Baking

I set about making gingerbread dough, for the children to use later, this morning and as my LE walked in and exclaimed 'Oh you're a sucker for punishment doing it all by hand!!' it made me think 'Why on earth do I spend literally hours baking by hand when a mixer could do it in no time at all?' here are the fruits of my thoughts:

• baking by hand is what my Grandma and I have always done, even though I'm a good 700 miles from home and there's an ocean between us I still feel very close to my Grandma any time I bake something.
• it's a very meditative process, the beating the ingredients together and getting exactly the right consistency may take a while, but you get to focus on just doing that.
• I feel insanely proud of myself when I've made fluffy meringues all by hand, that wonderful moment when you've whipped the egg whites until they're stiff glossy peaks, and they don't fall out of the bowl when you turn it upside down, I don't know about anyone else but I find that incredibly satisfying.
• I secretly think that using a machine is cheating!

This is my favourite cake of all time and is perfect for any occasion (like cheering up a sad work colleague or as a thank you gift.)

Christmas is coming!!!

I've decided to give the children a dog each for Christmas, what child doesn't want a dog for Christmas?

I've not quite finished the dogs yet though!

Aren't they just the cutest things?! I found the tutorial here and have fallen in love with how easy it is! (although it would be so much quicker with a sewing machine!)

Last weekend I went to Trier Christmas Market, which was lurvely! I picked up a few bits and bobs to decorate my room with ...

My little Christmas display

The man who made these tree's was so lovely, and gave me a great discount because I brought two of them.

A berry nice alternative to a Christmas tree.

Some beautiful baubles made by a lovely lovely lady!

And my collection of Gluhwine cups! They're amazing and slightly tacky but I love them all the same!!

A belated birthday treat.

Yesterday a wonderful package arrived for me from my wonderful friend K. It was a birthday treat box and my goodness what a treat it was! Gorgeous silicone moulds because she knows I love to bake, a lovely necklace, some fuzzy socks (not pictured because they're on my feet) some fudge from my favourite fudge shop in the Lakes and some seriously scrummy body butter (which just happens to be my favourite flavour!!)

As lovely as all of these were the lids was the bit that made me burst into happy tears!!

Our favourite pictures of us and a picture of the Lake in winter, the perfect collection of pictures!

The card was also pretty special. I remember reading a print out of this on K and J's kitchen cupboard when I was still living in the Lakes and it just makes me smile every time I look at it!

The best bit in the card was the list of things that K wished she could send me, these were her and J and their wardrobes, some lakes and some mountains. I am very lucky to have a friend like K. Very lucky indeed!

Happy Birthday to Me!

So today was my birthday, and the parents brought me a lovely camera (which I really need as the pictures on here recently have been horrendous!) Since I now had a camera I set about taking it for a walk through the Petrusse Valley down to the Grund. What a beautiful day for it!

The steps that I walk down

The wonderful bridge that crosses the valley to go the La Gare

More steps up to the old prisons

My favourite view in Luxembourg.

My second favourite view in Luxembourg

The wisdom of five year olds.

This morning Foodie Child came up to me, sat on my lap and said 'Hold onto your heart'. Now normally this would just be sweet, but my fiancé and I had broken up the day before so it was even more poignant. It's amazing what children pick up on even if you don't tell them.

So this is my advice for today 'Hold onto your heart.'

Treat Wednesday

Treat Wednesday involved a bike ride to the park and then coffee and an apple pastry! Lovely jubbly!

The waterfall in the park

The only way to get around Luxembourg :) They have these cool little bikes all around the city and they're a great way to get around.

Yum yum!!!!!!

Things that make me smile...

After talking to a friend I haven't spoken to in a good while I began to think about things that are guaranteed to put a smile on my face, here's a little list...

Crocuses in Spring

The Sunscreen Song

Snow and mountains (The Lake District especially)

Barbecues when it's so cold you still need to be wearing a down jacket

Sunshiney days at the Lake (when I still lived in the Lakes)

What's your instant sunshine?

Lazy Sunday Afternoons

I should be being productive and doing French homework, preparing for tutoring lessons and generally being productive. However I know this isn't going to happen. Instead I will listen to Benjamin Francis Leftwich's album (which makes me cry happy tears), daydream about baking more potato bread and what veggies to plant, and maybe watch some tv.

Potato bread.

Here is a lovely link to a video that a friend and I found on a very lazy Sunday afternoon, I fell in love with Andrew Bird on this afternoon and this is him performing on From the Basement. I hope you fall in love with him a little bit too.

10 reasons why I love my job.

1) The children are absolutely gorgeous

2) I get cuddles approximately every hour and a half

3) Every morning I get four hours to study french and do odd jobs (mainly catching up on tv programmes)

4) I'm learning french! A language that I've always wanted to learn.

5) I'm living in Luxembourg (not somewhere I ever thought I'd live, but at least it's exciting!)

6) I get to cook wonderful food, and try out new recipes on children who have seriously advanced tastes (the three year olds like olives)!

7) My bosses are wonderful, LE brought me a very tasty slab of chocolate home with her today for when I have my cup of coffee.

8) Getting to revise all my phonics knowledge for tutoring children.

9) Being able to go travelling around Europe with the family and being paid to do it! Paris for the weekend? Yes please!

