St Nicolas' Day

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...

Berry Picking

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....?

In The Marne Vallée

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!

Poisson d'Avril

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

Beefing It Up

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!

Practical Application

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...

More On Cuisine

As I mentioned on an earlier post, I am trying to make some local dishes, and make the most of local ingredients. If I can feed them to Baby JoJo, which is more and more possible as I rarely use salt and hot spices, then it is even more of an advantage. I have a couple of recipe books but these are aimed at tourists and only have a few dishes in them, many of which I wouldn't bother trying as they are either too complicated (for a particular festival for example) or I just don't like them. However, I have selected a few manageable ones and so have produced the following..,.

Gratin de christophine

Christophines are a vegetable also known as chayote, according to Wikipedia (although ours are more yellow than the ones you see here). Mamie doesn't grow any and I have rarely seen her cook with them. For this recipe you basically take out the inside and turn it into a sauce then stuff it again. Mum very kindly took these photos, hmm, mine aren't quite like the ones in the picture!

Here is the recipe if you fancy a go! I am having to get used to the french culinary terms.

Colombo de poulet

There is a significant Indian population in Guadeloupe, who came over in the mid 1800s after the abolition of slavery, to fulfil the needs of the plantation owners on the sugar cane fields. They brought lots of traditions and ingredients with them, including colombo, which is a curry powder made of various spices and is very delicious. I just learnt that the Indians were the only ones who cooked cabri (goat) until recently, when the other parts of the population took an interest. It is very tasty in this dish in any case. Often it is made with pork, but I prefer chicken. It came out splendidly, with the chicken falling off the bone, yum!

Poulet au coco

This is a pretty simple dish, where you cook the onions, garlic, carrot and white wine (I used water as didn't have any!) then cook the chicken and let it simmer in coconut milk. I have been using coconut milk in a tin but I would like to try using it from fresh as we have so many of them! I am not sure how to get the milk though. I used to have a problem with my chicken not being fully cooked but having investigated online, I discovered it is better to cook it low rather than high I was doing, and it seems to have helped.

Court-bouillon

A fish dish where you make the sauce with lime, garlic, spring onion, tomatoes, thyme and hot pepper (unless you are me!) then cook the fish in it. These ingredients are really common here, and in season they are all in Mamie's garden except the garlic. I used salmon rather than local fish. It is common locally to use oil which has roucou in it - Mamie grows these in her garden and the grain is used for the oil - have a look at wikipedia for more info here. The dish was fine, though a bit too watery and it would have been nicer with racines (sweet potato, breadfruit etc) than rice I reckon.

Gateau de patates douces

Oh, I have not had much luck with my baking recently! My loaf of bread was like a doorstop, my first bunch of cinammon rolls the same, the second lot I went to the other extreme and undercooked! My banana cake was not cooked in the middle and the biscuits I made also burnt. Sigh, I blame it on the oven...! However, this sweet potato cake came out fine, and as it is 1 kg sweet potatoes and only 100g sugar I was happy to stuff the girls on it!

If anyone has baking tips I would gladly welcome these, and I would love recipes based on wholewheat flour and honey rather than refined sugar and white flour. I am looking for a tasty carrot cake recipe too, if you hae any suggestions. At my Saturday night bible study group they passed around various tips and I learnt not to dump in my flour all at once, or mix it with the hand mixer - has to be done by hand. All very useful!

Another common practice here is to chop and freeze vegetables as soon as you get them, which is a great idea as even in the fridge they do go off quite quickly. My only problem is my tiny freezer, but I will give it a try anyway! At the moment I have five cups of shredded coconut and some courgette in there, and I have just purchased a huge bunch of parsley (whilst awaiting Bertie's!) which I will put into ice cube trays.

