Hi, I'm not quite sure what to say, but I thought you might like to see my class blog but don't follow it because that's just for the parents.
Kieran
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Back to Running (and dieting)
Now the children are back at school and with such beautiful surroundings as the Parc of Maisons Laffitte and the Forest of St Germain to run in, I have no excuse not to run any more so I recommenced Couch to 5K this week. Having not run since the end of July, when I stubbed 3 toes on my left foot so badly that I couldn't wear shoes for 2 weeks, I knew I wouldn't be able to re-start where I left off (week 6) so decided to go back to week 4, this was a bit ambitious so on Tuesday I tried week 3 which I have now done 3 times this week and it is getting easier. I'm cross with myself for letting the running slip and going back to where I was in June but at least now I know I can do it, and I will carry on doing it!
I have a similar frustration with my recent inability to eat sensibly. I've struggled with my weight all my adult life. I know that my problem, in common with many overweight people, is that I like to eat and drink and am really not keen on exercise, and of course France is a wonderful place for food and drink, especially if you have a simply sublime boulangerie just across the road. Since we've been here I have rather been eating and drinking as if I were on holiday and it has to stop!
In January 2007, when my weight had tipped over 13 stone (and not wanting to be fat and 40), I started the Idiot Proof Diet, a high protein, low carb eating plan. By mid-April I had lost a stone and a half and an amazing number of inches, I even featured in their online forum's before and after wall! I kept the weight off for over 18 months until Kieran broke his leg and I had to spend 10 days in hospital with him which resulted in 10 days of eating sandwiches, chocolate and cakes and basically broke my diet.
I should have turned round and started the diet again when we got home from hospital but having a child on crutches over the summer holidays was hard and eating "normally" seemed much easier. Slowly the weight crept back on and although I tried dieting over the course of 2009 I didn't manage to stick to anything for more than a few weeks. So by the time we moved to France I'd put on a stone, add to that the weight I've gained since we've been here and my weight is edging towards what it was at the end of 2006. Something has to be done!
I know I can do the IPD, just as I know I can improve my running and I'm currently in the right frame of mind to stick to both so here I am on the first step towards, if not a new me, then at least the old me that is lurking inside. I'll keep you updated on my progress.
I have a similar frustration with my recent inability to eat sensibly. I've struggled with my weight all my adult life. I know that my problem, in common with many overweight people, is that I like to eat and drink and am really not keen on exercise, and of course France is a wonderful place for food and drink, especially if you have a simply sublime boulangerie just across the road. Since we've been here I have rather been eating and drinking as if I were on holiday and it has to stop!
In January 2007, when my weight had tipped over 13 stone (and not wanting to be fat and 40), I started the Idiot Proof Diet, a high protein, low carb eating plan. By mid-April I had lost a stone and a half and an amazing number of inches, I even featured in their online forum's before and after wall! I kept the weight off for over 18 months until Kieran broke his leg and I had to spend 10 days in hospital with him which resulted in 10 days of eating sandwiches, chocolate and cakes and basically broke my diet.
I should have turned round and started the diet again when we got home from hospital but having a child on crutches over the summer holidays was hard and eating "normally" seemed much easier. Slowly the weight crept back on and although I tried dieting over the course of 2009 I didn't manage to stick to anything for more than a few weeks. So by the time we moved to France I'd put on a stone, add to that the weight I've gained since we've been here and my weight is edging towards what it was at the end of 2006. Something has to be done!
I know I can do the IPD, just as I know I can improve my running and I'm currently in the right frame of mind to stick to both so here I am on the first step towards, if not a new me, then at least the old me that is lurking inside. I'll keep you updated on my progress.
Thursday, 9 September 2010
What a day!
Yesterday was one of those days where I seemed to be chasing my tail. It started with having to get to school by 8.10 for a meeting with Alex's teacher about how to help him with his French, I didn't manage 8.10 as the traffic was a lot worse at 8am than it is at 8.15 but I wasn't too late. I managed to carry out the meeting in French and we have agreed that Alex's teacher will take him for one-to-one sessions at lunchtime four days a week to help him with his comprehension, spoken and written French.
Home for a coffee and an update to Paul and then on to Carrefour for a few things I needed and to look for a present for Emily's friend's birthday. Of course I'd forgotten that most French schools are off on Wednesday so the shop was packed with parents and children and the queues were maddeningly slow. My drive back was then mucked up by roadworks and I got lost both in the diversion and trying to drive through the parc to Alex's school and arrived 10 mins late to pick him up.
Then we had to dash home, get lunch and be back in the parc, at the tennis club, for his first tennis lesson here. We did manage to arrive there on time and Alex was very pleased that one of the boys in his class at school is in the same group for tennis. It is taught in French but there are quite a few English speaking children in the group and he came out an hour later saying it had been good (although he managed to fall over and graze his elbow).