10) Knowing that I'm not too far from my family (even though I have to travel through three countries on the train to get home)

Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day. It's a day to remember those who have fought, and are still fighting, in the wars of the last century. It's a day that makes me miss my Granddad and worry for my friends in the forces.

I spent my morning at Church and listening to the most wonderful sermon by Rev. Lyons. He wasn't skimping any detail about the horrors of war. It was an interesting sermon, which I imagine raised a few eyebrows but the fact that it was blunt and not sugar-coated is what, in my eyes, made it great. My thoughts and prayers are with all those who felt a loss today and with the service men and women who are fighting at the moment.

A gig and champagne?

So last night I went to see Death Cab for Cutie with my friend from Church, H. After a bit of a mix up which left me standing in the cold for an hour feeling like I'd been stood up, we headed to Den Aetelier for an amazing gig! As we walked in, after grabbing a glass of champagne, we heard the sweet sounds of a British voice. Not just a British voice, a voice that hailed from the Midlands! I don't think I'd been so excited in ages! This voice belonged to a wonderful fella called Joel Nicholson, the lead singer of Butcher the Bar. Oh these boys may have even been better than Death Cab purely because they were from the Midlands! Saying that Death Cab were incredible! Their songs were beautiful and they were just as good live as they are on their albums. I welled up at Soul Meets Body and danced along to Company Calls (my favourite song of all time because of the lyric 'I'll take the best of your bad moods, and dress them up to make a better you.') The gig made me a very happy bunny indeed!

Treat Wednesdays!

Ah peace at last. Although it was lovely to have LE's mum here I was so worried that she hated me that I've been exhausted (it turns out she didn't. She gave me a huge hug at the airport and thanked me for all the hard work I'm doing for the family, which was very nice of her.) Treat Wednesday was very needed this week, and this is what this week's treat was ...

The French name is Flan, but it's an egg custard with sweeter pastry. Very yummy, but possibly a little too sweet. Thank goodness I have a very strong coffee to go with it. Think it may be an afternoon for a nice book, The Poinsonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is my current read and it's fantastic!

Art Galleries and dreaming of gardens

So LE's mum is here for a few days and since LE is opening her new surgery this week I've been the one spending time with her. Yesterday we headed to Casino Luxembourg for a bit of art appreciation. I think the only 'art' that I apprectiated there was a video of a wonderful performaning artist named D'Janau Morales, her wonderful song like voice wove an acute observation of New York city which you couldn't help but be drawn into. I loved the line about each heart beat being a steady bass beat. This was the most impressive piece of art in the place.

There was a chap chopping up a huge tree trunk to make a single toothpick, which the lady at the front desk seemed very impressed with, but all I could think was, what a waste of a tree.

We left very quickly and went to a wonderfully festive Chocolate House, the Christmas things were starting to be put up and the chocolate gifts were just beautiful! After a long chat about the world and everything else we headed home to collect children and make supper.

This morning has been spent dreaming about gardens and missing my own little plant pot garden which I lovingly tended this year.

My wonderful make do greenhouse where my tomatoes and cucumbers flourished.

My huge mint plant from B's mum and my tomato hanging basket, that managed to survive a miserable Lake District summer.

My Tiny Plot was visited for some gardening inspiration. I love this woman's writing and her garden is what I aspire for mine to be like, practical and beautiful.

I'll talk about the holiday at some point!!!!

So I was on holiday last week which I shall talk about at some point but I need to write about what an amazing night last night was!! S and I were in need of some drinking and girly times so we headed to Scotts Pub which is the closest thing to an English Pub that you'll find in Lux. We had intended on having a simple night and going to the Piano bar after a drink but that just did not happen!After way too many Diekirch's we got chatting to two Luxembourgers who were absolutely hilarious! One was Dutch and reminded me so much of a friend from uni it was untrue, I probably called him Seb like 10 times! So after another too many beers we headed to Clausen to this bar called Rock Box, totally amazing little place with an awesome band playing, I have no idea who they were but I was so happy they were singing in English! The whole night was very English and was just the cure for the bit of homesickness that was popping up!!!

I'm now in desperate need of a trip to the bakery to carb me up!! I miss having Peggy's Bakery two doors down!! (If you're ever in Ambleside, Lake District UK you need to pay her a visit and get a bacon sausage and egg butty with brown sauce. A can of coke and an egg custard. Best hangover cure ever!)

Why I'm far too English for French Baking!

So today I made a Tarte Tatin, a beautiful picture in The French kitchen by Joanne Harris & Fran Warde tempted me into the forays of French Baking.

It should have looked like this .....

But it turned out like this .....

So it turns out I'm more of a British baking girl than a Creative French goddess!!!!

The Cutest Thing!

After putting the twins down for their afternoon nap I came downstairs to the sweet sounds of Queen and the Foodie Child and the Eldest sat on the sofa listening to the music and looking at James Bond films. It was amazing. Love the taste of these kids!

Little Moments

There are some moments when you know your job is soooo worth while. Only Girl (OG) fell straight onto her face today in the middle of the road and whilst carrying her up the hill (thank goodness for the 2 minute walk from school) and singing about how brave she was I got the biggest smile and the sweetest 'I'm brave just like you'. How I don't end up in tears when they give me smiles and cuddles I will never know.