On a similar subject, I am sure you are eager to know how my menu went...! Well, I mostly stuck to it except when I forgot to check it and soak the beans on time (apparently you can prepare them and freeze them too, which I might start doing if I can fit them in!) which just resulted in shifting around a couple of meals. It was very unstressful in any case! I also spent a third less at Carrefour this week, as I followed my list to the letter, which I was thrilled with, and I have thrown out less. Keep it up!

This week's menu is as follows:
Monday - Chick pea curry (soak chick peas and brown rice) - very nice, unfortunately our gas bonbonne (no gas on the island so everyone has a little or not so little canister attached to their cooker and hopes it doesn't run out at an inopportune moment!) ran out half way through. We have had it for nearly three months which was good going. Anyway, Bertie dashed to the store and exchanged it for a new one, but the rice was ruined! The girls didn't like the chick peas so I squashed them all and they ate it fine!
Tea – bread and salad
Tuesday – Tuna pasta (courtesy of Gina Ford!) – you are supposed to add fromage frais to this, but I didn’t discover till I got home that the tub I had bought was vanilla flavoured! Made lovely dessert though…
Tea – Pancakes (wholewheat with cheese and ham, followed by maple syrup ones for the girls and lime and sugar for us)
Wednesday – supposed to be blaff de poisson but I realised I needed to use up my leftover Minestrone soup, so we did
Tea – supposed to be soup, became a delicious omelette courtesy of Bertie, made with eggs from Mamie’s hens
Thursday – Spaghetti Bolognese and wholewheat pasta
Tea – Potato wedges and salad
Friday – supposed to be bean burgers using the leftover brown rice, but I have just realised I haven't soaked the beans, oops!
Tea – Salad, and if I can manage it, some homemade bread that isn’t as hard as a brick!
Saturday – leftover spag bol
Tea – Bertie handles this one
Sunday – eat at church

Enjoying Coconut Island Style

Firstly, find one West Indian coconut, grown with love and caresses...Then find a handsome son-in-law ready with his machetePosition it nicely, then chop!
Shun all aides such as cups and straws. Those are for weaklings. Take a deep breath,
purse up those lips and drink!
Tilt it up for those last few drops
All the while posing for that annoying camera!Delicious! Nicely done mum!

Making A Menu (At Last!)

If you are looking for a bit of greeness in your life, one marvellous way to do so is to make a menu for the week (or two, or three, or even the month if you are that organised!) Not only do you get to save money shopping, as you know exactly what you need and buy that and that only, you also save time and shopping trips (and petrol if you drive to the shops!) because you have a list and can get everything on it, and you waste less, as you don't end up throwing away things you forgot to use etc.
Ok, I know all this off by heart and backwards, so why do I still not manage to achieve such a simple thing each week? Anyway, rather than rueing the past I am celebrating the fact that this week we actually have a menu! At present it is scruffily written on the back of an old envelope (more greeness!) but at least it is made.
One of my aims here has been to cook with local foods, and bit by bit I am trying. However, my other aim is to cook healthily and organically where possible. The two don't always go together... Then there is my desire to buy more local produce. But aside from some veg (and not all that much it would seem), the main thing the island produces is...sugar! Sugar, sugar and more sugar! I would actually like to try healthier alternatives to sugar, such as Sucanat, but then I feel bad at not buying the one local produce here! Oh, shopping is always such a mindfield! In fact, shopping locally here, seems to refer to buying produce from France!
I won't go into the further dilemma of trying to buy frugally - however, I have started lists of what costs what where and I will try and keep my shopping down to a trip to Carrefour every other Monday and then a trip to Leader Price on the other one and a trip to the market in the week, with a trip to the Biocoop (organic shop) thrown in every now and then.

I will be trying to cook extra each week, but my freezer is tiny and is already full of ice (I miss our no frost one!) and baby food for Baby JoJo, and unfortunately the big freezer has gone kaput downstairs, so it is not as easy to freeze things as I would like.