The rest of the afternoon went well, I got supper into the slow cooker and was able to have homework and supper over and done with by 5.30pm. A bit of trampoline bouncing in the rain meant that Alex was ready for a bath by 6.00 and stories had been read by 8pm, meaning that I could eat at a reasonable time. I really need to work out how to do this on Alex's full days when we often don't get home until 5.00.
Home for a coffee and an update to Paul and then on to Carrefour for a few things I needed and to look for a present for Emily's friend's birthday. Of course I'd forgotten that most French schools are off on Wednesday so the shop was packed with parents and children and the queues were maddeningly slow. My drive back was then mucked up by roadworks and I got lost both in the diversion and trying to drive through the parc to Alex's school and arrived 10 mins late to pick him up.
Then we had to dash home, get lunch and be back in the parc, at the tennis club, for his first tennis lesson here. We did manage to arrive there on time and Alex was very pleased that one of the boys in his class at school is in the same group for tennis. It is taught in French but there are quite a few English speaking children in the group and he came out an hour later saying it had been good (although he managed to fall over and graze his elbow).
The rest of the afternoon went well, I got supper into the slow cooker and was able to have homework and supper over and done with by 5.30pm. A bit of trampoline bouncing in the rain meant that Alex was ready for a bath by 6.00 and stories had been read by 8pm, meaning that I could eat at a reasonable time. I really need to work out how to do this on Alex's full days when we often don't get home until 5.00.
Mum's Birthday Weekend
On Friday the family started arriving for a weekend of jollity to celebrate Mum's 70th birthday. Mum, Dad, Ni and Sue drove from Le Harvre, following a not very pleasant overnight ferry journey, to St Germain en Laye and stayed in the Hotel Cazaudehore from which I collected Mum and Dad on Friday afternoon to pick Kieran up from school. When we arrived at the school they were having a totem pole ceremony, all the children had painted their faces on wooden discs and these were attached to batons and then to one of the trees in the school grounds while the children banged drums and shook tambourines.
Late on Friday evening Gavin and Chris arrived and we stayed up far too late chatting and catching up. Saturday morning was full of cleaning and tidying to prepare for the big family barbecue later in the day. There were 16 of us at the barbecue and the children were pleased to see their second cousins, especially Alex who had been awaiting Zac's arrival eagerly.
We had good food, cooked as always by the wonderful Paul,
Late on Friday evening Gavin and Chris arrived and we stayed up far too late chatting and catching up. Saturday morning was full of cleaning and tidying to prepare for the big family barbecue later in the day. There were 16 of us at the barbecue and the children were pleased to see their second cousins, especially Alex who had been awaiting Zac's arrival eagerly.
We had good food, cooked as always by the wonderful Paul,
educational opportunities (how to fit 10 people through a piece of A4 paper) with the only person I know who could get six children to sit still on a trampoline,
magic tricks from Uncle Nigel,
birthday cake
and fireworks
Alex and Zac managed to wangle a sleepover, although not much sleeping went on. On Sunday we all met up, with two very tired boys, by the Seine near the Eiffel Tower for lunch on a boat on the river with Capitaine Fricasse. The food and the company were good and the children behaved themselves!
It was great to have so many of the family together, although we missed Justin, Michela and Pietro, and I don't know when we'll next all be in one place as the Halls are moving to New York at the end of the year.
Back to School
Reality hit with a bump the day after our return from holiday as Emily was back at school, thankfully not until 2.30pm which gave her some time to get herself sorted before going in.
Victoria had gone into Paris to take her children up the Eiffel Tower and had the appalling bad luck of having her wallet stolen. She was stuck in Paris with no money, no tube tickets and 5 children so I set off to rescue them. We managed to get to the police station at Les Invalides and fill in the initial form but we then waited and waited for Victoria to be interviewed, on uncomfortable plastic chairs with five children who hadn't eaten since breakfast and there wasn't even a water cooler to quench their thirst. Eventually we decided that I would take the four oldest back to Maisons Laffitte and Victoria would carry on waiting with Esmé. So I trailed four tired and hungry children across Paris to Charles de Gaulle Etoile, only to find that there were no RER trains running and had to get us all out to St Lazare and onto the SNCF train home. The Fajitas and Chilli we had for supper that night were very welcome to all, as were the McVities chocolate caramel digestives which Emily and Caoimhe provided to the starving hoards on their arrival.
The Dicks left the following day and Alex went back to school, thankfully, he is in a class with his best friend and a few other boys he knows from last year. The focus in CP is very much on getting the children reading fluently in both French and English and perfecting cursive handwriting. Alex is struggling with the French as it is hard learning to read in a language you don't speak so we are going to get him some extra help from his teacher at lunchtime so that he can catch up.