I love the little things like a swift cuddle and a kiss before they run off into the playground and wonderful mad dancing moments to The Cat Empire to wear them out! Being an Au Pair's an amazing job.

Companionship: noun: the enjoyment of spending time with others

It's funny where you find companionship. It can be with your employer as you knit and watch French TV together. It can be with Foodie Child whilst making the snacks for everyone. Or it can be with a brand new friend as you cross a country listening to country music in silence, reflecting on the different meaning the song has for each of you.

No matter where or how the companionship arises I am truly grateful for each little moment of it.

A sunset over my mountains to remind us all that the world isn't flat and dark at 7pm all the time.

Chocolate Courgette cake

Somethings have to be tried to be believed!

Foodie child (the 5 year old) deemed this one of the best chocolate cakes he'd ever tasted, he did this shortly after tasting the soup and deciding it needed a little pepper to get it just right. Love this child! He'll be a gourmet chef by the time I leave!!! Now the children have no idea that there was courgette in the cake since I went against the recipe and peeled the courgettes before grating them, I thought the green bits may have been a little off putting for the little ones.

You can see the original recipe here.

Now I've decided that next time I make this yummy wonder I'll make it with slightly sweeter chocolate as we had to serve it with creme fraisch or cream to take the edge off, but these children do like rich chocolate tastes, which I think is only a good thing! This gives an intense chocolate hit without all the fattiness of a normal chocolate cake. You only need a little slice to get your chocolate hit.

If there's any left in the morning I shall take a photo, but I highly doubt it!!!

Oh hello Brugge

So if you live in Lux then the best thing to do on a free Saturday is wake up early and head West (North West to be precise) over the border to Bruge. If you get there early you can take in all the 'must do's' before the crowds arrive and then spend the rest of the day wandering through the beautiful streets and sampling the local delights. This is exactly what S (my lovely American friend) and I did this weekend.

After a very early start we arrived in Bruge at 9.15. After a much needed coffee, served with a lovely Belgian chocolate (yes even at 9.15 am they do this!) we headed straight to the Bell Tower. This beautiful brick building towers over the city and provides an excellent vantage point. Since we were there so early we avoided all the queues and headed straight up. Now I had read that there were a lot of steps to get to the top of the Bell Tower, but I hadn’t quite envisaged the tiny wooden steps that had me walking down sideways! I think my knees began to hate me before we’d even go to the top of the tower. The views were spectacular, you could see for miles and the sun wasn’t even full in the sky. Truly stunning!!! The camera doesn’t do it any justice!

The Bell Tower

After our trip up and down the Bell Tower we headed to the Church of our Lady, where Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child resides. A stunning Church but sadly the visitors had pipped us to the post and the queues were huge. The Madonna and Child will have to wait for another time. We happily wandered through the streets of Bruge and arrived at 2be a fantastic beer shop which has a handy bar tucked away next to the river, although it was 11.30 we stopped and had a Kwak in the most fantastic glass!!

A lovely little house by the river

Best beer glass ever!!!!!

After our early morning beer we headed to the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which was sadly a huge disappointment. We were happily queuing to get into the Church when we suddenly realised that we were queuing to pay to touch or kiss a vial of Christ’s blood. I found this terribly unsettling and even S, a Catholic, found the whole thing a little bizarre. We quietly showed ourselves out of the queue and back into the fresh air. It was a bizarre experience, that had us questioning the morality of it and anyone one passing would have thought us to be Evangelicals the way we kept exclaiming ‘what would Jesus say?!’ and then muttering about the teachings that Jesus is with us all and surely going up to kiss a vial counted as some kind of idol worship? Anyway, we weren’t particularly impressed with that!

After a lunch of fish soup, which was rather yummy, and a wander round the streets, the last brewery in Bruge and shops (S had to be introduced to the wonders of Zara and New Look, no I couldn’t believe there was a New Look in Bruge either!) we headed to the one place that we’d both wanted to visit. The Bittersweet Café. Earlier in the week S had emailed me a link to the café’s reviews on Trip Advisor and we had both decided it had to be visited. So in we went, and what an experience! The amaretto coffee and Belgian waffle with homemade chocolate sauce tempted me and I was not disappointed! Never have I been so amazed by something so simple! The café was welcoming and tiny, but the owners made sure that you knew you were welcome to stay as long as you wanted with lovely little biscuits and sweets. A truly amazing café, one of the best that I’ve been to so far!

We ended our day in Bruge shortly after this and left as the shops we winding down and the night was closing in. We left Bruge by sunset and it was the perfect end to a wonderful day.

The thing with having quite a lot of free time is....

Having too much time to think! I've been feverishly searching for a distance learning Masters or research degree fr the past two days and have realised that the only thing that would suit what I want to do is to wait until I've been teaching for 2 years then do a Phd. After 3 years of moaning about my assignments I now miss them, which I thought would never happen!

It's funny that I get all the jobs done for the day done in an hour or so then have all this spare time while the children are at school. I do my French work, but that doesn't seem to really engage my synapses! I'm learning by rote rather than researching and answering my own questions.

Ah dear, better get saving for another degree!!!! And start paying my first one off! Why can't education be free?! I was looking at Glasgow's tuition fees, for the Scotts the tuition is next to nothing, but then for everyone else it was astronomical! I wish education came at less of a cost.