Back to the menu. Well, before that, I chuckled when Mum was over as she apparently told her vicar's wife that she would be eating pasta and tomato sauce and broccoli over here, as that is what I mostly cook - and lo and behold that is what I had planned for that day! How well she knows me... So another aim (and use of menu) is to cook with just a little bit more variety (though you must remember I have two rather fussy under 4s!). Oh, and another advantage is it allows you to soak and defrost things in time. If you remember to consult it!
Menu (and things to do)
Monday - colombo au poulet (defrost meat Sunday - I used a whole chicken as it is tastier, and cut off the breast meat for to make some meals for Baby JoJo. It made enough for another meal)
Tuesday - pasta carbonara - as I am out all morning it is my pasta day - quick and easy! The family loves it with croutons. If there is any leftover, my nephew always joins us, but unfortunately he was out of luck today!
Wednesday - sandwiches for lunch as we will be off to the beach.
Thursday - Chick pea curry and brown rice (soak the chick peas and the rice the day before. I've not made this before but am basing it on this recipe)
Friday - Minestrone soup (this is a recipe from my Gina Ford weaning book - need to soak beans)
Saturday - Bertie is out all morning so I keep it simple and make leftovers - I think we shall have tuna and potato pie that is in the freezer
Sunday - we eat with Mamie! saves cooking after church. She usually makes beef with rice and peas which is a traditional Sunday dish here

As Mum discovered, evenings are a lot more stressful, as Bertie is not back from teaching till 7pm or later, and I often have lots of tired, fractious or hyper children (not all mine!) running around the place! So it needs to be simple...It tends to be one of the following, but still needs a bit of work:
Salad and baguette
Omlette/scrambled egg (each time I hope the girls will start liking it, but they still don't!)
Pancakes (made with wholemeal flour and eggs from Mamie's hens!)
Soup

Oh, and breakfast is a choice of...
Bread and local jam (we are waiting for a new batch from Mamie!)
Porridge with cinammon and banana
Granola - this is my new discovery, based on this recipe here and with lots of grated coconut from Pika. It is most delicious and a big hit with Bertie!

If anyone has menu tips or suggestions for healthy meals with Caribbean ingredients I am all ears to hear!

Introducing Mum To Gwada Life

Mum spent hours uploading photos to photobox to bring the next blog entries to you - thanks Mum! Your effort is worthwhile!
Here is a glimpse into her fortnight stay here...

This is our house - I am at the gate talking to a neighbour who also goes to both our churches (!) We have the part upstairs - the right window is our bedroom, the middle is our living room/guest room where mum slept, and the left is just a random hall. See those stairs on the left? Everyday I lug the lunch up and down these stairs to eat......outside! See the lovely table cloth? Mamie got that recently for this table and it adds brightness to our day. See the plastic cups? I had to start using these after we broke a total of 6 glasses! I think we are eating court bouillon (fish in tomato sauce) and racines (root veg like banana, sweet potato, breadfruit). Oh, and the bottle of juice is homemade passion fruit juice. All courtesy of my MIL!This is how LissaLou pretty much spent Mum's stay! Mum came armed with plenty of crafts and this Peppa Pig book amongst many things brought lots of pleasure. LissaLou just kept on and on and on......but Mum didn't always! This was past 8pm and the jetlag/early mornings had caught up on her. I thought LissaLou had gone to bed, but here she was cheerful as anything, colouring away!

At The Cemetery

Last night after our fun in the pool we decided to pop along to the cemetry and see what it was like. Well, the sight was breathtaking! All these beautifully painted white graves (it really would be shameful to be the only one who hadn't bothered!) topped with tiles or freshly laid dark sand. Then a mixture of candles pushed in the sand or in little red tubs, generally 10 or 20 on each grave (except for the very few where no one had turned up so someone put one on to stop it looking too lonely). There wasn't too much mud either. As for the number of people there, I was amazed! Even more amazingly Bertie said that it was pretty empty and that today, journee des defuncts, would be much busier. Mum took some photos of the candles which I hope come out, but here is a photo I found of that same cemetry at Morne a l'eau, courtesy of http://travelwithcandace.com/archives/category/guadeloupe/page/2.

