough to empty your leftovers and peelings regularly. Otherwise for your crime, maggots! Thousands of them! (Or so it felt.) And they don't die! It was like something out of a horror film, with more and more pouring out the box, me squashing them for all I was worth, only for them to start to move again - eek! LissaLou took great joy in watching me in my distress then running around the flat shouting "mankots! mankots!" Thankfully Bertie arrived home to help and we found that even spraying them with the deadly Baygone didn't do the job. So we put them all in a plastic bag in the bin and who knows what they are up to now? As for me, I keep seeing them everywhere...on my plate, in my glass, on the floor, in my hair...I expected to dream about them last night but was spared that!
So now I intend to be much more thorough in my cleaning schedule! No easy task as all the world seems to conspire against me when I get to cleaning. I met up with some nice ladies from the House Church that we occasionally go to this morning and they were telling me that they had left their houses by 9am this morning with the washing on the line, lunch ready, floors clean, washing up done...what was their secret? I begged to know. Ah, no children under 10 years of age in the house. May have to wait a few years before I get rid of all those bugs then.
Friday, 8 August 2008
Bites Galore
It may have been the rain last night, but we are all sporting masses of bites - even Baby JoJo has fallen foul to these nasty mozzies, ahhh! That's despite our snazzy new nets - the girls have a bright pink one (of course!). Ours is a white square one but with an interesting design that means it has no less than 12 gaps! Er, what's the point of that? We may as well put up a sign saying we welcome mosquitoes! On the good side though, the infirmiere who visits Bertie's dad early each morning advised me to put alcohol on my sting and it is now much better, though the sting is still in there. Any idea if or how it comes out? The alcohol is pure rum, well 90%, with the helpful "ne pas avaler" on the outside!
We watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics this morning - fascinating to see all the different countries represented, some with so few people! Great diversity amongst them, and strange to think of all the conflicts that are going on between them, all put aside for this occasion.
Just so you don't think life here is too different from elsewhere, Bertie is watching Colombo! Oh, he has just worked out who the baddies are!
We have been looking around for a car, but they are quite pricy and not always a very good condition. If you saw the driving here you would understand why... Yesterday with the Tour a two way road ended up with three lanes heading one way and cars squeezing past on the other side! Bertie said to clarify that it was a wide road...well that's alright then!
Bertie was talking to one car dealer when he learned another myth many people believe her - cars increase in value over time! Apparently one lady was most offended that he wouldn't take her 1993 Peugeot in exchange for this year's model!
We reckon there is no market for freecycle here as people use things until they are completely beyond repair. However, there are sales of furniture and cars amongst the metropolitans (from mainland France) who are returning after a short period here, so we will keep our eyes peeled for some things there.
We watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics this morning - fascinating to see all the different countries represented, some with so few people! Great diversity amongst them, and strange to think of all the conflicts that are going on between them, all put aside for this occasion.
Just so you don't think life here is too different from elsewhere, Bertie is watching Colombo! Oh, he has just worked out who the baddies are!
We have been looking around for a car, but they are quite pricy and not always a very good condition. If you saw the driving here you would understand why... Yesterday with the Tour a two way road ended up with three lanes heading one way and cars squeezing past on the other side! Bertie said to clarify that it was a wide road...well that's alright then!
Bertie was talking to one car dealer when he learned another myth many people believe her - cars increase in value over time! Apparently one lady was most offended that he wouldn't take her 1993 Peugeot in exchange for this year's model!
We reckon there is no market for freecycle here as people use things until they are completely beyond repair. However, there are sales of furniture and cars amongst the metropolitans (from mainland France) who are returning after a short period here, so we will keep our eyes peeled for some things there.
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