On a lighter note the cheap as chips camera arrived and as soon as I have a memory card (it has no internal memory which is why, I imagine, it was so cheap!) I shall take pictures and put them up!!

Running in Luxembourg

Now running in Luxembourg should be lovely, the terrain's flat and forgiving, the scenery is beautiful and there are so many places to go. However the reality is a little different! My beautiful Wild Cats (http://www.adventurepeaks.com/product/la_sportiva_womens_wildcat) which did me proud in the Lake District just feel uncomfortable and out of place on the tarmac (should have brought my road shoes with me!) they just have too much grip and too many amazing features that you just don't need here on the flat.

Then there's the 'what to wear' decision. I happily run in my FF yoga pants and a wicking t-shirt, but oh no! Not here! I ran past a perfectly groomed woman with excellent hair, sunglasses perched on top of her head and dressed in matching designer sports ware, AND she hadn't even broken out in a sweat! There I was huffing, puffing and bright red in the face as these lean limbed ladies serenely jogged past me. Do they only run when they see someone coming towards them?! Or do they do the hard work on a treadmill with that wonderful new personal trainer and then lightly jog through the Petrusse Valley to mock those of us who are working hard at our running?!

All I can say is I think I'm going to have to find a very empty place to go running until I can look as quaffed and perfect as she did!

Une table pour une s'il vous plait.

Well it's my first day off and it's a tad weird not being surrounded by children, although I was woken up by the little boy twin crawling into my bed asking for a cuddle.

I wandered round Luxembourg feeling a little sorry for myself wondering what on earth I should do. I spent a small fortune on French books for my course (sadly the expense was needed) as were the couple of pens and pencils (there don't seem to be any knocking around this house, or in my bags), postcards were brought and written on in the Chocolate House. 'Une table pour une s'il vous plait' wasn't so depressing when uttered there as I had postcards to write (still need to figure out the postal system here tho!!!!) however by the time it got to me being very peckish and needing to get out of the cold asking for a table for one was very depressing it appears Saturdays are family and couple days (rub it in my face that I don't have any friends here why don't you all with your wonderful ability to speak about 10 different languages!!!!!) my baguette was quickly eaten then I headed off on my way. After roaming the streets of Luxembourg for a while I found my Mecca. There's a knitting shop. And the wool is cheap and nice. It was like stepping into heaven. I don't think I've ever been so glad to be surrounded by wool. I was wonderfully restrained and brought only what I needed to make a pair of mittens so that I can do something other than practise my dam French which I seem to be getting nowhere with. Sorry in a right grumpy mood today! Think homesickness is kicking in!

Ah the technicalities of moving abroad for a year!

So this morning I set about trying to unlock my lovely Blackberry, an easy task according to the email from Vodafone! After 20 minutes and various curse words (thank goodness the house was empty!) I resorted to ringing the damn people. Now Vodafone Customer service isn't particularly good at the best of times! I had very sharp words with the poor people who were perfectly useless in helping me. Their advice for my PUK blocked phone was to get a new SIM card and see if that helped! Two phone calls later and the darn phone still isn't working and a very angry email has been sent. However, since it's them it's unlikely that I'll get a reply any time soon! Ah well, back to smiley Beth as the twins need picking up soon!

It's Thursday already!

What a busy week it's been!

Monday afternoon was spent at the Pirate Ship park with the twins, now as we all know play parks in the UK are a bit lacking, we have the occasional exciting climbing frame or swing set, but that is most certainly not the case here! There was a giant wooden pirate ship with a huge slide (which the twins went on, a bit terrifying letting 3 year olds climb up to a 2 storey slide! But they made it and had fun, a bit of adventure and risk never hurt anyone!!)

Sat soaking up the sun looking at the Pirate Ship part of the park.

Tuesday was spent ferrying the boys to swimming and working on Phonics with F (I'd forgotten how crap I am at phonics!!! They annoy me!) then in the evening I had my first French lesson. Now that was an experience! I thought that after 10 years of not speaking French all my school French would just come flooding back to me, but no it did not! I sat perplexed as the teacher rambled on about things I had no idea about (all in French may I add) and just felt like curling up in a ball and crying every time she asked me something! It couldn't have come on a worse day as well, I was feeling horrifically homesick and just wanted someone to talk to other than the LNE and husband. I left the class wanting to have a good weep but thankfully there's a 1km walk home up hill so I was forced to man up! I was still feeling shaky when I got back and LNE must have realised because she told me to have a lie in the next morning. So off to bed with a cup of peppermint tea I went and slept relatively soundly, thank goodness!

Wednesday was lovely, everyone was at school for the whole day so I was able to do my French homework (which I totally nailed by the way!) and potter around washing and ironing, it was blissful! In the evening LNE and I had a fab time with the new episode of Spooks and a glass of wine (Mumma, so much for them not drinking!). As you can see the lie in on Wednesday morning did me the world of good!