The cemetry was full of people standing chatting, catching up - definitely a good time to find someone you wanted to see, especially if you happened to know where their family grave was! Definitely not a good time for quiet reflection and meditation... Such is the "commercial" aspect of the celebration, that they even had people at the gates selling various snacks and things.

I forgot to mention that one of the people at work in the cemetry this week was a man known as "Mafia"! Honestly! Apparently he is a force to be reckoned with, taking the best jobs and the best part of the money too...!

Today we had a great time at the Maison de Paix, but were very sorry to be saying goodbye to our Texan missionaries who return to the Lone Star State on Tuesday for their retirement after a wonderful 35 years service here. What will I do without our weekly chats and cuppas, as well as all the encouragement and cultural insight they provided? Kindly, they have left me a mug, something I have been short of here! There was a lovely meal of columbo made with cabri (goat) and so many cakes to choose from!

Whilst there I had an interesting chat with a lady who works as a guide around the cultural places of interest in Pointe a Pitre, including the cemetry. She explained that in the past they had three parts to a cemetry - slaves, masters, and freedmen. The PaP cemetry even had separate sections for those who committed suicide and those killed in the hurricane of 1928. Bodies used to be buried in churches, but Napoleon did away with this for reasons of hygiene and ordered that all cemetries be a certain distance from the town centre. We asked why they were by the sea, and she suggested it was due to the soft sand easy to dig up.

The girls have gone back in the paddling pool and are shrieking their heads off. We are somewhat pleased to read of Hamilton's narrow victory today. Oh, and did you happen to see the Spurs v Liverpool score yesterday..?! Stop those two point jokes right now!

Having Fun With Grandma

We have been relishing the time with Grandma visiting. Whilst our lack of big car (how our 7-seater Peugeot is missed, sigh!) has meant that we have stayed more in our area, we have still been able to get out and about. In fact, I don't think that I have walked so much around our town since I came!

So our week has been like this...
Tuesday - we picked mum up
Wednesday - we went for a walk by the sea and along the pier, fortunately nobody fell in this time! We sat and swished our feet in the water but eventually had to get going as it is so wobbly we began to feel sea sick! Mum got to taste one of Mamie's typical meals of racines (banane, madere, fruit a pain, patate douce) and court bouillon (fish in a lovely sauce of tomatoes, spring onions and herbs).
Thursday - we visited my Texan friend for tea and quiche and cake and some enjoyable English conversation - although I hasten to add that Mum is doing marvellously in French, she seems to understand most things and can usually get a response back! She tolerated my tuna pasta for lunch but I could tell she would rather eat Mamie's food!
Friday - we intended to go to the local shopping centre and Carrefour, and happily got a lift down from my two SILs which spared us a long walk in the rain. There we played with some toys in the toy shop and did some shopping. My niece Stella came and was our guide for the shortest route back home. We had to wait for the rain to stop but happily it did and even more happily it didn't return, as we trudged home - LissaLou has not got any faster in walking so we went at a very very sloooow speed! We had a lovely roast chicken for lunch. Unfortunately the ants found the carcass whilst I siesta-ed - grr!
Today - we were meant to go out but Bertie took the morning to paint the grave so we just chilled at home. Not unwelcome after our late return last night! This evening we got out the paddling pool we bought and the girls were thrilled to be splashing and plunging in it on our balcony, even in the freezing water and the cool of the evening!

LissaLou is particularly enjoying her Grandma being here, and the two are often to be found snuggled up together reading or colouring or working on an activity book - ahh! CassCass is usually on my knee (and enjoying the lack of competition!) and Baby JoJo is in such demand that Mum is lucky to ever see him! He has started crawling this week, so cute! He wobbles on his legs just like Bambi before collapsing and deciding it is easier to slide on his tummy. He can cover a lot of ground if required and I am having to be very diligent in tidying up the floor and keeping all the dangerous things out of reach. Putting him on the bed is now a no-no, as he has dropped off a few times.

