Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I last updated. Interestingly, after saying that I was going to keep a tally of the kids injuries, Juliette managed to burn her face. I didn't feel that merited an entire blog post, but it was quite a significant injury! She was very brave about it, but still has a mark. I got praised by the chemist who said I was sensible for only having put wet kitchen towel on her face - what else would you do? I considered running her face under the cold tap but I had a feeling that would drown her so refrained. The day after that, Ernest developed chicken pox - but bizarrely and very thankfully didn't have any symptoms other than spots. No itching, no fever, no whinging. What a lucky kid! I'm almost disappointed I've had it - might have had a couple of days off work, avoiding him... heh. Nevermind.
The Saturday before last I went to Leeds on holiday. I stayed with Martha, and we had a really fun time - lots of Sex and the City and good food. Lucie had made fun of me, saying I was only going to be eating pasta while I was there - student lifestyle! - but we cooked fajitas and corn chowder, both of which were deeelicious. Admittedly we ordered Domino's pizza one night (I count that under 'good food', but definitely also under 'student lifestyle'), and I had sandwiches for dinner two other nights, but still, not bad! I didn't do a whole lot while I was in Leeds; saw the vast majority of people I wanted to see, although apparently I am too popular to fit all my friends into four days, and went shopping, to the pub and to the union a bit. Mainly just hung out at people's houses, like the good old days! I don't miss the student lifestyle really. Obviously it would be nice to have loooads of free time, but everyone was incredibly busy with work while I was there - it's nice that my free time now is true free time. The plus side to everyone being busy was that I didn't spend too much money! I bought 3 pairs of jeans in Primark for £24. Oh, how I miss you Primark. Still convinced shopping in England is better, but no nearer explaining why. I suppose it's the familiarity of the products. I would have gone mad with spending if it wasn't for my luggage allowance - damn you hand luggage! I had to shove my handbag into my suitcase in order to get through security on the way back and the woman made a snarky 'wonders will never cease' comment to someone else about me (I was struggling somewhat). I don't know why people are allowed to be so rude. I would never say something like that about someone if they were less than three feet away. (Maybe if they were further away... :D)
My journey back to Paris on Thursday was a bit of a nightmare - it took almost 12 hours instead of 4 - but I was stationed near a WHSmiths most of the time so I happily filled up on Creme Eggs and True Blood books (new obsession, thanks Martha). I can think of worse ways to spend a Thursday afternoon! The next day was equally travellicious. I had to take a taxi to Gare Montparnasse to catch a train to Bordeaux to collect the kids from their Grandma's. The taxi driver was foreign and insisted on talking to me in heavily accented French most of the way there. I couldn't understand a word - I was still in 'English' mode anyway, so I had no chance. I am getting very good at nodding and smiling confidently. It was nice to see the kids again, and the train journey was surprisingly fun. We had egg salad sandwiches and carrot sticks for lunch (I felt a bit like I was in a Famous Five book), Ernest fell asleep on me as per, and then took over my seat when I got up, and we were in first class! Good times. Then we got a taxi back, relaxed for 5 hours, got another taxi to Gare Austerlitz and took the night train to skiing! Crazy day. At Gare Austerlitz there was a woman giving out free candyfloss! I got some, even though technically it was for kids - I refuse to miss out on awesome stuff like that just because I happen to have been on this planet for longer. Also, that kind of thing is wasted on kids.
The night train was pretty cool - didn't sleep very well, naturally, but it smelt like Brownie Pack Holiday and I felt like I was going on an adventure when I was a little kid, so it was pretty cool. It would have been even cooler to wake up properly in the mountains, but we changed trains at 5am and then took a train to the mountains, getting there at about 7.30am. Ernest was incredibly confused about me being in the night train with him, he kept saying 'byebye Ka'. Why wasn't I leaving? This was family time!
Now I am in the mountains, writing this (well, in a hotel room in the mountains). From my window I can see Mont Blanc, which I am overly impressed with, and also many other mountains and trees. It's very pretty. Unfortunately, all that white pretty = snow, and in my experience, snow = a death trap. It was quite sunny on the first day, and we sat in deckchairs and confused my poor, inexperienced brain (deckchairs? But... that means we're on the beach! So.. why is it all white? And why do I get the feeling that if I was in a bikini I would be very, very cold?), and had baguette and jam for breakfast finally - after being nauseous with hunger for about three hours - it was literally the most welcome meal I've ever had. I was fairly enthusiastic about being there at first; I like a good view, and throw me some baguette and I'm your friend for life, so although I had been viewing the trip with some trepidation, I thought that maybe it would actually be quite fun. Ha! The weather gradually descended into a grey tempest and by the next day was disgustingly snowy and stormy and horrible. I walked down into the town bit from our hotel to get Ernest with Eric, who spent the whole way making cheerful comments about the horrible weather, while I was trying my hardest not to burst into tears at the thought of having to spend a whole week being pelted with small bits of wet cold. Luckily, the next day (Monday), was delightful! Sunny, glistening and beautiful. Sunglasses were required, to avoid snowblindness. I spent the afternoon with either Ernest or Juliette and her cousin Ludivine sledging, which was really fun, and I had a delicious hamburger for lunch, and talked to a French man who told me my french was really good, so I was feeling pretty good about being there by the time it came to go back to the hotel thankfully, because I fell over about 8 times on the way up the hill, one time slamming into the ice, jolting my arm badly and bruising my hip, which then proceeded to get even more bruised as the walk continued. If it had been snowing I would have cried so much - as it was, however, I just thought it was hilarious. Mildly embarrassing, because my trousers kept falling down showing my bum - belt needed! - but generally just funny. I've always thought being clumsy is pretty funny, even if the experience hasn't helped my dislike of falling over. Everytime I walk down that hill now it takes me about five minutes because I'm so scared of becoming more bruised, and I have started taking the bus back up (and given that I fell over twice today, I reckon I'm going to start taking it down too!). To top off the falling over, I discovered I have hilarious sunglasses sunburn - very attractive! Since then I have sheltered in the apartment, bar venturing out twice to go and get Juliette and Ludivine from their ski classes and bring them back. I am definitely not a snow person. Thank god I didn't take skiing classes!
Anyway, apart from the issues with walking, it's been a reasonably nice time - I'm not asked to do too much because obviously the parents are there a lot - I'm only in charge from about 11.30 til whenever the parents get back in the afternoon, normally about 3, and Ernest is in creche all day so I don't even have to look after him. At some point I hope we are going to go up in the bubble ski lifts to see an Ice Grotto (!) and Lucie said she will buy me some grips for my shoes, so I can't imagine I'll have a completely rubbish time for the rest of the stay here, but it has convinced me that snowbound activities are certainly not for me.