That brings us to today. After a morning of grumpy children and lots of tears H and I decided to go out for a trip, now most 7 year olds I know would want to go to a play park or something for the afternoon, but not this one! We headed to the Museum of Modern Art (I think I'm going to leave Luxembourg a little more cultured than I arrived!) which was amazing! I actually really enjoyed it, even though we only got to spend a little time there. We then headed over to the Chocolate House opposite the Palace of the Grand Duke (yes, Luxembourg has a Grand Duke, isn't it just fabulous?!) Now this cafe and chocolate shop was just something else! I'm going to try and take some pictures the next time I go back, because I'm definitely going back! After ordering 'une enfant chocolat blanc et un chocolat tirimisu merci' we were presented with huge cups of steamed milk with a chocolate covered spoon next to it. The idea is to plonk the spoon into the milk and let all the chocolatey goodness melt into the milk. I was amazing! Just as we were finishing the lovely rich chocolat chaud H noticed that there were cars in the Palace driveway and the Grand Duke was going out! Such an amazing sight! There were armed guards and policemen, it was wonderful!

The chocolat chaud set us up for the bitterly cold (it's only 9 degrees, so not actually cold, but after a month in Greece I've gone soft!) walk home. I then had another French lesson, which I had been dreading, but was actually rather pleasant!

We're now up to date :)

Sorry for a lack of posts!

So it's day 4 of being in Luxembourg and day 6 of being out of Greece but it feels like I've been here forever!

The days between Greece and Luxembourg were spent running round like a mad thing thrying to get all packed and cleaned and heavens knows what other jobs (for example Grandma's curtains are now sparkling!). I don't think I've ever done so much on so little sleep! But the lack of sleep didn't stop! Saturday morning arrived and after a little hiccup I was on the London bound train by 6.04am, by 3.17pm I was in lovely Arlon being greeted by my LNE (Lovely New Employer) and the 2 of the older children, H and F. They were a little confused that my hair was now brown instead of blonde but were soon happily chatting away about all the things that we could do.

Now Saturday was a bit of a baptism of fire, after we threw my luggage into the hallway (2 bags for a year, I'm impressed with my packing skills!) we headed down the road to the twins school for tea and cakes with the teachers. It was lovely, the teachers were welcoming and the other parents were fantastic, so friendly and helpful. After tea and cakes and H and F showing me around the whole school, we headed home. I'd forgotten how difficult it is to walk with a 3 year old wrapped around your leg! Champagne greeted our arrival and a selection of wonderful sausages. Sleep came quickly that night!

Sunday was as glorious as Saturday and quickly made me regret not bringing my shorts! It was also Fathers Day in Luxembourg (I did have a slight panic that I'd forgotten to get Dad something until H reminded me we were in a different country. for a 7 year old he's very wise) so Husband of LNE received some beautiful gifts! The things that F had made put all of my 5 year old creations to shame! We headed out to a Catholic Church that morning, H had been begging to go as his teacher was speaking. Now I have my thoughts about the Catholic Church and they're not all positive! After attending a very joyful Church in Kendal it was really quite dreary, I'm used to a live band and having 45mins continuous worship rather than sitting solemnly for an hour and a half! I imagine I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been in Luxembourgish (as would the children. Now small children and services they don't understand are never a good combination! Thank goodness Husband of LNE had brought books!) The thing with the Catholic Church is that only Catholics can receive communion, even if you're a confirmed Christian, which makes no sense to me! It doesn't seem very Christian, we're all part of the same faith so surely we should be allowed to partake in the body and blood of Christ?! Anyway, before I go into a huge rant I'll move on.

After Church we had a lovely roast chicken (who'd have thought roast chicken would be served with brown rice and steamed veg?! I'm going to be a stick by the time I go home!) and then headed out to the countryside to go apple picking! It was glorious! Rows upon rows of apple trees glistening in the sun.

We picked for a good few hours and then went for donkey rides and apple fritters. I don't know how they make the batter for the apple fritters but it was delicious! It tasted like a pancake filled with apple and dusted with icing sugar. Yum!

That evening we had gin and tonics with the neighbours and generally chilled out, it was lovely.

Meeting the family

The other night Dimitri invited us to dinner to celebrate the end of the season, I assumer that he was having a final dinner with the rest of the guests and that we would be part of that. How wrong I was, we arrived a little early and whilst we were having a glass of wine the rest of the guests arrived. The first of these was Dimitri's parents in law, lovely people, although they were at the other end of the table so we didn't have a lot of conversation with them. We then met Dimitri's uncle, a lovely man who's been brought up in Massachusetts and moved back here, another fabulous man who kept us entertained and thought it was wonderful that we'd decided to take a month to stay in this fabulous place.

We talked, ate and drank long into the night asking questions and sharing titbits of information that makes us who we are. The wine probably helped this, at least for B who found the wine produced by the family opposite us to be very drinkable and probably drank more than half the table put together. Thank goodness it was very pure wine, as he demonstrated by pouring red wine onto a white napkin and astounding us when the 'stain' dried clear! We need red wine like that in England, so many carpets and sofas would be saved!

There was one little girl who, bless her, got a little bored after about an hour, so the majority of the rest of my evening was spent playing 'pat-a-cake' and slaps, which she really beat me at! I think she had an advantage as she was sober and I was most definitely not!

We talked long into the night and finally after a conversation about the heaviness of the water in the pool compared to the weight of the water in the sea B and I made our excuses and stumbled home. The sleep was much needed and lasted until late the next afternoon.

How did it go so fast?

So I woke up today realising it's the 20th and there're only 8 days left in our little bit of paradise! A pretty depressing thought to wake up to, so obviously I hot footed it right up to the pool for a lovely frappe and to recheck little details, like what I need to be thinking about for my impending move to Luxembourg, and whether or not I've done everything I possibly can on Crete.