We do find Mum a bit strange though - she loves the heat and doesn't use a fan!!!! Nor does she get bitten by the mosquitoes, so her mosquito net is a formality more than anything else! She will be telling you soon she doesn't know what I am complaining about! She has enjoyed all the food she has been offered, including guava, passion fruit, pomme cythere, prune de pays, cerise de pays and today Bertie chopped open a coconut with his machete, then she bravely drank it straight out! Bertie's dad said she was a true Femme Antillaise!

Safely Here

After a very pleasant visit with the in-laws, Mum made it through the 8 hour flight (with only one film!) and we were delighted to see her at the airport this afternoon. In fact, see her was all we did do for an hour or so, as she waited and waited and waited for her luggage, whilst we looked down from the viewing point (makes you feel a bit like a zoo animal!). Finally, she was the last to leave, as she collected her suitcase which had gone round the belt a mere 10 times before she realised it was hers! In her defence, she has borrowed the neighbour's and it is unfamiliar...

The girls were thrilled to see her - as were the in-laws - and all that she has brought. What do you miss when you are abroad? My goodies go something like this
- parsnip and swede (mainly for Baby JoJo to taste)
- nappies
- dental floss
- organic maple syrup
- pack of bay leaves
- cheddar and parmesan cheese
- jelly, all the flavours of the rainbow!
- women's weekly
- pens for writing on freezer bags
Poor mum, it is amazing she managed to fit any of her own clothes in, let alone drag all these cases across half the world!

A big thanks to Bertie who spent today taking down and putting up beds (we got a new one and then discovered it was too big for the room it was supposed to be in - oops!) and mosquito nets and new fans to replace all the broken ones (I hear it is snowing in London, but here it is HOT!) and now the house looks normal again!

Things We Have Been Up To

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!

A Flower Theme

Imagine hearing a knock at the door and opening it to find your father-in-law holding a bouquet with these beautiful flowers, picked that very morning at Pika? What a pleasant way to start the day! They are now displayed on my bedroom cupboard...and the many ants on the flowers have crept on to the wall and got caught in the spider's web just above, hehe!

www.losttv-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49970

www.maisousontdoncgeorgesetaurelie.com/images

www.france5.fr/carnets-d-expedition/IMG/cache...

After church, we returned for our Family Party, unofficially for my birthday, though I have to admit it seems so long ago now! Bertie's nephew William had very kindly made another beautiful flower arrangement for me, with paper mache flowers in a jar full of sand and painted in bold stripes. In addition, Stella, probably the world's sweetest niece, has taken to bringing little bouquets of wild flowers. Interestingly, they are displayed in a little tube which is used to pump excess bogie (sorry, couldn't think of a polite way to say it!) from childrens' noses! However, I hate doing that so it is never used for that purpose and this in no way detracts from the beauty of the arrangement! So the house is full of flowers, bliss!

Our party went very pleasantly. Bertie's sister Felicianne made two quiches, and his SIL Morette made another one. His mum made rice and peas, and a chicken dish, and his sister Nadia made dombrey with crab and probably another quiche. (They are very big on quiche here!) We provided the juice so Bertie made jus de goyave, jus de maracudja and panache. Further to my baking lessons a couple of weekends back, I made some petits pains and some cinnammon buns, which came out okay (well, a little burnt, surprise surprise!) but I could definitely do with more practice! Then there were two cakes also made by Felicianne and some ice cream. Oh, were we full at the end!

The girls had a wonderful time playing with their cousins. At one point I came across LissaLou and Raisa in bed snoring, before LissaLou said "Il faut se reveiller, on va aller au travail"! CassCass spent her time comforting her little cousin Meddy who is going through the terrible two stage. I think she has an afinity with his tears and tantrums!