Kieran was the last to go back to school, on Thursday 1st, and came home on the first day saying they hadn't done much, just made the world! He too is going to be concentrating on cursive handwriting and improving his confidence at reading this year, along with learning French so that he will be able to go to L'Ermitage with the others next year.
Victoria had gone into Paris to take her children up the Eiffel Tower and had the appalling bad luck of having her wallet stolen. She was stuck in Paris with no money, no tube tickets and 5 children so I set off to rescue them. We managed to get to the police station at Les Invalides and fill in the initial form but we then waited and waited for Victoria to be interviewed, on uncomfortable plastic chairs with five children who hadn't eaten since breakfast and there wasn't even a water cooler to quench their thirst. Eventually we decided that I would take the four oldest back to Maisons Laffitte and Victoria would carry on waiting with Esmé. So I trailed four tired and hungry children across Paris to Charles de Gaulle Etoile, only to find that there were no RER trains running and had to get us all out to St Lazare and onto the SNCF train home. The Fajitas and Chilli we had for supper that night were very welcome to all, as were the McVities chocolate caramel digestives which Emily and Caoimhe provided to the starving hoards on their arrival.
The Dicks left the following day and Alex went back to school, thankfully, he is in a class with his best friend and a few other boys he knows from last year. The focus in CP is very much on getting the children reading fluently in both French and English and perfecting cursive handwriting. Alex is struggling with the French as it is hard learning to read in a language you don't speak so we are going to get him some extra help from his teacher at lunchtime so that he can catch up.
Kieran was the last to go back to school, on Thursday 1st, and came home on the first day saying they hadn't done much, just made the world! He too is going to be concentrating on cursive handwriting and improving his confidence at reading this year, along with learning French so that he will be able to go to L'Ermitage with the others next year.
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Holiday
We spent the fortnight with Victoria and her brood so were completely outnumbered, with 8 children aged from 4 to 14 and only 3 adults but there was lots for the children to do on the campsite and not too many altercations.
It was not an uneventful holiday though, Kieran came down the slide awkwardly and made such a fuss that the pompiers were called and a trip to A&E ensued even though we knew that he wasn't badly hurt; Victoria's car had a tyre blow-out driving around the winding roads, luckily she was rescued by a passing tow truck as I'd left my phone in the chalet and Kieran was playing on Paul's and wouldn't answer it when it rang as he didn't recognise the number! Then to top it all the children picked up nits from the campsite pool so the evenings were spent combing them, only for them to acquire more the next day.
With so many children to look after we spent most of our time on the campsite, chilling out. In the second week it was too hot to go to the pool before 5pm, or maybe my tolerance of the heat had lessened, but it did mean that we generally got sun loungers when we did get there and still had a good couple of hours in the sun.
We did go out a couple of times, to Sisteron for wonderful views from the citadel
to Digne les Bains,which was disappointing but we did see the burial place of the Bishop who inspired Bishop Myriel in Les Misérables and a very impressive gargoyle
and to Aix en Provence, where the children did their own gargoyle impressions
Paul, Emily and Kieran spent days up in the trees and rafting on the Durance. It was a great holiday and I would certainly go back to the area, which was stunning, and the campsite.
Blink and you missed it
Wow, what a summer that was!
At the beginning of July I was seriously worried about how I would fill two months of summer holidays but they seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. July was full of visitors and trips back to England and August went really quickly with Kitty here for a week and then two weeks in Haute Provence.
Our second trip to England started on 26th July when we went to stay at my Parents' for a week. The week was full of driving up and down to Basingstoke to get Paul's car MOT'd, see films without subtitles, get Emily's tummy button pierced and catch up with friends, with all three children having sleepovers (although I had to collect Alex at midnight from his as he woke up and didn't know where he was).
On the Sunday we went to Gavin and Chris's new house in Harlow for a barbecue, it is great to see them settled in their own home and we spent a lovely afternoon in their very large, for the size of the house, garden. Paul went back to France from Harlow and, because of an accident on my bit of the M25, only took 1.5 hours more to get to Maisons Laffitte than it took me to drive back to Winchester.
On our way back we collected Kitty and brought her back for her delayed visit to us. Kitty was with us for a very busy week. On the Sunday we had a barbecue to celebrate Alex's 7th birthday with the family of one of his schoolfriends and one of Paul's colleagues whose wife had abandoned him for a hen weekend in England.
Then on the Monday I took Kitty and Kieran into Paris to go up the Eiffel Tower. The afternoon started bright and clear and we took in a visit to the Disney Store before heading to the tower.
However, as we joined the queue to get into the tower the first drops of rain started falling and by the time we were in the lift it was torrential.