The answers are that I haven't even got a little bit sorted for Luxembourg and I think I have 3 sights left to see on Crete (we've done A LOT!). I say 3 sights left, 3 of the big things left. I'm sure you could spend a year (with a car) on this lovely Island and still find something new! It's an incredible place, wandering round town yesterday I was still amazed by the ancient ruins right next to a house barely a year old. I love this crazy place, where the people are so friendly, even if their language does sound, to a foreign ear, very cross and short. I was speaking to the man that we buy yoghurt from and he seemed actually upset that we're heading off, he gave us postcards to take with us. People's generosity astounds me, after dinner last night Dimitri brought out delicious deserts and honeyed Raki (Ben's favourite). How people don't fall in love with this place is beyond me. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for lovely people and sunshine?

I had a lovely email from my LNE (lovely new employer) this morning telling me that the language course I'm doing is all sorted and that if I can I should squeeze in a bike helmet so I can bike around Luxembourg to my classes (she did admit that she thought I'd rather use the car in winter). It's cheerful emails, like the video she sent of the children having a mad dancing moment, that make me less and less nervous about moving to a foreign country and becoming an Au Pair (which is what the next section of the blog will be about). Yes, it's really scary thinking about moving to another country (how am I going to choose which shoes to take?) but when I think of it as another adventure it's not so bad. Everyone wants exciting stories to tell their grandchildren right?

So that got me thinking what are my most exciting stories so far?

I've danced in Poland in an International Arts Festival (yes, living with a Polish family who spoke no English reduced me to tears every single night, and cost my parents huge amounts in phone credit, but I did it!)

I've graduated with a great degree, from one of the most beautifully situated Universities in Britain, most people dream of living in the Lake District and I've lived there for 3 years, which was amazing, if a little cold (heating in student houses appears to be non-existent!)

I've lived in Oxford and Greece for a month or so. That was fun! Oxford is somewhere everyone should experience at least once, it makes you feel more intelligent just being there! And Greece is just perfect, how could you not love friendly people and good food served with beautiful views?

I've ice climbed, and done some amazing walking, and kite surfing and power kiting and all sorts of mad sports that we'd seen on telly and decided to try, with my incredible family. I think this is the thing that I'll tell the grandkids first. All of my fabulous long summer holidays walking and finding the most remote bits of beach. And then the adventures that me and Dad went on, especially the one half ways thorough my A Levels, yes I would have probably got a higher grade in my Religious Studies exam if we hadn't gone walking, but it was a perfect Scotland weekend!

I've been to Bestival with my crazy, wonderful, list-making friend in a very expensive tent and got so mad that I had to spend ages straightening tent pegs in a vice since some fool stood on them (some people have no taste in tents!) That weekend squeezed in so much music I can't even remember the names of all the bands we saw, but we always saw them from the front row :)

Having good stories always makes you realise how incredibly lucky you are.

The Geek in me...

Lazing by the pool today watching the dragon flies flitting around sparked my inner geek, I jumped up from my prime sunbathing spot and hopped onto the internet with the need to find out what these strange red dragon flies were called and what made them special.

The internet isn't terribly helpful unless you have a specific search term, I hopefully tried 'Fauna Crete' thinking there would be some sort of guide, you know like the Insects of Britain books, or that lovely Butterfly identification book my Dad has, but no. It focused on Kri Kri's and scorpions (not seen a scorpion yet thank goodness!) after many random searches I discovered that I had been looking at the male Red-veined darter. According to Google we have these little beauties in England, not that I've ever seen one, I always thought dragon flies were just a pretty blue colour.

With the geek in me satisfied I feel it is now possible to carry on sunbathing ... or at least until another wonderful creepy crawly comes my way.

My new favourite insect

Little Comforts

As I’m sat in bed craving a cup of tea but making do with a cup (I say cup, I’ve actually got 4 cups which make up about the same amount of liquid as one of my cups at home) of hot squash it’s made me realise the little things that I take for granted at home, so I’ve compiled a list of things that I miss when I’m away:

• · A good cup of tea, or any cup of tea really, it only comes in iced form over here
• · A kettle – I’ve made my hot squash with water boiled in a pan after tripping a fuse when I tried to use the kettle
• · Proper sized cups – espresso cups may be really cute but I’m a pint mug kinda girl!
• · Rain – a strange one I know but I’ve lived in the Lakes for 3 years and it rains once a week or so and it’s not rained here yet!
• · Being able to do things throughout the day, everything comes to a standstill between 12 and 5pm, yes it gets very warm but what are we meant to do in this time?
• · Internet in your own space, I feel very anti-social taking my laptop up to the bar/pool, but I like to keep in contact with the world.
• · Being able to send a mass BBM to the family to talk to them all at the same time

Yes I love the fact that I’m getting to spend a month in this wonderful country, but it’s too hot to really do anything, my poor walking guide books are sat forlornly by the bed, but I know that if I attempt to scale those wonderful peaks in the 30 degree heat I’ll end up with sun stroke and passed out!

It’s funny the things you miss about home.

A trip to see the Minotaur

As it was the last day with the car we decided to head all the way down to the other end of the Island and go visit Knossos, the home of the Minotaur.