We finished with a few games of Mille Bornes, which I would highly recommend. As the title suggests, you have to get up to 1000 kilometres whilst giving your opponments crashes and punctures etc. Stella and I were battling it out at 950km when suddenly Bertie, who had been very slow off the mark (I think he waited 10 turns for a green light) pipped us to the post! Arghh!

We are still finishing off the leftovers and Bertie is now preparing his golf bag as tomorrow is the Big Day...first time on a Caribbean golf course!

Awaiting Omar

We didn't do our usual beach visit today for a couple of reasons - LissaLou and Baby JoJo are down with colds, and Hurricane Omar is on his way. He is supposed to be heading to the North Islands (St Martin etc) but passing us by in his wake, which means lots of wind and rain and a very agitated sea.

In preparation, Papy has brought his car into the yard (in the last hurricane it got its windshield broken and he has never fixed it - who knows what could happen this time!) and the furniture has been moved to safety outside. But as it stands, there is no more rain and wind outside than usual so I am not sure how affected we will be.

Instead of the beach, we chilled at home reading (me) and playing (girls) and then went to the shops to buy Baby JoJo a new high chair. It is very conveniently a promotional week for all child products in Carrefour so the shop was full of mums and babies. We tried him out in it this evening and he is ever so cute, and had such a good time sitting there. Funny to think that his little feet currently on the seat will one day reach the footrest!

After the shops we headed out to Ste Anne for a meal with friends from church. They have a most gorgeous oval shaped house in the countryside and to the girls' delight a triple swing outside, so they enjoyed playing on that with their five year old friend. Our friend is an English Teacher here and a real anglophile - she has ever brought up her son fluent in english - so there was plenty of english conversation going on. She is interested in new words (Wags, retail therapy, silver surfer to name but a few) so we had an interesting time finding some more for her - and for me! Am I the only one not to know that phat means great?!

Not only a time of new words, but also my first time eating conch (lambi) which apparently is in season right now. Surprisingly meaty for seafood and in a nice sauce was my conclusion.

I stayed up too late reading last night so am shattered now - Omar will have to do his best if he wants to rouse me from my sleep tonight!

NB For those unfamiliar with hurricanes, they work through the alphabet each year with alternate girl and boy names. The last we had heard was of Ike, so Bertie was amazed we had already reached Omar - what happened to all the others we wondered? He even queried if he had misheard, and it was actually Hurricane Homard (lobster!)!

Birthday Fun

Monday was the hallowed occasion of the birthdays for the Iron Lady and Yours Truly, and I hope she celebrated in as much style as I did. Bertie took over a lot of the child care and cooking, preparing some delicious fried plantain and ice cream for lunch, and our usual Monday morning shopping trip had the additional excitement of a bar of Fairtrade dark chocolate thrown in - yummy! Bertie had also been listening closely to me and got the very present I had hoped for - a Guadeloupe clock so that I can now know what time it is and when to collect LissaLou/put Baby JoJo to bed etc etc. I chatted on Skype to the family in the afternoon (lovely to hear you all!) and we visited his sister in the evening and it was such fun watching LissaLou & CassCass jumping crazily to the tv juke box. Even Baby JoJo was swaying in front of the box!

I don't know if it was a reaction against not having done much all day, but I came home and tidied until midnight! How refreshing to wake up to a tidy flat on Tuesday! This was followed by an enjoyable morning with some friends, a delicious chocolate cake and another ever-so-appropriate present; I had just lost my towel and given this house's track record, it could be another two years till it turns up, so I was thrilled to get a new towel with my name on it so no chance of it falling into another's hands!!

LissaLou wasn't very impressed with the day though - she asked about the party (we are having a family get-together on Sunday) and said she is looking forward to my REAL birthday then!

If I Had My Camera...

I would have taken a picture of...