Wednesday was another sightseeing day, I braved Paris with Kitty, Kieran and Alex and took them to the Musée d'Orsay. They were interested to see the Van Goughs, but wanted to know why there was no monster in the window of the church and where the picture of the Tardis exploding was! They also saw some impressionist paintings that they recognised. After lunch we managed to meet up with Paul, who spent the fortnight doing a French course in the mornings, and he took Alex home whilst the rest of us went to the Louvre.
and braved the crowd around the Mona Lisa, where we lost Kieran
It was a tiring day
Even with my 2 day museum pass the queue was pretty long and the rooms were packed, which made it hard for the children to see anything, so we went through the inside as quickly as we could and headed for the gardens where we hired a golf buggy
We said au revoir to the Dicks, as they would be coming back in a week for our holiday in Haute Provence, and headed home to more guests and another barbecue. It was great to see the Howlands, who came for the night on the way home from holiday, and Kieran loved catching up with Thomas - I don't think there was much sleeping done that night.
Being a rather bad hostess I left before my guests the next morning, although I did get them breakfast from our wonderful boulangerie, which does the best croissants I've tasted and pain au raisin to die for. I was headed into Paris to observe and help at a Preparation for Childbirth and Parenthood course run for Message by Deborah Whittaker. It was a weekend course, with two full days on the Saturday and Sunday and a mums only session on the Monday morning. It was lovely to be around parents-to-be again and reminded me why I am studying. They were a great group of people and I felt privileged to be part of their journey into parenthood.
At the beginning of July I was seriously worried about how I would fill two months of summer holidays but they seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. July was full of visitors and trips back to England and August went really quickly with Kitty here for a week and then two weeks in Haute Provence.
Our second trip to England started on 26th July when we went to stay at my Parents' for a week. The week was full of driving up and down to Basingstoke to get Paul's car MOT'd, see films without subtitles, get Emily's tummy button pierced and catch up with friends, with all three children having sleepovers (although I had to collect Alex at midnight from his as he woke up and didn't know where he was).
On the Sunday we went to Gavin and Chris's new house in Harlow for a barbecue, it is great to see them settled in their own home and we spent a lovely afternoon in their very large, for the size of the house, garden. Paul went back to France from Harlow and, because of an accident on my bit of the M25, only took 1.5 hours more to get to Maisons Laffitte than it took me to drive back to Winchester.
On our way back we collected Kitty and brought her back for her delayed visit to us. Kitty was with us for a very busy week. On the Sunday we had a barbecue to celebrate Alex's 7th birthday with the family of one of his schoolfriends and one of Paul's colleagues whose wife had abandoned him for a hen weekend in England.
Then on the Monday I took Kitty and Kieran into Paris to go up the Eiffel Tower. The afternoon started bright and clear and we took in a visit to the Disney Store before heading to the tower.
However, as we joined the queue to get into the tower the first drops of rain started falling and by the time we were in the lift it was torrential.
but they still had a good time
and by the time we came down it had cleared up enough to be ice cream weather
Tuesday was Alex's birthday and he was very pleased with the presents he received
Wednesday was another sightseeing day, I braved Paris with Kitty, Kieran and Alex and took them to the Musée d'Orsay. They were interested to see the Van Goughs, but wanted to know why there was no monster in the window of the church and where the picture of the Tardis exploding was! They also saw some impressionist paintings that they recognised. After lunch we managed to meet up with Paul, who spent the fortnight doing a French course in the mornings, and he took Alex home whilst the rest of us went to the Louvre.
where we saw the Venus de Milo,
The Egyptian exhibits (for which Kieran and Alex had prepared Kitty earlier in the week)
It was a tiring day
Undaunted, however, the following day we headed off to Versailles to see the Château.
Even with my 2 day museum pass the queue was pretty long and the rooms were packed, which made it hard for the children to see anything, so we went through the inside as quickly as we could and headed for the gardens where we hired a golf buggy
and made our way round the gardens and down to the Trianon. I think the buggy and the inevitable ice cream were far more interesting to the children than the surroundings!
The next day Victoria and the rest of her children arrived to collect Kitty and we rounded off her visit with a day at Disneyland Paris
Alex loved having Freddy to stay and going to Disneyland with him. This photo was taken on my iphone on Thunder Mountain, it's a pity my thumb was partially over the lens but I do think it is a good photo:
We said au revoir to the Dicks, as they would be coming back in a week for our holiday in Haute Provence, and headed home to more guests and another barbecue. It was great to see the Howlands, who came for the night on the way home from holiday, and Kieran loved catching up with Thomas - I don't think there was much sleeping done that night.
Being a rather bad hostess I left before my guests the next morning, although I did get them breakfast from our wonderful boulangerie, which does the best croissants I've tasted and pain au raisin to die for. I was headed into Paris to observe and help at a Preparation for Childbirth and Parenthood course run for Message by Deborah Whittaker. It was a weekend course, with two full days on the Saturday and Sunday and a mums only session on the Monday morning. It was lovely to be around parents-to-be again and reminded me why I am studying. They were a great group of people and I felt privileged to be part of their journey into parenthood.
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