We woke up early and were on the road by 8.30, a good job since the journey is a 2.5 hour and 200km epic! We made it to Iraklion in excellent time, and that’s where the adventure began. B thought that we’d missed the turning off the E75, which is somewhat like the A1 when it’s just a single carriage way but people go at 100km/ph , so we set about trying to find a way back onto the E75. We went up roads and through estates that we probably shouldn’t have and after going up a hill that put Hardknott Pass to shame (this road was literally about an 80% incline, thank you Dad for teaching me to drive very well!!) we finally made it back to the main road. I’d forgotten that Greece seems to have 4 rush hours, people have a 3 or 4 hour break in the middle of the day here so obviously head home or to the beach or whatever, and we hit every single one of these rush hours!! And man do people not have a sense of any highway code here! To start with I found it endearing that people drove like mad things but after driving through Iraklion I began to feel very differently, how I didn’t kill a motorcyclist I will never know! They just appear out of nowhere and duck and dive between cars, if there’s a gap just about big enough for them they take it!

After another car journey that I constantly exclaimed that I was glad Dad had added to my driving lessons and taught me to be a confident and capable driver, we finally arrived at the parking for Knossos, we popped the car underneath an olive tree and headed to the little taverna to get me caffeine. Thank goodness for frappes, although I could have really done with a nice cup of tea!

Now Knossos to me conjures up images of a large town with winding paths and olive groves and a mighty castle in the middle (you can tell I hadn’t really read the guide book when planning this trip!) we happily paid our 6 euro entrance fee and began walking round the palace of Knossos, I wouldn’t say I was disappointed but I couldn’t see this as the place that the Minotaur had been held. Yes it was a truly impressive ruined palace, that would have been a force to be reckoned with no doubt, but it didn’t quite match what I had in my head. In my mind Knossos was a deep, dank labyrinth with terrifying twists and turns, and yes I imagine that this is indeed underneath all the fancy palace, but I was a little disappointed. Especially since a fancy 20^th century archaeologist had rebuilt bits of the palace and painted things. It felt like it had been robbed of it’ former grandeur by a man, thousands of years later, deciding how he thought it should have looked. So my advice for those who love Greek mythology is to keep reading the books, I know it was a long time ago that all these things happened, but the picture in your head is better than an archaeologists picture, trust me.

Impressive walls

A picture of what they thought covered the walls.

Maybe the Minotaur lived down there?

Lazy days

The past 3 days have been a mixture of lazing around and seeing some sights. Dimitri arranged a car for us so we’ve been gallivanting around ever since (apart from yesterday, we all need a rest day right?!) Now this car is special. Harris, who had picked up the previous car, had obviously realised I was not to be trusted with hub caps, so brought round a banana yellow Atios with already scratched hub caps. It may be banana yellow and look like a small box, but it has character, if having a clutch as heavy as a defender’s counts as ‘having character’!

So the first day we got the car we ended up going to Falasarna, which has an ancient harbour. Now little known to me this was actually the ‘High and Dry Harbour’ walk that the Cicerone guide had described. Cicerone guides are terribly vague, one of my favourite instructions from the ‘Western Crete’ guide is ‘you need to pass the house with six dogs and keep the dogs on your left hand side’ I wish I was making it up! So, anyway, I realised where we were from the wonderful stone throne of Phalasarna.

We wandered around this breath taking harbour which had risen 6m from sea level due to tectonic activity, which also formed the many little islands and caves in the sea. Yes the harbour was amazing, it had withstood some pretty incredible things and there were a few latrines left from the original harbour toilets, but it wasn’t as exciting as the tiny little beach that we found whilst looking round.

The big bit of the harbour

The toilets

Ben hunted from sea glass, and with a squeak and jumping up and down found some blue sea glass (if someone would like to tell me why this is so much more exciting than green or brown glass I’d be very grateful!) his little pride and joy sat in prime position on a rock for the afternoon while he hunted for more.

I sat on the cobbled sea floor and sunbathed. Yes, you read cobbled.

I have no idea why the floor under the sea was cobbled but it was, and I was very grateful for it as I’d heard so many horror stories of sea urchins lurking in rocky shores ready to stab you in the foot. We did find some sea urchins; thankfully they were very dead and had lost all their spines.

The next day we headed over to Chania (pronounced Hah-niah – elongate the ah sounds) diving in a crowded city with tiny roads is bad enough when you’re on the proper side of the road never mind when everything’s backwards! However I soldiered on and Ben directed me to an underground car park. Now you all know how bad I am at parking, I will drive round for miles just to find an easy parking spot. Ben knows this as well, yet directed me to the scariest car parking place ever!!! Luckily the men sorting out the parking figured out, before I’s even tried, that I’m terrible at parking, so out I hopped and in a fella hopped and parked the little banana car into the most improbable parking space ever. Family think about the Four Seasons car park and the tiny spaces next to the lift … that’s where I was parked. Poor little banana car didn’t know what had hit her!!!

After the frightful experience in the car park, we headed down to the Venetian Harbour that Chania is famous for, this beautiful harbour is covered in Tavernas and a smattering of shops, the number of tavernas really shows how much the Cretans like their food, and how could they not, it’s amazing! There was also a beautiful ceramics stall; if I wasn’t so scared that things would break I would have brought most of the stall!