LissaLou wearing a cardigan and pulling our huge suitcase telling me she was off to see her BF in England
CassCass wearing her fairy dress for church today - I was a bit concerned people wouldn't approve but she got so many compliments!
Baby JoJo sitting in his Bumbo stuffing his face - he has tasted lentils and baby pasta for the first time this week and loved them both.
Baby JoJo climbing out of his Bumbo, being caught by his mum seconds from impact! Time to get a highchair...
Me getting a lesson in preparing fish from my MIL. She buys it whole, then takes off all the scales, cuts it open and removes the guts (in true Heather style I commented that I didn't realised fish had guts! As ever, I plead my ignorance on my London upbringing!) and it was quite a sight to see me trying to imitate her! She was the height of patience with my fumbled attempts though. Personally, I think I would abandon frugality and pay the extra €2 to have the fish person do it!
The delicious gateau au yaourt et citron I made, which sadly burnt to smithereens! I am constantly asking Bertie if the burning smell is from us or the in-laws, and as it is generally from them, I have given up asking. Unfortunately this time it was us! I will have to adjust to a far hotter oven (is it affected by the outside temperature?)
The temperature outside the Town Hall today saying 18 degrees! And they call this the Caribbean?!

St Francois

Still camera-less, but here is a picture of the beach we were at today, courtesy of http://flickr.com/photos/stoto98/2556691110 I liked this photo as we were in fact in the water right where that lady is in the picture, and we admired the colourful houses with their lovely sea view! This beach is called Plage des Raisins Clairs and is a lovely one that we have only visited twice before in all my visits here. It has more sand than most the beaches here and the little huts with picnic tables (you need to arrive early to get one of these though). It also has that rare luxury...showers! Two high and one for your feet. CassCass spent ages watching two girls use the feet one - I couldn't quite see the fascination!

St Francois is right at the western end of Guadeloupe and so it took us a little while to get there. Funny to hear the girls moaning about the length of the drive when last year we drove them to Scotland! The route was very clear thanks to the petrol strike. Fortunately we had a full tank, as there was not one station selling to the public.

The sea is a lot rougher here but to my surprise the girls loved playing amongst the waves and getting thrown back and forth. Baby JoJo was in a bit of a miserable mood and didn't appreciate going into the cold (relatively speaking!) water, but after we sat together in it for a while, he started banging the water with his fist and even enjoyed the waves trying to knock us over, as it gave him a chance to lick the salty water off his lips!

After our picnic lunch and showers, we went to see Guadeloupe's only Golf Course and therefore a sight of great importance and interest. Especially as I have given Bertie the green light to go and play a round next week! Our hearts sank when we saw them carrying out major work on the greens, but happily they still have 9 holes you can play on.

We continued our drive around the north coast and saw the magnificent scenery which Bertie said Cornwall reminds him of. Here is a taste of it:

CassCass and Baby JoJo were worn out by the sea air, so we had a look at the waves smashing against the rocks with LissaLou and watched a Bernard Hermitt try to pinch Bertie before carrying on our way in search of a sorbet. However, the roads were empty and so were the sorbet stalls - it is evidently low season! So it was another drive through the beautiful countryside of Grande Terre, full of sugar cane fields and very little else, before arriving back to our part of the world where we were greeted by (surprise surprise) huge black clouds and torrential rain.

I have learnt this week that in fact our town gets pretty much the most rain of the entire island! It won't be raining in Basse Terre or Grande Terre or Pointe a Pitre or even 3 km up the road but oh yes, the black clouds will be hanging over us and giving us a soaking. Sigh! At least we are nice and central! I also learnt our area suffers most in a cyclone - typical!!

We finished up our day with our first Roast Dinner since we left London. Unfortunately, I nearly killed both the cooker and the bird (figuratively speaking) by leaving the cover down and the potatoes were very black too! Nor was there any gravy. But it was most delicious anyway and I am looking forward to giving Baby JoJo his first taste of chicken tomorrow and then making some chicken broth with the carcass.

LissaLou went to bed early with a headache and rather hot so I suspect the poor girl has a bit of sunstroke. Hopefully she will be all better tomorrow, but we will have to get stricter about the wearing of hats.