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.