We then headed to the market and what an amazing place it was. Shop after shop of bits and bobs, from fresh meat to jewellery, B brought me the most beautiful hammered silver ring, and some other lovely gifts were purchased. As we wandered round the streets of Chania I saw some truly beautiful leather bags (think I may have to go back…) and the general craftsmanship of the area was outstanding! A wonderful lady was sat in her tiny jewellery shop threading beads and was just thrilled that I’d gone and brought something, Sister one of the things was a gift for you! I love how friendly people are around here, they’re the most smiley people I’ve ever met, and even if your Greek is horrific, as mine is, they say, in an excited voice, ‘you speak Greek!!!’ and wave off any attempt you make at trying to convince them that you only know a handful of words!

To finish our lovely day in Chania we jumped onto a glass bottomed boat to have a cruise to one of the islands and watch a fish show. Now I say glass bottomed in the loosest of terms! When I was little we went on a glass bottomed boat around the Kyle of Lochalsh (between mainland Scotland and Skye, I’m pretty sure this was before the Skye bridge was built, but parents please correct me if I’m wrong!) this glass bottomed boat was magnificent! It was actually a glass bottomed boat. However our wonderful Greek alternative was a metal boat with a rectangle of glass in the middle of the hull. A very special little boat!

From this boat we got a wonderful tour of the harbour from our diver guide, he was very serious only he sounded like Claude, from Along Came Polly. He warned us of the dangers of sea urchins, ‘Never trust rocks, only sands’, and created a spectacular fish show with some form of powdery bait which he waved in front of the fish in balletic movements (in my mind his life story was failed Expressive Dance extraordinaire ‘I’m going to show you how I feel through expressive dance’ This part will make no sense to anyone outside of the Coupe family, but Sister he was just that!!!)

We returned from our fish show terrified that either the parking would be closed, or would be extortionate; it was neither, 8 euro’s for the day wasn’t bad at all!

The next day we headed to one of the ’18 things to do in Crete’ destinations recommended by the Rough Guide, Elafonisi, a truly beautiful lagoon that we enjoyed from a mile up the hill in a shaded taverna. It was heaving! I mean think Meadow Hell before Christmas heaving! We avoided the crowds and went on a lovely drive through a different part of the mountains, thank goodness we have unlimited miles on the car! After this tiring drive, think 60 miles of roads like the Struggle but with cliffs and drops instead of dry stone walls, I was exhausted! The next day was spent sleeping and reading, Mumma I was a little disappointed with Trick of the Dark.

After 2 days of being lazy we decided to make a trip to watch the sunset, we drove to Falasarna and took up camp in a lovely taverna overlooking the bay, we watched a lovely sunset, although a very short one, and have an interesting dinner. Note to all: Cuttlefish tastes like fishy Styrofoam, don’t order it!!! After the most expensive dinner we’ve had, and the most disappointing, we headed home in the dark.

So that brings us to yesterday. What an adventure yesterday was! We drove to Kaliviani, about 8km west of our studio, and set off on a walk to Balos bay. Now we had intended to scale Mount Gingilos, one of the highest peaks at 2080m (around 7000ft), however I had woken with hideously swollen knees from the driving the day before, so we headed to Balos a 10 mile walk with an easy incline. Now it would have been a walk in the park had it not been around 35 degrees. The heat does terrible things to you! A walk that would have easily turned into a nice run in an English climate was a strenuous trek! Never have I been so worn out by a huge dirt track! The kri kri (local mountain goats) did provide a lot of on board entertainment though.

The daredevil KriKri's

The dirt track that nearly killed me!

Finally we arrived sweaty and a little sun-stroked at the most beautiful lagoon you have ever set eyes on!

(yes it's an actual picture not something from a postcard or guide book!)

The water was blue and the sand was white (from a distance anyway!) it had a smattering of people and it was just idyllic. We set up our spot and had a couple of minutes to enjoy the view until a ferry arrived. Now there must have been about 800 people on this ferry and they all deployed onto our idyllic beach. Now I’m the kind of person who will walk for miles to find a quite spot of beach, literally miles, blame the parents, yet there were people less than a metre away, people even sat between us and the sea, a mere metre and a half! I couldn’t believe it! B lay reading his book undisturbed by this whilst I was flabbergasted! Why would they want to sit so close to another person?? There was a lot of beach left untouched! Anyway, after an hour and a half the great migration back to their boat began and they thankfully left us in peace!

Once the migration was over we headed for the crystal clear waters, and they were well worth the wait. Even though I’m terribly short-sighted I was able to see all of the amazing fish (and scary sea urchins) that B pointed out to me (and Dad I finally mastered snorkelling!!!!) They were the sort of fish that people have in their fish tanks not the sort I’d ever seen in the wild! I think I’ll be doing lots more snorkelling in the near future.

5pm arrived far too quickly and we decided to head homewards, the steps back up to the ridge were nearly the death of me. I arrived at the top gasping for breath and sent B in search of ice tea. The best thing for these situations! Ice tea in hand, and a couple of paracetamol for the pounding headache, we set off down the dirt track. We’d only walked about 5km when a very kind pair of ladies offered us a much needed lift back to the village we’d parked the car in. Never have I been so grateful for a lift! We arrived back at Dimitri’s very sunburnt and tired to a wonderful mixed grill and a few Fix beers, the best end to the day possible!